OH HAI, MR. ANDERSON!

So this afternoon Mr. Jerry Beck (of the Cartoon Brew Beck's) mentioned on Facebook that tonight he'd be interviewing Wes Anderson at the ASIFA Hollywood screening of Fantastic Mr. Fox. And I thought--

Hey wait... I'm an ASIFA HOLLYWOOD member!

I hadn't heard about this screening, so I RSVP'd sooper triple stat!
(thanks for including all the info, Jerry!)

I mean... Wes Anderson?
Live?
In person?
Talking about his film?
And available for questions?

DOCTOR WARBURTON IS IN!

I still hadn't even seen the film yet. I DID receive a screener, but I hadn't had a chance to watch it. To be honest, I was kinda hoping for one of these ASIFA screenings.

AND HERE IT WAS!

But get this...
Not only was Wes Anderson there...
So was Jason Schwartzman... who played Mr. Fox's son Ash.
and Wally Walodarsky... who played Kylie the Possum.

Here's a picture of them all:


I, like, SO hate the camera on my phone.

Anyway, here's some insteresting stuff from the Q and A after the film, paraphrased and way less clever than it actually was. I forgot a pen so I couldn't take notes this time around. Regardless:

• All the voices were recorded 'on location'. That is, they were never inside a studio, with each individual actor recording their lines separately. They were all together, outside, digging in the dirt, improvising together and such.

• When asked why the humans have English accents but the animals don't, Mr. Anderson replied, "It's a story set in England. But when I was thinking about making the film I thought George Clooney would be great for the fox's voice. Although, I don't think American sounding animals and English accented humans is out of the realm of possibility."

• Since Mr. Anderson was working in France, he did most of his work on the film remotely. He could see through the camera of each set (in London) and discuss with the animators what he wanted. He reckons that he was actually on set for only about 20% of the actual shooting

• Asked about his writing process, Mr. Anderson said that his ideal is to be writing with friends. He tries to get into the time and place of the writing... traveling by train in India for the Darjeeling Limited, writing in Roald Dahl's actual house for Fox, etc.


• Speaking of which, the ending of the film was NOT in the book as published. They found it in Mr. Dahl's manuscripts written on a pad of paper, complete with what felt like 'animator's notes'.

• Jason Schwartzman asked Wes (for a friend) whether they remastered the Rolling Stones song STREET FIGHTING MAN because it sounded so good. He claimed that they just played it very loud, although they might have used a newer, remastered version.

Have I mentioned that I love ASIFA Hollywood for putting these screenings on?

But my big question is...

Why are there only one or two people I know at these events?
I'd like to think the animation community would turn up in droves to hear the likes of Wes Anderson, Pete Docter, and Henry Selick.
Granted, I don't KNOW much of the community out here since it's waaaaaay bigger than in NYC, and broken into sooooo many branches--- feature, prime time, cable, international, games, etc etc.
I only really know folks from the cable TV scene.

But still... where ARE ya'll?

Huh?