Disclosure: This event and trip to LA was an all expense paid journey sponsored by Disney. All thoughts, ideas, and ramblings are 100% my own!
One of the top questions I have gotten since I have been back is “What did you do while you were in LA”. Well, this post is a glimpse into this awesome trip. Now, you are all heading out to see Frozen tomorrow, right? LOL My kids have a countdown to opening day. They tell me every morning how many more days till it opens.
First, I'm going to start off with our interview with the Frozen Directors: Disney veteran Director Chris Buck (“Tarzan”) and first-time Director Jennifer Lee (co-writer, “Wreck-It Ralph”) teamed up, along with longtime Disney Producer Peter Del Vecho (“The Princess & the Frog”, “Winnie the Pooh”) to create the epic comic adventure of Frozen.
How many years did you work on Frozen?
Chris Buck: I pitched it five years ago, and but really when it came down to production production, probably about two and a half years, um, all together. Jen joined us a little bit later. She was finishing up on Wreck It Ralph when we snatched her to help on this one. Usually for a movie like this, two and a half years is actually a very short time for me.
How hard was it to create the snow and ice?
Chris Buck: The ice was hard, because with a computer, the computer does everything perfectly. The first kind of ice that we saw looked more like glass or plastic. We realized ice has imperfections in it, it has flaws, and so we had to put those imperfections in. Then it started to look really good. We also did research. We went to an ice hotel in Quebec City. We saw how the sunlight would come through the ice and how beautiful the different rooms were.
Jennifer Lee: We had a crew go to Cheyenne Wyoming, and we got all our animators to wear big skirts with corsets. Both the men and the women had to walk through deep snow and understand what that means. (Note from me: I totally loved that they did this. It gave everyone the true sense of difficult it is.)
What was important in this film is that we didn't want the characters just walking on top of snow. We wanted the integration, and doing integration with snow, we had to completely build programs to do that. We didn't have anything like it. The Technology Team just pushed it. They were amazing in what they did.
There is that scene where she builds the ice palace. There’s one shot there’s a very long shot where you enter it as it'sbuilding and you rise up. It took maybe four or five months working on it to finalize that scene. Four hundred people had all touched that scene just to make that happen.
Chris Buck: One frame took like thirty hours to render.
Jennifer Lee: And there’s twenty four frames a second so, we have four thousand computers all rendering that one shot, at the same time, so we're like, whew. (when it was finished)
What can you tell us about the actor's auditions and casting for Frozen?
Chris Buck: Well we always knew that this was going to have songs in it. When they came in for auditions, they also had to sing a song. Um, Kristen was the first one that we saw for Anna, and her singing voice was a really amazing surprise for us. We knew that obviously Idina yeah because I mean what do you say about her singing, unbelievable and her acting is amazing too. Kristen was a big surprise, how beautiful her singing voice was.
Josh was one of the first ones that we said for Olaf. Although his character changed a bit as we went through it, the voice was always Josh.
Jennifer Lee: I really feel like we couldn't do a lot without Josh, because he was on a different project, we couldn't get him. I struggled so much writing Olaf, because I needed the actor. The kind of comedian it took the part is- the comedy of the part, the heart and the warmth of it- I could write it superficially. Luckily Josh was available again.
Chris Buck: Even though some of these, we found early on, in terms of setting the bar high, we still auditioned both here and in New York and probably saw fifty seventy-five people per role.
Jennifer Lee: Jonathan Groff was fun because when I came on was right around we were talking about him. But Kristoff was originally supposed to be very gruff. They were really looking for a deep voice and- and just- gravelly and Jonathan came in.
Chris Buck: Santino who is a Broadway actor, he's on Broadway right now in Cinderella– (as Price Charming) he came in with an audition song. He sang. It was more he thought the character was a little more Gaston like, so he came in with a version of, you know, the song, I Feel Pretty. (He changed the lyrics to I Am Pretty.)
We talked to them about a ton of stuff. It was so cool to hear the inspiration and how they make such great movies like Frozen. There is so much work involved in animation than drawing a picture. To be honest, I never realized how much!
I also have to show you some of the story boards that we saw. It was so cool:
The last thing I have to tell you about is rigging. Now, I had no idea what rigging was before I visited the Disney Animation Studios. However, without rigging everything would move in 2D. It looks like cardboard. What rigging does is creates a skelaton and movement, so the characters move just like you and I. However, it sounds so much easier than it was. LOL
We also got to see how rigging changes how things look on screen so that everything literally flows the way the animators want. Sometimes, a dress needs to flair up where it naturally wouldn't. That is where the riggers do their work. They truly are the unsung hereos of animation that we never hear about. I even got to do some rigging of my own on Olaf:
I know, lots of information for you all today! Are you excited — my review of Frozen goes live tomorrow!
I loved that they walked through the deep snow too! Their research is so cool and you can see how it pays off in the movie. So excited that it comes out tomorrow!
that is amazing! how did you get connected with this opportunity?! i would love to do this with Creative juice!!
They contacted me!
that is so sweet!!
What an amazing opportunity that you had.I can’t wait to see this movie with my boys.
They will love it!
You are so blessed to have such an awesome opportunity!
I agree! It was so much fun!
It looks like you had an awesome time! 🙂
Awesome that you got to go to this!! I’m off to read it right now. 🙂
the story boards were my most favorite part of my trip to LA– amazing. i can’t wait to see frozen!
What a cool thing you got to do here! It;s wonderful!
I have been hoping for some time that I would get chosen to attend one of these events. Just gave up and now live the adventure thru bloggers like you!
What an amazing opportunity. I love that graphic they had set up too
Beautiful! What a great opp.
It’s amazing where blogging can take you!
We can’t wait to see this movie! How exciting you got to do this interview.
This looks like a fun movie and you are never too old to get excited about the Disney movie. I still love my old Disney VHS tapes and they are reason we still have a VCR in the house.
What an excellent opportunity for you and excellent job covering it!
That is awesome that you got to experience that. I can’t WAIT to see this movie!
I cannot wait to see this movie! We are going in December!
I always love to learn about the inspiration behind a movie.
I never knew it took so long to make a Disney Movie.. wow I will appreciate them more now..
You are so lucky to have the chance to do this! I am super jealous! We are planning to see the movie next week, I can’t wait!
I love Olaf. Too cute.
I love your interview. I bet you were so excited to be a part of this experience. I can’t wait until I am able to see this movie!
What an amazing opportunity! It sounds like you all had such a fun time and also learned so much! I would love to do something like this! Congrats!
I’m super stoked to go see Frozen! Probably more than my son…
So cool! I’m looking forward to seeing Frozen as well.
What a great experience for you. I know Disney always makes these premieres very enjoyable. We are going to see Frozen tomorrow, so excited.
That is so very awesome you got to be a part of the Frozen promo! I can already tell you that the snowman will be my favorite character!
It is crazy to think that some scenes take 4-5 months to build!
Man, I’m so jealous, that looks like a fabulous event.
It’s so much fun to see the other side! My ex husband is an animator, and it’s such tedious, dedicated work!
I did not know that it took 2.5 years or longer to make a Disney Movie.. I have a new found apprecation for them…
This is such an awesome opportunity! Congrats.
can’t wait to see this. i think we’re going friday to a matinee
I am so jealous that you got to meet all of the cast and directors. Great job.
Wow. What a cool experience. This looks like a cute movie.
I am looking forward to this movie!
Looks like such a fun time……great interview too! Can’t wait to see the movie with my grandkids!!
That’s so interesting about the ice and needing it to look a little less perfect. I hadn’t thought of that!
How awesome – so lucky to get to go and talk with them. I can’t wait to see the movie with my kidlets.
Wow! I have read a lot about this movie in the past few days. It looks cute.
This is so cool, thanks for sharing the interview with us. Can’t wait to see the movie!
I can’t wait to see the movie! So much great information about the making!
This is very interesting! Sounds like you learned a lot too! Can’t wait for this movie!
Thank you for sharing this interview so that those of us who did not get a chance to have this awesome experience could learn what the directors were thinking about various parts of the project.
wow that is awesome! Saw the movie last night – loved it!
I love seeing the storyboards of movie production. Our family is so excited to see this movie this weekend!
I really want to take my kids to see this movie! It looks so good 🙂
I can’t wait to see this movie!!
How great my daughter is counting down to see this movie…..I guess I am too so I can take her..
What a fun interview you must have had!
OMGosh how exciting – so lucky!! I can’t wait for this movie to come out.
Your interview is awesome. I would so love to have been there with you. Rigging is amazing – and now that I know what it is I’m going to be paying special attention to it in the movies. I can’t wait to watch Frozen with my kids!