Steven Spielberg Admires Animators (1978)

[msferoz85]

Thank you, Spielberg, for testifying my argument 7 years before I was born! :D

"All directors should be animators first"

[brainsick213]

speilbergs films have impacted cinema for so many years...with his blockbusters such as E.T. or Jurrasic Park and his darker more films such as Shindler's List or Munich

[captainjjb84]

Wow! He looks so different 30 years ago.

[RideMyBMW]

min 1:00 "I think all directors should be animators first"

Oh please, he stole that line from George Lucas.

[waqaralam3]

@RideMyBMW Would ya like to pass on the link of George Lucas, where he said this??

[CrunchyDaddy]

It was obvious he was one of the few live action directors at the time to have a total respect for the industry, and animation in general

[Hermoor]

Yeah animators...artists...if you trace it back to the base you got 2D artists...drawing/painting then sculpting. Modern equilvent of sculpting would be 3D modeling. That is why I say put an artist as the director of a project and you will get a great movie/game...the problem with games is that they are being made by left brained nerds...put a non nerd with an artistic brain to make any game and you will get something that would make games be recognized as an ART form.

[MICKTAM12]

what kind of animator, frame by frame cartoon animator, or a 3D animator with shape keys and key frames?

[RubberRoss]

New found respect for this man. (:

[Animythproductions]

I like this guy.

[darkxaur]

It's 33 years later, and Spielburg has a wedge of Yes-men jammed up his ass.

[synisterxdave666]

Donation? FUCK OFF!!

[bitrol]

donate for me to

[RGBEAT]

Sick! I was an animator first. And I know what I want as a director. Thanks Spielberg :D 

[RGBEAT]

Sick! I was an animator first. And I know what I want as a director. Thanks Speilberg :D

[NinJutsuDude1997]

Beardless Spielberg. Wow.

[KiCreativeStudio]

0:48 Sorry Steven, I'm inclined to disagree. Sometimes animators actually DO "take chipmunks and roll them around in the snow" to see what it's like.  It's called action analysis.

[Ignight666]

@KiCreativeStudio it's 33 years later. a lot has changed since 1978.

[flashportalnet]

I was an animator before i began film making! Helped alot with developing style, passion, focus and motivation.

[2505994]

this is why pixar is the best

[SammyBarker95]

@2505994 you are so right

[Hoppercool]

I'm an animator!

[kiymetbilenlerden]

steven spielberg is a jews and work for teror and zion staat israel

[MGX]

@kiymetbilenlerden what does that have to do with animation?

[Hoppercool]

@kiymetbilenlerden You're a shithead. Get a life.

[ScorseseKubrick]

I wonder if he knew how big he'd be back then?!

[etheriate]

Spielberg is just a money-maker not an artist like Elia Kazan and Francis Coppola.

[sspdirect02]

@etheriate I beg to differ.

[alecton]

Animation is the father of Live Action Cinema

[WolfPred101]

Huh Steven Spielberg with no beard...

[Gefilta]

anyone ever wonder David Koresh and Steven Spielberg are the same person?

[StevenSpielbergs]

I miss that , Join My channel I am Spielberg

[CaptainGOP]

Steven Jewberg

[jotarodotcom]

Hah... The irony is that today's animators really *do* build little digital squirrels and roll them around in fake snow, since it's more efficient than drawing them. But it also takes the pressure off of the director to think about what he wants... It's all too easy to let the simulation fill in the gaps.

It takes a skilled animation director to know what parts of animation can be relegated to the computer without sacrificing the desired result.

[JimmyAGIV]

The simulation now gets art directed to DEATH. That's the difference.

[westside2]

I understand everything you say, but I don't think steven meant that you can't learn everything when making a movie or get new ideas. he told it in the documentary "the cutting edge" when he was making jaws, which is prior to that interview. he said that his editor helped him a lot when the cut had to be made. the editor made sure that the shark looked real in every frame. so the result wouldn't match is original, but his vision stayed the same --> a deadly white shark terorrising the beach :)

[westside2]

it's a bit idealistic to say that you have to know everything that you want, cause each time when you're making a movie, it's a new learning process. when you are doing something creative, you have to have an idea of how your creation will look like, at the end of the line, it will be undergone some changes, but, hopefully, your vision will still be a reflection, or maybe just a shadow, but that's practically the fundament of why artists do art.

[westside2]

but getting new ideas doesn't mean you don't know what you want. of course when you're making a movie, you'll be involved in a proces. you'll get new better ideas, but come on, even david lynch had his intentions. from the very first beginning he was like "wouldn't it be great to break the rules and you don't give an explanation for it?" the way I interpret the words of steven is like i've said before. it's very important to know why you are doing something.

[harryreinbizach]

I find him to be correct on many levels, being an artists myself, you need that basic idea in your head to put your ideas down on paper, you can't have a picture in your head, then copy it onto paper, you have to know the length of their nose, the size of the eyes, where the ears go, the dots, the speckles,, shading- you have to KNOW it before you can DO it. otherwise the chimpmunk you had in your head may end up looking more like a beaver, or hedgehog. but also you must have technique.

[Xurgonic]

Any artist will tell U how many best ideas are happy accidents. Great filmmakers approach the process differently just as Spielberg says to approach each actor differently. Directors who know what they want can still make crap. Coppola and Kubrick are infamous for not knowing what they wanted & wasting resources. Brando did not like to rehearse, may not even read a script & preferred to 'just let things happen.' Knowing what U want does not always = 'genius.'

[VideoGarage]

this is religion

[tinkumanimator]

Hes a genious whos always spot on.... u know why..!?? coz he knows wat he wants... we can see that in every frame of his movie...!! No wonder he says" every director should be an animator:........look at BradBird,,,Andrew Stanton....HayayoMiyazaki san...!!!!!

[Xurgonic]

Always spot on? Did you see Temple of Dumb? Bore of the Worlds? Hook? 1941? Spielberg too often smells of manipulation & schmaltz. Spontaneity and experiment are equally valid approaches to 'genius' as following a pre-conceived plan.

[NewcastleGrind]

Someone's biased :)

Seriously though, you can't break the rules if you don't know them first.

It's a valid thing when you know how things can be done. I can vouch that had I not used Microsoft 3D Movie Maker to recreate my favourite movie scenes shot for shot, frame for frame, I wouldn't have learnt or understood why they were done the way were, and I wouldn't have been able to apply that knowledge when I needed it on the fly. This is why this is so important for amateurs to know.

[Xurgonic]

'Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours.' Not knowing the rules is the BEST way to break them. Best example is Welles on Citizen Kane. Have heard many famous filmmakers saying, 'If I had known what was really involved , I never would have attempted it.'

[westside2]

Well, you make some good points. But if you look the other way around, you'll find a guy like david lynch. the only reason he CAN breake the rules is because he knows them all so well. i would go with Stevens philosophy here. the actual message here is that you have to know what you are doing, not just what you want. The emotion, the different elements you want in your film is very important to know when you are a film maker.

[Xurgonic]

But Lynch did not know the rules going into his first film which I consider 'a perfect film' as Lynch has said. Lynch will readily tell you how ideas come from outside the ego's intentions. The 'art' is to stay open to the flow of collective ideas. This is an old interview. I wonder if Spielberg would put it the same way now.

[Xurgonic]

Its ok for director to 'not know what he wants' as long as puts faith in talented people he hires. Mapping all out in advance is only one way of filmmaking. Kubrick allowed ideas to evolve spontaenously from collaborative process. Improving with actors does not cost as animation where its technical, time consuming and expensive. Best client I worked for was Rodriguez on Sin City where he allowed creative freedom, open to ideas & I designed shots myself rather than just doing what was told.

[NewcastleGrind]

I'm pretty sure Robert had a vision of what he wanted with that movie. Spielberg's talking about the kind of cats who find out they don't have fully realised idea of what they're doing till they're already doing it, as well as how important it is to understand how visually a story is constructed. No one's saying a director should be a precise & controlling slave driver to be good at what they do.

[Xurgonic]

Yet I hear Spielberg is tyranical. Vision & knowing how to get it are 2 things. Rodriguez anticipates post better than most but did not know the look of Sin City & on some complex shots he might say 'i dont know, we never thought it thru, just show me something.' That made us go the extra mile to impress & he usually liked it. A few times he pushed a wrong direction but was quick to say 'forget what I said, you guys know what your doing.' So rare to have that faith in the artists.

[VJWU]

Yeah well Sin City did not even make $100 mill at the domestic box office and didn't win or get nominated for anything at the Academy Awards or Golden Globes. Rodriguez is not considered a top tier director. What has he done that is most successful? Spy Kids? I would say that Rodriguez is the best director who walks around wearing a cowboy hat. And you're taking Spielbergs words out of context because you're taking a narrow view of it. He didn't say you couldn't be open to ideas.

[Xurgonic]

BTW, Sin City, a mostly CG movie (and one of the first fully digital) was only $40 million and worldwide grossed 4 times its cost. It was nominated for Cannes top honor, the Golden Palm, and won the technical grand prize. It also kicked off Mickey Rourke's comeback.

[michaelcawood]

Aaaahhh, Validation... that doesn't come often for an animator, especially from such a worthy source. It almost makes up for all those Animation "Making of" Documentaries all about the voice artists.... but not quite!

[NewcastleGrind]

"I think all directors should be animators first"

Bloody Amen to that!

[JaredPelletierFilms]

@NewcastleGrind i'd say that applies more back in the 70's than now

the current thing now seems to be that directors should be editors first, considering accessibility and seeing how a film goes together, and how to achieve it

[Sonny0612]

@NewcastleGrind amen

[kshitijnikam]

@NewcastleGrind hell yaa

[JeremyTraub]

Yup.

[JAMFREAK06]

he is spot on !

[proceedapathy]

great clips!