Interview: Travis Knight, Director of Kubo and the Two Strings

Kubo and the Two Strings

Jon Espino: It seems like every film coming out of LAIKA is an escalation, or almost some unspoken challenge to be bigger and better than the last film. Kubo and the Two Strings was definitely no exception.

Travis Knight: Yeah, I think there’s some of that. I think one of the things that defines LAIKA is an inherent creative restlessness in the studio. We always want to challenge ourselves. We’ve not content with just taking it easy. We are always looking to tell new and different kinds of stories, to dive into new genres, to build new worlds, and to explore different aspects to what it means to be human. I think that gets to the core of really what drives us. So because we’ve been in existence for 10 years and because we effectively kept the band together for that whole time, all the key creatives have essentially been there from the start. What it allows us to do is to build on all the artistic and technological innovations that we have to happen in every movie and then we can apply our learnings to the next film, which means we can put our energies to something else. Which is why, in this film, we can do things we could never have imagined a couple films ago. This is by far our most ambitious thing ever.

JE: So does that mean every film will try to be bigger and better than the one before it?

TK: I don’t know that it will necessarily always be that way. I know that there are a number of films that we’re developing now that are not even remotely as ambitious as this movie in terms of the scale, but they are ambitious in a different way. I also know there is one film in particular that I’m developing that would make this thing seem simple by comparison. So, it kind of goes both ways. What this movie allowed us to do is that once we got through it — it was really challenging since I didn’t know how we were going to do half the stuff half of the time — when we pulled it off, it basically gave me the confidence that we could tell any kind of story, and that’s really exciting and liberating to know that we’re not limited by technique and we can tell big, bold, and imaginative stories.

JE: Knowing the scale needed for Kubo, was it a daunting task going into this as a first time director?

TK: Yes, undoubtedly. You know, I’ve been in animation for 20 years and I’ve done a lot of different things in that period of time. I was a PA, a scheduler, a coordinator, a stop-motion animator. I’ve been a CG animator and a supervising animator. I’ve worked in development and I’ve produced films, and I’ve run a company. The totality of that experience was really the only reason I could have taken on this task because it the challenges in front of us for this movie were mammoth. The interesting thing about being a director, specifically on a film like this, is that I tapped into every one of those experiences that I had at different points in my career. There are so many different aspects of what I’ve done that prepared me for this role. Even still, this was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but it was also the most exhilarating and creatively satisfying experience of my whole career.

JE: So you would do it again?

TK: Without question. I do need a little time to recover.

JE: I can only imagine. I read it took about 5 years to complete Kubo.

TK: From the moment we started developing it until now, it’s been about 5 years. The actual production time when we were shooting was more about 2 years. A MERE 2 years. The pace of these things is glacial

JE: I’ve unwittingly volunteered to help my animator friends before with some of their stop-motion projects and I still remember how much of a long and almost tedious process it is, especially if you want the animation to flow smoothly.

TK: It’s so slow, but because of how we [LAIKA] make films, we put primacy on the beginning part of the process, where the execution of it where you’re shooting it is “fun” but the early part of the process is critical when you’re defining the story and characters, and you’re building the world.

JE: It’s the backbone of the film.

TK: Exactly. Without any of it, it would just topple over.

JE: Like you said earlier, you’ve had experience with many of the moving pieces that it takes to make a film. As a wearer of many hats, how do you think that has influenced your approach as a CEO when compared to other CEOs?

TK: When you look broadly at our industry, it’s rare to find an artist at the head of a company. When you look at show business, it really is “show” and “business”. It’s art and commerce. It really shouldn’t be so rare, but it is exceedingly rare. I think our shop is interesting because everyone there wears a lot of hats. We really don’t have “professional managers” in the place. It’s really mostly artists that have elevated to the top of their field and taken that next step into management and guiding teams. That makes all of our managers working-managers who are getting into the trenches with everybody else and creating things with their hands while sweating the details. That’s true for me as well. Being an artist has made me a better leader, and being a leader has made me a better artist. Having one foot in each world really helps me as an artist and as a leader.

JE: Do you think more CEOs should take on a similar hand-on approach in their companies?

TK: I don’t think it would hurt. I think that the person at the top of a ship should know more about the daily lives of the people that they’re leading. It’s a humbling experience to be surrounded by so many creative people. I love the daily interaction I am able to have with them both as an artist and as a leader. It definitely makes me a better leader.