Dear, Death + Robot director Jennifer Yuh Nelson on the creation of her 'emotional' episode

Lean back, relax and marvel at Jennifer Yuh Nelson's impressive workload.

Yuh, an artist, character designer, illustrator and film and television director for the job, which has been the second woman since 1998, who has ever been nominated for an Oscar for the best animated feature from 2011 Kung fu panda 2. The project also made her the first woman to make an important Hollywood animation feature of solo director. She also did the third rate. “Animation is a very labor -intensive and difficult process,” she says. “It's crazy that something is ever done!”

She took one of her greatest challenges to date as a supervisory director for Volume IV from an Love, death + robot. The nervous animation anthology series with May 15th on Netflix contains 10 provocative shorts that show a mixture of horror, science fiction, humor and music in various visual styles. Individual studios produce the episodes; The creator Tim Miller and David Fincher have been working as executing producers since the 2019 series.

“My title means nothing because every company uses it differently,” explains Nelson Nelson, who comes from South Korea. “But basically I am the umbrella over all directors and studios, insofar as you make sure that you can make these shorts successful and nicely at the same time.”

Nelson, a two-time Emmy winner in the “Outstanding Short-shaped program” for earlier seasons from Love, death + robotEven led the “Spider Rose” episode for a good measure. It plays in a cyber punk universe and focuses on a grieving female mechanist who turns a pet out of a foreign creature (called “Nosy”) and the assassin Renkt, who killed her husband. Everything flat in 14 minutes. “It's a very precious story,” she adds.

A week before the premiere, Nelson spoke to the television academy about love, death, robot and more.

TV academy: How do you determine the format and the style of an episode?

Jennifer Yuh Nelson: The stories are definitely the top priority. Some of them are selected from the stories that Tim Miller has read for many years. Sometimes new authors come in with whom Tim has spoken and who have not yet been published. The reason why we use these short stories is that we know that they work and already have really great foundations. At the same time, we are matchmaking directors, studios and techniques. So if we have these two perfect stories that we absolutely have, we will decide that one should take place in stop motion and the other in a completely different style. There is a mixture of everything.

What is the most difficult style to move?

We are often dealing with styles that have never been done before – and sometimes there is a reason for it. But the reason why we choose these styles is that these directors or studios often come to us with things where they are really, very passionate and want to have pioneer. We want to strengthen and promote this innovation. It is exciting for people to see something they haven't seen before.

You are probably not allowed to play favorites, but which of these new episodes really inspires you?

One is “400 boys”. When I read the story, I said: “How will that happen?” But Robert Valley is such an astonishingly talented and visual director, and he has found a way to allow them to do this strange world in which these gangs are fighting. The end scene is incredible. The other that I really enjoy is “how Zeke has religion”. I love 2D animation and this was one of the best hand-drawn animations that I have seen for a long time. You could teach a class about it.

Photo credit: Netflix

Why did you decide to guide “spider rose”?

I got together with the same crew that made it [Volume II’s] “Pop Squad” was a real draw. It was also such a lavish emotional story. [Rose is] When she gets over her grief, she hits her empathy – who is this ugly and sweet little thing. There is this moment when you see that someone essentially puts down the walls that she built through her grief and then connect with something. It was an interesting challenge to ensure that this connection occurs.

If you consider that you cut your teeth with production lengths in productions, how difficult is it difficult to distill such a story over fourteen minutes?

It's a bit like poems because you have to make sure that every piece is meaningful. You have to be very efficient and clear how you communicate. I think it's a great discipline to make shorts because it makes her very agile about how you communicate with your audience. Features are his own thing and a massive, longer process. Shorts enable them to be quick, strange and experimentally.

You staged the feature film The darkest heads. Are you trying to lead a live action short?

We have a live action episode [“Golgotha”] This season! It is led by Tim Miller. We have to spend some time on the beach for it.

How is it to work with Tim and David Fincher? They also steer, so they are obviously practical.

This show is Tim's baby! Well, they belong to both, but [it’s] Especially Tim's baby because many of the stories based on those that he read over the years and have remained in his memory. Tim and David tried to play this for almost 20 years until it was picked up by Netflix. This is a precious show for you. And I think that this passion – and this drive to ensure that this show is excellent – affects everyone. It does everyone who wants to make more effort.

This interview was processed for length and clarity.

Love, death + robot Streaming now on Netflix.