Max Howard was in Armenia for the second time during the recent ReAnimania International Animation Film Festival of Yerevan. Exodus Film Group president Max Howard was formerly president of Warner Bros. Feature Animation and senior vice president of Disney Feature Animation. 

Howard was one of the senior architects of Disney’s animation renaissance. He has collaborated on such animation successes as “Who framed Roger Rabbit”, “The little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Alladin”, “Pocahontas”, “The lion king”, and “Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron”. At Warner Bros., Howard oversaw the award-sinning animated feature “The Iron Giant” and the international hit “Space Jam”.

Most recently he was an Executive Producer on “Igor” for the Exodus Film Group, which also has “The hero of Color City” and “Bunyan and Babe” currently in production and slated for release in 2011. Max is a member of BASTA, ASIFA and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (Oscars). 

You have great experience in the field of animation feature production. What has changed in the industry of animation? 

Technology, The same technology that has changed all of our lives. Well, but what has changed this technology in animation? The technology that needed for computer graphics used to be so expensive and you had to write all of your software. Now it is available for everybody and not very expensive. So now it’s allowing to people who are talented to do great work, but not be a part of a big studio. And that provides opportunity for local studios here in Armenia, for local artists in Armenia. It is conceivable that the film could be made here whereas few years ago even if the artist were brilliant it couldn’t be done because the technology would be unavailable. 

Do you think that technology “steals” something from animation? 

No, because technology never does anything for you. If you write a letter using a computer it doesn’t write the letter for you. If I write to you I have to find the right words to write to you. I can’t go: oh, computer, please write a letter. If I do it will become very formal, very impersonal and not very good. If I had a technology that could do animation the animation would be not very good and it would be impersonal and you wouldn’t care. So even if it’s a computer it’s still the artist’s hands. Instead of drawing on paper now you can draw on something else, so it’s still the artist’s hands. 

You can say that you have been in the modern evolutionary development of feature animation. 

Yeah, wasn’t I lucky? I didn’t have a lot of experience when I came in. So innovation to me is like - why not innovate. Because you know we get older and we get stuck. The older you get you get stuck, you think you could only do it this way, because sometimes you know too much and you become too experienced. 

You say that you destroy some rules in your films, deviate from accepted standards. 

You have to understand the film, and then you can make changes. If you break the rule you must understand what the rule is to break it. Understand storytelling, understand why it works, understand why you cared about it, why did you like the film. I say you can change rules, you should be innovative, but you must understand why people liked the film. Now I sort of understand, I know how to manipulate you into liking the film. And that’s what great filmmakers do, great writers do that. 

Exodus film group is one of the companies in “independent” feature animation production. What are the challenges of producing independent animation feature films? 

Money. When you are a big company the budget is bigger, you never think whether enough money will come in to make the film. So when you are independent you are trying to raise money from people, please come and invest in our film. And that’s the hard part of it. But the creative freedom, the creativity is a little more increased, because we are smaller, we can do things faster, and we can make innovative films. 

It must have been difficult for a company like Exodus to get into the business where there are such big companies like Pixar, Disneys, Dreamworks. 

Yeah, but before you couldn’t and now you can. Some years ago I recognized that we were going to see more independent films being made. And we are. Independent films are being made all over the world. I saw a Russian feature film today and it has been made here in Armenia. They are making it for the Russian market, but it’s still a feature film. It’s not going to play around the rest of the world, but there is already a feature film being made here. 

So today small companies can compete with greater ones.

Yeah, but it’s not competing, I think there is more that opportunity. When Avatar comes out, it’s just a film, they’re not trying to put somebody else out of business. Avatar is not trying to make Warner Brothers stop making films, it’s just trying to be successful in its own right. And I think it’s about the way of looking at it. What is the need to compete with Pixar or with Dreamworks, you are just a filmmaker making your film. So in order for you to be successful Dreamworks doesn’t have to be unsuccessful. 

Can small companies reach their audience? Isn’t it difficult? 

It is if you don’t have a good film or a good story. If you have a good film, you will find a good distributor, because they will like you film and will distribute it and if you have a good distributor your audience will come and see it, they will like it, they will tell their friends. And then you have a movement. There is such an expression for this kind of movies “sleeper movies”. It just started on one or two screen and then people started talking about that. And because the one movie theater was full they added the second theater and the movie for months just got bigger and bigger. 

Have the demands of the audience changed throughout these years? 

Well, I think there is no generation alive who has not grown up with animation. Your grandparents, great grandparents knew Mickey Mouse. So a few years ago animation was something new. Now it’s not new. Some people accept animation as a form of entertainment. But I think there is an acceptance that there are different styles in animation: the stop-motion, this is what Aardman do, there is computer graphics, this is what Pixar do, and there is still handdrawn animation, which a lot of studios do, including Disney. 

Do you think the kids want to watch the same things? 

I think what they wanna do is watch great stories, and I don’t think they particularly mind, and rightly so, what the technique is. I think everybody is recognizing when they are going to see a great story. And there are 3 things to the great story: you have to have a believable world, you have to have a great story, and you have to have lovable characters. And if you get those 3 things into your films that’s why your audience is gonna like your film. Because they know the world, they understand it, they love and care about the characters. 

Do you think that your movies will entertain not one but multiple generations? 

I think that’s the opportunity that animation has, but live action films do not have. In animations films transcend time, because there are imaginary worlds. When we are going to shoot a film with live action camera when we should get a contemporary film we use contemporary fashion and when I see the film 10 years later that fashion is no longer contemporary. And then oh, that’s what they were in 10 years before. But with an animated film, because there are imaginary worlds, they don’t go old- fashioned, most of them. 

Do you use animation as a sort of power to pass on important messages, especially to kids? 

I think you have to be careful with messages. I think you have responsibility when you are making a film. I can say any filmmaker has a responsibility. But you should be careful with responsibility and propaganda. Any form of entertainment can have an educational element, providing it’s not the primary: oh, you need to see this film, it will be very good to you. You know, people resist it. People go to the movies, because they wanna be entertained, they go to school for education. You want to be transported from your everyday life. But I think there are some important messages, and I think we can be irresponsible sometimes. We should be aware that children like role-playing and we should be careful with it. 

Last month you attended the Asia Business Matching for Creative Economy Venture Capital Forum, now you are in Armenia. Can we regard it as a special interest in eastern countries?

What I’m particularly interested in is the story, finding great stories, new stories. What I like to talk to people about is that if you have a great Armenian story, you have to tell the story in a way that people understand. Movies are formulas, every movie is a formula. You can say that “Terminator” and “Star wars” are very similar films. They are hiding the king, everyone is looking for him. But the way in which you tell the story can be different. So I think there are potentially fantastic stories in Armenia, in the mythology of the area, but you could adapt, you change, you adapt the story, you don’t tell the story exactly, you make it work, but you keep the underlying theme of the story. 

What advice would you give to those Armenians who want to get into animation? 

It’s a partnership of private enterprise, government, the artistic community. All have to come together to create an environment which fosters creativity. And the creative economy will become so powerful for the economy of Armenia. Because the film we made here will earn money overseas and return money to Armenia. And Armenia will become famous. Creative economy does so much for the people. It’s very important for the community to be creative. Not violent, but creative. So my answer to finish is: why not, why can’t it be done here, because it could be done anywhere.