The session started with the famous scene of the sun rise and the flamingo’s flying across the african savannah’s from “The Lion King” moving into skies of Egypt and Alladin’s magic carpet flying over the pyramids to the ballroom dance of the beauty and the beast, from
Spirit the stallions racing across the highlands,
Max Howard introduces himself being honoured for having worked with films not as an animator but more as an “enabler”. He talks about “India being on the forefront of creating their great stories and content, that would not only do well in India but has potential to travel across the globe” citing Krayon Pictures Delhi Safari ‘s theatrical trailer.
Starting off relating to the topic he asks; So, what does it take it to become an independent animation film maker? and the answer (with a purposeful pause) he counts on his finger:
1) Story
2) Story
3) Story
“Now… the Challenge is that animators are artists. They can have a picture but unless there is a story to build around it, it’s just going to remain a picture. For eg; if you take the example of this stage floor, say the floor is the story. If I jump on it and it breaks, no matter which quality of veneer or decorative flooring that I cover it with , it still is going to break because the foundation itself is weak. If your foundation(the story) is strong then you stand a 50% chance of it being a success.”
So there are THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER
1) Build a great story
2) Create a believable world.
3) Create engaging characters. – Have villains, heroes, characters who care about someone/something,feelings,love,the unlikely hero (Kung
Fu Panda) , the underdog, who goes against all odds and comes of age and triumphs.
On the current feature film market situation specifically on the 3D trend: Indicating through max – a – matics (figures & data researched and
analysed by him), he shows a declining graph of content viewed in 3D Screenings starting from Avatar(71%) to Despicable Me(35%).
The Lorax which was budgeted on $70 mn made it’s $70 mn in it’s opening weekend through distribution of it’s movies and 63% distributed in 3D screens and the rest in 2D. The interesting fact to be noted is that about 63 % of their revenue came from the 2D screenings. The Point : given the option to watch a movie in 2D or 3D the audience prefers to watch the movie in 2D. Max’s rationale behind this is “In 3D, there is infringement of space that happens in the three dimensional screen. In the 3D world the characters enter the audience’s world instead of them entering the characters’ world and that ‘breaks’ the believeablity of the story.”The audience has tested 3D, the craze for that content has subsided, the point here is that there may be 3D or 4D or even 5D and number of possibilities of creating technically “cool stuff experience” but in the long run it’s difficult to sustain interest in such kind of creation without the fundamentally strong foundation. After one or two experiences it’s no longer new and the effect wears off and we’re right back at “The story”.
Max also brings in to light that it’s not necessary that it’s the big studios, (Pixar/Disney/BlueSky) or the one with the big bucks that get all the attention and the recognition. Indicating through his max – a matics , he points out Disney which dominated animated screens till 1995 had never won an oscar ever since best animated feature film category was introduced in the Oscars. He indicates the independent animated feature films submitted for Oscars 2011 is 300 and the number of animated feature films eligible from the larger studios – 18
So that number 300 has a lot of potential to grow and independent animation movie makers are getting recognition. If you look at the Nominees for 2011 for best AFF, there’s no Pixar. But we TWO have independent film makers creating (indicating) Chico & Rita and A Cat in Paris.
The eligibility for Oscar Nominations are
1) Feature film should be more than 40 mins.
2) Paid Admission in a commercial Cinema in LA County for seven days.
3) You must use P&A (print and advertise).
An emotional Max howard concluded by recollecting his moment of epiphany and the hair raising moment at the back of his head when he
realised that he has been a part of creating something that would travel in the years ahead.