00:09I used to be a daredevil. I was a famous bulldozer fighter. I used to be an importer.
00:16What?
00:20But is it a tall tale or did it really happen? You never know with Mater.
00:24You can put him in any situation and he is completely non-judgmental.
00:28Well, hey there. Welcome to Earth.
00:31He embraces every moment for what it is.
00:34Mater's fantasy is basically our fantasy. We imagine what we would like to be doing and we just draw Mater.
00:39We just have so much fun in all the different genres.
00:45Wow!
00:49Genre is a particular style of storytelling or filmmaking.
00:53Whether it's a horror film, romance, an action adventure, a comedy.
00:56We're not really pure in our genres. Again, we get to sort of mix and match with Mater based on
01:01how he relates to the material.
01:03The first short was Rescue Squad Mater, which was kind of a send-up of the emergency shows of the
01:0870s.
01:09I used to be a firetruck.
01:10He's so into his own mind, his own world, that he can manifest himself into any kind of hero.
01:17He's a firetruck. He's a hero.
01:18And then when McQueen gets taken to the hospital, we see him come out as a doctor. He's like, of
01:24course I'm a doctor.
01:25He is, in his role, he's confident and he plays it well.
01:28You know, Moon Mater.
01:31We kind of mix a little space shuttle along with the Apollo astronauts and put it all together.
01:36And Mater fits perfectly.
01:39And then there was Mater the Greater, which was Mater as a daredevil.
01:43And then Heavy Metal Mater, we were kind of influenced by Heavy Metal.
01:49I love Heavy Metal Mater. It is my favorite. It's just so over the top and so wacky.
01:54It's a rock concert in Mater's mind.
01:57And then there was El Matador, which was Mater as a Spanish matador.
02:01It's not just about coming up with a story that fits into a genre.
02:04There's a lot of visual development that happens.
02:07Everything from the costumes to the colors that you're using.
02:10We studied bullfighting in Spain and I found out that they have a really complex outfit.
02:16If you look at the embroidery pattern, you can see that a lot of the elements are made out of
02:19little lug nuts and gears.
02:24But the detail betrays the cartoon.
02:28And then there's the film noir one. It's very obviously, like, its own genre.
02:35So noir is French for black.
02:37And it's about darkness.
02:40So film noir is about dark subject matter.
02:43In a lot of the classic film noirs, there's this emphasis on tension and isolation and alienation.
02:50And this underworld where people do what it is that they have to do.
03:04In Mater P.I., he's a detective working on a case, so he lives in the world of crime.
03:10And the guy that plays Mater has to do his impersonation of Mater doing a film noir detective.
03:17It was all there in black and white. Blowouts everywhere.
03:21I realized this had become a caper.
03:23So he's not an actor playing a part.
03:25He is a character pretending to be another character, but he still has to have his character.
03:31I'm looking for Mia. You seen her?
03:33Mia. Puh. That ragtop.
03:35So Mater Prevadi has a lot of the elements that we loved about some of the noir films we looked
03:39at.
03:40There's always certain things like Venetian blinds.
03:42The scene in the office where he gets hired.
03:44The femme fatale type of character.
03:46You know, the nightclub scene where he questions the character in the alleyways.
03:50The twist at the end.
03:52So many of the fun aspects of film noir, like, squeezed into one short.
03:57It was awesome to watch animation and the characters come to life.
04:00And the layout process is really fun because you're taking it from two dimensions to three dimensions.
04:05When you're setting up the camera for noir films,
04:07you're really thinking about how you can create a composition where the character feels trapped.
04:11So we're playing around with dramatic diagonals, characters being squeezed into corners,
04:17or isolated from one another so that they're not even existing on the same plane.
04:21No!
04:21Tia!
04:22You double-crossing, double-crosser!
04:24The genre is great because it really gives you a defined look that you're aiming for.
04:33There's something that's so alive about each of these, and it happens every single time.
04:39When we finalize the reel, we sit back, and go, this is my new favorite one.
04:44Cha-cha-cha!
04:45There it go, there it go, there it go, there it go, there it go.
04:49There it go.
04:51Don't forget to tip your waitresses.
05:01Don't forget to tip your waitresses.
