We had the chance to connect with Sean McCarron to discuss his short animated film Corvine, and how thankful he is towards his parents for inspiring him, and the Canadian Council for the Arts, for bringing his art to life.
Sean McCarron’s artistic vision soars with his short film, Corvine that had its New York premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. McCarron is no stranger to animation as he previously worked on various animated films such as The Addams Family 2 (2021), The Breadwinner (2017), Song of the Sea (2014) and worked on other TV series and short films. From speaking with McCarron, he has a passion for animation as he tells his story. Corvine follows a young boy who is a little unconventional and has trouble fitting in with the other children at school due to his fascination and obsession with crows. McCarron’s short film is not just for children, but everyone who can relate to being different. I had the chance to connect with McCarron to discuss his project and how he thanks his parents for inspiring him and how he got some help with the Canadian Council for the Arts to bring his art to life.
Kristin Ciliberto (Film Fest Report): I must say, after watching your film it just made me so happy! I consider your project one that should be played before the big Pixar or Disney films. That’s how happy I felt watching it. Going into this, what made you want to tell this story?
Sean McCarron (Corvine): Well, growing up I had a lot of feelings that are similar in the film; I always kind of felt like an outsider. I struggled with that, and I started to lose confidence as well all through my life, but especially growing up. It was particularly hard, and I knew I wanted to touch on themes surrounding that.
KC: I must ask, why crows? What made your mission to use crows as an example?
SM: Yeah! I love crows for one thing. They’re just lovely to watch and graceful and they’re intelligent and I just love their movement and everything. They also are, you know, not graced with the most beautiful voice. So to set up this nice dichotomy where they’re beautiful to look at, they’re graceful. But on the other hand, some people can find them a bit annoying and grating and that kind of worked well with the character itself. I thought that was a great way to know crows symbolize that.
“I really wanted to tell an emotional film that was accessible to everyone.”
KC: Did you want to work with the score and have no dialog? The film relies on its score and it’s very whimsical and I love it, so what made you want to include no dialog?
SM: First, I love films with no dialog because they’re so accessible and especially to children. I think it’s not specifically children, but young children can still enjoy it, watch it, and get it. For the music, I think just emotionally as humans, we connect with music on a very primal nature. It brings up a lot of emotion. I thought that if I could get a great score and go all out and get it fully orchestrated that it would bring a much-heightened emotional impact to the film. I really wanted to tell an emotional film that was accessible to everyone.
KC: I agree the whole story with the score was emotionally beautiful. Did you provide a voice actor for the crow sounds?
SM: That’s the other yes. The other reason for crows in the film is because of my dad. When we are growing up, he had an amazing ability to mimic crows. A crow call. When we were young, he would go in the yard, and he would start calling out the birds and they would actually come in from all over and kind of look around and they would respond to him, and they would have like a full blown back and forth conversation.
KC: That’s iconic!
SM: Yeah, it was really funny!
KC: I want to see that in action. You should record it and put it on YouTube, that would be amazing!
SM: I think I should. I did it for the film when it came to getting the sound that got my dad into the sound booth, but I recorded them. That is the little boy’s voice in the film, but I didn’t have the video on, and I really should have because he and it’s so funny.
KC: That also makes me want to bring up that I saw at the end you thank your parents and I thought that was sweet and thoughtful.
SM: My parents are always supportive of me and every decision I’ve made they’ve been there.
KC: Moving on, how did you connect and work with the Canadian Council for the Arts?
SM: I applied for funding. They’re an arts and body and they give grants to artists to develop their skills to push their careers. I wanted to work with them because it was nice to get some funding because it was a long process without any support. I worked on it for seven years before that. It was eight years in total and I worked for seven years by myself around my jobs and just kind of getting it going right. Then when I had the opportunity, I found out about the Canadian Council for the Arts had started a new funding stream where first-time directors could get access to funding. Before that it was kind of like a catch 22. To get funding for film, you already had to have made a film. They changed that and I heard that, and I got in touch with them. I went through the application process and was successful. I was delighted to get the chance to work with them.
KC: That’s wonderful! Would you want to team up with them again?
SM: Absolutely! They were a wonderful body to work with. They were completely hands off. You tell them what you want to do, and they ask questions about the film. Once you’re successful, they just give you the money and they’re hands off and then you update them with any changes that may have happened or anything major. They just let you go and create your vision and that was wonderful. Then at the end, you have another update and you say how the project went and that was it. That was so freeing, and I can’t thank them enough for just allowing me to tell my story.
KC: And to follow up with that question, do you want to turn this film into a feature film?
SM: I hadn’t thought too far about it, and people are asking me and I’m struggling to come up with a bigger picture for it. But I think before I do a feature, it’s still in the cards, but I think I would like to do another short just to kind of get the better feeling overall of how it all works, because this is my first.
KC: I thought it was so successful, and I must say it was a great first short film and one that I’m always going to remember, and I can’t wait to see more of your work in the future.
SM: Thank you so much, Kristin. I really appreciate it.
