Channel Frederator Blog

man, theres absolutely no way my short Ace & Aqua is going to have a fair chance. Is this for the nominations of animated shorts to be released in 2007 and decided by the end of 2007, or for the shorts that were released this year ?

at this point if your really in it for artistic merit then it shouldn’t matter if your piece makes it into the oscars, i know personally that my own goal is to just get my ideas made. if your setting out to “win oscars” well then whats the point of that? i think its more useful for you as an artist and the artistic community’s benefit to just make a solid film/short film and display it wherever you want, if the academy chooses to honor you for your work thats up to you, if i were running a business i would be more concerned with getting my work seen by millions through the aformentioned mediums rather than getting it acknowledged by the academy and having to wait to show my piece. in the end its about what your motivations are really. if your looking to generate business then just show it, get it out there, this in my opinion is more important than awards and accolades, be successful and you wont have to worry about other people saying “great job” because at the end of the day you’ll be doing a great job. if you set forth to make a superior product without looking for praise in the end you have the satisfaction of knowing your product is superior. in my opinion those who do things just for praise end up living in mediocrity and never really get to “greatness” they are just stuck going “isn’t this good, heyy look! heyy!”

I agree, although what if you’re set out for just having an oscar? You cant possibly compete with disney if you’re one person doing the job. Your work would have to be beyond anything disney( just as an example studio) could make.

Stephen, I think it is possible to compete artistically with the larger studios, but it’s the distribution that is out of reach for the one animator or independent. A release on the internet would even the playing field a bit, but it is against Academy rules.

Thats true.. its hard alone to distribute a short and get it out there, and now you have to compete with huge studios like disney or pixar and blue sky or whomever? its very! difficult indeed.

imo just having an oscar is a boring goal, i mean think about it once you get your oscar what then? thats the end of the road. if you set your goal higher, and just strive to get better then it doesn’t matter if you have an oscar or not. it’s like when ur in high school which im sure you can relate to, the cool kids ignore others and everyone wants to be with them. comparatively its the attitude of not caring about an award like an oscar and setting your goals higher than that that eventually earns you recognition by such establishments. if you cannot compete with disney or pixar then your goal should be to get as good as them. or, if disney and pixar is your goal then set your sights on making a film with pixar or disney. go past the recognition of an award, thats boring, dont settle for anything less than greatness and the accolades will naturally come.

Getting back to the point of the post, what do you guys think about the rule about internet distribution? I think, if allowed, it would level the field a bit between studios that have a regular distribution and those that do not.

This is another reason why its even harder to compete with the big companies. Most everyone puts their animated shorts online, its just what people do so that other people recognize their work and see what they’ve done. If everyone had shorts on dvd instead of having it online, not many people would see this persons animated work. If internet distribution is allowed, 1 man studios ( such as I ) would have a much better chance of even being nominated.

Guys und Girls, basically what the Academy is saying is the same as the guiding principle behind any corporate structure, “If ya want it bad enough, make it work on your own.” No cynicsm; just reality.

i thought i made myself pretty clear about the point of the post. who cares if they dont let you distribute it over the internet. getting an oscar shouldn’t be your goal anyways.