Saturday, February 24, 2007

The End of the Week Studio Gadabout

Since it's the tail end of another busy workweek, allow me to blog about various studio visits hither and yon...

At DreamWorks, they are mostly done with story work on Jerry Seinfeld's Bee Movie and a large chunk of the animation is done. Word is that they had a successful test screening of the flick out of town. In town, Mr. Seinfeld has been filming various promo pieces for the feature. The epic is set to unspool at a theatre near you on November 2.

At Film Roman/Starz Media, work on the "The Simpsons" feature continues seven days a week, even as the writers -- over on the other side of the hill at Gracie Films -- battle over gags and story points.

And in Burbank at Cartoon Network, board artists are wrapping up on Class of 3000's second and final season, even as other artists commence work on Season #2's music videos...

Have yourself a glorious weekend.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are *mostly* done with story, yet they have a large chunk of animation finished? Sounds like a recipe for more budget waste.

Steve Hulett said...

Don't think so. There are tweaks being done, but the Bee Movie is pretty well along. And in pretty reasonalbe shape.

In my time, animation was always rolling along as we wrote/fiddled with other sequences. Sometimes considerable amounts of animation were left on the editorial floor, sometimes not.

I could tell you tales of recent jettisonings of animated footage in recent flicks, but I'm not predisposed to battle trolls.

Anonymous said...

meet the robinsons?

Anonymous said...

That is a big reason why these films cost so much. Start production, go back and work on the story, redo parts of production. People need to nail down story before moving on.

Anonymous said...

No no no no no--what went to animation on Bee Movie were sequences that worked. They worked in boards, they're great in animation. Nothing that went to animation has been cut--no whole-hog sequences, no big redos-as often happens in many feature films(including everyone's favorite studio-hey, it happens, it's the way it goes, folks).
Anyway, it's all well & good to suggest "nail down story before moving on" but the reality is that given the amount of time animation takes, something has to go into full production before too long...IF it's working in story(see above).

I could give examples of films in the works that are still in story after a good period of time without a single sequence going into animation for exactly that reason--it has to be working just right first. Don't assume things are just rushed along for the sake of rushing along. It's a case-by-case deal with all these films(and it works the same way at the places I've known--the big three. at least).

Anonymous said...

There are several posters on this blog that seem to just sit and wait for opportunities to spit out their bitter and angry vitriol...

Anonymous said...

"I could give examples of films in the works that are still in story after a good period of time without a single sequence going into animation for exactly that reason--it has to be working just right first. Don't assume things are just rushed along for the sake of rushing along. It's a case-by-case deal with all these films(and it works the same way at the places I've known--the big three. at least)."

Please give them!

Studios greenlight projects and immediately give them release dates BEFORE seeing all three acts up on boards. They constantly rework the first act and then rework and rethink the movie once they see the third act. They never learn.

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