AWN Oscar Tour Travelogue

Day 3 of the LA leg of the Oscar Showcase Tour finished up with a screening for The Simpsons production crew.

Day 3 of our LA tour began at Sony Pictures in Culver City.

Day 2 in Los Angeles continues at Disney Feature Animation, highlighted by a studio tour with John Musker.

The SoCal leg of Oscar® Showcase Tour kicked off with a screening Monday night at Woodbury University, sponsored and organized by ASIFA-Hollywood.

Day 3 of the tour begins with a fantastic tour of Pixar.

The main subject of discussion is Mr. Peabody and Sherman. The story of the sophisticated dog genius and his adopted boy companion spans back to the 50’s, originally part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle animated series.

Bob Balser, the animation director on Yellow Submarine, and his wife Cima share their impressions of the Oscar Showcase DreamWorks studio visit.

Fresh from our morning at the ARL, we were greeted in the lobby of Disney’s whimsical animation building by Stephanie Morse, Talent Development Coordinator. She ushered the nominees into the screening theater for a quick introduction. Then, leaving the lunchtime crowd to watch the nominated shorts, our band set out on a fast-paced tour of the neighboring Disney lot.

Paramount Studios is one of the oldest and most venerable of the big Hollywood studios. While the studio has been distributing animated films for some time through its relationship with DreamWorks, only announced last July it announced it was getting back into the animation production business. Our group spent the entire day on the lot and were not disappointed.

Next stop on our whirlwind Oscar-nominee tour was Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Imageworks, which share a campus not five minutes from the main Sony lot.

Dolby Digital in San Francisco and Karl Cohen hosted the last Bay Area Oscar Tour screening for ASIFA San Francisco members. The filmmakers greeted ASIFA members in the lobby and talk about their films before the screening began. Marcy Page, producer of Wild Life, joined us for the evening.

As we made our way from PDI/DreamWorks up to George Lucas' Big Rock Ranch, we took a short pause to take in the spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge.