Erie woman talks about her work on 'Marcel the Shell With Shoes On,' and life in Hollywood

Becky Van Cleve loved stop-motion animation ever since she first watched "The Nightmare Before Christmas" as a child living in Erie.

Now the 39-year-old Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy and Edinboro University of Pennsylvania graduate is working on movies that feature the same techniques, including "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On." Van Cleve served as the movie's head of puppet fabrication, overseeing the people who make the characters.

"Marcel" ended its run at Erie's Tinseltown on Thursday but is scheduled to be available for streaming on a pay-per-view basis starting Sept. 6.

"Once I got involved in stop-motion, I always knew that I wanted to make the puppets," Van Cleve said. "I loved seeing the costumes and putting them on the puppets."

Van Cleve works in a type of animation that has existed for almost as long as movies have been made. Stop-motion animation is a filmmaking technique in which objects are moved in small increments between individually photographed frames.

It's a painstaking process but the result can appear three-dimensional and interact with real objects. The process has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years with movies including "The Boxtrolls," "Kubo and the Two Strings," and now "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On."

Van Cleve talked about her career, how she made movies during the COVID-19 pandemic and what it's like living in Hollywood. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q How did you first get involved in animation?

A Definitely at Edinboro. I knew that I loved to draw and I loved films, so I became interested in animation. I took classes at Edinboro, especially one about stop-motion animation taught by Brad Pattullo. He had students help him with his film. We worked as a team to write a story and create one big thing. It really inspired my own career.

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Q How did you end up in Los Angeles?

A Well, L.A. has the most stop-motion studios, so I knew that was where (she and her husband, Erie native Tony Sansone) needed to go. Portland has some studios but its weather was a lot like Erie's and we had already lived through that. LA was the right place for both of our careers.

Q What is it like living in L.A.?

A It's very different in the fact that everyone in our industry has their own community. The stop-motion community is filled with kind, supportive people. It's just a different pace and attitude. Other communities are more competitive. As far as going out in Hollywood, you can just go out and see a celebrity. Jay Leno goes to a small market by our house and he was waiting in line with the rest of us. A lady said hi to him, and he was really nice. We see him all the time.

Q Once you moved to L.A., how did you get into the animation business?

A I got lucky right away. I applied to the three stop-motion studios in L.A. and one of them took the bit (laughs). It was an unpaid internship, which they can't offer now unless you get college credit. I treated it like a job and went in five days a week even though I was supposed to only go in two or three days. I eventually got a job as a puppet coordinator.

Q What led to your job on "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On"?

A I was working on the Netflix movie "Alien Xmas," which is where I met the Chiodo brothers (Stephen, Charles and Edward). Ed was producing (the animation for) "Marcel" and I just fell in love with the story. It's so heartwarming and beautiful. I interviewed with the team. I was super nervous, but I got the job.

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Q The movie finished production during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. What was that like for you?

A We had to shut down for a bit pretty late in the process. When we went back to work, everyone was good with onsite testing, wearing masks and then wearing face shields if you were within six feet of anyone. It was hard at times, especially sanitizing the puppets.

Q What happened when "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On" was first shown in Erie? It was the first movie you worked on to be shown in theaters.

A My sister, my aunts and cousins all went to Tinseltown to see it. When they got there, my husband's family was also there. They didn't plan to do that. So they all took a photo. I wish I could have been there with them.

Q What are you working on now?

A I want to create my own work, so I'm branching out a little bit into different areas and learning more about them. I'm working as a script/record coordinator for a computer-generated feature for Netflix. It's my job to keep the script up to date with any changes and pull out the dialogue for the voice recordings. Before that, I worked as a storyboard, script and editing coordinator for a Netflix computer-generated feature.

Contact David Bruce at dbruce@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNBruce.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie native Becky Van Cleve finds success working on 'Marcel the Shell'