ATTEND OUR SATURDAY, MAY 16TH SCREENING OF THE AWARD WINNING FILMS FROM THE 1998 ASIFA-EAST ANNUAL ANIMATED FILM FESTIVAL This is your only chance to see this program of 32 works. All are awards winners. A few may be familiar including 3 ads by Wild Brain and Bill Plympton's Sex and Violence. The majority have not been seen in the Bay Area. Some are by artists whose names you may know - John R. Dilworth, Steve Dovas, Candy Kugel, Mo Willems, Virginia Wilkos, Paul & Sandra Fierlinger, Emily Hubley, John Canemaker, J.J. Sedelmaier and Debra Solomon. Others are exciting new works by individuals new to the competition.
Once again the audience at the McBean Theatre in the Exploratorium will vote for their favorites and cash prizes will be sent to the winners. The event will be on Saturday, May 16 at 7:30 PM. Admission is free and the public is invited. For best seats arrive a few minutes early. The show is over 2 hours long.
BAY AREA ANIMATORS HAD WORK SHOWN AT THE 9TH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ANIMATED FILMS, STUTTGART (which is a festival also known as Trickfilm, a German word for animation). Mike Johnson's The Devil Went Down to Georgia won a 10,000 DM second prize for "Publikumspreis des Suddeutschen Rundfunks." Gabola the Great by Tim Cheung (PDI) was shown in the competition, Geri's Game by Jan Pinkava (Pixar) was shown in a computer animation program and ILM's work from Mars Attacks! was shown in a program of Prix Ars Electronica 1997.
Bill Plympton, who lives in NYC and is a member of our chapter, won a prize for humor for Sex & Violence. The festival also showed his new feature, I Married A Strange Person. His 25 Ways to Quit Smoking was shown in a program of classics.
SEVERAL BAY AREA ANIMATORS ARE HAVING THEIR WORK SHOWN AT ZAGREB '98 The festival will be showing in competition Tim Hittle's Canhead, Jan Pinkava's Geri's Game, Wild Brain's Nike ad Destination Moon (directed by Gordon Clark), and Mike Johnson's The Devil Went Down to Georgia. They are also showing a Canada dry ad directed at ILM by Steve Beck. It is being shown by "special invitation of the festival." Other works from the US being shown in competition are Joanna Priestley's Utopia Parkway, Joan Gratz's The Dowager's Feast, 3 works by J.J. Sedelmaier's company, Big Bad Wolf by John Kricfalusi, Troika Dolls by Garri Bardin, Sex and Violence by Bill Plympton, Special Selections by Aleksandra Korejwo, and Lily and Jim by Don Hertzfeld. The last is the only student film from the US in the festival and it is currently being shown by Spike and Mike. The works being shown out of competition from the US are by Jeff Scher, J.J. Sedelmaier, David Ehrlich (ASIFA Variations), Robert Lyons, Steve Beck, Raquel Coelho, Bill Plympton (his How to Make Love to a Woman) and Sheila Sofian. The festival is June 17-21.
RICHARD C. ZIMMERMAN MAKES PEPPERIDGE FARM GOLDFISH DO AMAZING THINGS He lives in Marin County, but he is in great demand as an international director. He recently directed two Goldfish ads at Olive Jar in Boston. Now he is in Montreal at Productions Passcal Blais. (Other animators who have worked at Passcal Blais include Sylvain Chomet, who was nominated for an Oscar this year for The Old Lady and the Pigeons, and Alexander Petrov, whose The Mermaid was also nominated this year for an Oscar.) For the Olive Jar ads Zimmerman hired animators from San Francisco to come work with him. His team of Bay Area talent was Tod Kurtzman, Jerold Howard and Chris Calvi. When Zimmerman called to say we could show his award winning Birdhouse at our 35mm program in June at the Red Vic, he mentioned that Cordell "Cat Came Back" Baker is also working at Passcal Blais. Baker is doing a commercial in his own style using characters similar to his famous cat and the cat's owner. When asked if we can expect another independent short from Baker in the near future the answer was no. He is busy raising a family in Winnipeg.
VINCE COLLINS GETS RAVE REVIEW OF HIS WEB SITE AND CD-ROM IN MICROTIMES (April 22 issue) Jonathan E. writes "his stuff is awesome, almost indescribable in mere words... Collins' style is vividly distinctive and deserves a far wider audience. Brightly colored and scathingly funny with a substantial dose of absurdity, his animations point the way to a possible future popular art form. With titles such as "What If Telephones Weren't Interactive," "The National Interactive Test," "Sailing, Interactive!" "Show Me The Monet!," and "Lightspeed Thai, Lesson 1," Collins tears off big chunks of our society's and industry's obsessions with various media and art forms, chews 'em up and renders them into satirically sparkling vignettes. As well as his striking visual sense, Collins has a deft ear, and the audio portions of these animations are also remarkably effective." The writer tells how Collins has been creating these works since 1994, that some of them can be seen on his web site at www.vinceworld.com and that you should buy a copy of his signed and numbered CD-ROM "for a mere $20. If you're a collector of odd things, this is a fabulous opportunity to pick-up something that you'll enjoy now and that should have substantial value, at least historical, in the future. Remember, lower numbers are better! Go to the site now for full details and a taste or just send the cash, money order or check to Vince Collins, 1565 10th Ave., San Francisco, CA 94122." I have a copy of the CD and agree it is a fantastic work. I spent hours enjoying it, as did ASIFA-SF treasurer Shirley Smith. It is a masterpiece!!! Think tanks should consult with him as he is a creative genus. KC
ILM'S WORK WILL BE SEEN SOON AT A THEATRE NEAR YOU Each summer several films are released with special effects sequences by ILM. Coming in May is The Impact featuring lots of particle matter created by ILM. The images include gas coming off a comet, large masses of water, debris and waves. Ben Snow was the lead cg supervisor. The film was directed by Mimi Leder. Coming July 10 is Small Soldiers featuring lots of cgi work from ILM. David Andrews was the animation supervisor. The film is from DreamWorks. Other up-coming releases with ILM work in them include Snake Eyes by Brian de Palma (8/7/98) and Mighty Joe Young from Disney. The latter features puppets by Rick Baker in LA and cgi shots by ILM. Daniel Jeannette was the animation supervisor at ILM. ILM's commercial division recently did 2 more ads for the Chevy Blazer. One is a tour-de-force of trick photography. It shows in one take the van coming down the road, the camera going through the car and exiting out the rear of it. The commercial division is also proud of recent work for Pepsi in Japan featuring "Pepsi Man." They have done about 8 Pepsi Man ads over the last 2 years. Readers sometimes ask why the newsletter doesn't mention many works-in-progress. For example people in the local industry are saying ILM has a contract with Universal to do work on a feature that stars a well known monster. ILM says the deal isn't signed in blood yet. Even if they had the green light, the project could end before it is completed. That happens. For example, one recent project that got started and then died was a film about "The Incredible Hulk." I suppose somebody could write an interesting article on the strange reasons why projects die.
BILLY GREENE AND ASTRID CRAVENS WIN A GRANT FROM DOCKERS JEANS TO DO A 45-SECOND STOP-MOTION SHORT that will be shown at the Castro Theatre in June as part of a festival funded by the clothing company. The grant is for a short that expresses the theme of "independence." Their work will combine animated clay, paper and photographs. Photoshop is being used to render some of the images. The 16mm print is due May 8, so they are busy. Greene and Cravens run a studio called Octopus Ink. Last year they did a short film for Sesame Street.
PDI ADDS TO THEIR EXECUTIVE STAFF John Batter, formerly CFO of DreamWorks Interactive, is their new Chief Financial Officer. Patty Wooton has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Production. She joined the company in 1987 and was appointed production manager in 1988. PDI is now has two divisions. The feature animation division is working on Antz and is about the start work on Shrek (a DreamWork project that at one time was going to be a motion capture film). The commercial and feature effects division has been busy working on ads for Jet-Dry, Gatorade, Circle K and other clients.
WESTERN IMAGES ANIMATED A VIRTUAL-REALITY GAME FOR E.A. SPORTS The game is "Triple Play 99" and it features an animated baseball star based on Alex Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners. Protozoa did motion capture on the spot, Complete Pandemonium did the live action work and Western using Softimage created the star, composited him with other elements and did offline editing and other work. The animators at Western were Zane Rutledge and Will Friedewald. Jimi Simmons was the director of visual effects, and Nicole McMath did the texture mapping.
WESTERN DID THE LATEST ELECTRIC MAN AD FOR THE CA. PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION It stars a 3-D man (a real ugly dude) who was created at Western by CGI director/animator Chris Hamilton working with animator Greg Gladstone. Bob Roessler did digital art on the project, and Matthew Fassberg was Western's producer. They did the ad with Colossal Pictures, George Evelyn director and Rick Wise director of photography.
SIX-FOOT-TWO DID ROCKET'S TRICKY DECISION, A CD-ROM FOR PURPLE MOON Robbin Atherly's company did 3000 images for Rocket's Tricky Decision, a Purple Moon product aimed at girls ages 8 to 12. It was animated in two-and-a-half months. Richard Servand was the art director. TOONZ was used for digital ink and paint.The company has also been busy providing animation for a new ride at a well known theme park. Ron Seawright, Suzanne Atherly, and Marcia McLean worked as the project management team with a staff of 38 animators, editors and digital artists.
HENRY SELICK WAS HONORED BY THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART WITH AN IN-PERSON TRIBUTE AS PART OF A STOP-MOTION ANIMATION CELEBRATION ON APRIL 25. The program included work by Selick, Harryhausen, George Pal, Phil Tippett, Oskar Fischinger, Trinka and other greats.
WILD BRAIN ADDS PRODUCER LIZ GAZZANO TO THEIR STAFF She had worked as a freelance producer for the company on several national ads that combine live action images with animation. Her credits also include work for Fleet Street and Colossal Pictures in SF and Satellite in NYC & LA.
PHELAN ART AWARD OFFERS $7,500 TO A CALIFORNIA-BORN FILMMAKER/ANIMATOR WHO HAS PRODUCED A BODY OF WORK The award is given every two years to somebody in recognition of their high artistic achievement and creativity in film. You must be born in the state, but can live anywhere now. You will be asked to provide proof of where you were born. The award, presented by the Phelan Trust (an awards program of the San Francisco Foundation), is administered by Film Arts Foundation. Since there are not too many native sons and daughters who make films, there isn't too much competition for this money. Past winners have been Peter Adair, James Broughton, Craig Baldwin, Arthur Dong, Barbara Hammer, Marv Newland, Steven Okazaki, Pat O'Neil, Michael Rudnick and Yvonne Rainer. For guidelines and entry forms contact Film Arts Foundation at 346 Ninth Street, 2nd floor, SF CA 94103 (415) 552-8760. Deadline to apply is July 31.
RES FEST DIGITAL FESTIVAL DEADLINE IS MAY 31 for work finished digitally and output to tape. Call (415) 437-2686 or write 109 Minna St. Suite 390, SF CA 94105
Back to ASIFA - San Francisco May 1998 Newsletter
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