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At the Pixar Q&A, director Maciek Szczerbowski answers the most asked question about his film Madame Tutli-Putli - how did you do the eyes?

Are we having fun yet? (front left ccw) BUF post producer Lucie Bloze, I Met the Walrus director Josh Raskin, Walrus illustrator Jame Braithwaite and Madame Tutli-Putli director Chris Lavis. © 2008 AWN Inc.

Here is the last photo gallery from the San Francisco leg of the Oscar Showcase tour. We closed out the event at PDI/DreamWorks, where the Q&A audience asked some new questions and the nominees had a chance to chat with the studio’s artists.

Even Pigeons Go To Heaven was a project that director Sam Tourneux started then abandoned. Well, I’m sure he’s glad that he picked it back up again. Here is what the filmmaker had to say about his film and the Oscar experience thus far.

Tamas Liszkas (l to r) Marcy Page, Mike Thurmeier, Roger Allers & Geza Toth eating breakfast at Skywalker Ranch. © AWN Inc.

Friday morning I went to sleep at 6:20 am and woke up around 7:40 am. That may have been the most restful hour and 20 minutes of sleep I’ve ever had. The comfortable beds and soft pillows at Skywalker Ranch were hard to leave. The last time I ran on so little sleep was in college during my senior year while we were filming long hours over a weekend on the bedroom set I built. This trip has certainly recharged the creative juices in me.

 

 

Who says there are no celebrities in Animation?  We arrive at Pixar an hour early, the van is buzzing with excitement.  We are about to meet some of the ROCK STARS of animation.  To be granted a tour at Pixar is a privilege not extended to everyone!

 

By Zoe Chevat

Wednesday afternoon found the Oscar shorts nominees at 20th Century Fox's sprawling backlot, located in the heart of Century City. After checking in at the Little Theater, used by the studio for on-site screenings, it was off for some behind-the-scenes looks at one of television's biggest studios.

The campus itself is sun-lit and greenery-filled, dotted with elaborate topiary that resembles horses, elephants, and, in the case of the bushes in front of The Simpsons offices, Bart Simpson. But, though things were relatively quiet when we were there, we know that behind soundproof doors the truth is quite the opposite. With dozens of on-site and off-site productions going at once, Fox's soundstages currently house the permanent sets for many of their TV network's long-running hits, including Bones and House. We were lucky enough to be taken through the Bones set, where shooting is down for the season, but there are plenty of autopsy tables, fabricated cadavers, and chemical bottles still around. Large sets for multi-season hits like Bones, which cost millions of dollars to construct, will stay intact for the duration of the show's time on air, until final cancellation.

By Dan Sarto.

Our tour continued with a screening and lunch at Sony Pictures Animation.  It’s always a treat to go to SPA – we’re always greeted warmly and the audience is always enthusiastic.  Today was no exception. 

We wasted no time getting over to the Ray Harryhausen Theatre for the screening and Q&A.  As expected, the audience questions were familiar, though it was nice to get Minkyu Lee, director of Adam and Dog, into the mix a bit more, his ongoing work duties at Disney having kept him from joining us for much of the week.

We've all had theose projects where we are just so very, very close to starting and we're getting everyhthing cleared away so we can be prepared when it starts but then there is a delay and we wait....

 

 

In a world where gaming satisfaction is only a minute away with the advent of high-speed internet and next generation consoles, it makes me think back to the games of old, and what our new tech could have done to salvage them.  Hit the jump for more!

What is it about previsualization that seems to elicit either a dyed in the wool religious response or a near rabid hatred of the technique? Whether previs is being used to technically plan options for the VFX supervisor, act as a budgeting tool for the producer or serve as an exploration process for the director, many have stated previs either dramatically enhanced their film or down right crippled their production. In this entry, we'll take a look at what a true anti-previs advocate has to say on the subject.