There will be increasing temptation to watch movies where you want to when you want to, and so I'm very focused on how we innovate Illumination Entertainment to keep the in-theater experience vibrant and urgent. In part I think it's what movies you're choosing to make and why those are films we feel are best enjoyed surrounded by a group of people. I also think it's continuing to look at things technologically.
Christopher MeledandriAbsolutely, you rise and fall based on your creative team. I have continuity across different films that I've done. I was even fortunate enough to reach back and include people that had worked on Horton with me, as well.
Christopher MeledandriWhat I've found is there is no barometer that allows you to chart when you're oversaturating a desire. You're left really trying to respond on a gut level, because by the time you might do research, it's already too late. There's also a healthy tension between what are very sound business objectives and a very amorphous desire to preserve what's special.
Christopher MeledandriIt's not fair to use movies that weren't creatively successful as a reason why something won't work.
Christopher MeledandriWhy did Ted Geisel end up writing and illustrating for young minds? He has specific imagery in the book, and we never would have moved beyond the discussion phase, if we couldn't have found an expression for The Lorax, dimensionally, that was true to the soul of what comes through in his simple line drawings, on the page.
Christopher MeledandriI think that it's important for a film that's in 3D that the filmmakers create the movie from a staging and scene planning standpoint with the dimensional space as one of their storytelling components.
Christopher MeledandriWhat I find in a creative company is while there is a desire to build a management foundation that can feel clear and consistent, the unique product we're in Illumination Entertainment making doesn't always allow for that. So rather than following management strategy that talks about building your structure and then staffing that structure, I tend to build the structure around the strengths of the individual people we have.
Christopher Meledandri