Initially a homemade film project, this series was lost and later rediscovered when bootlegged VHS tapes surfaced at a Michigan video store. Soon after, the tapes built a cult following in underground film and noise circles, tracing back to surprising origins: a grandmother in the 90's making animated films to entertain her grandkids. We were fortunate enough to be able to interview Lynn Ochberg, the exceptional creator of these films, who told us more about the tech and inspiration behind her influential story collection.
Lynn zoomed in from her home, A.K.A the beaches of the sunshine state. She had palm trees and waves in her background, I had a log cabin and a hemlock grove in mine. From our very different settings on opposite ends of the East Coast, we talked all things Nanny Lynn: from the grassroots of computer programming in the 60's, to the obsolescence of 90's DIY design software, and where everyone is now.
For decades, there's been an air of mystery around The Films of Nanny Lynn, with many theories circulating the internet on where the tapes came from and more importantly, how they were made. When we posted about the films this summer, there was some disagreement 🎶 on what computer and program could achieve these effects in the early 90's. We spoke with Lynn, and are ready to set the record straight. These films were made using ONLY Deluxe Paint 2 and 3 on a Commodore Amiga. All effects, techniques, and clip art graphics were single-handedly implemented by Lynn using this setup. No AI, and for that matter, no internet was involved in the creation of these animations.
EF: So starting from the beginning, how did the project begin and what was your computer background in order to make these stories?
Lynn "After high school, I was privileged to be asked to join a summer program for interns The Ford Motor Company was sponsoring to learn how to code, which back then was called programming. And, we were given an option to use this enormous computer that took a whole, airport hangar, that really huge space for one computer. And it was back then with all with vacuum tubes instead of transistors or chips.
"So we've come a long way since then, but that's what I learned to use computers. That would have been 1960. And then years went by. I grew up, I got married, I had children, and then my children got married and they had children. And that's when I had at that time a Commodore Amiga computer. And once the grandchildren came, I didn't often have a chance to babysit them because, well, I lived in a different community from their mom, my daughter. So I made, these animations to entertain them, help put them to sleep at night. As a grandmother, you know, it was just something to do with my skills from more than 30 years prior."
Below is a demo made by Commodore in 1987, showing off the new look and features of the AMIGA, including the version of Deluxe Paint Lynn was working from. This is a great computer, with sophisticated programming that home creator could easily work with. Of course, Lynn Ochberg is no ordinary home computer user.
Sadly, AMIGA went bankrupt in 1994, so when Lynn had to replace her computer, she went with a Mac, which did not support Deluxe Paint. This marked the end of The Films of Nanny Lynn. "It was like a withdrawal, a mourning when I couldn't do it anymore, I was so disappointed." Soon, these softwares evolved past the average home budget, and the equipment surpassed the home setup, becoming limited to studio use. There was a tremendous range of expression and style on Deluxe Paint, which required effort from the user but made it easy and fun.
EF: Your animations have such a distinct character and look. What influenced your digital style?
Lynn: The digital style was very much a result of the limits of the apps on the Amiga. It's a matter of drawing, pixel by pixel, and then using math to move things around. In that app, you'd just the mathematical equation for what you wanted your object to do, like go from one corner to the other corner, around and around, it was all just simple math. It allowed me to just type x + 3 or whatever it was to make it move, like simple geometry.
EF: WOW, where did you pick up these skills?
Lynn: I was real math nerd during my school years. I actually got a scholarship to Harvard just on math. That's where I met my husband, but I didn't stay, we moved to Baltimore, Johns Hopkins for his medical school, so I moved to stay with him. We got married very young, and then I got a law degree from Georgetown. Then I went back to school when I was in my 40s just to learn Mandarin and go to China. I actually learned it at a university in China that I spent, a term, and that's where I learned about, Chinese silk embroidery and spent the last 40 years doing that.
(This, we learned later, is only a sampling of Lynn's accomplishments)
Over the years, Lynn has created a lovely collection of paintings, drawings, silk embroidery works, and sculptures inspired by her loved ones. The embroidery in particular echoes her animated images, where the aesthetic comes together stitch by stitch or pixel by pixel. Below are some of Lynn's works, with plenty more to view on her Facebook.
Lynn: "I was inspired by the fact that Chinese embroidery has lasted over 5000 years. Compare that to Renaissance paintings which were 500 years old and cracking up and falling apart during restoration. So, yeah, I was I was really impressed by the longevity of that particular art form. And my, my own style is not nearly as precise as theirs, because I try to get a lot of things done."
EF: Some of these films touch on pretty large subjects like The Bosnian War. What made you include this kind of material in the stories?
Lynn: Oh yeah, that was contemporary to when I was making them. So 1995, 96, around then I started doing that. We're all news junkies in my family, and I wanted the kids to learn how to pronounce Srebrenica correctly. So I named a character after it. I was just curious: what if that's a teaching moment? There are a lot of moments in there like that. Some of them were a little far out. But I was trying to entertain the kids and teach them a few things now, especially in Jake and the Peanut Butter. Like to share! Just because you have a good thing doesn't mean you shouldn't keep it away from others. You know, basic principles. Most of the subject matter is very much determined by what interested the kids.
EF: In some parts, you're playing music between the scenes. What instrument(s) were you working with?
Lynn: I had two sources for music. One was an electric keyboard my son let me borrow and the other was this funny instrument I had called a tremoloa. It's a Hawaiian instrument, it goes strum, strum, strum. And that instrument was a gift to my parents by their parents on their wedding day. But they didn't like it, so they gave it to me, and I used it because it was so easy to use. I've never been trained as a musician until I was sixty years old, and I then I took about five years of violin lessons, but I had that was long past when I made these animations.
EF: Are there any unfinished tapes, lost episodes, or stories you'd still like to make?
Lynn: If I had the software, I would still do it. But I don't. What you've got is about it. The system broke down and I couldn't get it fixed. I was really upset for quite a while about how I couldn't do it anymore. So I had to find something else to do. That's when I joined the Red Cross Disaster Response team. And I went to every disaster in America for the next twelve years. I went to floods and fires and hurricanes, all kinds of disasters, airline disasters, earthquake disasters. It was a wonderful way of becoming acquainted with the whole country, I got a lot of air miles (laughs).
EF: What do you hope people take away from your films?
Lynn: I just hope they show them to their kids, you know, because they were all done for the kids. Of course they're old fashioned now, so the historical references might not be understood. But kids still love dinosaurs.
Watch The Films of Nanny Lynn on Eternal Family
Written by Megan Switzer