From Sketch To Screen

Scrat from Ice Age: digital still, and character study
by Peter de Sève. ™ & ©Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
All Rights Reserved.

Continuing on yesterday's theme of film development at Blue Sky Studios, one of the elements I contributed to the exhibition we had last year at the Norman Rockwell Museum was a short interview with illustrator Peter de Sève. 

I had originally interviewed the artist back in 2005 for an exhibition we had on the art of The New Yorker--de Sève has created several very well-executed cover illustrations for the venerable publication over the past decade. I traveled out to his studio in Brooklyn, New York, and had a chance to talk with him about his career and even film him doing a couple quick sketches (which was sort of mesmerizing). At that time, he had just started working with Blue Sky Studios on the development of characters for its Ice Age series, and it was interesting to learn how that all came about. Here is the clip that I edited from that footage and is included in the Ice Age to the Digital Age: The 3D Animation Art of Blue Sky Studios exhibition, which is set to open at the Katonah Museum of Art on September 16, 2012:

de Sève is also credited with much of the concept for the strange prehistoric rat creature, Scrat, who has featured in all of the movies. Personally, I have only really seen the first movie all the way through... the others I have only caught bits and pieces of... I mean, how much of Scrat getting beat up chasing after an acorn can you take? Well actually... Sarah's nephews seem rather excited about the new Ice Age: Continental Drift movie opening up on July 13th:

Related Links:


www.peterdeseve.com
www.iceagemovie.com

Turning Over a "New" Leaf

I came across a pretty interesting movie trailer this morning, for one of the upcoming feature films from digital animation giant Blue Sky Studios:



I was impressed by the hint of well-executed CGI and enticing story, and then realized half-way through watching it that this looked mighty familiar! 


Last year I took at trip to Blue Sky's headquarters in Greenwich, Connecticut, for a look at the work environment and to meet its talented staff in advance of our Ice Age to the Digital Age: The 3D Animation Art of Blue Sky Studios exhibition. While there, I saw development sketches and character design for a movie adaptation of the acclaimed children's picture book, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs by illustrator William Joyce. The designs looked fantastic... great, fantasy-themed artwork, and definitely something I could see Sarah enjoying. 


I remember talking to Blue Sky's founder Chris Wedge about the film, and he seemed excited to be directing the project (I guess Joyce has been a collaborator on several of the studio's films). Since then, it looks like they have changed the title of the film to Epic, and it is due to be released in 2013. One thing I notice is that the "style" of the animation looks a little different than what we have come to expect from the studio (i.e. Ice Age, Robots, Rio). It looks like a less caricatured film at times, although I see they still have the sense to avoid the "uncanny valley" effect: trying to make human characters look realistic, but ending up scaring the bejeezus out of viewers.


Well, I haven't read the book yet, but both it and the movie look very promising indeed. Fun to catch the inside look at the development of a feature film... and I thought some of my projects took forever to complete!

The Art of Promotion

Confession: part of the reason for this blog is a little shameless self-promotion.

There... I said it... in case you hadn't already guessed!

Come see NRM's new exhibition or the monkey gets it.

There certainly are many more options available than when I started college, studying illustration and graphic design. Back then I guess the ultimate exposure would be on television. The pinnacle: a spot aired during The Super Bowl. Well, that's still considered a touchdown, with companies devoting countless hours, dollars, and energy coming up with creative ideas that people will be talking about the next week or, in some cases, years (think Apple's 1984 Macintosh commercial). Today, creative promotions are just a click away on your iPad, and I wonder if even Steve Jobs could have predicted that one?

Working in the communications/marketing department of a major museum, I have been involved with many different efforts over the years to attract people's attention. From print ads, press releases, radio spots, billboards, and web-- I have had a hand in it all, but I'm still most fond of creating TV commercials, which make use of my skills as a filmmaker.

Nothing but blue skies: with "Rio" director Carlos
Saldanha, at Norman Rockwell Museum.

This past year I returned to the TV medium, helping to develop spots for two of Norman Rockwell Museum's summer exhibitions: "Ice Age" to the Digital Age: The 3D Animation Art of Blue Sky Studios, and It's a Dog's Life: Norman Rockwell Paints Man's Best Friend. "Ice Age" to the Digital Age took a look at the work of Blue Sky Studios, one of the world's leading digital animation companies. Known for such blockbuster films as the Ice Age series, Robots, and Rio, the company is based in Greenwich, Connecticut, and I had the pleasure of visiting the studios' headquarters, in order to prepare for the exhibition.

In the months leading up to the opening, I was offered the chance to create a special movie trailer, which would coincide with the opening of the studio's latest film, Rio. What fun! I decided to play off of the movie's Brazilian theme, and incorporate a catchy latin beat. I always love working with music, and after quite a bit of searching, found a peppy, royalty-free track. Next, I sorted through promotional images we had been provided by Blue Sky, including character sketches, models, and final 3D animation stills, all ultimately represented in the exhibition. After a bit of editing, here is what I came up with:

When I attended the opening weekend of Rio at the Beacon Cinema in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, it was a real rush to see this run on a huge movie screen in a darkened theater! I must admit that I went back several times to see it... good thing that I also loved the movie.

The trailer was such a big hit that we decided to use it for a TV spot to be co-produced by Time Warner Cable Media Sales. We made a trek to their offices in Albany, New York, and I must say that I was envious of their facilities. It was decided to add a voice-over and additional graphics for clarity. Personally, I'm not sure it was all that necessary, since I think the visuals and music worked on their own. We presented Time Warner with a script, and they found us a pleasant narrator. Here is the spot which ran throughout the course of the exhibition, on Time Warner Cable stations in the Capital Region, Hudson Valley, and Western Massachusetts:

I like the line "from sketch to screen"-- I'm pretty sure that was my idea. You'll see that I did modify some of the images in this version as well. I actually re-edited the movie trailer to reflect the visual changes, and it ran throughout the fall during other feature-length movies shown at the Triplex (thankfully, without the narration)! We also created a spot for It's a Dog's Life, an exhibition featuring Norman Rockwell's many illustrations of man's best friend. I didn't have as much time to devote to this project as the Blue Sky trailer, but I sent Time Warner a simple script and edit, incorporating some of the images found in the exhibition. Here is what they came up with:

Again, a clever play on words: "the dog days of summer"-- I couldn't resist. I would have changed the graphics up a bit, but overall the spot came out alright. Time Warner found the music, and once again provided us a with a good narrator-- these elements are so important, and I know we looked at several different options before deciding on the final choices.

So where do we go from here? I guess the future looks promising for online promotions, utilizing web graphics and video to come up with dazzling spots that companies hope will go viral. Although I started my study in graphic design, I have had the nagging feeling for many years that I need to look into resuming my training in that area. Part of my game plan for 2012 is to finally take some more design courses. Who knows, next year you might be seeing more of my work online, or better yet... during The Super Bowl!