Frederick Butterfield is determined to be the oldest man alive. The only thing standing in his way is his twin brother Herman, who is older by a mere minute. Their lifelong sibling rivalry culminates with a deadly competition in this week’s Staff Pick Premiere “Second to None,” directed by Vincent Gallagher.
In his first fully animated film, Gallagher delivers a crowd-pleasing dark comedy set in a meticulously designed stop-motion world. Every carefully thought out detail enriches the story and provides insight into the twin’s relationship. Behind Frederick’s blind ambition is a long history of coming up short. As his obsession leads to increasingly violent scenarios, the film builds the laughs for an unexpected and highly satisfying ending.
Ahead of the exclusive release on Vimeo, we reached out to Gallagher to hear about how the film came together. Read on for more:
On inspiration:
“I had been thinking about doing a film on the theme of ambition. Around the same time, I read an article about Jiroemon Kimura becoming the world’s oldest living man. It struck me that this was the first time he had been put in the spotlight and that someone was also be keeping score so to speak. From there, the story of someone that has been second place their entire (long) life began to form.”
On the film’s dark and hilarious tone:
“When I was developing the idea I wanted it to have a similar tone as the Looney Tunes films of the ‘50s & ‘60s. I liked the idea of someone putting themselves at risk because of dogged obsession. I wanted to push that idea a bit further and make the violence have consequences for the characters.”
On stop motion animation:
“I spent my childhood watching old Harryhausen movies. When I discovered Tim Burton’s first film was a stop motion short called ‘Vincent’, I was hooked. There’s something intrinsically magical about the whole process of stop motion, the tactile nature of the puppets, the meticulous attention to detail of the sets, and the craft of actually animating the characters. Those filmmakers were a huge influence on me growing up. It’s been a lifelong dream to get to work in the medium I fell in love with as a kid. I was just waiting for the right project, and I knew straight away that “Second to None” suited stop motion perfectly. Besides that, I think casting it live-action would have been too difficult!”
On the look of the film and characters:
“Part of the charm of the film is that on the surface it looks warm and friendly, but the tone quickly becomes quite dark and violent.
I worked with Pierre Butler on the design of the characters. We went through a few iterations before landing on the final designs, but we always kept that warm and friendly style.
The brother’s design reflects their status. Herman has aged more gracefully, his house is in better condition, his garden award-winning. This idea permeated through every design decision. If you look closely in Frederick’s garage, you’ll see the second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin’s biography, while Herman has a copy of One Small Step: The Neil Armstrong Story.”
On the challenge of learning stop motion:
“The biggest challenge that I faced was never having worked in stop motion before. There was a lot of learning and a lot of research involved in order to achieve what I wanted. Stop motion is an incredibly slow process and it demands time and dedication. I and the core team of three others spent 6 months in a cold dark studio to achieve this.”
On the reception to the film:
“The biggest question I get is “Do you have a twin?” I do not. I do however have an older brother, but we get on pretty well. No murderous intentions that I know of anyway.
We’ve been fortunate to play a lot of festivals and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to travel to a lot of them and see it with some great audiences. There’s always a really strong reaction, with gasps and laughs, but the one that stands out the most for me was Tribeca.
Whoopi Goldberg personally selected the film, we screened with some amazing films and legendary animator Glenn Keane had some very kind words for me after the screening. Robert De Niro even got a photo with Frederick! It was all quite surreal.”
On advice for aspiring filmmakers:
“Don’t be afraid to try something you haven’t done before. If you’ve got an idea and are passionate about it, find a way to make it, and surround yourself with as many passionate and dedicated people as you can.”
