June 1998
SEE BILL PLYMPTON IN-PERSON at the Castro, Sat. June 6 at midnight. He will preview his new animated feature I MARRIED A STRANGE PERSON. The screening is part of the Dockers Classically Independent Film Festival.
OUR AUDIENCE PICKED BILL PLYMPTON'S SEX AND VIOLENCE AS THEIR FAVORITE FILM IN THE 1998 ASIFA-EAST ANNUAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL PROGRAM Plympton's work won by a solid majority of the votes. The votes for the second and third place winners in our competition were almost a tie. Jan Pinkava's Geri's Game won the second place prize and Virginia Wilkos' Chrysanthemum tied with Phil Lord's Man Bites Breakfast for third place.
Honorable mentions go to Sheila M. Sofian's Survivors, O'Plenty Animation's Officer Buckle and Gloria, J.J. Sedelmaier Productions' Christmas, Wild Brain's Destination Moon ad for Nike, Paul and Sandra Fierlinger's Marsh People and Howard Hoffman's Bad Phone Sex.
One of the strange things about having our audience vote for their favorite films is their opinions are quite different from the way people voted when the program was judged in New York City. In New York City A Rabbit Story by Paul and Sandra Fierlinger won the "Best Film Under Two Minutes" award and Debra Soloman's Everybody's Pregnant won "Best Film Over Two Minutes." Neither production proved to be very popular with our audience. Man Bites Breakfast only won an honorable mention in the student film competition, but it was clearly a hit in San Francisco. On the other hand the Plympton and Pinkava films did well in both cities. They won first prizes in their categories in NY (direction and animation). Marsh People won the top direction prize in films under 2 minutes.
WILD BRAIN CONTINUES TO WIN NATIONAL AWARDS At the 1998 Clio Awards they won a big bronze trophy for their "Super Mom" Coke ad. At the ASIFA-East Animated Film Festival 98, the ad won 3rd prize in animation under 2 minutes while their "Destination Moon" ad for Nike won 2nd prize in animation under two minutes. Their "Up Down Up" ad for Mainstay won 1st prize in the design category.
"SUPER MOM" SEQUEL WILL START TO AIR IN JUNE Wild Brain's Coke spot has been so popular that a sequel called "Super Mom vs. The Aliens" was recently produced. "Super Mom" and a Coke ad designed by Colossal Pictures were among the hot ads aired during the Oscar broadcast this year.
LOCAL COMPANIES AND INDIVIDUALS IN THE NEWS - PROTOZOA worked on the "Virtual Ed Sullivan Show" that aired in May on UPN. ILM won a Silver Clio for their work on "Cookie Jar" for Diamond Walnuts. PDI has hired Claire Garrett Alden as their East Coast rep. Bill Rabin and Associates represents the company in the Midwest and Lyndan Woodward represents them on the Westcoast. Cindy Cosenzo has been promoted at PDI to Executive Producer for Commercials. RADIUM, who does special effects and animation, recently hired Dana Townsend as their executive producer for all projects. She is a former executive producer for the commercial division of Skywalker Sound.
Denis Morella of Curious Pictures designed and directed cute animated letters and objects for "What's Missing," a one-minute spot for Showtime. In one segment a toy wagon wobbles out on three wheels while an off-screen announcers says "Hey, what's missing?" An unseen audience yells out "the wheeeel." James Munro assisted Morella with the animation.
Henry Selick has opened an office in the Presidio (Bldg. 39). The present name of his project - production company (formerly Dark Town) is Monkey Bone. The office phone number is 561-7700. They are a long ways off before they go into production on anything.
Amy Shepard and Scott "Huck" Wirtz from ILM were recently married. Sally Payson and John Hays are handing out cigars. Nathaniel Eliot (Nemo) was born April 25. Hays is co-founder and president of Wild Brain. Payson is a writer who is completing a PhD degree at UC Berkeley.
Kathy Engelhard had her film the Waterskier shown on KTOP-TV in Oakland. Jay Hathaway, a recent graduate of San Francisco State, is now working for Film Roman in Los Angeles as a 3D Studio Max animator.
OVER 20 WORKS WERE SCREENED AT SF STATE ANIMATION FINALS IN MAY Highlights of the program included Andres Cipriano's Kindergarten Squad Girls made with thousands of hand-inked and painted cels, an untitled risque comedy about beavers who build a dam
under the Golden Gate Bridge by John McCambridge (a pencil test was shown - the work is now being inked and painted and will be shot in 35mm), three works by Joshua Ong, and a class project by students in Jan Millsapps' Animation II class. The class project required each student to do a short lip-synch caricature of themselves.
The animation screening showed off the talents of a lot of people. They include Jim Ang, Eric Baca, Jonah Brennan, Nova Bridges, Kirk Burdick, Andres Cipriano, Nam Doan, Joe Donleavy, Christina Kelley, John McCambridge, Keith McNeil, Chris Mapa, Julian Meyer, Joshua Ong, Justin Orr, Edna Catalina Quijano, Sasha, Gordon Thomas and Janis Wright. Their work was done under the guidance of computer animation teacher Jane Veeder, traditional animation teacher Jan Millsapps, plus Steve Segal and Lorie Loeb who substituted for Pat Amlin last year. Amlin took off for a year to work on personal film and art projects.
PAT AMLIN WILL RETURN TO THE BAY AREA TO TEACH AT SF STATE IN SEPT. - SHE WANTS TO RENT A NICE ROOM OR COTTAGE Any suggestions? Give her a call in Colorado at (970) 641-6905.
Amlin has just been invited to show her films Popol Vuh and the Five Suns at the 1st Peoples' Festival in Montreal. She will also present a talk at the National Film Board of Canada.
Earlier this year she was in Guatemala where she shot footage for a documentary on the Mayan calendar. She now lives on 41 acres of land (mostly solid rock) around 8000' elevation in the wilds of Colorado. Last year she sold her house in Berkeley, so she needs a place to rent when she moves back to our area.
"HOW TO GET A JOB IN VIDEO, FILM & MULTIMEDIA IN THE BAY AREA" is a class being offered by Learning Annex, Wed. June 24 from 6:30 to 9:30 and again on July 23 at the same times. Tuition is $39 or $34 and the instructor is Michael Fasman. (415) 788-5500.
GARY SCHWARTZ IS VISITING FROM LA TO TEACH "THE ART OF ANIMATION: AN INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP" AT FILM ARTS FOUNDATION This extremely popular class covers lots of basics. Students do a series of exercises using a video recording system. They get a copy of their work when the class ends. Companies doing cgi have sent their entire animation departments to take this class as it stresses personal expression and creativity using a variety of techniques. The class starts June 15 in the evenings and continues into the next weekend. For details call (415) 552-8760.
MEDIA ALLIANCE OFFERS AN ADVANCED CLASS IN WEB ANIMATION WITH FLASH The class requires a background of HTML or equivalent experience in Web design. Knowledge of Illustrator or Freehand is suggested. Meets 4 times (16 class hours) plus you get 12 free hours in their Mac Lab. (415) 546-6334 or 546-6491 for details.
REMINDER: CALIFORNIA BORN FILMMAKERS are eligible for a $7,500 award for having produced an artistic body of work. You can live anywhere, but you have to prove you were born in this state. Contact Film Arts Foundation for details. Deadline is July 31. (415) 552-8760
THE SECRET IS OUT - DE ANZA COMMUNITY COLLEGE IN CUPERTINO HAS AN EXCELLENT ANIMATION COURSE OF STUDY AND THEY ONLY CHARGE $9 A CREDIT UNIT! The program at De Anza has been highly regarded since the 1980's when professionals noticed that De Anza students were turning out some impressive works. Joe Murray's student film gained him considerable recognition. He left the Bay Area for Hollywood where he created the TV series "Rocko's Modern Life." Other students have also gone on to work professionally in Los Angeles, Orlando and the Bay Area.
Today the school offers 8 classes each quarter, has several full-time animation instructors, and a great deal of equipment. At present the department is offering each quarter 4 different foundation courses, 3 advanced production course and one animation studies course. They plan to add a ninth course each quarter, as the program is growing in size.
The school, housed in a recently opened technology center building, is proud of their computer animation labs. The newest has 21 new Silicon Graphics workstations (SGI 02 platform). Lance Barker, formerly an instructor with Silicon Graphics, is the lab's full-time UNIX administrator. He helps the students with the equipment and he keeps it fine tuned.
The department also has a multi-media animation lab with 25 workstations. They use the PowerMac platform.
The school has a 16mm animation stand, a computerized video pencil tester, lots of light tables, animation discs, a cel punch and other basic equipment. There is a 16mm optical printer, Avid digital compositing workstations, 16mm cameras with single-frame motors, a video frame grabber for stop-motion work, and lot of other basic equipment needed to complete a production. There is a 125 seat screening theatre and a 40 seat screening room plus production equipment for producing live action films (sound stage with full lighting grid, etc.).
The course of study is taught by instructors Marty McNamara, Sarah Fay Kron and Will Pacious. It starts with the basics and ends with advanced workshops and advanced production seminars. The foundation classes include drawing, basic cartooning and design, and principles of character animation. There are storyboard classes, intermediate and advanced workshops in traditional animation and production labs. There are 4 different history of animation classes (general history, focus on Hollywood, focus on features and focus on world animation). The computer classes do not focus on a specific type of software, but instead are designed to education student to the basic concepts of how to best used the medium. The school plans to add more 2D and 3D computer classes next year as the program is growing in popularity.
One of the amazing things about the school is that anybody who is a resident of our state can take classes there for only $9 a credit unit. Tuition is more for out-of-state students. In recognition of the fine job the department is doing they were recently awarded three grants for the further development of the program.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE BUSINESS SECTION QUESTIONS THE REPUTATION OF THE ACADEMY OF ART The long article on May 22 by Ilana DeBare points out that the school has been making enormous profits and using a lot of that money to buy buildings in downtown SF rather than their putting it back into the school.
The student population has grown from about 1,900 to 5,000 over the past 6 years. Their tuition fees amount to about $50 million in revenues, but teachers haven't seen a pay raise in over ten years. The part-time staff makes about $35 an hour compared to $54 to $72 an hour for part-timers at San Francisco City College and $43 to $78 an hour at CCAC in Oakland. Ken Light, the former head of the photography department told the reporter, "They put money into buying buildings and equipment, but the human side of the equation is problematic... They act as if teachers are the least important part of the equation. People who work there describe it as a plantation."
Tuition is $13,500 a year which is less than CCAC or the Art Institute, but a lot more than $288 a year for City College or $9 a credit unit at De Anza. SF State's tuition is $1,505 according to the article.
While the school has purchased 91 Silicon Graphics workstations and other state-of-the art equipment, there are also several hundred students each semester trying to use these machines. Considering how long it takes people to learn to use them, it isn't surprising that some students complain they don't get enough time on them to complete their projects. At our annual open screening we rarely see much animation from this school and most of what I've seen are basic exercises and not amazing short films that tell stories and entertain. I've been told that many of the computer animation students don't take classes in traditional character animation or in script development.
The Academy of Art continues to have problems with their lack of accreditation. They spent 8 years in the 1980s trying to get accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, but failed. Part of the problem is the school has a staff of 550 people, but only 75 people are full-time. WASC wants them to have a large full-time faculty of individuals dedicated to teaching. The school feels the students get a better education if the teachers are busy most of the time working in their chosen field. That may mean the teachers are more up-to-date in what they teach, but it doesn't mean they are the best teachers. The school is quoted in the article defending their employment policy.
Part-time teachers do not get offices on campus, no regular office hours and I suspect no real benefits like health insurance, a retirement plan, etc. I know two or three independent filmmakers who once taught there, but left. One reason they left was the way they were treated by an uncaring administration. One taught a lecture class and complained the school would fill the class with too many students including some that who didn't understand English very well and many that didn't have a film background. These students had little or no idea about what my friend was talking about most of the time.
One problem with the school not having WAC accreditation is "students can not transfer to the country's 3,900 accredited colleges and graduate schools." The Academy does issue their own degrees, but unless you finish your degree program you can end up with nothing. They do have accreditation with another association, but apparently it doesn't mean much when students try to transfer credits to WAC schools.
The article covers a lot of other problems including how the school accepts anybody who can pay the tuition regardless of their abilities. John Carlson told the reporter that he "has been appalled to meet graduating seniors (in film) who have never heard of classic movie directors like Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa and Sergei Eisenstein."
The article talks about how the owners of the school own their own corporate jet, a limousine and a $2 million Nob Hill mansion, plus homes in Woodside, Pebble Beach and several condominiums. The school is run "for profit" so some people probably see nothing wrong with the owners exploiting their staff and students to the max. The article ends with a former student saying, "If people want to make money with art, this is the place to go."
CORRECTION: The Cartoon Art Museum called to say they have raised their admission fee and that the prices mentioned in our May newsletter are wrong. The new general fee is $5.
