After the ILM Q&A, the studio hosted a dinner for the nominees, where we sat with animation supervisor Hal Hickel, who is nominated for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Chris was impressed with the seamless work that Hal was involved with on Iron Man combining practical effects with CG. As for CG, Maciek feels he couldn’t work in CG, because he needs more hands on, tactile interaction with his art. He likes work environments were artists are talking and working out issues, not hidden behind iPods for five hours of straight work. In turn, Sam feels freed by the ability to create elaborate worlds with more control inside the computer. It just goes to show how the artistic experience differs from one person to the next.

During dinner, Sam and Lucy commented that Madame Tutli-Putli reminded them of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie, which is funny, because I felt the same way when I firest saw the film. Sam said that Jeunet’s longtime collaborator Marc Caro was one of his heroes, and Maciek added that he always felt that Caro brought a darkness to the work he did with Jeunet, which is an element in film that he feels has been lacking of late. Sam also revealed that the title of his film Even Pigeons Go to Heaven is a French joke that doesn’t translate into English directly. After he explained it to us, Chris found the best literal translation - Even Suckers Go to Heaven. But we all still agree that the title they have is much better than the exact translation.

After we finished eating, we piled back into the van and headed off to the hotel. If day one was tiring wait until tomorrow when we have screenings at Pixar and EA, closing with a night at Skywalker Ranch.