Conversations with Mark Osborne

Reviewed by Ashley Gatimu. Viewed behind the Lobero Theater at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. (2016)

The first seminar of this year’s festival kicked off behind the Lobero Theater, at the UGG lounge. Mark Osborne was our first guest speaker. Mark is a director, gaining more recognition now more than ever from his film, The Little Prince. At this seminar he covered a range of topics and let us in on some of the insights he had while making this movie. It was a fun time filled with a couple of surprises.

From pre to post production, The Little Prince took more than 8 years to make. Mark’s son is the voice of the little boy, but not by default. As it turns out, his son was just filling as an extra so they could edit the scenes with a real voice. I guess he was just too good so they made him stay (I would have to agree with their decision as well)! Jeff Bridges who plays the voice of the aviator and Mackenzie Foy who plays the voice of the little girl only worked together once at Jeff’s house in Santa Barbara. It was the second day of Jeff’s shooting and Mackenzie’s first. Mark thought it would be best if the worked separately so they could both develop their characters spirit to the fullest, independently. This film had a budget of over $80,000,000. Even though everything about the film is in English, it’s considered to be a French film because a French company produced it. It also took many different visual artists to nail the characters just right, as Mark explained.

Mark was nice enough to bring along with him his pitch box, or his “Charm Box.”  Inside were a few visuals of planets and galaxies that inspired what we saw in the movie. It was all so neat and perfectly organized. After that he pulled out the real life stuffed fox that you see in the movie (The fox’s voice is played by James Franco). That was pretty cool to see as well, I mean they were identical! That wasn’t all though, he passed around a pair of binoculars where you could see the world of the Little Prince inside. That was a very epic experience and something I won’t forget! It was very surreal to have seen the movie then see all the little pieces that helped put the movie together.

Mark’s talk inspired me in a lot of ways. He demonstrated that hard work often takes time and dedication, and most definitely a team of creative, hardworking people right behind you. He pointed out that success just doesn’t happen over night, but is a lot of the time years in the making. Well, I am happy for Mark and all the success and recognition he is receiving right now for a beautifully put together film. Not only is it enjoyable to watch, but it has a universal message as well. And when you start to realize all that goes into making a film, you appreciate it more.