My Animation Era

Animation is an art!

Gu Miao actually didn't have a deep understanding or feeling about this sentence before, because most of the animations he came into contact with and produced were commercial animations that were driven by "money".

certainly!

The meaning of this sentence is not to belittle commercial animation in order to elevate the status of other animations.

It just feels really different.

In this short eight-minute sample, Gu Miao can see how carefully Dave and his team polished the animated "Tom and Jerry" project.

The quality of this kind of work, which is taken seriously and devoted to, can be distinguished with the naked eye.

before this.

He has only seen this quality in animations produced by Puppet Studio such as "Afanti's Story", "Peacock Princess" and "Chicken Run".

However, the animation produced by Puppet Studio belongs to the category of "stop motion animation" after all, and the look and feel is completely different from "Tom and Jerry".

This time, he really felt what an "artwork" level animation work was.

It's really great!

Every shot and every frame is as beautiful as an oil painting when taken individually. Even the frame size has been carefully selected, and the 16:9 aspect ratio has a cinematic quality.

There is a little trivia:

The animated "Tom and Jerry" is actually a film project. It was also produced in the late 1950s according to the film aspect ratio, so it is a "widescreen" version.

However, in the process of being introduced to many countries, in order to adapt to the "narrower" TV screens, the aspect ratio was changed from 16:9 to 4:3, and a section was cropped around the screen.

So the "Tom and Jerry" animation that everyone saw on TV when they were children is actually incomplete...

Of course, this is not a problem.

Cropping the picture to fit the TV screen is something that many old movies do. The movies shown in the open air are different from the ones you watch on the "big ass" TV!

And this problem no longer exists now.

Because many families have high-definition widescreen LCD TVs, the 16:9 aspect ratio is becoming more and more common. At least Wanbao's new works this year are all in this aspect ratio.

"how do you feel?"

"The money is not wasted..."

Gu Miao thought for a moment and said: "Although the length is a bit short, this film is indeed very good and worthy of the title of a team that has won seven Oscars."

It’s just a bit inefficient!

It took half a year to do this for eight minutes. On average, it only took 1 minute and 20 seconds a month?

Gu Miao, who was about to say something, suddenly remembered what Dave told him on the phone last time and sighed.

Slow work produces fine work?

There is this factor. After all, the higher the quality of the animation, the more time and effort it takes!

But, there is another reason.

The average age of employees in the North American branch, that is, the "Seven Oscar Winners" team led by Dave, is close to 50 years old.

As they get older, and with better social welfare in North America, they will not stay up late and work overtime like young people in China.

Not to mention working overtime, not many people can get to work on time.

There's nothing he can do yet.

Fired? All replaced by young people?

Stop it!

Not to mention that the young people over there are also like this, and besides, the young people are not as experienced as these bad old men, and they cannot make such artistic animations!

"Half a year, eight minutes."

Gu Miao shook her head and said, "Are all artists so abstract? I don't understand."

"Actually it's not bad!"

"You can see that the Puppet Studio is also slow in making animations. Maybe this is the attitude towards excellence in its works!"

Lao Zhang consoled him: "Besides, it should be shorter. What's wrong with the feature film being only eight minutes? It won't affect our broadcast or application for awards."

"ah?!"

Gu Miao was stunned and said: "You can register for the Oscars in eight minutes? Wouldn't people find it objectionable?"

"What do you dislike?"

"It's called the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, short film! Doesn't our eight minutes count as a short film?" Lao Zhang retorted.

Hold the grass!

That makes sense...

Gu Miao, who was originally a little depressed about Dave's team being so ink, immediately became energetic after hearing these words.

yes! What happened to eight minutes?

Who said you can't apply for awards after eight minutes? Who said eight minutes doesn't count as an animated short film? No one stipulates that everything must be completed before it can be broadcast!

Can't we make one episode and broadcast it, apply for one episode after broadcasting, and compete for Oscars every year?

"Okay, okay!"

"I'll call Dave right now and ask him to quickly add the opening and ending credits, and add the soundtrack, and we'll arrange for the animation to be broadcast immediately."

Gu Miao excitedly took out her mobile phone and was about to dial Dave's number. Suddenly she thought of something and asked Lao Zhang, "By the way! When are the Oscars usually awarded?"

"February to April!"

After answering, Lao Zhang asked with confusion on his face: "What's wrong? Do you want to hurry up and use the first episode of "Tom and Jerry" to compete for the Oscars at the end of the year?"

"is it not OK?"

"Okay, but..."

Lao Zhang looked embarrassed and said: "On the one hand, the time is too tight and there is no time to work at all. And I think the first episode is not even interesting."

Indeed it is.

Gu Miao thought about it seriously, and it seemed that there was nothing wrong with what Lao Zhang said.

The first episode of the animation "Puss Gets the Boot" didn't show many scenes, and the plot was relatively thin. Although the quality was excellent, it was still hard to win an award.

certainly!

If Wanbao is willing to find someone to operate it, it is not impossible to get it, but it is the end of December and there is no time to operate it.

"We still have to fight for it..."

Gu Miao thought: "It doesn't matter whether we win the award or not. The main thing is to show the outside world that we have made a work like "Tom and Jerry" that is worthy of being famous in the history of animation."

"At the same time, even if we don't win the award, it would be nice to get a nomination!"

That's it.

Considering that time was tight, after Gu Miao called Dave, she immediately asked him for a copy of the original film to make arrangements for broadcasting in North America, Europe and China.

Because the nomination deadline is coming soon.

In order to catch up with the Oscars at the end of the year, Gu Miao must arrange and have the animation broadcast smoothly before the deadline, that is, within half a month.

This is actually very simple.

If it is an animation with dozens of episodes, hundreds or even thousands of minutes, it may not be so easy to arrange.

But the animated "Tom and Jerry" only has one episode, and this episode is only 8 minutes long...

No matter what the TV stations do, they can squeeze out the eight-minute slot. It's just a question of "whether they like it or not."

With Wanbao's background, the TV station is still happy to sell him some face. After all, he has to deal with him in the future, so he can't just give him some face, right?

Is there really someone who doesn’t give face?

That's easy to do, just buy 8 minutes of advertising space and broadcast the first episode of the animated "Tom and Jerry" during this time period.

No one objected now.