Sky Danley's Story Blog - Sky Danley Productions

Aug 06

Mary Blair Concept Sketches for ‘It’s a Small World [after all]’

I love studying creation, even so more than the final product, because it reveals the inner workings of a creative process. One can learn a lot from process. It's something akin to 'give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he... read more →

Jul 26

Walt Disney Snow White Story Conference SEQ 1B, 2A, 2B, and 7A

Walt Disney – Snow White STORY CONFERENCE – SEQUENCES 1B, 2A, 2B, and 7A (Queen and Huntsman), September 26, 1936 This is a very fruitful meeting -- a lot was accomplished, mostly clearing up motivations behind actions. Participant 'Dorthy Ann Blank' is one of the few women in the story... read more →

Jul 12

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Pilot and Children’s Book Author

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a reserve Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) pilot that wrote 'The Little Prince' children's book while in exile from occupied France in WW2 -- writing the book in America. After completing the book, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry returned to flight duty in WW2 Europe, flying for... read more →

Jun 09

Walt Disney Snow White Story Conference 5-B

Walt Disney – Snow White STORY CONFERENCE – SEQUENCE 5-B (S.W. SENDS DWARFS OUT TO WASH), September 25, 1936 In a continual effort to create a better product, these historical story meeting transcripts are the result of Walt first setting up a system of story conferences to discuss the bettering... read more →

June 9, 2022
Michael Sky Danley
Disney, Historical, Snow White, Story Blog

Jun 02

À la Rencontre du Petit Prince

My son and I recently completed a wonderful 8-day visit to Paris, and for me, the highlight was the visit to Le Musée des Arts Décoratifs, where they're hosting 'The Little Prince' exhibit. I've always been an adventurer and therefore fond of its author d’Antoine de Saint-Exupéry -- mostly because... read more →

June 2, 2022
Michael Sky Danley
No Comments
Concept Art, Historical, Sky Danley Productions, Story Blog, Uncategorized

Apr 07

Walt Disney – Snow White STORY CONFERENCE – SEQUENCE 3-B (SHOW WHITE AND ANIMALS IN WOODS), September 3, 1936

Not directly related to the story line but a very important technique of Walt's entertainment value is INCIDENTAL ACTIONS: "WALT: As an incidental action, when the turtle gets up from the water water should be seen running out of the holes in his shell – don’t make anything of it,... read more →

April 7, 2021
Michael Sky Danley
No Comments
Disney, Historical, Snow White, Uncategorized

Mar 23

‘Jo Jo Slithers’, the green water snake

I had been working on my southern Little Kit story a couple of weeks ago, the Little Kit's Driftwood Adventure story, when I read that Jon Batiste received an academy award nomination for music in the animated feature Soul. While I would take issue with some of Soul's story execution... read more →

Mar 10

Walt Disney – Snow White STORY CONFERENCE – SEQUENCE 5-A (Bedroom), July 14, 1936

A lengthy story meeting, considering how short the sequence is. Actually, the final sequence was cut back a lot from what was discussed here. For example, the fight scene completely gone, and a lot of the dialogue gone. Interestingly, they (concernedly) discussed how much of this sequence was dialogue, 450... read more →

Mar 02

‘SKIDDER’ the Kid Turtle, a character design from THE FLYING MOOSE Cartoon

One of my character designs from The Flying Moose cartoon. I first drew him with a pen and paper, settling on the design, and I then imported him into Autodesk Maya and modeled him as a 3D polygon structure. I also did the rigging, which means giving him a skeleton... read more →

March 2, 2021
Michael Sky Danley
No Comments
Sky Danley Productions, The Flying Moose

Feb 03

Walt Disney – Snow White GAG MEETING SUPPLEMENT TO CONTINUITY – SEQUENCE 3-B (Snow White Alone in the Woods), August 19, 1936

I imagine most people will not find this document as interesting as the other. For me, though, it's far more interesting because it shows their process of gagging a story. As I've already discussed, gags are one of the main ingredients of Disney Story, and they put a lot of... read more →