Moving Day approaches and things are going to start falling into place when they are not falling down. Gizmo the Cat got into the swing of things by being sick in interesting places, then climbing into a closet and getting locked in for a while (she didn't make a sound, she is too trusting. ) I had visions of finding a mouldering carcass after I returned on Sunday from my latest Canadian trip. Fortunately Miss Stupid came out the second time I went looking for her in the studio. Giant fun.
She was very affectionate when I was lying in bed reading a book. Then I hear the unmistakable 'rupe rupe' sound. "Get onto the floor!" I said. Gizmo did, and left a present. I have no idea what prompted her to gift me with some of her lunch. Hope she doesn't make a habit of it.
She isn't stressed at all. She has been lying on top of some of the picture boxes and playing with the empties, and purring a lot. Clearly the slow move was a good move when one has to do it with a cat. The gradual change in the apartment excites her curiosity rather than frightening her.
There was an almighty crash at two AM today. The unmistakable sound of a huge and very heavy box falling to the floor, which actually vibrated. I did not turn on the light but yelled at Gizmo to stop being a jerk and get back to bed. Now there are three huge cats living upstairs and it is quite conceivable that one of them got frisky and kicked over a television or something. Kitty Radar ensures that Gizmo starts skipping and running around at the same time as the 19 pounder upstairs. Jacques is so huge that it sounds like a human being moving around when he galumphs down the hall.
Maybe that's it. I couldn't find any huge boxes out of place today; I've deliberately stacked them so she can't knock them over. It'll be even more fun when I have to put the cat in her carrier, listen to the pathetic howls, and then have her sit still for a two or three hour trip to Canada at the end of May.
I can't wait. Can she?
Friday, April 11, 2008
Friday, April 04, 2008
The Uncertain Art
I've been teaching for eight years now. It's hard to imagine that one quarter of my career would be spent outside studios (though I still work in the industry, it's not the main 'bread and butter' job any more.)
During that time there have been more animation books published than, I believe, were published in the previous twenty. Some of the books are long overdue, particularly UNFILTERED, the new book on Ralph Bakshi, and STEPPING INTO THE PICTURE . THE ART AND FLAIR OF MARY BLAIR, which profile Maurice Noble and Mary Blair respectively, and DREAM WORLDS, a wonderful book on animation art direction by Hans Bacher. I've ordered them all even though I know books weigh a ton that will be duly added to my already-topheavy shipment to Canada. These are important works on subjects that weren't covered in most early animation books.
There are great books on the art of animation, but only a few on the history, and these still tend to be studio-specific. The Walt Disney studio is of course the best documented, with Warner Brothers catching up fast.
The books that deal with general animation history are generally flawed. Some are America-centric, some have historical errors, and all of them are out of date. This field changes so rapidly that the best source for animation history turns out to be the Internet. Wonderful things turn up on YouTube--who'd have thought I'd be actually able to show SORA NO MOMOTARO in a history class that dealt with propaganda animation, or this charming early sound cartoon (KURO NYAGO) from Japan? (Warning: This tune will stick in your head all day!) These cartoons were only names in a book before. Thanks to the Web, they can be shown and analyzed and compared with contemporary work. KURO NYAGO was made the same year as SKELETON DANCE!.
New animation DVDS are also full of good things. The Disney and Warner studios have put some great artwork from their productions on as 'extras'--this is even more remarkable when you realize that their main market is a family audience, not educators or historians. There's a little something for everyone.
So I don't want to kvetch or bite the hand that is feeding us such wonderful goodies, but I do want to bring up one thing: the history in some of the recent reissues is highly skewed. The most surprising was on a recent release: one animator was the subject of the 'extra' but most of the clip was spent discussing another animator and another picture!
Now, the opinions of the artists on these discs are to be respected, but are they to be considered the last word, the official history, of the subject? Until a better source comes along, these will be seen as the 'accurate' version of events. And some, as I mentioned before, are skewed. There is no definitive history of animation and this book may never be written. Animation is a young artform, but it blossomed into gorgeous variations on the themes before it was ten years old. It needs an encyclopedia, not a single volume, and much of it would have to appear on disc rather than in print.
Or maybe a website with the right links would handle this ever-expanding art in the most up-to-date fashion? Has someone already done this?
During that time there have been more animation books published than, I believe, were published in the previous twenty. Some of the books are long overdue, particularly UNFILTERED, the new book on Ralph Bakshi, and STEPPING INTO THE PICTURE . THE ART AND FLAIR OF MARY BLAIR, which profile Maurice Noble and Mary Blair respectively, and DREAM WORLDS, a wonderful book on animation art direction by Hans Bacher. I've ordered them all even though I know books weigh a ton that will be duly added to my already-topheavy shipment to Canada. These are important works on subjects that weren't covered in most early animation books.
There are great books on the art of animation, but only a few on the history, and these still tend to be studio-specific. The Walt Disney studio is of course the best documented, with Warner Brothers catching up fast.
The books that deal with general animation history are generally flawed. Some are America-centric, some have historical errors, and all of them are out of date. This field changes so rapidly that the best source for animation history turns out to be the Internet. Wonderful things turn up on YouTube--who'd have thought I'd be actually able to show SORA NO MOMOTARO in a history class that dealt with propaganda animation, or this charming early sound cartoon (KURO NYAGO) from Japan? (Warning: This tune will stick in your head all day!) These cartoons were only names in a book before. Thanks to the Web, they can be shown and analyzed and compared with contemporary work. KURO NYAGO was made the same year as SKELETON DANCE!.
New animation DVDS are also full of good things. The Disney and Warner studios have put some great artwork from their productions on as 'extras'--this is even more remarkable when you realize that their main market is a family audience, not educators or historians. There's a little something for everyone.
So I don't want to kvetch or bite the hand that is feeding us such wonderful goodies, but I do want to bring up one thing: the history in some of the recent reissues is highly skewed. The most surprising was on a recent release: one animator was the subject of the 'extra' but most of the clip was spent discussing another animator and another picture!
Now, the opinions of the artists on these discs are to be respected, but are they to be considered the last word, the official history, of the subject? Until a better source comes along, these will be seen as the 'accurate' version of events. And some, as I mentioned before, are skewed. There is no definitive history of animation and this book may never be written. Animation is a young artform, but it blossomed into gorgeous variations on the themes before it was ten years old. It needs an encyclopedia, not a single volume, and much of it would have to appear on disc rather than in print.
Or maybe a website with the right links would handle this ever-expanding art in the most up-to-date fashion? Has someone already done this?
Monday, March 31, 2008
Reuben Awards: The National Cartoonist Society 2008
I have just been informed that PREPARE TO BOARD! has been nominated in the Book Illustration category in the National Cartoonist Society's REUBEN awards.
The NCS is America's oldest cartoonists' organization. The Reuben is named after founder Rube Goldberg --who is famous for creating the Rube Goldberg Machine, Rube, ironically enough, was unable to win his own award for the machines, or for any of his comics. He won, instead, for a brilliant political cartoon that can be seen here (scroll down to "Peace Today")
I was particularly chuffed at being nominated in the same group as the wonderful illustrator Sandra Boynton.
Here are the category nominees:
http://www.reuben.org/ncs/news2.asp
and here are pictures of last year's Reubens, including one of the grand statue itself (designed by Rube Goldberg)
http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/reubens/reubens2007/main.asp
Al Jaffee of MAD magazine is one of the three finalists for the grand award, the REUBEN itself.
As luck would have it, the New Orleans party falls on the same weekend I am moving to Canada, so unfortunately I won't be able to attend. It's an honor to be nominated, though.
Update: Lynn Johnston has graciously agreed to make the acceptance speech in the event that PREPARE TO BOARD! wins. I asked her just to thank everyone.
The NCS is America's oldest cartoonists' organization. The Reuben is named after founder Rube Goldberg --who is famous for creating the Rube Goldberg Machine, Rube, ironically enough, was unable to win his own award for the machines, or for any of his comics. He won, instead, for a brilliant political cartoon that can be seen here (scroll down to "Peace Today")
I was particularly chuffed at being nominated in the same group as the wonderful illustrator Sandra Boynton.
Here are the category nominees:
http://www.reuben.org/ncs/news2.asp
and here are pictures of last year's Reubens, including one of the grand statue itself (designed by Rube Goldberg)
http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/reubens/reubens2007/main.asp
Al Jaffee of MAD magazine is one of the three finalists for the grand award, the REUBEN itself.
As luck would have it, the New Orleans party falls on the same weekend I am moving to Canada, so unfortunately I won't be able to attend. It's an honor to be nominated, though.
Update: Lynn Johnston has graciously agreed to make the acceptance speech in the event that PREPARE TO BOARD! wins. I asked her just to thank everyone.
Mr. Fun's Blog
Floyd Norman, who was rechristened Mr. Fun by cartoonist Scott Shaw! and Charlie Grosvenor
has a new blog.
It's called MR. FUN'S BLOG. Originally Floyd called it something else, but I and a few others said it couldn't be called anything else. Floyd simply IS "Mr. Fun."
He's also one of the few survivors from Disney's Golden Age. Floyd's animation 'editorial' books include FASTER! CHEAPER!, SON OF FASTER! CHEAPER! and HOW THE GRINCH STOLE DISNEY. Michael Eisner once ordered Floyd to stop drawing caricatures of him! How cool is that? (You can buy the books through afrokids.com)
Read Mr. Fun's Blog. It's good.
has a new blog.
It's called MR. FUN'S BLOG. Originally Floyd called it something else, but I and a few others said it couldn't be called anything else. Floyd simply IS "Mr. Fun."
He's also one of the few survivors from Disney's Golden Age. Floyd's animation 'editorial' books include FASTER! CHEAPER!, SON OF FASTER! CHEAPER! and HOW THE GRINCH STOLE DISNEY. Michael Eisner once ordered Floyd to stop drawing caricatures of him! How cool is that? (You can buy the books through afrokids.com)
Read Mr. Fun's Blog. It's good.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Death (and Resurrection) of an Animation Desk
I always wanted a Disney "Mighty Wurlitzer" animation desk. These were built in 1939 for the new studio in Burbank, and they were a real status symbol for those of us at Features fortunate enough to have one in our offices. (This was a political issue, by the way, but more about that later.) They looked so solid and permanent. They also were considerably better designed than the "Florida desks" made for the second Disney feature animation unit. These were smaller, which was not a bad thing, but their shelves tapered upward until there was nothing but a two inch ledge at the top suitable to hold nothing more than a flower vase or (in the case of one Catholic animator) a vial of Lourdes water.
When I worked at Disney I had the smallest office in the Hat Building, and a Florida desk. One day I had my door open. A Mighty Wurlitzer, disassembled (they were modular) was being pushed by on a dolly. "He's already got one. This goes back to the warehouse," the men were saying. I popped out of the door and said, "No it doesn't go back to the warehouse! It goes in here!"
And yes, I was given permission to have the desk installed. If you read my interview on the AWN from 1997, I'm sitting in front of it. What a marvellous piece of furniture it was.
Well, they weren't available for sale--at least not then--and so I decided to hire a carpenter to make me a Wurlitzer of my own. This was easily done. I then drew up blueprints based partly on my office desk and partly on an inker's model owned by animator Mark Kausler. This was much smaller than the six foot long Wurlitzer and it might have made more sense to duplicate it entire, but I wanted a Wurlizter and so I was going to get one.
The changes were small but significant: I widened the desktop on my blueprints so that the new, huge exposure sheets we were using would fit well. I also added the 'ears'--very nicely made cork boards on hinges for model sheet and other displays.
Three of these were built. Two other Disney artists made arrangements to have them constructed, which brought the price down a bit. Interestingly enough since the hole for the disc was off center, the desk could be right-or-left handed. Both of the other animators were southpaws, so I got the only right handed model.
It paid for itself within the year, but another problem arose. It was never designed to be repeatedly disassembled and hauled around the country. It also did not fit through a standard door; another modular bit had to be built so that the top shelf could be removed to fit through the door (and pegs held it together.)
Now I'm moving to Canada and the apartment simply doesn't have a large enough second bedroom for the Wurlizter and a computer desk/printer arrangement.
So I decided, after months of agonizing, that it wasn't worth it; this wasn't, after all, a real Disney desk, but one that I built. It was and is a useful desk. Part of it still is. I'm taking the top and the 'ears' with me, and I'll make a truly modular desk out of metal shelving, attaching the top to it with hooks. It's easy to do, sturdy, and doesn't even require a blueprint. Best of all I can add all the shelves I like, and I have decided I need a U shaped model that wraps around, rather than a six foot long model that takes up most of the room.
Most importantly, I can put it together myself. I am able to get the top and the 'ears' off the Wurlizter, but I can't budge the shelves. This is a problem when you are doing everything by yourself during a move.
My decision isn't completely final; at this writing, the desk is still sitting in the office, with the top and ears packed in boxes. I could change my mind. But probably I won't. Times have changed and I now do most of my work on the computer. I have a small portable animation desk that adequately handles the 12 field paper that newer Toonboom and Flash based projects would use. A 16 field disc might never be necessary again.
Plenty of people have worked without Wurlitzers. My friend Dean Yeagle has Preston Blair's old desk; it's nothing more than a drafting table with a hole cut in it, the same that most of us use.
Then again, maybe I could measure the top of the tabouret again. MAYBE the new printer would fit on the side. (the old one is dying and is not worth shipping to Canada.)
Perhaps the Wurlizter will survive in two pieces: the animation desktop assembled on a new metal frame, and the base used for the computer desk? Could this be possible?
As Bugs Bunny used to say...hmmmmm COULD be!
Perhaps it won't leave at all--it'll just go through a little metamorphosis.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Crap Food from the Seventies
This stuff is too awful to even be junk food. Junk food is stuff that people LIKE to eat. I doubt if anyone ever prepared, let alone ate, Dish Number One. It is the ugliest 'sandwich loaf' I've ever seen. Even James Lileks can't beat this. It's in gross, 1973-era color. I don't know what to hate first: the purplish, lumpy interior of the decomposing blue log? The reddish streaks on the side? or the cheery flowers that lend the only 'natural' touch to this utterly disgusting mess?
The finishing directions are all that I'm willing to print of the actual recipe. "To finish: Frost top and sides of loaf with green-tinted cheese; make a decorative border of yellow cheese. Garnish with fresh flowers or use other garniture--radish roses, carrot curls and stuffed olives."
Note to self: NEVER EAT BLUE FOOD. It's a good rule.
Americans are suckers for royalty and this apparently extends to the humble casserole dish. This particular set of recipes (THE COMPLETE FAMILY RECIPE CARD SERIES COLLECTION, 1973) features not one, but two, crowns-o'-food.
Poor Crown-o'Franks was assembled from cream of chicken soup, milk, potatoes, bacon, onion, a few green beans (as a sop to those Natural Food freaks that were just becoming noticeable at the time) and of course the franks, obviously not kosher.
It seems that someone tried to liven up this rather depressing repast by arranging the franks so that they formed a little crown. How cute. The other crowned recipe in the set, stunningly named "Burger Beef Tiara" featured Bisquick biscuits surrounding chopped meat and a few disconsolate stringbeans. This tiara wasn't designed to be worn. Just admired.
Friendly Advice from Pies
You don't want to meet the UNfriendly Dessert Pies, trust us. Follow the directions. Buy the Friendly Dessert Pies from our good friend Louie,and he won't have to slam the telephone into your head again.Chafing Dish that will Leave You Chafing
Here's the recipe for CHAFING DISH HORS D'OEUVRE. I knew you couldn't wait to read more fine recipes from this great cookbook. You're welcome!
I'll use dried-blood-coloured ink to give you that authentic, meaty feeling. The designer has bloodlike gouts of red decorating every page in irregular bursts. Yum.
But now to the meat of the matter. Literally. Guten Appetit!
I think that the pre-relaxation-hour gave guests time to prepare to face the horrid reality of the 1956 Swift-inspired dinner table.
Most of the hors d'ouvres recipes tell you to use a 'pick' to hold them together ("Wrap Swift's Bacon around Cracker. Secure with pick")
Maybe they should use an icepick? Pickaxe? Pickup truck?
Who knows. They might taste good.
I'll use dried-blood-coloured ink to give you that authentic, meaty feeling. The designer has bloodlike gouts of red decorating every page in irregular bursts. Yum.
But now to the meat of the matter. Literally. Guten Appetit!
Now to what Lily Tomlin, as Ernestine the telephone operator, used to call the "Piece of Resistance"--FROSTED CANNED HAM. This recipe isn't really that different from a Baked Virginia ham though it substitutes 'lemon jelly powder' for honey or maple syrup. It's the name of the dish that makes me want to retch. I had an irrepressible mental image of a ham covered with white artificially-flavoured vanilla icing with cherries on top (the recipe in fact does call for strawberries as a garnish)Show your pretty dish
off to advantage. Keep the hors d'ouvre hot during pre-dinner relaxation
hour.
2 packages SWIFT'S
PREMIUM BROWN N' SERVE SAUSAGE
2 cups (20 fluid oz.)
applesauce (pureed)
1 ounce red cinnamon
candies or 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 drops red food
coloring
Cut each link into 4 to 5
pennywise slices. Brown and heat in the skillet. Shake the pan to turn them so
they brown evenly. Place a toothpick in each sausage piece. PLace applesauce,
candies, and coloring in a chafing dish, then heat until candies are
dissolved. Add browned sausage pieces pick side up to the sauce. Serve
hot.(There's no mention of an antidote. And this cookbook has never been used. I can see why.)
I think that the pre-relaxation-hour gave guests time to prepare to face the horrid reality of the 1956 Swift-inspired dinner table.
Most of the hors d'ouvres recipes tell you to use a 'pick' to hold them together ("Wrap Swift's Bacon around Cracker. Secure with pick")
Maybe they should use an icepick? Pickaxe? Pickup truck?
Who knows. They might taste good.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Crazy Cookbook
Get a load of what I found in a junk shop in Rochester!
And believe it or not, I can't find reference to this anywhere else. It's from the CNE, which appeared to be related to the yearly Canadian National exhibition now held at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. I have no idea where it was held back in the day.The back cover states that Swift's, which sponsored the Disneyland program, was celebrating its 101st anniversary the year this undated cookbook came out.
This means it's from 1956. What's curious is that the Tinkerbelle character who appears throughout the book looks nothing like the Disney version at all. She looks like she's burning up the entire kitchen in the illustration for WALTZ OF THE FLOWERS TARTS. Other Disney-like illustrations appear occasionally. There's a castle, sort of, on the cover, and a pumpkin coach that has been modified to look like a casserole dish later on (actually, this is a very nice touch). My favorite illustration is called HAVE A DISNEYLAND FRONTIERLAND PARTY FOR THE KIDS. The two kids in the picture look like homicidal maniacs, or maybe they're just upset. After all, they're just disembodied heads with glazed expressions. "PLANNING ADDS ZIP TO THE PARTY" (No Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, folks?)
The planning is described in somewhat alarming terms.
GAMES ARE ESSENTIAL
KEEP THEM OCCUPIED ALL DURING THE PARTY
The caps are theirs. There IS something wrong with the kiddie guests. Probably they're on work/study from the local pen. Keep 'em amused and nobody gets hurt.
Some of the suggested games include normal stuff like Pin the Tail on the Donkey. But hey, it's 1956. That game is just for the cowBOYS. "Little girl Indians could quickly dress a papoose, if you handed out some rags, scissors and a small plastic cupey (sic) doll." Some fun. I think they meant kewpie.
Adventureland calls for a barbecue. "Get your husband or a volunteer to start the fire early..." Yep, it's definitely 1956. Most women couldn't be trusted with matches and lighter fluid back then.
Since this is Swift's show, most of the recipes call for ham and other meat products. There is a halfhearted attempt to work Disney into the mix with things like the Waltz of the Flowers Tarts, which I half expected to be meat-based. They weren't, and the cakes might actually be nice if made today. FROSTED CANNED HAM was, however, distressing.
The TOMORROWLAND section has some of the finest writing in the book. "When you wish upon a star what are your expectations of the dreamland just beyond the rainbow?...Maybe your dreams are as sophisticated as a slick ranch home--or perhaps something just as simple as a new outfit."
What else can I say.
I'll try scanning in some more of the illustrations from this incredible book.
Incidentally, it was written by someone named MARTHA LOGAN, but she's no relation to the character on TV today.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Here are two more good reasons to move to Canada.
The pictures were taken on my 2005 train trip on the CANADIAN train across Canada.
Picture Number One was taken in British Columbia and the lower picture, one of the finest I've ever shot, was taken in Ontario's 'cottage country'.
THE CANADIAN, incidentally, is the train featured in the 2008 Oscar animation nominee MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI. This is somewhat anachronistic since the train actually dates from the 1950s, and the film takes place in the Twenties.
It's a wonderful train, and a wonderful trip.
The Story So Far
I really do want to blog more often, but a combination of some kind of creeping crud and the usual fuss involved in the end of another school term have prevented much of that lately.
RIT has its 'spring break' in the middle of the winter due to its term system. Sheridan uses the semester system, which means spring break is where Spring usually occurs. The faculty do not have a break then; they spend it reviewing student applicants' portfolios.
Anyway, I've got some business to attend to once I am over the slight indisposition I've suffered for about a week now. Grades have to be posted, one student pencil test has to be screened with me present in the audience, and then the real fun starts.
It seems that Australia now requires fingerprints for positive identification of people, so I'm going to have to get to the Rochester police fingerprint division in the very short hours of their operation and pay for another set. I may get two as long as I'm there in case someone else needs them.
Then, packing commences in earnest. There are certain advantages to being at a major university. They throw out a tremendous amount of packaging. I've gotten about forty per cent of my packing boxes from recycling bins in the apartment building and in the hallways of RIT. The uni's trash included some splendid heavy duty computer boxes that I asked for and that the support staff kindly saved for me, two complete packing kits for large screens (one of which was used to pack the very rare animating Mickey Mouse picture, the other will be used for the screen for this computer). Yesterday I found styrofoam inserts for several large Dell screens (three complete sets, I couldn't carry the fourth) and one of them will hold the larger screen for the video system, others can pad the posters. A kind grad student helped me haul everythign in his small SUV (so the things are good for something.) I'll have some additional help with the stereo and its mare's nest of cables, which will be photographed before packing so I can reassemble the mess singlehanded once I'm in Toronto. At least there is one less machine to plug in. I sent back the "Cinea" player that the Academy sent me three years ago. It's been used precisely once, and no one encodes their discs any more, so it was just ballast.
Then at the beginning of March I'm off to Toronto for a presentation or two at Sheridan (topic is fairly casual, but is based on character design this time, not storyboard; I am bringing the student pencil test to compare it with its Leica reel. It will be fun to see how it plays.)
While I'm there I will be searching for an apartment in earnest, walking around some neighbourhoods and exploring side streets. It's important to do this in Toronto when there is snow on the ground, since some streets are not plowed regularly--shades of Rochester! I'll be walking around Port Credit, Long Branch, and possibly Mimico to see what I can see and possibly introduce myself to a few prospective landlords.
Lots of folks in Canada are offering help, and I have spoken to a realtor or two, so that at least gives me some idea of what neighbourhoods are likeliest. Everyone I know in the Toronto area says to live close to the school, which unhappily rules out my dream of living near the St. Lawrence Market since Sheridan is in Oakville and not in Toronto at all. Well, they have a point; the commute can be irregular on the GO train, and it is vitally important to get to work on time. I will listen to them and look a bit farther afield, then go into the city on the weekends.
The computer started to show signs of senility and general cussedness, so I purchased something called the Uniblue Power Suite at Dad's suggestion. I don't get paid for saying this, but if you are on a Windows machine, you need this product. Mr. Computer is humming along now, relieved of about 500 registry errors and 13 infected cookies. If you don't know what a registry is, you REALLY need to use this thing. I am relieved at not having to hire someone to come and pick through it manually.
That's the update for now. Gizmo is adapting to the packing. She has developed a taste for the air pillows that frequently cushion books and printed matter nowadays. I heard a strange chew-chew-stretch POP and got two of them away from her, sadly after the popping. The others are on a high shelf that she can't jump to without knocking over a lot of stuff. Since she's an intelligent cat she never jumps anywhere that doesn't have a clear surface.
This is why many surfaces in the apartment have been cluttered for as long as I can remember. At least it's a nice excuse.
RIT has its 'spring break' in the middle of the winter due to its term system. Sheridan uses the semester system, which means spring break is where Spring usually occurs. The faculty do not have a break then; they spend it reviewing student applicants' portfolios.
Anyway, I've got some business to attend to once I am over the slight indisposition I've suffered for about a week now. Grades have to be posted, one student pencil test has to be screened with me present in the audience, and then the real fun starts.
It seems that Australia now requires fingerprints for positive identification of people, so I'm going to have to get to the Rochester police fingerprint division in the very short hours of their operation and pay for another set. I may get two as long as I'm there in case someone else needs them.
Then, packing commences in earnest. There are certain advantages to being at a major university. They throw out a tremendous amount of packaging. I've gotten about forty per cent of my packing boxes from recycling bins in the apartment building and in the hallways of RIT. The uni's trash included some splendid heavy duty computer boxes that I asked for and that the support staff kindly saved for me, two complete packing kits for large screens (one of which was used to pack the very rare animating Mickey Mouse picture, the other will be used for the screen for this computer). Yesterday I found styrofoam inserts for several large Dell screens (three complete sets, I couldn't carry the fourth) and one of them will hold the larger screen for the video system, others can pad the posters. A kind grad student helped me haul everythign in his small SUV (so the things are good for something.) I'll have some additional help with the stereo and its mare's nest of cables, which will be photographed before packing so I can reassemble the mess singlehanded once I'm in Toronto. At least there is one less machine to plug in. I sent back the "Cinea" player that the Academy sent me three years ago. It's been used precisely once, and no one encodes their discs any more, so it was just ballast.
Then at the beginning of March I'm off to Toronto for a presentation or two at Sheridan (topic is fairly casual, but is based on character design this time, not storyboard; I am bringing the student pencil test to compare it with its Leica reel. It will be fun to see how it plays.)
While I'm there I will be searching for an apartment in earnest, walking around some neighbourhoods and exploring side streets. It's important to do this in Toronto when there is snow on the ground, since some streets are not plowed regularly--shades of Rochester! I'll be walking around Port Credit, Long Branch, and possibly Mimico to see what I can see and possibly introduce myself to a few prospective landlords.
Lots of folks in Canada are offering help, and I have spoken to a realtor or two, so that at least gives me some idea of what neighbourhoods are likeliest. Everyone I know in the Toronto area says to live close to the school, which unhappily rules out my dream of living near the St. Lawrence Market since Sheridan is in Oakville and not in Toronto at all. Well, they have a point; the commute can be irregular on the GO train, and it is vitally important to get to work on time. I will listen to them and look a bit farther afield, then go into the city on the weekends.
The computer started to show signs of senility and general cussedness, so I purchased something called the Uniblue Power Suite at Dad's suggestion. I don't get paid for saying this, but if you are on a Windows machine, you need this product. Mr. Computer is humming along now, relieved of about 500 registry errors and 13 infected cookies. If you don't know what a registry is, you REALLY need to use this thing. I am relieved at not having to hire someone to come and pick through it manually.
That's the update for now. Gizmo is adapting to the packing. She has developed a taste for the air pillows that frequently cushion books and printed matter nowadays. I heard a strange chew-chew-stretch POP and got two of them away from her, sadly after the popping. The others are on a high shelf that she can't jump to without knocking over a lot of stuff. Since she's an intelligent cat she never jumps anywhere that doesn't have a clear surface.
This is why many surfaces in the apartment have been cluttered for as long as I can remember. At least it's a nice excuse.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
There Will be Laughs
I am definitely out of touch with this century. Or at least with the century's movies. What is it about some of the Oscar contenders that makes them receive raves from critics when a simple viewing reveals them to be utterly mediocre?
THERE WILL BE BLOOD has a 95% positive rating on rottentomatoes.com It has a raft of Oscar nominations. And it's a perfectly ridiculous movie.
I and two grad students were laughing hysterically at the slapping scenes--but why go into lurid detail? There was no way I was going to accept Daniel Day-Lewis as an American, and his character had no development whatsoever--we're suddenly told he hates people, but nothing in the previous hour has shown why or how. It just happens.
This appears to be a common problem in modern screenplays; characters don't hold the center of the film, so why watch it? There were some pretty effects and the first hour wasn't bad.
But then I read some of OIL! the Upton Sinclair book that the film was supposed to be based on, and did a double take. Is this really the same story? Where are the female charaters? (In the movie, you never find out what happened to the boy's mother; in Sinclair's novel, she is a major character.)
The book was fascinating, even in brief online increments. The movie was just laughable. We were cracking up at the ending...
I had to explain what OSCAR BAIT was to the two foreign students. THERE WILL BE BLOOD is someone's party piece, or payback for an ego trip.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD has a 95% positive rating on rottentomatoes.com It has a raft of Oscar nominations. And it's a perfectly ridiculous movie.
I and two grad students were laughing hysterically at the slapping scenes--but why go into lurid detail? There was no way I was going to accept Daniel Day-Lewis as an American, and his character had no development whatsoever--we're suddenly told he hates people, but nothing in the previous hour has shown why or how. It just happens.
This appears to be a common problem in modern screenplays; characters don't hold the center of the film, so why watch it? There were some pretty effects and the first hour wasn't bad.
But then I read some of OIL! the Upton Sinclair book that the film was supposed to be based on, and did a double take. Is this really the same story? Where are the female charaters? (In the movie, you never find out what happened to the boy's mother; in Sinclair's novel, she is a major character.)
The book was fascinating, even in brief online increments. The movie was just laughable. We were cracking up at the ending...
I had to explain what OSCAR BAIT was to the two foreign students. THERE WILL BE BLOOD is someone's party piece, or payback for an ego trip.
Why Move to Canada?
A poster has inquired what the differences were on the southern side of the Canadian border. I was going to answer in a brief note but this deserves a full blog entry.
There are 180 miles as the car flies between Rochester and Toronto. The two cities have similar climates and growing seasons. Both are on or near Lake Ontario. There the similarities end.
Toronto has excellent public transportation. Rochester's is a sometimes-functional bus service that is extremely deficient in the suburbs. (RIT is in the suburbs.) City routes are not coordinated and there are invariably long waits for buses. Schedules are not posted. Formerly they were changed without notice every three months. Lately they have standardized the times but there are never schedules on the buses; you have to download them online. The assumption is that you must drive a car if you really want to go anywhere.
Toronto is ten times the size of Rochester. The latter city is in decline, with a shrinking population and tax base. There are great cultural landmarks here, most of which are not publicized and some of which are underutilized by the city --the best known is probably George Eastman House, one of the finest collections of film and motion picture materiels in the world. Rochester also has the Susan B. Anthony House, two parks designed by Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmstead, an early Prairie house by Frank Lloyd Wright, a mile of splendid turn of the twentieth century mansions on East Avenue, not one but two waterfalls in the downtown core, a river, the Erie Canal, the Rochester Jazz Festival, and of course the city's noble history as the American terminus of the Underground Railroad. Rochester was central to abolitionist publishing --Frederick Douglass' magazine was published here-- the Spiritualist Movement, and the Women's Movement. Rochester has a small yet active Green movement and there are many local organic farms. There is a very good farmer's market and one food co-0p.
Rochester is not even mentioned in travel guides to Western New York. A neighbour called it the 'best kept secret' in the area. It's a secret since no one in the government or Chamber of Commerce manages to get the news out that there is something to see here besides the House of Guitars, which is all that the Canadian travelers on the late ferryboat that ran from Rochester to Toronto came to see. I should know because I asked them. That ferryboat was handled as badly as all the rest of Rochester's public transportation. If there was a mistake to make in transportation, Rochester made it. They even had a subway here! It ran for only thirty years before they took it out to build a freeway on top of it. Rochester is a textbook case of what author James Howard Kunstler called the greatest mis-investment of national treasure in the history of the country--the worship of the automobile and the cancerous growth of suburbia. Rochester is being sucked dry by suburbs that benefit from city services but don't pay city taxes. Some of them, such as Pittsford, are charming and well heeled little villages tastefully restored (an architecht told me they learned from the mistakes of Rochester not to destroy their prime Victorian business district). Other nearby towns are sprawling suburbs with monstrous newly constructed McMansions on the local farmland. There is a concrete wasteland with depressing strip malls.
And it's no coincidence that with the exception of the Wright house and the Eastman collection, most of Rochester's glories were produced in the nineteenth century.
The George Eastman Theatre is lovely, but there is no bright nightlife, cafes or any beauty in the downtown core. It was left to rot after 1964 race riots. And the city was treebarked by an ugly freeway and ring road in the 1960s, dislocating RIT's campus to the boring suburb of Henrietta and further strangling the downtown business district.
So Toronto may not be perfect, but there is a lot more to do there, you can get around without a car, and they make sensible use of their waterfront.
In addition there is the new job, which is a great improvement on the one I have now. Sheridan College is one of the greatest animation schools in the world.
So that's the answer to the question. Next?
There are 180 miles as the car flies between Rochester and Toronto. The two cities have similar climates and growing seasons. Both are on or near Lake Ontario. There the similarities end.
Toronto has excellent public transportation. Rochester's is a sometimes-functional bus service that is extremely deficient in the suburbs. (RIT is in the suburbs.) City routes are not coordinated and there are invariably long waits for buses. Schedules are not posted. Formerly they were changed without notice every three months. Lately they have standardized the times but there are never schedules on the buses; you have to download them online. The assumption is that you must drive a car if you really want to go anywhere.
Toronto is ten times the size of Rochester. The latter city is in decline, with a shrinking population and tax base. There are great cultural landmarks here, most of which are not publicized and some of which are underutilized by the city --the best known is probably George Eastman House, one of the finest collections of film and motion picture materiels in the world. Rochester also has the Susan B. Anthony House, two parks designed by Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmstead, an early Prairie house by Frank Lloyd Wright, a mile of splendid turn of the twentieth century mansions on East Avenue, not one but two waterfalls in the downtown core, a river, the Erie Canal, the Rochester Jazz Festival, and of course the city's noble history as the American terminus of the Underground Railroad. Rochester was central to abolitionist publishing --Frederick Douglass' magazine was published here-- the Spiritualist Movement, and the Women's Movement. Rochester has a small yet active Green movement and there are many local organic farms. There is a very good farmer's market and one food co-0p.
Rochester is not even mentioned in travel guides to Western New York. A neighbour called it the 'best kept secret' in the area. It's a secret since no one in the government or Chamber of Commerce manages to get the news out that there is something to see here besides the House of Guitars, which is all that the Canadian travelers on the late ferryboat that ran from Rochester to Toronto came to see. I should know because I asked them. That ferryboat was handled as badly as all the rest of Rochester's public transportation. If there was a mistake to make in transportation, Rochester made it. They even had a subway here! It ran for only thirty years before they took it out to build a freeway on top of it. Rochester is a textbook case of what author James Howard Kunstler called the greatest mis-investment of national treasure in the history of the country--the worship of the automobile and the cancerous growth of suburbia. Rochester is being sucked dry by suburbs that benefit from city services but don't pay city taxes. Some of them, such as Pittsford, are charming and well heeled little villages tastefully restored (an architecht told me they learned from the mistakes of Rochester not to destroy their prime Victorian business district). Other nearby towns are sprawling suburbs with monstrous newly constructed McMansions on the local farmland. There is a concrete wasteland with depressing strip malls.
And it's no coincidence that with the exception of the Wright house and the Eastman collection, most of Rochester's glories were produced in the nineteenth century.
The George Eastman Theatre is lovely, but there is no bright nightlife, cafes or any beauty in the downtown core. It was left to rot after 1964 race riots. And the city was treebarked by an ugly freeway and ring road in the 1960s, dislocating RIT's campus to the boring suburb of Henrietta and further strangling the downtown business district.
So Toronto may not be perfect, but there is a lot more to do there, you can get around without a car, and they make sensible use of their waterfront.
In addition there is the new job, which is a great improvement on the one I have now. Sheridan College is one of the greatest animation schools in the world.
So that's the answer to the question. Next?
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Like Going to your Own Funeral
Packing is like going through your own effects after you've died, and wondering why you held onto any of it and what could you have been thinking of when you bought it.
I seem to pack up my stuff and move every two or three years or so. On the whole I'd rather have surgery. I've moved (seventeen times at the last count), and I've had surgery, and surgery is better. It is over in a few hours, you don't have to do it to yourself, and any parts of you that are removed during the process are decently disposed of before you come to.
I accumulate objects like dust on a lollipop. I'll probably be reincarnated as a Bekins van.
Moving is when every little stupid thing you ever owned, bought, or tried to do something with steps up and asks you WHY DID YOU KEEP ME FOR SO LONG? WHAT MADE YOU THINK YOU COULD EVER USE ME?
If you are a pack rat like me every little item has a meaning all its own. Memories, pleasant ones usually, come flooding back as you decide whether it's worthwhile to keep the unique and rare and delicate object that brought them there or wonder whether it isn't time to just let it all go and live in a bare, spare room with nothing but a bed, a table, chairs, a dish or two, and the cat.
For a while when you start packing it looks as if nothing is happening. That's when you pack the boxes with tears in your eyes, thinking that you will never, ever, get this stuff to go away, that the house is expanding with more stuff to fill the space that's vacated when you pack the boxes. This may in fact be true. It's when you fantasize about Japanese minimalist decor and vow to give everything to the poor. You haunt the building's basement and lend new meaning to the word 'garbagepicker' when applied to clean corrugated boxes; My Christmas presents were nice boxes from various objects that, when retrieved from the recycling bins and placed inside the larger packing crates, almost fit. It's like working on a faintly sinister and not quite complete jigsaw puzzle. Since no box is standard size lots of them almost fit. Which makes me almost lose my mind.
After all this packing the last thing I want to bother with is buying more stuff but after a few bookcases collapsed on me during the process (fortunately with no damage to me or the books or the cat) I bought some wire shelves on Ebay and will have them stay in their boxes so that they can be unpacked just ONCE when we get to somewhere in the Greater Toronto Area sometime in June. And they'll store the rest of the stuff that is now in the boxes. It remindes me of the Peanuts strip where Linus buys a wastebasket but has nowhere to put the thing's packaging except--inside the wastebasket--putting him back to Square One.
in the meantime, I keep on packing.
Whoever said seeing new places was good for you obviously was traveling light or was living at home with mamma.
And to think I used to enjoy this.
Well, when I get to Toronto, I hope all the angst and worry will fall away like excess packaging. But right now all I want to do is just rest and not have to put things on top of, inside of, or around other things. The cat being a natural exception to this rule of course. I must constantly reassure her that she will not be put in a box; she noodles around in the packing paper and runs with a crazy pattering sound up and down the hall when I tape the boxes shut.
I think we are both getting a little loopy, to tell you the truth.
I seem to pack up my stuff and move every two or three years or so. On the whole I'd rather have surgery. I've moved (seventeen times at the last count), and I've had surgery, and surgery is better. It is over in a few hours, you don't have to do it to yourself, and any parts of you that are removed during the process are decently disposed of before you come to.
I accumulate objects like dust on a lollipop. I'll probably be reincarnated as a Bekins van.
Moving is when every little stupid thing you ever owned, bought, or tried to do something with steps up and asks you WHY DID YOU KEEP ME FOR SO LONG? WHAT MADE YOU THINK YOU COULD EVER USE ME?
If you are a pack rat like me every little item has a meaning all its own. Memories, pleasant ones usually, come flooding back as you decide whether it's worthwhile to keep the unique and rare and delicate object that brought them there or wonder whether it isn't time to just let it all go and live in a bare, spare room with nothing but a bed, a table, chairs, a dish or two, and the cat.
For a while when you start packing it looks as if nothing is happening. That's when you pack the boxes with tears in your eyes, thinking that you will never, ever, get this stuff to go away, that the house is expanding with more stuff to fill the space that's vacated when you pack the boxes. This may in fact be true. It's when you fantasize about Japanese minimalist decor and vow to give everything to the poor. You haunt the building's basement and lend new meaning to the word 'garbagepicker' when applied to clean corrugated boxes; My Christmas presents were nice boxes from various objects that, when retrieved from the recycling bins and placed inside the larger packing crates, almost fit. It's like working on a faintly sinister and not quite complete jigsaw puzzle. Since no box is standard size lots of them almost fit. Which makes me almost lose my mind.
After all this packing the last thing I want to bother with is buying more stuff but after a few bookcases collapsed on me during the process (fortunately with no damage to me or the books or the cat) I bought some wire shelves on Ebay and will have them stay in their boxes so that they can be unpacked just ONCE when we get to somewhere in the Greater Toronto Area sometime in June. And they'll store the rest of the stuff that is now in the boxes. It remindes me of the Peanuts strip where Linus buys a wastebasket but has nowhere to put the thing's packaging except--inside the wastebasket--putting him back to Square One.
in the meantime, I keep on packing.
Whoever said seeing new places was good for you obviously was traveling light or was living at home with mamma.
And to think I used to enjoy this.
Well, when I get to Toronto, I hope all the angst and worry will fall away like excess packaging. But right now all I want to do is just rest and not have to put things on top of, inside of, or around other things. The cat being a natural exception to this rule of course. I must constantly reassure her that she will not be put in a box; she noodles around in the packing paper and runs with a crazy pattering sound up and down the hall when I tape the boxes shut.
I think we are both getting a little loopy, to tell you the truth.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
What's So Funny? or: It Takes Balls to Laugh
Men are naturally more comedic than women because of the male hormone testosterone, an expert claims.
Men make more gags than women and their jokes tend to be more aggressive, Professor Sam Shuster, of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, says.
I thought I'd start off the new year with this horse pockey from the BBC.
It's another round in the war between the sexes. You can state anything you want as long as you portray women as inferior to men and offer no proof or corroboration for the statement. And it's official when it appears on the BBC!
But I agree that there does seem to be a connection between testosterone and a certain kind of humor.
Research suggests men are more likely to use humour aggressively by making others the butt of the joke.
And aggression - generally considered to be a more masculine trait - has been linked by some to testosterone exposure in the womb.
Professor Shuster believes humour develops from aggression caused by male hormones.
He documented the reaction of over 400 individuals to his unicycling antics through the streets of Newcastle upon Tyne.
I think the prospect of a professor engaged on serious research into the sexuality of humour while riding a unicycle is faintly comic already. Observant men in Newcastle upon Tyne apparently beeped horns, made suggestive remarks, and behaved in what the professor describes as an aggressive fashion. Fewer women reacted to the wheeled Professor with taunts or wisecracks. This, naturally, is the fault of sex and not simple good manners...
"The idea that unicycling is intrinsically funny does not explain the findings," said Professor Shuster.
The simplest explanation, he says, is the effect of male hormones such as testosterone.
As we say in New York, if you believe that, I've got a bridge I want to sell you. There's no research here, no proof, no control, just 'simple explanations'. And it appears that the good Professor did not actually fall off the unicycle, which would have been genuinely entertaining, especially if he kept taking notes on audience reaction in mid-tumble.
Women can and do have a great sense of humor. Many of them even marry jokes! Here are some quotes from a few women who might have a thing or two to say about the Professor's researches, and who might tell him where to put his unicycle:
When you see what some women marry, you realize how they must hate to work for a living-- Helen Rowland
His mother should have thrown him out and kept the stork. --Mae West
If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised. --Dorothy Parker
A woman's a woman until the day she dies, but a man's only a man as long as he can.--Jackie "Moms" Mabley
If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle. ~Rita Mae Brown
I'd rather rot on my own floor than be found by a bunch of bingo players in a nursing home. --Florence King
and finally, in closing:
There are two kinds of humor. One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity -- like what Garrison Keillor does. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule -- that's what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel -- it's vulgar.
--MOLLY IVINS
Men make more gags than women and their jokes tend to be more aggressive, Professor Sam Shuster, of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, says.
I thought I'd start off the new year with this horse pockey from the BBC.
It's another round in the war between the sexes. You can state anything you want as long as you portray women as inferior to men and offer no proof or corroboration for the statement. And it's official when it appears on the BBC!
But I agree that there does seem to be a connection between testosterone and a certain kind of humor.
Research suggests men are more likely to use humour aggressively by making others the butt of the joke.
And aggression - generally considered to be a more masculine trait - has been linked by some to testosterone exposure in the womb.
Professor Shuster believes humour develops from aggression caused by male hormones.
He documented the reaction of over 400 individuals to his unicycling antics through the streets of Newcastle upon Tyne.
I think the prospect of a professor engaged on serious research into the sexuality of humour while riding a unicycle is faintly comic already. Observant men in Newcastle upon Tyne apparently beeped horns, made suggestive remarks, and behaved in what the professor describes as an aggressive fashion. Fewer women reacted to the wheeled Professor with taunts or wisecracks. This, naturally, is the fault of sex and not simple good manners...
"The idea that unicycling is intrinsically funny does not explain the findings," said Professor Shuster.
The simplest explanation, he says, is the effect of male hormones such as testosterone.
As we say in New York, if you believe that, I've got a bridge I want to sell you. There's no research here, no proof, no control, just 'simple explanations'. And it appears that the good Professor did not actually fall off the unicycle, which would have been genuinely entertaining, especially if he kept taking notes on audience reaction in mid-tumble.
Women can and do have a great sense of humor. Many of them even marry jokes! Here are some quotes from a few women who might have a thing or two to say about the Professor's researches, and who might tell him where to put his unicycle:
When you see what some women marry, you realize how they must hate to work for a living-- Helen Rowland
His mother should have thrown him out and kept the stork. --Mae West
If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised. --Dorothy Parker
A woman's a woman until the day she dies, but a man's only a man as long as he can.--Jackie "Moms" Mabley
If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle. ~Rita Mae Brown
I'd rather rot on my own floor than be found by a bunch of bingo players in a nursing home. --Florence King
and finally, in closing:
There are two kinds of humor. One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity -- like what Garrison Keillor does. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule -- that's what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel -- it's vulgar.
--MOLLY IVINS
Thursday, January 03, 2008
THE DISNEY OF THE EAST
It was December 1978. I was a senior in the first class of the California Institute of the Arts’ Character Animation Program. And I was heading home to New Jersey for winter break.
I’d recently visited the Richard Williams L.A. studio to interview Art Babbitt. Assistant animator Jim Logan spoke highly of a New York studio called Zander’s Animation Parlour. “Talk to my old boss, Jack Zander, when you are back there, and tell him I sent you,” he said.
They were a busy studio. I was asked to come back a week after reporting for the original interview.
So that is how I found myself sitting for a second time, in the same outfit, carrying my most recent pencil tests in my Dad’s old briefcase, in a decidedly odd office. Odd to anyone except an artist, that is. Red flocked velvet wallpaper would not be out of place in many animation studios. This one, however, was located in a very posh Madison Avenue building. I found out later that the red wallpaper and the name “Zander’s Animation Parlour” were designed to suggest the ambiance of a San Francisco whorehouse. It was the first hint of the owner’s sense of humour.
Jack Zander’s art director was the first to view my reel. Student work was not highly regarded then (no one in the East had heard of Cal Arts.)
One minute into the reel, the art director stammered, “Who did this?”
“I did.”
“YOU did THIS? ExcusemebutIthinkI’dbettergogetJack!”
A minute later a small, neat man with graying hair, a goatee and moustache, and horn rimmed glasses moved quickly into the screening room. He watched about a minute of the three minute film which was actually still running.
“I’ve seen enough”, he barked. “Stop the projector. Sit down. Draw me something!”
I drew him a sheep. Jack looked at it for a minute.
“Come to work for me now—we’ll pay you. Why the hell do you want to go back to school?”
“My mother will be standing on the doorstep with a gun if I don’t have a degree in a few months.”
So the upshot was that Jack Zander hired me for a week in December 1978. He then made a deal with Jack Hannah of Cal Arts to let me graduate early, and I started fulltime as an animator at ZAP in May, 1979.
Zander’s Animation Parlour produced advertisements for Hamm’s Beer, the Dime Savings Bank, Conoco Oil, Crest Toothpaste, and many other large accounts of the time. Full animation was in vogue and the shorts were lavish and beautifully produced. Zander was also directing a television special, THE GNOMES, and I’d walked in just when they were starting production.
Jack Zander was the type of studio head that has become a rarity today: he’d been an animator himself (animating Jerry Mouse on the first seven TOM AND JERRY cartoons) and he hired people for talent. I could not have picked a better studio to start out with. For one thing, the standard of animation and production there was actually higher than that of many feature studios of the time. The atmosphere was informal yet professional, colleagues were supportive, I could live on the salary, deadlines were reasonable, and the work was fun.
How many studios can make that statement today?
Jack was invariably impeccably groomed and I remember he wore the best men’s cologne I’d ever smelt. I never had the nerve to ask him what brand he used. I was also surprised to hear that he was already in his seventies—he appeared much younger and his appearance never seemed to change in subsequent years.
Despite the neat appearance he had a wicked sense of humor. There was an American Primitive portrait of a sour-faced woman holding a small posy hanging directly over the toilet in the studio bathroom, so that any man using the facility would meet her disapproving gaze. The grey flannel companies that shared the building hated having a cartoon studio as a neighbor.
Jack was an avid motorcyclist, with the most expensively turned out BMW cycle I’d ever seen. He insisted I ride it during one studio party at his home in Pound Ridge. I managed to stay on it for ten feet, coasting. Jack rode that bike on a regular basis until he was nearly ninety. Once he took a spill on a patch of grass and knocked out one of his front teeth. Instead of hiding this until a replacement was found, he went around showing the space off to everyone, clients included.
Jack was actually used as a model for a character in an animated show made by people who obviously had never met him. The program had two young animators, one female, one male, confronting Hollywood-era “Pop” and showing him how cartoon violence was Out and socially responsible animation was In. The reality was somewhat different. The following loosely-remembered dialogue took place between Jack, me, and director Dean Yeagle.
Me: “How come we can’t tear his arm off?”
Jack: “You CAN’T do that! CBS would never let us air it.”
Dean: “You got to have all the fun doing those Tom and Jerry cartoons, how come WE don’t get to have any fun?”
Eventually the Madison Avenue types got the landlord to agree not to renew Zander’s lease. We needed to move anyway since the Gnomes project meant that the studio was expanding beyond the minute premises we enjoyed on Mad Ave. So we moved around the corner to 18 East 41st Street, an attractive terracotta-faced building that came with interesting surprises such as the body in the window seat that was found by assistant animator Juan Sanchez. But that’s another story.
Thanks for giving me my start, Jack, and for showing everyone how to have fun and run a successful studio at the same time.
Jack Zander died just before Christmas, 2007 at the age of 99. A memorial service will be held in Pound Ridge at his home on January 26, 2008.
I’d recently visited the Richard Williams L.A. studio to interview Art Babbitt. Assistant animator Jim Logan spoke highly of a New York studio called Zander’s Animation Parlour. “Talk to my old boss, Jack Zander, when you are back there, and tell him I sent you,” he said.
They were a busy studio. I was asked to come back a week after reporting for the original interview.
So that is how I found myself sitting for a second time, in the same outfit, carrying my most recent pencil tests in my Dad’s old briefcase, in a decidedly odd office. Odd to anyone except an artist, that is. Red flocked velvet wallpaper would not be out of place in many animation studios. This one, however, was located in a very posh Madison Avenue building. I found out later that the red wallpaper and the name “Zander’s Animation Parlour” were designed to suggest the ambiance of a San Francisco whorehouse. It was the first hint of the owner’s sense of humour.
Jack Zander’s art director was the first to view my reel. Student work was not highly regarded then (no one in the East had heard of Cal Arts.)
One minute into the reel, the art director stammered, “Who did this?”
“I did.”
“YOU did THIS? ExcusemebutIthinkI’dbettergogetJack!”
A minute later a small, neat man with graying hair, a goatee and moustache, and horn rimmed glasses moved quickly into the screening room. He watched about a minute of the three minute film which was actually still running.
“I’ve seen enough”, he barked. “Stop the projector. Sit down. Draw me something!”
I drew him a sheep. Jack looked at it for a minute.
“Come to work for me now—we’ll pay you. Why the hell do you want to go back to school?”
“My mother will be standing on the doorstep with a gun if I don’t have a degree in a few months.”
So the upshot was that Jack Zander hired me for a week in December 1978. He then made a deal with Jack Hannah of Cal Arts to let me graduate early, and I started fulltime as an animator at ZAP in May, 1979.
Zander’s Animation Parlour produced advertisements for Hamm’s Beer, the Dime Savings Bank, Conoco Oil, Crest Toothpaste, and many other large accounts of the time. Full animation was in vogue and the shorts were lavish and beautifully produced. Zander was also directing a television special, THE GNOMES, and I’d walked in just when they were starting production.
Jack Zander was the type of studio head that has become a rarity today: he’d been an animator himself (animating Jerry Mouse on the first seven TOM AND JERRY cartoons) and he hired people for talent. I could not have picked a better studio to start out with. For one thing, the standard of animation and production there was actually higher than that of many feature studios of the time. The atmosphere was informal yet professional, colleagues were supportive, I could live on the salary, deadlines were reasonable, and the work was fun.
How many studios can make that statement today?
Jack was invariably impeccably groomed and I remember he wore the best men’s cologne I’d ever smelt. I never had the nerve to ask him what brand he used. I was also surprised to hear that he was already in his seventies—he appeared much younger and his appearance never seemed to change in subsequent years.
Despite the neat appearance he had a wicked sense of humor. There was an American Primitive portrait of a sour-faced woman holding a small posy hanging directly over the toilet in the studio bathroom, so that any man using the facility would meet her disapproving gaze. The grey flannel companies that shared the building hated having a cartoon studio as a neighbor.
Jack was an avid motorcyclist, with the most expensively turned out BMW cycle I’d ever seen. He insisted I ride it during one studio party at his home in Pound Ridge. I managed to stay on it for ten feet, coasting. Jack rode that bike on a regular basis until he was nearly ninety. Once he took a spill on a patch of grass and knocked out one of his front teeth. Instead of hiding this until a replacement was found, he went around showing the space off to everyone, clients included.
Jack was actually used as a model for a character in an animated show made by people who obviously had never met him. The program had two young animators, one female, one male, confronting Hollywood-era “Pop” and showing him how cartoon violence was Out and socially responsible animation was In. The reality was somewhat different. The following loosely-remembered dialogue took place between Jack, me, and director Dean Yeagle.
Me: “How come we can’t tear his arm off?”
Jack: “You CAN’T do that! CBS would never let us air it.”
Dean: “You got to have all the fun doing those Tom and Jerry cartoons, how come WE don’t get to have any fun?”
Eventually the Madison Avenue types got the landlord to agree not to renew Zander’s lease. We needed to move anyway since the Gnomes project meant that the studio was expanding beyond the minute premises we enjoyed on Mad Ave. So we moved around the corner to 18 East 41st Street, an attractive terracotta-faced building that came with interesting surprises such as the body in the window seat that was found by assistant animator Juan Sanchez. But that’s another story.
Thanks for giving me my start, Jack, and for showing everyone how to have fun and run a successful studio at the same time.
Jack Zander died just before Christmas, 2007 at the age of 99. A memorial service will be held in Pound Ridge at his home on January 26, 2008.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Academy Screeners
I've just returned from a short trip to New York City to see Academy Award short animated film screenings. Ten of the 36 films shown will be screened again in January to determine the nominees for this year's short animation Oscar.
Greg Ford was kind enough to offer overnight accomodation in his studio's extra room. It's not the first time I have slept overnight in an animation studio, though this time I did not have to sleep under the desk.
I arrived on Friday afternoon in time to take in the terrific Ronald Searle exhibit at the Forbes Gallery (thanks, Amid Amidi, for the heads-up)--the show is there til March. The exhibit is in two hallways and also in rooms that once housed the Forbes' collection of 13 Faberge eggs., which have been returned to Russia. Turns out the millionaire who bought them bought EVERYTHING--all the Faberge tchotchkes, not just the eggs. I'm glad I saw them when I could.
The Searle exhibit has original drawings, ceramics, books, and even some movie footage, though no mention is made of DICK DEADEYE, the one feature film to be based on Searle's style.
Ronald Searle has influenced animators since his first book was published; Chuck Jones cartoons, Bill Peet's designs for 101 DALMATIANS, and most British animation would look very different without him.
Do not miss this show if you are in New York. The museum is open during business hours and is absolutely free.
It is amazing to see just how different the original Searle drawingss look from the often poorly printed early books. And the rest of the Forbes gallery is also delightful.
Now to the Academy screeners:
I thought this would be a good year for short films and was frankly disappointed. There were a number of loud, overproduced films with poor concepts or stories. For a wonder not all of the overproduced ones were CGI; there were some really weak stop motion film as well.
Some of the films had no excuse for being there. They were poorly made. Even a sophomore in college could do better (and yes, I can prove this.) I suppose they managed to get a two day screening in Los Angeles. One horror was so very bad I saw people nearly flying out of the room seconds after it started. Surprise. This thing is going to be 'adapted' into a feature. Why do people waste money on things like this when they could back competent artists who need money to complete films (Youri Nourstein comes to mind?)
I was shocked NOT to see many excellent films that obviously did not get the L.A. screening. Where was MY HAPPY END, the outstanding paper-cutout-and-hand drawn film from Hamburg? Or A DOG'S LIFE?
I've already started talking with someone about possibly hiring a theatre to show a Student Film Showcase in L.A. during the season. Good independent and student films could be shown there for the qualifying period--longer, if people were interested in seeing it--and the theatre rental expense split between several institutions. It would materially improve the quality of the submissions.
Now I might as well mention the good stuff. Yes, there were some good films there.
The most outstanding entry, IMHO, was JEU by Georges Schwizgebel. This was an amazing abstract piece scored impeccably and wittily to Prokofiev's music. It's so rare to see actual wit in an abstract film--Schwizgebel offers commentary on the music rather than just illustrating it literally or moving stuff around on the screen. The hand painted look was very interesting as well, though obviously used with computer graphics program. Four stars for this one.
THE CHESTNUT TREE looked even better compared to most of the 'professional' entries since it was subtle, well timed and acted, and simple. Four stars again.
Three stars:
MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI was lovely to look at and a little light on story.
HOW TO HOOK UP YOUR HOME THEATRE from Disney was a welcome return to the full animated, hand drawn days of short film production. It's not that it was something new--it was just nice to see something old there.
MY LOVE from Alexander Petrov had his usual incredible technique but was a little hard to follow if you haven't read the story it was based on.
I was delighted with I MET THE WALRUS, a witty, well timed and directed animated tribute to John Lennon (who provides the soundtrack.)
Bill Plympton's SHUTEYE HOTEL was 'arrestingly' designed, and well timed.
A real surprise was MEME LES PIGEONS VONT AU PARADIS, an hilarious French film about a priest who tries to scare an old man into repenting his sins with the aid of a 'heaven machine'. It's witty, well timed, and has an unusual story.
Two stars: Disappointments, although well made: THE PEARCE SISTERS from Aardman, which was unattractive to look at and had an obvious story, though it was extremely well directed and animated; PETER AND THE WOLF, an overproduced stop motion version of the Prokofiev piece that featured an excellent duck, but poor use of the music, weak story 'adaptation'--(what's with that beginning and ending, anyhow?) and overly-realistic character design; and PRINTED RAINBOW, which would have been great had it been shortened by approximately 50% of its running time.
Weak films outnumbered the good-to-fair ones by a factor of three. I won't write about the ones I would call 'pretentious crap'. There were a fair few of these.
We are only allowed to rate films from 5 to 10 if they have gotten this far in the screening process. I think some of the others must have given 1's or 0's to at least one of the screeners.
Greg Ford was kind enough to offer overnight accomodation in his studio's extra room. It's not the first time I have slept overnight in an animation studio, though this time I did not have to sleep under the desk.
I arrived on Friday afternoon in time to take in the terrific Ronald Searle exhibit at the Forbes Gallery (thanks, Amid Amidi, for the heads-up)--the show is there til March. The exhibit is in two hallways and also in rooms that once housed the Forbes' collection of 13 Faberge eggs., which have been returned to Russia. Turns out the millionaire who bought them bought EVERYTHING--all the Faberge tchotchkes, not just the eggs. I'm glad I saw them when I could.
The Searle exhibit has original drawings, ceramics, books, and even some movie footage, though no mention is made of DICK DEADEYE, the one feature film to be based on Searle's style.
Ronald Searle has influenced animators since his first book was published; Chuck Jones cartoons, Bill Peet's designs for 101 DALMATIANS, and most British animation would look very different without him.
Do not miss this show if you are in New York. The museum is open during business hours and is absolutely free.
It is amazing to see just how different the original Searle drawingss look from the often poorly printed early books. And the rest of the Forbes gallery is also delightful.
Now to the Academy screeners:
I thought this would be a good year for short films and was frankly disappointed. There were a number of loud, overproduced films with poor concepts or stories. For a wonder not all of the overproduced ones were CGI; there were some really weak stop motion film as well.
Some of the films had no excuse for being there. They were poorly made. Even a sophomore in college could do better (and yes, I can prove this.) I suppose they managed to get a two day screening in Los Angeles. One horror was so very bad I saw people nearly flying out of the room seconds after it started. Surprise. This thing is going to be 'adapted' into a feature. Why do people waste money on things like this when they could back competent artists who need money to complete films (Youri Nourstein comes to mind?)
I was shocked NOT to see many excellent films that obviously did not get the L.A. screening. Where was MY HAPPY END, the outstanding paper-cutout-and-hand drawn film from Hamburg? Or A DOG'S LIFE?
I've already started talking with someone about possibly hiring a theatre to show a Student Film Showcase in L.A. during the season. Good independent and student films could be shown there for the qualifying period--longer, if people were interested in seeing it--and the theatre rental expense split between several institutions. It would materially improve the quality of the submissions.
Now I might as well mention the good stuff. Yes, there were some good films there.
The most outstanding entry, IMHO, was JEU by Georges Schwizgebel. This was an amazing abstract piece scored impeccably and wittily to Prokofiev's music. It's so rare to see actual wit in an abstract film--Schwizgebel offers commentary on the music rather than just illustrating it literally or moving stuff around on the screen. The hand painted look was very interesting as well, though obviously used with computer graphics program. Four stars for this one.
THE CHESTNUT TREE looked even better compared to most of the 'professional' entries since it was subtle, well timed and acted, and simple. Four stars again.
Three stars:
MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI was lovely to look at and a little light on story.
HOW TO HOOK UP YOUR HOME THEATRE from Disney was a welcome return to the full animated, hand drawn days of short film production. It's not that it was something new--it was just nice to see something old there.
MY LOVE from Alexander Petrov had his usual incredible technique but was a little hard to follow if you haven't read the story it was based on.
I was delighted with I MET THE WALRUS, a witty, well timed and directed animated tribute to John Lennon (who provides the soundtrack.)
Bill Plympton's SHUTEYE HOTEL was 'arrestingly' designed, and well timed.
A real surprise was MEME LES PIGEONS VONT AU PARADIS, an hilarious French film about a priest who tries to scare an old man into repenting his sins with the aid of a 'heaven machine'. It's witty, well timed, and has an unusual story.
Two stars: Disappointments, although well made: THE PEARCE SISTERS from Aardman, which was unattractive to look at and had an obvious story, though it was extremely well directed and animated; PETER AND THE WOLF, an overproduced stop motion version of the Prokofiev piece that featured an excellent duck, but poor use of the music, weak story 'adaptation'--(what's with that beginning and ending, anyhow?) and overly-realistic character design; and PRINTED RAINBOW, which would have been great had it been shortened by approximately 50% of its running time.
Weak films outnumbered the good-to-fair ones by a factor of three. I won't write about the ones I would call 'pretentious crap'. There were a fair few of these.
We are only allowed to rate films from 5 to 10 if they have gotten this far in the screening process. I think some of the others must have given 1's or 0's to at least one of the screeners.
There was a notable 'thanatopsical' bent to many films. So many seemed to feature views of mortality and dissolution that Greg Ford confided during a break that "There's a real pattern here...I can hardly wait to die."
It's just the Zeitgeist, I replied.
Note to Academy: Please reinstate the system where we can raise our hands to have the film stopped. Ten hands used to mean that we didn't have to sit through interminable films. For some reason, we had to sit through them all. This is a bit much, even with the nice lunch provided.
Monday, November 12, 2007
The Singapore Schedule
Well, here it is...
I'm a 'legend in my own lunchtime'. Here's the schedule for my talk and masterclass for those of you who are in Singapore in a week's time!
http://www.sfs.org.sg/animation/an2007/seminars.html
I'm a 'legend in my own lunchtime'. Here's the schedule for my talk and masterclass for those of you who are in Singapore in a week's time!
http://www.sfs.org.sg/animation/an2007/seminars.html
Saturday, November 10, 2007
LaVerne Harding
Here is a link to Asifa's short biography of LaVerne Harding. http://www.animationarchive.org/bio/2005/12/harding-la-verne.html
She started at the Walter Lantz studio in 1934, one year after Lillian Friedman started animating at Fleischer's. Harding died in 1984 and received an Annie award for her work in 1980, so she wasn't completely unrecognized in her lifetime.
Selby Kelly's story that Harding was promoted to animator on the spot during a strike at Lantz's is impossible to substantiate.
Lantz is quoted on the site, saying "They thought that women could only draw birds and flowers. They were wrong, of course."
Harding apparently redesigned Woody Woodpecker in 1950, and it is her model sheets that are used for later cartoons.
She started at the Walter Lantz studio in 1934, one year after Lillian Friedman started animating at Fleischer's. Harding died in 1984 and received an Annie award for her work in 1980, so she wasn't completely unrecognized in her lifetime.
Selby Kelly's story that Harding was promoted to animator on the spot during a strike at Lantz's is impossible to substantiate.
Lantz is quoted on the site, saying "They thought that women could only draw birds and flowers. They were wrong, of course."
Harding apparently redesigned Woody Woodpecker in 1950, and it is her model sheets that are used for later cartoons.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Girls Rule at Film Fest
2D OR NOT 2D festival 2007
This year’s theme of the 2D or not 2D festival was GIRLS NIGHT IN: WOMEN IN ANIMATION. It was appropriate that many of the top festival awards were won by female animators this year.
I was one of the opening night speakers along with Microsoft producer Kathie Flood and Pixar animator Kureha Yokoo. My presentation consisted of character design and storyboard sketches I drew when at Disney’s that had never been publicly shown, together with some clips from HERCULES and TREASURE PLANET. I had particular fun describing why some designs were not used, including a rare ‘censored’ scene I did in one film.
In my opening remarks I made sure to mention those who had gone before us: Lillian Friedman Astor, Retta Scott, LaVerne Harding, Selby Kelly, and Tissa David—you would know them better by their performances as Betty Boop, Bambi’s hunting dogs, Woody Woodpecker, Pogo Possum, and Raggedy Ann. Tissa David is still with us and still working. The others never received recognition in their lifetimes, and frequently did not receive credit (Harding being an exception to the rule—she was often credited as Verne Harding to make her sound more masculine, but she was always credited. Thank you, Walter Lantz!)
The difference between the hand drawn and computer animation presentation was interesting to note: a computer animator has the scene’s acting blocked and timed by the layout artist before they receive the shot. The performance is still theirs, but the staging is pretty set—there’s no tweaking, as frequently occurs in hand drawn films.
Ms. Yokoo’s shots from RATATOUILLE showed her to be an excellent actress. She also showed a hilarious and telling juxtaposition of two photos: the “Nine Old Men” of Disney and the “Nine Young Ladies” of Pixar’s animation staff. There are 92 animators at Pixar, but it’s a start.
Ms. Flood ran some interesting X box footage from Microsoft games that she produced. The scenery in the racing games featured actual cityscapes (Race you to St. Petersburg, Russia, anyone?) and was extremely realistic. Ms. Flood took many questions from the audience.
This year’s entries were from a wider range of animation schools than the first year’s show; Tony White thought that it might be a good idea to emphasize the student films more than ‘professional’ ones in future shows. Two schools, Tony’s own Digipen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Washington and the Van Arts college in Vancouver, B. C., gave presentations to local students the day before the festival opened. The two schools also were co-sponsors of the program.
The opening night films were all by female animators. Most were student films produced in a wide variety of media. THE CHESTNUT TREE by Hyun-Min Lee (Cal Arts) was the outstanding film of the evening, and of the festival. Producers Bert Klein and Don Hahn were present on the following evening, along with the filmmaker. THE CHESTNUT TREE, a lyrical tribute to the spirit of a girl’s deceased mother, has won many awards and will be a strong contender for this year’s Oscar. Since it was a student film that was finished professionally, it is not competing in the Student category.
Other opening night films that I enjoyed were ART’S DESIRE from NYU’s Sarah Wickliffe, an amusing story about the Guernica painting’s subjects attempting to get into a less violent painting; GEIRALD THE 5 LEGGED SPIDER by Sheridan College’s Sam(antha) Rusztyn, a cautionary tale about love in the world of arachnids; and Tristyn Pease’s INVADERS FROM INNER SPACE from RIT, featuring space tourists that ruin an alien’s life.
Kathy Rose’s THE INN OF FLOATING IMAGERY was intended to be part of a performance piece; I wish Kathy had been there to act along with the film.
A screening of THE SNOWMAN, directed by the late Dianne Jackson, was the ‘late night surprise’ after the screenings and presentations. Jackson was a brilliant talent who left us much too soon. THE SNOWMAN is a classic film that beautifully captures the style of cartoonist Raymond Briggs.
Saturday morning’s surprise film was lost somewhere in the mail, so they re-ran the previous year’s winners, including many films from RIT students who are all are currently working in animation. The lovely THE MAN WHO WALKED BETWEEN THE TOWERS was also screened; much of the animation for this Michael Sporn production was done by Tissa David, affording her a virtual presence at the ‘women’s festival.’
The second round of competition films had a lot of films about dogs and aliens, though not together. I enjoyed MY HAPPY END from Milen Vitanov (Hamburg Film School) a stunning, imaginative, and very funny combination of hand drawn and cutout animation about very unusual dog/dogs. A DOG’S LIFE from Adam Comiskey was a hilarious depiction of a dog’s daily routine after his foolish master leaves the house for work. I particularly liked THE LIBRARIAN FROM THE BLACK LAGOON by Galen Fott, which is based on a successful children’s book, and ALIEN FOR CHRISTMAS by Dave Pryor, which featured a catchy song that I still can’t get out of my head.
Presentations by Michel Gagne, Tony White, and Don Hahn followed the screenings. Gagne has a wide range of talents; his latest project is a series of short films that update Len Lye and Oskar Fischinger’s ‘visual music’, called SENSOLOGY. He had a fine range of his books and sculptures of ‘twisted rabbits’ on display in the theatre’s foyer.
Tony White’s presentation included the premiere of the excellent FIRE GODS animated documentary, produced with the aid of student animators at the Digipen Institute of Technology. The film is a combination of hand drawn, computer, and Flash animation and tells the story of the invention and production of glass from Roman times to the present day. Tony is now head of the animation department at Digipen and the school should have some fine films in the next year’s show.
Don Hahn gave a very enjoyable talk about creativity and development of stories. The visuals included some preproduction art from classic Disney films that had not been seen for sixty years. He was one of the producers of THE CHESTNUT TREE, which closed his presentation. Hahn was awarded the second Roy E. Disney Award for his outstanding work as a producer and assistant director at the Walt Disney Studio.
Here is a list of the films that won Merit Awards and “Golden Pencils” this year: (I list the colleges when I know them—many of the top films were, as I mentioned earlier, made by students.)
Merit awards certificates were awarded to:
“Fish” by HyunJeen Lee. (Student film, SVA)
“Alien for Christmas” by Dave Pryor.
“The Chestnut Tree” by Hyun-min Lee. (Student film, Cal Arts)
“The Librarian from the Black Lagoon” by Galen Fott.
“Geirald The 5 Legged Spider” by Sam Rusztyn. (Student Film, Sheridan College)
“2” by Kim Anderson.
“The Intruder” by Alessandro Ceglia.
“Lost Utopia” by Mirai Mizue.
“My Happy End” by Milen Vitano. (Student Film, Hamburg Film School)
“For the Love of God” by Joe Tucker.
“The Space Burger” by Sookyoung Choi. (Student Film, SVA)
“I Am PillowCat” by Elaine Lee. (Student Film, RISD)
“t.o.m.” by Tom Brown.
“Bai Ri Meng (Daydream)” by Jennifer Tippins. (Student film, NYU)
“The Tree With The Lights In It” by Jason Harrington.
“Movement and Stillness” by Yi-Hsuan Kent Chiu.
“everything will be ok” by Don Hertzfeldt.
The “Golden Pencils” were awarded to:
2D Animation/Best Film: “Lost Utopia.” By Miral Mizue (this was a really stunning After Effects production, with over 1500 drawings manipulated into a series of interlocking patterns)
2D Animation/Best Animation in a Film: “The Chestnut Tree.”
Student Film/ Best Film: “Geirald the 5-Legged Spider.”
Student Film/ Best Animation in a Film: “I am Pillow Cat” by Elaine Lee (hand drawn pillow has a fight with dustbunnies)
Digital Media/Best Film: “Fish.” By HyunJean Lee (a boy has a CGI animated fish for a roommate in a typical apartment)
Digital Media/ Best Animation in a Film: “Movement and Stillness.” By Yi-Hsuan Kent Chu (Chinese brush painting, animated)
All-style Animation/ Best Film: “Alien for Christmas.”
All-style Animation/ Best Animation in a Film: “My Happy End.”
We ended the festival with a get together upstairs at the New Everett Theatre. All were delighted with the increased participation of many fine animation schools. Next year’s show should be equally impressive.
Congratulations to the Animaticus Foundation for another splendid display of animation (not all ‘2D’ but all different.)
You can read Tony White’s comprehensive write-up of the festival here:
http://tonymaticus.blogspot.com/
This year’s theme of the 2D or not 2D festival was GIRLS NIGHT IN: WOMEN IN ANIMATION. It was appropriate that many of the top festival awards were won by female animators this year.
I was one of the opening night speakers along with Microsoft producer Kathie Flood and Pixar animator Kureha Yokoo. My presentation consisted of character design and storyboard sketches I drew when at Disney’s that had never been publicly shown, together with some clips from HERCULES and TREASURE PLANET. I had particular fun describing why some designs were not used, including a rare ‘censored’ scene I did in one film.
In my opening remarks I made sure to mention those who had gone before us: Lillian Friedman Astor, Retta Scott, LaVerne Harding, Selby Kelly, and Tissa David—you would know them better by their performances as Betty Boop, Bambi’s hunting dogs, Woody Woodpecker, Pogo Possum, and Raggedy Ann. Tissa David is still with us and still working. The others never received recognition in their lifetimes, and frequently did not receive credit (Harding being an exception to the rule—she was often credited as Verne Harding to make her sound more masculine, but she was always credited. Thank you, Walter Lantz!)
The difference between the hand drawn and computer animation presentation was interesting to note: a computer animator has the scene’s acting blocked and timed by the layout artist before they receive the shot. The performance is still theirs, but the staging is pretty set—there’s no tweaking, as frequently occurs in hand drawn films.
Ms. Yokoo’s shots from RATATOUILLE showed her to be an excellent actress. She also showed a hilarious and telling juxtaposition of two photos: the “Nine Old Men” of Disney and the “Nine Young Ladies” of Pixar’s animation staff. There are 92 animators at Pixar, but it’s a start.
Ms. Flood ran some interesting X box footage from Microsoft games that she produced. The scenery in the racing games featured actual cityscapes (Race you to St. Petersburg, Russia, anyone?) and was extremely realistic. Ms. Flood took many questions from the audience.
This year’s entries were from a wider range of animation schools than the first year’s show; Tony White thought that it might be a good idea to emphasize the student films more than ‘professional’ ones in future shows. Two schools, Tony’s own Digipen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Washington and the Van Arts college in Vancouver, B. C., gave presentations to local students the day before the festival opened. The two schools also were co-sponsors of the program.
The opening night films were all by female animators. Most were student films produced in a wide variety of media. THE CHESTNUT TREE by Hyun-Min Lee (Cal Arts) was the outstanding film of the evening, and of the festival. Producers Bert Klein and Don Hahn were present on the following evening, along with the filmmaker. THE CHESTNUT TREE, a lyrical tribute to the spirit of a girl’s deceased mother, has won many awards and will be a strong contender for this year’s Oscar. Since it was a student film that was finished professionally, it is not competing in the Student category.
Other opening night films that I enjoyed were ART’S DESIRE from NYU’s Sarah Wickliffe, an amusing story about the Guernica painting’s subjects attempting to get into a less violent painting; GEIRALD THE 5 LEGGED SPIDER by Sheridan College’s Sam(antha) Rusztyn, a cautionary tale about love in the world of arachnids; and Tristyn Pease’s INVADERS FROM INNER SPACE from RIT, featuring space tourists that ruin an alien’s life.
Kathy Rose’s THE INN OF FLOATING IMAGERY was intended to be part of a performance piece; I wish Kathy had been there to act along with the film.
A screening of THE SNOWMAN, directed by the late Dianne Jackson, was the ‘late night surprise’ after the screenings and presentations. Jackson was a brilliant talent who left us much too soon. THE SNOWMAN is a classic film that beautifully captures the style of cartoonist Raymond Briggs.
Saturday morning’s surprise film was lost somewhere in the mail, so they re-ran the previous year’s winners, including many films from RIT students who are all are currently working in animation. The lovely THE MAN WHO WALKED BETWEEN THE TOWERS was also screened; much of the animation for this Michael Sporn production was done by Tissa David, affording her a virtual presence at the ‘women’s festival.’
The second round of competition films had a lot of films about dogs and aliens, though not together. I enjoyed MY HAPPY END from Milen Vitanov (Hamburg Film School) a stunning, imaginative, and very funny combination of hand drawn and cutout animation about very unusual dog/dogs. A DOG’S LIFE from Adam Comiskey was a hilarious depiction of a dog’s daily routine after his foolish master leaves the house for work. I particularly liked THE LIBRARIAN FROM THE BLACK LAGOON by Galen Fott, which is based on a successful children’s book, and ALIEN FOR CHRISTMAS by Dave Pryor, which featured a catchy song that I still can’t get out of my head.
Presentations by Michel Gagne, Tony White, and Don Hahn followed the screenings. Gagne has a wide range of talents; his latest project is a series of short films that update Len Lye and Oskar Fischinger’s ‘visual music’, called SENSOLOGY. He had a fine range of his books and sculptures of ‘twisted rabbits’ on display in the theatre’s foyer.
Tony White’s presentation included the premiere of the excellent FIRE GODS animated documentary, produced with the aid of student animators at the Digipen Institute of Technology. The film is a combination of hand drawn, computer, and Flash animation and tells the story of the invention and production of glass from Roman times to the present day. Tony is now head of the animation department at Digipen and the school should have some fine films in the next year’s show.
Don Hahn gave a very enjoyable talk about creativity and development of stories. The visuals included some preproduction art from classic Disney films that had not been seen for sixty years. He was one of the producers of THE CHESTNUT TREE, which closed his presentation. Hahn was awarded the second Roy E. Disney Award for his outstanding work as a producer and assistant director at the Walt Disney Studio.
Here is a list of the films that won Merit Awards and “Golden Pencils” this year: (I list the colleges when I know them—many of the top films were, as I mentioned earlier, made by students.)
Merit awards certificates were awarded to:
“Fish” by HyunJeen Lee. (Student film, SVA)
“Alien for Christmas” by Dave Pryor.
“The Chestnut Tree” by Hyun-min Lee. (Student film, Cal Arts)
“The Librarian from the Black Lagoon” by Galen Fott.
“Geirald The 5 Legged Spider” by Sam Rusztyn. (Student Film, Sheridan College)
“2” by Kim Anderson.
“The Intruder” by Alessandro Ceglia.
“Lost Utopia” by Mirai Mizue.
“My Happy End” by Milen Vitano. (Student Film, Hamburg Film School)
“For the Love of God” by Joe Tucker.
“The Space Burger” by Sookyoung Choi. (Student Film, SVA)
“I Am PillowCat” by Elaine Lee. (Student Film, RISD)
“t.o.m.” by Tom Brown.
“Bai Ri Meng (Daydream)” by Jennifer Tippins. (Student film, NYU)
“The Tree With The Lights In It” by Jason Harrington.
“Movement and Stillness” by Yi-Hsuan Kent Chiu.
“everything will be ok” by Don Hertzfeldt.
The “Golden Pencils” were awarded to:
2D Animation/Best Film: “Lost Utopia.” By Miral Mizue (this was a really stunning After Effects production, with over 1500 drawings manipulated into a series of interlocking patterns)
2D Animation/Best Animation in a Film: “The Chestnut Tree.”
Student Film/ Best Film: “Geirald the 5-Legged Spider.”
Student Film/ Best Animation in a Film: “I am Pillow Cat” by Elaine Lee (hand drawn pillow has a fight with dustbunnies)
Digital Media/Best Film: “Fish.” By HyunJean Lee (a boy has a CGI animated fish for a roommate in a typical apartment)
Digital Media/ Best Animation in a Film: “Movement and Stillness.” By Yi-Hsuan Kent Chu (Chinese brush painting, animated)
All-style Animation/ Best Film: “Alien for Christmas.”
All-style Animation/ Best Animation in a Film: “My Happy End.”
We ended the festival with a get together upstairs at the New Everett Theatre. All were delighted with the increased participation of many fine animation schools. Next year’s show should be equally impressive.
Congratulations to the Animaticus Foundation for another splendid display of animation (not all ‘2D’ but all different.)
You can read Tony White’s comprehensive write-up of the festival here:
http://tonymaticus.blogspot.com/
Monday, October 08, 2007
2D OR NOT 2D
It's that time of year again...Tony White has just invited me to make a second presentation at the second 2D OR NOT 2D FESTIVAL in Everett, Washington.
Tony has done more to help the practitioners of this ancient and beautiful artform than most people, and this festival should be on everyone's 'must see' list.
The lovely Everett Theatre hosts rare films and (uncommon, if not rare) speakers from November 1st through 3rd. The town of Everett is a charming suburb of Seattle. Best of all, the festival has a successful networking fair at the end that, last year, led to a wonderful job offer for one of my RIT students who wasn't even able to attend the show.
Tony has the most unusual awards ceremony that I know of--he awards for best animation in a film AND best film, since we all know these are not always found together. The festival is sponsored by the Digipen Institute of Technology, where Tony is now the Chair and Program Director, so it emphasizes the work of student animators. Digipen and Vancouver's Van Arts Institute will present student showcases as part of the festival.
We need to support this festival. It's heartening to see so many young animators working in drawn animation and they need the encouragement.
I'm going to present a selection of character designs that I did on various jobs, together with a few clips of the animation that resulted. None of the design sketches have been seen in public before, and some of them (like the 'censored horse' in HERCULES) have a funny story associated with them.
Other female artists are also featured, since the show's theme is female animators. I think Tony has an interesting lineup of younger women on the same night as my presentation--I'm the only a.k. there-- so it should be fun.
Michael Gagne will also make a presentation and there are many surprises planned.
Do come if you can.
Tony has done more to help the practitioners of this ancient and beautiful artform than most people, and this festival should be on everyone's 'must see' list.
The lovely Everett Theatre hosts rare films and (uncommon, if not rare) speakers from November 1st through 3rd. The town of Everett is a charming suburb of Seattle. Best of all, the festival has a successful networking fair at the end that, last year, led to a wonderful job offer for one of my RIT students who wasn't even able to attend the show.
Tony has the most unusual awards ceremony that I know of--he awards for best animation in a film AND best film, since we all know these are not always found together. The festival is sponsored by the Digipen Institute of Technology, where Tony is now the Chair and Program Director, so it emphasizes the work of student animators. Digipen and Vancouver's Van Arts Institute will present student showcases as part of the festival.
We need to support this festival. It's heartening to see so many young animators working in drawn animation and they need the encouragement.
I'm going to present a selection of character designs that I did on various jobs, together with a few clips of the animation that resulted. None of the design sketches have been seen in public before, and some of them (like the 'censored horse' in HERCULES) have a funny story associated with them.
Other female artists are also featured, since the show's theme is female animators. I think Tony has an interesting lineup of younger women on the same night as my presentation--I'm the only a.k. there-- so it should be fun.
Michael Gagne will also make a presentation and there are many surprises planned.
Do come if you can.
Friday, August 31, 2007
The Laugh Out Loud Cats Comic
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Another Great Art Direction Book
http://www.amazon.com/Stepping-into-Picture-Cartoon-Designer/dp/1934110434/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-6864687-5767045?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186686896&sr=8-1
Go order this book now.
It's the first in-depth study of the work of one of the great animation art directors, MAURICE NOBLE.
It'll be out in February 2008, which is a bit long to wait, and it's a bit pricey, but it will be worth every minute and dollar.
With this book and Hans Bacher's DREAMWORLDS available in the same year, animated films can't help but look better!
Go order this book now.
It's the first in-depth study of the work of one of the great animation art directors, MAURICE NOBLE.
It'll be out in February 2008, which is a bit long to wait, and it's a bit pricey, but it will be worth every minute and dollar.
With this book and Hans Bacher's DREAMWORLDS available in the same year, animated films can't help but look better!
Monday, August 06, 2007
Another Bob
This just goes to show you how unreliable photos are for caricaturs. This is another shot of Bob Clampett, and his facial structure and even the thickness of his eyebrows appear very different than the photo printed just below. I used this one for my caricature.
Part Two Warner Brothers Caricature...
This is Part Two of the caricature entry, so you'll have to read backwards.So now that I had the pictures of all four of them, I started working up rough sketches, starting with Clampett.
Tough man to draw. He photographed differently each time. A shot taken from his famous 'home movies' at Warners shows the little-kid Chuck, and Bob with a very long face and lantern jaw--exactly like his caricatures. But this photo shows him with a square jaw and strong chin, but no lantern jaw.
Why he photographed that way in stills is a mystery, but perhaps the photographer got him from a good angle.
This is why it is never a good idea to draw from photographs; life is always better, and if your subject is not alive, a motion picture will do just as well. It is very important to see the muscles of the face working, expressions, and so on. For example, Bob Clampett had dimples. They only showed in one of the photos--clearly not this one. Friz Freleng's freckles also did not photograph. Chuck has a boyish quality that does not come across in my caricature, but I knew him better than the others and know that he had a mischievous streak in him. If he looks a little manic here, that's his inner Coyote showing through.
Well anyway I got the whole thing done this morning, and once Didier's designer puts the type and title on the page, it will be done.
That Warner Brothers Mob
My old friend Didier Ghez has published a number of interviews with Disney artists in five books called WALT'S PEOPLE.
Each book boasts black and white cover caricatures of the interviewees by Peter Emslie.
Didier asked me to work up some caricatures of some of the Warner directors for the cover of his newest book, BUGS' BUDDIES, which will be published in 2008.
Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, and Friz Freleng's work is well known to everyone; but their faces are not. They are far less well known than most of the Disney people--although to most people outside the animation world, Disney artists also have no faces.
To make matters even more difficult for myself I decided I wanted to draw each of these men in their prime, as young men.
I'd known Chuck Jones pretty well, when he was already rather old, and met each of the other three only once.
The first thing I decided to do was use characters associated with each director as his 'shadow'. I also had the quaint conceit that the characters would be in color, and the men's faces would be black and white artwork. The characters came to life through their imaginations, and have survived them. That was sort of the idea, at any rate. Maybe I really did it because it sort of looked cool.
Didier was enthusiastic about the idea. Now came the fun part. Where did I find pictures of some of these guys as young men?
Some were in the Warner books, but the difficulty of working from photos is: the face can look different from different angles, and at different ages in a person's life. Chuck Jones looked about seven years old in one picture that Greg Ford kindly sent to me.
Caricatures the guys did of themselves were no help at all. The WArner crew was vicious--toward themselves--. Bob Clampett drew himself as a turkey necked longfaced geek with a beaky nose, receding chin, and a huge head of hair. Photos reveal him to have resembled a young Elvis--classic features, small nose, dark eyes, strong chin, square jaw and face. If he'd been born twenty years later he could have been a matinee idol. At least the dark pompadour was accurate in his caricatures.
Chuck Jones was even less kind to himself. He's frequently caricatured in the Warner cartoons as an overweight, blubberlipped straw-haired pinhead. And Chuck designed all of his own characters!
I could not believe it, but Little John in the hilarious RABBIT HOOD ("Da-a-a-a-a-h, Don't you worry, never fear! Robin Hood will soon be here!") was a caricature of Chuck, by Chuck.
Friz Freleng was usually drawn as a sort of chameleon lizard, with a tremendous snozz and receding forehead.
Tex Avery looked elfin; his caricatures came closest to suggesting what he actually looked like. Some good shots of him appear at the top of this post.
So what to do?
Well, some of the photos of the fellows had better angles than others. I was lucky enough to find a shot of Chuck and Friz in a turnover session, together. Chuck is revealed to have had a strong chin, a round face, and fine straight hair. He also had remarkable eyebrows that were shaped like upside down V's. You can see everything but the 'eyebrows' in the pasteup at the head of this post. They were too light to photograph.
Friz wasn't lizardlike at all, though he does appear to have a slightly sloping forehead. The receding hairline is probably his most prominent feature. He does not have a large nose. (he was always drawn with one!)
Part Two of this article continues above: the finished illustration is shown below. You'll figure it out, which is more than I did when publishing this stuff.
Friday, August 03, 2007
A couplea Books
BUGS' BUDDIES
Book cover design and caricature by Nancy Beiman
Caricatures (L To R, top ) Tex Avery, Friz Freleng
Bottom: Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones
Editor: Didier Ghez
Publication date: 2008
Book cover design and caricature by Nancy Beiman
Caricatures (L To R, top ) Tex Avery, Friz Freleng
Bottom: Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones
Editor: Didier Ghez
Publication date: 2008
Hans Bacher's DREAMWORLDS will be published in English by Focal Press on December 7.
The book was copyedited by yours truly, but Hans did the real work assembling treasure trove of artwork from dozens of films. His color sketches from BALTO, LION KING, MULAN and other well known animated films are here, and there are some splendidly restored multiplane backgrounds from BAMBI under a section called 'Masters". This is the first book of its kind written by a working art director. It's not a history book--it shows you how to think out color and design when creating an animated world.
You can see the preorder form here:
Hans has had several blogs that show excerpts from the book, but I think his latest blog is the best. It's called animation-treasures 1 and can be viewed here. Hans showcases the work of many art directors and reconstructs pan backgrounds from everything from a Fleischer tabletop setup to a Zagreb short.This gets my vote for one of the most marvelous sites on the Web--the analysis of the color scripting in WHAT'S OPERA DOC is priceless.
Read. Learn. And marvel at how many wonderful artists worked in animation. It's a great medium when people are allowed to be creative!
The book was copyedited by yours truly, but Hans did the real work assembling treasure trove of artwork from dozens of films. His color sketches from BALTO, LION KING, MULAN and other well known animated films are here, and there are some splendidly restored multiplane backgrounds from BAMBI under a section called 'Masters". This is the first book of its kind written by a working art director. It's not a history book--it shows you how to think out color and design when creating an animated world.
You can see the preorder form here:
Hans has had several blogs that show excerpts from the book, but I think his latest blog is the best. It's called animation-treasures 1 and can be viewed here. Hans showcases the work of many art directors and reconstructs pan backgrounds from everything from a Fleischer tabletop setup to a Zagreb short.This gets my vote for one of the most marvelous sites on the Web--the analysis of the color scripting in WHAT'S OPERA DOC is priceless.
Read. Learn. And marvel at how many wonderful artists worked in animation. It's a great medium when people are allowed to be creative!
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Funny Stuff
My friend Gizmo the cat has introduced me to the very funny, crazy feline world. I had always thought cats were dignified, aloof creatures, not dependent like dogs--
Well, cats can't be generalized as a species; the personality of the animal, like that of a human, is pretty much is determined by its family upbringing and genetics. In other words,cats must be judged as individuals, not en masse. And some cats, such as Gizmo and a few others that I have met, love to play, look silly, cuddle, and generally act like a dog. Gizmo even runs to greet me whenever I come home. This is a nice treat and I'm grateful for it.
There is a very funny website called I Can Has Cheezburger? featuring ridiculous captions to photos of cats. Some vary in cleverness. Some are hilarious, some just rude or stupid, but most are a very entertaining way to start the day.
Curiously enough other animals besides cats are sometimes featured, including the "Lolrus" and various rodents with corms. My fave was the bunny eating cookies. If you visit the site, look under 'foodz' or 'cookie' at the bottom of the page to see the cookie thief.
Cookies are a major theme on the site.
The picture in this post appeared on the site recently and I thought it was a hoot. It's captioned in proper English, which is unusual for the lolcats: usually they speak a weird lingo distantly related to Krazy Kat's Yiddish-influenced prattle...the Lolcat language fuses Southern slang, text messaging, and onomatopoeia. Some terms are already becoming 'standard'--at least within a small group.
Do not want!
Want!
I has a....
I'm in yr....
Nom Nom Nom (sound of cat eating) This one is my favorite.
Anyway, here's a famous image from the site. The lolcats are guaranteed to raise a smile.
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