Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Hidden Documentary

Wade Sampson at Mouse Planet has posted a piece on a pretty much unseen documentary entitled The Sweatbox. It tells the tale of how a Disney animated feature called Kingdom of the Sun morphed into Emperor's New Groove, causing collateral damage along the way, which included the singer-songwriter Sting. And how did Sweatbox come to be made?

Sting's wife was given unlimited access when it came to Production No. 1331 (aka "Kingdom"). She and her camera sat in on story meetings for the movie, rolled while actors auditioned as well as taping Sting while he recorded the score. No one expected two years into the production, it would shift direction drastically.

I remember the making of Emperor's New Groove/Kingdom of the Sun pretty well. It's development went on for a looong time (same was true for Mulan.) But long development times are nothing unusual at Disney Feature Animation (or other feature studios, for that matter.)

...the tone of the documentary is established fairly early when at the premiere for Emperor's New Groove, Sting, Schumacher [then head of Disney Animation}, and a number of other people discuss what a painful experience it has all been.

Following a tense, brutal sweatbox screening for executives Schumacher and Schneider with about 20 percent or more of the animation completed, the original story, which was a sort of a version of the well-known "Prince and the Pauper" story, is torn apart. Director Allers quits. Sting's songs are suddenly out of key in a movie that is now going to be changed into a raucous comedy.

...Styler captures the phone call to her husband from producer Randy Fullmer where Sting learns that the six songs he has struggled over with collaborator David Hartley have been cut from Kingdom of the Sun.

The documentary is pretty extraordinary. It played in L.A. for a week, and I ran across town to see it at the single theater where it ran. The film documents a period of time at Disney Feature Animation when the place was somewhat unmoored and production executives and the animation bureaucracy held a lot of power.

The film that emerged from the chaotic development -- Emperor's New Groove -- I happen to like a lot. When it was released, it didn't have energetic backing from the studio's publicity machine. (Eisner is reputed to have disliked it.) As I recall, the flick opened with something like a $10 million gross on its opening weekend, but rose by 50% in its second weekend. It ended up somewhat shy of a $100 million domestic gross.

A wide release going up that much in week #2 is something that almost never happens. Audience word-of-mouth was a lot more robust than Disney's sales campaign.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Still stealing bandwidth, I see.

(Don't link to other people's images... copy them to your server!)

Bill Robinson said...

I'm dying to see The Sweatbox. Any clue how I can do so? Anyone know how to reach Xingu Films? (Styler's production company.)

Anonymous said...

Better yet, create your own images. I'm surprised that an *Artists Union* blog would be so casual about stealing other people's work.

Anonymous said...

[b]I'm surprised that an *Artists Union* blog would be so casual about stealing other people's work.[/b]

For what it's worth, I think it falls under the "Fair Use" guidelines. It's not stealing if it falls under Fair Use.

Steve Hulett said...

Still stealing bandwidth, I see.

(Don't link to other people's images... copy them to your server!)


It's the funniest thing...

I was with three Disney executives just this afternoon. None of them complained about TAG (me?) stealing a copyrighted image.

I'm afraid I'm dense. Explain to me how copying an image to a server and linking to it is different. (Putting aside the "fair use" argument...)

Anonymous said...

Because everyone who loads the TAG Blog website is also hitting the servers for:

www.remotecentral.com
www.filmtotaal.nl
www.animationmagazine.net
www.withusoragainstus.org
www.celebritybabies.info
www.elmoreleonard.com
www.oz3d.com.au
cache.eb.com
www.shermanoakschamber.org
www.toolcenter.com
www.jimhillmedia.com
img2.timeinc.net
www.laurelandhardy.org
www.ebonite.com
etc....

Those folks likely get charged money if too many people visit their website. You're hitting their servers, and rather than just linking to them (which in internet terms is good form), you hotlink their images, which forces their servers to do work that YOUR server should do, ie: serve the viewers of the TAG Blog with the images.

Plus some people get revenge on people hotlinking their images. You see how www.toolcenter.com replaced their image with one of a clown, and history.com merely removed the link to the image you hotlinked to, leaving you with a broken link.

People can change the image on you, screwing up your website. I've seen much worse than toolcenter calling you a clown. You could wake up tomorrow and instead of the picture of Ratatouille you hotlinked from Jim Hill, there could be a photoshopped picture of Steve Hulett in deep passionate nude amore with a barnyard animal.

Steve Hulett said...

You could wake up tomorrow and instead of the picture of Ratatouille you hotlinked from Jim Hill, there could be a photoshopped picture of Steve Hulett in deep passionate nude amore with a barnyard animal.


At least I could use it for my next holiday card.

Seriously, this is good to know. When blogspot wanted a release form signed for copying images, I started linking instead of copying.

I might just stop putting so many images up. I mean, since we're about information and not visuals.

Oh. And allow me to note, this site is operated by two of the officers of TAG, not by TAG. Like it says up top: the commentary and views belong to us.

Anonymous said...

"At least I could use it for my next holiday card."

LOL! Good one, Mr. Hulett! Of ALL the things to whine about...

Anyway, "The Sweatbox" is terrific. There was a copy up on YouTube briefly, but it was pulled down pretty fast. There's nothing embarassing about the film at all. It's painful to watch sometimes, but it's sincere and enlightening.

Anonymous said...

upload the images you want at photobucket.com. accounts are free.

that site is made as an alternative to hotlinking. if you exceed bandwith, just open another account.

Anonymous said...

Steve, you can also upload and link--for free--to a Flickr account. That's what I do.

Years ago I once in a while committed this same no-no("direct linking")without a clue about the bandwidth problems it causes--boy, someone did let me know and since then I know better, but it's the easiest innocent boo boo to make internet wise. Until it's explained it seems like much ado over nothing, but it can crash servers etc.
Anyway, I hope you do keep putting visuals up; it's a nice addition--very very nice in many cases, esp. the original art.

Chad T. said...

Also what everyone else forgets, Is that when a site exceeds their bandwidth their site is sometimes shut down and almost always the owner is charged for the exceeded bandwidth. So most importantly you are putting someone else out of pocket.

www.chadtownsend.com

Jeff Massie said...

For what it's worth, many if not most of the images on this blog, including all the large bandwidth gobblers, are linked from our own server.

So, we're stealing from ourselves. (OMG, the Guild admits they're stealing!!! Call the Labor Department!!!)

Anonymous said...

amazing.

info on the coveted "sweatbox" is given and all people can do is complain about stealing bandwidth? get a life!

when your life sucks beyond belief, find "Scapegoat" Hulett! That'll make me feel better!

Why is The Sweatbox so hard to find? Too many secrets and pot shots in it or what? It should be shown at a screening. ASIFA - make it happen! :)

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I agree - Steve takes far more grief on this blog than he deserves. This blog is invaluable for staying on top of the animation world, and it is due in large part to the work of one Mr. Hulett.

Anonymous said...

Forget bandwidth, back to "Sweatbox."

In case some have forgotten, the film was also screened at Disney. A lot of people saw it there, although some of us also went to the theater in Beverly Hills.

There are no "hidden secrets" in "The Sweatbox." Other films have traveled the same path while in development and production. However, many had such high hopes for this movie, and it seemed to be moving smoothly through production before it hit the wall.

Of course, I'm not in charge of animation at Disney, but I thought it was insane to scrap what they had and start over. If this film wasn't ready for production, why the hell did they greenlight it?

Anonymous said...

Bandwidth dude is lame. Your hosting service must suck if you're that hardpressed for bandwidth conservation.
22kb image dude... 22kb image. who cares

someone post sweatbox on Youtube again. Been dying to see it

Anonymous said...

"22kb image dude... 22kb image. who cares"

It's all about playing nice on the internet.

Tomorrow a million different websites might hotlink an image from a dude, and his site might go down. So you copy it and serve it up for your own viewers. It's just about being cool and not an asshole to the people you were nice enough to host the image that you found and thought was neat.

It's like if you are an artist, it's just cool not to totally rip off your fellow artist. Or if you're a union-member, you don't undercut your brothers and sisters and you don't cross picket lines.

If you don't follow those rules, okay, whatever, that's your own conscience, do whatever you will.

But know that the rule is there so you know when you're breaking it, and know how the practice is looked upon within the community.

Anonymous said...

It's all about playing nice on the internet.

Tomorrow a million different websites might hotlink an image from a dude, and his site might go down. So you copy it and serve it up for your own viewers. It's just about being cool and not an asshole to the people you were nice enough to host the image that you found and thought was neat.

It's like if you are an artist, it's just cool not to totally rip off your fellow artist. Or if you're a union-member, you don't undercut your brothers and sisters and you don't cross picket lines.

If you don't follow those rules, okay, whatever, that's your own conscience, do whatever you will.

But know that the rule is there so you know when you're breaking it, and know how the practice is looked upon within the community.


Geez Louise, talk about beating a dead horse!

I just want to know where I can see "Sweatbox".

Steve Hulett said...

It's all about playing nice on the internet.

To play nice, you have to know what the rules are.

Now I do. For which thanks.

(That Mowgli/Balue picture up above? Linked to TAG's website.)

Anonymous said...

Will "Sweatbox" be available on dvd anytime soon?

Not much of a chance is there...

Rufus.

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