LBB Film Club: Pacemaker
‘Pacemaker’ is a 9-minute-long 3D animated musical short presenting us with the short story of a lonely widower awaiting a pacemaker to save his life. As this happens, he gets a second chance at true love, by opening his heart and accepting his grandson’s identity, who has recently come out as trans. Starring Broadway Tony winner Alex Newell and Bruno Mars’ producer Phil Lawrence, ‘Pacemaker’ shoots for the stars with the first ever animated musical story with a trans teen as the main character. Released this November, during Transgender Awareness week and available to watch here, ‘Pacemaker’ began its journey to the screen over two years ago.
Writer, co-director and composer Christopher Lennertz, repped by production company A Running Commentary (ARC), initially conceptualised the idea based on his own father-in-law who had two pacemakers put in at separate times during the last few years of his life.
“The first pacemaker was placed after my son - his grandchild - came out as gay,” recalls Christopher. “My father-in-law’s health was declining and he was less accepting and joyous than usual, but after the first pacemaker surgery, he was his old self again.”
The same process repeated a few years later, but this time Christopher noticed that when his father-in-law’s heart was out of “its own authentic rhythm,” he wasn’t able to live a happy life and be open to others doing the same. “After he passed away, my son Tobi came out as transgender. We talked about making an animated musical with this process at the heart of a story that could hopefully help other families as well.”
Leapfrogging over generational gaps, ‘Pacemaker’ alters the story a little bit - while the main character’s grandfather isn’t entirely accepting at the start of the film, he slowly comes to realise that his grandson has fallen in love, much like himself with his late wife in their younger years. It is the memories of the undying love story that remind him that love can bridge anything, and help him get back in touch with who he loves most.
While the character of the grandfather in the short musical is entirely based on Christopher’s own father-in-law, the main character was more of a hybrid between his son Tobi and little elements, such as his love of soccer and dancing, taken from Christopher’s younger daughter and nephews.
“Then, once co-director Brian Vincent Rhodes came aboard, we tried to continue to develop the visual design, but also the personalities of the grandad and Cody’s (the main character) parents based on his family. Similarly, we based Abuela on a hybrid of our producers’ abuelas. It was important from the very beginning that our creative team sees representations of their own families on screen. I didn’t want this to just be my story, but all of our story.”
Brian also admits that it was his grandfather that influenced not only the design, but the characteristics in the scratch that helped the animation. “Having a strong visual identity for the characters was important. We wanted to make sure that Cody could be identified equally as a more masculine-facing teenager and a younger, feminine-looking child. We focused on creating a distinct eye and brow area to connect the characters visually.”
"It was important from the very beginning that our creative team sees representations of their own families on screen. I didn’t want this to just be my story, but all of our story.”
Lastly, when building the characters, it was paramount to take into consideration the possible body changes that could come with Cody’s character developing as an assigned-female-at-birth teenager but also coming into his masculine identity. For this, the crew worked with a number of trans consultants, one of which Tobi Lennertz.
“As a teen, Cody has not undergone any surgery or hormonal treatment, so he would naturally be trying to find his way to adjust to his body. We used the sweatshirt to hide the form but also a binder to hide the developing chest,” says Brian.
While special attention was paid to Cody as the main character, ‘Pacemaker’ remains, above all, a family story. So, naturally, it was important to achieve a balance of Grandad and Cody’s emotional arcs. “In order for families to understand this joyous journey to acceptance, members of all ages need to be able to lock into the story through one or both of its main characters,” says producer Darlene Caamaño Loquet.
Knowing this, it was the team’s mission from the start to fine tune the story and make both sides of the relationship visible. Because there are no ‘bad guys’ in ‘Pacemaker’, audiences needed to understand the genuine feelings on both sides throughout. According to Darlene, this was achieved through “digging deep, hearing what all team members had to say and cooperation.”
Another element that helped the parallel storytelling between the grandfather and Cody was revealing both of their love interests - this is also the path through which they start relating to each other again, it is what helps them rebuild their relationship.
Creating well-developed characters on both sides was where the biggest technical challenges of the project were hiding too. Producer Alex Bedford explains that what made the process more difficult were the numerous iterations of each character, involving a range of looks and identities - we see Cody before starting his transition and after, and we see Grandad through a few ages in his life.
Grandad and Abuela on their wedding day during the dream sequence
“We really dug into every character’s details - like wardrobe and environment - to try and get to grips with their life trajectories, and ensure we depict our set of characters in the most authentic way possible,” says Alex. Representation, fluidity and authenticity is what defined the story. “We recruited genuinely wonderful, kind, talented and passionate artists and production teams across our pipeline, who each connected with the story and brought their own fingerprint and identity to the film.”
After Christopher’s son Tobi came out, he wrote the script’s first version that embraced his son’s new identity. Along with it, he wrote the first demo of the song ‘The Rhythm Of My Heart’, which viewers hear during the culmination of the film. The point of the song was to describe Grandad and Abuela’s history as to answer Cody’s question about love…
“But then, after the second chorus, from the bridge onwards, the lyrics needed to function in current time with our characters now singing a duet to each other, having both figured out the lessons to be learned,” says Christopher.
“We really dug into every character’s details - like wardrobe and environment - to try and get to grips with their life trajectories, and ensure we depict our set of characters in the most authentic way possible.”
This was when Christopher met Phil Lawrence, who did the demo for the grandad and immediately became the team’s first choice. After which, Christopher tracked down Alex Newell, who he had been a fan of ever since his time on Broadway and Glee - “Thankfully, he believed in the message of the project and decided to come aboard,” adds Christopher.
Again, thanks to the belief in the messaging of the musical, the team was able to record the music at Abbey Road in London - “It was a dream come true,” says Christopher. And it was the musical component that really called for entering the dreams and memories of Grandad - a magical moment that could have only been told through animation.
‘Magic’ was what led the fairytale aspects borrowed from classic hit animated musicals, to capture the audiences’ feeling, while still delivering a strong point of acceptance and inclusivity that “major studios just don’t have the ability to tackle yet.” Christopher adds: “I wanted to tell a story with a trans character who danced and sang and floated through a dream like characters from ‘Aladdin’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’.”
Producer Ben Parkin says that by the time the team got to the animation phase, they already had a smooth workflow, having gone through story/animatic, character, props and rigging from the London studio. It was then that they fell in love with the first vision and intent for ‘Pacemaker’s animation style.
“I wanted to tell a story with a trans character who danced and sang and floated through a dream like characters from ‘Aladdin’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’. Major studios don't have the ability to tackle this yet.”
“It was clear that the animation had to be able to capture a complex set of human emotions very quickly, from the much smaller micro character expressions (like doubt or indecision), to fuller, bolder choreographed dance sequences in a dream-like world,” explains Ben. The team was curious about using emerging tech in order to capture the fluidity and magic of dancers in motion, but in the end opted out to shooting live-action reference material of the sequences.
“Sometimes the old fashioned approach works best! Disney’s 1937 musical animated feature film ‘Snow White’ employed a similar approach for their amazing choreographed sequences,” says Ben. The dance routines themselves were developed by dance teams in both London and LA. With an Afro-Latin feel to it, the music speaks to the backgrounds of Grandad and Abuela. One of the inspirations for the choreography was the classic musical ‘Singing in the Rain’, but also newer hits such as ‘La La Land’ which can be seen sprinkled throughout the dance routines.
Another pillar of the animation process was picking a colour that “represents unconditional love,” says co-director Brian. By choosing a pinkish-purple tone, the team could come back to it whenever love was being expressed - it’s seen in the dream sequence, but also on Sam, who is Cody’s love interest.
“Sometimes the old fashioned approach works best! Disney’s 1937 musical animated feature film ‘Snow White’ employed a similar approach for their amazing choreographed sequences,”
Unconditional love is what, really, led the entire project. A personal story about family, overcoming differences and really trying hard to understand - one that while based on Christopher’s family story, the entire team found an emotional connection to. And now, we did too. “We set out to make a joyful, kind, fun and respectful story, making sure that we had input from our entire team and our amazing supporters. That was at the centre of every decision we made,” Christopher shares.
“This film was made with love by each and every team member,” adds Darlene. “We all came to the table bringing our best and being our best. We all learned so much and fell in love with the process of animation and storytelling all over again. ‘Pacemaker’ was a magical experience in every way possible.”
Brian leaves us with this: “At one point, I remember feeling fear at first about how the world would react to this film. As I made it I realised I didn't care anymore. What we were doing was so important to people out there, that it made me so proud.”
