Q&A • AUGUST 24 , 2001
Rat Race's Wild Titles
[Page 5 of 5]

The difficult thing about animation is that the profit margins are smaller than with live action commercial work. Clients want more control over animation work because they know you can tweak every frame, and generally we do. Still it becomes absurd when you are watching a spot and an agency art director pauses on a frame and scrutinizes the composition of a single frame. Live action rarely falls under the same scrutiny. Still we roll with it and make the best of it. It's generally a labor of love around Wild Brain. The studio attracts artists who are about the quality of the work. If they were all about the cash, they wouldn't be in this business.

CM What about studio work? Everybody seemed to rush to get projects done before the strike deadline, so there's been a bit of a lull. Do you see that picking up again?

Tortolani Yes. I do see it picking up again ... slowly. But I so think the SAG strike did some serious damage. Lots of motion picture work left the U.S. and went to Canada and other countries. I was pissed about the strike, it didn't help anyone I know. A lot of people in the business got hurt. Rushing work in under the deadline probably affected the quality of the work to some degree. This summer has been pretty hurting for a good movie. Rat Race was a refreshingly good movie. I hope people talk it up; it's a good movie that you can bring the whole family to and still laugh hard.

CM What are your plans for OS X migration?

Tortolani We're waiting for the software to catch up. I am looking forward to the Linux-based 3D packages porting over to the Mac. That will be nice.

Schweickert Right now we have an R&D G4 running OS X where we're experimenting with carbonized apps, albeit few. Until our set of Adobe tools passes the OS X test without failure, we'll be sticking to OS 9.0 and 9.1.

Schweickert has worked at Wild Brain for five years. In addition to his work in animation, he has an extensive background in prepress design. His projects include The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle; commercial spots for Sony, Nike and Coca-Cola; and a CG short film called Hubert's Brain, for which Schweickert did the title design.

Tortolani joined Wild Brain in 1999. Since then, she has directed commercials for Midas, Mattel, Nabisco’s Ritz Crackers, Loup Connect and Parfums de Couer, as well as station IDs for Noggin’ Network. Her recent projects at the studio include "Guilty As Sin," an original Web series for wildbrain.com, and "Reality Chick," a television/Internet series for Oxygen Media Networks. She came to Wild Brain from @Radical Media in New York, where her work included projects for Nike NYC Basketball, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Ford and Hardee's. Her animation work also includes a 55-minute animated program installed with a synchronized light show and surround sound mix at Universal Studio's Marvel Mania Theme Restaurant in Hollywood.

For more information on Wild Brain, visit http://www.wildbraininc.com.

GO TO PAGE [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Complete, Home ]

Read More Columns.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]