general conditions.

“chasing KEINO” screens tonight at the International FIlm Festival South Africa and was nominated for Best First Film.

I asked an industry friend in Sun Valley recently about Jeff Katzenberg’s strategy to preempt Disney’s animation releases. I asked why Disney didn’t sue Katzenberg for “look and feel”. Here is the reply:

Hey. Sorry for the delayed response. Been a bit busy launching our current round of engagement.

Some answers are:
Very hard to establish legal basis for a judgment without exposing way more of the internal creative process than they’d want.

K was already suing D for a cut of the profits that the films on his watch raked in. They ultimately settled behind the scenes, with K getting about $280 million.

D had a lot more to lose from a PR standpoint than SKG did. They were already bleeding from the other suit, and the company as a whole was very uncomfortable with the Eisner-Katzenberg showdown. Many see the roots of Eisner’s departure in this feud.
Having just acquired the ABC network, D wanted shows that SKG was producing, and had to bury the hatchet in order to get content.

The S and G in SKG were also being alienated by the battle – and neither Spielberg nor Geffen were people one would readily cut ties with for long.

I did check back to see if I was remembering the battle correctly, after all these years. Seems that the whole thing started when the release date for Antz was pushed up 6 months to beat Bug’s Life to the theaters. But Disney and Universal were already at the clone game before that. Some samples are listed in the attached PDF.

Having looked over the returns, though, I think the best answer is that Disney kept winning, thanks mostly to Pixar’s success. In this JPG, Disney’s purple, SKG is green. In the chart to the right, the vertical axis represents release dates:

All this would make it seem that a preemptive strategy wasn’t as effective as one might think. Jury’s still out on that – though K was the one who originally put Pixar and Disney together, so he planted the seeds for his own biggest competition. He’s been much more effective at keeping Sony, Fox and Warner Bros at bay.

Interestingly, Katzenberg can claim direct responsibility for about a third of all box office receipts for animated films released in the US in the past two decades, regardless of studio of origin – or $4.4 billion of a $13 billion industry.

Some people you just don’t sue.

The Santa Fe Film Fe Festival opens 2 – 6 December 2009.

“chasing KEINO” will screen at 8:00PM on 2 December at the Jean Cocteau Theatre and again on 6 December at 12:15PM at the New Mexico History Museum. Please stop by if you are in the Santa Fe area or visit www.santafefilmfestival.com.

A huge Thanks You to anyone who helped, looked at, made suggestions regarding this film! Very much appreciated! Many Thanks!

WILL REPOST VIDEO – BACK IN EDITING BAY
This is test footage using various camera mounting systems. The hope was that it would be transferrable for some helicopter tracking shots. On second thought — I don’t think so… That was BBC 1 audio playing while footage was taken – a complete subset. We don’t want to make a film on Afghanistan. But we very like the French chanteuse thing. Lovely.

Ciao, bellas!

Thanks Jolie for coming out and handling sound and cameras.

Let’s choose this one and be done with it. Right, Christian?

I kept trying to plant the audio from the “Christian Bale On-Set-Blow-Up-Rant” that made the rounds not long ago into this post – but couldn’t get the audio formatting right. It is in the spirit of that rant, that I present these film posters… Very Frustrating.

I saw the German film “Baader-Meinhof Komplex” yesterday. There was a scene in which a group of the RAF kill a German cabinet Minister in his home. As they are leaving the voice-over says: “…the Minister had no problem sending countless soldiers to their deaths in wars – but was dumbfounded when confronted with the reality of his own death.” Ironical. An interesting film chronicling a very torn period in US and European history.

This was the book of photographs that Astrid Proll published in 1998 on the RAF. Originally, the book was entitled “Photos on the Run: 1967 – 1977”. A friend had given me an original hardbound copy when I lived in Sun Valley, ID. After the World Trade Center was attacked – I threw the book away in disgust. To find the same original copy today, if you can locate it in Germany, will cost you $300USD large. It has, however, been published again. Oddly, this newer publication is entitled “Hans und Grete”, which forced a reacquaintance with “Hansel and Gretel”, the mediaeval tale by the Brothers Grimm. I had forgotten about that fairy tale – but to describe it as Grimm is to undercook the story. Very creepy. It seems, in retrospect, that it should be reconsidered as a kid’s tale.

I read that Jim Jarmusch when filming, “Ghost Dog”, asked Disney if he could use some of Disney’s cartoon footage in his film. Disney declined, saying that they didn’t want their cartoons shown in a violent context. Jarmusch’s counterpoint was – cartoons have more violence in them than most films… Ironical. And to that end – we shall say – Good Morrow.