AWN Oscar Travelogue

Oscar Showcase 08 Disney Photo Gallery

oscartour — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:25:15 +0000

On Feb. 20th, the day belonged to Disney on the Oscar Showcase tour. Here is the photographic evidence.

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A Day at Disney with Ed Catmull, Andreas Deja & Other Disney Artists

oscartour — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:46:49 +0000

The second day on the Oscar Showcase tour is a day at Disney with a screening for Walt Disney Feature Animation in the morning and Disney TV in the afternoon. Some miscommunication started the day and only the Madame Tutli-Putli team made it to Disney in time, thanks to exec producer David Verrall.

Our tour began looking at the shorts program, which produced the Oscar short listed film Goofy’s How to Hook Up Your Home Theater. Their next animated short Glago’s Guest, a 3D short, will premiere at Annecy this year and is now complete. Following that film will be the 2D short The Ballad of Nessie from Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers, the directors of Home Theater. Nessie has 75% of its shots sent to animation. The shorts program has four other shorts in development, including another Goofy short. Next up we saw production art, including storyboards, from Disney’s fall release Bolt. Closing our tour, we got a glimpse of top-secret production art from The Princess and the Frog, as well as heard the full premise, which we have been vowed to keep secret. The artwork paints lush sceneries from the New Orleans location that is influenced by the painterly look of Bambi, while the indoor locations are infused with the vibe of Lady and the Tramp.

After introducing the filmmakers to the audience, we headed off to lunch with a group of artists and execs from Disney. At my table I was joined by tour members Madame Tutli-Putli producer Marcy Page, Acme Filmworks founder Ron Diamond, Ed Catmull, Walt Disney Animation Studios EVP Andrew Millstein, Meet the Robinsons’ producer Dorothy McKim, and the Home Theater directors. Ed and Andrew are readying about their trip to India to visit one of their vendors. The conversation moved to the expansion of animation in the region, especially China. Ed said he was reluctant to get into China, because of the government hoops that doing business there entails. Earlier in the day, we learned that Pixar and Disney do not share staff and Ed informed us that the proprietary software used at Pixar is not used in Burbank, where they use Maya. This is done because Maya has Autodesk support behind it, but the Mendie software at Pixar only has an in-house support staff. As the talk turned to the tour, Kevin confessed that one of the most disappointing things about not getting nominated for his short was missing out on staying at Skywalker Ranch.

After eating, I caught up with some of the other conversations going on in the room. Madame Tutli-Putli director Chris Lavis was talking with The Princess and the Frog co-director John Musker about his upcoming projects. Peter and the Wolf producer Hugh Welchman came over with his iPod and shared his ironically titled short, The Princess and the Frog, with John. Disney animator Andreas Deja was chatting with I Met the Walrus director Josh Raskin and Walrus illustrator James Braithwaite, talking about his work on Princess and the Frog. He is keeping to drawing on paper, fighting the move to computer tablets. He promised to take Josh and James to see the Disney art archive in Glendale the next time they are in town. Later Andreas struck up a conversation with Peter and the Wolf director Suzie Templeton about the sculpting of the puppets in her film. She said they auditioned the role to the artists at the Polish studio Se-Ma-For, where one woman instinctually understood what Suzie wanted even though they could not communicate verbally. Suzie added that the project really touched the artist, who said the film was the best collaborative artistic experience of her life. As thanks, the woman wants to sculpt Suzie. Another fact we learned is that Suzie’s mother is cousins with Disney legend Ollie Johnston, who Suzie has actually never met.

When it came to the Q&A the questions were the usual questions about how Madame Tutli-Putli was produced and how long each project took to make. With an hour gap before the screening, the group parted ways until the second Q&A. Some of us checked out the Disney archives, which features original art from Disney shorts like The Old Mill and costumes from films like The Rocketeer and 1001 Dalmatians.

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Oscar Showcase 08 Pixar Photo Gallery

oscartour — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:52:20 +0000

During our visit at Pixar we shot a great deal of wonderful pics with Pixar characters and employees, including Brad Bird and Ed Catmull.

I Met the Walrus director Josh Raskin, Even Pigeons Go to Heaven director Sam Tourneux, Madame Tutli-Putli director Chris Lavis and Walrus illustrator James Braithwaite pose for a Pixar pic. © 2008 AWN Inc.

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Nominees Have A Date with Brad Bird, Ed Catmull & The Rest of Pixar’s Staff

oscartour — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:50:47 +0000

Like last year, a pattern of the same questions being asked at the various screenings continues. Of course the first question was to Chris and Maciek about the human eyes on the puppets in Tutli-Putli. Marcy said one of the difficulties of working with the eyes was timing out shots. Chris and Maciek found that the performance via the eyes sold some scenes quicker than when it was cut using the eyeless puppets. Josh was asked about the audio footage of John Lennon used in his film, which he said had never really been heard before they made I Met the Walrus. A first for the tour, but most likely not a first for the Madame Tutli-Putli team was about their enigmatic ending. Maciek explained that the intention of the film was less about plot and more like a poem where one scene doesn’t dictate the next, but informs the preceding scene. Chris added that the work of Carl Jung was also influential in setting the mood for the film. A little tidbit about the title is that in Hindi it means puppet, as well as delicate woman, which is a fact that the directors did not know before they were informed of it by a Hindi speaking member of one of their audiences.

After the studio screening, Pixar treated the nominees to lunch with some of the studio’s directors including For the Birds‘ Ralph Eggleston; Brenda Chapman, writer of Cars and the director of an upcoming Pixar feature that will be announced soon; and Gary Rydstrom, a veteran of the Oscar tour from last year with the film Lifted. Gary told us he’s currently working on a feature as a director based on an idea he pitched.

Roger Gould also joined us and chatted with Chris about managing the creative process by experimenting. Chris said that their first hand drawn rendition of Madame Tutli-Putli was not good, so they brought in actors and workshopped the script, shooting it from every angle. Roger mentioned that one of the challenges on Ratatouille was the script change midway, which added new sets such as the farmhouse sequence that begins the movie. He also said that at Pixar they try to focus their features on personal stories and that The Incredibles and Ratatouille are very much Brad Bird as a guy trying to do something he loves, but isn’t allowed to. Speaking of Brad Bird, he was true to his promise and dropped by to chat with the nominees as did Ed Catmull. Both took time out of their busy Oscar schedules to spend real time talking with the animated shorts nominees.

Check back later to find out what Brad Bird and Ed Catmull had to say to the nominees.

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Guess Whom the Nominees Ran Into at Disney & ICM?

oscartour — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:50:36 +0000

The Disney leg of the Oscar Tour poses for a pic in front of the studio. Courtesy of Disney.

Officially one week of the Oscar Tour is up and we’re nearing the home stretch. Today was less crazed than yesterday, but still wonderfully eventful nonetheless. The day was a home coming for Roger and Don. Every time we turned a corner someone was ecstatic to see them. After Tenny Chonin, head of artistic development at Disney Features, introduced the screening, Don took us on a special tour of the old animation building across the street from the new animation complex (you know, the building with the big hat on it). On the way, even, someone crossing the street lit up when he saw Don and pleaded him to come back to work soon. He has been like the Zen master of the group. His peaceful nature is just unforgettable. I had thought before that it must be a pleasure to work for him and after today I think many of the Disney employees confirmed my feeling.

Ed Catmull and John Lasseter surprised to run into the Oscar nominees. © AWN Inc.

Right as Don got into the swing of his tour guide mode, he goes “and there’s John Lasseter and Ed Cutmall coming our way.” And sure enough everyone turns around and there is John and Ed. I think John was just as surprised to run into a crowd of Oscar nominees as we were to run into him. Ron introduced everyone to John and Ed. Having seen all the shorts, John was complimentary to all the nominees. Marcy has known John for years and he gave her a big hug when he saw her. Marcy reminisced about when back in the day John was her tour guide around Pixar. John asked about Frédéric Back and Marcy was sad to report that he isn’t doing well. His wife suffered a stroke recently and he was skin cancer. After each of the filmmakers had a chance to chat with John, he and Ed had to leave. Now that was a seriously awesome star sighting.

Oscar Tour poses at the corner of Dopey Drive & Mickey Lane. Roger Allers (l to r), Geza Toth, Marcy Page, Tamas Liszkas, Torill Kove, Lise Fearnley, Don Hahn, Chris Renaud, Katherine Sarafian, VFXWorld editor Bill Desowitz, Ron Diamond & AWN co-founder Dan Sarto. © AWN Inc.

Don resumed the tour taking us into the old animation building. A tunnel runs underground connecting the animation building to the ink & paint building so that cels never had to be transported outside. Don also pointed out Walt Disney’s corner office. Throughout the building, there’s great artwork hung on the walls from the classic films. Don pointed to a beautiful Lion King background and commented that it was still hard for him to see projects he worked on at Disney up on the wall alongside classics like Snow White.

We made it back to the packed auditorium just as the final film was hitting the mid-point. Ron introduced the filmmakers and opened it up for questions. The audience asked similar questions about the inspiration for the shorts and distribution means. Marcy was very happy to share the fact that the Magnolia Pictures compilation film of the Oscar shorts that is playing in the U.S. finished 44th at the box office in its debut weekend. I went and looked up the stats — it’s playing on 38 screens and garnered a per screen average of $2,781, which is almost a $1,000 better than the 7th ranked film, Hannibal Rising, scored per screen.

The final question asked was what everyone is working on. Geza is working on a new 3D animated short, which will be completed later in the year. Chris is working on Horton Hears a Who. Torill isn’t finished with The Danish Poet; she’s working on a picture book based on the film. Marcy is producing shorts at the NFB with Chris Landreth, Chris Hinton and Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis. Lise Fearnley is working at the Norwegian Broadcast company as well as producing two additional shorts. Katherine Sarafian is producing Lifted director Gary Rydstrom’s next project. Roger is working on the book for a Broadway musical, titled Grasshopper. Don said he was working on changing the oil in his car this afternoon.

After the Q&A, we were again treated to a nice lunch. I joked with Lise that after the tour I’m really going to have to go back to the gym, because I’ve been fed so well. Ron encouraged everyone to sit by people they don’t know so that everyone could get more out of the experience. I’m glad he did, because I had a wonderful chance to chat with Lise. In Norway, The Danish Poet’s nomination is a big deal, because it’s only one of five or six nominations the country has ever received. And two of them have gone to Torill. However, Lise said that many of the Norwegian film fan sites were debating for months which Norwegian film would get an Oscar nod and when the Norwegian entry didn’t even make the Foreign Language category shortlist, they were writing off any Norwegian nods at all. It goes to show that all around the world shorts aren’t even on the radar. But it also shows how much an Oscar nomination sends them into orbit.

I asked Lise, “how big will it be in Norway, if Torill wins? Will they throw a parade and erect statues in her honor?” She laughed and said, “We hope so.” But she also made an interesting comment about he nature of fame and success in Norway. Norwegians, she said, seem to hate people who get too famous. Some very much rejected the idea of Liv Ullmann providing the voice over for the film. It’s surprising that in the States several people, including myself, couldn’t think of a better voice. Ullman’s tone and delivery matches Torill’s low-key, sardonic humor perfectly. As for distribution, she told me that in the main theater in Oslo, there is a free screening at 6 pm on weekends of short Norwegian productions. Additionally, studios in Norway still have the opportunity to distribute their films before feature films much like the U.S. in the 1940s. However, just like the States now, the theaters want shorter shorts around five minutes long so that they can fit in more screenings of the features in a day.

After we all finished eating, we were treated to a thorough tour of the new animation studio. Our tour guide Jay took us first into the new coffee lounge, which was proposed courtesy of John Lasseter as an area for the artists to gather, relax and communicate. Disney provides an extensive reference library for the artists to use for inspiration and a recording of the Oscar Showcase will be added to that collection. The building is set up to hold two full productions. Each production has its own pod. Currently, the studio is about to wrap on Meet the Robinsons and is gearing up to finish American Dog. The various pods are filled with artwork and style inspirations. American Dog has a very unique look unlike anything Disney has made in CG thus far. The style is inspired by the work of painter Edward Hopper. Some of the cinematic references that were posted include Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Thelma and Louise. The pods are also decorated in a similar style to that of the picture. The American Dog pod includes an authentic 1950s dinner and refrigerator.

Ever wonder what’s in the sorcerer’s apprentice’s hat, which tops the animation building at Disney? Well, originally it was Roy Disney’s office, however the curved, striped walls cause a feeling of vertigo. An interesting factoid about the room was that at the time it was built, Roy smoked and was going to be the only person allowed to smoke in the building. So a special air ventilation system was installed in the sorcerer hat bookshelf so that the smoke would be filtered outside. However, Roy quit smoking soon before moving into the office, which he only stayed in for two weeks anyway. Now the room is used as a conference room. And another secret factoid that Jay shared was that the middle star in the bookshelf actually pops out to provide access to the ventilation system, which was something no one knew about until someone investigated why the middle star was the only star on the bookshelf to have a dark border around it.

Next we ventured up to the third floor were development of future projects takes place. The first short we saw artwork from was the new 2D Goofy short, How To Install Your Home Theater, which will return Goofy to his popular “How To” shorts, which were popular in the ’40s and ’50s. The project is being co-directed by Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers. Katherine commented that she has seen the Goofy short at Pixar and promises that it’s hilarious. The next film was a CG short titled, Golgo’s Guest, where a Russian frontier guard meets a space alien. Chris Williams is doing double directing duty, juggling both Golgo’s and American Dog. The stark design style of Golgo’s matches the Siberian setting nicely. The design of the main character is wonderful as well. There’s a lived in look to the character’s face that I liked. We also saw two sketches from the two other shorts in development — The Ballad of Nessie, an origin story of the Loch Ness monster, and Prep and Landing, which has two hapless elves wreck havoc on a house in preparation for Santa’s arrival. Jay told us that John Lasseter likes the Prep and Landing idea so much that he’s considering turning into an ABC Christmas special. Last, but not least, we were able to gaze upon the character and production designs for Glen Keane’s Rapunzel. Keeping true to the original fairy tale, the look of the film is like Victorian paintings coming to life. If the CG looks anything like what Tenny described to us, it’s going to be breathtaking.

With the tour coming to a close, the nominees were appreciative of being given the chance to see things that others do not get to see. We had to say good-bye to Katherine who was hopping into a cab to head back to Pixar while the rest of the group was headed to the agency ICM. No Time for Nuts producer Lori, who works around the corner from ICM at Fox, joined us for the second screening of the day. Robert Lazar greeted us and told us that the screening was the first in their new swank screening room. Attending the screening was ICM vice chairman Bob Broder, who had warm congratulations for all. The shorts went over pretty well. Afterward, the agents mingled with the nominees, chatting with the filmmakers of their favorite shorts. And the nominees were treated to a second surprise celebrity sighting of the day when Henry Winkler came into the lobby to talk to Bob Broder.

That closed another filled day on the Oscar Showcase tour. Tomorrow, I’ll be accompanying Ron to an NFB luncheon at the Canadian consulate, followed by a screening of the shorts at the William Morris agency. Check back soon for new updated pictures in this post as well as a new photo gallery with some great pictures from DreamWorks, the Academy screening and Disney as well as Mike’s beautiful baby girl.

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