Category: Places

The second stop on the L.A. leg of the Oscar Showcase tour was on Tuesday, Feb. 19th at 20th Century Fox. So here are some more pics.

Congratulations to Oscar winners Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman, as well as Peter and the Wolf producer Alan Dewhurst.

At the Sony Pictures Animation lunch, Madame Tutli-Putli director Chris Lavis talks about how they worked with actress Laurie Maher to inform their stop-motion animation and provide the eyes for their puppets.

At the Valentine’s Day dinner, I Met the Walrus illustrator James Braithwaite starts a conversation on Guy Madden’s short film Sissy Boy Slap Party.

At the Pixar Q&A, directors Maciek Szczerbowski and Chris Lavis talk about the journey of the title character in their film Madame Tutli-Putli.

At the ILM Q&A, director Josh Raskin explains where I Met the Walrus’ interview with John Lennon originated from.

ILM artist Mark Siegel talks with I Met the Walrus director Josh Raskin about John Lennon.

The tour is a grueling experience for everyone involved. Josh said he looks forward to getting the chance to go back home and relax, but is still keeping a positive outlook on the rare experience.

After a late screening in the Aidikoff Screening Room for the William Morris agents, the filmmakers had a chance to meet with a few of the agents. Like many people have said along the tour, the agents felt that this year is one of the strongest years for animated shorts in quite some time.

A new question for the Peter and the Wolf team was how they came about designing and animating the animals. The main goal of the design was to not make them caricatures. Hugh said the duck was the toughest and the look they chose was based on how goofy the breed looked, which would help create instant sympathy for the doomed character.

The conversation moved to the expansion of animation in the region, especially China. Ed said he was reluctant to get into China, because of the government hoops that doing business there entails.

Talking to Even Pigeons Go to Heaven producer Simon Vanesse, we learned that he began his career in IT. He mentioned that being one of the few producers who speaks English at BUF has helped him get on big American production. Most of the time he works as a visual effects producer, having worked on The Prestige.