Interview: Doeri Welch-Greiner on Glago's Guest
Chris Williams Short Precedes Disney's Bolt in Theatres
Oct 6, 2008
"Glago's Guest" represents a great leap forward for Disney Animation. John Lasseter conceived the shorts program as a way of testing new techniques, telling different stories, and giving the next generation of directors a chance to strut their stuff. "Glago's Guest" will debut in theatres in front of Bolt on November 21st.
Disney veteran Chris Williams pitched the story of a Russian soldier who receives visitors from outer space shortly before he replaced director Chris Sanders on Bolt. Suite 101 talked with associate producer Doeri Welch-Greiner about the short.
How did you get involved with “Glago’s Guest”?
“Disney green-lit (2007’s “How to Install Your Home Theatre”) and “Glago” around the same time. I was working on Rapunzel, which was still in story, so I got the chance to step onto "Glago’s Guest."”
What does an associate producer do?
“The associate producer takes care of everything, from taking the budget plan through the approval process and how many man-weeks it’s going to use, and working with the visual effects supervisor to put that plan into action. We knew we only had 100 shots, so we could take some risks that you normally can’t on a feature.”
What were some of those specific risks?
“We used a different method to build our main character. Our rigger, Emmy Druckman, had a lot of ideas and our lead animator, Stephen “Shaggy” Hornby, wanted to set up the (computer graphics) controls in a different way. So we got a lot more real-time control for the animators. Instead of having to go over to a shelf-control page, and then go back to the place where the figures are actually animating, we were able to do more on-screen controls.
"Also, if an animator’s opening a shot on a computer screen, he’s immediately getting the latest information. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but it means nobody’s ever out of date.”
What were some of other things you wanted to try? You mentioned it was very effects-heavy.
“Yes, in terms of the effects, we could only utilize what was in our budget. We thought, ‘Maybe we could cut some of the breath condensation to save some time,’ and then John Lasseter would come in and say, “Oh, Glago looks so great when you’ve got that breath in there!’
"We were able to get in more FX guys and keep the stuff we wanted, but we wanted to be clever about our procedures. Our guys were committed and we have a super-great FX team; they’re so clever about using the software packages. They’re so inspired by the work that they made it fit in the time we had.”
Other than the FX, what other things did you try to accomplish?
“We wanted to get a subtle kind of human animation that we'd never done before. Chris really wanted to give Glago a Clint Eastwood-style of precision, where the slightest eyebrow raise would be enough. It was really fun to watch him coach the animators, to get them to simplify and pull back, because they tended to over-animate with a lot of exaggeration. Chris had this concept of Glago being a really deliberate guy who lived his life by the rules, and finished one task before he started another.
"Another thing was that we had a different production management structure. We had three production managers, instead of 12 heads all managing a piece of the process.”
A lot less managerial oversight-
“And a lot less compartmentalized. So those people are really collaborating instead of the modeler working in his department then throwing it over the fence to the rigger, and the rigger throwing it to the animator and then begrudgingly addressing those notes. If they’re all working on the same team, it’s a more holistic approach.
It also makes your shots more consistent. I've noticed that in a lot of animated films, especially the promo shots, they look like they’re put together by a committee that’s not talking to one another.
“Yes, like getting closer collaboration between FX and lighting. Things are so often approved in FX under default lighting, and then the lighter tunes it another way than what the FX artist had in mind. But on a short, you can have everybody in the room at the same time.”
How close was the short to the original vision, and what elements from "Glago’s Guest" will we see in future Disney films?
“How successful we were in entertaining audiences is really for you to address! (laughs) Hopefully, we did a decent job. I’m really proud of the short and I like the message: not assuming negative intent seems like an important message to be out in the world right now. In terms of things getting pulled forward into other productions, definitely in terms of cloth and hair, we’ve cherry-picked a bunch of ideas off the pipeline, and definitely in terms of the new lighting tool the "Glago’s Guest” team wrote.
“Bolt, Rapunzel, and projects further out, will definitely benefit.”
One of the biggest issues with “Glago’s Guest” was that Chris Williams got pulled to work on Bolt. How did that affect the production?
“That was huge. We went from having free access to him to requesting an hour a week sometimes. Luckily, John had signed off on our storyboards, we were totally locked. Chris’s boards were insanely clear and Chris and director Andy Harkness were really on the same page in terms of vision. We'd show Chris stuff, get his reaction and go back and address his notes. It was amazingly smooth, given the challenge of only having your director once a week.”
(Look for Part #2 of this interview coming shortly)
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