Usman Riaz
Appearances
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Saving Thailand's street dogs
I walked into the administration office with a signed paper saying I'm dropping out. And I had a full scholarship. So I felt a little scared. But also, this is what is meant by a leap of faith. And when I walked out, I felt all of this weight lift off of me. And it felt like the universe saying, OK, now run. The Glassworker is a coming-of-age story about two children from separate walks of life.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Saving Thailand's street dogs
One is an apprentice glassblower learning from his father in their artisan glass shop, and the other is a gifted violinist struggling to find her own unique voice on the instrument. And the film follows both characters through their formative years as a growing threat of war strains their relationship. I wrote the film when I was 23.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Saving Thailand's street dogs
So it's like a time capsule of the way I was thinking in the early 2010s. Ultimately, what I'm trying to say with the film is, and it's a naive approach, but I believe that war is not the answer to anything. Ultimately, it's the people who are caught in the conflict that suffer, regardless of whoever the victor is.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Saving Thailand's street dogs
I think in order to do something that has never been done, you need to have a very, very strong vision. I said, this is the film I want to make. This is exactly what it has to be like. This is what I want to do. And I'm ready to go to the ends of the earth to achieve this. At the end of the day, I just felt like it needed to be made.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Saving Thailand's street dogs
Apart from storyboarding the film, which was a lot of fun, I would say the most fun I ever had was in the initial phases when I didn't know what it was, when I was just sitting at my desk and I had my upright piano behind my desk. And as I would draw that, while I would wait for the paint to dry, I would turn around and write a piece of music that was inspired by the painting I had just made.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Saving Thailand's street dogs
And actually, is it fair to say you drew every frame? I drew 1477 individual cuts. Those are individual shots that you see in the film. And then within those shot compositions, I drew about 2500 individual drawings for the film. And then did a lot of the animation work alongside a brilliant team that we all trained ourselves.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Saving Thailand's street dogs
Nobody did animation in Pakistan, essentially, apart from a few enthusiasts that were just as excited to come onto the project. But we kind of trained everybody else coming in. It took six years, really, to train everyone and get everything up and going.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Saving Thailand's street dogs
I would love for them to see it just to understand what I've tried to do and how much their work means to me. But also, I'm absolutely terrified of them watching it as well. I'm not scared of anything. I'm scared of that.