‘Marcel The Shell With Shoes On’ director Dean Fleischer Camp on using a ‘nonfiction approach with a fictional character’

More than a decade after its establishment Marcel the shell With Jenny Slate, director Dean Fleishcer Camp now brings the character into a feature film Marcel wears the shell with shoes. Filmmaker Dean (Camp) moves into an Airbnb where he finds a small talking shell named Marcel (Slate). Living at home with his grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini), Marcel has found quirky and imaginative ways to deal with problems in his daily life. Dean begins filming Neville’s antics and uploads the videos to YouTube, making Neville a cultural phenomenon worthy of attention 60 minutesLesley Stahl. To ensure he didn’t lose the charm of his original animated shorts, Camp stuck to a documentary approach to filming.

DEADLINE: Where did the original idea for the short films come from?

DEAN KLIPPERSKAMP: It was 2011. Jenny Slate, who voices Neville, and I were preparing for another friend’s wedding. We were crammed into this small space and Jenny started making that tiny little voice to express how cramped she felt in there. We joked about it all weekend at that wedding, and when I got back to it, I agreed to do this video for a friend’s comedy show. So I was like, “Jenny, let me interview you in that role.” And then we got Neville together very quickly and bought a seashell and shoes and some googly eyes – pretty much anything you can buy at a craft store – and we made it and then I interviewed Jenny and cut it up and animated it. I think it was 48 hours, that first short film was very fast.

DEADLINE: What was the process of bringing it into a feature film?

CAMP: It was a very long process, but I’m also glad we took the time. It was very clear that some studios were more interested in making Marcel in a franchise film as they are known. Whereas I wanted to make a very personal film that I knew wasn’t going to be one of those films. So we found the right partners and sponsors and really took the time to find the right kind of story and journey that we wanted to show Marcel. I think it was such a gift in disguise to build this character slowly and not really push us to do a TV show right away after it went viral because then we don’t really get to know the character.

DEADLINE: Where did the idea for it come from? 60 minutes specifically from?

CAMP: We joked about the fact that Marcel and Conny don’t have a TV and they just have to watch what’s on the neighbor’s TV, which they can see from their windowsill. So we joked about their neighbors who might be an older couple and the only show they’ve ever seen is 60 minutes. And then it came back as we were writing the story and we thought that maybe there was awe in it for Lesley Stahl 60 minutes can actually be incorporated into the story and plot.

DEADLINE: What was the actual process of getting Lesley Stahl?

CAMP: You know, this project is so blessed in so many ways. We were lucky that Liz Holm, one of our incredible producers, had a friend that the mother worked with 60 minutes and so it was pretty easy for us to get a very early animation for Lesley Stahl. And she wanted to get out of her comfort zone and play crazy with us. We were very lucky that she was so enthusiastic and fully committed. When I directed these scenes, I wanted to try to make them as realistic as possible. So there is much more than just Lesley. Shari Finkelstein, de 60 minutes Producer we spoke to on the phone, she’s a real one 60 minutes Producer who regularly works with Lesley. They worked really well together, even down to the cameras they were using and how they would expose a subject and all that stuff.

DEADLINE: Where did many of Marcel’s inventions come from? I love how he walks on the wall.

CAMP: We started with the script and then recorded the sound first, so the next step was storyboarding. So Kirsten Lepore, our animation director, and I sat for about a year and drew every frame in the film. But when you’re doing that and you’re just working with sound, suddenly you’re in Marcel’s shoes because you’re like, ‘Oh wait, this scene takes place in the kitchen and then the next scene is . space in the garden. How did he get there?’ We actually had to put ourselves in his shoes and figure out how to get into the kitchen. So many of these ideas came from storyboarding with me and Kirsten or from developing an ad hoc solution during filming. It was really fun making the film.

DEADLINE: What were the biggest challenges for you in this project?

CAMP: The most difficult challenge was that the original short film was shot in a few days without any money. With a bigger budget and working with a bigger team, there is a risk of grinding away all the things that made it so special in the beginning. A kind of polish happens naturally by increasing the budget and having amazing animators available. For example, I’m a bad animator, that’s why the shorts look like that, but it’s quite charming. So how do you make sure it doesn’t get too polished and look too smooth and slick when you’ve hired great animators?

It’s always been on my mind and I’ve always tried to find ways to incorporate spontaneity, authenticity and mistakes, for lack of a better word, into the process. I tried to challenge us with documentary constraints where possible, and I think so Marcel the film benefits greatly from a process that is probably as close as possible to that of a documentary – a non-fictional approach with a fictional character.