The most anticipated movie event of the year are the Academy Awards®. Sunday February 26, 2012 on ABC-TV will be the 84th Academy Awards® when the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes the excellence of professionals in the film industry.
Throughout the year, I had conversations with producers, directors, production persons, and actors who’s film projects have garnered recognition with an Oscar® nomination. The insight from each of these persons provides a ‘behind-the-scenes’ view of their dedication to the art of filmmaking.
In this seven part series excerpts from those interviews include
Part 1- Director Simon Curtis interview: film ‘My Week With Marilyn’ Best Actress nominee Michelle Williams.
Part 2- Director Cary Fukunaga interview: film ‘Jane Eyre’ Best Costume Design nomination.
Part 3- Director Chris Miller interview: film ‘Puss in Boots’ Best Animated Feature Film nominee.
Part 4- Director Chris Weitz interview: film ‘A Better Life’ Best Actor nominee Demian Bichir.
Part 5- Director Jennifer Yuh interview: film ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ Best Animated Feature Film nominee.
Part 6- Director Wim Wenders interview: film ‘Pina’ Best Documentary Feature Film.
Part 7- Stunt Coordinator Ken Bates interview: film ‘Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon’ Best Visual Effects nomination.
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‘Conversations With Oscar® Nominees’ - Part 3 of 7 - Director Chris Miller ('Puss in Boots')
Providing the backstory for Puss before meeting his Shrek friends, the notorious swashbuckling cat (Antonio Banderas) and two companions (Salma Hayek and Zach Galifianakis) scheme to steal a gold-laying goose. ‘Puss in Boots’ received an Oscar® nomination in the Best Animated Feature Film category.
“Originally when I was working on the Shrek films early on I was a story artist and I loved that job. You get the screenplay and it’s an opportunity to take first crack at visualizing the screenplay. The way we worked on those movies we had a just a ton of freedom to write and rewrite, and create interesting situations! So much of ‘Puss in Boots’ is done the same way. We had a very capable writer Tom Wheeler, and every memorable moment in the film came from a story artist, an idea that was born in the story department. It’s a great training course for directing because you learn a lot about cinematography, staging, blocking, all those things come in handy. When ‘Shrek’ the third came around I was offered the opportunity to direct that film.
When the opportunity came that they were going to make ‘Puss in Boots’ into a feature length film, I jumped on it because that character is my favorite of any of the Shrek characters! By far and away, ‘Puss in Boots’ is a liberating, fun film. It can be epic, and like you say, ‘An old RKO heroic character, like a legendary figure that’s larger than life’. There’s some Errol Flynn in there, and characters from cinematic history in Puss with a bit of James Bond, Clint Eastwood, Indiana Jones, and all these influences helped guide the way we approached sequences!
As you mentioned, those finer nuances like your favorite of cats chasing a light, at the end of the day these creatures can never resist their true nature so if they’re lost in a moment or caught up in a moment, they’re just cats and it’s a fun comedic engine and every body can relate to that so we wove those aspects of cats into Puss’ persona which gave him his totality!” – Chris Miller
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