By Peter Tonguette
Duffy Duck and Pork Pig may not sound like the calmest, friendly or coherent movie stars, but for image editor Nick Simotas, it’s a dream come true.
Simotas edited the new Warner Bros cartoon “Days of Earth: A Rooney Music” movie, in which the movie “The Most Famous Duck and Pig Involved in the Movie” has an outside-thing invasion. Directed by Pete Browngardt, the film contains silly sci-fi references, supporting characters for Petunia Pig and, most importantly, sub-pictures involving bubblegum.
Simotas was not turned away by the wild antics of his main players, though. Editor is a veteran of the Looney Tunes Cartoons series on Max and has long been pleased that the animation project provides you with the opportunity to contribute to all stages of the filmmaking process. “You’re shaping part of the storytelling from the beginning,” Simotas said. “Even if the editorial is called ‘post’, we’re still kind of ‘pre’ and ‘post.
Elaborately rendered is a 2D hand-painted animation, “The Days of the Earth Blowing” respects the legacy of Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and Friz Freleng’s foundational Looney Tunes Shorts. Through his expert rhythm and comedy sense, Simotas tells the story with precise comic timing, which is sure to be appreciated by Looney Tunes Buffs and viewers of all ages.
On the eve of the dramatic release of the Tomato Sauce Entertainment Film (March 14), Cinemontage caught up with Simotas, who discussed the film’s pandemic-era film, the impact his son and daughter had on filmmaking and the joy of working with Daffy and Daffy and Porky.
Movie: How did you end up editing the animation?
Nick Simotas: It happened by chance. I went to California State University to study films, but my whole plan was to work in real people. I have loved “living colors” and “Saturday Night Live” since I was a kid and I just wanted to do sketch comedy. When I was a senior, one of my professors, Shelley Jenkins, I made a short film and he told me, “Hey, I really like the projects you made. Your comedy style is very similar to Steve Oedekerk.” He was her friend. “I can set up an internship in his studio,” she said. I interned in the animation series that Steve is doing, because I know the effect and I know the premiere, so they threw me on the position. I had anime and editing help here and there, and then turned the internship into a paid job in three weeks.
Cinemontage: When did you realize you want to stay in the animation?
Simotas: I’ve always loved animation, but I’ve never imagined a world where I would work in it. Once I work in it, it’s so fun. I almost probably got hit because I remember [Oedekerk’s] “Barnyard,” I received the record and heard Rob Paulsen’s voice and Cam Clarke’s voice. They voiced the Tintos of the Ninja Turtles, which I grew up watching.
I also realized that from the very beginning we could help guide the project, tell the story. In a reality show, you will receive a daily newspaper sent to you, and what is provided is from the scripts that have been created. With animation, we get the board, we work with board artists and can even tell them, “Hey, I’ll give a medium shot for this.”
Movie: How did you get involved in the “Looney Tunes cartoons” series on Max?
Simotas: I was taken to Warners to work on Teen Titans Go!, which is the direct video feature they do. “Looney Tunes Cartoons” is in the back, so I helped with some animations. Then their main editor left and I joined full time. I can’t believe I’m working with Duffy Duck and Bug Rabbit.
Cinemontage: Do you have to thank these roles to do your job well?
Simotas: That’s true. Every crew member in “The Day of Earth’s Explosion” is watching these characters and learning everything about them. Every Friday, our director Pete Browngardt gathers us and wears old Bob Clampett or Chuck Jones Looney’s tune shorts. We all sit around and discuss these unique things. Every crew member falls in love with these characters and we want to see them as they should be treated.
Movie: You shot this movie during the pandemic, right?
Simotas: The first board of directors was handed over to me in December 2020. They had the design and story at least six months ago. I sat down in the final mix in February 2024.
Movie: How does this affect your work?
Simotas: Each editing session is scaled. In the early days of the pandemic lockdown, I bought a blackmailed web host that allowed me to seamlessly seam a screen through Zoom, just like a webcam. Great because these things are sold out everywhere. After the first year, we are used to it. Last January, Pete and I sat down for the first time in a face-to-face editorial meeting.
Movie: Take me to the stage of the movie.
Simotas: The first step as an editor is to get plot boards and voice records. We put them together to set up the essential blueprint. We ended the board with the conversation, added sound effects and music, and then made the scene play. Sometimes it can be very loose, but most of the time, it’s very, very, very, very dial-in to the veneer panel may be just the point of two frames.
Cinema: How to determine the length of the hit to one or two frames?
Simotas: In everything you watch, there is a rhythm, especially in comedy. When gag hits or falls, it is almost frame-specific. As an animation editor, you are setting the pace of almost everything, even the speed at which someone walks from one side of the room to the other. Many times, I use sound to help me. I might put someone who just walked through the room in the foley. If I think this sounds like a good pace, I’ll give time for it.
Movie: Have you and the director gone back and forth a lot in the process?
Simotas: We execute a sequence one at a time, which is between two and ten minutes, depending on how it breaks down. The benefit of this stage is that I can animate and if I have an idea about what the character might say, I can jump on the microphone, add a line or draw a small model board to fill that position and push it to the director.
Movie: What’s next in the animation journey?
Simotas: Then use it for animation and we wait. Once in, we put the animation on the timing of the animation, i.e. the animation ensures that everything is lined up. We sync it. We do some nip and tuck. Sometimes you take back the animation and we say, “Oh yeah, that could have been tighter.” You might pull some frames here and there to clean things up. The advantage about 2D animation is that you can add a reservation. This can be done if the character is moving and you want to use the last pose that lasts for an additional six frames. It’s not even eye-catching, but in CG or real-life effects, it’s very noticeable if you hold the frame.
Cinemontage: Is this an opportunity to watch the entire movie at this time?
Simotas: We are completely new and sometimes we even say, “That joke is not landing.” We might even rewrite something at that time, but it is usually small. We might draw a new board, send it back to the animator, and then rework the shot to fix what we have changed now.
Cinema: Eric Bauza makes the voices of Daffy and Pork, and the voices of Candi Milo. Peter Macnicol, Wayne Knight and Laraine Newman are also vocal actors. When do you use their voice?
Simotas: During the animation phase, we don’t even have real voice actors. We use a lot of scratch conversations. I have a version of a movie where the entire movie is just me and a board artist. When we want to change a line here, and change a line there, it is not financially efficient to continue introducing voice actors. Once the animation is locked, that is, we will join the voice actors. If the online color animation comes in, we will rewrite it and we will bring them in again, but usually just save all of this on one major pickup.
Cinemontage: You have worked in various forms of animation. What is the difference between a project working in a 2D hand-drawn animation?
Simotas: There are more nuances. This is fun because hand-drawn animations really make yourself imperfect. You can see it to watch this movie. Perhaps each small mouth shape is not completely synchronized. Sometimes you watch those old Disney movies and the characters may look a bit flashy. It’s not super pleasant, but it has such characteristics that you don’t really get into CG animation.
Movie: Nick, you have two children. Do they help you put the right mindset in the right mind while working on the “On the Day when the Earth Blasts”?
Simotas: They did it. Many animations are family-oriented in nature. I’ve worked on more adult animation projects that don’t let kids see, but the benefit of having them surround them in this movie is that I use them as a scale: Does this work? Since the movie was done primarily at home, I showed them every animation I was working on and I got their reaction. A version of the gum monster sequence definitely scared my son when he was five, and I was like, “I think we need to call this.”
Movie: I think your kid is a Looney Tunes fan?
Simotas: They are. Because of this movie, and because they have been around for so long, they legally like Porky and Daffy.
