Seeing the pictures from the Oscar Showcase tour is a great way to convey all the events that took place. Here are some more shots from Ron from William Morris, the AWN/Acme Oscar party, Sony Animation and CAA.

Ron poses for a snapshot with Charles Aidikoff on his 92nd birthday at the William Morris screening. © AWN Inc.

Ari Sandel, Oscar nominee of live-action short West Bank Story chats with Bob Balser. © AWN Inc.

Acme Filmworks' Lita O'Donnell, Eric Orner, Rebecca Battle and Pernille D'Avolio at the AWN/Acme party. © AWN Inc.

At the AWN/Acme party, Bob Balser, Richard Permutter and Cima Balser pose for a pic. © AWN Inc.

Oury Atlan, director of Overtime, with guest Genya. © AWN Inc.

Entertainment lawyer Shelley Surpin and AWN co-founder Dan Sarto. © AWN Inc.

Gwynn Adik, Acme's co-executive producer, and Simpsons storyboard artist John Mathot. © AWN Inc.

Chiat Day's David Roth, who worked on this year's Oscar ad campaign with Spike Lee, Torill and Eric Orner. © AWN Inc.

Bill Kroyer and Don Hahn at the AWN/Acme party. © AWN Inc.

Indie animator Paul Vester and Platform Festival director Irene Kotlarz. © AWN Inc.

Don Hahn attacks the cake at the AWN/Acme party. © AWN Inc.

Platform Fest's Marilyn Zornado chats with AWN's Rick DeMott. © AWN Inc.

The Oscar Showcase tour takes a swing by Sony Pictures Animation. © AWN Inc.

Geza Toth and Marcy Page pose by the beautiful cherry tree on the Sony campus. © AWN Inc.

Sandra Rabins (left), executive vice president Sony Pictures Animation, chats with the nominees. © AWN Inc.

Don Levy, Sony's senior vice president of marketing and communications, heads up the tour for the nominees. © AWN Inc.

Don Levy leads the nominees through the labyrinth of servers in the Sony machine room. © AWN Inc.

The Hungarian giants Geza Toth and Tamas Liszkas at CAA. © AWN Inc.

Roger asks Geza what drink was poured in Maestro. © AWN Inc.

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The second and final Friday of the Oscar Showcase tour began with a screening at Sony Animation. In an effort to get up a new photo gallery before I left, I didn’t leave enough time to get to screening, only making my journey a chore. I ended up arriving just as The Danish Poet was ending. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that I’m sick of the films after seeing them so many times in a short span of time, but a trial separation might be good. Roger Allers said he can’t watch Little Matchgirl anymore. Like No Time for Nuts directors Mike Thurmeier and Chris Renaud, he keeps seeing things he wishes that he could change.

When it came time for the Q&A, many of the Sony artists had some of the same questions as the other studios like whether Geza Toth’s single camera move was intended from the start, which it was, and how Roger and Don Hahn convinced Disney to go with the sad ending on Little Matchgirl, which was by waiting until Michael Eisner had left the studio. There was a question about how the co-production between Canada and Norway worked out on The Danish Poet. The producers Marcy and Lise said it worked out wonderfully. Lise joked that it’s perfect because Canada thinks director Torill Kove is Canadian and Norway knows that she is Norwegian. Marcy added that the co-production on Torill’s first short My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts helped launch a co-production treaty between the two countries. That first film’s Oscar nomination was a sensation in Norway with the king actually seeing the film. The hoopla around that film made it easier to find funding for The Danish Poet.

Sony's David Schaub gets to discuss current projects with Blur Sky's Chris Renaud. © AWN Inc.

Another artist asked what was the motivation for making another Scrat short. Chris said it was partly to keep the Ice Age franchise going, but when the idea of doing a short for the DVD was opened freely to the artists most of the pitches were Scrat stories anyway. Chris then answered a question about the sound on No Time for Nuts, which was mixed and edited by Sean Garnhart, who worked on the original Ice Age and Robots. Chris complimented the talent of the sound artist and said that the initial pass of the sound mix was done in Sean’s home studio in New Jersey. Then someone asked Geza who did the music for Maestro and he said Attila Pacsay. Ron joked that you go to Hungary and you can meet people named Attila. The last question was about the new shorts being done at Disney. Don said that the 2D Goofy short is a way to ramp up for the upcoming 2D feature The Frog Princess. Don went on to say that at the time they were making Matchgirl, they thought it was going to be the last 2D project at Disney. “A tragic depressing story on top of a tragic depressing story,” Don added, getting a chuckle from the crowd.

After the Q&A, we were invited to another nice lunch. Barry Weiss, senior vice president of Animation Production, gave everyone a warm welcome and congratulated the nominees, saying that it was an honor to have everyone come and visit Sony. I sat with Chris Renaud, Ron and David Schaub, who was animation supervisor on Polar Express and is serving as directing animator on Surf’s Up. Chris told David that he was really impressed with the look and feel of Surf’s Up, which uses a new camera system that provides virtual cinematography capabilities. David actually said that animation was going to wrap on that day. We asked him about Beowulf, which he told us is really pushing the cutting edge of performance capture and photoreal CG. And I can say that after seeing the fully rendered characters during the tour, I would have to agree with him. Additionally, David said that Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs recently made a big story breakthrough and might be coming out sooner than originally anticipated. We were impressed with how artists at Sony have the flexibility to move from projects at Sony Pictures Animation to visual effects projects at Sony Imageworks.

David had questions for Chris about Horton Hears a Who. David was very complimentary of the look that Blue Sky created for the Dr. Seuss inspired project. Chris added that gaining Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel’s widow, Audrey, confidence in the project was tough at first, because she was not satisfied with the live-action The Cat in the Hat. In regards to the story, Chris said that he learned that the original intent of the book was to illustrate how the Japanese should be treated after WWII and he feels that the message still retains its poignancy. Ron then asked Chris about the story process at Blue Sky. Chris told us that it depends on the project. Some projects have had members of the story team taking passes on various scenes as the overall story is being worked out. But the new project Chris Wedge is working on has a fully completed script, which is being worked off of. Chris saids it’s mainly the preference of the director. For him, he likes to move from storyboard to editorial quicker than other directors who like to board out scenes in more detail. Both Chris and David said that projects that don’t have their theme worked out completely beforehand typically have the most problems.

Kajsa Naess, Lise Fearnley, Geza Toth and Chris Renaud check out some artwork from Sony's Surf's Up. © AWN Inc.

Following lunch, Sony handed out generous gift bags to all of us. Then we headed out for the studio tour. In the lobby of the animation building, we checked out designs for Surf’s Up. Roger was happy to run into fellow Open Season director Tony Stacchi, who was not allowed to show us some recent storyboards from his next project Hotel Transylvania. Don Levy, senior vice president of marketing and communications, met up with us and took us around the studio, seeing where the animators work. It was nice to be able to peek in at the animators at work finishing up Surf’s Up. Don actually took us into the inter-sanctum of the machine room where the serious computing power is stored to make a CG feature a reality. Along our tour, we bumped into Oscar nominated Richard Hoover, who garnered his Academy Award nod for visual effects on Superman Returns.

Oscar nominees Roger Allers, Geza Toth, Richard Hoover and Chris Renaud. © AWN Inc.

After Sony, the nominees headed over to Creative Artists Agency (aka CAA) for the final screening on the 2007 Oscar Showcase tour. The screening at ICM was the first in their new screening room while the screening at CAA was the second at their new home on the Avenue of the Stars. When I was talking with Roger and Chris before the screening, it was interesting how I felt the William Morris screening went better than ICM because the agents at William Morris seemed to have more questions after the screenings. However, Roger felt the ICM screening went better because the agents spent more time mingling with the filmmakers after the screening. It goes to show that two people at the same event can have completely different reactions to something due to their perspective.

CAA’s John Levin introduced the screening and shared with the audience that when he was younger he had the desire to go become an animator and that it was his pleasure to have the nominees there for the screening. The first question was about distribution. The next question was about Little Matchgirl’s initial intent to be included in a world music Fantasia. Don Hahn said that Matchgirl was supposed to be the sad close to act two before the big celebratory ending. The next question was a general one about the state of animation, making the observation that there seems to be more animation today than ever before. Roger said that it was great that animators from all around the world are getting their projects seen. John asked if shorts are making their way back in front of features and Roger said that it was rare, except for Pixar who will be putting Lifted in front of Ratatouille. Lise added that in Norway shorts still do play in theaters before features, which Roger was happy to hear. The final question was about what people are working on next. In closing, John Levin again thanked the nominees for coming to share their films and hoped they will bring their next projects for a screening.

After the CAA screening, Geza Toth (right) gets a chance to chat with Chris Paine, the director of the documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? © AWN Inc.

That ended the screenings, but nominees still had another day of events before the big night. On Saturday, DreamWorks held an industry brunch and the Chocolate Oscar was a wonderful intimate event for the nominees and others in the industry to celebrate animated shorts. Check back for pics and thoughts from those events.

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Ron Diamond has created as new Oscar tradition: his yearly tour of the major West coast animation studios by the nominees for Best Animated Short Film. In a few short years this has become such an established event that all of the nominated films are represented by their respective directors, producers or both. At studios, which include ILM, Pixar, PDI, DreamWorks. and Sony, all five of the nominated films are screened for crowds of enthusiastic employees. The nominees have a chance to meet their professional counterparts and see their facilities.

The animation industry has exploded since then, and with that explosion has come new and well-deserved attention to the artform’s honorees. At each stop on the Ron Diamond tour, the entire program of films is screened in 35mm, the nominees answer questions from the audience, tour the facility and have a catered lunch. These visits are squeezed between the various press and interview events.

The day I tagged along, the nominees visited Sony Imageworks, and, in an excursion that speaks volumes for the new esteem animation enjoys, CAA, the Creative Artists Agency.

CAA has just moved into their sleek new multi-million dollar headquarters in Century City, and we were informed that our program of five films was to be only the second screening to be held in the spanking new state-of-the-art theater. The rust showed a little when the projectionist managed to reveal the tail leader on Lifted, but otherwise the room lived up to its look.

In the Q&A that followed, you might have guessed that no questions were asked about the making of the films. The agents wanted to know about the marketing of the films. Who watches shorts? How do they make money? What’s happening to the industry in general?

Happily, the Academy’s new program of theatrical releasing the nominees, the advent of short films on iTunes, and the general health of the animation business made the answer a positive one.

At Sony, the Q&A was notable for the lack of questions. Ron said that it was not unusual to have very few questions from studio audiences. Why, you may ask? Maybe people don’t want to give the impression that they don’t know more than the guy sitting next to them.

I remember years ago at the Academy’s “Bake-off” (the night when the Visual Effects branch views potential FX nominees) when Richard Taylor had the same experience when he presented Tron. That picture featured the first-ever use of high-end computer graphics in a motion picture, and it was a certainty that not one member of the audience had ever used the technology. I can attest to that because we literally invented it as we made the picture.

Yet, in the Q&A, only one question: what kind of camera did you use?

Why no others? Richard always suspected that no one wanted to reveal they were behind the curve. There is another side to this, of course. Many of the animation crew in today’s audience actually do know how these films are made because they use the technology every day.

Then there are the human elements…

The Little Matchgirl is unusual for a Disney film – it has a tragic ending. Director Roger Allers fought for this, and it took literally years for him to achieve it. He accomplished it in a simple way – he outlasted the opposition. Management at the studio changed, but Roger’s vision will now be on film forever.

Maestro has the distinction of having the shortest credit list of any film. Director Geza M. Toth of Budapest, Hungary, had to teach himself how to use the software that he used to create the film.

Gary Rydstrom, director of Lifted, is famous for being the premiere sound designer on most of Pixar’s features. He could not attend the Sony screening because he was, we were told, behind schedule on a Pixar film with a release date of 2013.

Bill Kroyer (right) gets a chance to chat with No Time for Nuts director Chris Renaud at Sony. © AWN Inc.

Chris Renaud got a chance to direct No Time For Nuts because he won a competition at Blue Sky to come up with a new Scrat concept. Chris, a former comic book artist, boarded the whole film himself.

Torill Kove, director of The Danish Poet, made the film as a co-production between Canada and Norway by virtue of her own personal friendships. Although currently residing in Montreal and working at the National Film Board of Canada, she went to art school in the tiny coastal village of Volda, Norway, where she met the future founders of Mikrofilm, a tiny studio in Oslo that split the work with Canada.

Spending even a day with these nominees reminds me and reassures me of one of the enduring joys of animation. The artists really love their work, and that love translates into a common bond that trumps any barrier of age, distance or nationality.

In my mind, that’s the real benefit of the Ron Diamond tour. The industry is healthy, the industry makes money, the industry creates product. But what makes it special to those in it is that the industry makes art. The creators of the five honored films represent that in a very personal way.

This pilgrimage to the studio doesn’t serve as just a publicity event or parade of kudos. It’s an exercise in connection, a chance for all of us to bask in the glow. Not the Oscar glow, but the glow of remembering that we belong to a community of artists that can create something special.

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