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OGDEN: You did this film by yourself, writing, design, visuals, animation, sound, music. How long did it take you?

STAUB: From the very early stages all the way to completion, the film probably took 18-20 months of my "spare-time", which in reality was anything from 2 hours a week to 20 hours a week. Like most spare-time projects, I began The Mantis Parable with intentions of finishing very quickly, but life gets in the way, and work on the film would sputter or come to a complete halt. I resolved to make at least a little progress each day, no matter how small, and I carried that throughout the course of the project.

OGDEN: What do you hope people take away from The Mantis Parable when they are done watching?

STAUB: The Mantis Parable has a simple message, and I think it contains truth that everyone can relate to. Additionally, I hope people appreciate the attention to detail and the quality of the work, and - even though the film was created completely by a single person in his spare time - I really hope the film stands on its own in that regard. At the very least, I hope the viewer can appreciate the film as a thoughtful story, well conceived and delivered.

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OGDEN: How did you go about getting believable performances from the bugs, without pushing them into caricatures?

STAUB: The "acting" of the characters in the film is more subtle than your traditional animated fare, partly because for TMP I wanted the character design to be a little closer reflection of the real thing. During the R & D phase, I had the opportunity to film a couple mantises frolicking about on my dining room table. I was amazed at how much personality they appeared to have, and I took that into consideration when animating the insects in the film. I guess you could say I took a "less is more" approach, and while it's not the over-the-top cartoony style we're all used to seeing, I think it fits the style of the film.

OGDEN: What made you decide to tell this story without dialog? Do you think that decision made the film harder to make?

STAUB: That's a good question. There are definitely sequences in the film where dialog could have really made the "conversation" much easier to handle, and not having a lot of character animation experience prior to the film things were certainly challenging in spots. Still, I think there is something charming about the story being delivered completely pantomime, not to mention the fact that the message of the film is so simple and universal, it really lends itself being told in this manner.

OGDEN: Describe a typical working day.

STAUB: A "typical" day working on Mantis evolved over the course of the project. Early on I was spending just one or two nights a week working on it, but toward the very end it seemed like I was working on it almost every night, primarily after my wife and kids were asleep. In the beginning most of my time was spent modeling, texturing and lighting the characters and environment, but animating encompassed the bulk of the project. A typical night might include a couple hours of animating, some untextured test-renderings, and finally, queuing up a fully textured "final" version to render while I slept. In the morning before work I'd take a look at the rendered sequence, make a couple modifications, and set it off rendering again. I would repeat the tweaking at lunch (I am lucky enough to live very close to my workplace) and start all over again late that evening. I won't lie to you, creating a short-film by yourself requires a bit of obsession and at times it's very difficult to balance it with a family and a demanding full-time job.

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OGDEN: How did you go about judging the film as you went along?

STAUB: Since this was my first film it was especially critical to get input early and often, in fact, from the very beginning I determined that I would animate and render a full-length version of the entire film (a complete "first-pass"), cut it with at least a minimum of music and sound, tweak the entire thing and re-render. This gave me room to make mistakes (knowing that I would return and fix troublesome spots later on) and more importantly yielded a rough version of the film I could show to close family and friends for input and feedback. This was incredibly valuable, as there were a handful of things I was able to glean from their responses that I went back and re-worked for the final version.

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OGDEN: You are planning to release the film on DVD after it completes its festival run. When do you think that will be?

STAUB: Many festivals disqualify films that have been distributed or broadcast publicly. It may be possible (as I have discovered recently) to distribute DVDs of the film privately through my site without affecting my "distribution" status as far as the festivals are concerned. Aside from the film, the DVD will surely contain a wealth of "making-of" movie clips and production images, and possibly models and textures from the film for people to play around with. Keep an eye on The Mantis Parable website for more information in the coming months.

OGDEN: It's probably too early to say, of course, but do you have plans for another movie?

STAUB: I've actually got a couple of ideas I'm excited about, but I'm keeping it under wraps for now. Obviously, the moment I begin to start working on something AnimWatch will be among the first to know! Having said that, I'm so busy with TMP promotion and festival stuff I really don't expect to start something new for a while. In other words, stay tuned. :)