It was 1998, I have been in New York for three long years and had made no film during this time.

I was very frustrated. Creative juices were overflowing me spilling off in the most unexpected places. I was going crazy. Like an unmilked cow.

One reason I was stopped on my tracks was that I believed I can't make a film on my own. I didn't believe in myself as an animator nor as a producer. I thought someone else has to give me money and a studio and hordes of animators and cell painters in order for me to make it happen.

All of sudden in 1998 some strange illustration project paid very well. I had a couple of thousand dollars that I could buy nice clothes on, or go to Carribean, or give it to charity for starving children.

I decided to make a film. Just a test if I can do it on my own.

The story came from a dream a friend of mine had - he said an alligator was pulling him into the water and he was strugling to get out of the alligator's grip.

It reminded me series of photos from National Geography I saw few years ago -- an alligator grabs an antelope by its muzzle and pulls her into the water. Water fills with blood. I identified with that antelope very much. Every day seemed like a struggle to get out of the alligator's mouth.

But I didnt have the skill to draw that fight. Also because of the budget and time limitations I had to make as few drawings as possible. So I sat down and flashed out the story almost like a picture book. Then with my limited skills I animated what I had to animate. It came down to 200 drawings - for a 3 minute and 30 second film! Just before making "Love Story" I worked as production manager for Debra Solomon's HBO special and the 3 minutes in that special had at least 2000 drawings!

Am not sure if I should be proud of this or ashamed....

To make those still drawings look more animated than they were I choose to render them in color pencil. Color pencil strokes give a nice shimmer. Normal audiences do not notice the limitated animation of the film. Experts do, and they accuse the film being under Bill Plympton's influence. I don't really know what to say to that.