Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Steve Gordon Interview -- Part II



TAG Interview with Steven E. Gordon
Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Steve Gordon jokingly says that his timing in exiting animation studios is not always the greatest.

"I left Disney Feature Animation a couple of years before the division really took off, and I exited DreamWorks after work on 'Shrek 2.' My wife has pointed out to me that it might have been better [for the family pocket book] if I had stayed ..."

On the other hand, Steve has never lacked for work. He's willing to direct and do character designs for a lower budget direct-to-video feature after a stint working on high-budget theatricals. It's the project that interests him, not the amount of money being thrown at it. Mr. Gordon has also boarded a live-action feature, which he found remarkably similar to animated projects because "at the time, the Writers Guild was on strike, and the producers had to do story changes on the boards with the artists."

Steve credits his long career to the multiple disciplines of animation, design, layout, storyboarding and directing skills in his professional tool kit, and the flexibility to shift to different genres and formats.

He's seldom been out of work during his thirty-five years in the business, so he must be doing something right.

4 comments:

Stefan Ellison said...

There's an episode of "Pigs Next Door" that he directed that's up on YouTube.

Once again, I'd just like to say I think these interviews are fantastic. I was wondering if it was possible to do an interview with David Bowers, he's had a pretty interesting career.

Chris Sobieniak said...

The MP3 link is incorrect, it should be this...
http://interview.files.s3-website-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/TAGInterview_StevenEGordon-2.mp3

Thanks again!

Steven Kaplan said...

Apologies Chris. That's what I get for not double-checking.

Link is fixed.

Chris Sobieniak said...

Glad to help (sorry for the lateness in replying here)!

By the way, it's nice to see who animated the Horned King's demise in The Black Cauldron. When that came out on DVD, I loved framing through that sequence to watch the villain being consumed by the cauldron and whittling away to nothing!

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