Friday, February 6, 2009

in which we attend the CORALINE premiere...

the waving streams of light from outside the window signaled that premiere night approached:
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that morning, first up were several more interviews for our man Neil. That he could still string sensible sentences together and Twitter at the same time is a testament to his stamina. He was able to round up several thousand followers in the Twitter community to spread the CORALINE word.

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CORALINE creator Henry Selick, Neil and Maddy under the marquee...

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the theatre was next door to the hotel, so it was an easy commute (see how close by spotting Maddy in the hotel window over the sign)

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here's my view of the klieg lights:



we looked in at the big press line for the red carpet through the windows and could smell the popcorn from outside:

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if you look on the red side, you can see Maddy in her gorgeous green Grecian goddess dress chatting with Henry. Robert Bailey Jr (voice of Wybie) and our Neil being interviewed on the right:

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the very beautiful Teri Hatcher (photo by Drew, only he was tall enough to get over the press line):

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cameras. everywhere.:

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on to the after party...we had been hearing rumblings about for some time, how the Laika animators were re-building some of the sets on-site, along with many of the props and puppets from the film. We followed the button lumieres around the block to the Portland Museum of Art:

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see Henry & Neil up ahead of me? I was so busy taking photos, i lagged behind:

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when entering, the first thing you see is the intricate blooming CORALINE garden:

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here is another snippet of a movie from my camera: (I will new-years-reso to get better at these, but I wanted to show the button "go-bos"--the swirling light cut outs on the party floor)



Cynthia, one of the lead painters, gave us a fascinating demo of how the faces popped on and off to form the many expressions:

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I was taken with the use of cookie sheets and speed racks, they were like tiny plasticine cookies baked in the imagination of these dedicated artists.

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she had two glass cases of my favorites, Spink & Forcible, and looking at how tiny and delicate the paint strokes would have to be, close-up, I got a better sense of the real amount of work:



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flash-back bonus: an old shot from when we were in Portland in January of Neil signing an unpainted model of the teeny naked dancer:

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the Dad/piano set:

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bits and bobs from a creative desktop:

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some of the incarnations of Other Mother:

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we spent a good deal of time trying to find Shelley, our favorite lady from Laika (see her peeking up in the background)
and I must say, young Harry Selick (in the argyle sweater) who does one of the voices in the film, has grown up into quite a charmer:

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the food and drink laid out everywhere was a beautiful temptation. I drank the WIllamette Valley pinot noir and yes, I got a little wine lip (the red crust on the lips, this is not to say I got lippy) Here is a view of the wine glass stacks and in the background is my favorite set, the dreamy firefly house:

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oh how i love you, pumpkins!

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here is a closer view:

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even closer:

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here is Maddy with Teri:

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and with Dakota:

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here is Georgina, head of the puppet department and Neil and Drew and Travis Knight, lead animator:




As we made the rounds, people approached Neil and he tirelessly chatted and posed for photos all night(if any of you reading this got your photo taken by me, email me at "neverwear@gaiman.net" and I will send you a copy) One sweet girl gave him a handmade teapot which i packed carefully in his suitcase this morning. Mister Gaiman went home almost without a voice, by the way.


The crew of LAIKA toiled away to set this up for the party, foregoing the premiere to work all night, and then, they stayed OVERnight and took down the sets, total dedication. That speaks volumes for Henry too, that he is the leader of such a fierce pack.

an honor and a pleasure to be a part of this magical night in Portland.

Now William and Nancye are taking us to see SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE at a theater that you can eat pizza in.
Am i in heaven?

28 comments:

Dread Val said...

Awesome photos, Kitty! Thank you for sharing them!

(Ye gods, I look like Spink!)

Can't wait to go see it myself. ;) Now get some rest, lady!

mistressmousey said...

Is it wrong of me to covet that dress so much? I mean, I wouldn't look nearly as good in it as Maddy does, but it's so PRETTY! Want.

Thanks so much for posting such wonderful photos! (I'd have been lagging behind to shoot it all too.) Sounds like you had a great night. Just 2 more days until I get to see it. 2 more days...

Kitty Cat said...

ahoy! sailorettes!
DV, if you look like SPink then you were one of my two favorite characters...LOVED FRENCH AND SAUNDERS.

and MIchelle, I linked in the last blog (a corrected omission) to the lomo mister pink camera, it IS medium format and available at lomography.com
xo

vampi said...

wow, maddy's dress is awesometastic! simple elegant stylish beautiful, everything you would want. i dare say, better than most dresses for things like oscars.

wonderful pictures, really awesome. thanks so much for sharing.

Yoga Gal said...

Great job, as always wonderful photos! Tell Maddy she looked super in her dress! Namaste - Yoga Gal

ravyn said...

Fantastic photos! Thanks so much for sharing! i'm going tomorrow to see Coraline in my local theater, yay!

DataGoddess said...

Awesome photos! It looks like it was a great time.

So home for you soon, and a break?

Dragonsally said...

Truly magnificent photos. And look - Maddy is nearly as tall as her Dad!

Lucky to have a tripod Drew for those overhead shots.

FabulousLorraine said...

Kitty, that was the best post EVER! Rocked my world, girl!

SO glad you were there!

ariandalen said...

Love, Love, LOVE the photos!

Thank you, Ms. Kitty!

I'm like Michelle, I want Maddy's dress! Gorgeous! Though it doesn't outshine Miss Maddy! :)

Na said...

Wonderful. Thanks for documenting and posting! Always fascinating to see the work behind art magic.
And Q said it well, that Ms Maddy has some style goin' on. :)

AletaMay said...

Great post. Great photos and great story of the day.

Well done Kitty!

Anonymous said...

Great pics!

Anonymous said...

Really great pictures!:) So many pretties, I'm not surprised you lagged behind when there were so many things to see. And Miss Maddy was stylin' in that dress.

Wish I didn't have to wait until next week to see it (gotta sync schedules with a friend.)

spacedlaw said...

Sounds like heaven indeed.
:)
Thanks for all the great pictures and the stories, Kitty. All of this sounds great. I am glad you were able to see and experience it all.

Stacey said...

photoblog is fantastic. Film also fantastic. I and 3 friends went to see it today. In 3D even. (The 3D made me dizzy, I will see it next time in regular I think.)

Congrats to all, Neil, Selick and all appropriate crew and helpers!

Manuel said...

True that is the best green dress ever. Maddy and Dakota look great together.
Maybe soon Dakota will play a character in a story that Maddy wrote.
Since your Lomo post the day before i extensivly checked all the avaiable models. EVIL YOU! hehehe
i just bought a flash for my half year old SLR

Marjorie said...

Those pictures are fantastic, Kitty, and thank you so much for giving us a glipse behind the scenes! And add my name to the list of people who LOVE Maddy's dress!

Dan Guy said...

Great premier report! The pictures are awesome. I love that green dress. Kudos to Maddy for the taste and class.

Bill Peschel said...

Thanks so much for sharing these. It's pretty amazing to click on your little movie and fool oneself that you were there.

Kitty Cat said...

Neil's link to the photos from the afterparty have me motivated to go and upgrade my entire camera system....mmmmmm I want SLR digital.

thanks for looking everyone.
and by the way, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE was so much fun. Not necessarily best picture, but a great ride.

notasecretagent said...

I echo everyone's thanks for posting all of this! :D Everything is so glamorous and beautiful - I can't wait to go see it myself.

And put me in the column of people who want Maddy's green dress - gorgeous! The girl's got style!

Beez said...

Thank you Kitty! What a good thing to come home to, this report.

Chantrelle said...

Thanks for sharing, i love the pics! It was amazing to see the puppets and puppet parts in the Cartoon museum, i couldn't imagine seeing whole sets up that close!

And maddy looks stunning! I love that dress!

Anonymous said...

The photos are fantastic! Way to go. Looks like you had a great time. Hope you enjoyed Slumdog Millionare and the pizza!
PS LOVE my shirts, thanks so much!

vampi said...

i think burgundy thinks we are all lushes here...oh wait...



burgundy wines are recommended for spam.

Kitty Cat said...

okay, clearly I love wine as much as the next kid, but yes, I agree, my Vampi, recommended for spam, and did delete that long-winded comment about wine....

ok, working on my POrtland blog now, it will be over at :
http://furrytiger.blogspot.com/
I am trying to keep the two blogs seperate, will see how that goes, one for Neverwear worky stuff and one for touring and fun life stuff...

tiarlova said...

Thank you sooo much Kitty for sharing your pictures! OMG how I wanted to be there. Now I long for the swedish premiere of Coraline!