OG’s BLOG

All right, folks! Moon Town, the exciting sci-fi action adventure is now online! I’m producing the story as a graphic novel, serialized online at the rate of a new chunk each day, Monday through Friday. Why not read some today?

Gareth Jones has been developing “Of Giants and Windmills“, a 40-minute animated film for about 3 years now. This Don Quixote adaptation has a lush, illustrative look – just the kind of film that appeals to me – and the director’s story-first approach is quite promising. As he prepares a trailer of the film for a June release, he took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about the film and his approach to making it.

OGDEN: Is your trailer on track for JUN 2009? Beginning of the month? Or end?

JONES: The trailer is going better than expected – it’s already cut together. I just have some backgrounds to finish off – they’re the time-consuming bit – and final bits of music to record. I’m expecting it to be second or third week of June.

OGDEN: What inspired the look of the film?

JONES: Two very clear inspirations; Sylvain Chomet’s ‘Belleville Rendezvous’ and early 20th Century English illustrator, Arthur Rackham. ‘Belleville’ was the film that connected all the dots, inspiring me to make a film. Arthur Rackham’s work is just astonishingly beautiful. With a firm idea on look, it became much easier to visualise scenes – even to run them in my head before setting anything down.

OGDEN: Have you seen Lost in La Mancha? What do you think of the Quixote curse?

JONES: I love that film – Lost in La Mancha is like Fawlty Towers and Spinal Tap rolled into one. I defy anyone to watch that it without a dropped jaw – it is quite astonishing. Jean Rochefort would have been an amazing Quixote.

Of the Quixote curse – it’s well documented that Orson Welles spent more than ten years trying to bring Quixote to the screen. Disney explored the idea in 1940, 1946, 1951 and sometime around 2000. Quixote is to filmmakers what Macbeth is to theatre.

I’ve read recently that Gilliam is resurrecting ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’ – and looking to start shooting next spring. I hope he gets it done. But, how on earth do you follow ‘Lost in La Mancha’? As for me – well, there’s still plenty of time for it all to go disastrously wrong.

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OGDEN: Did you work on the film alone? Full time or part time?

JONES: For the first 18 months or so it was all on my own, part time. Being so close to a piece of work makes it extremely difficult to be objective. I wanted some honest feedback on what I was doing and was starting to think about voice artists, so I got back in touch with an old friend, Ade.

Ade knew nothing about the book, but was intrigued by the script and pestered me into letting him out some ideas for the characters. A week or so later he started leaving me these crazy voicemails at work from Quixote, Carrasco and assorted pseudo-Spanish narrators. I knew then I wouldn’t need to look any further.  Ade had never done voiceover work, but what he came up with was inspired – and, he was so completely into it. That kind of enthusiasm only serves to make you more determined. From then on, he’s critiqued, helped record foley and pulled together the website. I’m not precious – if he makes a suggestion that I think will benefit the film, I’d be stupid to ignore it.

But all the visuals, music and screenplay – that’s just me.

OGDEN: Were you ever tempted to stop working on the project, or jump to another? How did you stay focused?

JONES: That’s a damn good question. I didn’t start the project immediately – not until I was firm on what I wanted the story to be and clear on how it would look. At the time I was also mad keen on running and doing 70-80km a week in preparation for the Edinburgh Marathon. I had a couple of months before I knew I would be able to commit fully to the film – so by then I was chomping at the bit to be getting started.

No, I never thought of shifting projects. I was a fan of the novel for many years before considering making a film, so the choice of subject was quite natural. If I were going to run into difficulties, then they would be there regardless of what the project was. Quixote has a particularly tricky structure, but once I’d figured out how to make it accessible, then it was relatively straightforward.

Looking back, a healthy blend of ignorance and enthusiasm probably helped. Next time around, knowing what to expect, I’ll probably harbour more doubts.

OGDEN: Did you run into any obstacles along the way? Pick one, and tell me how you overcame it.

JONES: Well, it must be that age-old problem of finding the time. I have a wife and two girls. To be fair to them, I never work on the film before the kids go to bed. Of course, my eldest was five when I started the project, now she’s eight and likes to stay up a lot later… I also work pretty long hours running a graphics department for a property consultancy in London.

I don’t recall where the figure came from, but quite early on I set in mind that I’d try to work five hours a day on the film, with the odd evening off to re-charge my batteries. So, my evenings tend to be 8pm-1am, rise again about 5.30am for work and catnap on the train into London. It’s a fairly brutal regime, but once you’re into a routine, it’s not so bad.

Yes, I could do fewer hours each day, but that quickly adds months onto production time. And I’m doing this because I want to, not because it’s a chore. Everything else is about trying to streamline the process.

I have a maxim I try to stick to of “Do the jobs you don’t like doing first, because you’ll always find time to do the things you love”. More practically, I batch render scenes at night rather than waste time watching them; Break everything down into manageable chunks; and Always try to have a clear idea of what I’m going to be working on each day before I sit down.

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OGDEN: What did you learn from making the film?

JONES: There’s a big difference between thinking you can do something and actually doing it.

By the time I’ve finished I’ll have gone through the whole process. Next time it can be bigger, better, longer. I’m only just starting out, it’s extremely exciting, but there’s really no reason why I can’t make whatever film I want in the future.

Animwatch was a huge inspiration for me. No-one had to make any of those films – and yet, they did (and hopefully still do). And it helped underline that what I was setting out to do was possible.

OGDEN: What do you hope people take away from the film?

JONES: I’d hope people feel empathy for Quixote. He has an enthusiasm for life. He’s at his happiest doing his own thing, regardless of others’ opinion of him.

Yet, when it’s beaten out of him, there’s a realisation that the world had been a better place all along. It’s okay to be a dreamer. Of course, if the film encourages anyone to pick up the book, or make a film, then so much the better.

OGDEN: When will the film be released?

JONES: It’s looking like an August/September completion. Life sometimes gets in the way, but there’s clear light at the end of the tunnel.

Festivals are the priority, but there’ll be private cinema screenings as well. How quickly it becomes publicly available will depend on how well it’s received.

OGDEN: What are you working on next?

JONES: Well, I’m tentatively toying with four different stories for feature-length productions. Ade and I are really keen to work on another project together, so we’ll develop a few ideas and see which one runs. I expect he’ll throw a few things into the bag as well. It might be CG animated, it could be stop-motion, or it could be a hybrid of physical models with animation. It’ll be whatever the story requires. But, absolutely no development before this film finishes.

Whilst we’re exploring ideas, we’ll be recording some Quixote radio plays to podcast and if there’s sufficient interest, maybe even some more chapters for the film.

There was a great article in the Baltimore Sun today that both delights me and has me scratching my head.

The article delights me because it reinforces some ideas I already had, and publicly stated some less-known things I already knew. These truths I hold to be self-evident boil down to this: the secret of Pixar’s success has to do with doing things differently than the rest of Hollywood. Basically, they focus on story, tell the stories they want to tell, even if the characters don’t come from the Big Book of Hollywood Licensable Characters, and most importantly, they ignore the Suits, Beancounters and Crystal Ball Gazers to which the rest of the industry seems to have abdicated their creative power. There are highly paid guys at studios, publishers, distributors and labels, who so far as I can see, don’t do anything productive. I mean, they don’t create anything. Their main function seems to be to get between the creatives and the audience and say no to unconventional but good ideas. But that doesn’t occur at Pixar.

The article has me scratching my head, because as I read the words, I couldn’t help wondering why the rest of the moviemaking industry hasn’t tried to copy Pixar. I mean, they have tried to copy Pixar when it comes to character design, rendering technology, and so forth… the nuts and bolts, the technicalities of making any film. The technical exercise, they’ve got down cold, of course, because that’s the easy part. But they haven’t tried to copy Pixar in the sense of How You Make Good Movies, how you ignore the suits and greedy bastards, ignore the people who say “no one wants to see a film about a rat”, and get on to the business of telling real, honest-to-God stories with characters an audience might remember in 10 years, after the toys and tie-ins and Happy Meals are gone.

Anyway, the article is far more eloquent than I, but I will pull out a couple of my favorite passages for your browsing convenience:

“[Up creates] a narrative that operates less like a roller coaster than an old-fashioned merry-go-round, with panels that light up and illuminate the core. And because Pixar is also a director-driven studio, Docter didn’t have to stand for any second-guessing based on executives’ condescending notions of audience expectations or the slanted reactions of recruited focus groups.”

and

“When will the rest of Hollywood learn Pixar’s lessons? When will people realize that “conventional wisdom” is rarely wise at all? Hollywood may be sure to pull in a certain tidy sum with a Kate Hudson or Matthew McConaughey comedy or Nicolas Cage slumming in another comic book or fantasy film, but these movies are just killing time in every way. They build no legacy for the art or the industry and leave no feelings of love or loyalty in an audience.”

As for listening to Suits and Beancounters, if there’s anything I think America and the world would have learned from the whole Financial Meltdown caused by truth-blind managers and short-term-focused beancounters is that listening to that collective group is the absolutely wrong way to go. Please tell me we’ve at least learned that, whether we’re talking about making entertainment, or just running the world.

I’ve been at Firaxis for over 6 years now, and for most of that time, I’ve worked on Civilization IV and its various expansion packs. The new Civilization IV Complete is out, and it includes the original game of the year Civ IV, the expansion packs Warlords and Beyond the Sword, and Colonization.

3D World magazine 117 is now on sale. I wrote the feature, “Ten Animated Shorts to See Before You Die”, in which I interviewed 10 animation industry luminaries about the films they feel are important. I found it interesting how many of these films were traditional, non-3D, non-CG films.

Happy Friday, everyone! Bubblicious is a stop motion animated video made with foam-core and printed facial elements. Oh, come on, this is seriously fun. Rare to see an animation that shows you how they’re doing it while they’re doing it, too, and without detracting from the fun. A must-see.

Thanks to Tim Larkin for the link.

As the Moon Town webcomic continues to race toward publication on Monday, I thought I’d share a quick drawing with you. Very exciting. The clock is on the field!

BONUS ROUND: Name the film from which I stole the title of today’s post…

Terrible Yellow Eyes is a collection of works inspired by the beloved classic, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Artist Cory Godbey is inviting a group of artists and will be displaying the works at his blog. Should be fun for all!

As Michel Gagne’s Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet progresses inexorably toward a gaming console near you, the ITSP project website is displaying more and more sweet eyecandy. It’s exciting to see this project growing! Michel has partnered with some real hotshot game developers, and they are creating magic.

Just goes to show you what a small team with a big vision can get done. Amen.

After giving it sufficient thought, I’ve decided to publish Moon Town as a webcomic. Above is a little taste of what the thing will look like. Pencils up top, inks below. You’re not seeing a finished product above, BTW… there will be color, too.

Look for the Moon Town webcomic starting May 11, 2009. I’m planning on two strips a week. More news here as events warrant.