{"id":96177,"date":"2020-10-23T20:00:07","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/letting-olaf-be-olaf-film\/"},"modified":"2020-10-23T20:00:07","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T17:00:07","slug":"letting-olaf-be-olaf-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/letting-olaf-be-olaf-film\/","title":{"rendered":"#Letting Olaf Be Olaf \u2013 \/Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Letting Olaf Be Olaf \u2013 \/Film<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2020 by Jacob Hall<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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If you have questions about the Frozen<\/em><\/strong> universe, Becky Bresee<\/strong> and Peter del Vecho<\/strong> can answer them. She was a supervising animator on the first film and the head of animation on the second. He is the producer of the entire franchise. Now, she\u2019s the head of animation and he\u2019s a producer and creative consultant for Once Upon a Snowman<\/em><\/strong>, a new prequel short film about Olaf the talking snowman\u2019s first day of existence.<\/p>\n

I spoke with Bresee and del Vecho ahead of the short\u2019s streaming premiere and learned the key to telling an Olaf story, why they had to entirely recreate familiar scenes from scratch, and how the pandemic has changed the animation process. Once Upon a Snowman<\/em><\/strong> is streaming now on Disney+.<\/p>\n

This is far from the first time Olaf has been in a movie or short film. When you were working on the character in those previous projects, what lessons came through for this short? What were the things you learned where you said, \u201cOh, we can bring this to this new film\u201d?<\/b><\/p>\n

Becky Bresee:<\/strong> Well, luckily we know who Olaf is and we know how to animate him. So, in a way, it was nice because we could take different story points and just push into new things in that way because we were so familiar with him. He\u2019s a very gettable character, cartoony but sincere, so we had a broad acting range to work with him.<\/p>\n

Peter del Vecho:<\/strong> Truthfully, I think we learned [to] let Olaf be Olaf. Yes, he can slightly mature, but don\u2019t change him from who he fundamentally is: that innocent child who is exploring the world and can ask questions and question the world around him in a way that we as adults have forgotten to do.<\/p>\n

So even though you\u2019ve grown familiar with Olaf and you know who he is and what he can do as a character, was there anything in the short where you wanted to try something new on an animation level? The way he can move, anything at all \u2013 what was something unique you were able to try out here?<\/b><\/p>\n

Becky Bresee:<\/strong> Our team members were amazing. They\u2019re very creative, and they take things sometimes a little too far, and we pull them back. There\u2019s one team member, his name is Alex Snow, and I don\u2019t know if you remember this part, but when Olaf is being chased by the wolves and he kind of breaks into the parts and he\u2019s running on his arms, that\u2019s something we never did on any of the other Frozens<\/i>. That\u2019s something fun about going into the dailies room: people are bringing these different ideas to the table. Sometimes it\u2019s a little bit much. You\u2019d say, \u201cEh, I don\u2019t know if Olaf would do that,\u201d but then some things come out of it where you\u2019re like, \u201cWell, that\u2019s hilarious. Of course Olaf should do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of that sequence, I wanted to ask you about the legs on the head. There\u2019s definitely some unique comedic opportunities with a character like Olaf who doesn\u2019t have to rely on human physics to get around. What kind of inspiration do you guys find to push animated slapstick forward? I\u2019m thinking of old-school Disney, but also Looney Tunes. What do you look for in these opportunities to create physical comedy with a character that doesn\u2019t have to play by the rules?<\/b><\/p>\n

Becky Bresee:<\/strong> Your imagination is your guide. You can think of all sorts of different things. I know we have lots of fans of Warner Bros. and all sorts of things like that, so I\u2019m sure there are things taken from different references there, but it really is the creative nature of the team members that really like to come up with these silly things.<\/p>\n

Peter del Vecho:<\/strong> I think of Chris Buck, who was obviously a director on the first Frozen<\/i> and the second Frozen<\/i>, but he also was a hand-drawn animator. He said right from the beginning, when he originally had the idea for this character in the movie, it\u2019s like an animator\u2019s dream because you can do all sorts of things. You can pull him apart and put him back together, and he doesn\u2019t get hurt. So you just can have lots of fun and put him in all kinds of situations.<\/p>\n

Becky Bresee:<\/strong> And I think we have to give a lot of kudos to the storyboard artists, too, because a lot of times they\u2019re coming up with the gags, and really pushing. Then [the] animation [department] will work with that and try to figure out how to work those things into their animations.<\/p>\n

One of the returning characters, so to speak, are the wolves we meet in Frozen<\/i>. We get to see a different side of them here. I don\u2019t want to spoil it too much, but can you talk about the differences between animating a friendly wolf versus an angry one? In many ways, they\u2019re big dogs, and we all know how cute dogs can be. I\u2019m curious: what are the go-to rules for making a scary animal suddenly friendly and cute?<\/b><\/p>\n

Becky Bresee:<\/strong> I think it\u2019s the teeth. (laughs) I think it\u2019s looking to reference of wild dogs and domesticated dogs, too.<\/p>\n

Peter del Vecho:<\/strong> The eyes and the shapes, you can definitely make it feel \u2013 you can go to either end of the spectrum with it.<\/p>\n

Becky:<\/strong> What I love is that the wolves get a chance to be understood in this little short. They\u2019re just hungry. (laughs)<\/p>\n

The whole gist here is that we get to see events from the first film play out through Olaf\u2019s eyes. We get to see moments from his perspective, and so many iconic moments play out from the fringes. Was this a case where you were able to re-use pieces of animation, or was this all created again from scratch? How does that work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Becky Bresee:<\/strong> On this short, we weren\u2019t able to just transport everything over from Frozen 2<\/i> because it was from the first movie, including the snow. So we had to bring back Matterhorn, which was how they did the snow on Frozen<\/i> 1<\/i>. But the scene, especially where they\u2019re on the sled and Anna is saying, \u201cYou have friends that are love experts?\u201d, that had to totally be recreated. Because the rigs are so different now. One of our animators really looked at that scene and recreated it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of those things that, quietly, I think a lot of people may not notice. Like me, they\u2019ve never worked in animation, so they go, \u201cOh, it\u2019s the same scene,\u201d and don\u2019t realize exactly how much work went into recreating that. So that\u2019s really cool to know.<\/b> This is a question for Peter. You\u2019ve been producing all of these. Watching <\/b>the Frozen<\/i> doc, which is wonderful, and seeing you at work, I want to know when you\u2019re working on a short film, maybe with those who have worked on previous <\/b>Frozen<\/i> films or those who haven\u2019t, what lessons do you have to sit down and say, \u201cThis is the core of a <\/b>Frozen<\/i> story\u201d? You\u2019ve been so close to it for so long now. What were the laws\u00a0you had to lay down?<\/b><\/p>\n

Peter del Vecho:<\/strong> Truthfully, it\u2019s being true to the characters \u2013 in all our films, it\u2019s all about the story we\u2019re telling. Everything we do is in support of the story we\u2019re telling. So it really starts with the idea, and then making sure we heighten that in every aspect. The good thing about this short is that we all know the world really well, we all know the characters really well. There was also a lot of fun, because we\u2019d just finished Frozen 2<\/i>. When you finish a film, it feels great to finish because you\u2019ve been working so hard, but there\u2019s a little bit of sadness to have to walk away from characters that you know so well. So this gave us the opportunity to continue working together, continue working with characters we know in the creation of the short. So that was a fun experience for us.<\/p>\n

This is probably the question you get asked every time about working in the year 2020. How has your process changed during the pandemic? How has filmmaking changed? What have you learned from all this?<\/b><\/p>\n

Peter del Vecho:<\/strong> I can speak to that, because the film I\u2019m currently working on, Raya<\/i> [and the Last Dragon<\/i>], we were into animation when the pandemic hit, and we had to very quickly figure out a way to continue making the movie, but from home. Thanks to our technology<\/a> department and the speed at which we were able to transition to working from home \u2013 it felt abrupt and there were lots of issues to work through, but it happ<\/a>ened relatively smoothly and relatively quickly, to the point where we can finish Raya<\/i>. Right now we\u2019re in the finishing weeks of animation and people are working just as hard as they ever have at the studio. We are using tools like Zoom and other tools to communicate, so we don\u2019t get that same energy as walking into the studio, but we do get that same energy of teamwork and working hard to complete the story that everyone\u2019s been working on for so long.<\/p>\n

And for you, Becky, what were some hurdles you had to overcome during the process of getting this short finished?<\/b><\/p>\n

Becky Bresee:<\/strong> The short actually was finished before the pandemic happened. I\u2019m actually animating Raya<\/i> right now. Like Peter said, at first it was like, \u201cHow is this going to work?\u201d But then technology helped get everybody up and running. Really, it\u2019s the communication that\u2019s different, but everybody\u2019s working so hard to get this movie done and we\u2019re so in love with these characters. It\u2019s more about the communication aspect for me. But honestly, it\u2019s something everyone\u2019s kind of grasped onto and it feels pretty seamless.<\/p>\n

Peter del Vecho:<\/strong> What is amazing is that there\u2019s such passion at the studio to tell these stories, to create these worlds, to animate these characters, that even despite all the obstacles of having to work from home and the pandemic, that underlying truth is still there. \u201cNecessity is the mother of invention\u201d has never been more true. You find ways to communicate, you find ways to get things done so you can get that story out there.<\/p>\n

My final question, and this is required by law, is probably for Peter \u2013<\/b><\/p>\n

Peter del Vecho:<\/strong> I already know what it is.<\/p>\n

Do we have any word on Frozen 3<\/i>? Frozen 2<\/em> is terrific, I love it, but it\u2019s also a really great ending. I like how it leaves the characters. How do those conversations even happen? Can you say anything at all?<\/b><\/p>\n

Peter del Vecho:<\/strong> I\u2019ll say what we said when the movie finished. You work so hard and so passionately, you need a little bit of distance from it. We\u2019re happy that we can celebrate the Olaf short going onto Disney+. We all currently have other projects in mind. We haven\u2019t forgotten the Frozen<\/i> characters because they are a part of our lives. We love them. But for now, we need a little distance between them. And, like you said, I always feel like Frozen 1<\/i> and Frozen 2<\/i> sort of told a complete story, so for now, there are no announcements in that regard.<\/p>\n

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“#Letting Olaf Be Olaf \u2013 \/Film” Posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2020 by Jacob Hall If you have questions about the Frozen universe, Becky Bresee and Peter del Vecho can answer them. She was a supervising animator on the first film and the head of animation on the second. He is the producer of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/once-upon-a-snowman.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1568,1416,1570,5246,10294,66484,1355],"class_list":["post-96177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-featured-stories-sidebar","tag-animation","tag-features","tag-frozen","tag-interviews","tag-once-upon-a-snowman","tag-short-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}