Oscar Shortlist Interviews: Director John Kelly’s Favorite Shot From ‘Retirement Plan’ (EXCLUSIVE)

We invited the filmmakers behind each of this year’s 15 Oscar-shortlisted animated shorts to share their favorite shot from their film and explain why it’s special to them.

Nomination voting started yesterday, January 12, and runs through Friday, the 16.

Director John Kelly shares his favorite shot from the short Retirement Plan. Featuring heavy-lined, 3D-rigged animation and paired with subtle music and calming narration by Domhnall Gleeson, the film follows one man’s reflections on the many things he hopes to do when he finally has the time.

Here’s Kelly’s favorite shot, and the one retirement dream he shares with the film’s protagonist, Ray.

My co-writer, Tara Lawall, and I are sometimes asked, “Are the dreams that Ray lists in this film your own dreams?” My response is that these are an extrapolation of our desires and fears – not things we literally want to do ourselves. One hard exception is shot 0760: before I bite the dust, I will drive a tiny airport vehicle. I don’t know when it’s happening, but it’s happening.

For context, this shot arrives halfway through our film. As the pace is ramping up and things are starting to flow, Ray abruptly ages twenty years over the course of five shots. With this run of shots, I want age to sneak up on him the same way it snuck up on me. The feeling of exponential acceleration I’ve felt in myself and also those around me, aging relatives, my kids shooting up.

While storyboarding and editing the animatic, I endlessly tinker with the choreography of this “reveal.” If Ray deteriorates over a couple of shots, it feels too abrupt, and if it happens over ten or so shots, the gut punch is lost. So, I opt for five. And this bit where he drives an airport vehicle is the second clip in that sequence.

Some advice I think about often – director Mike Nichols said the most important thing he ever learnt was from a lesson in “telephone acting.” If you know you are going to receive sad news, you answer the phone as happily as possible. And if you know you’re going to receive happy news, you answer downbeat. That way, you have somewhere to go. So that’s what this shot is: Ray enjoying a moment of complete unbridled JOY, before everything unravels.

As an animation fanboy, I find overly elaborate sequences can sometimes take me out of the moment, so my goal with Retirement Plan is, this shot being a good example, to add enough visual sophistication to tell the story, communicate the feeling, and no more. There’s breathing room; the audience can add the rest.

Marah Curran does such a beautiful job animating the scene. Although the style can seem simple on the surface, there is a lot of underplayed sophistication behind the curtain. For example, how the vehicle scales towards the camera as Ray turns the steering wheel, and how the plane does a very subtle barrel roll – taking advantage of Moho animation software’s 3D rigging capability.

All these ingredients could risk overload in a three-second beat, but thanks to Marah, the choreography works together; it’s all in service to the feeling.

(The same feeling I’ll have doing donuts at Dublin airport).