‘Wild Robot,’ ‘Inside Out’ and ‘Transformers One’ Directors Talk Creating Authentic Animated Features at SCAD

variety.com:

Emiliana Betancourt Key contenders for this season’s animated feature Oscar race shared their insights on creating emotionally authentic features on the Variety Animation Panel – Pixels & Pencils at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, moderated by Clayton Davis, senior awards editor. “I would say that your fears are not your limitations.

They’re your opportunities. That when you really look at the things that scare you, those are the things to turn towards and to try and work out, because that’s where the good stuff lies,” said Morgan Neville the writer, director and producer of Pharrell Williams’s Lego-animated film “Piece by Piece.” Neville was honored alongside Gints Zilbalodis, director of “Flow”; Oscar winner Josh Cooley, who directed “Transformers One”; Chris Sanders, three-time Academy Award nominee and the writer and director of “Wild Robot”; Kelsey Mann, writer and director of “Inside Out 2″; and Adam Elliot, writer, director and producer of “Memoir of a Snail.” When asked what advice he would share with a student currently working on their first animated film, Zilbalodis offered, “Don’t try to just be like everyone else, try to tell your own story and in your own way.” He also added, “If we spend our lives making these films, we should do it because we really care for it.

It’s not just a job, so try to find something that really you’ll feel passionate about, and that’s very close to you, and it will become more than a job.” All filmmakers on stage agreed with the sentiment that in order to successfully communicate an idea with the audience, it must be honed down through a specific feeling.

Cooley noted, “You need something to anchor you when you’re being asked a million questions a day and for me it’s always the.