The Envelope In Print: The Animation/ Music / Crafts Issue (December 3, 2008)

December 3, 2008

COVER STORY

Animation's world of wonder

There will be only three animated films nominated this year. Why so few? According to the academy rules, there has to be a field of at least 16 entries to get a full slate of five nominees. This year there are just 14 contenders, which drops the academy's nominating options to three. Among the submitted films are the Japanese entries "The Sky Crawlers" and "Sword of the Stranger"; the fantasy "Dragon Hunters"; the crowd-pleasing "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!"; the still-to-be-released "Delgo"; "Igor," MGM's comic take on mad scientists; "Fly Me to the Moon," about Apollo 11 stowaways; "$9.99," a stop-motion animated look at the meaning of life; and Ari Folman's documentary, "Waltz With Bashir," about his time as an Israeli soldier fighting in the first Lebanon War in the early '80s. Here's a look at the other contenders: "Wall-E" and "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" and turn the page for "The Tale of Despereaux," "Kung-Fu Panda" and "Bolt."

December 3, 2008

THE ENVELOPE

Hans Zimmer's notes on the Joker

"One of the things music does is it makes characters sympathetic. And the last thing I was going to do was have you come away thinking, 'Oh, that poor Richard Nixon!' "

December 3, 2008

MUSIC

The contenders for best song

Finding music worthy of an original song nomination wasn't much of a challenge the last two years. As evidence, three selections from "Enchanted" were nominated in 2008 and three from "Dreamgirls" in 2007. But in early summer, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences altered the rules, allowing only two songs per film to be nominated, thereby ensuring that voters will have to dig -- at least a little. And that may be harder than it sounds. This year hasn't produced an Eddie Vedder-penned soundtrack ("Into the Wild") or a bevy of light pop tunes from singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche ("Dan in Real Life"). That's not to say some front-runners haven't emerged. Here's a look at some of 2008's notable film songs.

December 3, 2008

THE ENVELOPE

Reality-inspired threads mix with "Millk" 's costumes

Costumer Danny Glicker had a once-in-a-lifetime experience working on Gus Van Sant's film " Milk," the story of the life and times of slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk.

December 3, 2008

CONTENDER Q & A

Contender Q & A: Michelle Williams

In "Wendy and Lucy," director Kelly Reichardt's quietly compelling look at life in transition, Michelle Williams plays one half of the title pair, a young woman who with her dog Lucy finds herself stranded in the Pacific Northwest while trying to make her way up to Alaska. In a performance of subtle power, Williams is somehow both understated and overwhelming.

December 3, 2008

THE EFFECTS

The man who designed 'Iron Man's' power suit

Industrial Light & Magic visual effects supervisor Ben Snow helped develop new digital technologies to create Iron Man's armor. He calls it digital wardrobing. What the heck's digital wardrobing? We'll let him explain: "It's the process of adding computer-generated costuming or armor to one of the actors. They can be partially dressed in a costume or a suit of armor or not dressed in a costume at all and be wearing these Velcro pajama-type things with tracking marks on them and we add the costume on top of that. The suit of armor that Stan Winston Studio built was very beautiful and looks great but it was also very hard to wear. It was really constraining, so you ended up lumbering around. We needed to free the actors up and let them do the sort of dynamic performances we expect from an action hero. But also have it look good and look as believable as the original suit."

December 3, 2008

Composers sound off on making memorable movie music

Scoring Ed Zwick's latest film, "Defiance," was a very emotional experience for seven-time Oscar-nominated composer James Newton Howard.

December 3, 2008

LIGHTS, CAMERA ...

'Quantum of Solace': Working tall

The "Quantum of Solace" foot chase scene took about four or five weeks to choreograph. I told director Marc Forster to look at the initial choreography, but I felt it just wasn't right. It wasn't exciting enough. So we did the whole thing again. The stunt people have to do quite a bit of training to be hanging on those wires for such a long time. The whole fight takes place with them actually hanging on these cables, and when you're doing that stuff for a couple of weeks . . . the first couple of days, it's great and it's exciting . . . and then the harness starts to dig in and the aches and pains become unbearable.

December 3, 2008

LIGHTS, CAMERA . . .

The camera angles that signal 'Doubt'

The "Dutch angle" (or the "Batman angle," as it is often known in the U.S., for obvious reasons) was first used extensively in German Expressionist cinema -- "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" being a textbook example of the use of extremely odd angles. The nickname, "Dutch," really comes from the word for German, "Deutch," as opposed to the technique having anything to do with Holland. The idea of the off-level shot has long been used as a visual signal to an audience that all is not well, to portray a sense of unease and foreboding.

December 3, 2008

IN CONTENTION

Animation and craft categories

Oscar success is most impressive when a film sweeps. That means it has demonstrated strong support across the academy's branches, which can bolster its shot at claiming the top prize. Over the last 20 years, the movie with the most nominations has won best picture 15 times. That's why epics like "Australia" or blockbusters like "The Dark Knight" have an edge.