ASIFA San Fransisco

November 1998 Newsletter

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News

PIXARS A BUG'S LIFE OPENS NOVEMBER 25 This is their 2nd computer generated feature and it was directed by John Lasseter. Andrew Stanton, who has been at Pixar since 1990, was the co-director and screenwriter. Darla Anderson and Kevin Reher were the producers. Joe Ranft did the storyboards. Music is again by Randy Newman.
Dave Foley is the voice of Flik, the main ant in the script. Part of the plot has Flik sent on a mission to recruit warrior ants to help defend his colony from grasshoppers. By mistake he recruits cowardly circus ants dressed as warriors and nobody discovers the mistake until
The film also includes the voices of Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, John Ratzenberger, Jonathan Harris, Madeline Kahn, Phylsis Diller, and other stars. The film is being released by Disney.

FILM ARTS FESTIVAL OF INDEPENDENT CINEMA opens November 4 at the Castro and continues through Nov. 8 at the Roxie. The animation includes Goodnight I Love You by Gordon Thomas and Sex Pudding by Dan McHale on Friday, Nov. 6 at 8 PM. On Sat. at 8 is Malfunction, a stop-motion film by Astrid Cravens and Billy Green. The Sacred Heart by Natalija Vekic is Sunday, November 8 at 2 p.m and at 4 p.m. is Rebellion by an artist named Flash.

WORK WANTED Complete or in-progress work wanted for monthly screenings and other shows. Contact Nik or Nancy Phelps at (415) 618 - 3189.

COLOSSAL DOES ANIMATRONIC & LIVE ACTION COKE AD The spot features artificial robins in a nest. M5 created the birds. Drew Takashi directed and Stephanie Hornish was the producer.

WILD BRAIN DOES TWO HERSHEY'S KISSES SPOTS, ONE WAS DONE WITH COMPUTERS This is the first time Hershey's Kisses goes cgi. The spot is called "Fishing." The other is "Drag Racing" and it is done in stop-motion.

DENIS MORELLA DOES PROMO FOR CBS CABLE NETWORK It is a 30 second mixed media work that includes cel and stop-motion animation. Morella was the designer and director. The
animators were Steward Lee and Philip Ames. The assistant animators were Lance Hughes, Ashley McGovern and Joe Sloan. The digital artist was Alice Siebert. The stop-motion animator was Misha Klein. Sara Anderson was the production artist.

CURIOUS PICTURES DESIGNS HUCKLEBERRY HOUND SPOT FOR CARTOON NETWORK The two-minute interstitial was modeled in Illustrator and then the brought to life in 3D Studio Macs. The director/designer was Nick Hewitt, technical director Damon Ciarelli, and the 3D animators were Ciarelli, Hewitt, Boo Wong, Justin Dike, Fred Kluth, Kevin Kong and Matt Reslier. The post was done in SF by Western and the audio was by Ear Wax of SF.

JERRY VAN DE BEEK joins Curious Pictures in San Francisco as an animation director. He worked in Amsterdam in 3D animation and at a company in London before coming to San Francisco. He was a co-founder of Little Fluffy Clouds in San Francisco with partner Betsy De Fries. She will continue to operate the company as an animation studio.

SIX FOOT TWO GETS A LOT OF PRAISE FOR THEIR TRAILER FOR THE MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL Several people who went to the festival said Six Foot Two did a great job animating it. I was told the promo attracted the interest of a possible client. The local trades gave it praise and at least one ran an illustration of the project.

PAUL COOK JOINS PDI He will be their corporate controller. He had been with Adobe Systems.

JASON SHIGA GETS A GRANT to complete his film Double Duce. The grant was from the Common Sense Composers' Collective. It will be Shiga's first film in color.
Nik Phelps obtained a Meet the Composer Grant to create the score for this piece. It will premiere November 7, 6 PM, at the New Music Marathon at the Yerba Buena Center in SF.
Phelps just completed working with Tom Waits and his band on music for the animated short Bunny. The film was directed by Chris Wedge of Blue Sky Studios in Harrison, NY. It will premiere Nov. 2 at the Lammele Theater in Santa Monica.

ANIMATION & EFFECTS did seven minutes of clay animation for a CD-Rom produced by SFPG. The client was Interlogic and the project title was "Interlogic Reading Edge." Gerald Howard was the animator, Kathleen Swain the director of animation and Terry O'Brien was the technical director.

GROTESQUE REALISM: A TRIBUTE TO ESTONIAN ANIMATION at the Pacific Film Archive. Sunday, November 1 at 5:30 PM. The program of short animated films is from the 1980's and `90s. It is in 35mm, has English subtitles and it runs about 90 minutes. 2625 Durant Avenue in Berkeley. (510) 642-1412. The program was organized by the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

ATTIK OPENS A SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE They are an international design firm that works in new media, print, and animation. The new office is at 445 Bush Street, 4th floor, SF, CA 94108. (415) 989-6401

NICK PARK SHOW ENDING SOON A well kept secret is a Wallace and Gromit show has been on display at Cogswell College for several weeks. It closes November 5. (408) 541-0100 for details.

CARTOONLAND ANIMATES SEXY FEMALE FOR VIDEO SLOT MACHINE! Silicon Gaming of Palo Alto and Media Concrete of San Francisco chose Cartoonland to design and animate a "Daisy Dukes" type sexy blond character for their latest video slot machine. It will be released in January, 1999. The female named Betty interacts with the player of the game. This type of game is said to be enormously successful. They are manufactured in the tens of thousands and they have an active shelf life of about five years.
The game was designed at Media Concrete. Ann Ashby was the Executive Producer and Reven Malkmus was the producer. The animation was by Kevin Coffey and art direction by Lewis Bangham. Cartoonland is at (415) 387 - 2844.

PIXAR, PDI, WILD BRAIN & LUCAS ARTS NOMINATED FOR ANNIE AWARDS The works nominated for an award in outstanding achievement in an animated short subject include Pixar's Geri's Game. The Curse of Monkey Island was nominated in outstanding achievement in animated interactive production along with Wild Brain's Flying Saucer. In outstanding achievement in animated television commercial Lizards II for Circle K by PDI was nominated. So was Willy Wonka's Wild Ride,
an ad by Wild Brain. The nominations for outstanding animated interstitials include two works by Wild Brain, O Canada Open for the Cartoon Network and Retromotion Open for the Locomotion Channel. A nomination for outstanding achievement in an animated home video production went to Fern Gully 2: The Magical Rescue. It was produced by Wild Brain. A nomination for outstanding individual achievement for writing for an animated feature production goes to Fern Gully 2, Richard Tulloch writer. Congratulations to all who are nominated.

The Annie Awards are run by ASIFA - Hollywood. They will be held Friday Nov. 13 at the Alex Theater in Glendale. A preview screening including entries by ILM, PDI, Pixar and Wild Brain was held in October at the ASIFA - Hollywood office/hall in Burbank.

IDEAS IN ANIMATION AND THE SPROCKET ENSEMBLE performs Saturday, November 7 at 6 p.m. in "Opus 415 New Music Marathon" at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Shirley Smith's Dunderbeck's Machine, Sara Petty's Furies, Scott Kravitz's Camera Un-obscura and Jason Shiga's Double Duce (world primere) will be among the films presented.

BILL PLYMPTON'S I MARRIED A STRANGE PERSON OPENS in Berkeley Nov. 6-8 at the UC Theatre. It opened in San Francisco on Oct. 30 at the Lumiere for an open run.

NORTH BAY MULTIMEDIA ASSA. HAD A MEETING WITH ILM The topic was recent work by their commercial division. The meeting was in October at Autodesk in San Rafael. For info. about the group (415) 721-1780.

IN PASSING - GLORIA CLOKEY She died in August and a memorial services was held in the Bay area in mid-October. Mrs. Clokey was married to Art Clokey, the creator of Gumby. She worked on the last Gumby TV series & the Gumby feature as an art director. She also wrote lyrics for the feature and was the voice of Goo. She was 72.
Mrs. Clokey was also a painter, art teacher and a bio-energetic therapist. She had taught at Esalen Institute in Big Sur.

IFFCON 99 FOR FILM FINANCING will be held in San Francisco Jan. 15 17, 1999. For information call (415) 281 - 9777.

BOOKS

READING THE RABBIT: EXPLORATIONS IN WARNER BROS. ANIMATION, edited by Kevin Sandler, Rutgers University, 1998. This long awaited book is a collection of 12 essays and a well thought out introduction. The essays cover a wide range of topics from the early days of the studio to current marketing trends. The subjects include a critical history of the studio, the influence of Disney, the influence of vaudeville, the image of the hillbilly, caricature and parody, the homosexual image and other topics.
In the my opinion the strongest papers are "Darker Shades of Animation: African-American Images in the Warner Bros. Cartoons" by Terry Lindvall and Ben Fraser and "Selling Bugs Bunny: Warner Bros. and Character Merchandising in the `90s" by Linda Simensky. Dr. Lindvall's article covers racist images from their rise to their decline. The merchandising article was rather shocking as it revealed how it has become a multi-billion dollar industry. The studio's stars no longer have to make films to make money. Now they simply appear on coffee cups and shirts. I also enjoyed "The Image of the Hillbilly in Warner Bros. Cartoons" by Michael Frierson and Donald Crafton's article on parody.
Unfortunately some of the other articles are poorly written and/or full of factual errors. I also question the omission of an essay on Frank Tashlin and his contribution to the cartoon. Tashlin contributed a great deal to the fast pace of the studio's cartoons in the late 30s and 40s and introduced European filmmaking techniques to his fellow directors.
Yet another problem I have with the book is the essay that questions Bugs Bunny's gender. Recent scholars have tried to see if Bugs might be a closet homosexual. They seem unaware that for decades vaudeville stars like Milton Berl and film/music hall stars like Charlie Chaplin were heterosexual men who sometimes appeared in drag. They do not accept that there was never a gender question about this form of humor. We always knew they were straight. That was part of the joke.
Finally there is Gene Walz's article on Charlie Thorson and his role in the creation of Bugs Bunny. The next article in this newsletter is my reaction to the article suggesting Thorson might have made a major contribution to the history of animation.
If you have an interest in the studio's history, by all means buy this book. It is uneven, but still a worthwhile contribution to our knowledge of animation. KC

IN ANIMATION, WHO IS THE REAL CREATOR OF A PROJECT? by Karl Cohen
Walz's article on Charlie Thorson in Reading the Rabbit raises for me questions about the skills of historians to reconstruct history from a few facts. When an author tries to recognize an individuals contributions to history, there is a real danger that one may over interpret his subject's importance.
Walz goes to great length to explain why he believes Thorson is one of Bug Bunny's parents, but he wisely mentions why other scholars may disagree with him. Evidence connecting Thorson with Bugs includes a drawing he sent his brother at the time he made his first model sheets for the rabbit, and a letter he sent to Warner Bros. restating a claim that he had created Bugs Bunny. He had made this claim in a Canadian newspaper interview in 1949, and in his letter to the studio he explained that he drew Bugs "without the assistance or direction of anyone else." He is quite clear that he is not taking credit for the voice, the character development, the stories, or other traits. Thorson did model sheets for a Bugs that was used in three cartoons that fall between Ben Hardaway's Porky's Hare Hunt, the first of the rabbit cartoons, and Tex Avery's A Wild Hare. The latter is the first cartoon to have a Bugs with a personality similar to the cartoons that came after it. It also featured a redesigned rabbit by Bob Givens that looks closer to the one we are familiar with today. What is the importance of Thorson's surviving drawings? The artist described his designs in the 1949 letter as "calculated to show a smart alex type of rabbit with a cocky personality such as Bugs Bunny now has and my contribution towards his popularity should not be minimized."
Thorson's models for Bugs were discarded after they were used in 3 films. The cartoons that used his models were not that successful. Jerry Beck and Will Friedwall note that the second and third Bugs cartoons directed by Ben Hardaway, "seem light years behind Avery's A Wild Hare, the definitive Bugs Bunny film to come." Chuck Jones' Elmer's Candid Camera, released a few months before the Avery cartoon, is also a mediocre work. At that time Jones didn't understand how to get a great performance out of Bugs and Elmer. Walz mentions that Thorson identified one of his early drawings with a note saying "Bugs' Bunny." This refers to the fact that the drawing was being made for Ben "Bugs" Hardaway. "Bugs" was Hardaway's nickname, so the note was simply a reference to the man, not the name of the bunny. Walz wisely avoids making the claim that Thorson created the rabbit's name. One account gives publicist Rose Hoarsley credit for picking the official name for the rabbit over Avery's objections.
Thorson obviously contributed to the creation of Bugs, but since the studio didn't publish official credit lists, it is hard to say how important they felt he was to them. Was Thorson the only artist working on the model sheets of the rabbit? I would assume Ben Hardaway made suggestions to his model designer(s) despite Thorson's statement that he made them without input from anyone. Walz interviewed Chuck Jones about Thorson's involvement with the creation of Sniffles, a mouse. Jones acknowledged Thorson worked on the project, but apparently he didn't seem to feel Thorson was a major contributor to the project. Walz writes, "As I will show, Thorson's role in the direction that Warner Bros. was to take over the next two years (1939-1940) was much more substantial than Jones was willing to admit." Jones, on the other hand, sent a letter to Tex Avery in 1975, where he ndicates Bobe Cannon designed the character. Dave Monohan and Rich Hogan, the writers for the series, and Cannon were the people he remembers as the main contributors to the creation of Sniffles. I suspect Thorson probably overstated his importance when he claimed he created Bugs, Sniffles and several other characters. I've seen other situations where this has happened. I was once asked about a man who told his children before he died that he had created several Jay Ward characters. A scholar in Canada had read about the man on the internet and asked me if I knew if the statement was true. I called Alex Anderson, a former partner of Ward, and was told the man in question was a gag writer at the time and he probably worked on the pilots that contained the stars that he claims he created. Anderson then said the man was by no means the creator of them. In a few cases the desire to exaggerate one's importance has led to long lasting grudges. One case concerns a producer who was attending a lecture at a conference when one of his sub-contractors gave a talk and took total credit for a project he had work on for the producer's company. Another case concerns a company that listed their past work in a flyer that they send to prospective clients. They listed one project without saying what they did on it. That implies they did the entire project. The producer/director of the project said he hired the company in question to work on it, but he didn't like their work and dropped them from his payroll within a week. He didn't use any of their work in the finished product. The director was quite upset that somebody claimed credit for his work.
Animator's deserve recognition for their work, and when they don't get it problems can also arise. When our ASIFA-SF newsletter fails to mention an animator on a project, I sometimes hear about it from the artist. I try to list everybody except ad executives, agencies, etc. If a name is left out, it probably wasn't in the press release sent to ASIFA. Complain to the company's press person, not me. So who is the real creator of a project? All the key talent responsible for a work should get credit, even though director is the only person who oversees the entire creative process. Many producers call their projects "my film" even though their labor is administrative and financial. Everyone feels they should be recognized which is why there are so many credits at the end of features. Walz is a careful writer and he tries to put Thorson's contributions into their proper perspective. The problem with his essay is that readers may interpret what he says incorrectly. Walz implies, but doesn't reach many conclusions. He doesn't fully answer the questions that are raised by his study. Perhaps he will have more answers when his book on Thorson is published.

NATIONAL NEWS

BILL PLYMPTON HAS TWO NEW SHORTS AVAILABLE His new feature is just out, but that doesn't mean he has time to rest. He recently completed More Sex and Violence and The Exciting Life of a Tree. He is presently writing the script for his third animated feature.
Reports about I Married A Strange Person, his new feature being shown around the country, are still hard to find, but somebody wrote it contains "the most bizarre and hilarious sex scene ever put on film." That report was in the ASIFA East newsletter, but it didn't say who made the claim.
The film has been nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Feature. It shares the nominations with features from Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Congratulations Bill!

KAREN AQUA NIGHT IN SEATTLE She is internationally known and she presently lives in Boston. Ground Zero, her latest work, uses Indian pictographs (rock drawings) that Aqua found a few miles from where the first atomic bomb was detonated. The screening was in September at a club known as 911.

HAYAO MIYAZAKI, ERNIE PINTOFF & EYVIND EARLE GET WINSOR McCAY AWARDS FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENTS IN ANIMATION They will be presented at the Annie Awards in Nov.

MIYAZAKI'S KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE IS AVAILABLE ON HOME VIDEO The video was released in the US by Disney in Sept. His style is wonderful to look at. It is full of details like traditional book illustration. His art isn't like the work of other animators. This is a charming, non-violent work from Japan. Each of Miyazaki's works has a unique look, so if you are not familiar with it, check it out. You may want to see other films by this remarkable talent. No wonder his film Princess Mononoke has become the highest grossing film ever released in Japan!

ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD has had a series of evenings with pioneer animators. In August they honored Jules Engel, a color designer with UPA and now a teacher at CAL Arts. In September the meeting honored Lou Scheimer, who started at Paramount (Famous) on Popeye as a layout artist. In October they honored Art Leonardi, a former member of Friz Freleng' unit.
CHEL WHITE IS NOW TEACHING at the North West Film Center in Portland. He is a nationally known animator and designer. His class is for adults. Sharon Niemczyk teaches their animation classes for young people.

LOST DISNEY SILENT SHORT FOUND The film was purchased for $3 by a British film collector from a film library that had no idea the film was a rare lost work. Disney was given use of the print so they can have one in their archive. The title is Little Red Riding Hood and it was among his first works.

DISNEY CENSORS VIDEO OF MELODY TIME A cigarette was removed from the mouth of "Pecos Bill" (digital magic) and a verse of a song was cut. The feature was rereleased on tape this year.

RICHARD WILLIAMS gets a rave review for his New York master class from animator Howard Beckman. The sessions were held in June and the review was in the ASIFA-East newsletter. Since presenting the class here, Williams has added a slide show of life drawings done over a 5 year period. The series of talks over a 3 day period were described as full of "charm, humor and body English." Williams held a master class in September in Viborg, Denmark.

ANIMATION SHOWS IN NEW YORK In September the animation community was treated to a program of Estonian animation courtesy of the Ottawa International Animation Festival. There was also show of animated films by Polish director Witold Giersz.

RALPH BAKSHI LECTURED ON HIS PAINTINGS at the School for Visual Arts in NY in Sept. He has shifted his career from the screen to the canvas, at least for the moment.

ZAGREB STUDIO HAS REOPENED Animators in Croatia are working on a series of two-minute animated films about "Nogalo." They are also starting to distribute their third animated feature film, Lapitich. Zagreb Film is producing a series of 26 minute animated films entitled Flamingo Bar.

VITAL! HAS SHUT DOWN This was a wonderful festival in Cardiff, Wales. It was in competition with Annecy this year and it didn't get the needed support from commercial studios. It apparently lost money.

LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF VISUAL EFFECTS is being published by Penny Lane Animation, PO Box 481236, LA, CA 90048 (323) 860 - 6552 Deadline to be in it is Oct. 31.

EMPLOYMENT

MORGAN ENTERTAINMENT located in downtown San Francisco, is a digital animation studio dedicated to the creation of 2D and 3D animated interactive products for children. We have immediate needs for experienced for character animators, 3D character animators, 3D lighting designers, 3D background/set designers, storyboard and story sketch artists. Please submit demo reels and resumes to Morgan Entertainment, Kelly Rae (Creative Positions) 405 Mission, Suite 503, SF, CA 94105 or fax (415) 693 - 9697.

ALAN J. BLAIR opens creative division. This 30 year old job placement company will now fill positions for art directors, graphic designers, creative directors, 2D and 3D animators, web designers and producers. Contact Ellyn Siegel, creative recruiter, (415) 243-0440, 625 Market, SF 94105

FOR SALE

LION/LAMB PENCIL TEST SYSTEM Complete system, mint condition, low miles, asking $2,500. Contact Fox Hughes (650) 756 - 1567

FESTIVALS

BLACK MARIA FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL has a Nov. 13 deadline. There are large cash prizes and a tour of work to 50 or more institutions. Film people judge the festival, unlike the big festivals with dozens of categories. The big festivals often use friends of friends, etc. as judges as long as they volunteer their time. Ship to: Black Maria Festival, c/o Dept. of Media Arts, New Jersey City University, 203 West Side Ave., Jersey City, NJ 07305 (201) 200-2043

FROM SIX FOOT TWO'S MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL TRAILER - STORY ON PAGE ONE. This issue was written by Karl Cohen using Dragon's amazing voice recognition system & Word 95. ANY DRAGON EXPERTS AVAILABLE to answer questions on how to get the most out of the system? Call Karl at 386-1004. The layout is by Shirley Smith & the proofreader was Jim Gates. Copies are free to members. Local membership is $18 a year ($40 local & international) from the above address. Join now and your membership will end Dec. 31, 1999.

EVENTS

ASIFA-SAN FRANCISCO AND SAN FRANCISCO STATE'S ANIMATION & MULTI-MEDIA AREAS OF STUDY IN THE CINEMA DEPARTMENT Present NEW TECHNOLOGY AND FORMATS FOR ANIMATORS. At San Francisco State , August Coppola Theatre (Arts & Industry Bldg. Room 101) On Tuesday, Nov. 3, 7:30 PM , free, public invited. Presentations include:

ASIFA SAN FRANCISCO
P.O. Box 14516
San Francisco, CA 94117


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© 1998 Animation World Network

This issue was written by Karl Cohen, proofread by Jim Gates and laid out by Shirley Smith. Membership is $18 a year from the above address. Highlights of back issues can be found on the internet at www.awn.com in the animation village.