Oh I have no doubt that without FOX Lucas would never have been able to get Star Wars to where it was - but that was a very different time compared to now.
But when it comes to games, apart from money, I don’t know what a publisher could offer me that I cant do myself.
Steam gives access to a distribution platform, and with social media you have the world at your fingertips! Flappy Bird is a perfect example (albeit an extreme one) of how quickly social media can push a project forward.
I’m not necessarily discounting a publisher in the future, but to be honest I think that artists are TOO quick to give away their intellectual property. With things like Kickstarter you don’t need to give away your work. You can retain ownership! And that’s amazing!
One of the interesting parts in “Empire of Dreams” was an interview with Alan Ladd, Jr. Alan Ladd, Jr. was President of 20th Century Fox.
George Lucas had gained his attention through the success of AMERICAN GRAFITTI. When asked “What are you doing next?” George showed him an early draft for a film called THE STAR WARS. Alan admits in the interview that he couldn’t understand half of what was in the script because he claimed the writing contained a lot of “scientific terms”.
But he felt in his gut that George was “a genius” and he became an “advocate” - committing Fox’s resources to the creation of STAR WARS.
If you’re asking what a producer/sponsor/advocate can do for you, then, if the interview and documentary are to be believed, Alan Ladd, Jr. is one of STAR WARS’ unsung heroes. Supposedly, he paved the way for George to get his STAR WARS deal while retaining all his rights. Merchandising hadn’t existed at the time in the way it does today, and Ladd put together a “cut-and-dried” deal for George.
Fox basically controlled “Distribution Rights Only” for STAR WARS.
But the remarkable thing was that when STAR WARS began to run overdue and started smarting in the budget area, Ladd supposedly defied the board of directors at Fox who wanted to shut down STAR WARS. Alan Ladd, Jr’s argument was the same one he had from the start: “I trust George. This movie is going to be fantastic.”
Alan faced the board, so that George could stay on set and push the picture to the finish.
I guess though, you are right… It’s a different time now and George was lucky to find someone who wasn’t just an investor but who became a zealot - near-recklessly believing in STAR WARS and committing Fox’s resources to George’s dreams.
Well when you listed out the diverse characters, my first thought was that it was similar to HAPPY DAYS in the sense that you have this diner/restaurant… or coffee shop (like in segments of FRIENDS) and you allow the different characters to just play off each other.
The main plot for each episode probably doesn’t amount to much but the fun comes from seeing what these diverse “types” do to either make things worse, or make them more interesting.
I’ve often wondered what a person melting would look like, and always found the witch in the Wizard of Oz movie to be lacking in the gore I so obviously crave… now I’ve seen John melt, I am happy.
When games have interesting death sequences and instances, I do like to explore them and try to get as many as I can so, in a really morbid way, I’m looking forward to seeing how many variations of killing John off there will be.
Continual congrats on all the attention you guys are getting and also best of luck in the development process. Really enjoying watching this beast unfold.
Welcome to posting here. Looking good so far with the web comic. I smell a sitcom!
I just had a pleasant conversation with a rep of the COPYRIGHT office.
Our meeting in MAY will be about IP LAW & Copyrights.
The Rights all Visual ARTIST should know.
NO PROMISES, but I am working to see if I can webcast this.
(THERE IS A TON OF POLITICS I HAVE TO NAVIGATE)
Le Gouffre is an 8-minute animated short film about two travellers who embark on the amazing journey of crossing an impossible gap. We are working full-time on this film, living on our own money, and we are basically trying to tell a great, dramatic story for everyone while creating a unique look that blends hand-painted textures with realistic animation.
PROJECT GOALS:
Win festivals, then make a big hit on the internet and gain the visibility and credibility that will allow us to eventually be able to live on telling our own stories.
STATUS NUMBER: 16
TEAM MEMBERS: 3
Carl Beauchemin - Animation and Rigging
Thomas Chrétien - FX and Compositing
David Forest - Animation and Art Direction
We had tons of things to coordinate in post-production like record the voices, finish the sound mix, do the 5.1 mix, the online, all with different people in different studios but now we can finally rest.
WHAT WENT WRONG:
We had to go through a couple all-nighters towards the end but I guess that’s what it takes when you’ve spent two years on something and you want everything to be perfect.
SHOW AND TELL:
You can read more about our post-production on our blog. Here’s a few pictures from the sessions.
Oh, and did I mention we officially announced the date of our premiere?
Obviously you want dialogue eventually, because it does open up what your films can be about.
I think we have a kinship here, because we are both making stories that are “set in a world similar to the one people live in”. And in most cases human beings are going to talk to each other.
Some advice though, I found that working with dialogue is a bit different from working without it. When you have no dialogue in a picture, you just have gags and events.
Once you have dialogue, your story has “inhabitants”, because they cannot just read the lines like newscasters… So each of those conversations are micro-events.
Just something I observed when I began transitioning towards films with spoken dialogue.
Yeah, I expect the shift to dialogues to demand quite a bit of adaptation, it’s just such a different kind of beast. So many opportunities for deeper character background, subtext… I never expected to stick with silent film, it just was convenient for this particular film since we wanted to have a universal film that could easily go international.
I’ve got a lot of stuff to finish up with this project, namely the long festival run ahead of us, but I can’t wait to start writing again! After spending two years with silent characters, it’s going to be fun clashing different personalities with one another.
I thought they called that “having believable characters with real personalities and flaws”… though in today’s Hollywood, I guess that is almost a lost art.
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