AWN Oscar Travelogue

On Our Way to EA

oscartour — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:15:53 +0000

With the screenings so tightly packed, once My Love ended at Skywalker Ranch and the final film Peter and the Wolf began, a sedan raced off with our bags and the prints for the first four films to deliver them in time for the PDI/DreamWorks screening later in the day. After wrapping up the Q&A at Skywalker, the tour crew hopped into the van and headed to EA, where a screening in digital projection had already began. I Met the Walrus‘ Josh had planned to head to New York the next day for the Academy screening there, but the pace of the tour made him reconsider the extra flight, especially upon learning that he was the only one going, considering instead to stay behind and take a relaxing ride down the coast to L.A.

During the car ride, James chatted with Hugh about how the Peter and the Wolf producer got started in the industry. Hugh said he got a quick introduction into the biz by winning third prize at the Cannes Film Festival with his student short Crow Stone and receiving the Sam Mendes screenwriting scholarship. His other work has included two short films with the Monty Python team for the Holy Grail DVD and the visual effects for La Vie En Rose. When asked about securing funding for films, Hugh said that in the U.K. they have systems set up where individuals can invest in schemes where the profits are not taxed. For Peter and the Wolf, the smallest single investment was 20,000 GBP and the largest was from a couple at 200,000 GBP. Hugh likes the freedom of funding projects this way, because there are no studio execs nitpicking creative decisions. The most striking thing he said is that he hasn’t made any money on Peter and the Wolf and won’t until they see projects. For those in the U.S., they can see Hugh’s labor of love on PBS on March 26th along with a half hour making-of documentary.

When we finally arrived at EA, the screening had already ended. Our host Bob Nicoll shared that 150 people packed their screening room and clapped after every production. Bob invited the audience to come back at 12:30 to meet the filmmakers. Having some time before then, Bob took us outside to show the filmmakers the campus, which features a huge courtyard where employees can play football or soccer during lunch. Maciek had gone outside to have a smoke and ran into two very enthusiastic Madame Tutli-Putli fans. He made them happier by giving them copies of the film, which they asked for him and Chris to autograph. They even asked to have their picture taken with the directors. Groupies I guess are the price of becoming an Oscar nominee.

A dozen or so employees and students from Carnegie Mellon, who are at the studio working on internship projects, returned to hear the filmmakers speak and as always the questions included Tutli-Putli’s eyes and how did Josh get involved with the John Lennon recordings. When asked about their approach to animating, Maciek said they filmed actress Laurie Maher as reference, because they are two dudes and the secrets of femininity aren’t there’s.

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Ron’s Oscar Tour San Fran Pics Gallery

oscartour — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 10:43:09 +0000

Outside the Hotel Sofitel in Redwood Shores. Rick DeMott (l to r), Mike Thurmeier, Marcy Page, Roger Allers, Don Hahn & Ron Diamond. © AWN Inc.

Ron and I snapped quite a few pictures during the San Fran leg of the tour. Here’s a gallery of some of the pics that Ron took. Keep checking back for more exclusive photos from the Oscar Tour.

Bob Nicoll (center left) shows us around the expansive EA campus.

The nominees on the PDI/DreamWorks tour. © AWN Inc.

The nominees check out some artwork from Shrek the Third. © AWN Inc.

The nominees check out PDI/DreamWorks state-of-the-art conference room, which is link directly to the L.A. studio. © AWN Inc.

The nominees have lunch with PDI/DreamWorks head Gloria Borders and Beauty and the Beast director Gary Trousdale (right of Gloria). © AWN Inc.

Roger Allers poses in front of San Fran's famed Lombard St. © AWN Inc.

Mike gets a souvenir snapshot from his first visit to San Fran. © AWN Inc.

Meet the Animated Short Oscar Nominees — Now on Tour! © AWN Inc.

Little Matchgirl duo Allers and Hahn look out over the San Francisco Bay. © AWN Inc.

On the ILM tour, Kate Shaw shows us the original door from the first Star Wars' production studio. © AWN Inc.

Marcy Page does her best Princess Leia impersonation. © AWN Inc.

Mike has to get his picture taken with R2. © AWN Inc.

Don gets chummy with his new friend. © AWN Inc.

Roger Allers cowers in fear at the foot of a stormtrooper. © AWN Inc.

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A Long Day Rewarded With A Night at Skywalker Ranch

oscartour — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 14:09:39 +0000

Don Hahn (l to r), Roger Allers, Ron Diamond, Mike Thurmeier and Marcy Page talking about their films at PDI/DreamWorks. © AWN Inc.

Thursday was an absolute whirlwind day on the tour. I couldn’t possibly write everything interesting that was said during the course of the day. So I’m going to set out to recap the day in full, but tease you with details to come later.

Roger Allers and Don Hahn meet the rest of us at our hotel and we ventured right down the street to EA. Boy, that seems like days ago and not just this morning. Our host Bob Nicoll showed us the immense campus, which has pool tables and videogame systems set up in a common area for the employees to use. A Starbucks is even opening up in the building so that the employees don’t have to leave to get their caffeine fix in the morning. During crunch times, the studio brings in oil change services, masseurs and dry cleaners to help the employees balance their personal lives with their busy schedules.

The group poses in front of EA artists' personal work. Roger (l to r), Don, Marcy, Bob Nicoll, Mike & Ron. © AWN Inc.

The screening went over well with many of the questions centering on what inspired the stories and distribution channels, which were common questions throughout the day. Marcy Page, who produced The Danish Poet, commented that the short wasn’t based specifically on the story of how director Torill Kove’s parents meet, but from a tale her father told her about how a collection of choices can profoundly affect the direction of one’s life. As the EA employees were leaving to go back to work, I overheard many of them talking about how moving Little Matchgirl was for them. Roger said during the day that he found that men with daughters seemed to be the most moved by the short. Strangely, the EA staff was more interested in the 2D films, asking Marcy about the difficulties co-producing the film of Canada and Norway. She said for this film, because Torill did most of the work herself and Torill’s husband did the music, it made the collaboration much easier.

After the screening the nominees received a nice gift bag with games and various other shwag as well as a chance to tour The Sims floor where many of the animators were hard at work in their cubicles, decorated with unique individual personality. But the tour had to be short due to the tight schedule of jetting over to PDI/DreamWorks next.

The nominees listen to all the wonderful details of the PDI/DreamWorks. © AWN Inc.

At PDI/DreamWorks, we were treated to some artwork from the past productions like Shrek 2 and Madagascar as well as some of the upcoming projects Shrek the Third, Kung-Fu Panda, Creature Feature and How to Train Your Dragon. But the big highlight of the tour was the chance to see the legendary conference room, which Jeffery Katzenberg had special designed for the studio and then sold the conferencing system to HP. The room is set up where an entire wall is a screen that is linked to the Los Angeles conference room, which is designed exactly the same way, giving the impression that you’re in the same room sitting across a conference table from the people in the studio at the other end of California. All the nominees want one now. Apparently, animators who use to roll in at about 10 or 10:30 are coming into work at 7 am just to get a timeslot in the coveted, high-tech conference room.

eauty and the Beast director Gary Trousdale catches up with Roger Allers after the screening. © AWN Inc.

The crowd at the DreamWorks screening was more reserved than the one at EA, however many of the questions were relatively the same. Check back for follow-up entries to find out in more detail about what was asked and more so what was said by the nominees. After the screening, PDI/DreamWorks treated us to lunch from their commissary, which is free to all the employees at the studio. During the tour earlier, Roger and Don were ecstatic to run into Beauty and the Beast director Gary Trousdale in the hall. Gary took time out of his schedule, working on the TV special Shrek the Halls, to come to the screening as well as join us for lunch. He seemed very happy to have the chance to catch up with Don and Roger. Throughout the day, many of the nominees had chances to catch up with old colleagues and friends at the various venues.

After PDI/DreamWorks, we had a few hours to spare before heading over to ILM. So we hit some of the sights in San Fran. For Mike Thurmeier, it was his first time in San Francisco. The trip from PDI/DreamWorks to downtown San Fran allowed time for plenty of interesting conversation. Some of the wonderful topics (which I will go into in greater detail in future posts) included the reemergence of 3-D, Don’s idea for a third Fantasia, watching films in the theater vs. at home, the secret to how the 2D equipment was saved at Disney and what it was like living in San Francisco in 1969. It was simply wonderful sitting back and listening to the filmmakers talk about other animators that inspired them and the work they admire. But I could fill volumes so I’ll save the nice details for later. How’s that for a cliffhanger?

The nominees relax with a cup of joe. © AWN Inc.

After riding the trolley to Fisherman’s Warf, which was the first time for both Mike and Don, we went down to the beach along the bay, where we joked that we wouldn’t strip down bare and go for a swim like Aleksandr Petrov did when he was on the Oscar tour in 2000 for The Old Man and the Sea. After taking a spin by the Ghirardelli store, so everyone could buy sweets for their sweethearts, we walked along the Warf area looking for something hot to drink, settling on the very L.A. choice of Starbucks. Again, it was just fascinating to listen to the nominees chat about which festivals they like and don’t like as well as how they got to the place they are today.

Then sad news came. Marcy received a phone call from Ryan director Chris Landreth, telling her that legendary animator Ryan Larkin had passed away from brain cancer. Marcy, who produced Ryan and was very close with the director, was very shaken by the disturbing news. When it was time to head over to ILM, we all stood at the corner of Jones and Jefferson. As we waited, I saw Marcy put some money in the cup of a scruffy homeless man sitting near by and thought to myself – what a fitting and poignant tribute to Ryan Larkin.

Don Hahn admires the detail of the models from Galaxy Quest. © AWN Inc.

We arrived at ILM later than planned and we were unable to take the tour before the screening so the filmmakers opted to tour the studio while the films were playing. And as I predicted Roger is already tired of seeing his film. However, there are roughly nine more screenings to go before the end of next week. Kate Shaw, the head of training at Lucasfilm, was a wonderful host and valiantly protected us from an overeager security guard who sprung to the scene drawn to the flashes of our cameras. Seeing the many props from the films ILM worked on, which included Lemony Snicket, Galaxy Quest, a scraped Frankenstein animated feature at Universal and a little film called Star Wars, was a great treat. One of the actually R2-D2 units was a very popular photo spot once again on the Oscar tour.

Slipping in right at the end of the screening, the nominees were bombarded with the most questions due to ILM’s invite of ASIFA-San Fran members to the screening and Q&A. Afterwards, ILM treated us to dinner at a restaurant across the street where we met up with head of Lucasfilm Animation Catherine Winder, ILM animator Steve Rowlins and the new producer on the Clone Wars TV series Athena Portillo. The dinner was another great opportunity to listen in on various stories about the filmmakers work. Athena, who is a big Disney fan, was thrilled to hear about Disneyland’s secret Club 33 overtop the Pirates of the Caribbean ride from Don. Likewise, everyone in my general seating area was thrilled to hear Steve’s tales of working on the Harry Potter films. He candidly spoke about which directors understood animation and which ones didn’t. And I have taken an oath of secrecy to not divulge the answers. If you’re curious if I was able to find out anything about Clone Wars, I must report that I was unsuccessful to even get a hint from either Catherine or Athena. The company secrets are truly safe with them. In future posts you can look forward to the filmmakers thoughts on motion capture, the difficulty of continuity on the Star Wars projects and what recent films the animators didn’t like and what upcoming films everyone is looking forward to.

After the wonderful dinner, it was around 11 pm and the nominees, Ron and I hopped into our van for the long trip to Skywalker Ranch. The fog had set in on the winding country roads. The conversation along the way had turned from the business to more personal tales. Marcy talked of an experience when she was younger taking her film to screen at San Quentin prison. The sensation of the doors locking behind her made her wonder if bringing her slightly erotic film to screen for convicted rapists and murders was a wise decision. However, the inmates turned out to be polite and generally engaged in what Marcy had to show.

As we arrived at the gate to the Ranch, the tired assembly in the van seemed to get a burst of energy. A firewoman at the Ranch’s private fire station was holding the keys to our rooms and she escorted us to the beautiful Arts & Crafts decorated building. Like a group of kids who just arrived at camp, we all excitedly scoped out each others rooms. I got the Orsen Welles room. Marcy is across the hall in the NC Wyeth room .Don is in the Norman Rockwell room, which includes an original Rockwell painting. This year the Winsor McCay room went to Roger and the Frank Lloyd Wright room is being occupied by Mike. And for the life of me (maybe because it’s 5:30 in the morning) I can’t remember which room Ron received. I guess like many other interesting details, you’ll have to check back another day. But like kids on Christmas we couldn’t just go to sleep so we raided the fully stocked kitchen and sat down in the cozy, stone-walled sitting room and Don lit a fire in the fireplace. Ron informed us that Geza and Tamas are on their way from the airport and will be joining us for the Pixar screening and lunch tomorrow. After a bit of unwinding, we all set off for our rooms. Everyone was thankfully for this chance to stay here at the Ranch. It’s an awe-inspiring place. I can see how, like Marcy said, one could easily be distracted here. But I can equally see how someone could be inspired.

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John Canemaker’s Thoughts on The Oscar Experience

oscartour — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 01:58:26 +0000

Canemaker & producer Peggy Stern

It’s exciting to able to share with the rest of the community the thoughts and experiences of the Oscar nominees. And it’s a great pleasure to share with you today the feelings of last year’s Oscar winner John Canemaker. The Moon and the Son director tells us why the Oscar Tour was such a special event in the whole Oscar extravaganza. Here is what he had to say:

The Oscar award ceremony is exciting; but the build-up to that evening — the tour of studios and screenings of your films as organized by Ron Diamond — is one of the best parts of the whole experience. Screening your films at Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney, Sony, Electronic Arts, Lucasfilm and other studios — and the huge AMPAS theatre — to standing room only crowds eager to see your work and ask you questions is thrilling!

Ron knows everyone in the industry and is well-liked and admired. Through his personal contacts, you are greeted at the studios by and dine and converse with and the likes of John Lasseter, Jeffrey Katzenberg and other top execs — a marvelous opportunity afforded to few.

One of the best parts of the whole experience was getting to really know our fellow nominees as we toured the studios, the several parties, lunches and dinners that Ron also planned. We all bonded and were (and are) very supportive of each other.

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Skywalker Ranch Pics & More from the 2006 Oscar Tour

oscartour — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 02:41:32 +0000

The Oscar Tour group at Skywalker Ranch. (l to r) Ron Diamond, Joe Kennedy, John Canemaker, Sharon Colman, Shane Acker and Anthony and Julia Lucas. © AWN Inc.

Okay, okay, I’ll get off my obsession with Skywalker Ranch. However, I did want to share some pics from the San Fran leg of last year’s Oscar Tour. Ron Diamond provided the images and they represent a great visual chronicle of the fun events the nominees get to experience. See whom they chatted with at lunch or who just happened to be at the Ranch when they arrived.

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