movies/tv Lauren Faust no longer directs Medusa

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

 

What are your thoughts on this?

 

I won't say anything about this, since most people know my stands on Lauren Faust. But i say that i have a certain sense of deja vu from 2011.

[Nuke87654 1,849]

At some point you got to just wonder whether Lauren has the worst of luck with media corporations, or she's a difficult person to work with after these events happening to her.

Edited November 25, 2015 by Nuke87654

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,329]

Lauren seems to back out of a lot of stuff. Is she hard to work with or something?  Wouldn't be surprised seeing all the shows she's left in the past, like Powerpuff Girls and MLP.

[Megas 27,063]

I get some people want creative freedom, but seeing as how this keeps happening it really makes you wonder

[-Octavia- 1,176]

Just waiting for a game featuring a re-skin of Medusa.

[ManaMinori 4,143]

Dunno why she just doesn't go indie, if she wants all her artistic freedom. Indiegogo, gofundme, etc are all out there. No reason for her not to drop the corporate rat race and go her own way. You'd think she'd learn from the past failures and "creative differences" fallouts.

Least she has TFH to fall back on for now

[DJW 142]

Focused person with a well defined idea of what they want out of a project? I can relate, both with other people like that and how others deal with me.

In a large organisation where you don't have total control it can be utterly frustrating to both sides.

 

Given some of the episodes in PPG she directed and the at times... unsubtle episodes of MLP season 1, I am guessing Ms. Faust is either amazing to work with or totally impossible.

Though of course that's said simply from an observer's perspective with little to go on.

 

It's entirely possible the team Sony (hardly a company known for it's flexibility) allocated to this project interfered in a way that the creative staff specifically hired for the project found untenable.

[[NULL] 906]

Well that sucks. Time to use Kickstarter then.

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

Focused person with a well defined idea of what they want out of a project? I can relate, both with other people like that and how others deal with me.

In a large organisation where you don't have total control it can be utterly frustrating to both sides.

 

Given some of the episodes in PPG she directed and the at times... unsubtle episodes of MLP season 1, I am guessing Ms. Faust is either amazing to work with or totally impossible.

Though of course that's said simply from an observer's perspective with little to go on.

 

It's entirely possible the team Sony (hardly a company known for it's flexibility) allocated to this project interfered in a way that the creative staff specifically hired for the project found untenable.

 

I won't say that it's completly Laurens fault and that she did a temper tantrum. But if she wants to work with big companies like Sony, Hasbro, Disney, etc. she needs to learn how to find a compromise with them. After leaving MLP, then WOV and now Medusa i see a certain trend with her and if this goes on, she won't find any job.

 

Maybe she should consider to go indie, if she can't handle all this.

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,329]

I won't say that it's completly Laurens fault and that she did a temper tantrum. But if she wants to work with big companies like Sony, Hasbro, Disney, etc. she needs to learn how to find a compromise with them. After leaving MLP, then WOV and now Medusa i see a certain trend with her and if this goes on, she won't find any job.

 

Maybe she should consider to go indie, if she can't handle all this.

I know she worked on Disney with Craig McCraken to make Wander Over Yonder after she left MLP. I heard somewhere she left that too but I can't confirm that since I don't watch the show.

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

I know she worked on Disney with Craig McCraken to make Wander Over Yonder after she left MLP. I heard somewhere she left that too but I can't confirm that since I don't watch the show.

 

I am not 100% sure. But several people say that she left immediatly after S1 was finished.

[Chronamut 355]

she needs to learn that "creative differences" doesn't mean her way or the highway. Gotta learn to compromise. With a lot of big directors they treat it more like their child, and are rigid in creative avenues it can go into.

[Artimis Whooves 1,576]

Wait, is this a movie of the medusa book series?

[Dark Qiviut 22,173]

@, @@Nuke87654, @@C.B, @, @@Chronamut,

 

Honestly, it doesn't come as a surprise, and not because of Faust. Sony Pictures Imageworks and Sony Pictures Animation are historically dysfunctional divisions with horrific reputations over how they handle creative. Late last year, they were in the middle of a major wage-fixing lawsuit, and the co-directors of The LEGO Movie declined to be a part of a brain trust for Sony because Sony has meddled with and abused the creative there. It won't surprise me if Faust resigned because of the toxic environment there.

Edited November 25, 2015 by Dark Qiviut

[Chronamut 355]

yeah sometimes it is on the other end, but I believe it takes 2 to tango - if they really were ripping her off though perhaps it was best she was on her way. We will never know for sure until we hear all sides of the story, preferably from a third party perspective to avoid bias.

[Megas 27,063]

@, @@Nuke87654, @@C.B, @, @@Chronamut,

 

Honestly, it doesn't come as a surprise, and not because of Faust. Sony Pictures Imageworks and Sony Pictures Animation are historically dysfunctional divisions with horrific reputations over how they handle creative. Late last year, they were in the middle of a major wage-fixing lawsuit, and the co-directors of The LEGO Movie declined to be a part of a brain trust for Sony because Sony has meddled with and abused the creative there. It won't surprise me if Faust resigned because of the toxic environment there.

I'll give you that, Sony Pictures is definitely a pain in the ass to work with, especially if those leaked E-Mails and other past experiences were anything to go by

[Wind Chaser 4,767]

Projects changing directors and having troubled productions are really nothing new, in fact it's happened quite a lot lately in this industry with projects like MGM's Punk Farm being in development hell with absolutely no news on it to speak of, Chris Wedge's Monster Trucks continuing to endure delays, and even Pixar, whose latest release The Good Dinosaur was originally slated for summer 2014, and Brave, whose status as the lowest-rated Pixar original is attributed to a tonal shift due to a director change.

 

I'm not too well-versed on who Lauren Faust is personally (I ran out of time to watch convention panels long ago), but if some of the comments here are any indication, I think it is time for her to shake things up to increase her fortunes. She tried taking the same route that her former CN colleague Genndy Tartakovsky did, and while that resulted in Hotel Transylvania (which, despite commercial success, is more known as a Sandler vehicle than much of anything else), what's good for the Genndy is not necessarily good for the Lauren.

 

 

I won't say that it's completly Laurens fault and that she did a temper tantrum. But if she wants to work with big companies like Sony, Hasbro, Disney, etc. she needs to learn how to find a compromise with them. After leaving MLP, then WOV and now Medusa i see a certain trend with her and if this goes on, she won't find any job.

 

Maybe she should consider to go indie, if she can't handle all this.

I would definitely agree, and the indie route is 100% feasible for her considering her name recognition and affinity for studios such as DHX Vancouver. I imagine her apprehension towards doing so and dependence on the studio system might be a product of her 80s/90s upbringing and rising in the industry in the 2000s, before the Internet became a factor. But seeing how she did support Fighting is Magic, as well as the name recognition and reputation Faust carries as a result of FiM, she would definitely have a much easier time pulling together support than any of us would if we did the same thing. The support for stuff like Galaxy Girls is there, she just has to find it.

 

@, @@Nuke87654, @@C.B, @, @@Chronamut,

 

Honestly, it doesn't come as a surprise, and not because of Faust. Sony Pictures Imageworks and Sony Pictures Animation are historically dysfunctional divisions with horrific reputations over how they handle creative. Late last year, they were in the middle of a major wage-fixing lawsuit, and the co-directors of The LEGO Movie declined to be a part of a brain trust for Sony because Sony has meddled with and abused the creative there. It won't surprise me if Faust resigned because of the toxic environment there.

I'd quote this because you pretty much took the words right out of my mouth. Unlike companies that have cultivated, developed, and aggregated talent naturally (the corporate histories of Disney and Pixar jump to mind as the first examples), companies like Sony developed these divisions out of a need to compete from a business standpoint, in response to the success of Pixar, DreamWorks, and Blue Sky. It's for the same reason that Disney's CGI stuff had a rocky start with Chicken Little. Any studio that sees more of a commercial than creative need should generally be seen by creatives as a place to cut a paycheck and hope for something better, and not really much else, if they can't transform the place.

[DJW 142]

Really hope this doesn't become a Lauren bashing thread. For all her potential character flaws (how many of us here have actually worked with or known her?) she is still instrumental in us being here in the first place.

[simba86 1,541]

At some point you got to just wonder whether Lauren has the worst of luck with media corporations, or she's a difficult person to work with after these events happening to her.

it does seem like she has a lot of "creative differences" with her employers. hope this does not happen with the $586,000 "them's fighting herds" project

[Guest]

No offense, but Faust seems to leave a lot of stuff due to creative differences. It's kind of coming to the point where you have to admit even if you are a die hard fan of her work and know the evils of big corporations you start to question if it's 100% them. I mean this is what? The third time she's left for "creative differences"? While I can agree with @@Dark Qiviut that Sony is a big pain in the ass to work for and definitely has done some shady stuff, I am starting to question if Faust is not at least 25% of the problem. I mean people have worked for big companies before and produced quality content through compromise, it's starting to look like Faust just wants complete creative control or nothing. Which to be honest, is unrealistic in the industry these days. When people are funding your projects, they want to protect their investment. So unless Faust is funding her own stuff, she needs to accept that sometimes you will need to relinquish some control to the people paying you.

 

If she keeps holding out for that special gig that gives her 100% complete control and a budget that can match her vision she will be waiting a looooong time. Let's be realistic here: very few companies that offer that kind of deal are going to extend the offer to her because she hasn't really made a big enough name for herself now. It's not like Stephen Spielberg who has such a huge list of movies behind him and is a household name. Faust is virtually a nobody in the industry to be honest. Yes she made the current generation of MLP, but think of how many non-bronies don't even know that. Think of how many people don't really care about MLP. And furthermore she is only known for those first two seasons. She is not involved with the big theatrical release of the series first movie, or the mini-theater releases of Equestria Girls, and more or less she can't take any credit for anything beyond season 2. So naturally, she is a nobody to the film industry. She's never worked on a big budget film EITHER, which means it's very unlikely that a film company is going to give her full control with no supervision. She needs to understand that with as expensive as this industry is, you need to prove yourself a bit before you're going to get 100% control.

 

While I know Sony pumps out crap films and is a crap company on a regular basis, part of the problem is also Faust's inability to compromise long enough to make a name for herself. Though she's probably only 25% of the problem in this scenario. Still though, it is worth saying that part of the issue is not just Sony.

it does seem like she has a lot of "creative differences" with her employers. hope this does not happen with the $586,000 "them's fighting herds" project

 

 

If that happened I am sure even her hardcore fans would be quite upset with her.

[simba86 1,541]

she is getting paid to make something for a company, you would think that she would be more open to what the company wants her to do. the company is footing the whole bill at the end of the day so you would think she would make it how they want it instead of rage quiting. I mean she is an employee, you are supposed to do what the boss says because he is paying you to do it, she is being paid to do it so the company should be the ones that have the final say in how it is done. if lauren wants 100 percent control maybe she should spend some of her own money to make her own thing? I could deal with " creative differences" if I was getting paid what she does to make cartoons, because like i said the company is paying for it not faust so it should be how they want it even if it sucks

[chirox the pony 1,334]

Well there goes my interest in that movie. Man the media really need to give Faust more freedom. 

[Limeblossom 482]

@@Dark Qiviut: That Wage-fixing story is really sad. *Something has to be done about it.*

 

It's difficult indeed to work with Sony.

[cider float 2,535]

With all the indie projects going on nowadays I feel like it's time she should go that route maybe picking up a couple of crew members of her own that she can trust. Start up a kickstarter or something.

[Singe 2,109]

I think Faust might want to look at working with the people who do Cartoon Hangover or maybe working in video games.