#film pre-production

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Taarna animation drawings and cels - Heavy Metal (1981)

[anintelligentoctopus]

Three-Panel Joke Comic ft. Ada Wilder

Once again: I have put an absurd amount of effort into this thing

It's also the first comic I've completed in a very, very long time

Separate panels for better detail

[wifeofwolfman]

so, here's the new creature! right now i'm calling it a Shape of Shapeshifting. it's a big weirdo, conceptualized as a shape given to the force that shifts shapeshifters' shapes. it's a felt puppet, made with aluminum wire, wool, felt, and holographic paper, with hot glue used to attach the paper. also the eyes are glued to pins so i can adjust and switch em around as much as i want.

i love how it looks, the contrast between the shiny sharp details and dark fuzzy silhouette. i'm learning how to photograph it, so these pics are rough and repetitive and more so me sharing the learning experience than showing off the creature properly. it's still a work in progress and additions are needed, like holographic stars added to the shoulders & thighs. personally, i'm fond of the lower light pics, with their vague idea of a body and the clean ideas of teeth & claws.

[fallloverfic]

"Nimona" the movie art style inspiration

This tweet basically summarizes a big thing I've been thinking about when looking at reactions to the Nimona teaser and footage releases.

But actually we have to go back to 2012 first, when Paperman the short film released under Disney (it was attached to Wreck-It Ralph).

For background, Nimona is a webcomic turned graphic novel by Nate Diana Stevenson. The adaptations rights were purchased by Fox in 2015, who assigned it to Blue Sky Studios to make. Disney purchased 20th Century [Fox] Animation in 2019, and shuttered Blue Sky before the film was complete, cancelling the project in February 2021. The film was picked up by Annapurna (production), DNEG (animation, with use of Blue Sky materials), and Netflix (distribution/marketing). It will premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France on June 14th, 2023, show in limited theaters on June 23, 2023, and be on Netflix for general streaming on June 30th, 2023 at 3 AM EDT. Anyway, Paperman.

Cannot stress enough that this short was really groundbreaking. While Nimona the movie adaptation didn't start life at Disney, 2012 was long before Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse came out in 2018 (or when it started production by 2015 or so). In point of fact, we knew back when Nimona was cancelled in 2021 (or earlier) that it was planned even then to use an evolved version of Paperman's art style. Notably, the short's animation supervisor was Patrick Osbourne. (Paperman's director, John Kahrs, also worked at Blue Sky prior to this, and the composer, Christophe Beck, is also composing the score for Nimona, but let's focus on Osbourne).

(Also kind of... random theory, a lot of people are criticizing the office building sequence in the Nimona teaser footage cause they think it looks "unfinished", I think because they're confusing intentionally minimalist "modern" design with being "unfinished". But a part of me kind of wonders if the design itself is some sort of homage to Paperman, which largely took place in an office building, though also it's just an office building, it's not surprising the design is minimalist).

Anyway, Feast the short film was released in 2014, and it was directed by Osbourne.

Osbourne was later one of the original directors for the Nimona film before it was cancelled by Disney in 2021 (the article is from June 2015, and leads with the fact Osbourne directed Feast, and notes that he also worked on Paperman). Watch both the Paperman and Feast shorts, you'll see the same style there. Again, 2014 is a lot earlier than 2018.

And then of course Blue Sky (original animation studio for Nimona prior to the Disney cancellation) released The Peanuts Movie in 2015. DNEG has used a lot of Blue Sky Studios materials in their production to complete Nimona. A number of Blue Sky folks were brought back on to work on the project, as well. And based on leaked stuff from around the Disney cancellation, we know the stuff carried over (in the articles it's framed kind of like it leaked when the film was officially revived in April 2022, but the footage on the article came out around/before Nimona's cancellation in 2021).

Folks also need to remember that just because film A released after film B doesn't mean that film A was inspired by B, particularly with the long production schedules of animation (and in the case of something with as rocky a production history as Nimona).

From what I can tell, both Nimona and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse began production around the same time (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was in talks around 2014/2015, and seemingly was in at least pre-production by early 2015; Fox bought the adaptation rights for Nimona sometime in/around early June 2015). While Nimona was still in production when Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came out in 2018, it had been in production for around three years at that point. Certainly it was developing for a long time, even before it was cancelled in 2021 (6 years versus Spiderverse's 3), and projects stuck in development hell do make 180s sometimes. I just kind of doubt they just saw Spiderverse, or even the marketing materials for it, and completely redesigned things based solely on that, given what we know of the development plans and who they picked for the project. Comparatively, The Peanuts Movie also had a very long production time, seemingly, with the idea originating in 2006.

Whatever the case may be, and no shade on the amazing beauty of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (gorgeous, amazing film, please watch it if you haven't), I highly doubt we have Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to thank for Nimona the movie's existence/appearance, or later films or shows using similar styles. At best, I think there's a non-zero possibility that the 2018 success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse helped encourage Annapurna, DNEG, and Netflix to give Nimona a chance in 2021-2 to revive it after Disney shuttered Blue Sky Studios in 2021, but I doubt that's why the film looks the way it does, and the fact that what already existed for Nimona the film would have been a key convincing point there (e.g., here's our project that kind of looks like that/is planned to look that really popular thing).

[mariocki]

An uncredited Jacqueline Hill appears as an unnamed Irish barmaid in The Vise: Death Pays No Dividends (1.5, ABC, 1954); in the UK, this episode wasn't seen until 1960 as part of ITV anthology The Crooked Path

[pipii]

LONG POST! 💫The main character of Little Things always had a sheep esque design, even before having any meaning/adding in the sheep plushie at the end. As production went on, the sheep design came to symbolize a lamb walking towards its own slaughter. The character had to be simplified a few times. Colors were pretty difficult to choose, turquoises and blues were symbolic of life in the film, so I originally wanted to keep their hair blue, but pink was supposed to be symbolic of this "spirit realm". I went with the pinkish brown hair for the cohesiveness and also because SPOILER, the character isn't dead or alive and is somewhere in between. Plus the blue was more of an indigo anyways.

💫OKAY AND THE MONSTERS

I meant for watchers to either wonder what the monster's motives were or just think they were cute with randomly designed accessories - why are they determined to help MC? Do they want to eat them? Are they just cute little guys? Etc.

Animating 10+ characters was never going to be easy. I designed the monsters to all have the same base body shape with small changes like height. That way, it wouldn't feel like you were animating all 9 different monsters and instead it would feel like just 1. Personality traits were added which would tie into the family portrait during the void sequence, while also allowing clean-up/detailing to give the individuality. Plenty went into the designs themselves, but that will take forever to go over.

💫I'm very much an animator at heart, but I think this experience has given me more confidence and has made me realize that I actually do enjoy concept work. I love designing, but struggle with stagnancy which is why I struggle with turnarounds.

If you enjoy these BTS recaps, I have a Little Things page on my portfolio that you can check out!

[cutemeat]

starting a new conspiracy in honor of no podcast monday..... they are pushing back releasing any of the s5 pod eps until s16 airs cuz mac n dennis are gonna get together n they wanna be able to use the podcast as an opportunity to offer their full commentary on s5 pointing out all the obvious romantic subtext between mac/dennis so they look like geniuses for setting up the world's longest will-they-wont-they in tv history

[mysecret-hideout]

Y’all! I got accepted into Central Michigan University! I will be moving there this summer and during the fall, I can begin classes towards my degree in Cinema Arts 🥰

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

FANTASY FASHIONS OF OZ – AND SOME OF PLOOG’S FRIENDLIEST WORK OF ALL TIME

PIC INFO: Spotlight on pre-production/ concept art of the Scarecrow of Oz, from the American dark fantasy film “Return to Oz” (1985) by Walt Disney Pictures. Artwork by legendary [Marvel horror] comic book artist, Michael “Mike” Ploog.

Source: http://hungrytigerpress.blogspot.com/2010/06.

[juneviews]

Have you heard that the series ‘we are’ will be released on April 3 and the trailer on March 20? 😬 it's too rushed if you ask me. Why this quickly?!? They’re not even done with filming while ‘the trainee’ is already done with filming months ago?!? I feel this show gonna be a mess

yeah I've heard... I honestly can't wrap my head around how they've managed to refilm & edit all of pawin's scenes in like one month but we shall see how it is I guess 😆 tbh the plot of this show was already v basic & almost non-existent so I already didn't have high hopes so yeah... it's definitely a show that's gonna be carried by its cast & pairings and that's fine. hopefully the result is better than expected from the mock trailer but seeing the whole mess behind the scenes I have my doubts... it'll still be a popular though so they have nothing to worry about. as for the trainee, I'm SO glad it's not airing yet lol, as I said before I still wanna enjoy the cooking crush era a little while longer & also this particular production company gmmtv is working with tends to spend a lot of post production time. guess we are is a show that is able to be released while still filming, but honestly so did not me & it's the greatest show of all time so I don't think it's necessarily an indicator of quality. we shall wait & see ✨️

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

It's Complicated (2009, Nancy Meyers

06/01/2024

It's Complicated is a 2009 film written and directed by Nancy Meyers. The main performers include Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.

Divorcee Jane Adler lives with her three children in Santa Barbara, California, where she runs a successful pastry shop.

In May 2008, Nancy Meyers agreed with Universal Pictures to make a comedy film, which she would write, direct and co-produce with Scott Rudin. During the development and pre-production phase the project was carried out under the title The Untitled Nancy Meyers Project. Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin were contacted in August 2008, while Steve Martin joined the cast in October, the remaining performers joined the cast in the following months.

Filming began in New York in April 2009 and concluded in August of the same year.

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Conan the Barbarian costume designs by John Bloomfield (1980)

[malboraslihan]

i’m having the worst week at work so messages/replies will take way longer than before! hopefully after friday things will be better okay ily all <3

[tippytopoftrees]

Thou Shalt Not,

photograph created by Whitey Schafer (1902/3–1951) in 1940 to protest the Hays Code.

[spdfilmography]

h/t Kevin Geiger on facebook

[catdammitjackie]