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| Boba Fett and Darth Vader join the filmmakers in the ILM lobby for a photo op. |
ILM had a photographer follow the Oscar tour around their facilities and we’d like to share some of the great pics.
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| From France to Skywalker Ranch - four of the six Oktapodi directors - Olivier, Francois, Emud and Quentin. |
On Friday the 13th, the Oscar tour made stops throughout the Lucas empire, including Skywalker Ranch, Big Rock, and ILM. Here some the great pics from the adventures.
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| Ron introduces the boys to PDI's Eric Darnell and Gail Curry. |
written by Barbara Robertson
The two and a half day fast forward is behind us, now. The nominees are on their way to Los Angeles for part two of Ron Diamond’s Oscar Tour, although for the second half, I don’t think he’ll be driving the giant white van (generously donated by PDI/DreamWorks), which he, amazingly, managed to squeeze into the only parking place in San Francisco’s Mission District that was big enough and still within walking distance to the ASIFA dinner. Finding a parking place for a Smart Car in San Francisco is hard, but somehow, the reality matched Ron’s optimism that it would all work out.
Now, for a rewind and some impressions from within the bubble.
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| The filmmakers meet the George Lucas. |
written by Barbara Robertson
It’s been a busy an exciting three days, but such a wonderful time. Some highlights and pictures. I’ll sketch in details tomorrow.
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| Watch It On AWN TV! |
At the ILM dinner, animation supervisor Hal Hickel, who was nominated for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, talks with Madame Tutli-Putli director Chris Lavis about motion-capture and the importance of eyes in animation.
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| Watch It On AWN TV! |
At the ILM Q&A, director Josh Raskin explains where I Met the Walrus’ interview with John Lennon originated from.
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| Watch It On AWN TV! |
At the ILM Q&A, Madame Tutli-Putli director Maciek Szczerbowski and Peter and the Wolf director Suzie Templeton talk about the scale of their film’s puppets.
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| Watch It On AWN TV! |
ILM artist Mark Siegel talks with I Met the Walrus director Josh Raskin about John Lennon.
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| I Met the Walrus director Josh Raskin introduces himself to Peter and the Wolf producer Hugh Welchman. © 2008 AWN Inc. |
Here’s the first photo gallery from the 2008 Oscar Showcase tour. Witness the nominees posing for pics with the many wonders on display inside the doors of the premiere visual effects studio.
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| The group poses for a pic at Skywalker Sound. © 2008 AWN Inc. |
At the beginning of our long ride to Skywalker Ranch, Marcy learned that the Oscar nominated shorts were written up in an extensive article in The New York Times. The piece was in conjunction with Magnolia’s theatrical release of the Oscar shorts in theaters. Josh said that Magnolia have been awesome, stating that they were willing to take the legal liability if rights issues were not worked out with the Lennon estate. In the future, Josh and James hope to turn their film into a book that goes into more detail about how Jerry Levitan made the Lennon recordings. Their idea is to make intricate handmade books that feature a DVD of the film. Hugh shared the advertising he had printed for the feature film he produced called Free Jimmy, which has been making the festival circuit and chronicles the adventures of a circus elephant that has heroin sown into its stomach. With Skywalker Ranch on everyone’s mind, the conversation turned to the animated Star Wars: Clone Wars, which it was just announced will be coming to theaters as a feature first before arriving on Cartoon Network in the fall. Chris coined the phrase inter-quel to describe it. Along the way, Hugh had us introduce ourselves for a video diary he is doing for Channel 5 in the U.K., which airs on Friday. So if you’re in England, set your TiVos, we want copies.
As we drove up to Skywalker Ranch, the excitement was clearly growing in the packed van. After watching the Skywalker Sound reel and some animation clips in the impressive Stag Theatre, we met with Randy Thom, who is nominated for his sound work on Ratatouille. He said that Brad Bird likes to experiment with sound before animation is even begun and one sound issue they needed to work out was how much would they use the rats’ real rat voices. As the final film shows, they decided that lesser is better. The voices were actually created by speeding up the actors’ voices. Randy said that for most productions 25-35% of the sound is recorded new and that the rest is taken from their vast library and manipulated to create something unique for the particular project.
AWN travels along with the Oscar animated shorts nominees to bring you their journey to the big night. Rick DeMott, AWN's managing editor, has chronicled the tour since 2007.
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