Who’s Willing To Take This Bet About Sequels?

3 Comments / Questions /

allposters despicable me

The Universal sequel Despicable Me 2 has pummelled the Lone Ranger this weekend at the US box office. Despite the former’s lack or originality and obscene amount of marketing featuring those little rascals that are the minions, it had no trouble beating a $200 million movie about a man and his horse (kudos to whomever it was that made out on the stock of Consolidated Hay.) Here’s the thing though:

Has Despicable Me 2 spurred the production of yet more animated sequels?

It’s still far to early to tell, and Universal is far from DreamWorks in that they aren’t chomping at the bit to announce sequels after the opening weekend, however, it is almost a certainty that we’ll see a Despicable Me 3 being announced sometime in the not too distant future.

Monsters University has already more than proved worthy of a follow up in terms of its box office. The other original films coming out this year are a bit more of a toss up.

Epic performed admirably but far from monster-hit status. Disney’s Planes is apparently so awesome that the studio has already created an opening slot for it in 2014. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 is looking good but not a definite and Frozen stays so close to the Disney formula that it there’s little point in even guessing.

That means that in all likelihood that Despicable Me 2 has done nothing to reduce the incentive for studios to keep producing sequels and an unprecedented rate. Even taking out Jeffrey Katzenberg’s monstrous appetite for the things, that leave almost every studio creating at least one. Pixar has none lined up for next year, but I unequivocally guarantee that either another Monsters or Cars movie is on the horizon.

The worry is of course that with such wobbles like the Lone Ranger, studios will concentrate even harder on proven winners; so averse to creativity that they willingly head towards extinction because it continues to bring in some money.

The key takeaway from all of this is that it leaves a massive door open for a cheap animated film to slide in and clean up shop. The original Despicable Me did it back in 2010. That was three years ago, it’s time for a repeat.

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1,000 Posts

1 Comment / Announcements /

AA Avatar 200

A short acknowledgement of the 1,000th post to be published here on the site since I started taking the whole blogging thing seriously. For the curious, the first post was back in 2010 and was a review of How To Train Your Dragon.

Obviously this post should have occurred much earlier in the year (or even in late 2012) but I’ll be the first to tell you that keeping up a completely daily schedule is tough going! Michael Sporn has been at it for many more years than I, and hasn’t missed more than a few days! At an hour a post give or take, you can see how much effort has gone into the site over the years; although that doesn’t include the volumes of stuff that I have to read in order to find stuff to write about!

If it wasn’t for graduate school, my schedule would be a lot more similar to Michael’s, but as it stands, getting a post out every single day is tough when you have papers, group presentations and a pile of reading to get done all while balancing a full-time job on top of everything.

Since the beginning of this year (2013), I’ve taken the site a lot more seriously than in the past, and I’m glad with the positive response that it has produced. Besides the greater audience involvement (and thanks for all the comments; keep them coming), traffic is up and my posts are inciting some debates elsewhere. Additionally, I’m a contributor on both Jerry Beck’s Animation Scoop and over at Moviepilot, a site that helps you keep tabs on upcoming films and TV shows.

The remainder of the year will be more of the same. Upcoming events that I hope to attend include both Bronycon and Otakon (although I’m neither a brony or an otaku; both events are quite literally on my doorstep, taking place in downtown Baltimore) and the CTN-X convention in Burbank, CA in November; something I’m very much looking forward to.

In the meantime, thanks for reading, please continue to engage and don’t be afraid to get in touch via the contact link at the top; I don’t bite 🙂

Charles

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Week Links 26-2013

Animation, Week Links /

Some post-Independence Day and food poisoning week links for you today.

Don’t Go To Art School

Noah Bradley points out the fallacy of an art degree with this post:

Artists are neither doctors nor lawyers. We do not, on average, make huge six-figure salaries. We can make livable salaries, certainly. Even comfortable salaries. But we ain’t usually making a quarter mil a year. Hate to break it to you. An online debt repayment calculator recommended a salary exceeding $400,000 in order to pay off a RISD education within 10 years.

He’s right. In class this week our group had to present on the topic of higher education and I was tasked with the rather difficult job of pointing out that institutions rarely co-ordinate with industry in regards to job supply or demand. The end result is that a degree is no guarantee of a job let alone a good one.

Unfortunately many companies and studios are demanding degrees for entry level positions and are exacerbating the situation. Noah puts it best:

Find another path. Art is a wonderful, beautiful, fulfilling pursuit. Don’t ruin it with a mountain of debt.

Bryan Konitezko Discusses Ethnicity and Colour Theory in the Avatar Universe

konietzko avatar skin solour

Co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra, Bryan Konietzko has a long but comprehensive analysis of ehtnicity, colour theory and character genetics in this post over on his tumblelog.

He highlights two important things:

  1. It’s all to easy to jump to conclusions if you’re not involved in a production
  2. Colour plays an incredibly important role

The post is a great read, especially if you are curious about the Avatar universe and family lines within it. On one hand, it’s nice to see this level of detail being put into a show, but on the other, it’s kind of disheartening that Bryan had to clarify things.

That plays into the first point above. Fans sometimes do unnecessarily jump to conclusions and can unintentionally cause a ruckus or make a mountain out of a molehill. There’s little one can do about it save being open and honest about things; just like Bryan was.

Secondly, the saga highlights just how much of an influence colour can have on a show (or film). This makes now as good a time as any to plug Oswald Iten’s superb blog Colorful Animated Expressions which features just about all you ever wanted to know about the role that colour plays in filmmaking.

This Could Have Been Frozen

couldhavebeenfrozen-1

Coincidentally there was another article about ethnicity in animation this week. Coming from the Daily Mail (with my sincere apologies) is the news that a few fans, unhappy about the supposed ethnic homogeny of the upcoming Disney film, Frozen, have taken matters into their own hands and have come up with a few ideas of what a more diverse alternative could have looked like.

couldhavebeenfrozen-2

There is of course the obligatory tumblelog where people can submit their own ideas.

All I can say about this is that Disney has a long history of augmenting traditional tales in order to make them more convenient or marketable; complete historical accuracy has never been one of their strong points (remember, the original Aladdin story was set in China.)

Tweets of the Week

 

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The Importance of Animation Studio Idents

2 Comments / Animation /

Animation has long played a prominent role in idents; you know, those little jingles that remind you which TV channel your watching, who produced the show/film you’ve watched or even what a block of programming is. There’s too many to list out there, but they form an incredibly important part of the animation jigsaw puzzle.

Ident Exhibit A:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QPS6As0tqY

You could probably tell exactly what was going to happen before you even clicked the play button, couldn’t you?

Yes, the Hanna-Barbera logo is ingrained on the minds of literally millions of people around the world even though the studio (as a practical production facility) hasn’t existed in over 10 years.

Why bring that point up? Well it’s to illustrate that a brand, and especially an animated one, doesn’t just vanish overnight. Additionally, it is also a studios strongest asset, and something they have to work hard at to bring to fruition.

Ident Exhibit B:

That’s the old one, but the sound remains in use. Frederator have built a particularly strong brand especially in light of two things: firstly, a lot of their productions are under the umbrella of a major network, and secondly, their online efforts have done much to increase awareness of the studio’s existence outside of industry circles.

The Verdict

Both idents provide an indication of who created what, and both are certainly memorable. They establish so in a clear and concise manner too. So why do some studios insist on doing things like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhB08lQoHrA

What does that do beyond signify the creator? Shouldn’t idents also be a creative exercise, one that challeneges studio’s to come up with something truly unique? I believe so, and I wish all studios felt the same way.

 

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Animation Idioms from 1938 You Might Find Relevant

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Disney tryout book idioms
Via: Animation Resources

Today’s post was going to be about linking the seminal artist tryout book for Disney from 1938, but as I was reading it over on the Animation Resources blog (and you ought to as well), I decided instead to focus on the little idioms scattered throughout. Although merely complimentary to the book as a whole, on their own, they serve as a powerful reminder of what animation is really all about.

In today’s hectic world, it can be easy to forget that at its core, animation is a format of expressing artistic creation. It is disheartening to see it sometimes reduced to mere entertainment or as a babysitter for kids. Walt Disney strived to push the animation technique and the idioms below embody that spirit; coming as they do from an early high-point in the history of the Disney studio.

If anything, I hope you take away from this post and these idioms, the idea that animation can and should be more than simply a job with an artistic theme. Creating art than can inspire, entertain and stand on its own for many years ought to be the goal of any studio, not just ones confined to the history books.

The Idioms

The first duty of the animator is to caricature life and action for the audience.

The animator brings to life the inherent possibilities of a good story or funny gag.

To synchronize an action to its background the animator must compose an ever-changing picture.

Upon the animator’s ability to dramatize personality and action depends the success of the story.

The animator brings to life the director’s visual conception of timing, acting, and continuity.

To coordinate drama, music, action, and graphics, the animator must work with all the arts.

The animator, through experimentation, has opened a new field of expression for the artist.

Have you any of your own? Why not share them with everyone in the comments.

 

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What About Apprenticeships in Animation Instead?

Opinion /

This is a repost from August 2012, but I feel it is raises a good point in regards to animation and education. With the debate regarding both heating up, there is an alternative in apprenticeships that harkens back to the olden days of yore, when a formal education was out of reach for most people but accreditation of skills was still necessary.

So there was a bit of a furrow last week as a post by Brodoof on Tumblr concerning the various “Art Institute” colleges run by the Education Management Corporation made the rounds (itself brought on by another story of an Art Institute teacher facing termination because he refused to comply with a policy to require students to purchase books). Anyway, it got me thinking about animation and education and whether or not it is being taught in the right manner. That is to say, is a degree or other kind of formally taught certification the best or even right approach to take and would apprenticeships work instead? Let’s look at the facts.

Animation Isn’t A Formal Skill

Now when I say ‘formal’, I mean in the very strictest sense. You can go to school and study animation. You can be called an animator by the studio or Guild and have a cert to prove it. But in the legal sense, there is no such thing as an ‘animator’. I draw this conclusion because as a civil engineer, that is considered a formal skill; one that is legally recognised when you become Chartered, or a Professional Engineer (PE) in the States.

Why even mention it? Well as the recently departed Tissa David once famously said, “Animation is….animation.” Absolutely anyone can be an animator, or a concept artist, or a background artist or a prop designer. Yes, you need the artistic abilites and some experience before you can make a career out of it, but the point is; you do not need a formal, legally recognised qualification to become an animator.

Now this isn’t to look down the nose at our favourite technique, but it does lead to the next point.

Certifications Are Worth Much Less Than What They Are Sold At

If you receive a formal education in animation, you normally receive a sheet of paper saying as much. This piece of paper is accredited by someone so it guarantees a minimum set of skills to potential employers. So why are they almost worthless?

Well, this is America, where a degree from CalArts is ostensibly the same as a degree from another art school but in reality, the two aren’t even close. Pile on top of that the fact that portfolios are also a must for any graduate, and you have system that more or less cranks out graduates but leaves them little notion of what to do next. (I’m keeping in mind Elliot Cowan’s advice to graduates that quite frankly, should be known to them before they even receive their mortarboard.)

The real issue here is that employers like to see degrees and certs because it gives them a quick and dirty way of classifying job candidates. “You want this job? Sorry, you need a bachelors. Why? Because we’re too lazy/understaffed/pressed for time to properly grade you based on your employment history/portfolio.” This leads nicely into the next point.

Climbing the Ladder With Experience

Experience counts for a heck of a lot in the job market. Naturally graduates have next to none, so their options are extremely limited. However, plenty of people (in fact, most of the really successful people) start at the bottom and work their way up the old-fashioned way. It’s tougher than slogging through 4 years of school, but the results are just as good for those who truly work at it. Once you get even a short way up the ladder, experience takes precedence over education in any job application.

Moving Away From The Current Approach

The current method of hiring a team for a project and letting them go once it is over is tremendously inefficient. Think of all the hiring and firing that must go on for such a system to function. How many man-hours and HR resources are spent acquiring workers, potentially training them and then letting them go just to repeat the cycle again.

Now think of the old days, when someone might enter the door of a studio and stay there for 20, 30 years or more! That’s unheard of today, but that person not only acquired a ton of experience over the years, they were normally pretty eager to share it to! The same practices continue today, but it is hard to build a rapport with someone if they are switching jobs every few years.

So what’s the solution?

The Apprenticeship Proposal

The solution is a return to apprenticeships. The notion that younger animators and artists are trained by the older ones is a tradition that has dated back centuries. It might be tricky to implement, but there are numerous benefits for all involved.

Why People (and Studios) Benefit

Firstly, the people. That should be obvious. Learning in a practical setting from someone who’s worked in the industry for years can’t be overlooked.

Secondly, studios benefit because they have a set of young artists who are trained and familiar with the studio setups, systems and methods. This is a priceless asset to have. Think of all the know-how that remains within the studio!

However, some sort of formal system for all of this to work. There needs to be set, recognised steps in the process so everyone knows where they are, how far they have to go and what is expected of apprentices. Furthermore, there needs to be mutual recognition among all studios for the system and its skills. Why do this instead of keeping everything in-house? Well the days of the career job are long gone. People will move around between studios as a result of the nature of the business. Wouldn’t it make sense if they all agreed on common skills to have? They stand to benefit too as they will be able to quickly tell what skills animators have.

Ah, but I hear you say, isn’t that what a degree does already? Well yes, but the difference is you must go to school for a couple of years and then start working. Sure, the likes of Disney run summer apprenticeships, but they are too short. Think about the old Disney days, when students might have worked during the day, gaining practical experience and then attended night classes to learn the finer techniques and concepts.

Conclusion

Art in any form is an astonishing skill to have. It’s an innate skill as much as it is a learned one, but with the recent controversies about art education, it makes more practical sense to acquire or hone skills based on an apprenticeship approach. At the end, not only will apprentices have the skills, they’ll also have the personal relationships, the work experience and a qualification to prove it all.

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Week Links 25-2013

Week Links /

Better late than never but a tad short thanks to an extremely hectic week that left little time for reading.

A Skeptical Look at the Newest Disney Princess Film, Frozen

Bitch_Frozen

Hanna White over at Bitch Magazine takes this decerning look at the upcoming Disney feature. Even though it’s still early days, enough details have been released to allow for some critical analysis and this is certainly a good one.

100 Hour Weeks & Homeless

A detailed account of what a VFX artist has gone through in the industry. Well worth a read.

Tweets of the Week

 

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Does Animation Face the ‘Meltdown’ Predicted By Lucas and Spielberg?

1 Comment / Analysis /

A while back during a Q&A at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, both George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg predicted that the movie business as we know it today is doomed to extinction. Their view is that video on demand will triumph and that the cinema-going experience will become a rare, expensive event on par with football games and Broadway shows. Are they right and what does it mean for animation?

Where Animation Fits Into Their Prediction

Animation is of course, quite expensive, or rather, it can be. While Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, Sony and Blue Sky aim high with their films often coming in over $100 million (or $350 million in the case of the first two), they are a natural target for what Lucas and Spielberg predict.

It’s true that animated films have suffered as of late from the kind of tentpole mentality that has infected live action. Massively expensive films supporting long term franchises make good money and with the longevity of animation, you have a match made in heaven.

However, those big budgets rely on audiences coming to see them in droves, and as far as animated films are concerned, it (regrettably) means parents being hauled in by their kids. Which is fine until you end up with a situation like we are facing this year in that we have too many such films crammed into too little summer space. Nobody has managed to truly stumble just yet, but we’re not even halfway done and there’s still plenty more opportunities.

What Could Happen To Animated Films

If the prediction is true, the most logical outcome is either drastically fewer films or (more likely) drastically cheaper ones. We all know that cost is not a function of quality, but how will audiences respond to films that do not cost what they used to?

I’m reminded of A Monster in Paris, a film that was made for surprisingly little and which was exceedingly entertaining. It never received a theatrical release in the US although is available on DVD and Blu-Ray. A comment by someone from GKIDS over on Cartoon Brew stated that the film was a tough sell to theatrical distributors because although it looked more expensive, audiences would somehow connect cost to quality and therefore avoid it.

If animated films were forced to be made for less, would they all suffer a similar fate?

It’s unlikely, but a distinct possibility nonetheless.

Are Spielberg and Lucas Right About The Demise of Movies?

It’s easy to take them at their word, given their experience. That said, both have been responsible for numerous tentpole films over the years (Lucas especially) and while both decry them, it hasn’t stopped them making them.

More so than that, we’ve been here before. Back in the 1950s, television was supposed to be the harbinger of death for the Hollywood studios. Predictions ran that the entire industry would be decimated! What happened? Why nothing of course! TV eventually became the saviour of Hollywood studios thanks to broadcasts and licensing of their films.

Almost every studio managed to survive too, and prosper!

Is history repeating itself? Absolutely! Studios will figure out a way to make to new system work for them, and will carry on much the same as before.

Animation will no doubt adapt as well, and the hope is that we’ll have a greater variety of animated films to choose form too.

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Did The Marketing Save Monsters University?

3 Comments / Questions /

MU website

Currently doing quite well at the box office is Pixar’s latest effort, Monsters University. It’s currently certified fresh over at Rotten Tomatoes (77%) and has been popular with audiences. However, thanks to an article by Steven Zeitchik over at the LA Times, I received a bit of a revelation: just how much of the film’s success was down to the marketing?

How So?

If you read Zeitchik’s article, you’ll see that he attempts to find out if there is a link between a Pixar film’s rating with the critics and its financial success. (He concludes that yes, there is a correlation based on the quality of the film.) However, what really interested me was how Monsters University has bucked the trend.

It is only the twelfth best-reviewed Pixar film but has had the second biggest opening weekend. Of course that means nada in terms of overall financial performance, but here’s what grabbed my attention and forms that basis for this post:

On one level, that spread is a testament to what Pixar has been able to do with this movie on the marketing end. Even though “Monsters University” isn’t as strong, the company was able to use clever promotional devices to bring us in. And why not?  There’s nothing wrong with a studio ginning up a broad crowd-pleaser the critics don’t especially like.

Yes, The Marketing Was The Key

Pixar (and by extension, Disney) really pulled out the stops when it came to the marketing for Monsters University. Oh sure, there were the usual teaser clips, the onesheet posters and the usual smug game of wink wink with news outlets, but it was what they did differently that seemed to seal the deal.

From the Movie Marketing Blog:

The site for Monsters University is, what else, but a website for Monsters University, a college exclusively for monsters. Fictional (or real, your choice) Arthur Clawson founded the University, located in Monstropolis, in 1313. Today, Monsters University continues a tradition of academic excellence and the relentless pursuit of monster potential.

On the site you can apply for admission to MU, which boasts the top-scaring program in the country. Once admitted, you will have access to the Monsters University scream energy, door technology and business programs.

But don’t worry; MU isn’t entirely about academics. At Monsters University, you will enjoy a well-rounded collegiate experience full of clubs like Monsters UN and activities like, “Making Beautiful MUsic together.” Here are some of the other MU events you can look forward to if accepted.

Yes, they set up a real, fully-fledged website and had a lot of fun with it. You could create your own MU college ID, you could buy merchandise and on April Fool’s Day, the website got ‘hacked’ by ‘students’ from rival Fear Tech.

In a way, Pixar added a lot of value to the MU experience that did a lot to engage fans and consumers alike. Suddenly, the actual film itself was taking a backseat to all the fun and games of the whole concept of Monsters University itself.

That said….consider the alternative:

Would Monsters University have been such a success without the clever marketing?

If Pixar had done the usual effort with the marketing; posters, giveaways, Happy Meals, website with interactive games, etc. Would Monsters Inc. be near as successful as it has been? Would critics have given it a closer inspection with the microscope?

If one is to consider Monsters Inc sans marketing campaign, what appears to be left is an average Pixar movie and a very average story to tell. In essence, the disconnect between this film and the original could not be greater.

Don’t believe me? Monsters Inc. is pretty much the exact opposite of Monster University. The former relied on a superior story and concept with a normal marketing campaign and did solid business. The latter on the other hand, has a tired story married to an innovative marketing campaign.

Which is better to have? Ideally of course, you want a clever film and a clever marketing campaign. Such gems are hard to come by though , but when all is said and done, the marketing campaign is quickly forgotten only to gradually turn in up car boot sales in the years to come. The film, on the other hand, lives forever, and can deliver a lot of value to a studio in the long term (just ask Disney).

It’s hard to deny that the innovative marketing campaign behind Monsters University was the engine of its success at the box office. Without it, it’s highly unlikely that the film would have pulled in quite as much as it did. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how the film holds up as the years wear on.

My concern? That a clever marketing gimmick obfuscates the requirement to produce a superb film.

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The Banality of The Animated TV Show Press Release

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Lolirock TV show poster

The above is the image released in announcement of Marathon’s latest animated TV show, Lolirock (which, by the way has no connection to what otaku fanboys think it does.) It’s a 52 by 26′ show (that’s 52, 26 minute episodes) that being bandied about the usual licensing markets. I have nothing personally against Marathon (besides the rather gender-bias of the show) or indeed what they create (there was a time when Totally Spies! was broadcast at a convenient time in my TV viewing schedule) but the press release announcing the series is about as banal as they come. Here’s some selected quotes:

On the protagonist:

LOLIROCK follows the journey of young Iris, a spirited teenage girl with a beautiful voice and an unending desire to help others.

On her destiny:

Three new friends are now bound together by their common destiny as magical princesses and their battle for justice.

What the boss thinks:

Vincent Chalvon-Demersay (CEO, Marathon Media) and David Michel (General Manager, Marathon Media) comment, “LOLIROCK is a fresh, contemporary take on what it is to be a girl today, infused with music and magical adventures and the all-important notion of justice in today’s teenage world. It’s a perfect companion piece to Totally Spies!, which has been so successful in this same space.”
Now all this isn’t to say that the show itself is as boring as these quotes suggest (it is, in fact planning on having real ‘bands’ in key markets to support it). Rather, it appears to be Totally Spies! but instead of spies, we have singers. That said, why does the press release read like such generic drivel? It’s supposed to sell the show!

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