TriStar's horse mascot stars in Andy Hall's Newport Beach Film Festival opener.

From 20^th Century Fox’s monolithic lettering to the DreamWorks’ crescent moon boy, major Hollywood studio logos are often more memorable than the films they’re attached to.  To celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the Newport Beach Film Festival in southern California, director Andy Hall of a52 and Elastic, Santa Monica worked with Santa Monica-based agency RPA to pay homage to the fanfare with which big movie studios announce their presence at the beginning of every film.

The :30 opener is a whimsical journey that finds TriStar’s winged horse plucking DreamWorks’ crescent moon boy from his moon perch and traveling through a world populated with  studio logos. Acting as Newport’s own opener, it played before every film that screened at the eight day event, which started on April 30.

In this exclusive Q&A and photo gallery, Hall takes us behind the scenes.

Boards: How did you get involved with the project?
Andy Hall: Over the years we’ve done a number of jobs with RPA through both RPS and a52 and I’ve been very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to direct a number of Honda spots via RPA in recent years past. So when [executive producer] Gary Paticoff and [creative director] Scott McDonald approached us about collaborating on this particular project, we jumped at the opportunity.

Boards: What was the brief?
AH: When we first started discussing the project, it was clear that something special had to be created to mark the 10th anniversary of the Newport Beach Film Festival and Scott wanted this to be a celebration of everything film. The obvious connection between all film studios is the opening fanfares that they create for their films. So in that spirit, we designed a similar fanfare that would lead into every film screened at the festival.

Boards: Can you describe the brainstorming process?
AH: After the initial discussions with Scott about what he wanted to achieve, I really wanted to make something that was unique in its own right even though it would borrow from the various studio openings. From the outset, it was always in my mind to give it a stop motion quality, obviously influenced by artists I admire like Terry Gilliam’s work in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. I wanted to play on the roots of film and bring it back to a theatrical setting.

Boards: How did you decide which movie studio titles you were going to spoof?
AH: Just to clarify a rather important point: this wasn’t meant to spoof the film studios, but to pay tribute to them, the greater film industry and what in turn the film festival represents.

We started with the obvious big studio titles and then looked at the landscape to see which others we could incorporate that would help tell the story. It was very important to me to not just have a series of gratuitous logos sprinkled throughout the piece. Each logo had to influence the storytelling and fit within the narrative structure. Many of the studio titles themselves are great storytelling devices that laid the groundwork for the narrative. And then there are many layers within each scene that viewers might only notice after seeing it multiple times.

Boards: Which titles did you pay homage to?
AH: I think there are over 18 different references to studio and production company logos: Paramount, TriStar, DreamWorks, Disney, of course, 20th Century Fox, etc. Amongst all those, there are less obvious ones like Spyglass and Castle Rock. MGM is formed by some clouds as we fly past the Amblin moon; the Columbia woman is in the Disney castle; and the maze in front of the castle is in the shape of the Legendary Pictures logo and is flanked by the Pixar lamps. And of course at the end of the piece, the boy falls into the Bruckheimer tree.

Boards: Can you describe the process behind creating the spot?
AH: I always had it in my mind that it would have a very handmade feel, a sort of whimsical quality that people automatically connect to. We started with the character development and set design. Even though we approached it as a CG production, I wanted it to have a lot of texture and depth. Each model and set piece was designed to have very tactile qualities. All of the textures were hand painted instead of using photographic elements to texture with. For instance, the horse was painted to feel like a wooden horse from a pier merry-go-round. So many times we’re asked to make something photo real, and this project was very liberating for our team since they could really use their imagination and their art backgrounds.  I was able to get back to my roots of animation and the stop motion technique. We used Maya and Mental ray for the modeling, texturing, animation and rendering. At the end of the process we were lucky enough to be able to do a final DI session with Patrick Murphy at a52 to set the color and balance all the scenes for film.

Boards: Was there any scene or setup that was particularly challenging to pull off?
AH: There were two scenes in particular that were important to pull off. The spyglass scene that reveals the boy in the moon had a number of different elements and styles that needed to come together perfectly in order to be successful. One of our leads, Max Ulichney, worked on this particular scene and really nailed the various elements. This was the first scene that we completed and that really set the tone for the rest of the piece. He really captured the magical quality that I was going for. And the other scene was the Disney castle opening where the horse comes into frame dragging the boy behind him. Because we designed the whole piece as if we were working in a theatrical stage environment, every scene needed to fit within an enclosed space. This scene in particular called for a lot of depth that was designed by our other lead, Kirk Shintani. Kirk was able to get all the details that I was looking for into the shot, while keeping the grandeur that the scene called for.

DreamWorks' crescent moon boy re-animated.

Boards: What creative or technical challenges did you run into?
AH: With CG we always want to give it an organic and tangible quality so that it feels like you can actually touch the set pieces. Sometimes things created in CG feel too perfect and it was important to strike a balance between that high standard of quality without it feeling too slick. CG can feel really cold at times, but we really wanted it to feel warm and familiar and have a whimsical quality that would almost feel childlike. Also, knowing that this would ultimately be projected on the biggest theater screen in the west, we had to make sure that every detail down to the cogs that make everything move feel completely genuine when seen on the big screen.

Boards: Is there anything else that you want to add?
AH: I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with Scott and RPA in such a collaborative manner. It really gave me the freedom to create something truly special and beautiful. When I first spoke to Scott about the project, I immediately started to see it in my head. It really became a labor of love and I think you can see that in the final piece.

Watch the Newport Beach Film Festival trailer in the Screening Room and check out some behind-the-scenes photos below.

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A52> www.a52.com
Elastic> www.elastic.tv
RPA> www.rpa.com