To help us get more connected and steeped into the animation world, we (my bro and I) recently attended The World Animation and VFX Summit in Marina del Rey. We met some amazing animators, producers, and others who work (and play) in the animation world. I have to say that it is a dream come true to get to work in the animation world. I think we are all fans of animation worldwide, and it’s a wonderful way for people around the globe to communicate in a creative, social, and meaningful way.
We learned quite a bit from going to this 3-day event; finance, foreign co-productions, animation development, production pipeline and process, post-production world, distribution challenges, global markets, global productions, and on and on. We even got to rub shoulders with a few bigees in the animation world.Warning: shameless name dropping getting ready to occur.
I had just a few words with Roger Allers, who worked on “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” “The Lion King,” and recently “The Prophet” (director). Yes, Gibran’s The Prophet. Imagine bringing that to the screen, and as an animation film. Wow. Anyway, he seems to really enjoy what he does. Also, lucky enough to have more than a few words with Steve Martino, having directed the just released “Peanuts” movie. He also directed “Horton Hears a Who!” and “Ice Age: Continental Drift,” as well as working on a number of other films. It was good to hear his perspective on directing animation. Yes, those pesky animated characters; how many takes will they tolerate, can they hit their mark, and are any of them method actors? Ha, all fun.
Also, met Rosa Tran, one of the producers of the first Charlie Kaufman animated film,“Anomalisa.” Nice lady. Looks like an original, ground breaking animation film. Supposed to be out in December. I’m looking forward to that one.
We also met several people involved with foreign animation houses. Very cool what some of them are doing. Animation is truly an international force. Also an added treat to meet Jean Thoran, the publisher of Animation Magazine. She seemed genuinely interested in “Dreams Awake” and its themes, and so we gave her a copy. All in all a productive three days, with lots to process and analyze (an ongoing activity).
JAD
Author: Jerry Alden Deal
Writer – Director – Producer of Way To Go Media, LLC.
Over the past thirty years Jerry has been hired numerous times to develop and write screenplays for other production companies. During that same period several of his spec scripts were also optioned. ‘Dreams Awake’ was Jerry’s feature directorial debut. He has several other projects in various stages of development. One of which, the feature documentary ‘The Inner Sonic Key’ is currently in post-production.