tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post115325818249386398..comments2024-03-24T16:25:05.751-04:00Comments on Mayerson on Animation: The Talent DifferentialMark Mayersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00065971589878678848noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-21059619868844161742008-04-04T01:30:00.000-04:002008-04-04T01:30:00.000-04:00Interesting analysis.I've been trying to figure ou...Interesting analysis.<BR/><BR/>I've been trying to figure out more about Famous Studios during the final years (after Kneitel passed on). One book quoted Shamus Culhane for disapproving of the studio's output at the time, and upon taking over, set out to loosen things up. That would later be picked up by Ralph Bakshi before the studio closed. Aside from the limited budgets at the time, would those regime changes have given Famous an 11th hour sense of "taste"?<BR/><BR/>Also, do you think those types of management can be applied to any of today's studios?Yeldarb86https://www.blogger.com/profile/10131603833394294520noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-1153707709105048482006-07-23T22:21:00.000-04:002006-07-23T22:21:00.000-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Thadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04443425643665474645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-1153400203050168882006-07-20T08:56:00.000-04:002006-07-20T08:56:00.000-04:00one correction: that should be Emery Hawkins and P...one correction: that should be Emery Hawkins and Preston Blair.<BR/><BR/>I actually worked with both of them. Quite a concept for a 21 year old kid to get her head around.Nancyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03559138404570089435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-1153400142189051142006-07-20T08:55:00.000-04:002006-07-20T08:55:00.000-04:00Gee Mark, thanks for the 'youngster' comment. I kn...Gee Mark, thanks for the 'youngster' comment. I know that Jack Zander's main animators were Emery Hawkins and Irv Spence before Dean came on board. My work convinced him to hire a student straight out of college. And Bill Railey was originally doing effects animation but was given a chance to direct around the same time I started there.<BR/>Jack valued talent. All the good producers I've worked for have felt this way about talented artists. <BR/>Good producers in any medium --and I am including manufacturing and other jobs outside of film-- have one thing in common. They hire good people and let them do their jobs.<BR/>Unfortunately the very worst studios I've seen tried to codify materials and make artists adhere to their neat little graphs. These graphs could never change when circumstances altered. A good manager can think on his/her feet just as a good artist can.<BR/>Ultimately it's all about how you regard your staff: are they creative individuals who have something to contribute to the company, or are they interchangeable parts that can be replaced by another interchangeable part at a second's notice? The second attitude is unhappily prevalent in many companies today.<BR/>Ken Anderson gave me a splendid anecdote about the Disney studio's attitude toward staff: anyone who was contributing to the film was allowed to KEEP contributing to the film. It's this attitude that put Disney at the top and kept him there.<BR/>I agree with you that Leon Schlesinger was a top producer, but Chuck Jones was the last man standing and he never forgave Schlesinger for saying that Chuck was not the equal of Friz or Tashlin as a director. At the time of writing, he was correct. This remark might be what spurred Chuck to greatness.<BR/>Schlesinger knew how to pick directors,as you so clearly indicate.Nancyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03559138404570089435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-1153325804617205162006-07-19T12:16:00.000-04:002006-07-19T12:16:00.000-04:00I'd have to say that UPA was a hands-on management...I'd have to say that UPA was a hands-on management with taste. I know you won't dispute the taste part. The hands-on part has to do with the studio being focused so tightly on a design approach that stepped away from other cartoon studios.<BR/><BR/>What UPA needed was better financial and production management. Maybe the artists wouldn't have tolerated that, but without it the studio was crippled.Mark Mayersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00065971589878678848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-1153325192724117302006-07-19T12:06:00.000-04:002006-07-19T12:06:00.000-04:00I didn't mean to suggest that you were saying arti...I didn't mean to suggest that you were saying artist run studios were in any way inferior. Remember that Lantz and Disney were, at one time, both artists within their respective studios.<BR/><BR/>I was just curious how you placed a studio like UPA within your guidelines.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-1153322635883928682006-07-19T11:23:00.000-04:002006-07-19T11:23:00.000-04:00Michael, I never meant to imply that artist-run st...Michael, I never meant to imply that artist-run studios were inferior. In the realm of commercials, the best studio I ever worked for was run by Jack Zander, a former MGM animator. Zander had the taste to hire Dean Yeagle, Nancy Beiman and Bill Railey, who were talented youngsters at the time. Most other N.Y. studios in the 1970's wouldn't trust an animator younger than forty. Zander also went further afield to hire Preston Blair, Irv Spence, and Emery Hawkins. They were freelancers and available to anybody, but in N.Y. only Zander valued their talents.<BR/><BR/>I think it comes down to the ability to recognize talent and to deploy it to the best advantage. Anybody (artist or not) can have that talent or lack it. Those with the talent seem to end up running the more successful studios.Mark Mayersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00065971589878678848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-1153320887691222772006-07-19T10:54:00.000-04:002006-07-19T10:54:00.000-04:00Great post! USe of the word "taste" doesn't bothe...Great post! USe of the word "taste" doesn't bother me because you are not confining it to your taste, or my taste. There is a world of difference between Walt Disney and Tex Avery but there is no denying either of their greatness.<BR/><BR/>I would catagorize UPA as VERY hands on management with taste!espiridellishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10455502438607253020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-1153312880718866732006-07-19T08:41:00.000-04:002006-07-19T08:41:00.000-04:00It's an interesting thought. However, what happens...It's an interesting thought. However, what happens when artists are management? (Lantz excluded? Independent studios like Hubley excluded.) Where does UPA fall into this theory?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-1153284791288515152006-07-19T00:53:00.000-04:002006-07-19T00:53:00.000-04:00Watching the studio's cartoons, I get the impressi...Watching the studio's cartoons, I get the impression that Famous was adept at imitating other studios' trends without really understanding them. They recognized that other studios were getting big laughs in their cartoons by upping the violence quotient, so Famous loaded down many of their cartoons with violence. Problem was, they never understood how to make the violent gags funny, the way M-G-M and Warners did, so the results were more often just sadistically painful and often a little repugnant.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-1153277872265957222006-07-18T22:57:00.000-04:002006-07-18T22:57:00.000-04:00"Judgement" might be a better word than "taste". I..."Judgement" might be a better word than "taste". I think Seymour Kneitel at Famous in the late 1940s was trying to improve the visual look of his cartoons to more closely match the west coast style, but the way he did it was to force the animators into repeating stock walks, looks, takes, etc., which created good-looking cartoons with no inherent humor in the animation outside of the quality of the story the staff was working with. In contrast, the non-Kenitel stuff done by Jim Tyer at Famous in the mid-40s is really off-model and definitely non-west coast style, but it's also funny.<BR/><BR/>Famous had better "taste" than Paul Terry over at Terrytoons, in that Kneitel and crew seemed to want to make something that looked visually appealing, but by cutting corners they removed most of the spontanaiety from their cartoons, which was a mistake in judgment (and going by Art Davis' papers that showed Famous was trying to hire Sid Marcus as a writer in 1952, the staff understood they had made a mistake within a few years after the cookie-cutter problem emerged).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27501132.post-1153262028618864912006-07-18T18:33:00.000-04:002006-07-18T18:33:00.000-04:00Interesting post Mark. It's that word 'taste' tha...Interesting post Mark. It's that word 'taste' that can get some people's backs up. It implies that there is authority over what is or isn't good art. I'm with you though, I think there is good art and bad art and that taste is a tangible thing even if it is somewhat subjective.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05213866618922724603noreply@blogger.com