Asking LBT production crew members for information

Sovereign · **Reply #320 on:** November 26, 2018, 05:18:09 PM

Believe me, I would have told you if he had answered.

Anyway, let's take a look in the coming days if there are new candidates to write to.

Hypno · **Reply #321 on:** December 01, 2018, 08:29:14 PM

Well, if you go back to post #298 in the thread, you'll see that I had listed six storyboard artists that had contact pages who worked on the sequels. Mike Sosnowski and Robin Conover were two, but there were also four more - surprisingly, all four of them were storyboard artists for Journey of the Brave. Their names are Llyn Hunter, Larry Houston, Fred Gonzales, and Robert Sledge. Hunter has a DeviantArt account in addition to a website.

I suppose we could contact Hunter next. Here's her DeviantArt and website, where you can contact her on one of them:
https://llyn.deviantart.com/
https://hunter4story.weebly.com/

In fact, I remember now - back in February, I asked her if she had any LBT XIV storyboards to share (because storyboards for XIV are extremely rare to find) and she actually supplied me with some in her response a couple of weeks later. Here are the storyboards if you want to see them: https://hunter4story.weebly.com/storyboards.html (scroll down to "Universal - JOURNEY OF THE BRAVE")

Sovereign · **Reply #322 on:** December 02, 2018, 05:09:23 PM

Those storyboards are quite nice! Thanks for sharing them! However, if you already contacted Hunter, do we have much else to ask her?

Hypno · **Reply #323 on:** December 02, 2018, 09:43:25 PM

You could ask her what production was like, if there were deleted scenes from XIV, etc. Not everything has to be storyboards; I just specifically chose storyboard artists to contact so that maybe we could be able to see some of the storyboards they did up (I am more interested in visual content instead of only text explaining something that has no picture). After we are done Hunter, Houston, Gonzales, and Sledge, I'll move on to finding some other people who worked on LBT films, though. Maybe concept artists, editors, etc.

Sovereign · **Reply #324 on:** December 03, 2018, 03:21:19 PM

Alright, I'll try to get a message done to Hunter this week. Though, I must say, I'd be more interested in the original film's production than sequels' even if I know it's more difficult to contact those people. As for the storyboards, those are always great too but to me, descriptions are just as important.

Hypno · **Reply #325 on:** December 03, 2018, 04:11:56 PM

May as well look for storyboards + text in the response then

Whenever you'd like, you can post the message draft here.

Sovereign · **Reply #326 on:** December 15, 2018, 03:05:05 PM

Sorry for taking this long to post the draft but I've been kinda busy in the past weeks. In any case, here's my proposition of our message to Hunter and as before, feel free to let me know if you want something added to it!

Quote

Greetings, Ms. Hunter!

I am extremely thankful for the beautiful work you did for the storyboards of the Journey of the Brave. It was great of you to share some of them with a fellow fan, whom I know through Gang of Five, a LBT-related fansite, early this year and those pictures showed some of the great talent that it took to create this worthy sequel to the old classic. I, for one, enjoyed Journey of the Brave greatly and it was a real relief to see the series get over JOTB’s immediate predecessor. What I’d be interested in knowing, however, is what scenes you worked on besides Littlefoot worrying for his father and was there anything interesting going on behind the scenes during the creation of the film?

What I mean by this is that were there any problems or controversies during the film’s production? It would be especially interesting to hear about any cut scenes or sequences (the original, as you may know, had over 10 minutes of animation finished which is why I’d like to know of the sequels) that you may have seen or heard of during your work on the film. Also, you may have been asked this question before, but were there any implications that the film would have a sequel itself or that the franchise would still go on in some form? Sure, it has been nearly three years since JOTB but I and several other fans would still love to see this phenomenal series get further continuation.

We understand that you may not want to share everything with us but even answering a few of these questions would mean a lot to me and many other members of the Gang of Five. You may also add some funny memories of your own if you want to into your answer and thank you already in advance for a possible answer!

Best regards
---

Hypno · **Reply #327 on:** December 17, 2018, 05:03:23 PM

As always, the message looks to be fine.

Though I find this part is a little strange:

"It was great of you to share some of them with a fellow LBT fan early this year and those pictures showed some of the great talent that it took to create this worthy sequel to the old classic."

I mean, how would you know about me asking about storyboards? I feel like you should make it clear that you knew me beforehand. I think it sounds a little better that way. Though, this isn't a major thing, just a nitpick. The message is well done to me otherwise.

Sovereign · **Reply #328 on:** December 18, 2018, 02:48:56 PM

Well, I changed the reference to GoF to be earlier in the message in order to clarify Hypno's point. If any of you have other ideas, you may still share them.

Littlefoot505 · **Reply #329 on:** December 18, 2018, 07:07:15 PM

Looks pretty good to me.

Sovereign · **Reply #330 on:** December 21, 2018, 02:49:46 PM

Thanks for the comments you two.

If no one has more objections, I'll send the message tomorrow.

Sergeant Burker · **Reply #331 on:** December 22, 2018, 10:03:32 AM

Good luck with your message, YOU'RE gonna need it!

Sovereign · **Reply #332 on:** December 22, 2018, 10:40:56 AM

I don't think that getting an answer is THAT unlikely but thanks anyway.

Anyway, the message is sent now.

Sovereign · **Reply #333 on:** January 01, 2019, 10:01:39 AM

Well, Ms. Hunter gave me an answer and a really great one as well!

Without further words, here it is!

Quote

Hey ---:

Nice to know there are LBT fans out there. It's a bit difficult to go into detail on the story end of the production. With most feature films in animation, there are tons of changes from the beginning to the ending of the project. Often there are entire sequences that are worked on for many months then totally rejected. For example I did one sequence were Littefoot and Ducky run into an old ribcage to escape from the Allosauruses and it goes bouncing down a hill like a barrel. I and several of the other storyboard artists working on that sequence did numerous versions of it (how many I can't even guess - but quite a number). In the end it was totally cut. There are many like that. In features Storyboard artists are often used to produce the original visual ideas, then once they are introduced into a rough animatic the director and producer decide whether or not they are working in the overall story for the film. The basic through line of - "Littlefoot and company go in search of his father and save his life" - never changes, but the events to get there and the number of them alter dramatically throughout the process.

As to what other scenes I had a hand in, probably a fifth of them before the entire film was completed. This is because as the film was continued to be polished each storyboard artist on staff would work on whatever scene needed changes as they became available. Since in animation the artists actually create the work, it can sometimes be almost an assembly line process. We all have to be able to draw backgrounds, props, and all the characters in the movie and act them out so that the animators can take a scene or sequence at a time and hook it all together and make a comprehensive film. On this film there were about 10 initial board artists and 5 staff (who were a part of that initial 10) who worked on the film.

As to future Land Before Time films, I'm sure there will be more, but I'm not sure when. Universal/MCA makes a great deal of money on them with little outlay. The problem is always that animation is always the step child in entertainment, live action will always be green-lit before animation. Most producers would prefer to be in charge of a live action project because of the larger budgets and status. Oddly enough, animation usually makes good money in the long run, but those in charge don't get the credit for it - the marketing departments do. Also, animation artists are temporary workers. We rarely work for a studio for longer than the extent of the project. When the studio is done with the project, they are done with the artists. They lay us off and just hire up a new batch when they are ready for the new picture, so the likelihood that I or anyone else that worked on this production will work on the next is not high.

In the long run, it is always a pleasure to be part of a franchise that has such staying power as LBT, I get to consider myself as one of the thousands that have had a hand in its continuation and creation. It is also wonderful that so many millions of people continue to enjoy it. I would suggest if you do wish to see another, send snail mail requests to Universal Animation. Something in paper with a physical stamp on it can have a lot of power as a vote of what you would like to see from them.

All the best to you and the other fans,

Llyn Hunter

Sneak · **Reply #334 on:** January 01, 2019, 02:42:34 PM

OH MY SUBGOSH.

Thank you so much for sending this letter, and receiving new piece of information. I really enjoyed reading it! Nice New Year gift!!!

Flathead770 · **Reply #335 on:** January 01, 2019, 03:29:27 PM

That was a very good read and it's nice to see how much she enjoyed working on the film! Awesome stuff!

Sovereign · **Reply #336 on:** January 01, 2019, 04:12:12 PM

Yep, the answer was far better than I had anticipated!

Do you think I should ask her something else or simply give her our thanks?

Flathead770 · **Reply #337 on:** January 01, 2019, 07:03:18 PM

She seemed pretty happy to talk about it so I think asking her more stuff could be good. As to what I have no idea

Hypno · **Reply #338 on:** January 03, 2019, 02:49:09 PM

Oh wow!! That's great that she answered you! This is the first time we've EVER found out about a deleted scene in one of the sequels! Also I don't remember there ever being an Allosaurus in XIV. I'm not sure what she meant there - there are only Yutyrannus and Carnotaurus that appear in the movie.

Maybe we could thank her for the answer and perhaps ask her if the storyboards for the cut scene still exist?

rhombus · **Reply #339 on:** January 04, 2019, 12:57:44 AM

I can only second what the others have said, this response is a goldmine in terms of new information. Not only have we heard about aborted scenes in a sequel for the first time, but we have also received some indication of the likelihood of future LBT films in the opinion of Ms. Hunter. The confirmation that they receive far more revenue than expense with these films is a good sign that the economic payoff for the films is still there.

Thank you for sending this message out, Sovereign, and for providing Ms. Hunter's response.

I have made the mistake of overlooking this topic for quite some time on account of being busy with other things. I will certainly be remedying that oversight in the future.