Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
In
One Man Band,
we never really tried to be funny, or tried gags. I think some of the
funniest moments came out of story beats and really great animation because the situa-
tion was funny in an honest way and always character-based. We never really set out
to make a funny fi lm.
The only thing with
One Man Band
that we started with before we created the story
was that we knew we wanted to tell a story about music. There was a theme about what
people do with talent and how people view other people that may have more talent
than they do. Humor came out of story development but we never tried to
do humor
before we even knew what our characters were doing in the story. It is what the char-
acters do—the acting—that makes it funny. Of course their designs played a big part
of that, too.
Everything comes out of story. Whether you try to be depressing, or sad, or funny,
or humorous, or make a statement, I think the second you try to do that without
arriving at that through your story, then it's kind of like telling your punch line before
your joke.
Q: What was the hardest part of making
One Man Band
?
Andrew:
For
One Man Band
the hardest thing—it's true for the features, too—was that
after we got the green light just to come up with ideas (and we were so ecstatic about
that) was to actually come up with the ideas.
There's no science to coming up with a story. You can't say, “All right go—come up
with a story.” So, Mark and I started having lunch every day. We started talking about
things we had in common, things we liked, things we didn't like in other movies.
I had this topic I called “The Idea Book,” and I wrote down all the ideas we came up
with, about 50. One of the common themes in all these little ideas was music—and
competition. I have been an avid fi lm score collector since I was a child and have always
wanted to tell a story where music was our characters' voices.
So we started developing and working around that theme. That time was the hardest
part of the entire production of
One Man Band
—really getting that theme through the
progression of the story. Because if you don't have that locked down and perfect, no
matter how good the CG is or the acting is, you're never going to save it.
Don't worry about your perfectly rendered sunset, and shading and modeling of the set.
It's the characters and their story. People will forgive so much if they really believe and
love your characters and your story. When
Andre and Wally B
. was shown at Siggraph
for the fi rst time many years ago, most people in the audience didn't realize it wasn't
fi nished because they were so involved in the characters.
