Alina Hiu-Fan Chau shows us The Big Bang in E=mc2. © 2002 Alina Hiu-Fan Chau.

E=mc2
Alina Hiu-Fan Chau's conceptually ambitious film is a revisionist creation myth that gives human form to the cosmological ideas of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. Opening with a funny Lucasfilm sound parody, E=mc2 goes on to tell the story of "Proton" and "Electron," a brother and sister whose falling out leads to the Big Bang and the creation of the universe. The film is beautifully made using traditional character animation rendered in Photoshop and After Effects and features a live orchestral score (inevitably one thinks of Fantasia), but the Disney-ish characters and overly simple storyline aren't up to the cosmic ideas being considered. The denouement, in which the narrator is revealed to be a young Albert Einstein telling this story to his sister, is a nice idea that doesn't quite come off.

The lush musical score for E=mc2 is by veteran composer Mark Lathan, who also conducted the UCLA orchestra. Chau was required to book the orchestra a year in advance and had one hour to record the score in a studio without film or sync sound equipment. She and Lathan had to time the film frame by frame to prepare a click track to guide the recording session.

Alina Hiu-Fan Chau has been drawing since she was four and has won forty-two awards in art and design. E=mc2 is her thesis project in the MFA program at UCLA.

Glide with a literary-minded butterfly in Marilyn Zornado's sultry Insect Poetry. © Will Vinton Studios.

Insect Poetry
Marilyn Zornado, a longtime producer at Will Vinton Studios, brings together several of her enthusiasms -- as well as the talents of friends and family -- in this first directorial effort. Based on the poems of Meme Marie Meyers, Insect Poetry employs stop-motion and 2D animation to create a charming and highly civilized entomological literary gathering, in which several eloquent insects read their poems. In three of the segments, Zornado uses her calligraphic skills to enhance the spoken text, and at times the combination of visual and aural elements gets to be a bit much, hindering rather than enhancing comprehension. The final segment, featuring a particularly sultry butterfly and a lovely sequence of 3D fly-throughs, is the most successful; here, words, music, graphics and motion blend together in a flowing and harmonious whole.

Insect Poetry was shot on 35mm after-hours at Will Vinton Studios. In addition to Meyers, other local participants included members of the Portland, Oregon theater community, who performed the readings, and Zornado's entomologist husband, Alan Garren, who served as anatomical advisor. The music was composed by Judith Gruber-Stitzer and arranged for mandolin orchestra by David Gossage.

In her fifteen years as a producer for Will Vinton, Marilyn Zornado's commercial work has included the Dominos Pizza Noid and the California Raisins. She has also produced longer-form programs for Sesame Street, the Smithsonian and others, and teaches Book Arts at the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts.