the ride of a summer fun film," said
Simon Wells headed up layout, which
sequence lead Henry LaBounta, a vet-
-,was the cinematography of the film;
eran of Industrial Light and Magic,
and Steve Hickner headed up final
who was in charge of the pivotal Red
line, which is making sure that the
Sea segment.
characters [appear to be] all drawn by
"Here's a very important story,
one person.
he continued,
"We would
"with a lot of his-
-stay together on
torical context,
sequences like
and
the effects, in
the Burning
a
sense,
were a
Bush and the
character in the
Red Sea because -
film portraying
they're so pivotal
God.
to the movie.
"The parting of
We just tried to
the Red Sea, the
make a unified
it's the
Plagues
vision."
ultimate
effects
It takes an
film, really. You
army of people
don t get much
to create the
bigger a film for
illusion that an
the kind of work
animated film
we do."
flows from one
The creative
artist's hand —
Jeffley Katzenberg• Taking animated fea-
team
traveled
a fact that tech-
tures to a new level.
together
to Egypt
nological
to
gain
important
advances have
perspective on the location of their
scarcely erased.
story. That trip, along with research,
"Technology and the types of sto-
provided a foundation, but everyone
ries that are being told," said art direc-
was encouraged to try to see beyond
tor Kathy Altieri, "require a lot more
the level of animation that had come
from us as artists. [People] say, 'The
before.
computer, that makes your job easier,
"We actually pushed our artists to
doesn't it?' No, it just gives us a much
give us any idea they wanted," said
bigger palette of tools to pick from.
producer Sandra Rabins, "because we
"The same goes with the audience
had no rules: we came into a brand-
demands for better and better visuals
new studio. So we said to the artists,
i_more heart to the story. We have
anc
`Push the medium, go as far as you
bigger jobs now."
want.'"
Although the makers of The Prince
Even more than live-action films,
of Egypt studied previous biblical films
animation
is an intensely collaborative
— especially Cecil B. DeMille's stan-
effort,
which
means a great deal of
The
Ten
Commandments
dard-bearer,
time spent hashing out ideas.
— they all were anxious to create
"It was an unusual team on The
something audiences hadn't seen
Prince of Egypt, explained Rabins.
before, especially when it came to the
"We're very passionate, strong-willed
special effects.
individuals, so nobody was afraid to
"Usu4lly, the effects I do are part of
-
'
present a point of view and get shot
down for it.
"We would do a-lot of discussion in
a group situation about the ideas and
the issues, not necessarily to come to
consensus. But eventually, because we
all had sort of the same vision for the
movie, we would make the
right decision.
It wasn't about our..:
egos being out there,"
she added. "You
have to be ego-less
in order to make
sure that you're
working on behalf of
the movie."
In the meticulous process of ani-
mation, ideas are put on storyboards,
then rough sketches are put on film
to see if they work. This meant that
any potential problems could be
ironed out before a crew of anima-
tors went to work on a sequence or
particular character.
,
Opposite page:
"The Prince of Egypt"
tells the story of Moses
(Val Kilmer, center fore-
ground left) and Rameses
(Ralph Fiennes, center
foreground right), two
brothers — one born a
prince, the other a slave
— who share an extra-
ordinary relationship.
The film also features
the vocal talents of,
left to right, Jeff
Goldblum as Aaron;
Sandra Bullock as
Miriam; Michelle
Pfeiffer as
Tzipporah; Steve
Martin as Hotep;
Martin Short as
Huy; Patrick
Stewart as Pharaoh
Seti; and Helen Mirren
as the Queen.
Val Kilmer (Moses):
"The first thing I
thought of was my
daughter. She goes to
Sunday school; she'll
know Moses."
12/P
1998
Detroit Jewish News
71