Things have been a little slow but all of a sudden there's some good stuff floating around the interweb.
Beowulf TrailerFirst of all can you believe Zemeckis?? I need not say much more other than go and check out the Beowulf trailer, it's something to behold!
Hires Trailer (for higher res go to
Dave's Trailer Page)
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who - Trailer
Here's the trailer for Blue Sky's next film. It's amazing how they inject a "bland Americana" feeling into Doctor Seuss.
Hires Trailer (for higher res go to
Dave's Trailer Page)
Open Season Rant - Too Many Cooks
I'm sick of this idea of "let's make a movie with 5 producers 3 directors and 20 writers" rubbish. I went out and bought the art of Open Season the other day. I haven't seen the film but some of the artwork and design in the book is simply stunning. Everyone who's seen the movie seems to agree it's pretty plain which brings me to the rant. So I'm reading the pages of the book but between the lines it reads like corporate propaganda. Here's a snippet
"To achieve that vision, Landau recruited producing partners Penney Finkelman Cox and Sandra Rabbins, who started their career in live action and became two of the most respected leaders in animation. The two were instrumental in building DreamWorks Animation as well as producing or executive producing the company's slate of films beginning with The Prince of Egypt and culminating in the Academy-Award winning Shrek."
So it goes on to say how the cartoonist Moore pitched the treatment to the execs, they bought it then...
"In our first version, we had Elliot and Boog bonded together like brothers and the conflict arises whe Elliot gets the call of the wild and wants to leave town."
Many of the Animals that Elliot and Boog encounter on their journey back to Timberline were created by the artists who subsequently worked on the movie but were not part of the original treatment created by Moore and Carls. Still, the producers are more than thrilled by the changes that were made and with the way that the story evolved. "We set up the bones of the story and then Sony pulled in all the directing, producing, and animation geniuses and they made all the magic happen," says Moore.
Once Sony Pictures Animation committed to Open Season for their first feature, the treatment drafted by Moore and Carls was sent to Jill Culton, who is considered one of the most original storytellers of her generation in the world of animated features.
After honing her craft for more than eight years at Pixar animation Studios, working on blockbusters such as Monsters Inc, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and A Bugs lifeCulton was ready to make her directorial debut.
One of the most original Storytellers? Yet she hasn't made a film?
She was soon joined by Anthony Stacchi, who came on as co-director of the film. Like Culton, Stacchi has an impressive resume. A story artist on Dreamworks' Antz, he also worked on ILM's 3D animated versions of Curious George and Frankenstien.
So now there's 2 directors
A year later, Roger Allers joined the team of directors. Allers made his directorial debut with Academy Award winning blockbuster The Lion King and has to his credit in various capacities such seminal animated films as Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin, among many others.
An impressive resume but now the directors total 3. Then another Producer (they like talking up the producers in this book) Michelle Murdocca goes on to say this...
"In animation, we start with a script, but the storyboard artists work hand in hand with the screenwriters and story writers to develop the script to develop the movie. Everyone takes partial responsibility to make sure we're telling the story we need to tell. It's sort of like a big pot, and we all contribute to it."
Or... too many cooks spoil the broth? From what I've read Dreamworks follow a very similar process to Sony. And if it wasn't for Shrek, Dreamworks would be finished too. Does this seem like a mad way of making movies? What ever happened to strong leadership? What's with this making animated movies by committee?? At least Pixar had the balls to give Jan Pinkava a backseat to Brad Bird when Ratatouille was floundering. I know his is common process in Hollywood, to have 20 writers on a script, but it's disappointing to think of the bland muck that this sort of process delivers. I want to hear a voice in a film, a point of view!
(end rant)
Microsoft anti piracy animationsGasket Studios animates four graphic novel style anti-piracy shorts for Microsoft. I could only watch one of these but they're worth checking out. This one's for you Alex...
https://www.microsoft.com/piracy/genuinefactfiles/default.aspx
