Production Notes & Screen Credits - SYE Publicity

As Illumination was building its production
process, it set out to create a very efficient, streamlined
approach to make the first of its films.
Considering the technology and artistry that was
available, the crew began preproduction in Los
Angeles. There, they conducted a good deal of the
storyboarding and engaged in the initial editing and
designs. As Illumination built up its team in France,
it began to transition character animation and
computer graphic work to Mac Guff.
Illumination moved about 15 people to France to
live full-time. There, they would work on the
production under producer Janet Healy’s leadership;
together, they became a very tight group. Offers
Meledandri of the process: “The technology that we
use to work collaboratively is relatively simple. We
used Skype and iChat because there’s such an ease of
use that we preferred. These are both very low-key
and casual, everyday forms of communication…
rather than fancy state-of-the-art teleconferencing.
We had linked editing rooms and due to the time
difference, we had a production working 24 hours. It
was a tremendously cohesive process.”
Renaud found Mac Guff to be “a world-class
studio.” He commends: “There’s a dedication to
craft that is secondto-none.
What’s interesting
about France
is that they have an
education system that
supports animation
and the visual arts,
which is not easily
found everywhere on
the globe.”
Healy agrees: “We
initially looked at
studios all over the
world, and we recognized
that Mac Guff
had a uniquely talented crew and a very stable, fullfeatured
set of CG tools. They had just finished a
French film that showed a lot of production value.
Our instincts were right: the leadership at the studio
was amazing to partner with on a daily basis, and the
artists have terrific talent and remarkable technical
understanding. We are still astonished at how
straightforward, good-natured and productive the
team is, and how well they collaborate.”
The producer explains the process of bringing
this international crew together: “Seven Americans
came to France as the key leadership. The group
included one of the directors, me as producer, the
associate producer, the editor and the assistant editor,
the stereographer and the production designer.
Everyone else we needed was available within the
Mac Guff team. We brought decades of feature
animation experience from the leading American
animation studios, and that experience helped the
Mac Guff team undertake more complexity in their
images. We understood the paradigm of driving a
production with constant story improvements, always
rewriting, reboarding, trying versions and making
changes—no matter how far into the process we
were. This dynamic ability to strive to improve the
Gru reads the kitten-loving Agnes a book.
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