I spent the morning at DreamWorks Animation, hauling around my bag of 401(k) bric a brac asking the perennial question: "Wanna Four Oh One Kay book? ... Wanna Four Oh One Kay book?" ...
In the midst of the traipsing about, I fell into conversation with a staffer working on The Croods who said:
"The picture's halfway through production. Lots more sequences in work. It was slow for awhile as they pulled sequences back. The feature has always looked good, but now the story is coming together. It's much tighter. They've trimmed stuff that meandered and wasn't working.
"And the crew goes to 'work in progress' screenings. They want us to give suggestions, and we do. They're good about getting input, and they act on a lot of it. The next time we see the picture it's 'Ah, they cut that slow part out, good! They used our notes!'"
On my way out, I ran into two long-time staffers from Sony Pictures Imageworks/Animation (now at DWA) who told me that The Smurfs was the only big-time success for the entire Sony organization this year. This might be true, but I enjoyed Moneyball, and hope that it edges into the black before all revenue streams are exhausted.
In the afternoon, I stopped by Cartoon Network, where employees said that two series have been shuttered. (Since I haven't seen the death announcements on the Internet, and since staff has been treated to a round of 'Keep our secrets secret' talks and videos, I won't say which two they are.)
Add On: Regarding DWA, there was this from two days ago:
DreamWorks discovers the "Holy Grail" ...Real-time rendering of animation is now possible, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg told an audience at the Techonomy conference this morning ... In the most complicated aspects of its process, the company can now run at 50 to 70 times faster than it did before, Katzenberg said. Everyone does a breathtaking amount of waiting and this will eliminate that.... With the new technology, DreamWorks will simplify from 12 [stops on the production line] to less than six. ...
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5 comments:
Katzenberg has NO IDEA how 3D movies are made. "50-70 times faster"? Bullshit.
Whats next... Motion Captured actors behind the screen at the theater, moving characters on the screen in Real-Time-3-D?
Jeffrey does love the buzzwords and technology of the moment.
Too bad he doesn't invest as much time and interest in STORY and APPEAL.
The trolls have been too quiet lately. I was afraid they had been grounded by their parents and not allowed to go on-line...
@ 5:34
Actually Jeffrey is one of more informed execs I've ever met. I can pretty confidently say, you have NO IDEA what he has ANY IDEA about.
Grandiose Hyperbole... Jeffrey is thy name.
Real time rendering in theatrical features, if it provides good results, IS a huge breakthrough, and it will speed up a slow, expensive bottleneck in the production process. DreamWorks isn't the only company perfecting this, and it's good news for both large and small studios. In fact, it's an even bigger deal for small studios who want to put their investment into the creative end of things. So it's not hyperbole at all.
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