Adison Gamradt

by Karina Rower

On the opening night of Welcome Week, hundreds of incoming first-year students filed into Skirball Center for the first marquee event— Film Fest. At Film Fest, freshmen are given the opportunity to submit their previously made short films to be screened, judged, and potentially given awards. This year, Gallatin freshman Adison Gamradt submitted her original animated short film The Limit to Film Fest’s panel of judges. Along with encouraging comments from industry professionals and a round of applause from her peers, Gamradt was also awarded Best Picture of Film Fest. As a Los Angeles native with a wide variety of interests and a penchant for the Wild West, Gamradt tells Embodied where she started with The Limit, and where she’s going from here.

Tell me about your concentration.

My concentration, as of now, is a combination of English literature, art history, art criticism, and U.S. history. So you wouldn't really guess that from my film, because I want to be an artist when I get older. I don't know, I'm very academically focused as well. I'm super excited to just pursue all of these different academic passions, and hopefully I can find a way to incorporate my own art into the concentration eventually.

So that's how you knew Gallatin was the place for you.

I was so close to applying to Tisch and going full film, and then I was just reflecting and I realized that I'm not done learning in a more academic space. I have so many different passions across English, history, and art criticism. I just wanted to explore. I feel like learning through those fields is going to make me a better artist.

How did you get your start as a filmmaker?

I grew up drawing and painting. I began to focus pretty seriously on my art when I was around 14, but I never made films; I was just a painter. I did color pencil and I was super technical, like hyperrealist and very traditional in the way that I worked. Then when I was in tenth grade, I took a video art class and it changed the course of my life. I realized that I could fuse my traditional art background, my love of writing, and also just so many different areas and just dump it all into these films. 

I got super into editing and making narrative films and cameras and sound and stuff like that. It wasn't until this year that I actually really shifted gears and started focusing on animation. The Limit was the first full-length animated film I ever made and it was for my senior thesis film in my video art class. I just decided that I was going to animate a film. I was just going to commit myself to doing it. I've always added animated elements to my narrative live action films. I've always animated my own titles, or I've added an animated little character in a non-animated world. I’m in a really big animation mood right now and I don’t foresee stopping anytime soon.

That’s amazing. What influences your animation style?

I have a few favorite artists. I'm a huge fan of the band Gorillaz and Jamie Hewlett, who's the artist behind Gorillaz. I'm so obsessed with this idea of making the face of a band completely animated. I've always been very into that. I read a ton of graphic novels as a kid. That was my favorite thing to do. It's my dream to write a graphic novel eventually in my life. I love a very cartoony, harsh black line style. And, classical artists— I love the work of Monet. 

Conceptually, I'm super fascinated by this idea of what the West means, like this idea of Old West and New West and this idea of manifest destiny and this vision of a Western landscape. I'm from California, but I got really into this idea of a lawless, empty desert and what you could fill it with. The majority of my art, from painting to drawing to digital designs and animation— my films center around these cowboy bunny bandits in this invented Western universe. There's this through line of lawlessness that connects everyone. Lawlessness and anarchy and how you define yourself in this lawless world.

So that’s The Limit right?

Yeah, that’s The Limit.

Wow, super cool. That was actually going to be my next question, asking where did you get the idea for the film because I’ve never seen anything like it. That's how I felt when I watched it.

Thank you. That’s like the biggest compliment, thank you.

I felt like it was just so original, seriously. So when did you start making The Limit?

I actually came up with the idea on the plane ride back from the admitted students weekend in April. My brain doesn't shut off. I'm always like spiraling and spiraling and spiraling and when I'm on a plane is probably when I'm my most creatively volatile. I was listening to a Modest Mouse song, and Modest Mouse's one of my favorite bands. Their music just inspires so much of my art. 

I was listening to this song and it was just this really simple concept, like the premise was “no longer wanted.” A bandit who's no longer wanted anymore. And then from there, I just was putzing around with the idea for a couple months and then I animated the first half in like a month and a half and then the second half I made in three days. So it was really like that because I had a deadline, and I really am a big procrastinator. The three day stretch is when I made my favorite parts of it.

What ended up being your favorite part?

I love the intro, the beginning where you're just establishing this world. But I love this idea of a cycle coming to completion but not complete fruition, like when he refills the cactus full of air and it comes back to this full circle moment. I didn't come up with that until the day before. When I animate I don't even do storyboards, I just get into this really intense zone where I picture the story and I'm thinking about what happens next in this one frame. That’s how I worked on the last half. I was really able to tie up some loose ends in an interesting way.

Did you collaborate with anyone to make the film?

I only collaborated with my friend Josh Cheng. He is a super talented musician. The middle chunk of the movie is an original score by him, which is incredible. I animate to music normally. I just sent him a couple of frames that I had done. I sent him some concepts and then I said I've sent them some inspirational songs and I just said, “Josh take it away.” And then he gave me this beautiful piece of music and, from there, it inspired a lot of the story. But everything else was just me. The best thing about animation is that you can do it all yourself.

why did you go with the title the Limit?

The title was actually one of the first things I came up with. I love this idea of, you know, we take a desert landscape and there's an infinite amount of possibility that you as an individual can be. This desert represents your future, your life, the plethora of avenues in which your life can go. These artificial limits we impose upon ourselves— like, this bandit was being driven by this force of the law and being wanted. Running from something gave him a direction and when he wasn't able to run from it, where [did] he run to? He has built this limit for himself. It’s also kind of the idea of a city limit or the limit of a desert. I was picturing a very stereotypical limit as well.

That makes perfect sense. So it was for your senior thesis, but did you envision the film taking you anywhere else? Did you imagine that you would be submitting it to Film Fest?

No, I didn't. I heard about Film Fest in an email. And I was like, “This is amazing. I'd love to submit to it.” But yeah, I'm super honored that it was well-received and people liked it and appreciated it. It was such an amazing and surreal first day of college, just like sitting and having your work screened before so many people who are just happy to be there and are there to support these people that they don't even know. It's amazing.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the judges, didn’t she offer you a job?

She did, she did.

I just remember people gasping and people talking about it days after saying that “she got offered a job on the first day.”

It was crazy.

Tell me a bit more about that experience. How did that feel?

The job offer was amazing. The sentiment was amazing, that this industry professional saw my work and saw enough merit in it to make me an offer of expanding beyond just being a student filmmaker. It's my dream to work in animation. Any kind of job or project I can get my hands on I'm just so grateful for and so appreciative. It was just amazing that she impulsively saw this kid and said, “I think this is something I can offer you.” It was really very kind and I'm just so grateful for that entire experience. Very surreal.

This actually goes really well on to my next question. I feel like you've articulated this pretty well already, but what are your specific goals within your future careers as an artist and animator?

I want to do so much. I'm a super ambitious and goal-oriented person and I just have so many things I want to do, but one of my biggest dreams is to show run, write, direct, and character design my own adult animated TV series. Bojack Horseman is my favorite piece of media ever and one of the judges compared The Limit to it and I was like, “This is the best compliment I've ever received.” If I ever make something on caliber with Bojack Horseman I’m set. That's what I want to do, like, show run, write, direct, and creative control over an animated universe. But I also want to write books. I want to write graphic novels. I also want to keep painting, drawing and hopefully be able to show my paintings in galleries as well.

I’m a big fan of graphic novels. Do you have any favorites?

Okay, this is such a good question. Nimona.

I haven’t heard of it.

Oh my gosh, it's phenomenal. Nimona by ND Stevenson. It’s fantastic. Beautiful graphic novel, I was obsessed with it when I was younger. I’m obviously such a huge Raina Telgemeier fan, like Smile. I feel like that’s a universal childhood experience. I remember when I picked up Smile, and I was like, “This is the ultimate way to convey a story.”

What can fans of The Limit look forward to seeing from you in the more immediate future?

Well, I recently put out a new one minute film. It's called The Boot. That's on YouTube. It's a lot less metaphorically deep and it's just about a boot and a girl who steals said boot. But I'm working on a couple films right now, two animated films. And then once those are done, I hope to branch into more narrative or live action. I still want to use my animation but I'm also super interested in writing as well and shooting and editing with the camera. There's a lot of stuff in the works, and you can look at my YouTube or my Instagram.

What advice would you give to next year's NYU freshmen interested in submitting to Film Fest?

One, don't be afraid to submit. Don't second guess yourself. This is just my general rule for everything. Put yourself out there, never be afraid to shake a hand, to walk up to someone, or to put your work on a wall. That's the only way that you're going to get out there. It's a super supportive environment. I would highly suggest submitting your work to [Film Fest] because it's a really amazing first day of school to have your film screened.

That's great advice. You should consider a backup career as a motivational speaker. Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to add?

I love it here so far. I love Gallatin. I love NYU and I'm just truly so grateful that I get to spend every day in such an amazing school and amazing city with such amazing people that appreciate my art. That’s cool.