Who's News
October 28, 2004
TFK Talks with Chris Van Allsburg
Kid Reporter Annie meets the author and illustrator of The Polar Express
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I recently visited bestselling author and illustrator Chris Van Allsburg in his Providence, Rhode Island home to discuss the movie based on his book The Polar Express, which lands in theaters on November 10.
Sitting in his art-filled living room, I saw lots of things that reminded me of his 15 picture books: a huge model sailboat (think The Wreck of the Zephyr or The Wretched Stone), an old-fashioned broom (The Widow’s Broom), fanciful toy animals (Jumanji), a robot figure (Zathura), and a model steam engine (The Polar Express). Read on to find out what I learned from the man behind the amazing tales.
TFK: This is your second book to be made into a movie. How involved were you in making the films The Polar Express and Jumanji (1995)?
 |  Annie sat down for a conversation with Van Allsburg in his Providence, Rhode Island home. |
TFK: The Polar Express uses a new technique called performance capture. What is this technique, and why was it chosen?
Van Allsburg: Performance capture is a way of recording an actor's live performance and turning it into very realistic animation. The actors put on tight suits covered with little bits of reflective metal, and they also wear reflective metal on their faces. Special cameras pick up the movement of the metal as the actors move around or make facial expressions. A computer then turns that action into a digital (computerized) performance and adds it to the digital scenery made for the movie.
For example, there never was a real train car. The actors just sat on regular seats to act out the train scenes, and then the computer images of the actors were added to the computer images of the train.
Performance capture was chosen so we could show the characters’ emotions on their faces. In regular animation or even regular computer animation, one of the hardest things to do is the human face. But with performance capture, we can use real humans to make the faces and then give those expressions to digital characters. This is the first movie that uses performance capture for all the characters.
TFK: What was it like working with Tom Hanks, who plays five main parts in the movie?
Van Allsburg: My interaction with Tom was mostly at the beginning, when I was trying to decide whether I wanted The Polar Express to be made into a film. Tom called me up and convinced me that a good movie could be made that was almost exactly like the book without adding villains or lots of violence.
|  A scene from the movie, The Polar Express. |
Van Allsburg: I think it means it’s important to commit yourself to pursuing something, to trying something, to the possibility that miracles can happen.
TFK: You’ve said that The Polar Express was the easiest story to write. How so?
Van Allsburg: The idea for The Polar Express had a real truth in my own life. It felt more like I discovered the story rather than built it. After all, I was eight or nine once and had to go through a period of wondering about Santa, and I remember what that was like.
TFK: How do you get your book ideas? What comes first, the picture idea or the story idea?
Van Allsburg: It’s always the story idea, but sometimes the story is inspired by pictures – not pictures I’ve drawn, but pictures I’ve imagined. I might see a picture in my mind’s eye and then start wondering what happened before or what will happen next. When I’m telling myself the story, I see all the pictures in my head, so when I write the story down, all I’m doing is describing what I’ve already seen.
TFK: Do you ever run out of ideas?
Van Allsburg: Never. Sometimes I don’t do anything, but it’s not because I don’t have any ideas; it’s because I have so many ideas I don’t know which one to pursue.
TFK: In your books, everything looks so real. How do you accomplish this?
Van Allsburg: It’s very important to me that my pictures look real because the stories themselves are all fantasies. I depend on the pictures to convince readers that the stories could happen. I achieve that realism by using real people as models, by following certain drawing rules concerning light and perspective, and by putting as much detail into my pictures as I can.
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Van Allsburg: My advice for people interested in any kind of art, whether it be making picture books or playing the nose flute, is to do it all the time, and when you’re not doing it, surround yourself with it. So spend a lot of time writing and drawing, but also spend a lot of time reading and looking at pictures.
TFK: Which one of your books is your favorite?
Van Allsburg: I always tell myself that the next one I do will be better than all the rest, and that one will be my favorite.
TFK: What are some of your favorite picture books by other artists?
Van Allsburg: As a child my favorite book was Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson, and it still is. I love it because it’s such a perfect idea – a little boy building a world out of purple lines, and the world becomes real. When I first started making picture books, I was impressed by the works of Maurice Sendak because his books seemed the most to me like art – stories that kids would remember all their lives – and that was the kind of book I wanted to make.
TFK: What are you working on now?
Van Allsburg: I’m about to hit the road to promote my books. For six weeks I’ll be going to lots of bookstores, schools and auditoriums to talk about my work and sign my books. I do have a couple of book ideas that I’m working on, but they’re in the very beginning stages.
TFK: What are your long-term plans?
Van Allsburg: I try not to make long-term plans because then they seem like something I have to do. Having said that, I could see myself making picture books for a while. Also, Zathura is in film production now, and The Widow’s Broom and The Sweetest Fig may become movies. I studied sculpture in college, and sometimes I think I’ll do that again, too.
