Before stepping on set this is what I know without any research about Charlie. He is the brother to Jerry O’Connell. I’ve seen him play small roles that show him as a partier, and… oh yeah, he is extremely good looking. I came on set mid-scene and I heard this deep bellowing voice that seemed to echo off the canyon where they were shooting. As I rear the side of the house I see Charlie yelling his lines in a voice I’ve never heard before. I think I may have stopped mid-step because I was shocked this deep menacing roar was coming from someone that I’ve never seen do before. In one scene he confronts the character of Karl (Clint Howard) and he has this joker grin on his face as he slyly interrogates him into telling him where his daughter is. As the suspense heightens I notice myself cringing and biting my scarf that I’m wearing because I fear for anyone in Huff’s way. My heart tingles with fear. I say to myself, “Oh he’s good.” Director Paul Morrell shouts “Cut” and as he discusses movements with the other actor in the scene, Elly Stefanko, Charlie walks over and with the smile that could make a thousand women melt says, “Hi”. I blush and wave my hand and say Hi back. I must have looked like an idiot because I couldn’t stop staring at him. Here’s this guy that has beautiful broad shoulders and is incredibly tall and handsome and all I can think about in my head is the awful things that he is going to do to his step-daughters. Charlie stuck around for a few moments and I said to him, “I hate your character.” He frowned, naturally and I continued. “I read the script and I can’t believe you, Charlie O’Connell, are playing such a cold hearted person. You’re going to need to do a Prince Charming film after this to win me back.” Charlie smiles and says, “Ok, I’ll work on that.” I spurted out a few more compliments and then it was his time to go back on set.

The thing that interested me about Charlie is that he transformed before all of our eyes into the character of Huff. And believe me when I tell you once you see this film you will then know why I think it’s so crazy that a nice guy like Charlie can be such a dark character. This is a testament to his acting. He really shines in this film and I think this will snowball more serious roles for him.  Funny fact is I was kinda shocked that this stud was so shy. I always figure a good looking guy usually has all the moves and knows all the lines but Charlie was a normal bloke. No lines, no BS, just a simple man. The buzz on set is that he is warm and friendly and is taking this character seriously and has mastered the art of being the villain in a horror film.

We never got to talk in depth, but some of the scenes they shot were pretty dark and depressing, so I could never catch him at the perfect time. Before I left for the day though I told Charlie that I would be coming back on their last day of filming and maybe I could talk to him in more detail then. He shot back, “Of course” and after a little talking about how he loves dogs, I took my googly eyes home and started to ponder. Who is Charlie O’Connell? I don’t think anyone knows what a beautiful person this guy is inside and out. One thing is for sure is that I’m going to peel back the layers and deliver to you the details on who I think is a diamond in the rough.

Special thanks to Lauren Winston and Joey Pacheco for their contributions to this story. Check out Lauren’s blog HERE. Joey Pacheco may be reached at JoeyPacheco13@yahoo.com for all photo inquiries and coverage.

Before actually meeting Elly I was able to watch her do a scene with Charlie O’Connell where they act in one of their more intense scenes in the film. Charlie who plays Huff is searching for his step-daughter Shay in a pile of hay barrels. But this isn’t a search because she is lost and can’t find her way home. This is a search for blood and Huff will not stop until he finds her. Once Huff spots Shay she has to do all she can to get away from her ruthless step-father. In doing this Elly is going to have to up her acting guns and show fright in her eyes….and she does. She moved me with her tears on camera and I couldn’t help but have my heart hurt for her. Even though this was her first film, her acting chops are up with the rest of the actors out there.

As I approached Elly I thought, there is no way this tiny girl is the singer with the voice. Granted I tower most women, but here was this little 5’3’’ woman with flowy blonde hair and ocean blue eyes that just got finished crying for her life. So instead of even going to any questions about the film I just had to say, “So you’re a singer?” This led to her pouring out that music has always been in her blood. She expressed that she loves being an artist and has a really hard time sitting still so creating music is where she does her best work. In between telling me that she has a website with all her music, www.ellysroom.com she drops the line, “I’m also a composer.” As I facially express my shock I look over at Joey Pacheco who was my photographer for the day and say “Who is this girl?” I was amazed by her layers of talent and humbleness.

During our conversation I noticed she seemed a little torn and how could she not, she just had to escape a treacherous villain. I asked her what did she think about to make herself cry and of course after I asked I regretted it. I won’t say who specifically but she said she thought of a few family members and just the thought of that brought her to tears. Even as she spoke these words you could see the hurt in her eyes. (Way to go Lauren, make a young girl cry why don’t you). She said the crying was the hardest part of filming. But on the bright side she told me that the easiest part was working with Clint Howard. She said he was so nice and gracious to her that it made it effortless. I mentioned to her that Clint had some nice words about her and you could see her creamy cheeks start to turn rosy. Hearing that a heavy hitter like Clint compliment you has got to feel like a million bucks especially since this is Elly’s first film. She went on telling us that she really digs horror films and that her favorite is Rob Zombie’s film, Devils Rejects. I told her that Clint happened to be in Rob Zombie’s latest, The Lords of Salem, and that you never know she may be cast in his next film. This made her eyes instantly light up. So if Rob is reading this right now I would just like to say that if you’re in need of a beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed, scream queen, well then I think we have your girl.

As the day went on Elly had to endure some cold circumstances but I did not hear her complain once. I heard a story on set that the day before she was in a scene very late at night and had a freezing, cold, wet blanket laid upon her and yet she didn’t murmur then either. With that attitude I believe this is going to be the start to a fruitful career for Elly. She hinted to the fact that she would love to compose a piece to add to the music of the film which is being composed by Kenneth Eberhard. So what does she not do is the real question? Well one I might propose is does she escape Huff’s wrath or does this little piggy get blown away? Be sure to watch Huff when it releases next year.

Special thanks to Lauren Winston and Joey Pacheco for their contributions to this story. Check out Lauren’s blog HERE. Joey Pacheco may be reached at JoeyPacheco13@yahoo.com for all photo inquiries and coverage.

In Huff, Clint plays the role of Karl who is a hay delivery man who gets in the middle of Huff trying to find his step-daughter Shay. As the takes go on, I’m looking for Clint but all I see is this man with a Movember looking beard and a hat shading his eyes. Hmm, I guess Clint comes to set later. They wrapped that scene and we break for lunch and Gordon directs me to a man  who says, “Hi, I’m Clint.” Ooooh so the mountain man WAS Clint. I know that the title “Ol’ Blue Eyes” is kept solely for Frank Sinatra, but Clint’s eyes were piercing my soul. After he wrapped I pulled him aside and was able to ask a few questions but Clint isn’t an actor that needs you to feed him a question. He really is invested and gives great passion when he speaks. What you can’t see in words is that the whole time I was mesmerized by his eyes and I had the silliest grin from ear to ear. When you see the video it’s quite uncomfortable how much I’m grinning but nevertheless I had a great chat with Mr. Howard.

LW: This is kind of an unusual part for you?

CH: I’m usually the victimer. Cort [Howell, the writer for Huff] called and asked me if I would like to do it. Cort is like a relative to me and this was a no brainer. I read the script and I liked it. I loved the fact that their trying to make a little small movie and make it good. I want to participate. It was a no brainer for me.

LW: Have you seen Rance since he’s been on set?

CH: Oh no, you know what? I talked to dad. I got a scouting report. He worked a few days ago and  and I called him and said, ‘so dad how’s it going?’, and he said he was really impressed. Little crew. Paul is doing a great job and all the wheels are turning in the right direction. And when dad said that, that was a relief to me. I knew that my day, my work here would be fun and productive. And it was. And one small anecdotal thing, Cort told me that the part of Karl, was something they offered me. But they wrote the part of Karl. The name Karl comes from my old high school baseball coach. When Cort told me that I’m playing Karl, and I said yeah I know that. He goes, Karl Keller. Karl Keller was my high school baseball coach. So a tip of the cap to Coach Keller. My character’s name is Karl.

LW: Have you told him that?

CH: No I haven’t seen Coach Keller in a few months. I know he’s around and doing fine but when Cort said that my eyes just lit up. It just made the whole thing of me saying “I’ll do the part” even that much better.

LW: That’s fantastic. Do you have any other roles coming up for future projects?

CH: Actually I did work for Rob Zombie who is a friend of mine. I worked for Rob and I did a little thing in a movie he’s doing The Lords of Salem. In fact that’s how the facial hair got started. Well, Rob about a month ago, asked me not to shave and it just kept going and here I am with a beard and my wife says its ok so I’m going to grow it for a few more months and see what happens.

Later Clint walked down to the cellar on set where Gordon of RealTVFilms was doing an interview with him. I listened in and pretty much just watched Clint with my eyes in astonishment. This man gives THE best interview. He talked about his acting career and used an analogy that I will never forget. He compared his time on set of a big blockbuster film where he feels like he has to be the rock star pitcher throwing strikes every time but when he does smaller films he can be less pressured and be the relief pitcher and seal the deal. (Anytime you can relate anything to baseball, you are gold in my book. Clint sold me.) He gives great compliments to Elly Stefanko who plays Shay in the film. He says he was told that this was her first film and he was a little uncertain about how she would do but then said that she was professional and did a great job. To hear that coming from a veteran I’m sure Elly will be smiling once this interview goes live. Clint was also candid about meeting director Paul Morrell. After meeting Paul he was assured by Paul’s passion in the film and his clear vision that this would be a project he could support. There is so many more tidbits of wonderful information that Clint gave us but you’ll have to wait for that interview when Gordon puts it out there.

One thing is for sure, Clint may not be the lead character in all the films he does but he is the ingredient that binds the story together. I’m still in awe of how terrific he is. When Huff comes out next year (2012) you’ll want to be sure to look out for Clint. Will Karl get out alive after his run in with Huff? You’ll just have to wait and see.

Special thanks to Lauren Winston and Joey Pacheco for their contributions to this story. Check out Lauren’s blog HERE. Joey Pacheco may be reached at JoeyPacheco13@yahoo.com for all photo inquiries and coverage.

Q – What’s the main difference between a classical animation movie (The Lion King) and something like Frankenweenie?
A – Don Hahn: All animation techniques are about bringing inanimate objects to life to tell a story. The main difference between The Lion King and Frankenweenie is that The Lion King is a hand drawn movie, 24 drawings per second. A stop motion puppet film like Frankenweenie is done with articulated puppets that are moved by an animator 24 times a second. They are both great techniques!

Q – What scene in The Lion King is really blew you away once it was in 3D?
A – Don Hahn: That would have to be Circle of Life. It was like all of Africa came alive on the screen right in front of us!

Q – What’s the most emotional side in working again on the project of The Lion King?
A – Don Hahn: I had a woman come up to me after a screening and she had just lost her husband. The film really helped her deal with the issues of loss and explain those issues to her children. Believe me, you never think that a film will have that type of effect, but it is very humbling and emotional when it does.

Q – You’ve been involved in the 3D conversion of both “The Lion King” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” How did converting 2D animation compare to converting stop-motion animation?
A – Don Hahn: Nightmare was a nightmare to do in 3D. There was no separation on the characters and the stereographers had to literally build a complete 3D version of the puppets and sets, then “project” the original film onto that geometry. The Lion King had its challenges but the original film was stored in separate levels which gave us a great advantage to start the 3D process.

Q – Which is your favorite character in The Lion King 3D? How it is changed from the 2D version?
A – Don Hahn: I love Pumbaa! And he’s even bigger and rounder in 3D!

Q – The Lion King 3D is topping the US box office. Can you give us 3 good reasons for our readers to come back to the theatres?
A – Don Hahn: Story, Story, Story! Nobody goes to the theater just to see a technique. The Lion King is a great story and that’s why it’s come back with such a roar!

Q – The Lion King has a huge, magical philosophy of life. Which side of it do you prefer? And why?
A – Don Hahn: There is an underlying theme to The Lion King about that day when you are no longer a child and you have to step up and accept the responsibility of adulthood. It’s actually an age old coming of age story not unlike so many Disney films that are all about growing up.

Q – Can you tell us something about your next project, Frankenweenie?
A – Don Hahn: It’s an amazing film, directed by Tim Burton, and done completely in stop motion with puppets much like Tim’s Nightmare Before Christmas. Tim is one of the most iconic directors and artists of our time and Frankenweenie will be a treat when it comes out in October of next year!

Q – Why did you pick The Lion King for the 3D version? Which other Disney movie would you like to see in 3D too and why?
A – Don Hahn: Converting a hand drawn film into a 3D experience was a risk so we wanted to start with two films that we knew had audience appeal. The Lion King was at the top of the list. Beauty and the Beast next. The Lion King 3D experiment has exceeded our wildest dreams. 3D isn’t right for every film but wouldn’t it be great to see Peter Pan fly over London in 3D… (no plans for it, just my personal favorite).

Q – If not the entire movie itself, what sequence or portion of the movie are you most proud of?
A – Don Hahn: The Circle of Life is a real personal favorite. When we finished the sequence and Hans Zimmer scored the music, we watched it and were all amazed (even though it was our movie). Suddenly this little film about a lion cub became a much bigger epic.

Q – Development and editing aside, how many times do think you’ve seen the movie?
A – Don Hahn: Probably a thousand times. And I see something different every time.

Q – In your opinion which 3D movie was the best in the animation, until now? And why?
A – Don Hahn: I have two favorites: Toy Story 3 and Avatar. Toy Story 3 was just a brilliant movie all around and the 3D was exquisite. Many people don’t think of Avatar as animation but Jim Cameron did an amazing job building a world and bringing his characters to life in 3D. He’s a real pioneer in every sense of the word.

Q – Congratulations on The Lion King taking the box office for the second week in a row! Since you probably know it best, how do you think it has aged?
A – Don Hahn: The happy thing about animation is that it ages very well. The actors don’t get older, and the story is universal and about some pretty timeless themes. When we did the film we deliberately left ‘man’ out of the story so it is a story that could have happened today or a thousand years ago. That’s the magic of animation.

Q – Like other Disney masterpieces The Lion King enjoys nearly infinite longevity. How do you feel the follow up films contribute to its legacy?
A – Don Hahn: We’ve made over 50 animated films at the studio and in some way they are all connected. There wouldn’t be a Lion King if it hadn’t been for the great success and skill that the team brought to Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, and Aladdin. The films that followed The Lion King reflect a dynamic growth in the ambition of the animators to tackle different stories and embrace different techniques. Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, Lilo and Stitch, Mulan…proud of them all as much as I’m proud of Tangled (Rapunzel).

Q – How has The Lion King changed your life?
A – Don Hahn: The Lion King is a once in a lifetime experience for a filmmaker. We were able to do something together as a team that moved the audience and eventually contributed to popular culture. Of course I’m proud, but it’s not my film alone, it really cemented in my mind the power of great artistry, and collaboration.

Q – Talk about your trip to Africa to do research for the movie. What was the single greatest thing you saw there?
A – Don Hahn: I was finishing Beauty and the Beast so I didn’t make the trip. But Roger Allers, Chris Sanders, Lisa Keene and the team that went were blown away by the scope and scale of Africa. They came back with a load of images and a feeling for the land and color of the land that made it into the movie in many ways. There is an epic feeling to the landscape in Africa, that made the directors want to use it almost like another character in the film. The trip was a turning point in our thoughts about the look, sounds, and music of the film.

Q – What has The Lion King gained by being put in 3D?
A – Don Hahn: Everything and nothing. The film is well suited for 3D because of the style of direction. Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers, the directors, crafted the film with longer shots and a sense of Africa as an unspoken character in the film. 3D brings this to life even more and lets the audience step into the film in a unique way. When I say that nothing is gained, I’m referring to the story. We worked hard to make the 3D reflect and support the story and not detract from it. There’s a paradox to all this, which is the paradox of animation itself; you work for four years and spend millions of hours on a film with the goal of making the audience forget that they are looking at drawings. That’s the magic of it all.

Q – What made you want to tell this story? And once it became a hit, did you ever imagine it being this well received?
A – Don Hahn: It started out by wanting to do a story about growing up. We called it “Bambi in Africa,” a term that came from our development executive Charlie Fink. We looked at a lot of coming of age stories, especially bible stories like Moses or Joseph where a character is born into royalty and then is exiled and has to return to claim their kingdom. Those are ancient stories…stories of underdogs that we as an audience love to see when we go to the theater. Did I imagine that it would be this successful? Not in my wildest dreams. It’s an incredible and humbling reaction even now, seventeen years later.

Q – Can you imagine The Lion King with another sound track?
A – Don Hahn: No, I really can’t. Elton John, Hans Zimmer and African singer Lebo M. are the perfect match for this story.

Q – What is your favorite memory of making The Lion King?
A – Don Hahn: So many: there was the day we brought live adult lions into the studio to study and draw, and the day we first saw Chris Sanders amazing storyboards for the Mufasa’s Ghost sequence. But probably the most memorable moment was when we went to Hans Zimmer’s studio in Santa Monica and heard his arrangement of Circle of Life for the first time. It changed our perception of what the movie could be.

Q – Did your experiences making The Lion King affect how you approached your later films for Disneynature?
A – Don Hahn: Disneynature films are similar in that you are trying to tell stories with animals, but the comparison stops there. In nature films, the animals tell you the story and you follow them around for three years hoping that something dramatic happens. In animation, you start with a pencil and create it all from scratch. Love them both, just two very different path ways to arriving at a story.

Q – What was your biggest challenge bringing The Lion King to the screen?
A – Don Hahn: Most people don’t know this but the Northridge, CA earthquake struck us just six months before the film came out and the studio had to be shut down. For a few weeks we were driving drawings to animator’s homes around southern California and making the film in garages and on kitchen tables. The crew was amazing. They were dealing with the stress of a major earthquake while finishing the film.

Q – Do you have any plans to produce another Disney animated film?
A – Don Hahn: I have animation in my blood and if the right story comes along, yes I would love to do another film. For the last several years I’ve been working with Tim Burton on a stop motion animated film Frankenweenie. It’s an amazing technique and Tim is a brilliant director and visual artist. Couldn’t hope for more.

Q – Do you ever find yourself humming or singing one of the songs? What’s your favorite song?
A – Don Hahn: I do. All the time. I love Circle of Life but I usually find Hakuna Matata creeping its way into my brain. The only way to get it out is to sing a chorus of “It’s a Small World.”

Q – Number one two weeks in a row for a movie 17 years old. How does that make you feel?
A – Don Hahn: Insanely great, humbled, happy for the artists, musicians and actors that made it all happen and happy to have been there to see it all.

Q – You’ve been at Disney as long as anyone there. How has the studio and animation changed in your time there?
A – Don Hahn: I started at Disney 35 years ago and yes it’s changed a lot. The one thing that I’ve seen the most is that Disney is at its best when we take creative risk and push to move the art form forward. You see it in the 1980′s when Howard Ashman and Alan Menken came in and contributed songs to Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty. You see it again when Pixar did the original Toy Story. It was an experimental film that the studio wasn’t sure it would work but the risk paid off. I’ve been in so many discussions over the time I’ve been here about what makes “Disney.” The one constant is change. Walt himself couldn’t wait to dive into the next thing, be it technology, television, theme parks, urban planning. Disney is about change and innovation. That’s why I’ve stayed here my whole career and still love the place.

Q – How did you originally become a part of The Lion King?
A – Don Hahn: I was just finishing up on Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King was going through some big changes. The original director was leaving the film and the producer Tom Schumacher was moving to an executive position developing future films. I came on board in February of 1992 shortly after the team returned from Africa and just as Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers were made the directors. We sat in my office for two days with an amazing small and mighty team of story artists that included Chris Sanders, Brenda Champman and Beauty directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale and over those two days wrote the complete outline for the film. There had been some amazing writers on the story, but those two days were an amazing time when the film came together in a big way.

Q – How early on did Hans Zimmer and Elton John/Tim Rice become involved in the film and can you tell us about working with them?
A – Don Hahn: Tim came on first. He was finishing lyrics for Aladdin after the death of Howard Ashman. His pick for a song writing partner was Elton. Elton is a musical genius when it comes to melody but we always knew that we’d need a musician to score his songs and pull them into the African musical space. Chris Montan, our music executive suggested Hans and it was one of the most important decisions on the film. Tim was a dramatist and was able to put up with the endless story changes that we went through. Elton delivered melodies that in my opinion are timeless. Hans was the lightning bolt that pulled it together. Hans brought in Lebo M. the amazing African singer who brings the opening song to life. His score won an Oscar that year as did Elton and Tim’s song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.”

Q – At what point in the production did it hit you that “The Lion King” was becoming something special?
A – Don Hahn: I think when we heard Hans Zimmer’s arrangement of “Circle of Life” with the final animation, but knew we had something different for sure and possibly something the audience would like too. We took a risk and sent “Circle of Life” out to theaters as a trailer for the film six months before the film came out and it was a huge hit. Back at the studio we were still struggling with the story but at least we knew we had a great opening and if we could elevate the rest of the film to that level, we’d have something.

Q – Were you asked at all to help develop The Lion King musical? Have you seen it on Broadway? If so what did you think?
A – Don Hahn: Aside from giving some notes in the early rehearsals, no. Theater is a different animal and when Tom Schumacher came up with the idea of using Julie Taymor to direct the show, the rest was history. I have seen the musical many times, and it is a magical thing.

Q – Is there anything you wish you could change about how The Lion King came out? Something that was cut out of the movie you wish had been left in?
A – Don Hahn: There is really nothing we would have done differently. Yes there were songs written that were cut out and sequences like a scene of Pumbaa and Timon playing “bug football” that never made it to the screen, but these were all good choices. The film works as is and really doesn’t need anything else.

Q – What does it mean for a producer of a movie win an Oscar, is perhaps a goal?
A – Don Hahn: It’s the World Series and Super Bowl of the movie business so of course getting an Oscar nomination much less winning is a huge honor. Having said that, it’s a rare thing and you have to be satisfied with the creative accomplishment itself. We don’t make films to win awards, we make them to entertain. When an audience responds – that’s the biggest reward!

Q – “Waking Sleeping Beauty” was a very honest and inspiring film. You did a remarkable job getting candid contributions from all the major players of that era. Did you get any resistance early on about telling your story “warts and all”?
A – Don Hahn: Thank you!! I think the “warts and all” approach was the only way to go. It created a level playing field. Once the artists and execs saw that I was really trying to get at the truth, they were all cooperative and in the end supportive. I’m a lucky man.

Q – Did you ever think 3D technology would be used on the film?
A – Don Hahn: No. When we made The Lion King in 1994, 3D was still a pretty clunky technology. Now the technique has caught up with us and gives us an amazing tool kit to transform the film into a new experience.

Q – Which character reminds you most of yourself?
A – Don Hahn: Pumbaa. You figure it out.

Q – The film has been #1 at the box office for two weeks now. How exciting is it to see a re-release beat all of the competition?
A – Don Hahn: Beyond exciting. It’s so humbling to sit in the back of a theater and watch a new generation of kids enjoy the film.

Q – You’ve produced and directed all manner of films: animation, live-action and documentaries. You’re written a number of books. Is there any other artistic endeavor you’d like to try or devote more time to?
A – Don Hahn: People like Walt Disney and Jim Henson were my role models growing up. They were into a million things, all based around entertaining the audience. So who knows, maybe we’ll see DonHahnland coming soon.

Q – First of all, how did you get involved in animation?
A – Don Hahn: I was a music major in college…played cello and percussion, and if it weren’t for a temp summer job at Disney, I’d probably be playing timpani in the back of an orchestra somewhere. When I got to Disney I had the chance to work with some of the greats of animation: Woolie Reitherman, Don Bluth, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston. I got totally seduced by the animation process and what you could do with it.

Q – Had you been a fan of Disney animation previously?
A – Don Hahn: A fan of Disney yes, but I really didn’t get into animation until after I came to the studio at 20 years old.

Q – Besides the projects you have worked on, what is your favorite classic Disney animated film?
A – Don Hahn: Peter Pan! Flying kids in pajamas fight pirates? How great is that!?

Q – Every actor brought something great to their roles and I think The Lion King was cast to perfection. But were there any actors you had in mind for the main characters who you were unable to sign on?
A – Don Hahn: For a short time we considered that great African actor Sean Connery to play Mufasa, but after James Earl Jones came available we abandoned that idea.

Q – How has “The Lion King” come up in your life in really strange or unexpected ways?
A – Don Hahn: I was in Beijing a few years ago doing a lecture at an art school there and everyone was bringing me their Lion King DVDs to sign. About half way thru signing them I realized that The Lion King hadn’t been released on DVD yet in China and they were all bootleg copies.

Q – As someone who has produced some of Disney’s all-time biggest animated hits, what is the secret of your success?
A – Don Hahn: People. I find the best possible people that I can find, then I hire them and do exactly what they tell me to do. It’s like baseball…a team sport where the team is more important than the individual.

Q – Were there any scenes that you specifically wanted to see in 3-D for this movie, and did they turn out the way you hoped they would?
A – Don Hahn: The wildebeest stampede…couldn’t wait to see it in 3D and it didn’t disappoint!!

Q – Can you talk about the next hand-drawn film from Disney, or the general future of hand-drawn animation at the studio?
A – Don Hahn: Too early to talk about anything specific except to say that there are amazing artists at Disney and Pixar who have lots in store for the audience be it with a pencil, a puppet or a pixel.

Q – In recent years, you’ve become a documentarian. Is this something you’d like to further pursue?
A – Don Hahn: I love the immediacy of the documentary medium. It takes four or five years to make an animated film. Good documentaries take time – we’ve been shooting Chimpanzee, the next Disneynature film for three years now. But the ability to shoot and edit a story together quickly is a different experience. I think I was probably inspired by Walt Disney who turned to nature documentaries later in his career.

Q – Is the success of The Lion King 3D a vindication of traditional animation techniques in the digital age? What do you see as the future of hand-drawn animation?
A – Don Hahn: I think it’s a vindication of good storytelling. The audience doesn’t go to the theater to see a technique. They go to be told a story and The Lion King delivers that story. Techniques come into and go out of fashion but the truth is a good story is what is lasting be it told with pencils, puppets or pixels.

Q – Don, any final thoughts on The Lion King 3D in its theatrical and soon after Blu-ray release?
A – Don Hahn: First of all a big hug to the cast and crew of The Lion King. You have no idea how many hands and hearts have touched this film all with respect for the story and the audience. Hats off to them. Seeing the film on the big screen and watching the audience reaction is about the biggest treat a filmmaker could hope for. We’ve all worked equally as hard on the Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D release in the hopes that audiences can enjoy the film at home for years to come.

END

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Note: I’ve tried to streamline this to make it easier to follow the conversation since you won’t have the benefit of the slides and multimedia that we were able to see. I thought about just giving the highlights but I knew that some people would like to get the full picture so I did the best I could to balance both sides.

(Moderator): My name is Mindy Johnson, and I’m here on behalf of the Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Division.  We are joined today by (Sarah Duran-Singer), the Senior Vice President of Post-Production with Walt Disney Studios…

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Good morning, everyone.  Thanks for joining us.

Mindy Johnson: (Dave Bossert) is the Creative Director of Walt Disney Studios Animation, in charge of Special Projects and is also the Artistic Supervisor of the Restoration and Preservation Team.  (Dave), good morning.

(Dave Bossert): Hi, everybody.

(Mindy Johnson): And we’re also joined by (Joe Jiuliano), who’s the Director of Film and Video Services with the Walt Disney Studios, and the Technical Adviser for the Restoration Committee.  (Joe), good morning.

(Joe Jiuliano):  Hi.  Hi, everybody.

(Mindy Johnson): With that, we’d like to get underway.  (Sarah), if you could get us started with this whole frontier of preservation and restoration?

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Great.  Thank you, Mindy.  And thank you, everyone, for joining us.  We are all really excited about the upcoming Blu-ray release of “Dumbo.”  It’s been a favorite of the studio’s for a long time, and we were really happy to have the opportunity to work on this title and bring it back to its prior glory.  What I’d like to talk about first is how we were able to do this, how we were able to bring back this title.  A huge part of that is the fact that the studio is very engaged with the preservation of all of our library titles, not just animation, but our live action.  In fact, we just finished a restoration on “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”  The studio knows that our library is one of the most valuable libraries out there, and they’ve been very aggressive in making sure that we preserve them. As most of you know – right now, the motion pictures made within the first half of the 20th century are in danger of completely disappearing due to a number of issues.

There’s a couple things that we’re looking at right here.  We’re looking at vinegar syndrome and also nitrate deterioration.  Now, what the Walt Disney Company has done is, years ago, we made an agreement with the Library of Congress that we would loan them our nitrate negatives that were shot during the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s at the studio, huge amount of our animation – feature-length animation library and our short animation library.  And we gave them to them to preserve and to store, because we did not have the correct storage facilities. I don’t know if you know, but nitrate is highly flammable and is very dangerous to store if it’s not kept in very particular circumstances.  Obviously, humidity is a huge factor. Humidity is maintained.  Refrigeration is a key issue.  And the Library of Congress checks out film and rarely handle our film, but when they pull it out, they inspect it, they make sure it’s preserved, it is handled in a wonderful manner, which meant that when we wanted to go back and start restoring our film, we could pull these nitrate successive exposure black-and-white negatives out and actually use them.

Obviously, sometimes things happen, and the risk – if you want to go to the next slide – some of the things that you’re at risk for is vinegar syndrome.  Vinegar syndrome you know you have that issue right away if you open the can.  You can see here in this picture, basically this mag track is deteriorating.  And you open the can, and if you smell vinegar, you have a problem.  It’s probably already too late.  It’s already on its way to destruction. Another issue, you look at is, in 2004, we pulled out “Steamboat Willie” as one of our key projects that we wanted to restore.  And we found nine feet in original successive exposure negative that basically was destroyed.  You can see that the picture has gone away.

We were really lucky that we could find a dupe negative that had those frames that were missing.  So we scanned the dupe negative and we scanned the original successive exposure negative and (netted them) – put them together and did a dirt clean-up and a scratch clean-up and fixed certain things in the – actually, what we first discovered is we made it pristine, and we looked at it and went, oh, you know, that’s not good, because that’s not “Steamboat Willie.”  “Steamboat Willie,” for all we’ve seen it so many times, there’s a little bit of jitters, there’s a little bit of movement, there is some grain, there is some scratches.  And if you made it too clean, it actually looked like something that was made currently and it didn’t look like the “Steamboat Willie” that we all remembered.

So we went back and did a good restoration, but didn’t clean it up pristinely, and we kept some of the movement and jitter.  So it felt like the “Steamboat Willie” we all knew and we all remembered from childhood and from seeing it in the theater and on TV.  And actually, that restored version of “Steamboat Willie” became the source for animation studios’ new animation logo, which utilizes “Steamboat Willie.”  You’ve probably seen it at the head of our films like “Tangled” and “Princess and the Frog.”  So it was great to be able to restore this and then see that film being used again and brought to life for a whole new generation to see part of it.

So let’s go to the next image.  Now, you’re looking at “Mickey’s Gala Premier,” which is 1933.  And what we have here is some nitrate deterioration.  In the image, you can see some of that bubbling.  That is not good, either.  And when we were inspecting our film at Library of Congress, they showed us how dangerous that is.  Basically, they pulled out a small bit of film, and they lit it, and it went, “Pff.”  And that’s – how you would describe that, but like a little explosion, like flash paper.  So not only is your film being destroyed, but it often becomes incredibly volatile, and you have to really store it and protect it.

So we’re very – work very much hand in hand to make sure that that film is – and if anything starts to deteriorate, we try to tackle it right away.  Now, what we have done since 2004, we did a Library of Congress scanning project.  We periodically would move over large chunks of our animation library on nitrate negative.  We scanned it at 4K with our partners at Warner Bros.  MPI, created a digital file of that.  We actually then created a QuickTime of that so we could check and make sure that for – we had every frame scanned.

And (Joe Jiuliano), my colleague here, will explain a little bit about successive exposure negative, but for every one frame of picture, you had three frames of negative.  So we checked that frame by frame.  And then we handed it over to my partner, (Joe Jiuliano), and his team, and they (filmed out) a brand-new black-and-white successive exposure negative.  So we actually captured the original data and we preserved it for at least another 100 years. We did this with our entire nitrate library.  In fact, I think (Joe) is still in the progress of – the last little bit of filming it out.  And those…

(Joe Jiuliano): Sixteen-and-a-half million frames.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): That’s a lot of frames.  But that’s how important our library is to us.  And that original nitrate or the scans that we did became the sources that we used for our restoration of basically all our classic animation titles, “Snow White,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and, of course, as we’re talking about, “Dumbo.”  Here’s just another close-up of the sadness that we’re experiencing, but, again, we are in much better shape than I think many studio libraries are, because we did spend the money.

Now, these are frames from “Snow White,” which we actually restored – two year ago.  And there’s other issues.  It’s not – obviously, we spoke about vinegar syndrome and we spoke about nitrate deterioration.  There’s other things.  What you’re looking at here, the frame in the middle, there is heavy plastic splices.  You can kind of see over the images, the two images in the middle, there’s a plastic splice – plastic tape splice that goes into the image and deteriorates it or damages it.  So we have to – after we’ve scanned the film, we have to do some real picture restoration to get rid of that splice that’s distorting the image.

And then the image on the right, you can see on the left side of the film we’ve actually lost the perfs, which make it incredibly difficult to scan, so that we probably did have to go ahead and put splice tape on that to be able to scan that.

So there’s all sorts of problems.  We’ve discovered with every title that we’ve done is the problems aren’t consistent.  They all have different issues that you have to address, not just with the physical film, but also with the picture.  Every film we think we’ve solved the problem, the next movie, we have totally different sets of problems that we have to resolve, and (figuring out the) best way to restoring it.  It actually makes these projects really exciting.  They’re a bit of a treasure hunt. So basically – so you understand why this restoration of “Dumbo” is different from any of the previous releases, because I know it’s been released on VHS – has it been released on DVD before?

(Mindy Johnson): Yes, but this is the first release for “Dumbo” on Blu-ray.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Yes, this one is unique and special and to explain why the Blu-ray is going to be such a stunning experience is, previously we didn’t scan from the original negative.  You know, the technology wasn’t quite ready.  We were concerned about the negative.  We hadn’t backed up the negative and preserved it through (Joe Jiuliano)’s team.  So we would use basically an (inter-negative) or (inter-positive) that could be several generations away from that original black-and-white successive exposure negative.

By using a piece of film that was several generations away, you are introducing, obviously, more dirt, a lot more grain, softness of image, and, really, you’re getting away from the original color.  You’re introducing steps in there, and whether those intermediate negative and (positive were made correctly), it is changing the color. Then, of course, we would do full registration and dirt clean-up and we would then create the VHS or the DVD master.  But what we’re doing now, which is really exciting, is we are going back, as I said, to that original successive exposure black-and-white negative, and this is an example of what it looks like.  We can come back to this slide when (Joe) delves into what exactly successive exposure is, because he’s been shooting it for – 25 years?

(Joe Jiuliano): Yes.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Twenty-five years. So now what we are doing is we are using that original negative or the original (four case) scans that we did off of that original negative.  That is our source.  So we’re getting the image as it was captured by Walt Disney’s artists, you know, 40 years ago, 50 years ago…

(Mindy Johnson):  Seventy-plus.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Was it 70?  Oh, my gosh.

(Mindy Johnson):  It’s the 70th anniversary.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Wow.  We are then doing full restoration, re-registering it, re-combining those, and out comes an image that is complete, it’s the real color that was shot, that is – you don’t have any of the build-up of the gray.  You don’t have much build-up of the dirt. The key thing that you gain – really, I want to stress – is you don’t have as much grains.  The image is a lot sharper.  And the colors are truer.  They are the real colors that were captured.  So it really is what the filmmakers intended. Now, I would like to hand this over to my colleagues (Dave Bossert) and (Joe Jiuliano) to talk a little bit about what was unique about the restoration of “Dumbo.”

(Dave Bossert): Hey, guys.  This is (Dave Bossert).  I’m going to jump in and give you just a quick little overview, from the artistic side of this on what we did with the “Dumbo” restoration.  Just in general terms, we spent nearly seven months working on the restoration and preservation of “Dumbo.”  And as (Sarah) mentioned, the nitrate negative’s like 70-plus years old. We actually had the nitrate negative transported from the Virginia facility to Los Angeles in what we lovingly referred to as the ice cream truck.  It’s actually just a refrigerated truck, but it is actually driven across country to our facility, not flown.  The entire film, obviously, is cleaned and inspected.  Just for numbers, there’s 275,352 frames of negative for “Dumbo” that was scanned.  You can see that up there.  And I always get a kick out of it, but it’s 3.2 miles of film.  It’s kind of neat.

But anyway, we wind up – once we have those digital images, there is an automated dust-busting process that we refer to.  It’s a dust-busting with – it removes a lot of the ancillary dirt and whatnot automatically.  And then we’re going in on a regular basis and reviewing parts of various reels of the film at a time.  And we are calling out various other aspects, artifacts, and anomalies that need to be taken care of.  Those include – aside from the dust and dirt – fingerprints that may have been on the cells, cell shimmers, what we refer to as Newton rings, when you press several layers of acetate cells together, you get these rainbow rings that can get photographed in, cell scratches.

Just so you know, this team that’s been working since 2003 on this restoration and preservation of these feature films, we’ve removed reflections of the cameramen, doors open on a frame in the camera room.  You can see a reflection because the platen wasn’t down all the way.  There’s all kinds of little oddities in creating animated films that aren’t necessarily meant to be in the film. And what we’re driving by philosophically is, what was the artistic intention?  And clearly, you know, as an artist, the intention is to create as perfect a frame of art as you can, but, you know, you’ve got to realize 70 years ago they were using the best technology that they had at hand 70 years ago.  So we’re able to go in and clean up some of these little mistakes and artifacts and various things that pop up in the films, and we’ve done that in a very good way.

I did want to point out, from a color standpoint, we’re fortunate because we here at Disney have our Animation Research Library which has something north of 70 million pieces of art archived.  And we’re able to go back and pull out color backgrounds from all of these films, as well as get a series of backgrounds that would be representative of the color palette of the movie. And instead of just looking at those backgrounds, we actually have them scanned and photographed out on SE film, because the successive exposure film actually picks up contrast and picks up color saturation, and the Disney background artists always painted their backgrounds a little bit less contrast-y and a little bit muted, knowing that the photographic process would then pick up the contrasts and saturations to give them what it was they wanted.  So we take a lot of care in making sure that we are restoring these back to what the artistic intention was, as far as the color goes. With that, I actually want to turn it over to my colleague, (Joe), to talk a little bit about the successive exposure process and what’s entailed and why, essentially, we had 275,352 frames, which is really 91,784 color frames of the movie. So, (Joe), it’s all yours.

(Joe Jiuliano): Prior to the 1950s, the only way that you could really get a color film – both animation and live action – was at Technicolor, which was a three-strip process.  Back in the day, Technicolor had three-strip cameras that would have three separate strips of film running parallel in the camera, each one capturing a separation of color, of yellow, cyan, magenta strip that would run as live action was being captured. The film was then taken over to the lab.  It was developed and then optically recombined, but you have to remember that it all started with a black-and-white negative and the distinct color information that was captured on each one, the yellow, cyan and magenta.

So back in the day, I think Ub Iworks came up with a method that was specific to animation.  Once you have the cells set up on the camera, it’s stationary so that you can capture the separations sequentially on one strip of film.  And what we did up until the ’90s – was shoot successively on one strip of film red, green and blue separations.  And then, again, the film was brought over to the lab over at Technicolor, developed, and then color was optically arrived at, at the lab. I can’t – again, with my partners here, — I can’t emphasize how important to this restoration project and the other classic films that we’ve restored in recent years, that the decision to go back and scan the original negative really makes this work.  And also, blending it with the digital tools available to us – as (David) said, when we shot this film originally in successive exposure, black-and-white, everything was sort of balanced for the color methods that were available at the time, the Technicolor three-strip color.  And all the artwork was made for that, as (Dave) mentioned.

Going back and scanning the original negative, that’s really the information you get.  You get the information that was somehow altered for that method.  But with the digital tools, after you scan it, the 4K scans that we’ve talked about, and when you go back in and you start adding the colors, the digital methods and lookup tables that we all used, the clean-up methods, really made it possible to go back and capture what, again, the artists’ intents were in terms of color. The early Disney films that I saw were always these multi-generation release prints that we find.  And up until, I think, this project, I was under the impression that all old classic Disney films were very contrast-y.  The color was very, very overly saturated.  And I felt that it was always grainy.

When we went back to the original negative and started color correcting and cleaning it up, we were all amazed at how different the film looked and the subtleties of color, pastel colors came up, grain disappeared, contrast wasn’t as dark as we thought it was.  And I think for the first time we really saw what the guys really wanted to come up with, in terms of color, on these original movies.

(Dave Bossert): I was just going to follow up on what (Joe) was saying by – we were amazed at some of the detail that were in some of the dark areas of scenes, because the blacks had crushed down, and you never really saw that on film.  That was really amazing to us. The other thing I wanted to mention on the three-strip process was that once those three color records were scanned, they’re actually – the line-up on those was done digitally. Now, you’ve got to realize, when they were doing prints at the lab, that was a mechanical process, and that line-up was good, but it was never perfect.  With the digital line-up of the three color records, we’re using anywhere from 50 to 100 targets on the frame to actually line all three color records up, so you get this unbelievably crisp image, the way you would have – the way Walt and his artists would have seen the actual artwork in front of them.

And I think it was something that we were blown away by when we first did the “Bambi” restoration, because that was the first one this team had done together, and we were absolutely blown away by how crisp the ink lines were on the animation, and it’s true of all the subsequent restorations, including “Dumbo.”  So I just wanted to throw that in, (Joe).

(Sarah Duran-Singer): We’ve talked about the team.  And obviously, there’s three of us here today speaking about this project, but since 2003, when we decided to restore “Bambi,” there has been a working team of experts that have been involved in this, obviously, (Dave) and (Joe), myself, but beyond that, we have (Theo Gluck), who is our resident kind of film and Disney historian and film format expert.  We also reach out to other colleagues at Disney Animation.  (Andres Deja), who you might know as an animator on Scar and…

(Dave Bossert): Yes, I was going to throw in, too, early on in the process of going into these classic films, we had access to (Frank Thomas) and (Ollie Johnson), who both had come in on “Bambi,” as well as (Tyrus Wong), of course, Roy Disney, when he was still alive, as well.  And so we’ve been tapping into, you know, a lot of – some of the original artists, if you will, that we could.  And obviously, most of them are gone now, but I’ll tell you, when we showed the restoration of “Lady and the Tramp” to (Ollie Johnson), at the end of the screening, he had a big smile on his face, and we asked him what he thought, and he said, “This is the way it was supposed to look.”  And he was absolutely blown away by it. And so it was really gratifying being able to show some of the original artists what these films are looking like now and how we’re taking care of them and preserving them for future generations.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): You know, we’ve been incredibly lucky to have this team and access to those talents when we could.  And we’re all experts in different areas.  And we approached this process with, again – as (Dave) talked about – we want to keep it to – we want to represent what the filmmakers and Walt’s original intention was.  What was their goal? We look at the films.  And we debate, what should we clean up?  What should we fix?  It kind of sets the guideline.  Like, was that the filmmaker’s intention?  Or if it wasn’t, if they had the time, the money, or the technical expertise, would they have fixed it? And we have debated.  We’ve had some very lively debates.  And I’d like to say, we tried to keep Walt and the original filmmakers right next to us during this process and have them guide our choices.  We never want to change their original intention.

But, obviously, having a fingerprint or having a bit of animation pop on and off, we believe, was never the original intention and they would have fixed it if they could.  Now that we have the tools and the technology, we go back and fix that.  So we always keep the original filmmakers’ intention in the back of our head.  And like I said, we have a lot of fun debating that. Now, I’d like all of us to talk a little bit about some of the specific issues that came up on “Dumbo.”  This particular title was in production in May – in the early ’40s.  As I’m reminded, it’s the 70th anniversary.  The studio had just come off the release of “Fantasia” and “Pinocchio,” which were extremely costly films.  They were expensive films, and they weren’t as financially successful as I think the studio hoped, so they decided to take a different approach with “Dumbo.” “Dumbo” is one of the shorter films.  I think it comes in at around…

(Mindy Johnson): Sixty-four.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): … 64 minutes.  They also tried to take a more simplified approach overall to the production look and workflow.  The film was very successful.  But this production approach did create some problems. Specifically, (Dave), do you want to talk about some of the issues they had with the paint?

(Dave Bossert): Yes, one of the big things about the early Disney features is that – and a lot of people don’t realize this – but the studio itself had its own paint lab, and they mixed their own paints, which meant that they had a binder and they had pigments and they had a formula, and they would mix these paints up.  And some of those pigments were better than others from the standpoint of stability. One of the problems that we encountered on “Dumbo” is that there’s large color areas of the elephants.  There was a lot of what we referred to as paint crawl.  And, really, what was happening with the paint was that certain colors – the pigment and binder – would separate if they weren’t continuously being stirred.  And so you wind up putting the paint down on a cell, and when that cell dries, there’s almost an imperceptible streaking, if you will, from the brushing – from the brush and the brush application — of the paint.  On an individual cell, you can maybe pick it up a little bit if it’s really bad, but you can actually see it when you see a sequence of cells play by at 24 frames a second.

And so that was one of the big areas that we had to deal with, was the amount of paint crawl, because in some of the scenes, the paint crawl was really bad.  And when you’re showing a pristine image, it was magnified, because there was less grain in the image.  You know, years ago, when they did a release print that was a couple generations away from the negative, the paint crawl wasn’t as prevalent.

(Joe Jiuliano): The grain killed it a little bit.

(Dave Bossert): The grain really sort of tamed it, if you will.  But with the pristine digital image, we really did have a lot of issues with the paint crawl, and so we needed to go in and mitigate that, and we did that with a digital process. But that was really one of the big issues for this film.  And when we do these restorations and preservations on these films, every single movie that we’ve worked on has had its own set of issues, its own set of areas that we had to sort of focus on a little bit more, and there were software solutions developed, and ways for us to mitigate some of those problems. Let me toss it back to (Sarah).

(Sarah Duran-Singer): We actually have some examples to show you, some before-and-after that we’ll go through in a second.  One other thing that I think we should talk about – but because this was a lower-cost production and they were trying to save money, they would reuse cells.  Do you guys want to talk about that?

(Dave Bossert): Well, you know, one of the things back in the late ’30s into the 1940s, they actually had a position at the studio called the cell washer.  And what the cell washer did was, after the animation was completed, it was inked and painted onto an acetate cell, it was photographed, the film came back, they looked at the film and said, yep, that’s fine, then those cells went to the cell washer, who would actually wash off the paint and the ink, and they would be reused. Well, that process of washing off the paint and the ink did a couple of things.  It introduced scratches to the cell material.  It also created some warpage, expansion and shrinkage…

(Joe Jiuliano): And rippled some…

(Dave Bossert): … and rippled the cell itself.  And so what we wind up having to deal with now is that you’ve got frames where there’s various light reflections dancing around because of the warpage of the cells…or what we refer to as, cell shimmers, really.  And that all was introduced into these films not intentionally – that wasn’t the artistic intent – but it was just a byproduct of the animation process of the day.

(Joe Jiuliano): Well, it was part of the process.  And it was acceptable.  I mean, it was…

(Dave Bossert): Well, back then it was.

(Joe Jiuliano): Yes.  So when you looked at it, it was the way animation just looked at the time.  But now, because we’re scanning it and using such precise tools to fix it, it’s not acceptable to us.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): And the image is so clean without the grain that these things jump out and they take you out of the experience of the picture.

(Joe Jiuliano): I think you really do have to just keep saying, artistic intent.  What was the artistic intent?

(Dave Bossert): Yep, absolutely.

(Joe Jiuliano):  And rippled cells was not the artistic intent.

(Dave Bossert): It was not at all.  And, by the way, I don’t know if anybody knows this, but Chuck Jones was a cell washer for a little while here at Disney.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Was he really?

(Dave Bossert): Yes, he was.  He got his start here.

(Joe Jiuliano): That’s a fun fact.

(Dave Bossert): A little factoid.

<Presentation of some before and after slides of the movie>

(Sarah Duran-Singer): We do all of our restoration work with our partners over at Lowry Digital or Reliance.  It’s now owned by Reliance.  And they’ve been our partner since we tackled “Bambi” in 2003. And, again, with the elephants, we had to tackle a lot of – as (Dave) mentioned – the paint crawl, which if you just saw the image, it was incredibly distracting watching that paint bubble and move.

(Mindy Johnson): And, again, in the final Blu-ray, the colors are that much more richer.  This is definitely, pre-color-correction.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Yes, These are just only the restoration.  Now, we’ve talked about picture, and we’ve talked about preservation.  Another key project that we tackle is we – through preservation and also through restoration is our audio. Just like we did with our successive exposure negatives, we are currently, actually, migrating and cleaning up our entire Disney animation and live-action library audio.  So it’s a multi-year, five-year project.  We take the best possible version of the tracks, digitize them in the Pro Tools, clean them up, and create a new file that will be used.

Now, in the case of “Dumbo,” this one had a very interesting history.  You know, hindsight is 20/20.  Obviously, in the ’50s, the studio started cleaning up the library because they had no storage capacity or they felt that, why did they need these things?  So the original nitrate soundtracks of these films were transferred over to 35-millimeter mag.  And unlike the picture, the successive exposure negative, they destroyed those original nitrate recordings, which to this day we regret. So all we have were those 35-millimeter mag transfers, which were done in the ’50s on technology that was probably OK for then, but is not very good now.  So obviously, certain things were built in that we’ve had to reduce noise, a narrowing of the sonic range of those tracks.

So what we’ve been doing – we’ve been working with a colleague, (Terry Porter), who was a Disney mixer for 20-some years and was nominated for best sound Oscars on “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin.”  He had developed a process of bringing – transferring those tracks, cleaning them up through Pro Tools, and utilizing other tools, and doing what we call a Disney-Enhanced Home Theater Mix, which is either spread – a mono-spread to 5.1 or to 7.1.  He actually perfected this on “The Lion King.”  When we did “The Lion King” DVD release, he created the Disney Enhanced Home Theater. And he took what he’s learned on every film, and he’s actually used it on our library titles to create not only a clean master, but a 5.1 or 7.1 mix, which is what our audiences are used to now and expect, but, again, trying to maintain that original quality.

We always end up putting the mono track on our DVDs and Blu-rays, so the purists that want to hear it the way it was will hear a cleaned-up mono track.  But other people who love the 5.1 or 7.1 experience on Blu-ray can hear that. So (Terry)’s process, as I mentioned, is to digitize in those 35-millimeters, clean them up, and then remix them.  Now, what was unique about “Dumbo” is – as (Dave) mentioned – we do a ton of research on this.  And one of the things we do is we try to find original film prints, anything that anybody (has up there) that we can look at, and we’ve partnered with UCLA Film Archives. And (Theo Gluck), who I mentioned is a member of the team who’s the film expert, was able to track down through UCLA an original print of “Dumbo.”  And he set up the screening over at UCLA.  We all went and looked at it.

(Dave Bossert): It was a Technicolor nitrate print.

(Joe Jiuliano): No, it was (an IB)…

(Dave Bossert): It was?  Oh, I thought it was a nitrate for some reason.  I thought it was a nitrate, because we had to view it over at UCLA, and nitrate was combustible.

(Joe Jiuliano): It might have been, but the color method was IB.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Want to explain IB, (Joe)?

(Joe Jiuliano): Well, it’s just the three-strip color, but the IB process was more like a lithography process than it was a photochemical process.  So the original Technicolor prints are IB prints, which stand for imbibition prints, which… they imbibe the image on it, which is a litho process.  And so like early on, the early Technicolor prints were grainless.  They were more like the old magazine printing than later on, where the grainy negative (looked to it).  So that’s what we saw, was we saw one of the original prints struck from the original negative, three-strip – or three – sorry, successive exposure negative.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): So that IB process, you know, because it’s like a dye process, the colors don’t fade like they would on a traditional photochemical print.  That’s why we try to find those. But in this particular case, what we didn’t expect was this print to have a really good optical soundtrack that was really in great condition.  So we actually were able to work with UCLA, borrow that print, and basically digitize that soundtrack.  And that became another source for (Terry Porter) to use in his mix. So, obviously, we don’t have audio on this, but when you go out and you buy that Blu-ray, you will hear (Terry Porter)’s restored mix in either 5.1 or 7.1 or you can, again, hear that original mono cleaned up with as much of those pops and clicks and wow taken out.

(Mindy Johnson): OK, let’s move on to the Disney View feature, which is a new feature on many of our Platinum Edition restorations for the earlier films.  (Dave), if you could talk a bit about this?

(Dave Bossert): Sure.  So the Disney View feature came up a number of years ago, and part of its genesis was the fact that the aspect ratio of these films, like “Dumbo,” some of the early “Dumbo” feature films, is what we referred to as 4:3 aspect ratio or 1:33 aspect ratio.  Most of the films that you view today are 1:85 aspect ratio or 1:78, but it’s a more rectangular image. And with the penetration of flat-screen televisions into a lot of homes, the consumers have a more rectangular television, so when you view a square picture on a rectangle, you have black bars on either side.

Well, the studio was getting some complaints from consumers that our movies were not taking up all of the real estate of their television screens.  So they came up with this concept of doing a Disney View, which was really putting some wallpaper up to cover the black bars.  And when Home Entertainment first approached me about this, I made the suggestion that we actually not just throw any old wallpaper up, but we get some artists that have a Disney connection, some Disney heritage to actually paint those sort of proscenium pieces for us that we could put up.

And so on “Dumbo,” we reached out to (James Cullman), but all of us that have worked with him over the years know him as (Jim).  And (Jim) is a well-known, world-renowned, actually, artist out there in the world, sells his paintings and prints in galleries all over the place, is very well collected in Japan and other places. (Jim) was a background painter and actually was head of backgrounds here at Disney for a number of years, but he was with the studio for nearly 20 years before he segued out into this fine art career that he has now. And so I reached out to (Jim) and asked him if he’d come in and work with us on doing these paintings to create this proscenium for “Dumbo.”  And he was absolutely thrilled to come in and work with us.  And what he came up with was a series of paintings that are representative of the sequences in the movie.

So as you’re watching the film, when we change locations, if we go from an interior sequence to an exterior sequence, those panels will change.  They’re designed to complement the movie and not detract from the film.  And, again, on the Blu-ray, it’s an optional feature, the same as the sound.  So if a purist wants to watch the movie with the black bars and in mono, they can.  If they want to watch the movie with the Disney View panels in 5.1 or 7.1, they can do that, too.  So it’s all choice. And I think (Jim) did a beautiful job on these panels.  They’re just gorgeous paintings.  And by the way, these are physical paintings that he did for us.  They weren’t done digitally, so it’s a throwback to the way the art was originally created, and I think he really captured some really nice panels here. They were all kind of based on the circus tent idea, almost.  I think a lot of them – it’s as if you’re viewing the movie from – you know, through an opening in a circus tent, which is kind of fun.  And each of these pieces then are also stored at the Animation Research Library for future – for preservation purposes.

(Mindy Johnson):    “Dumbo” will be available for the first time on Disney Blu-ray this month, September 20th.

(Sean Ferguson): Hi, this is Sean Ferguson with Why So Blu.com. Now that you can create these new transfers based on the original negative, are you planning to go back to the previous releases, like “Sleeping Beauty,” “Snow White,” and use the original element there?

(Sarah Duran-Singer): We actually have.  Any – those Blu-rays were – they were done in the same manner that we did “Dumbo.”

(Sean Ferguson): Oh, I thought I heard you say that you weren’t able to do that until “Bambi.”

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Oh, well, yes, but “Bambi” was the first one was did in 2003, so anything after 2003 was done in this manner.

(Sean Ferguson):      OK.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): “Sleeping Beauty” was our first Blu-ray that was done.  And then we did “Snow White.”  It just came out on Blu-ray a year-and-a-half ago.

(Dave Bossert): And “Fantasia,” which was just released.

(Joe Jiuliano):  But all of the classics, basically.

(Dave Bossert): Yes, we’ve basically gone through all the classics.  And just to be clear, these have been sort of a ground-up restoration.  In other words, we’ve gone right back to the nitrate negative for this whole series of restoration.  Anything that was done prior to that on VHS tape or early DVD is irrelevant to us.  We started each one of these titles right off the Nitrate negative and did a brand-new restoration.

(Sean Ferguson): Yes, these look incredible, by the way.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Thank you.

(Dave Bossert): Thank you.

(Sean Ferguson):  I was also wondering, if there any plans to go back to revisit other movies, like “Song of the South,” something that’s never even been released?

(Joe Jiuliano): Actually, right now, that’s part of the Library of Congress project.  And we have scanned that.  And I have shot new safety negative, but that’s as far as we’ve gone.

(Dave Bossert): That’s as far as we’ve gone on “Song of the South.”

(Sarah Duran-Singer): But it is preserved.  Again, the priority was to make sure our library was safe.

(Sean Ferguson): Well, that’s good.  Thank you.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): OK, next question.

(Eric Shirey): This is (Eric Shirey).  I work with Yahoo.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Hi, Eric.

(Eric Shirey): Yes, the stuff looks really good.  I’ve been looking at it here.  I’ve got a question.  What – you were saying earlier that some of them – it seemed like they didn’t pay off when you restored them.  At what point do you decide that something isn’t going to be worth enough or is going to make enough money to restore it?  I mean, how do you make that decision?

(Dave Bossert): Well, I think you have to understand something.  Everything that’s in our film library we believe needs to have some level of restoration and preservation done.  Some films or some animation may get a certain level of restoration, whereas a film like “Bambi” or “Fantasia” or any of our – you know, “Dumbo,” as we’re talking about, will get what we refer to as a pristine restoration.  But they’re all getting some level of restoration, and they’re all getting preservation.

(Joe Jiuliano): That’s right.  (Eric), the 16.5 million frames that we had talked about that were on Nitrate before 1955, all of it has been scanned 4K.  And I am just finishing up re-shooting safety negative on all of it.  And so it’s really the company’s decision when we go further with that but the decision to preserve it all has been made, and we’re doing that.

(Dave Bossert): Yes, and, you know, you have to also realize that some of this is driven by release schedules.

(Eric Shirey): I’ve got another question real quick.  (Sarah) said earlier that, when you restored “Steamboat Willie,” you made it look like it wasn’t perfect, like it still kind of had that shake to it.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Yes.

(Eric Shirey): Why – at what point do you decide to leave it that way, but sometimes with, like “Dumbo” and “Snow White” and the other ones, you make those look absolutely crystal-clear?  Like, where do you decide to draw the line there?

(Dave Bossert): Well, you know, it’s an interesting thing.  When we did “Steamboat Willie,” it’s a black-and-white cartoon.  It’s obviously one of the earliest – you know, if not the earliest – Mickey cartoon.  And we actually did a pristine restoration on that, where we took the flicker out, we took the weave of the film out, and we cleaned it up, and it was absolutely perfect looking, and we all sat there and said, “This doesn’t really look right,” from an artistic standpoint. And what we wound up doing was, we did what we would refer to as kind of a wedge test.  We backed in a little bit of grain.  We backed in a little bit of light flicker.  We backed in a little of film weave.  And we did that in various degrees.  And we actually showed it to Roy Disney.  And we explained the process to Roy.  And Roy absolutely agreed with us that you cannot make it that perfect, because that wasn’t the way it was created, with the technology of the day, and it just didn’t feel right.  So it was our group – if you will – groupthink that you had to leave a little bit of grain, weave, light flicker, for it to feel of the period.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Yes, we felt like we’d taken all the character out of it and all the life out of it.  And then we kind of said make it look the way the original filmmakers intended it, and in this particular case, it just was such a different experience that we did all respond, like – eh, we’ve got to back off a little bit.

(Joe Jiuliano): I think all of the old black-and-whites, the animation was done in such a loose – and I’d hate to say, it’s not really crude, but it’s…

(Dave Bossert): But it is.  This was a cruder style.

(Joe Jiuliano): And to see – to see that animation done in a pristine sort of digital way just didn’t seem to match.  And I think in these movies, at least the old black-and-whites that were done in that style of animation, there’s a part of history there that’s captured on the negative that doesn’t necessarily apply to the later color films or the Technicolor films.

(Dave Bossert): And it’s the same if you look at a black-and-white silent movie, you know?  It’s the same kind of thing.  If you try to make it look too perfect, it doesn’t play well.

(Joe Jiuliano): Yes, history is part of the equation on that.

(Eric Shirey): Do you think that you guys will ever, like, release a portion of it, just to kind of give us – give people an idea of what it looked like perfect?  I mean, just out of curiosity for people?

(Sarah Duran-Singer): I actually don’t think we saved that pristine one…

(Eric Shirey): Oh, really?

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Remember, this goes back to hand-drawn animation.  And if you take all that human element out of it…

(Joe Jiuliano): It’s hard to answer, because, you know, at one side, we’re saying, we’re going to make it as good as we can.  But everybody in that room felt the same way.  It was like, it just didn’t feel right.  And so – you know, that’s why we made that.

(Dave Bossert): And I think the other point to this, too, is that when we’re doing these restorations on all of the feature films and we’re doing pristine restorations, we’re not trying – like, for instance, on “Dumbo,” we didn’t take all of the paint crawl out.  We took a certain amount of the paint crawl out.  But if you watch that Blu-ray, you’re going to see a little bit here and there, but it’s not obtrusive to viewing the title.  It doesn’t take you out of the movie.  But it also allows for the viewer to understand that this is a hand-created piece of art.

(Joe Jiuliano): And a good example, also, are the shadows, the cell shadows, that we could have gone in and painted out all of the cell shadows.  That is the shadows that are cast by the lights on the animation camera by the actual character that’s on the cells that’s cast onto the background right underneath it.  And to take that out would really make it something different than what it was. So I think that’s a good point, that it’s pristine to a point, but we don’t really necessarily eliminate all the history of animation from it.

(Male): So what you’re saying is you that applied this methodology to “Dumbo,” as well, where there are some historical… aspects of it that you don’t want to wipe out?

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Yes, it’s a learning curve.  And, again, each film is unique, but we did discover, as we tested things, that if you go way too far – and I think you even run into this in live-action films – live-action titles where they remove all the grain, it starts to change the character of the film. We found if we just painted – got rid of every bit of grain, it made the film seem so current, kind of what we experienced with “Steamboat Willie,” that it did lose the character of that piece of art at that period of time.  So it’s a fine-line walked.  I mean, we kind of felt like, if it’s distracting you from the image, if it’s a big side of an elephant and all you’re noticing is paint crawl, that’s taking you out of the experience of the film.  But if it’s off to the side or it’s a smaller character, you know, you may not take all of the paint crawl out of there.

(Male):  May I ask when – when in your grain management decision-making, you decided not to degrain the films?  Was there one particular film where you had a shift in philosophy?

(Dave Bossert): No, I think that on each individual film, there is the discussion – and usually we look at a couple of samples as to what level of grain is going to be in it.  There was no blanket decision where we said, “Every single one.”

(Joe Jiuliano):  I don’t think ever got rid of film grain, because when we went back to the original negative, the film grain was much, much less than any of the multi-generation copies.  We did go and do a lot of tests on the grain of background papers, if you remember, because we were coming up with images that were so clear that sometimes that was distracting, and we would have to bring the grain back to it’s original level.

(Male): And how would you characterize the color palette of “Dumbo” and how it may be slightly different from the previous films?

(Dave Bossert): You mean in comparison to previous films or…

(Male): Yes.  What defines the color – what’s distinctive about the color palette of “Dumbo” that you discovered that’s different from “Snow White,” “Bambi,” “Pinocchio,” “Dumbo” and others.

(Dave Bossert): Well, I think the one thing we can say about “Dumbo” is that there’s larger areas of the screen that are covered with one color.  So that was one issue that was different from some of the other films that we’ve dealt with.

(Joe Jiuliano): Circus colors.

(Dave Bossert): And as far as just the color palette goes, the color palette is ‘circus,’ so there’s a lot more in the way of primary colors.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): We all remember the films from our childhood, where we might have seen them in the theater.  And I remember we did “Pinocchio.”  My childhood memory of “Pinocchio” was, oh, it’s dark, and it’s dark reds, and it’s a lot of heavy browns and woods, a lot of wood.  And then we scanned that negative and we saw what was on that negative, there was these beautiful pastel colors.  Pinocchio’s eyes were so blue…these pinks…these lavenders that for whatever reason the film prints that were generations away and were obviously not color-timed from the original, our memory of them was totally different. I’m sure it’s kind of like cleaning the Sistine Chapel.  You had no idea that there was this beautiful vibrant color there.  And we obviously could research to understand what the color palette was and look at reference books and artwork.

(Male):  Maybe say, because it’s a circus, it’s going to be more vibrant, more colorful…

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Yes.

(Male): (Inaudible) darker moments to this…

(Sarah Duran-Singer): You also have to remember, these Blu-rays are being played on high-definition monitors, which are very bright, which these films were really probably never seen that way — they were projected light.  So, again, it changes that sense of your experience when you’re looking at it on a very bright high-definition monitor.

(Sean Ferguson): So does it make any difference between something like “Sleeping Beauty,” that was shot on 70-millimeter, versus something like “Dumbo”?  Did you notice a big change, because there’s so much more space,  when you were trying to restore “Sleeping Beauty”?

(Dave Bossert): No, because you know why?  “Sleeping Beauty” was done in the late ’50s.  And you’ve got to realize that each one of these films, the Disney animation process of making these films kept getting better and better, and the technology kept improving, and so the later films to us, like “Sleeping Beauty,” had less in the way of issues in some instances than some of the early films.

(Joe Jiuliano): Also the stylized art direction in that made it different.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Yes, we’d get through one and think, oh, great, now we know how to do these, and then we’d start another movie, and the palette, the line art, the background, the character design was so completely different that we had to learn all over again, not just from a color palette perspective, but also working with our clean-up vendor, Lowry Digital.  They had to figure out the fact that the tools that they used on “Bambi” may not work on something like “Snow White,” so it was a constant learning curve.

(Dave Bossert): “Fantasia” is a great example of that, because we had all these different sequences that were done very differently, stylistically from one another, and used different types of special effects and camera effects and all kinds of things.

(Joe Jiuliano): That negative was probably the roughest for us.

(Dave Bossert): That was – yes, “Fantasia” was probably the roughest negative, because it was all pieced together.

(Joe Jiuliano):  Yes, because everybody used different parts of it for different things.

(Dave Bossert): Yes.

(Joe Jiuliano): A lot of mileage on it.

(Male): I have another question about the view panels that you guys did.  Have you, like – I know a lot of times studios will, like, kind of consumer test things a little bit here and there.  Have you done any of that?  And have you had any feedback about it?  I mean, have people said that it is distracting or it’s not distracting?  I think it’s a great idea, but, I mean…

(Dave Bossert): Well, you know what?  We’ve not – to my knowledge – and I’ve been intimately involved with the Disney View panels option on these Blu-rays from the inception – to my knowledge, there has not been any kind of negative comments made. I actually talked to a couple of what you would refer to as uber-fans who raised an eyebrow when this was first being proposed to be done.  And I had one of them come up to me after the first release, which I think was “Pinocchio”…

(Mindy Johnson):  It was.

(Dave Bossert): Yes, it was “Pinocchio.”  And (Toby Bluth) had done the art panels for “Pinocchio.”  And this person came up to me and said they didn’t think that they were going to watch the movie with the Disney View panels, but wound up watching the entire film with the panels and loved it.

(Male):  That’s right?.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Again, we give a choice.

(Dave Bossert):     Yes, it’s an option.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Yes, if the fan doesn’t like it, they don’t have to play it.

(Dave Bossert):Yes, but, you know, to my surprise, there were a number of uber-fans out there that have had positive feedback on it.

(Male): Was there one particular sequence out of the film that you guys found that was particularly challenging for restoration, you know, the one section – I’m thinking “Pink Elephants on Parade” must have been, you know, right up there.

(Dave Bossert): That actually wasn’t as bad of a sequence as you might have thought.  I think the one…

(Joe Jiuliano): Elephant pyramid…

(Dave Bossert): Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Anything with the elephants.

(Dave Bossert): The elephant pyramid, where they’re all trying to stack on top of each other, was a huge issue for us with paint crawl.  For whatever reason, that particular sequence had an abundance of paint crawl.

(Adam Gregorich): (Adam Gregorich), Home Theater Forum.  Just looping back to the color timing a bit, there was some concern when the “Bambi” Blu-ray was released that, you know, that maybe some things had been done to intentionally give it some extra pop and make it look more “Toy Story”-like, if you will. But just confirming based on everything you’re saying here, what you essentially did is went back to the original backgrounds and tried to use that as the basis for color – in other words, the original artistic intent – and anything that looks different than the way people remember is simply a matter of the fact that you went back to the original negative and got the colors so spot on with what was originally intended.  And if anything, what people have been watching over the years has been what’s been off, correct?

(Dave Bossert): You’re absolutely right.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Absolutely.

(Dave Bossert): You know, and as we’ve been going through this process, people are seeing these films and they’re saying, I don’t remember it looking like this.  Well, this is the way the movie was supposed to look. What people are remembering from their childhood at the local cinema in Oregon is something completely different than what the film really is.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): You know, it has been something that we’ve gotten a lot of push-back from, but we are passionate about it, because like I said, I remember “Pinocchio” being totally different.  But, again, everybody’s been viewing old film prints that are several generations away from the original negative.  A lot of these, the ones that we see, probably were not necessarily the newer generation, so who knows who was involved in the color timing…how are the projectors set up?  …what is the issues with the lenses? And we are so adamant about the amount of research that we do, we take months in research looking at art books, trying to find (IB) prints, talking to whoever is still available to us to speak to, taking backgrounds out, looking at them, shooting them through this successive exposure process, and looking at that on film, so that we are holding as true as possible to what was the original intention on that film. But we all do have this childhood memory.  And I think if we color timed to our childhood memory, everything would be dark, super contrast-y, with a lot of dark colors, and not like the vibrant jewel tones that you saw in “Sleeping Beauty” or the beautiful pastels that we saw in “Pinocchio.”

(Joe Jiuliano): Yes, the process was so different then, and we tried so hard to try to figure it out.  But one thing that we’ve never tried to do is make it look like it was a CG movie.  And that was never the context around it.  The context was always to try to go back and discover what the artists’ intent were in the original movie.

(Dave Bossert): And you’ve got to remember, on “Bambi,” we had (Ollie Johnson), (Frank Thomas), and (Tyrus Wong) in to look at the work that we were doing on it.  And, you know, these are original artists that worked on the film.  So I would much rather satisfy them and make them happy than somebody out there in the world who maybe is remembering seeing the movie 25 years ago at their local cinema.

(Joe Jiuliano): Yes, our conscience is clear on that.

(Dave Bossert):     Yes, we can sleep comfortably at night.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): With the screening that (Ollie) and (Frank) attended – and I’ve done tons of screenings.  I’ve been at Disney now for 24 years.  With probably the most nerve-wracking moment I’ve ever had, when the lights went up, and we all turned around and looked at those two gentlemen and waited for their reaction.  I was just petrified.  And to see them smile and say, “It’s beautiful.  It’s how we intended it,” was just so satisfying for the whole team.

(Dave Bossert):     It was validation for the entire team and the collective efforts of the team in what we’re doing with this restoration and preservation program.  So any kind of negative chatter on the Internet is from people who are detached from the entire process, who are just reacting from their own personal memories.

(Male): No, I’m finding that I’m falling in love with these movies all over again on Blu-ray…

(Joe Jiuliano): There you go.  That’s right.

(Male):  … and seeing – and seeing them in a new way.  And in some ways, it’s like seeing them for the first time.

(Dave Bossert): Exactly right, because that’s what we’ve been telling a lot of our colleagues here at the studio is that they need to see these Blu-ray editions of these films, because they haven’t seen the movie until you see the Blu-ray.

(Joe Jiuliano):  That’s right.  “Have you seen ‘Pinocchio’?'  Not yet.”  Well, that was really good to hear what you just said, because that’s really what we aim for, is for you to feel like you’ve seen it for the first time.

(Eric Shirey): I’ve got a question a little off topic, but still Disney-related.  Is there any plans – do any kind of restoring to – and I don’t know if you guys would be a part of it or not – “Darby O’Gill”?

(Sarah Duran-Singer): I can answer that.  Who is this I’m speaking with?

(Eric Shirey): Oh, I’m sorry.  It’s (Eric Shirey) with Yahoo.  I absolutely love that movie.  And you can find it nowhere.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Well…

(Joe Jiuliano): We’ll do it for you, (Eric).

(Sarah Duran-Singer): I’ll tell you what – yes, actually we can talk a bit about the studio-wide effort of preservation and restoration.  We are in a multi-year effort to basically re-master and restore and preserve the entire Disney studio library.  And “Darby O’Gill” is on the list.

(Eric Shirey): Oh, good.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): It is currently being somewhat driven by commerce.  If we have an HD Blu-ray coming up or we have an HD TV sale, then those titles go to the top of the list.  But when we have time, we try to work proactively.  And last year – the end of the fiscal year is coming up, so I’m saying fiscal year 2011 – we actually did “Parent Trap,” the original Hayley Mills “Parent Trap,” “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” “Old Yeller,” and “Absent-Minded Professor,” and “Pollyanna.”

(Eric Shirey): Wow.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Yes, and they look great.  And those were 4K scans.  They’re not – you know, with full pristine dirt clean-up.  And in the case of, like, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” we took out the wires on the – the big giant squid fight.

(Dave Bossert): By the way, I just saw a digital screening of “20,000 Leagues” here at the studio, and it looks unbelievable.

(Eric Shirey): Yes, that’s one of my favorites.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): “Darby O’Gill” is on that list and probably would be tackled either this coming fiscal year or the next fiscal year.  Then we’ve just got to put it out on Blu-ray.

(Eric Shirey): OK, so you guys will, like, digitally do things to that, like you’ll take out the wires or maybe clean up the, like, lines around the people, you know, like the miniatures and stuff?

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Yes.  Yes.

(Eric Shirey): Cool, OK.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): It’s the same sort of approach.  I mean, it was fine when it was released originally, because the projection abilities at that time and the film stocks and the grain kind of hid those things.  But now if you look at it on a high-definition bright plasma or LCD monitor, that stuff jumps out at you and it takes you out of the movie, which was not the experience. And in “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” Walt went to huge effort to hide the wires.  I mean, obviously, he shot – that was originally a daylight fight.  And when he saw the original footage, he went, “Oh, this is not working,” and they went back at huge expense for back then and re-shot it at night to help kind of make it – the squid look real and hide some of the mechanics of the squid.

(Eric Shirey): OK.  OK.  Excellent.  Again, I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to take us off of, you know, the subject.  I just (inaudible).

(Male): Any chance those ones that just got – that you mentioned, “Parent Trap,” “Absent-Minded Professor,” “20,000 Leagues,” “Swiss Family Robinson,” the ones that we saw those deluxe DVD releases of, any chance that all of you there can go with pitchforks to the home video office and get them to actually get those scheduled for Blu-ray releases?

(Sarah Duran-Singer): What we try to do — home entertainment is one of our clients.  If we’re doing something proactively, we’re constantly letting them know – giving them a list of what’s been done.  So if they have an opening in their slate, we say, hey, here are some great potential titles. And obviously, they look at it and they balance it, they will look at that list, and they will pull from that.  But, you know, it also feeds television broadcasts.  So if for whatever reason, somebody’s rebroadcasting “Pollyanna,” you would see that restored master.

(Sean Ferguson): And what about a hybrid, like “Mary Poppins”?  Is that a more difficult effort, because you’ve got animation and live action?  And is that on the way, hopefully?

(Sarah Duran-Singer): “Mary Poppins” is on the slate for next year. Live action is a lot easier, because you don’t have all these other issues that are introduced, like paint crawl, (cell scruff), animation pops.  Newton rings, SE dirt.  Obviously, we have the animated sequence in the middle of the movie that we’ll have to tackle, but in general, live action, it’s negative dirt and it’s in scratches.  And once in a while, there might be something like a frame jump or something like that.  But live action is easier. But that is one in the queue.  We’re looking towards the 50th anniversary.

(Sean Ferguson): Oh, great.  Thanks.

(David Lamacher): Hey, guys.  (David Lamacher), iRateFilms.com.  How are you doing today?

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Hi, (David).

(David Lamacher): Excellent.  Earlier this year, I had the wonderful opportunity to speak to (Andres Deja) about the “Bambi” restoration, and he spoke to me about the fact of the importance of keeping – like you guys said – the original artist integrity, but also the restoration for new generations of these classic movies to show kids that artists really did do these hand-drawn animations.  Do you feel as if “Dumbo” also represents that, as well?

(Joe Jiuliano): Yes.

(Dave Bossert): Do you want us to elaborate?

(David Lamacher): Please do.  Please do.

(Dave Bossert): Yes, absolutely – this is something that we discuss on every single one of these restorations and preservations.  And as I mentioned earlier, we’re not going in and making these so perfect and pristine that it sort of – as somebody said, it makes it like it’s a CG movie.  That’s not the intention here. The intention here is really to take out the artifacts, the anomalies, the things that were photographed in that shouldn’t have been, and to present the film the way it was originally intended to be seen, but not to detract or take away from the fact that it is a handmade piece of art. So in other words, on “Dumbo,” the paint crawl, not taking that out completely, but taking it back so that it’s not distracting from the viewing of the film.

(David Lamacher): Excellent.  Excellent.  And he also mentioned that the technology that is available today wasn’t available before, and he said, with “Bambi,” it being so old, that restoration was almost not possible because of the nitrate damage and the others things that you guys talked about earlier.  Were there that same problems with “Dumbo” that there were with “Bambi”?

(Joe Jiuliano): If I remember right, I think what we’re talking about is that the earlier restorations were done on film elements, that they were – you know, they were actually Photochemical.

(Joe Jiuliano): They were physically cleaning up dirt and stuff, but you really couldn’t go in and take cell flashes out or cell dirt out because all you were doing was preserving that negative and the problems that were inherent in that piece of film itself.  So I think what we’re talking about is that once you scan the original negative and you get it in the digital world, you have the ability to do an awful lot of preservation to it and restoration that’s not available to you when you were just looking through a microscope at a frame of film and trying to touch up physically what’s on that film element.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): I will say, even between when we restored “Bambi” in 2003 and it recently came out on Blu-ray, we went back into it again, because the tools and the artists’ ability and our knowledge has grown so much over this seven, eight years that when we looked at “Bambi,” which was our very first restoration through the – using the original successive exposure negative and scanning it, we went, oh, we can do better. And we went back to our partners at Reliance-Lowry Digital, and we tackled a lot of the things that back then we couldn’t even get to.  So each year, again, the artists get better, our knowledge gets better, and the tools get better, so it may just continue to be an ongoing process.

(David Lamacher): Excellent.  Thank you so much, you three.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): You’re welcome.

(Eric Shirey): Hi.  This is (Eric) again with Yahoo.  The reason that – or, I’m sorry – the question is, some of those cells that I saw were like almost completely wiped clean, like half of the image was gone.  How in the – how do you guys restore something like that?  I mean, in layman’s terms, I mean, like, when there’s a whole half of a cell gone, what do you do?

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Well, then what we do – as I mentioned on “Steamboat Willie” – it becomes a bit of a treasure hunt.  And we have our partners over at our studio inventory.  And we look to see what else we have.  And we obviously want to take the best possible element, which is why we always start with that nitrate successive exposure, but in the case of what we talked about, with “Steamboat Willie” and other films, there have been sections – I think there was actually a section on…

(Joe Jiuliano): (Nine feet).

(Sarah Duran-Singer): … yes, (nine feet) of “Steamboat Willie,” there was a section on “Bambi.”  I don’t think we had that issue on “Dumbo,” that the film is gone, and if half the frame is gone, there’s nothing you can do.

(Eric Shirey): Well, it looked like “Snow White” was like that, too, a little bit.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Oh, yes.  No, there were sections of “Snow White.”  So then you have to look at your next best possible element, which is probably several generations away from that original negative.  And then we scan that, and then we have to work with our artists to try to make it look the same and as close as possible.  And sometimes you’re successful, and sometimes you do your best.  But if the image is gone, we have to look for the next possible element.

(Joe Jiuliano): Sometimes you can use the frame before or after to pick up elements and put layers together to create a new frame, if you have to.  Just whatever you need to do, we have to do.

(Dave Bossert): Yes, the one thing you guys should know, I mean, like the 1928 original “Steamboat Willie” negative is gone.  I mean, it’s dust.  It’s decayed and it’s done with.  So you then – as (Sarah) was saying, you look at your next best, which is a dupe negative, I think, from 1933…

(Joe Jiuliano): Right, and it would still be a black-and-white element.

(Dave Bossert): Yes, it’s still a black-and-white element, but that dupe negative from 1933 already has – I think it was nine feet had to be cut out of it because it was starting to decay.  So that’s the big battle here, that the whole film industry is looking at, is this – you know, these nitrate assets are decaying.  There’s a chemical breakdown happening, and the best you can possibly do is prolong it, but it’s going to eventually just turn to dust, as it were.

(Eric Shirey): So do, like, artists re-draw those scenes?  Or do you like…

(Dave Bossert):     No.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): No.  No, because you can’t capture those hand strokes.  You can’t.  It’s a style, and it’s an artist.  So we want to use the original art.  So, like I said, if we are missing something – we’ve never lost – except for the case of “Steamboat Willie” – really, these nitrates, because they are black-and-white and because of the way they were stored at the Library of Congress, the forward-thinking of some of the people here at Disney years ago.  They were accessible. For the small sections that are missing, we would find another section.  But, you couldn’t ask an artist to draw like (Frank Thomas).  It just wouldn’t work.

(Dave Bossert): There’s always another film element.  There’s always dupe negatives.  There’s always…

(Joe Jiuliano):  The only thing is that then you’re into matching.  Then you try to match the two best options.

(Dave Bossert): Right.

(Joe Jiuliano): So – but the thing that we’ve never used in any of these restorations or any color negatives or (color IBs) and trying to match.  It’s always been either a black-and-white positive separation that would be pulled from the original negative or another black-and-white safety of that, because that we can match.  But I think once you start getting into some of the color (inter-positives) or (inter-negatives) that were made later on in the ’60s, that you could never really make look right, if you had to cut that in.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): And that’s part of the reason why the studio really spent a lot of money and time scanning those nitrates and re-preserving them again and (re-filming out) a new SE negative, because that negative wasn’t going to last.  And now – like I said, now we’ve got another 100-year window on this new successive exposure negative, if not longer.

(Joe Jiuliano): Yes, and you have to understand that the new negative that we’ve shot from that is not touched up.  It’s actually a capture of the original camera negative, with all of the stuff in it that we’ve so painstakingly taken out, because we may be assuming that down the road it’ll be restored again and we would want to start from that negative.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Yes, you wouldn’t want to bake in any sort of clean-up or any grain reduction.  You shouldn’t bake that in, because – let’s say in 50 years the restoration and clean-up tools could be so beyond what we use now (inaudible) that’s already been baked in, then they can’t do much with it.

(Joe Jiuliano): Right.  So we have an exact copy of the original negative for good — for everything that’s in it.

(Eric Shirey):  Sure.  So you can go back to the source every time.

(Joe Jiuliano): Correct.  Correct.

(Sarah Duran-Singer): Yes.

(Mindy Johnson): All right.  Well, thanks so much.  (Dave), (Sarah), (Joe), thank you so much for your time and expertise and participation in today’s event.

END

So there you have it.  I was very happy to be a part of this discussion and to learn about Disney’s upcoming plans for bringing their animation and live action films to Blu-ray after they’ve been restored and preserved.  Although there isn’t a set time for Song of the South to be released, I’m happy that it has been preserved so it will be ready for its eventual release.  Thanks to everyone at Disney for the insights into their process and for the opportunity to ask them some questions!  The fully restored 70th Anniversary Edition of Dumbo will be released on September 20.

Pre-order your copy today!

So I guess before we go any further we should clear the air and talk a little bit about the Tim Sullivan directed segment known as “I Was a Teenage Werebear” within the gut wrenchingly hysterical, totally offensive (and I mean that in a good way for us fans) horror/comedy anthology Chillerama.  The segment is both a musical and a spoof of Rebel Without a Cause, Grease and The Twilight Saga.  Tim talks openly about his love for musicals, and most importantly one of my all-time favorites, Moulin Rouge, in my candid audio interview with Adam Rifkin and him here.  The segment is set in the 60’s and erotically explores a teenager’s curiosity with a pack of werebears, nevertheless led by the handsome and rugged bad boy of the clan, Mr. Anton Troy.  And guess what?  Today I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity to sit down with the leader of the pack, Anton Troy.  So let’s get started (my questions are in bold below)!

Good day Anton.  Thanks for stopping by today.  How’s it going?

Doin’ peachy, thank you.

So tell me a little more about your character Talon in “I Was a Teenage Werebear,” how you became involved in the Chillerama segment and just what the hell is a werebear?

We could have an entire interview structured around this one question—thanks for starting me off easy Brian… The bad boy, the brute, the misunderstood angsty, well-intentioned loner kid with heart that could probably still kick your ass—that’s Talon.  I became affiliated with Chillerama totally by fate I believe.  I met Scream Queens 2 winner Gabby West at a small gathering of mutual friends.  Gabby was already slated to play Peggy Lou after her work in Saw and her working relationship with Tim on Scream Queens.  So several months passed and out of the blue I wake up to this voice mail from our mutual friend saying “Gabby recommended you for an audition TODAY with Tim Sullivan… oh and by the way they want you to sing, dance and read for two parts, can you make it?”  I was TERRIFIED as I was like sing?  WHAT, today, like 5 hours from now, serious?  But how are you gonna say no right!  So evidently they were open to recommendations as Tim being the discerning director that he is just could not find the right bad boy for the job and deadline was approaching.  Needless to say we hit it off, they auditioned the hell out of me and now here I am.  As far as Werebears go, look up the definition of Bear—no not like Yogi and combine that with Rob Halford and a pinch of Lon Chaney and there you go.

Gotcha!  Speaking of director Tim Sullivan, I had the pleasure to meet, interview and hang out with the man.  He’s a real class act.  You’d be hard pressed to meet anyone nicer in Hollywood.  So with that being said, how was it working for the man on the set?

Tim is very passionate about his art and he is also someone with a definite voice that resonates throughout his work, definitely not a drone or a wishy washy personality.  He’s incredibly considerate of your feelings on set and always took the time to make me feel comfortable about what was going on even under pressure.  He knows what he wants in a shot and was very gracious in allowing me the freedom to allow Talon to evolve into something special.  It really was an evolution as Tim ended up doing a lot of re-writes on the set for Talon simply because we were coming up with so many fantastic ideas that weren’t envisioned in the original script.  Talon started out as sort of a comedic villain and then ended up being more of an anti-hero.  I am very grateful to Tim for noticing the potential of the character to have more depth and then making me such a part of that creation.

Well, as I said before, you gotta love Tim Sullivan!  Since Comic-Con, have there been any plans finalized as of yet as to exactly where and when the drive-in Chillerama tour will take place?  Please say Cleveland, OH!

They have not even told me yet—but the good news is they have announced the official Blu-Ray release to be Nov 29^th, and rumor has it that you can even pre-order copies!  I suggest signing up at www.chilleramafilm.com for more details.

That’s awesome news about the Blu-ray release date.  I just looked online and sure enough the pre-order link is up on Amazon today!  So tell me more about you.  What makes Anton Troy tick?  How did you get involved in acting and what do you like to do for fun or to unwind?  We all have our vices, right?

I come from an entertainment family really—My Grandfather was a rodeo cowboy and Hollywood stuntman who did all the westerns and doubled such greats as James Cagney and my Mother was a professional mime and children’s entertainer so I guess you could say I kind of grew up in a dressing room.  My Father was non-existent and acting became an outlet to express my feelings in a constructive way. I get high off of the rush of being in sync with another actor in a scene—that point when the connection becomes magic.  I love interacting with people and spending time with friends, but my alone time is very important to me especially during the creative process.

I have to agree with you 110% on that alone time statement.  What’s next on your plate in the entertainment world?  I saw on your IMDB page that you also have a short called Grapple in post-production and a film I need to check out one day called Filth to Ashes, Flesh to Dust.

Grapple is a great little comedy I did about High School wrestling and Filth to Ashes is a 70’s style slasher film directed by my talented friend Mr. Paul Morrell.  We will see where the wind takes me…

The following is a three-part question.  I’m notorious for these.  I do apologize.  Are there any particular genres you want to try doing in the future?  And what about directors and actors?  Are there certain ones you would love to work with some day?

It has always been a dream to work with Clint Eastwood, I have always been mesmerized by his level of cool. Darren Aronofsky is a gritty favorite, James Cameron rocks and I think I would be perfect for a Tarantino film.  Would be a dream to act with Michael Caine or Gary Oldman and of course I hope I get to do more with my immensely talented pals, Tim Sullivan, Adam Green, Joe Lynch and Adam Rifkin.  The talent of all these men is a great source for my inspiration.  I have done a lot of comedy, but would love to get opportunities to do drama, action and thrillers.

I couldn’t agree with you more on the Chillerama 4-man brain trust.  So I have to ask you…what are some of your all-time favorite films and actors out there?  It’s always kind of cool to know who or what has influenced people’s career choices in life.

My taste is so vast—I love the quiet strength of Russell Crowe, the presence of Brando, vulnerability of James Dean, darkness of Johnny Depp but I also own more Schwarzenegger films than one should probably have!  High Plains Drifter is my favorite Eastwood film, A Beautiful Mind touches my heart and Mickey Rourke’s performance in The Wrestler resonates with me on a soul level.  Robocop is an all time favorite and I love misunderstood anti-hero archetypes like Mel Gibson in Payback.

For fans of yours reading this or any aspiring actors out there, do you have any words of wisdom for them about getting into the Hollywood scene and getting your name out there?

First of all make sure you are getting into acting for the right reasons, simply wanting to be famous will not sustain you when your broke and no one cares who you are, it has to be a passion or rather an obsession.  Be nice to EVERYONE as you never know who someone is and where you might get that break.  Take the time to learn the skills to become excellent at what you do, entertainment is a business and should be treated as such and I recommend all would be film actors read Michael Caine’s book Acting In Film.

Alright…what else should your fans and our readers know about you?  What matters most in life to you?

Excellence.  It is my hope that I can be a beneficial presence within the film industry and on earth and I just sincerely enjoy entertaining people and artistically exploring the human experience.  Everyone can also check me out on my official website www.antontroy.com or on Twitter @anton_troy.

Great answer!  I love it!  Well thanks again for taking the time to sit down with me today.  I appreciate it!  I will probably be in the Los Angeles and San Diego area towards the end of the month trying to secure investments for my film Amy so hopefully we can try to hang for a bit while I’m there if time permits.  I look forward to seeing you again real soon and wish you much luck in everything you set out to do.   Take care!

Yes of course and thank you so much for having me Brian, you rock brother!

Anton Troy ladies and gentlemen (round of applause)…

Bellflower

Embedded and linked below is an interview, which took place during the busy time that was San Diego Comic Con 2011.  Myself and a few others received the opportunity to interview all of the main stars involved with the production of Bellflower.  The participants included the previously mentioned writer/director/star Evan Glodell, as well as stars Jessie Wiseman, Tyler Dawson, Rebekah Brandes, and Vincent Grashaw.  The conversation was a fun discussion that goes over many elements of the film, including its origins, what went into the making of the film, the casting and scripting process, and what Medusa meant to everyone.  The interview lasts about 20 minutes and is uncut and uncensored (towards the end there is a bit more language…instigated by me).  The audio quality is not as pristine as I would have liked, but it should still be clear enough, so I hope people will enjoy the interview and be sure to check out Bellflower, which will be rolling out in limited release during the rest of this summer.

Link to the audio can be found HERE

BELLFLOWER

Written and Directed by: Evan Glodell

Starring: Evan Glodell, Jessie Wiseman, Tyler Dawson, Rebekah Brandes, Vincent Grashaw

Release Date: August 5, 2011

Running Time: 105 min

Rating: Rated R for disturbing violence, some strong sexuality, nudity, pervasive language, and some drug use.

Website: http://www.bellflower-themovie.com/

Best friends Woodrow and Aiden spend all of their free time building MAD MAX-inspired flamethrowers and muscle cars in preparation for a global apocalypse.  But when Woodrow meets a charismatic young woman and falls hard in love, he and Aiden quickly integrate into a new group of friends, setting off on a journey of love and hate, betrayal, infidelity, and extreme violence more devastating and fiery than any of their apocalyptic fantasies.

And check out all of the pictures I got to take of the actual car used for the film: MEDUSA

Like the Adam Green’s of the world, when you talk to Marcus Fuller, you are truly getting an education in filmmaking that no money in the world can buy you, because in one candid conversation you are getting his inside knowledge, his upfront and brute honesty and his real-life, practical experience.  That my friends is worth a million in its weight in gold.  It’s people like Marcus that give up and coming aspiring filmmakers like myself a reason to hang in there and not give up no matter how many proverbial walls are suddenly placed before you.  In fact, when I hung up the phone with Marcus (and if it wasn’t for my day job, we could have talked for hours), I felt like a million bucks (just like my second sentence in this paragraph).  No joke.  I was so excited and ready to tackle whatever challenges the rest of the day was going to throw at me.  I walked back into work with a sh!t-eating grin that not even the sombest of people could strip from me.  I ruled the planet that day.

And you know what’s the best?  Like myself, Marcus is an Ohio native.  I’m going to make a bold statement here.  I believe we were separated at birth.  Okay.  There’s that one year difference in age, but as you will hear in the below interview, there is NOT a thing we disagreed on or that I wouldn’t do differently than Marcus.  Aspiring filmmakers listen up…this is a man who you are truly going to want to emulate your career after.  Mark my words.  Have I ever led you astray yet?

So it’s with great enthusiasm, great pride and more importantly, great joy, that I present the below 50-minute conversation between Marcus Dean Fuller and myself from last Thursday.  The interview (minus 10-minute offline chat) is presented to you completely uncut and unedited.  What started off as my normal 15-minute scripted interview became so much more.  Remember…good things happen to us for a reason and I, for one, can’t wait to check out the red carpet premiere of One Fall this Wednesday and converse, in person, with Marcus.  Like an Adam Green/Adam Barnick behind-the-scenes Blu-ray doc, the following audio interview is what the textbooks are leaving out.  Listen up…take notes…and enjoy!

Interview with ONE FALL’s Marcus Dean Fuller by Why So Blu?

Distribution Company: Paladin

Release Date: September 2011

Directed by: Marcus Dean Fuller

Written by: Marcus Dean Fuller and Richard Greenberg

Produced By: Dean Silvers and Marlen Hecht

Executive Producer: Richard K. Smucker

Starring: Marcus Dean Fuller, Zoe McLellan, Seamus Mulcahy, and James McCaffrey

Running Time: 85 minutes

Rating: “PG-13” by the MPAA

Website: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1563740/

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/onefall

ONE FALL, a powerful story about a man (Marcus Dean Fuller) who is both blessed and cursed with an unusual power, is set in the rustic Midwestern town of One Fall. The film tells the story of a man who miraculously survived a terrible fall from a spectacular 200 foot-high precipice that is the area’s major attraction. After recovering, he abruptly abandoned friends and family and disappeared without explanation. The secret he couldn’t share with them was that, while recovering, he had suddenly developed the power to heal others. Tired of running away, he returns home after a long absence and decides to use his gift – but not altruistically. If people pay him, he will cure them. Though he appears to be doing the right thing, he is doing it for all the wrong reasons, and risks driving away anyone who ever loved or trusted him. As his moral crisis peaks, he must figure out why he survived his fall, and what he is really meant to do with his life.

Check out One Fall’s Official Trailer below.

Spartacus: Vengeance

The interview roundtables were held on Friday, July 22nd at the beautiful Hilton Bayfront hotel.   The star participants included Liam McIntyre, Lucy Lawless, Manu Bennett, Dustin Clare, Katrina Law and executive producer Steven S. DeKnight.   They were all on hand to discuss everything related to the prequel, the first season and the hotly anticipated second season…no holds barred.   I will present them below in the order as they were conducted (please excuse the poor iPhone pictures).  For anyone that does not want to listen to the audio interviews in their entirety I was also nice enough to very briefly summarize what was said by each actor.   Why?  Because I’m such a nice guy!

Liam McIntyre (Spartacus) and Steven DeKnight

Newcomer Liam McIntyre claimed he was already a big fan of the show before trying out.   He said he lost so much weight for the role.   He talked about his rigorous diet and the boot camp he underwent last September.  He said there were two days in particular that were the toughest.

DeKnight talked about Andy Whitfield’s departure from the show and his wishes to want the show to continue.  He said he was not trying to cast to recreate the physical appearance of Andy, but instead for talent.

Lucy Lawless (Lucretia)

Lucy recounts how her character lost a lot in Season 1.  She said her character will fight for survival in Season 2, but she’s got a master plan and endgame in sight.  She also talked about the show’s great writing.  She went on to admit that she is a bit nervous without John Hannah this season.   She says that Viva Bianca will bring more intrigue to the show.  She finished by talking about the sheer amount of money that goes into the show and how her character in Season 2 will initially be desolate, but will quickly get her mojo back.

Manu Bennett (Crixus)

Manu commented on how the scripts for the show are great.  He said in the second season there will still be a struggle between his character and Spartacus because of their different nationalities.  He said the second season will have lots of retribution.   He claims the appeal of the show is that viewers love the show and the characters no matter if they are villains or good guys.  He expanded upon his love for working on the show by saying that the actors are allowed to give insight and ideas about their characters to Steven DeKnight.  He says nothing stays the same.   He also said that camera and special effects have upped the game and that the aerial landscape shot in the Season 2 trailer will blow you away now that they are out in the real world.

Katrina Law (Mira)

Katrina says that Mira’s biggest journey in Season 2 is figuring out who she is, how does she fit into this new world and what does it mean to be free.  She says that Mira loves Spartacus because of the tender way he acts and how he treated his wife.  She claims there are not a lot of pranks on the set because there is a lot of ground to cover and tight shooting schedules.  She commented on the brilliant one liners we all came to know and love from the show.  She said they just finished episode 6 before breaking for a short hiatus.  She is excited to see Mira’s journey.  When asked, she said the actors get the script 1-1.5 weeks beforehand.  She also said we will see a lot of female slaves this year.  She went on to say that the sets are so varied and she is really proud of the show.  She is appreciative of her role.  She finished by saying that she watched the prequels as a fan much like the first 10 episodes of Season 1.  And oh yeah…I can’t forget this.  She called me out at the table and asked me if I interviewed her before.  When I said yes, she said she knew my name was familiar.   Needless to say, I had a sh1t eating grin on my face.   That full interview can be found here.

Dustin Clare (Gannicus)

I don’t know what it is about this guy, but I loved him in the prequels and he really impressed me in person, but I digress.   Dustin shied away from the initial question asked of him because he cannot giveaway the plot of Season 2 and how the characters will all meet up.  He says his character has a strong sense of purpose and won’t be swayed by anyone.  He would not elaborate on any character relationships.  He did know ahead of time that he would be in Season 2.  Lucky man!   He confirmed that 5 years of fictional time has elapsed between the prequel series and Season 2.  He said he was not included in the hunt for Andy’s replacement.  He also said he did a musical in Australia.  He said there will be romantic subplots and women in his life in Season 2.  He said gladiator school was hard and again and not easy at all.   He expanded by saying that he doesn’t eat a lot and does lots of stunts.   He finished that thought by saying the stunt team was nominated for an Emmy for the fight scene in episode 6 of the prequel and that the fight scene took 8 days to film.  He answered my final question by saying that Season 2 will both be about revenge and being hunted.

So let me ask.   Are you all as excited as I am?   Because…I cannot ‘effing wait!   Gladiators!

Season 2′s trailer premiered first at the Comic-Con panel on Friday, July 22nd.  It has since been shared with members of the press.   Make sure to check it out below as well as some of our exclusive balcony pictures I snapped of the cast at the Hilton Bayfront hotel.   What a beautiful view!   Enjoy!

So with that all being said, I am pleased to share with you my 17-minute conversation with two of my newest favorites, Adam Rifkin and Tim Sullivan.  And if those names sound familiar to you, then they should.  They just so happened to be involved and responsible for a little cult favorite of mine, Detroit Rock City.  By the way, can we get this out on Blu-ray already?!  Click below to listen to the audio interview in its entirety.  Enjoy!

Comic-Con 2011: Interview with CHILLERAMA’s Adam Rifkin and Tim Sullivan by Darkest Night Productions

If you haven’t already, make sure to check out the full review of Chillerama here.

So it’s with great pleasure that I present the below two-part audio interview (we thought we were out of time on the first one) I conducted with Adam Green this past Friday afternoon at Gas Lamp Cinemas in San Diego just hours before the premiere of his newest collaborative anthology feature, Chillerama.  As always Adam, if you are reading this, thank you so much for your kindness, generosity, hospitality and above all…your priceless advice.  I’m forever in your debt.

Comic-Con 2011: CHILLERAMA’s Adam Green Interview – Part 1 by Darkest Night Productions

Comic-Con 2011: CHILLERAMA’s Adam Green Interview – Part 2 by Darkest Night Productions

If you haven’t already, make sure to check out the full review of Chillerama here.

So how are you doing at Comic-Con this year?

Good! It’s been going well.  We had our panel last night that had a good turnout…

That’s good…

And a good group of panelists…

Is this the first time you’ve had a booth here?

We were here last year. (Seeing a passerby) Look at that, she looks so pretty.

Yeah I’ve seen a lot of creativity here…hey look there’s Lou Ferrigno!

Oh yeah! I met him earlier…he’s actually represented by my old agent.

Really? Small world…

Yeah it is a small world.

Ok…a lot of fans were surprised that Anakin would have an apprentice on the show considering what happens during Revenge of the Sith.  How did you approach that and what kind of role do you think Ahsoka plays?  Is she there there to reflect the changes in Anakin?

Oh wow.  Umm…you know I knew that she would be a major character in the Clone Wars but I didn’t know how long she would last.  Again, I don’t know Ahsoka’s fate and people ask me all the time what is her fate and I truly don’t know.  I know theories…I’ve heard theories but you know anything for certain I don’t know.  So you know…I think she plays many roles in the Clone Wars…I’ve heard in the past from Dave Filoni that you know…the audience is supposed to experience the Clone Wars through Ahsoka’s eyes…especially the kids…I think the kids can really relate to her and so maybe she’s just a more relatable character that you can put yourself in and see the Clone Wars through her eyes.

I’ve noticed she’s definitely matured over the course of the show and it seems like she’s becoming more and more like Anakin versus say someone like Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Yes.  Well she’s very much becoming more like Anakin because that’s her master so it’s kind of like a kid who mimics their parent a lot.  She’s just going to become naturally more like him because that’s her Jedi Master…I mean Jedi Knight not master…but umm… I think she’s a mix of several different characters.  She’s a mix of obviously mostly Anakin but she does have a little bit of Obi-Wan in her, a little bit of Padme in her, a little bit of Mace Windu in her…I mean a little bit of Plo Koon in her…she takes bits and pieces of all of her mentors.  She’s a melting pot of them all.

She’s is really unique since she does have so many different connections that most them don’t have since Anakin mostly just has Obi-Wan and briefly Qui-Gon, but for her we’ve learned this season that she’s got Plo Koon and all the others and that she’s kind of a different character than everyone else.

Yeah.

What do you think her arc is actually going to be?  I mean ultimately, she’s either going to end up following Anakin to the dark side…which probably won’t happen, or there’s going to be some kind of a confrontation between her and Anakin.  Something is going to have to happen. I mean obviously you don’t know what’s going to happen at the very end but do you see a pattern or an arc leading to something?

No…I mean the thing is that I still feel that Ahsoka is far from the dark side.  I mean… she’s still innately in her…she just wants to do what’s right at all costs.  She knows the Jedi way and she tries her best to live out the Jedi way at all costs.  So with that being said, I think she’s far from it…far from the dark side but I don’t know…you know…I’m not the writer of the show…

I know.

The thing is that I don’t even try to be because we have such a fantastic writing staff and also Dave Filoni.  Dave Filoni is on top of it all and he knows his stuff.  I couldn’t even begin to script a better ending that what I know they’re going to come up with…but I don’t know what it is yet but I know it’s going to be a good ending…

Yeah…

…So I don’t even try to hypothesize because I know it wouldn’t be as good.

But does knowing what’s going to happen in Episode III affect your choices you are making now?  Or does it have any effect on you at all?

It doesn’t have any effect on me.  I mean the only thing that has an effect on me is as she gets older.  I mean I really made a conscious choice to act older, sound older, and be more mature.  That’s really the only thing that’s affected my performance because I don’t think what happens in the future matters.  I mean…she doesn’t know what’s going to happen in the future, I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, and I’m talking about your future, so you know…it doesn’t impact how you act today.

Right.  I know she can’t predict the future, but what I meant was that other than Obi-Wan, probably nobody else knows Anakin as well as Ahsoka…

Yeah I know what you are asking…

…so for Obi-Wan, he’s starting to see the seeds of darkness within Anakin and he’s starting to get a little uncomfortable…

Yeah…

…and he’s starting to see how far Anakin will go to achieve his goals…

I think she senses stuff at times and reacts by questioning his actions at the time.  She definitely questions his actions but she’s so blinded by love and I mean platonic love…but she loves Anakin so much that she only sees the good and it’s almost like she can’t see the bad in him.  I mean she’s so…you know they say that attachment leads the way to the dark side but she’s attached to Anakin.  So she does question his actions but she doesn’t look beyond that I don’t think.

I think that’s true.  A lot of the characters around him feel the same way as her which is partly why no one saw his fate coming.

Yeah.

Star Wars has had a lot of strong female characters such as Princess Leia, Padme, and now Ahsoka…how do you feel about that? I know we’ve talked about the audience seeing the show through her eyes, but do you think that there’s another reason that that character was made a female?  Do you think that decision was made to provide a strong female role model…

That’s a question for Dave Filoni.  I know that they specifically decided to make Anakin’s padawan a girl but I don’t know specifically why.  I did ask was it a conscious choice to bring in a female fanbase and they said no.  They said they made that choice because of the character and that they just wanted Anakin’s padawan to be a female.  They didn’t have ulterior motives but that was before  I came on to the show so that’s a question for him.

I think it was beneficial since Ahsoka has a very big female fanbase…

Yes…

…and even males too and I think that the show has attracted a new demographic that I don’t think that they were really even expecting since it seems like a whole new generation likes it…

Absolutely.  Absolutely.  It has brought in a ton of girls to the franchise and just kids in general.  It’s brought in a new generation and to the kids of today, Star Wars is the Clone Wars and that’s interesting because parents are now getting ready to show their kids the movies  for the first time which for all of us is the opposite since we watched the movies first…

Right…right…that is a whole different thing.  Each generation now has is own version of it now.

Yeah…

I don’t know how much longer the Clone Wars is going to go considering that you have a timeline that you are coming up against…do you guys have any idea of what’s going to happen?  Do you have another year or two years?

Again…I don’t know…I have no control over that…I don’t even know what’s going to happen the next episode!

<Laughter>

So they don’t tell us that far out.  We aren’t a part of those decisions.

Ok.  So what made you want to start Her Universe?

You know…close to half of all Star Wars fans and sci-fi fans are women and they weren’t giving us anything to buy and selfishly as a fan, I wanted more merchandise to buy so got into Her Universe because nothing was being made for the women and I was tired of wearing men’s size small or boy’s extra large.  So we started with Star Wars and now we’ve debuted our sci-fi line – we’ve got Battlestar Galactica, Warehouse 13, Sharktapus…

Yeah I saw that on your site.  I thought that was great since my wife loved that movie so she’ll be very happy about that…

Oh we have his and hers…

Do you?  That’s one of the questions I was going to ask you…

…At the web shop we have Sharktapus shirts for men…

So you’re expanding then since it was initially just for women….

We’re only doing Sharktapus but the rest of the clothes are for women.

Are there any thoughts to expand that line because I know there wasn’t a whole lot for women but actually there’s not a lot for children either…

…We actually have kids sizes on our website but we didn’t bring them here because this isn’t really known to be a kid’s convention.  But we have kid sizes but we really try to appeal to women of all ages.

I briefly looked at your site and I saw that the clothes sizes went from small to an extra large.  Are you thinking about adding even more sizes?

We do actually.  This shirt [pointing to one on display] goes all the way to 4X and the Yoda shirt goes to 4X…

So it just depends on the shirt…

Yeah it just depends on the shirt because some of the garments…I don’t actually make the garments.  I buy the garments and then do the printing on them.  So honestly, it just depends on the garment on what sizes it comes in.

Ok thank you for your time and good luck with that…

Thank you so much.  I appreciate your interest!

I’m really glad you’ve created that since I can now actually get my wife some cool clothes!

Thank you!  Well we just came out with a new charm bracelet and all of these shirts here are best sellers that we’ve brought back and there’s these earrings too…

I’ll have to check out all of this on your site.

Thank you!  It’s been a pleasure.  Thank you for your time!

And so ended my brief chat with the lovely and gracious Ashley Eckstein.  If you didn’t get a chance to see her booth at Comic-Con, then you should check out here site here to see all of the cool items that are for sale.  Let me tell you…I wish a lot of them were available to men too since we don’t quite have the selection she thinks we do.  <Hint. Hint.> With the online Star Wars Shop being closed down (which I found out about after I talked with her), this seems like a perfect opportunity for Ashley to expand her empire by creating a His Universe site or adding a men’s section to the existing one!  Until then ladies, if you are looking for some really cool clothes then please check out the site!  Look below for one of the best seller’s at Comic-Con which you can still buy at http://heruniverse.com/.

Brian: How are you doing today Emily?

Emily: You’re always so incredibly cordial.  I’m super good…  Thank you J

Brian: So I see since we last talked over a year ago, things have been quite busy in your life.  What’s been going on?

Emily: Yep…  I’m very grateful. I’ve been filming movies!

Brian: Well, speaking of movies, there’s a little flick I have been hearing a lot of buzz about.  Of course, I’m talking about Jesse Dayton’s Zombex.  Can you tell our readers more about your role in this exciting feature and in general, what the film is all about?

Emily: My role in Zombex is that of a sexy and tough ex-military woman who runs her fathers’ private security company, doing special ops jobs contract jobs.  She’s very scrupled in her work and only chooses to take jobs that can actually help civilians.  Her father was the polar opposite- a war monger and profiteer.  Also, my character, Katy Ann is a burlesque dancer.  She has a dark side…

Brian: Well I know you and I have had a few offline conversations about the project, but I’m still blown away when I look at all the legendary names attached to Zombex.  You have Malcolm McDowell, Corey Feldman, Lew Temple, David Christopher and heck, even the lead singer of Slayer, Tom Ayara.  What was it like working with these, for lack of a better term; we’ll call them superstars?

Emily: I know!  It was such a rush!!!  And you know me well enough Brian to know I am HUGE metal head, so working with Tom Araya was beyond…  And of course the rest of the cast was amazing as well.  It all came together because our director, Jesse Dayton, has relationships with these people and they love and respect him.  There was definitely a mutual admiration happening between everyone on-set.

Brian: Anything crazy happen while working on the set of Zombex?  Are there any zany moments that you can recall for us?  Working with all these folks I mentioned before, there had to be at least one or two life altering moments.  Ha ha.

Emily: The crew was hysterically fun to work with.  They pulled shit all the time which brought so much great energy to set.  There were so many moments that just blew me away it would be tough to pull anything specific out.  I will say this, having zombies run at full speed out of the water at you is pretty mind-boggling.

Brian: Are there any actors that Jesse tried to secure for the film, but couldn’t get or didn’t work out?  I remember Scream Queen Danielle Harris telling me how she did not get the role of Mary Beth in Adam Green’s Hatchet and I was surprised to hear that.  While going through my own round of casting auditions and callbacks for the feature film I’m doing, I’m now savvy to how things go down or how things don’t always work out as planned.  I was just wondering if you guys had any casting heartaches with this production…maybe just that one actor who wouldn’t say yes.  But then again, how can anyone say no to you and Jesse?  Impossible!

Emily: Jesse had Mike Ness (Social Distortion) written in to the screenplay but he was unavailable due to touring. That was rough.  But John Doe (X) ended doing the job and just knocked it completely out of the park!  He was SO strong.  Also, in trying to cast the “Thea” character, there were a number of great actresses we hoped to cast but due to numerous conflicts it didn’t work out.  In the 11^th hour we found our girl, Desiree McKinney, and she did a killer job. Also, we tried to cast a couple of super star rappers, but with their “legal issues”, it didn’t work out. Don’t cast rappers!

Brian: I see from all the behind-the –scenes footage on Facebook and on the official Zombex website (www.zombexmovie.com) that you guys actually filmed with Red cameras.  That is so cool.  I’m hoping to pull that off for my feature film I’m producing/directing, but we will see how the money situation is in a few months before making that final decision.  But I must say, I’m very impressed by everything I have seen!  I cannot wait to see the finished product.  However, I’m very curious.  How did the making of this film differ from any of your previous projects that you have been involved with? Does the self-financing route feel any different on set compared to the big studio films such as Sin City on your resume?  I’m assuming you are all busting your asses even harder to make this the best possible product, but you are my eyes and ears here.  I live vicariously through you.  Only you can answer that one.

Emily: This was the first film I was deeply involved with and I can tell you, working on an independently funded film vs a studio film is ENTIRELY different- It’s apples and oranges. The level of commitment is huge when you fund independently.  You become involved emotionally as well.  Not just as an actor but in the well-being of everyone on set.  And, of course, the success of the film is everybody’s focus.  If the film succeeds, it becomes your calling card.

Brian: Alright, I’m going to ask this because I’m a huge Adam Green fan and I immensely enjoyed his Hatchet films that are filmed on location down in the swamps of Louisiana.  How was it filming in Louisiana?  It’s my understanding that you actually brought over some of Robert Rodriguez’s crew from Texas.  Is that true?

Emily: We worked with Hawgfly Special Effects and they’ve worked with Robert Rodriguez on a few films.  They are the best in Texas without a doubt.  They were unbelievably professional and worked SO hard.  They were intrinsic to Zombex.  New Orleans brings a magic to any film, but in particular to Zombex due to the story really centering around the city and Hurricane Katrina.

Brian: I’m not sure if you are allowed to talk about this, but what are the plans for distribution of the film?   When and where is the movie’s premiere?  I want to be there!

Emily: Zombex has offers on the table.  We need to get the post-production in the can and we can then talk further about that.  Zombex will have world wide distribution.  This is as much I can say now.

Brian: So when Zombex is all said and done, what’s next for Emily Kaye?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Emily: Haha!  I am working with a new agent and am redoing my head shots and reel.  I’m ready for the next killer film!  At the moment, I am supervising the post production for Zombex.  I might direct a short film as well…

Brian: I know about your home life and extracurricular activities, but our readers don’t.  When you are not acting or shaking it on stage with Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures, how does Emily Kaye unwind?

Emily: We have 2 Labradors, so I love taking them on trail walks/ runs.  We swim too!  Also, I go out dancing at least 3 times a month.  And it’s like a bloody marathon…  3-4 hours straight!  I can’t get enough!

Brian: From your 5:30 AM, I can’t sleep, Facebook training posts; I know you frequent the gym quite often.  I mean, look at you, that much is obvious!   What’s the secret?   How do you keep yourself so incredibly fit with your busy lifestyle?

Emily: I am an obsessive exercise freak.  I can’t run enough, swim enough or do enough yoga.  As I write this, I’m suffering from a nasty case of plantar fasciitis which hurts like crazy.  It’s from over use and too much running.  Major bummer…

Brian: I’m sorry to hear that.  I have suffered from that in both heels and I can attest to the fact that it’s not fun.  The best thing I found to do was just get out there and run the pain away as stupid as that sounds.  But honestly Emily, I don’t think I can have this conversation without asking you a question I’m personally dying to know about.   Tell me; will there be another Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures album and tour?  I got to know!

Emily: Tough to say.  The demand is so there but finishing Zombex is most important.  That record and that tour with Rob Zombie was utter perfection.  It was a great moment in time and honestly, I think it’ll be tough to top that.

Brian: I understand.  In fact, the whole reason I met you in the first place and how our paths crossed is because of that man, Rob Zombie.  So I have to ask, are there any future plans for you or Jesse to ever collaborate or work with the brilliant (and I mean that on so many levels) Rob Zombie in anyway, whether it’s music, film or whatnot?  I’m just super curious!

Emily: Rob is such a prolific dude on so many levels.  I can say that there is nothing definitive on the horizon, but with Rob, you know when you know.  You know? Hehe.

Brian: Are you a fan of Rob’s new Woolite commercial?

Emily: Yeah!  It’s INSANE!

Brian: Well I’m sure I took up enough of your time so I’m going to go out with a proverbial bang, like only I can do, and drop this heavy open-ended douse of a question on you.  You ready?  What else should your fans and our readers know about you?  When you leave your legacy behind on this planet, what would you want the world to know about who the real Emily Kaye is/was?  What makes you tick and matters the most to you?   Sorry, that’s like three heavy open-ended questions (the Earth’s gravitational pull must have just shifted).  I know, you hate me, huh?

Emily: I only have love for you Brian!  Wow… I will say that the past 2 years have been amazing and collaborating with a guy like Jesse has been the catalyst.  Keeping ego out of business is key for me.  Being honest and working from a place of humility is what keeps me grounded.  I can’t stand people who crave credit.  I like to earn my stripes and prefer to succeed quietly.  And in working on the films I have the past 12 months, I have seen ego run amok.  And it is so ugly to me.  I just can’t imagine being “that” kind of person. So to sum it up, what matters most to me is really try and enjoy every moment and continue to work with people who love what they do, are really good at it and hopefully, have a solid footing on reality.

Brian: Well thanks again for taking the time to sit down with all our readers and me.  We all truly appreciate it.  I look forward to seeing you at the premiere of Zombex J  (hint, hint).  What’s cooking the rest of the day for you?

Emily: Thank you for the support Brian.  People like you make the world a better place!  Kick ass on your project! Today is a work day…  Zombex is my world today J

Brian: Awe.  Thanks Emily!  That means a lot to me.  I’ll be talking to you soon!

Check out these exciting links too for more Zombex!

Left: A young Brendan with Grandpa / Right: Brendan today

It’s not every day that you get to hear from an ILM veteran talk about his career and the movies he’s worked on.  He’s worked with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Dean Parisot, Alfonso Cuaron, Richard Donner, and more!   From his thoughts on Star Wars to working on the new updated Star Tours ride, Blade Runner, Galaxy Quest, Harry Potter, and including his latest work on I Am Number Four,  I think you will enjoy hearing it all as much as I did!  If you are a fan of movies or simply a fan of Industrial Light & Magic, then you ought to enjoy this!

Q – Star Wars or Star Trek? You’ve been intimately involved in the creation of both film universes, after all. Which do you prefer?
A – Bill George: Sophie’s choice! I love them both. Seriously, they both have their own unique charms.

Order your copy today!

If you read my recap of that evening, you’ll know that Pfeiffer muscled out of two arm pins, repelling the onslaught of his attacking foe and claiming a standing applause victory. On April 23, 2011, Pfeiffer was on the card again with his 3-0 record, this time going against Alan “The German Buzzsaw” Hoelzle from Buffalo, New York, whose octagon tally stood at 3-2. On the night of Pfeiffer’s standing-O win, Hoelzle also fought with a winning outcome as well. Now that the two brought their combined 6-2 record to the table, some in the audience thought it was anybody’s game. Pfeiffer knew it was his alone.  With his 12 years of wrestling experience along with accents of martial arts, he is without a doubt a force to be reckon with.

“The Predator,” as his MMA-namesake goes, is not a lable that’s there for just a cool or even imitimidating effect, but rather the accuracy it holds.  In the interview that follows below, I’ll cover the topic of his chameleon-like fighting style in the caged ring.  Sometimes mirroring his opponent with a ‘fight fire with fire’ mentality and other times applying a completely opposite technique, Pfeiffer is just like the movie alien Predator, blending in with his environment, or more accurately, his enemy’s method of attack and waiting with the patience of a hunter as he launches his unapologetic arsenal upon the poor fellow on the receiving end.  Relaxed and level-headed, one may not expect the fighter mentality that James Pfeiffer casually conceals outside the octagon…

A former high school wrestler, Bender has combined other fighting styles with his already dangerous arsenal earning him some serious notoriety in the welter weight class.  The 25-year old college student spends any moment he can scultping his 5’11″ frame into a force to be reckon with, but for Why So Blu, he took off his fighter hat and donned one displaying his charasmatic professionalism. Below is that interview, and to all MMA fans, keep your eye out for this guy. Progression up the ladder in this sport is a slow and deliberate one. Success doesn’t happen over night. All the Anderson Silva’s and Chuck Liddell’s you see today paid their dues to get where they are at. Micah Bender is doing just that as we speak.

 Photography courtesy of Rocktagon MMA

Q – Now that Tron:Legacy has been viewed by the masses, how was the reception of Jeff Bridges’ rejuvenation?

Eric Barba: The overall reception to Clu was good.  We had all types of reactions of course, but most enjoyed the character.

Q – What are you working on right now, and what are its challenges? What experiences from Tron Legacy are valuable to you now?

Eric Barba: I’m working on a few projects with Joe Kosinski actually.  I’ve learned so much over my time on “Legacy” that all carries forward.  I’m not trying to be vague, but there really is so much I learned from the experience.  I like to say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Q – Are you involved in the new Kosinski project of Black Hole?

Eric Barba: I hope to be when that project moves forward.

Q – What was it that inspired you to get your line of work in the first place?

Eric Barba: Like a lot of artists in the visual effects world, I was inspired by everything from Star Wars to the original Tron film.  But what got me intrigued with visual effects, was the idea that computers could be used as art and design tools to help make things that we hadn’t seen before.

Q – How did you get involved with Tron: Legacy?

Eric Barba: I had worked with Joe on a few commercial projects before, and we both kind of shared a mentor in David Fincher.

Q – Will you be involved with the animated series Tron: Uprising at all?

Eric Barba: No, unfortunately.

Q – What percent of TRON Legacy was visual effects? Would you say the movie was 90% your work?

Eric Barba: I would say that probably 85 percent of the film had a visual effects component.

Q –  Are there any “easter eggs” you or your staff put in Tron Legacy’s effects that we should look for?

Eric Barba: Yes, there are easter eggs. I hope you enjoy them.

Q – Were you a fan of the original Tron?

Eric Barba: I was a huge fan of the original.  I remember seeing it in theaters, and being totally blown away.

Q – During the disc scene, was I mistaken or was some of that influenced by the arcade game Disc of Tron?

Eric Barba: I loved playing Disc of Tron as a teenager, but it wasn’t our inspiration.

Q – Can you tell us about the inspiration for the evolution of the Light Cycles?

Eric Barba: I think Joe has spoken about how the original Syd Mead design was an open cycle.  But due to the computing power of the day, that was scraped for a simpler design.  Joe wanted to bring the original idea back, and make the new light cycle an evolution of the original.

Q – What was your favorite part of working on Tron: Legacy?

Eric Barba: I really enjoyed working with so many talented artists.  Everybody on the show was very motivated to make the best of their part.  From Joe to every single artist, there was a sense of making something that had to live up to what came before, and we felt we had to give 200 percent.  Collaboration would be the key answer.

Q –  How was it different working for a first time director such as oe Kosinski contrast with working with a veteran like David Fincher?

Eric Barba: Joe didn’t act or work like a first time director. Every director works differently based on their own experiences, and Joe brought his vision as strongly as any director I’ve worked with.

Q – The facial expressions on Jeff Bridges were more realistic in the grid than in the Real-World-Sequences. Is facial animation and replacement of characters easier in fully animated exteriors?

Eric Barba: All of the facial expressions were driven by Jeff, and made from his facial movements.  Facial animation at the photo-real level is incredibly difficult for many reasons.

Q – What would you say to an aspiring filmmaker trying to get their foot in the door?

Eric Barba: Kick the door open. Make a small movie with whatever tools you have available, tell a story, and then do it again.  I tell young artists that one of the best director reels I’ve seen was a guy who shot everything in his bedroom on a hi8 camera, and he was the star.  Practice your craft, and if you have talent, it will show.

Q – After winning an Oscar are you given more creative leeway when working on a project?

Eric Barba: The Oscar win was an incredible experience to say the least.  But what gives me the creative leeway is the same thing that did before the Oscar.  And that’s just trying to give whatever director I am working with the best possible solution to their visual problem, whether that be in artistry or technical execution.

Q – Do you have a favorite scene that you worked in the film?

Eric Barba: Yes. I think for me, the Disc Game sequence is the favorite.  That sequence went through a lot of changes and complex problem solving and I was very happy with the final result of the team’s efforts.

Q – In relation to your earlier movies – for example Button – is there a fundamental change in the workflow?

Eric Barba: The “Button” workflow was a challenge in that it hadn’t been done before.  We took everything we learned from “Button” and then strapped it on the entire Tron universe, and Stereo 3D. So, yes.  The workflow got much more complicated.

Q – Are you signed on for any possible future sequels?

Eric Barba: Nothing has been announced yet.

Q – How many visual effects do you think you’ve created in your career?

Eric Barba: Well, if I had a dollar… It’s kinda like dog years or millage or something. I have no idea.

Q – How do you feel about the original film?

Eric Barba: The original film has a very warm spot with my inner child.  It will always be that way.  And of course getting to meet and work with Steve Lisberger was pretty great.

Q – Did you feel a lot of pressure because of the original film?

Eric Barba: Yes, we felt a huge burden of living up to what all the Tron fans would want this movie to look and feel like.  It was constantly on my mind.  The first film made an indelible mark on me, and that was a tall order for us to live up to.

Q – What was your favorite sequence in Tron: Legacy, as a fan?

Eric Barba: As a fan, the Safe House Sequence where Sam meets his dad after all the years.   I think that sequence is really great and had minimal help from visual effects.

Q – Did the look of the original movie limit you in your creativity? How did you visually tie the original film and the sequel?

Eric Barba: I don’t think the original film limited Joe.  I think Joe had a really clear vision of what he wanted to do and he embraced the evolution of the grid.

Q – Did you try to create something to be as mind-blowing as the original movie or it was all about evolution?

Eric Barba: Of course. It was my goal to make the film as visually stunning as possible, but only the audience can tell me if we were successful.

Q – What was the most time consuming scene when it comes to special effects?

Eric Barba: The shots that involved Clu were the most time consuming.  If I had to pick a particular scene, it was probably the scene where Sam meets Clu.  The lighting in that scene provided challenges and we spent a lot of time making all of it work.

Q – The 3D effects in the final film are seamless, how long did that take?

Eric Barba: Thank you so much for that nice remark.  It took two and a half years from when I started till when we delivered.

Q – What are your thoughts on the uncannny valley and how it pertains to this movie?

Eric Barba: I have property in the Uncanny Valley.  I don’t like to go there often.  It’s a place that is difficult to get past, and I do wish to sell.

Q – Which movie was harder to do as far as de-aging it’s stars?  The process seemed to work better with Button so I was wondering if that was due to the way it was captured.

Eric Barba: Tron was far harder.  The de-aging in “Button” was not nearly as big a leap, and certainly not in 3D.

Q – What was the most rewarding part of this film for you?

Eric Barba: I honestly enjoyed working with so many talented artists.  When you have a highly motivated team that just can’t wait to get to work in the morning, that makes the whole thing fun.  Then when they see the final result and are happy to have spent their time working on it, it makes it very rewarding.

Q – If there is a sequel, will you be involved?

Eric Barba: I hope so.

Q – I loved the Tronned-up Disney logo at the beginning – whose idea was that? Also the fireworks scene after Clu captures him – were you subtly referencing Disneyland there also?

Eric Barba: I’m not sure who came up with the idea but we all wanted to do something fun.  We weren’t trying to reference Disneyland, but we did hide something fun in the fireworks.

Q – How does 3D affect your approach to your work?

Eric Barba: 3D affects a lot of the up-front planning.  Traditional techniques for tracking, roto and compositing were much more difficult.  Then on the back end, finishing a shot in 3D means it has to work with the shots around it.  And has to work on a fifty foot screen in a two hour movie.  lot of thought went into the stereo 3D on every shot.

Q – At last year’s Comic-Con I had the chance to interview part of the cast and crew and one of the things I learned was the importance of the Daft Punk soundtrack before starting a take, to settle the mood. Did you have anything similar at your department?

Eric Barba: We had a tremendous amount of inspiring artwork that we used to motivate the entire team.

Q – Did you also create “invisible effects”in the film, for example to erase or correct things we should not see? Can you cite some specific examples?

Eric Barba: There are plenty of invisible effects in the film.  One good example might be that Jeff Bridges did not sport his natural beard for the shoot and there were digital retouches to the fake beard.

Q – How hard was it to do these visually amazing scenes, but still keep the feel of the original film?

Eric Barba: The hard part was both technical and artistic.  And it was very hard.  If they are done correctly, then you only enjoy them.  I’m glad you thought they were amazing.

Q – If you could do something over for TL what would it be?

Eric Barba: As an artist, you are never really finished.  You always want to work on something, finesse or change something.  But the realities of making a movie mean that at some point you have to let go or it gets ripped from your clutching fingers.  So there are plenty of things I would like to take another pass at.

Q – I think one of the successes of the film is its visual consistency. How did you maintain that consistency, from a visual effects point of view, given there were so many shots and a number of vendors?

Eric Barba: I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that.  It was a great concern of mine.  We worked very hard with our outsource partners to give them every tool we had to help them succeed.  That’s not the norm in this business, but I so wanted the whole film to feel as one.

Q – What’s your favorite aspect of the work you do? What in particular are you the most proud of in terms of pushing the envelope of effects?

Eric Barba: I come from the artist side of things, so I really enjoy making great looking work.  I have to wear my technical hat to push the envelope but I am surrounded by an amazing team that helps figure all the really hard stuff out.  I’m most proud of our planting a flag on the other side of the Uncanny Valley.

Q – Did filming in 3D make you job any harder than it otherwise would have been?

Eric Barba: Filming in 3D made everything harder.  The whole 3D process was new to me and my team, and the rules had not been written, nor the tools when we started.  We had to make stuff up as we went.

Q – Which movie out of all of your projects is your favorite and why?

Eric Barba: Movie projects are like kids.  You love them all, and if you play favorites, someone will be hurt.  They all teach you something that you take on to the next.  Obviously, taking home a little gold statue makes one stand out, but you still love them all.

Q – Did you feel constrained by the look and world setup by the first movie?

Eric Barba: I never felt constrained, but it did take me a bit to figure out what the world should look like once we had the live action plates.  There was a balance in Joe’s vision that had to be worked out from art work to finished shot.

Q – What movie has influenced you the most?

Eric Barba: I have to say Star Wars.  It made a mark on my creative inner child.

Q – Have you seen the Tron segment during the World of Color show at Disneyland? It’s pretty cool if you haven’t seen it.

Eric Barba: I have not seen that.  They don’t let me out much.

Q – Concerning the tools you used, what are the trends on the software- and work flow-side of films? Are there any tools you think will become a defacto standard in the near futures? And (given the choice) what are your preferred tools?

Eric Barba: We have seen Maya become the standard for 3D animation.  And I think during the time Tron Legacy was in production, Nuke has become the standard for compositing.

Q – Can you speak about your work on SeaQuest DSV and Star Trek: The Next Generation?

Eric Barba: Funny you should ask.  I got to work on SeaQuest DSV at the very beginning and was involved in helping setup a workflow when it hadn’t been done on a network show before.  I got to do one shot on Star Trek: The Next Generation.  It was fun.

Q – Any plans to redo the effects for the Blu-ray like the Star Wars Special Editions?

Eric Barba: Not at this time.  I hope they still look good.

Q – Where do you see the advantages of 3D for telling stories? Did you play with 3-D effects to enhance some visual effects?

Eric Barba: 3D is another tool for a filmmaker to use to help the audience feel immersed in the story.  We definitely played with the 3D to help make the Grid a more immersive place.

Q – What creations in Legacy are uniquely yours?

Eric Barba: One of the cool parts of my job is working collaboratively with everybody.  Joe was great with everybody and I would throw out ideas and show him things to see what he thought.  Most of the time he did like what we brought to the table.

Q – Do you have any words of wisdom for aspiring film makers who want to get into vfx?

Eric Barba: I always tell people who ask me that question, it’s always the basics that help the most.  Learn to paint, sculpt and draw.  Pick up a camera and learn the fundamentals.  Anybody can learn the software, but if you don’t have the fundamentals, you won’t know what to do with it.

Q – What was the hardest thing you had to design for the film?

Eric Barba: The hardest thing (other than Clu) was the look and feel of the Disc Game sequence.  It was a huge challenge, and I’m happy with how the team rose to the challenge.

Q – Do you have a dream project that you would like to work on, or have you already done it?

Eric Barba: I have been very lucky and so far have gotten to do two dream projects.  Tron: Legacy was one of them.

Q – How important was the early test that was created (and shown to audiences) in realizing the final vfx and approach to the film?

Eric Barba: To me it was a starting point.  But I told Joe that I wanted to go much further with everything and of course, he agreed.  Tests don’t always have the resources you’d like, so it’s natural to know you can do much better if given the chance.

Q – Were you ever present on the set of ‘Legacy’ or were you working only after all of the shooting was done?

Eric Barba: I started on the film before most of the department heads or even the line producer was brought on.  I was on set every day during production and probably, next to Joe, had one of the longest runs on it.

Q – What was, for you, the hardest part of the visual effects in Tron: Legacy? Clu 2 doesn’t count.

Eric Barba: Establishing the look of the Grid.  When you look at the art work, you would think it would be easy but once you get the live action and a moving camera, it’s actually a challenge to make everything work visually and still be interesting.

Q – Was this film your most difficult assignment in terms of effects? If not, what was?

Eric Barba: This film was by far the hardest thing I have ever done.  It was a huge challenge.  From a visual effects standpoint, so much had to be invented and live up to what we all remembered and loved about the original Tron.

Q – Did you work with Luc Besson for The Fifth Element ?

Eric Barba: I worked on The Fifth Element, but not directly with Luc.

Q – Do you prefer working on invisible effects for David Fincher (Zodiac, Button) or on spectacular effects ?

Eric Barba: I enjoy both.  I got to flex a more creative side on Tron, but I love both.

Q – What is your favorite special effects shot of all time ?

Eric Barba: This might sound self-serving, but I think the shot in “Button” where an old Brad Pitt flexes in the mirror marks a particular spot on the timeline of film.  But that’s just me.

Tron – The Original Film and Tron: Legacy will come out on Blu-ray April 5, 2001 so pre-order yours now!

Q – What was the hardest part of the animation in Tron: Legacy?

Steve Preeg: For sure the hardest part was Clu, bringing a human being to the screen has long been considered impossible in CGI, as humans are very used to looking at other humans faces.  Avoiding what is known as the uncanny valley is what we all face in this industry in regards to this type of work.

Q – What was it like working with a first-time director like Joe Kosinski contrasted with working with a veteran like David Fincher?

Steve Preeg: They are both great filmmakers. With David you expect him to give great direction and explain exactly what he wants, and he does.  As a first time director, I was amazed at how similar Joe was to David.  Joe is very clear on what he wants, he had everything in his head of what he wanted.  This was a really tough movie to direct for even a seasoned film veteran and Joe took it in stride more than I think anyone thought possible, plus he had a baby right in the middle of production.  He is an amazing guy, I would love to work with him again

Q – Will there be a sequel and if there is will you be involved in it?

Steve Preeg: I haven’t heard for sure one way or another if there will be a sequel, but it would be a great opportunity to work on it if they do make one.

Q – Was the process similar in Tron: Legacy working on de-aging Jeff Bridges as Clu 2 to the aging effects applied to Brad Pitt in Benjamin Button?

Steve Preeg: There was a lot of similarities as far as the work at Digital Domain itself, the main difference was on the acquisition of the data.  With Button we captured Brad Pitt months after principal photography, but Jeff Bridges wanted to be captured on set in the moment which required us to come up with some new hardware as well as software to deal with the difference in the data we were receiving here at Digital Domain

Q – Will you be involved with the animated series “Tron: Uprising” at all?

Steve Preeg: At this time I haven’t heard anything about being involved.

Q – What was the biggest challenge in making Tron: Legacy?

Steve Preeg: For me personally it was just trying to live up to the legacy of the original Tron.  That film started the industry in which I work and is kind of considered holy ground by many of my peers, there was a lot of pressure to not screw it up

Q – What in particular are you the most proud of in terms of pushing the envelope of effects?

Steve Preeg: I think we are all proud to have made a film that paid appropriate homage to the original film.  It was a daunting task and for the most part our work was well received, which was a great relief for us.

Q – Having worked on the third “Pirates” film, where you a part of the 4th film in the series at all?

Steve Preeg: No, the third film in the series is the only one I was involved with

Q – Aside from the biggies of IMAX and ED, what else was different about working on Tron: Legacy than other projects, At World’s End, for example?

Steve Preeg: One of the big differences for us was that it was shot in 3D.  This presented a whole new set of challenges and workflows to work with footage from two cameras.  We had to be far more accurate and aware of how everything we did would affect the depth of the scene.

Q – What would you do different now when you look back at the movie?

Steve Preeg: After every film we examine what we did right and wrong and make a list of what could be done better.    There is always room for improvement on technique and execution.  I think for myself, there are a number of advancements on how we approach human faces that will change our process, had we known then what we know now, we probably would have tried to implement some of that on Clu.  I think we will be learning new things about how to create humans for a very long time to come.

Q – Have fans of the original ‘Tron’ been supportive of the visual effects that you included in ‘Tron: Legacy?’

Steve Preeg: From the responses I have gotten, it seems that fans of the original were quite happy with our work.

Q – Considering the intricately detailed effects work you put together, what’s your take on people watching movies on small mobile devices like iPhones? Do you feel like your work gets lots in that kind of portable compression compared to what people could experience in a theater?

Steve Preeg: There is no question that this film was meant to be seen on an IMAX screen.  Joe designed a lot of the film specifically to be seen that way.  I strongly feel that people watching this on a mobile device are missing a huge part of the thrill that is Tron: Legacy.

Q – What’s your favorite aspect of the work you do?

Steve Preeg: With this industry being both an artistic and technical field, we get to work with a wide variety of people from all over the world.  I think for me it is interacting with all of those people, directors, software engineers, animators, etc.

Q – What was your favorite sequence in Tron: Legacy, as a fan and as an animator?

Steve Preeg: I personally really enjoyed the light bike sequence.  It has a bit of the original Tron in it but got to be updated for a whole new generation of audience members.  It was a real thrill to work on that sequence.

Q – Do you think that digital actors could replace human actors? What about recreating digital personalities for a movie, like Elvis, Humphrey Bogart or Marilyn Monroe?

Steve Preeg: That’s a tough question.  In general we rely heavily on the performance of the actor to give us a character.  We aren’t really out to replace human actors since they are the ones that breathe life into our digital characters.  As for bringing someone back from the dead, you can never really get a dead persons take on a role, all you can try to do is mimic what you think they might have done.  It may be believable to an audience, but in the end it is not really that person’s performance, it’s just a copy.

Q – How did you move from mechanical engineering to Hollywood special effects?

Steve Preeg: I was using some of the available visualization software used in film to visualize some engineering work when a friend needed some help on a film and knew that I knew the software.  After working on a couple projects, I realized it was a lot more fun working on films than as an engineer, at least for me.

Q – How much pressure did you feel in not only making a sequel to Tron but also in creating the world of Tron now?

Steve Preeg: This is the most pressure I have felt on any film I have worked on.  Trying to live up to Tron, the grandfather of the industry I work in, was always in the back of our minds and often in the front of our minds, too.

Q – Can you differentiate between your responsibilities as Head of Animation and, for example, VFX Supervisor, as far as it pertains to Tron Legacy?

Steve Preeg: As head of animation, I was responsible for the movement of everything.  From Clu to lightbikes, if it moved that was my responsibility.  The VFX is responsible for the look of the film and making sure it matches the director’s vision.  So the VFX is dealing with a lot of lighting, modeling, textures, etc.  That said, Eric (the VFX) and I collaborate on just about everything.  We have a great working relationship and I have no problem hearing his comments on animation just as he listens to my suggestions about lighting, etc.

Q – Were you a fan of the original Tron?

Steve Preeg: Of course.  I don’t see how anybody wouldn’t be.  It was so far ahead of its time and so groundbreaking.  Plus after conversations with Steve Lisberger (the director of the original Tron) there is so much more to it than people think.  He has amazing insight on our world and I think Tron had a lot of additional meaning that Steve was trying to make.

Q – You received an Academy Award for achievement in visual effects for your work on ‘Benjamin Button.’ Has this win given you more creative freedom on the films you have worked on since then?

Steve Preeg: The creative freedom on a film is largely dependent on the director you are working with.  Joe was great about hearing ideas and he collaborated with us in a way that made it a real treat to work on his film.  However, in the end our goal is to make the directors vision come to life.

Q – Do you have any words of wisdom for aspiring film makers who want to get into animation?

Steve Preeg: Make sure you love the craft. Don’t try to get into this industry because you think you will get rich or meet famous people.  We work really hard in this industry and without a true passion for film and the work you do, you will burn out quickly.  I think maybe that’s true for a lot of industries, work on what you love to do.

Q – Did you have to create any new tools and use anything unique to generate the effects?

Steve Preeg: Most films we work on require some new tools to be created, we never get a director that comes and says, “just make what you did before.”  They always want to push it to the next level.  On Tron we had to write new tools for the 3D part of it, as well as a new facial solver for the type of data we were receiving from set.  There were a whole host of additional smaller tools written for the different departments, and we are continuing to develop those tools for our current and upcoming shows.

Q – Can you talk about which films have influenced you?

Steve Preeg: The most inspirational film to me is Baraka.  It is sort of a film about everything.  Every time I watch that film I can take something else out of it.  There is something for every mood and every aspect of life in there, so I watch it about once every 6 months, just to see how amazing our lives and planet really are.

Q – Have you worked on the original Tron conversion for HD? How was that? How was, for you, to work on a classic movie?

Steve Preeg: We were not involved in the conversion, but I can’t wait to see it.

Q – Can you explain the uncanny valley? How did your experience on Benjamin Button help you?

Steve Preeg: The uncanny valley basically suggests that as a character gets closer and closer to real looking, people respond better and better to it, until you get ALMOST real, and then people become disgusted by it.  I think signs like skin that’s off color, eyes that stare off to infinity, etc. are some of the things that throw characters into the uncanny valley.  There are many theories about why this is true, but the best one I have heard is that over the generations we have learned to avoid dead bodies to avoid disease, and many of the signs of a dead body are exactly what the uncanny valley seems to be about.  Our work on Button certainly helped us learn more about what humans accept and don’t accept about another humans face, but there is still a lot to learn.

Q – How did you first get involved in this project?

Steve Preeg: Just as Button was wrapping, Eric (the VFX supervisor) was approached by Joe Kosinski and Disney about doing Tron.  Having worked with him for a few years prior, he asked me to be involved, which of course I had to say yes.  It’s Tron after all.

Q – Were there any moments where you just geeked out when thinking that you are working on a TRON movie?

Steve Preeg: Some of us were on Tron Legacy for 27 months, and I think we were in that geek out phase the entire time.  It was a real honor to be allowed to continue Tron for a new generation.

Q – What is the advantage of your E-motion capture technology compared to the performance capturing system James Cameron used in AVATAR?

Steve Preeg: They are really different tasks. On Avatar, the capture was happening with the body and face at the same time.  We needed to make one person’s facial performance on another person’s body movement.  They are both very difficult tasks, but require different methods.

Q – Can you explain the additional difficulties that you had to solve, because the film was shot in 3-D? Did you play with 3-D effects to enhance some visual effects?

Steve Preeg: Well first off there are two cameras to track and they have to be far more accurate tracks than traditional VFX tracks, because the two together define the depth of an object.  It also makes it harder for the end of the pipeline where traditionally you can always paint or nudge things in the final composite, but with 3D that paint work has to be the same in both eyes and that presents a problem, as well.  There are quite a few other issues, like polarized light (such as reflections) showing up different in the two cameras, vertical disparity, using elements from two takes that had different 3D settings, the list goes on and on.

Q – Can you tell us something about “Tron 3” yet?

Steve Preeg: If I knew anything I probably couldn’t tell you anyway, but honestly I don’t know anything more than you about it.  I hope they make one though, and I hope they ask me to work on it.

Q – The opening sequence was shown in 2D- was this an artistic or a technical decision? (The real life-scenes seemed perfect in 3D for me….)

Steve Preeg: That was the director’s decision.  He wanted the Tron world to feel different, sort of like how the Wizard of Oz was black and white in the real world and in color in Oz.  It was a similar effect he was going for.

Q – How does additional filming or reshoots affect your process?

Steve Preeg: It doesn’t really affect it other than it is just plate delivery that is later and we would have less time to work on it.  It is pretty typical to get additional filming on projects, so it was no big deal on Tron Legacy

Q – Can you tell us what you’ve got going on next?

Steve Preeg: I would be happy to tell you if I knew.  We are looking at a number of projects, but honestly after more than 2 years on Tron, I am okay with it taking a couple months for something else to pop up.

Q – Do you think 3D is here to stay or will it move out of fashion again?

Steve Preeg: That’s a tough call.  I think it will depend a lot on the home market and if the box office difference stays as high as it is.  I know there are some indications that it is dying down, so maybe it is on its way out, but I don’t think anyone really knows.

Q – Was there any thought to redoing any effects for the Blu-ray release? It must be tempting to go back and redo Clu with what you’ve learned since then.

Steve Preeg: I think in this industry we would always like more time or a shot at redoing things.  We never really finish a shot; it just gets taken away at some point.  The option for redoing any FX for the Blu-ray would not have been up to us, but it sure would have been fun.

Q – How much experience did you have with 3D prior to this film?

Steve Preeg: Very little, our company had done one 3D conversion, but I didn’t work on it.  It was certainly a learning process for me.

Q – When “Tron Legacy” was released, some people talked about the Clu 2 recreation. Is it completely digital?

Steve Preeg: Clu’s head is always 100% digital.  His body is sometimes a body double and sometimes all digital.

Q – Digital characters are more and more perfect like Neytiri in “Avatar”. Actors in digital roles in eyes of critics are not real, but we all see their fantastic performances – do you think in future actors will receive awards for their digital roles?

Steve Preeg: I hope so.  It is just as valid of an acting job to be a digital character and in some ways even harder as there is not always something to react to.  Someday I hope the recognition is there.

Q – Have you watched a movie you’ve worked on and caught a “bug”?  little glitch or quirk that was missed, probably something nobody else would even notice, that made you cringe in your seat?

Steve Preeg: I really have a hard time watching movies I have worked on because that’s all I see.  There is never a finished shot, I always feel like we could do more, but at some point it has to get out to theaters.

Q – Did the Look of the original movie limit you in your creativity or was there still room for new ideas?

Steve Preeg: I think it helped spur creativity.  How do you take that original look and update it for a new generation? That was one of the most challenging and fun parts about working on this film.

Q – Percentage wise how much of the film is live action compared to CG would you say?

Steve Preeg: In the Tron world every shot had some digital work done, even if it was just suit enhancement.  Probably about half of the real world footage had work done to it.  I am not sure how much of the film was completely CG but I would guess about 20% maybe, all of the lightbike and lightjet sequences were all CG and a large portion of the disc game, as well as the big city-scapes.

Q – This massive 5-disc set may be the biggest 3D Blu-ray release to come out yet. Do you think this could be the title that really spurs growth in the 3D Blu-ray market?

Steve Preeg: I hadn’t really thought of that, but wouldn’t that be awesome?  I haven’t seen it in 3D on Blu-ray yet, but Joe says it looks amazing, so I can’t wait.

Q – Where do you see the advantages of 3D for telling stories like TRON: LEGACY?

Steve Preeg: I think in a film where you create a whole new world for people to see is a great place for 3D to be used.  You can really use it to give a feeling of actually being in this new place, that’s where I would like to see it used more.  I don’t think we need to start seeing romantic comedies in 3D, but that’s just me.

Q – Did you participate in the creation of the Blu-ray’s featurettes? How do you choose these bonuses?

Steve Preeg: I was not part of it, which for me is great because I want to see it with fresh eyes.  I am really looking forward to seeing what Disney did with it.

Q – Did first Tron in any way inspire you to work in life/your career in special effects?

Steve Preeg: Not only was it an inspiration but it started the work that is my career, it has been great meeting some of the original crew of the first Tron and to see how hard it was to make the first Tron, they were true pioneers.

Tron – The Original Film and Tron: Legacy will come out on Blu-ray April 5, 2001 so pre-order yours now!

Q – In ranking your own personal movies you’ve directed, where would “Tron: Legacy” stand?

Joseph Kosinski: #1, definitely.

Q – Were there any conceptions you planned but weren’t able to realize in TRON: Legacy?

Joseph Kosinski: Yes, there are always limitations.  For instance, Sam was initially supposed to battle four sentries on his way to get his father’s disc.  Unfortunately we ran out of time and weren’t able to shoot that sequence.

Q – What were the biggest challenges in directing this movie?

Joseph Kosinski: I think the biggest challenge on TL was the same as on any other film — creating a compelling story and characters you care about.

Q – How much pressure did you feel in not only making a sequel to Tron but also in continuing the story?

Joseph Kosinski: A lot. The first film was ambitious in so many ways — visually, conceptually, and technologically.  I wanted this film to be just as ambitious in all of those respects.

Q – There’s a poster of TRON game in Flynn’s house. Why is there no movie poster?

Joseph Kosinski: The Tron movie does not exist within the fiction of our story.  ENCOM was a game developer in the 1980s and Kevin Flynn used the experiences he had in the first film as the foundation for the ENCOM Tron game that he created upon his return to the real world.

Q – How much of a burden was the “Legacy”-part in TRON?

Joseph Kosinski: The 28 years of back-story was certainly a challenge from a script writing point of view.  However, it was important to me that our film did not require prior knowledge of the first film.

Q – Since the original TRON was not considered a hit, what do you think made the difference this time around?

Joseph Kosinski: The first film was conceptually decades ahead of its time.  Now the notion of ‘cyberspace’ and a digital avatar is almost second nature.  Also, our story is more than anything a father son (or sons) story, which hopefully appealed to those who normally wouldn’t go see a ‘sci-fi’ film.

Q – Was Jeff flattered to see himself as a young man again?

Joseph Kosinski: I think he found it to be a bit strange as you would imagine.  He described it as feeling like the first moment you ever hear your own voice on tape — not exactly what you would expect.

Q – Before starting shooting the movie did you draw a story board?

Joseph Kosinski: My sketching abilities are pretty limited, but I did have a small team storyboard about 90% of the movie.

Q – How did it feel to work on a project for so long and then finally see it in all its glory on the big-screen?

Joseph Kosinski: It was a 3.5 year process so it took me awhile to realize it was actually finished.  I am very proud of the film and particularly all of the thousands of people who worked on it.

Q – Was there ever any thought of setting the world of Tron in cyberspace instead of making it a place of its own?

Joseph Kosinski: From the beginning I was not interested in making a movie about the internet.  I liked the idea that this world had been sealed off since 1989 and had evolved on its own, like the Galapagos Islands.

Q – How are you planning to expand the TRON Universe?

Joseph Kosinski: Disney is currently developing an animated series that takes place in the Tron universe before the events of Tron Legacy.  I am currently brainstorming with my team of writers and producers on what the next chapter of our story would be.

Q – On the big screen Tron Legacy was visually pure magic. Do you think it works on normal TV?

Joseph Kosinski: I find that the quality of movie theaters out there can vary widely, particularly for a 3D movie.  For me, seeing the movie on Blu-ray on a nice HD plasma screen is about as good as it gets.

Q – Can you tell us how it was working with Jeff Bridges?

Joseph Kosinski: A wonderful experience, everything you would hope for.  I learned a lot from him.

Q – Few directors make their feature debut shooting in the new style 3D, was that a particularly daunting task?

Joseph Kosinski: I knew this film had to be shot in 3D from the very beginning. There certainly are a lot of challenges it presents. The cameras a more cumbersome and prone to more technical issues.  They slow down the shooting process a bit.  And they make the visual effects process much more difficult, particularly on a film like this.  However, in the end I’m glad we went the way we did.

Q – Is it more challenging for a director to manage a sci-fi movie rather than the usual drama/comedy/thriller genres?

Joseph Kosinski: The biggest challenge of a movie like this is that there is no location you can go to to shoot it.  Everything has to be created from scratch.  I spent a year designing this world with my team before we even began shooting.

Q – Cillian Murphy only briefly appears in TRON Legacy. Would it be fair to assume his appearance here is only a primer for possible involvement in a potential sequel?

Joseph Kosinski: Yes that would be fair to assume.

Q – What advice do you have for aspiring directors?

Joseph Kosinski: Go out and make something that reflects your interests, your taste, your ideas.  No one will pay you to make something until you have a few things you can show that you’ve directed.  I got my start by making short films on my own.

Q – Can you tell us how much impact the Comic- Con presentation trailer made on the final movie?

Joseph Kosinski: That teaser test was designed to show the studio what the look and feel of the movie was going to be as well as a hint of the narrative.  What the Comic-Con presentation showed was that there was still a strong interest in this property and it gave them the confidence to push forward with the production of the film.

Q – How much of Tron Legacy was computer animated?

Joseph Kosinski: The Light Cycle Battle and the Light Jet Battle are almost 100% computer animated.  The rest of the movie is a blend of live action and digital backdrops.

Q – On the subject of things you weren’t able to put into the movie, are there plans to release a director’s cut?

Joseph Kosinski: Almost everything I shot is included in the movie, there is very little on the cutting room floor.

Q – What memories do you personally have of Tron 1?

Joseph Kosinski: I remember watching it on VHS sometime on the mid-80s and that it looked and sounded like nothing I had ever seen before.

Q – With a wardrobe budget of $13 million, you had some issues with the LED lights on the suits. Why the reliance on practical suits over digital?

Joseph Kosinski: Actually the suits used an illuminated fabric. It was important to me that the characters would illuminate their environment and each other. That would be something that would be incredibly difficult to simulate in post-production.

Q – ‘Tron’ surprised us with groundbreaking special effects. ‘Tron: Legacy’ did the same and even added impressive 3D technology. What do you think will shock us in ‘Tron 3’, assuming it happens (we’re all rooting for it of course!)?

Joseph Kosinski: I think the final scene of TL leaves open some very interesting possibilities.  If Quorra can cross over into our world, what other elements from the Grid could do the same?

Q – How specifically did you make Jeff Bridges look so younger?

Joseph Kosinski: We used Jeff’s performance of Clu and remapped it onto a digital version of himself at 35 years old.  I used the movie “Against All Odds” as a reference for Clu’s appearance.

Q – Can you please talk about the transformation of Tron into Rinzler and back again? If he could return to being Tron then why did it take him so long to do it? Did he survive?

Joseph Kosinski: Only once Rinzler saw the face of Kevin Flynn again did he recall his true identity.  As he sinks into the depths of the Sea of Simulation, you can see that his lights turn from orange to white — back to the colors of Tron. He still remains there, alive but dormant.

Q – There are lots of fans of the 1982 Tron movie. Did you fear their opinion?

Joseph Kosinski: Since we decided to embrace the mythology set out by the first film, I felt that fans of the original would generally be supportive of this film.  Of course there are always exceptions but opinions are not to be feared.

Q – People know Olivia Wilde from House M.D. TV series. Why did you choose her to play Quorra’s part?

Joseph Kosinski: I felt that she embodied many of the qualities that I wanted Quorra to have — she’s smart, strong-willed and has a very striking look.  She is actually the first actress I met for the part and I think she gave a fantastic performance.

Q – While you come from a visual background and have said the film was 90% storyboarded, what did cinematographer Claudio Miranda bring to the table?

Joseph Kosinski: Claudio and I had done over a dozen TV commercials together before I asked him to join me on TL.  From the beginning I told him I wanted this to be an “uplit” world, light had to come from the floor whenever possible.  That was a huge challenge for him in that he had to coordinate with the production designer in order to incorporate lighting into the architecture.  We also pioneered a ceiling mounted motion control rig for the End Of Line club which was another “first” for our movie.  The thing I love about Claudio is that he is not only an incredible artist, but a brilliant technician.

Q – From a special effects standpoint, what was the most challenging scene to create?

Joseph Kosinski: Probably the Light Cycle scene due to the complexity of the choreography.  It was like 4 dimensional chess.

Q – What was key to making the story relate-able for young people today now that video games are so far removed from arcade games of the 80s?

Joseph Kosinski: At its core the movie is about a son trying to reconnect with his father which is something I think almost anyone can relate to, regardless of how old you are.

Q – How much input did Jeff Bridges add to the script or story?

Joseph Kosinski: Jeff was involved from the very beginning. The Buddhist qualities that Flynn has taken on since being trapped in the Grid was something that Jeff brought to the table.  There are a quite a few lines in the film that Jeff came up with or adlibbed in the scene.

Q – Could you define what the “Tron Legacy” means to you in one sentence?

Joseph Kosinski: The film is about finding human connection in an increasingly digital world.

Q – What was your initial reaction when you were approached to direct Tron Legacy?

Joseph Kosinski: I was very flattered; I felt the project had so much potential.  I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me to convince the studio that the movie was worth making and that I was the guy to do it, but I certainly was excited to have the opportunity.

Q – How did you make the professional transition from architecture to filmmaking?

Joseph Kosinski: Rather than getting a job as an architect after school, I started a small digital design studio with a friend of mine called KDLAB.  I started making short films and eventually got a few small commercials to direct.  I then moved to LA to work on larger projects and after a year or two met with Sean Bailey and started talking about doing a sequel to Tron.

Q – Many of the best video gamers are women. Did you consider the possibility of Flynn having a daughter instead of a son?

Joseph Kosinski: We did briefly, but in the end we felt that Quorra (the last of the remaining ISOs) would be a more interesting female character.

Q – If someone hasn’t seen the original Tron, would you recommend they watch it or Tron Legacy first?

Joseph Kosinski: Although not required, I would recommend they watch the original Tron first as it will help them understand the back-story of Legacy.

Q – The marketing for this movie has been very intense all throughout production. How much influence did you have over the way Disney presented TRON Legacy to the masses outside of the actual viewing experience?

Joseph Kosinski: I was very involved, in fact Disney allowed me to cut the first two trailers.

Q – How open was original Tron creator Steve Lisberger to updating and adapting the TRON universe for the 21st Century?

Joseph Kosinski: He was very open and an essential part of the creative team.  He thought of himself as the “spiritual advisor” to the project and helped us all keep an eye on the big picture.

Q – Were you always adamant that the movie would focus entirely on The Grid? Could future TRON adventures focus more on the Grid’s relationship with reality?

Joseph Kosinski: Yes, the focus of TL had to be on the relationship between Sam, Flynn, and Clu in the world of the Grid. I think as the last scene of TL hints, the future lies in blurring that line between the Grid and our world.

Q – What aspect of the upcoming TL Blu-rays are you the happiest with?

Joseph Kosinski: After TL opened theatrically, I was able to go back to Skywalker Sound and fix approximately 100 different aspects of the sound mix that bothered me.  So, the domestic Blu-ray contains that completely remixed and remastered 7.1 audio track.

Q – The IMAX presentation was flawless and amazing. Can you explain working in this format?

Joseph Kosinski: Because they are so precisely calibrated and maintained, I found the IMAX presentation to be the best reflection of the movie I wanted to make.  I spent a lot of time working with the folks at IMAX to make sure we delivered that experience.  I was happy to see that we were able to include the IMAX version on the Blu-ray.

Q – How’s the Blu-ray presentation? Are there open matte scenes from the IMAX like The Dark Knight Blu-ray presentation?

Joseph Kosinski: Yes, all of the IMAX scenes are presented in full frame.

Q – Some viewers criticized CLU’s face – they say it was unreal, a little bit fake – do you think there is some truth in this criticism?

Joseph Kosinski: Clu was certainly the most technically and conceptually ambitious aspect we chose to tackle on this film.  There is nothing more difficult than creating a realistic human face, especially if it is someone we know like Jeff Bridges.  I do hear the criticism, but I think I speak for the whole team when I say that we would rather be criticized for trying something new rather than for not trying at all.

Q – Why couldn’t Flynn just reprogram Clu to accept a less than perfect existence? I’m not sure how Clu grew more powerful than the Creator. Can you explain?

Joseph Kosinski: Clu represents a copy of Kevin Flynn at an age when he was at his most ambitious and one could say most egotistical.  Over the last 20 years, Kevin Flynn has wisened with age and learned the hard way that his priorities were out of balance.  Unfortunately, Clu does not mature in the same way; he is essentially frozen in time. Flynn’s battle with Clu is in a way a battle with the man he used to be and Sam is caught in the middle.

Q – What do you want people to remember from your film 20 years from now?

Joseph Kosinski: Hopefully it will be seen as an ambitious film for its time and inspire some young kid out there to dream, as the first one did for me.

Q – Do you think the world of Tron will be a very similar to the future of Humanity?

Joseph Kosinski: I hope not.

Q – Tron Legacy has an interesting digital relationship with real technology in our lives. Science-fiction can sometimes be an outline for our technological growth. Was there anything in Legacy that you modeled from real-life?

Joseph Kosinski: The idea of ‘genetic algorithms’ and ‘quantum teleportation’ are real concepts currently being researched right now.  We met with scientists from CalTech and JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) to make sure that the science in our film was accurate.

Q – Did you rework or re-edit any of the actual shots in the film? Maybe clean them up like the Star Wars Special Editions?

Joseph Kosinski: No, I just tweaked the soundtrack for the Blu-ray.

Q – How do you think 3D helps draw viewers further into the world of the movie?

Joseph Kosinski: I think when used correctly it can create a more immersive experience.  It should never be a distraction.

Q – Who came up with the idea to name the barkeep “Zuse”?

Joseph Kosinski: I asked the writers to pull together a list of computer pioneers.  Konrad Zuse created one of the first functional computers.

Q – I’m a big fan of your supporting cast from James Frain to Michael Sheen. They’re such marvelous actors, were they a joy to direct?

Joseph Kosinski: Yes, they were both fantastic to work with.  Both brought unexpected aspects to their characters which as a director is exactly what you hope for.

Q – After making TL, do you feel that society should be concerned about technology or should it be embraced?

Joseph Kosinski: Both. I think that technology can be an incredible tool.  We wouldn’t be able to create a movie like this without it. However it needs to be watched so that it doesn’t interfere with our personal relationships.

Q – If Kevin Flynn’s body was transported into Tron and he seemingly sacrificed himself at the end of TL, does that mean he is no longer alive, or has he transformed into something else?

Joseph Kosinski: Reintegration is a mysterious thing.  Flynn’s code is still in there, fragmented….

Q – Do you think that you were chosen to direct Tron Legacy because of your background in design and architecture?

Joseph Kosinski: Not solely, but to make a movie like this you have to be interested in creating a whole world and for me that was an exciting challenge.

Q – How much virtual time *did* Flynn spend on the Grid? I believe the writers mentioned something about 28,000 cycles…?

Joseph Kosinski: The ratio of Grid Time to Real World time is about 50:1.  So 21 years would be over a thousand years on the Grid.

Q – What is your favorite shot in Tron Legacy?

Joseph Kosinski: I always liked the shot of Sam and Quorra in the dark hallway, illuminating each other only with the light coming from their suits.  It’s a shot you can only have in Tron.

Q – If it’s up to you, would you want to helm Tron 3?

Joseph Kosinski: If we can come up with the right story, then absolutely.

Q – Could you talk a little bit about Daft Punk’s participation? Their score was awesome, who had the idea to involve them with TL?

Joseph Kosinski: I have been a fan of theirs for a long time so I set up a meeting with them back in 2007, before I had even shot the test piece.  I told them I wanted to create a classic film score that blended electronic and classical music in a way that hadn’t been done before.  They were amazing collaborators and I am very proud of the work they did.

Q – Are you working on the Tron animated series at all?

Joseph Kosinski: No, but a number of writers and producers from TL are involved with it.

Q – Which character in the film is most like you in your real life?

Joseph Kosinski: Well when I started working on this film I would have said Sam, but now I feel more like Flynn.

Q – The first Tron became a reference for geeks. Weren’t you afraid that your film would be categorized as a geeks’ movie and only that?

Joseph Kosinski: Absolutely.  We tried to get the word out that this was a film that non-geeks could enjoy.  Thankfully word of mouth helped with that.

Q – Would you like to live in a world like TRON?

Joseph Kosinski: I did for three years.  It’s nice to be back in the real world now.

Q – You’re also developing the Black Hole remake. What can you tell us about that?

Joseph Kosinski: We are currently working on a script with Travis Beachem.  I am very excited about the potential of this project.

Q – How exactly was it possible for Quorra to materialize into the real world? What impact will she make on the real world?

Joseph Kosinski: Quorra was reconstructed from the Carbon and Water stored in the Shiva laser from Flynn’s teleportation.  If you look closely, you’ll see the various canisters arranged around its base.

Q – Daft Punk created an amazing score, but were you concerned that the score would become such a character in itself that it would distract the audience away from the story?

Joseph Kosinski: No, but I was very pleased to see that the soundtrack is one of the best selling in years.

Q – In your opinion, which was the most difficult effect to make/ pull off for this movie and why?

Joseph Kosinski: I wanted to make it so that the audience had no idea what was real and what was virtual.  I’ve always been interested in blurring the lines between the two.

Q – Which was the hardest shot? How many times did you have to shoot it?

Joseph Kosinski: The shot of Sam rising in the Recognizer, it required many, many meetings to figure out how to do it.

Q – After you read the Tron: Legacy reviews – did you find the criticism in reviews is useful for you as young director?

Joseph Kosinski: Absolutely.

Q – With 3D booming and only getting better, how do you think Tron Legacy translate to home 3D with the 3D Blu-ray?

Joseph Kosinski: I was impressed with the Blu-ray 3D. It holds up well even on a smaller screen.

Tron and Tron: Legacy come out on Blu-ray April 4, 2011 so pre-order yours today!