Timothy Hittle: Can You Do What You Love? You'd Better!
You may not have heard of Timothy Hittle by name, but chances are you've already enjoyed some of his work. The filmmaker and animator has worked on full-length features including The Nightmare Before Christmas, Monkey Bone, James and the Giant Peach, A Bugs Life, and Toy Story II as well as the Gumby and Pee-Wee's Playhouse television series. He is also the creator of his own short films, Canhead and The Potato Hunter. (To see the shorts on-line check out www.atomfilms.com!)
When he wasn't working the night shift at the Crescent Donut, Hittle made his own Super 8 films at home. I was fortunate enough to talk with him about the early days and this is just a bit of what he said:
How did you get your first big break?
"I had been working for years creating Super 8 films and so, when the opportunity came, I had something to offer. I had a friend living in San Francisco who saw an ad in the paper for clay animators. And that in itself is extremely rare. It was a classified ad in the help wanted section of the newspaper. It was there because Art Clokey, the creator of Gumby, is this eccentric who thought he should put a classified ad in the paper for clay animators. And because he did—and my friend saw it because she was looking for a job—I got the call out of nowhere and I got on that gig. Otherwise, since I had no connections in the film world at that point, I'd don't see how I would ever have made that change. That got me out here. Since then it's just one big leap to another. It's project to project."
Do you ever get overwhelmed?
"Sometimes I am overwhelmed. It stops me. Or I have a lot of doubt like, 'Do I really want to get into this again? Do I really want to spend a year or two or whatever many years it takes to make this short film? What's the point?' There are points when it's depressing sometimes. If I don't care, who cares? It's that whole thing. Days like that I just plug through and it eventually turns.
Did you imagine you would become such a success?
"I could never have imagined this for myself. How could I have imagined this? No way. But one thing leads to another and you just have to find some kind of peace with the unknown. . . It's just hard work and commitment. You've got to make choices. I'm glad I have done what I've done."