Local Jobs
| New Bay Area Companies | Local Screenings
Flash Classes | National News |
Festivals
A sequel to Frank Film is a highlight of the new program. Frank Film (above) was animated with thousands of images and has a unusual double soundtrack. The new film is said to be just as remarkable.
OUR JUNE EVENT IS A SELECTION OF PRIZE WINNING ANIMATED SHORTS INCLUDING THE NEW SEQUEL TO THE 1972 OSCAR WINNER "FRANK FILM" The show on Thursday, June 8 at the Exploratorium (7:30 pm) will feature 28 winners from ASIFA-East's Annual Competition. The almost 2 hour long program includes Frankly Caroline, the sequel to the Oscar winning Frank Film by Frank and Caroline Mouris. Linda Simensky, president of the chapter, says it is a remarkable work.
Also in the show are new works by John Dillworth, Paul Fierlinger, Karl Staven, Mo Willems, Skip Battaglia, Maciek Albrecht, Acme, Buzzco, Curious Pictures, Ink Tank, Blue Sky Productions and other well established east and west coast animators and companies. There is also a nice selection of work by up-and-coming talent. Simensky said this year the previews of student work provided some really innovative surprises.
WILD BRAIN INKS DEAL WITH CARTOON NETWORK ON-LINE to do 15 "webtoons." Each will be 2 min. long. They will have different stars and be by different directors.
MONDO MEDIA SIGNS DEAL WITH BBC AMERICA.COM The Thugs On Film series will now air on the BBC site along with sites already showing it. Mondo will also develop 2 new series exclusively for BBC America.
HAVE YOU VISITED WWW.ASIFA-SF.ORG? Our site is updated frequently with calendar information and links to members' sites. There are also more artists on display in our gallery section. Becky Wells and John Grimes are the driving forces that keep the site fine tuned. Both report lots of positive feedback from visitors to the site. Keep sending John material for the site at editor@asifa-sf.org
CARTOONLAND COMPLETES WORK ON A CHILDREN'S PILOT AND A WELLS FARGO VIDEO Kevin Coffey has delivered 5 minutes of animation for "Wwway Cool," a half-hour television pilot. He animated the character "M-Bug"interacting
with live-action kids as well as performing solo dances with raps.
For "Team Talk" an in-house training video for Wells Fargo, Cartoonland provided a cartoon version of Terry Dial, the institution's CEO, delivering a pep talk to the troops.. Producer for both projects was Suzanne Colwell.
Coffey has recently upgraded his computer facility with state-of-the-art equipment. For the Wells Fargo project he used Photoshop to color hand drawn artwork and he assembled it in After Effects.
MANEX VISUAL EFFECTS (MVFX) in Alameda recently won a preliminary legal ruling that 3 former employees were unlikely to prevail in their claim that they were supposed to be part owners in the company. The suit had slowed down the development of the company.
Manex won an Oscar last year for their work on What Dreams May Come. This year they won an Oscar for their work on The Matrix. The have also worked on Romeo Must Die, Mission Impossible 2 and Bless the Child
JOE ROTH AND BRAD BIRD JOIN PIXAR'S BOARD, BIRD WILL ALSO DIRECT A PIXAR FEATURE Roth was once chairman of Disney's board. Bird, who directed Iron Giant, is bring a project to Pixar that he was working on before joining the company. The unnamed project will be released in 2003.
RON SEAWRIGHT CAME IN 2ND AT THE BAY TO BREAKERS RACE dressed as Erik the Tasteless, a union organizer for Barbarians Local #239. His award winning costume won him a Las Vegas trip for 2 from SW Air (3 nights). This was Erik's 7th run in the race and his 1st win.
Seawright has won six 1st place prizes over the years. His victories include The Zoo Run and Run To The Far Side. He has dared to dress as a giant squid, a giraffe, a kangaroo and as other creatures. When not running he teaches animation, organizes program for ASIFA-SF and has worked in production management for local studios.
Erik can be reached at his cave. Ron can be reached at (415) 751-8628.
SF STATE'S ANIMATION FINALS WAS AN IMPRESSIVE DISPLAY OF CREATIVE TALENT The event began in the lobby with a display of web images by students in Jan Millsapps' class "Explorations of Cinema as an On-Line Medium." Millsapps says, "the students are inventing the future of cinema by using the Internet as a creative medium." People gathered around several monitors and seemed to be having a great time discovering just what this new medium has to offer.
Inside the packed auditorium, people saw a ninety minute show of some 30 works in various stages of completion. The program showed that State's students are interested in exploring a wide variety of techniques and subject matter. There were pencil tests, cut-outs, stop-motion projects, a 16mm film with some hand drawing on it, 3D computer works that included some hand drawing, and several entirely 3D computer projects. State's students showed that they were learning all the basics including how to develop scripts and how to develop humorous situations.
The most impressive presentation was Jim Ang's beautiful cut-out film Singa Pura. It has a Dolby stereo soundtrack and was shown on 35mm film. It tells a legend from Singapore and it is a finely crafted work. Ang is a graduate student in animation.
One of the really inventive works was The Suit by Jennifer Ohngha. She created an articulated armature for a real suit of clothing and animated its adventures in the real world.
Another inventive work was Dystopia by Danika Underhill. She has a unique way of combining animated art over cut-out still images. Her work focuses on media and it's effect on our culture.
The show contained the expected assortment of unusual looking creatures. One popular theme was creatures from beyond our planet in funny situations. Slug Wars by Mark Gretzinger, a parody of the Lucas features, had people laughing due to the simple and ludicrous concept of a slug in the role of Darth Vader.
Spike and Mike's influence wasn't too strong this year, but Josephine Voong's Goby Goes Pee (a Sailor Moon looking kid meets a really gross woman in a bathroom) might fit nicely in an upcoming Sick and Twisted show.
At the reception for the animators Voong showed Butcher Knife Bride, her latest film. It is actually a delightful work about a young Asian woman facing an arranged marriage. Although I was impressed by the story and animation, what really caught my attention was the striking use of silhouette animation at the beginning and ending of the work. I thought I saw the figures breathing!
At the awards ceremony for the cinema department animator Mike Bates won a Robin Eickman award for his work-in-progress. He won $500 and the department will find him a mentor in the industry who will help him complete the work. It is a film noir/Hitchcock style thriller.
The traditional animation program at State this semester was taught by Patricia Amlin and Martha Gorzycki. The computer animation instructors who worked with cinema majors were Jane Veeder and Jan Millsapps. Jim Ang was an animation associate.
The students displaying work this year included Ang, Bates, Gretzinger, Ohngha, Underhill, Voong, Eric Baca, Leonardo Martinez, Joe Griggs, Eric Hebler, Chevy Holzman, Justino Tejada, Heather White, Patricia Satjawatcharaphong, Ara Ebrahimian, Danny Lee, Philip Pemberton, Michael Yee, Violette Moon, Philip Dillon Danks, Patrick Chung, Michelle Hauser, Wayne Leong, Mike McCulley, Tara Miller, Christine Garry, Sean Brennan, Alex Kinkella and Gordon Thomas.
THE CARTOON ART MUSEUM'S SPARKY AWARDS EVENT WAS A WONDERFUL CELEBRATION It began with a cocktail party at the museum. Guests got to talk with the people being honored including Stan Lee, Oakland cartoonist Morrie Turner and Ward Kimball. Kimball worked with Walt Disney on some of the studio's greatest projects.
At 8 PM the guests walked _ a block to the SF Marriott Hotel where a dinner and award presentation took place. Speakers include Jean Schulz, the wife of the creator of Peanuts and Phil Frank (creator of Farley) who introduced her by telling several great stories about her late husband. Animation art collector Mike Glad gave a long introduction to Kimball that was really well thought out and flattering. Kimball went to the mike and gave one of the world's shortest acceptance speeches. When Stan Lee got his award he mentioned many of the people he has worked with over the years and said the award was really for all their efforts, not his alone. Lee, who is 77, is now running an Internet company (www.stanlee.com). Their first animated series is The Seventh Portal. The Sparky Award is named after Charles "Sparky" Schulz.
ONE INFINITY INC., a streaming media development company, was looking at the end of May for a 2D background illustrator, a 2D Flash animator and a Flash lip-syncher for an animated hip-hop music video. AWN said the company was in San Francisco but did not give an address.
They also said ACTION ACE.COM in Richmond, CA needed a layout/storyboard artist to work on a web series.
SHOCKWAVE PICTURES IN WEST OAKLAND has put out an open call for people who use Director and Flash. They were formed last May and are building up a base of freelance talent for future projects. Scott Van Woert and Leo Vezzali run the company. The article that said they were looking for people didn't include an address or phone number.
CURV STUDIOS in San Rafael advertises that they do opening credits, titles, 3D animation and special effects. Their work has been on TLC, MTV, UPN and the History Channel. They have done corporate work for Boeing, AT&T, etc. 79 Belvedere St. Suite 201, San Rafael, CA 95901 (415) 451-8276, www.curvstudios.com.
ANIMATION MAGAZINE'S DIRECTORY OF INTERNET ANIMATION COMPANIES Several Bay Area companies listed in their May, 2000 issue have not been mentioned in our newsletter before (or recently). The directory gives no indication as to what each company does, if they really create and/or use animation or how large the companies are.
The local businesses are DotComix, 2727 Mariposa, Suite 100, SF CA 94110, (415) 522-6500, www.dotcomix.com; Dub Media, 2674 North First Street, Suite 106. San Jose, CA 95134, (408) 954-8158, www.dubmedia.com; Electronic Arts, 209 Redwood Shores Parkway, Redwood City, CA 94065, (650) 571-7171, www.ea.com; Hotwired Animation Express, 660 Third St., 4th floor, SF, CA 94107, (415) 276-8476, www.animationexpress.com; iFILM.com, 400 Pacific, 3rd floor, SF, CA 94133, (415) 773-2080, www.ifilm.com; JP Kids, 989 Market, SF, CA 94103, (415) 369-9700, www.jpkid.com; License Music, 330 Townsend, Suite 202, SF CA 94107, (415) 543-2470, www.licensemusic.com; Macromedia/Shockwave, 600 Townsend, Suite 310, SF CA 94107, (415) 252-4177, www.shockwave.com; Mentor Media, 1100 El Camino Real, Suite 300, Menlo Park, CA 94025, (650) 561-9138, no Internet address listed; RCN, 1400 Fashion Island Blvd., Suite 100, San Mateo, CA 94404, (650) 212-8451, www.rcn.net; Softbank Ventures, 200 Evelyn Ave., Suite 200, Mountain View, CA 94043, (650) 962-2081, www.softbankventures.com; Yack.com, 1900 Powell St., Suite 245, Emeryville, CA 94608, (510) 596-8800, www.yack.com, Yahoo! Inc., 3420 Central Expressway, Santa Clara, CA 95051, www.yahoo.com and ZDTV, 650 Townsend, Office 5012, SF CA 94103, (415) 551-4563, no internet address given. The directory also lists Mondo Media, Spunky Productions and Wild Brain.
Friday and Saturday, June 2 and 3, TOY STORY 2 at the Red Vic on Haight St. in SF at 7:15 & 9:15 and extra shows on Sat. a 2 & 4 PM
Friday, June 2 to Monday, June 5, At the Rafael Film Center. CARTOON NOIR, a program of "dark tales" by several highly regarded internationally known independent animators. Includes The Story of the Cat and the Moon by Pedro Serrazina from Portugal, Club Discard by Jiri Barta from the Czech Republic, Ape by Julie Zammarachi from the USA, Gentle Spirit by Piotr Dumala from Poland, Abducteese by Paul Vester from England and Joy Street by Suzan Pitt from USA.
Sunday, June 4, THE YELLOW SUBMARINE at 3:20 & 7:10 PM and FORBIDDEN PLANET at 1:20, 5:10 and 9 PM, U.C. Theatre, Berkeley.
Tuesday, June 6, CARTOON NOIR, at U. C. Theatre in Berkeley. A program of "dark tales" (see June 2-5 screening of it at the Rafael for details). At 5:40, 7:30 and 9:20.
Tuesday, June 20, Jan Svankmajer's ALICE at the Red Vic on Haight St. This was his first feature and audiences really enjoy his surreal version of the Lewis Carol story.
Thursday, June 8, ASIFA-SF presents WINNERS OF THE 2000 ANNUAL ASIFA-EAST ANIMATION AWARDS, 7:30 PM at the Exploratorium's McBean Theater, free, public invited. See flyer and/or front page article for details.
Monday, June 28, SPROCKETS ENSEMBLE - IDEAS IN ANIMATION an evening of live music and animation. Minna Street Gallery (near 2nd St.), 8 PM.
Thursday, June 29, THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO by Hayso Miyazaki (Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Monoonoke) at 7 PM. With Rene Laloux's LIGHT YEARS at 5:20 & 9. A rarely seen feature by the director of Fantastic Planet. At the U.C. Theatre.
Nick Park's CHICKEN RUN will be opening at the end of June at a theater near you. This is his first feature. His shorts Creature Comfort (1990), The Wrong Trousers (1994) and A Close Shave (1995) won Oscars and his A Grand Day Out had an Oscar nomination the same year Creature Comfort won! I wouldn't be surprised if his new film is one of the best releases of the year.
WEB ANIMATION WITH FLASH is one of the software classes available at a reasonable cost at Media Alliance. They also offer an Intro to HTML, Illustrator, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, etc. from $145 to $305. The next 4 week session of Web Animation with Flash starts 6/5 in the evenings. 814 Mission, Suite 205 in SF (415) 546-6334
OTHER SCHOOLS TEACHING FLASH INCLUDE SKYLINE COLLEGE just south of Daly City, CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION in San Jose, www.calcc.com, DEANZA in Cupertino, SF STATE (main campus), SF STATE'S DOWNTOWN MULTI-MEDIA CENTER and lots of other schools. Tuition fees, etc. will vary, so shop around. At least one school not on this list is known to be expensive and they require students to take other classes before they will give you what you want. Another school not mentioned only offers their classes to people enrolled full-time.
WHY STUDY FLASH? Like it or not, a lot of the new jobs require a knowledge of Flash 4. The pay at the moment is said to be $50 to $200 an hour (freelancers who animate and do programming make more than people who just do basic artwork). At the moment there are not enough artists/animators available to fill the needs of the local market. I assume the pay rate will go down eventually either due to there being a surplus of talent or due to Flash becoming obsolete. The latter will not be soon as Flash 5 is in development and is said to be a valuable upgrade of the present software. Also, Flash is already installed in millions of computers so it isn't likely that a another program will replace it in the foreseeable future.
Flash is said to be an easy program to learn (unless you need to do advanced programming). I've met highly motivated individuals who taught themselves Flash. One animator now working with Flash full time had to learn the program a few days before he was to turn in his first completed Flash project. He hired a tutor for a few hours and ended up meeting his deadline on time. I recently got a letter from a 4th grade student in a "gifted and talented program." She say she does her animation using Flash 4!
CARTOON NETWORK TO HAVE AN OFFICIAL PREMIERE OF 'THE LOST CARTOONS' ON SUNDAY, JUNE 11. They previewed the almost completed show a few months ago without much publicity. The June 11 event (9 PM) is being properly promoted. Jerry Beck did much of the research for the program.
Linda Simensky of the network and Beck have told me it contains some wonderful surprises. There are unaired clips from cartoons, WWII propangda (including a moment with Dr. Seuss' Private SNAFU and a Hook cartoon for the Navy) parts of lost pilots, an unaired opening for a Roadrunner TV show and much more.
One film I have never herd of is the Oscar winner So Much for So Little. It was directed by Chuck Jones in 1949 and made for the U.S. Health Department.
The show also includes Cryin' for the Carolines, a Leon Schlesinger produced "Vitaphone Varities" from the obscure Spooney Melodies series. It features abstract animation using paper cut-outs and double exposures to accompany the music track. The series ended in 1931.
PARKER AND STONE SIGN A 3 YEAR CONTRACT WITH COMEDY CENTRAL, ENDING RUMORS OF THEIR JOINING ABC-TV What would ABC have done with them anyway? The contract calls for the guys to do 30 more South Park shows (10 a year) and to develop a live action series that will start to air next year.
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE SAN DIEGO COMIC CON (JULY 20-23) write PO Box 128458 San Diego, CA 92112-8458 (619) 685-6989 or www.comic-con.org They will have lots of guests there to celebrate the 50th anniversary of EC Comics (Mad Magazine, etc.). There will be some animation guests, but the focus of the event is on comics.
ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD WILL SCREEN "REALLY OBSCURE TV CARTOONS" WED. JUNE 28 at their Animation Center (721 S. Victory Blvd., Burbank, CA {818} 842-8330). This a chance to discover QT Hush, Colonel Bleep, Prince Planet, Calvin and the Colonel, Tom Terrific, Jonny Cypher and other forgotten shows. Jerry Beck will introduce the program.
THE FIRST FEATURE PROJECT BASED ON AN ANIMATED INTERNET SHOW HAS BEGUN Universal and Urban Entertainment has given John Ridley a $1,000,000 to write a script based on the web show Undercover Brother.
DVD WARNING AND A HOT TIP A local collector who has a large number of cartoons on 16mm and tape warns that the recent DVD Popeye release is awful stuff made for TV in the 1950s. It is not wonderful black and white Fleischer material from the 1930s.
The good news concerns the Bob Clampett Beany and Cecil DVD. Our reviewer says it is a great collection and it includes several works that were never completed, but are worth seeing. He said the DVD is "full of stuff," probably as much material that can fit on a disc.
'MILLIMETER' DID A SHORT ARTICLE ON THE USE OF A LARGE ORCHESTRA FOR THE SOUNDTRACKS ON ILM'S FIRST UNION SPOTS The music is composed by John Luker and Walter Werzowa and played by an 85 piece orchestra. Musikvergnuegen in Hollywood then mixes it with synthetic sounds. The article claims the soundtrack is highly sensitive to subtle things in the visuals. Listen closely if you see a First Union ad.
ARTHUR DAVIS DIED AT AGE 94 He became a Warner Bros. animation director in 1945. He replaced Bob Clampett when he quit, and remained head of the unit until 1948 when the studio downsized. He started his career in animation in 1921. After he left Warner Bros. he worked for Hanna-Barbera and DePattie-Freleng.
'THE NATION' MAGAZINE REPORTED ON DISNEY TV'S DUBIOUS CONTRIBUTIONS TO PUBLIC SERVICE PROGRAMMING They wrote, "TV stations are required to submit quarterly reports to the FCC listing shows that fulfill their public-service obligation. In a recent filing Disney owned WABC offered the following examples of public service programming: Oprah, Barbara Walters's pre-Oscar special and an episode of Inside Hollywood. For children's programming it listed Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and 101 Dalmations, a Disney movie."May 22, 2000, p. 7
HEIRS OF CHICO AND HARPO MARX STOP A DISTRIBUTION DEAL FOR A MARX BROS. TV CARTOON SERIES Apparently a deal was signed with the heirs of Groucho's estate without consulting other heirs.
NYU'S DEPT. OF CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION PRESENTED THEIR 4TH ANNUAL PARODY OF THE CLEO AWARDS The event was held in April at a hall in their dental school. Their Musikvergnuegen in Hollywood mixes synthetic sounds with music tribute to the worst of advertising included a Schimo award to PBS for its galloping commercializing, especially the network's marketing tie-ins between Tellytubbies and McDonald's, and the avoidance of controversy in documentary films. They honored ABC News (owned by Disney) for promoting www.pet.com without telling the public the Internet company is owned in part by Disney. The Nuveen special effects ad showing Christopher Reeve walking was honored as the creepiest ad of the year. The event also honored Ralph Nader for his lifetime of fighting commercial interests that are not serving the public interest in positive ways.
Next year will they honor Mattel and Nickelodeon for their promotion of Cool Chip Barbie? You can spray the doll's hair with water and watch it change color! One of the colors is Nickelodeon orange. How nice...
MORE NEWS OF THE CINAR MESS IN CANADA A recent article says the mess began when tax officers discovered the sister of the co-founder, Micheline Charest, was paid by the company about $1,000,000 Canadian ($689,000 in US) for supposedly writing scripts for the company. More recent discoveries include co-founders Charest and Ronald Weinberg not bothering to tell their board of directors that they were using about $348,000 (US) to remodel their home. The Canadian stock regulatory board has
This issue was written by Karl Cohen. Newsletter production was by Shirley Smith, Ron Seawright, Tarra Packard and Michelle Hauser. Copies are free to ASIFA-SF members.
JUST IN: 16TH ANNUAL FILM ARTS FESTIVAL DEADLINE IS JUNE 16 (EARLY $10 fee) AND JULY 7 (LATE, $15 fee) Nov.1-5 event at Roxie & other halls. (415) 552-8760, 346 9th St. 2nd floor, SF CA 94103.
OTTAWA 2000 DEADLINE IS JULY 1 FOR THE MOST IMPORTANT ANIMATION FESTIVAL IN N. AMERICA ASIFA International will hold their elections here, there will be important retrospectives, historical programs, workshops, etc. There is no entry fee and the directors of works accepted into the competition get free accommodations and festival passes. They show work on tape and film. The event is Sept. 19 - 24. Karl Cohen has an extra entry form or contact the festival at once at (613) 232-8769, 120-2 Daly Ave., Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6E2 Canada
MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL DEADLINE IS JUNE 30 for the Oct. 5 - 15 event. They show work in 16mm, 35mm and Beta SP. They take previews in _"VHS and CD-ROM Mac. $30 entry fee. For entry form www.mvff.com (415) 383-8606 or write 38 Miller Ave. Suite 6, Mill Valley, CA 94941.
LOS ANGELES SHORT FILM FESTIVAL deadline in July 1. Animation category. 16mm, 35mm and video. Preview work on video. $25 entry fee. 1260 N, Alexandria Ave. LA CA 90029 www.lashortsfest.com
AFI L.A INT'L FILM FESTIVAL has a July 17 deadline. www.afifest.com for details or call (323) 856-7707.
DO YOU KNOW SOMEBODY THAT SHOULD BE A MEMBER OF ASIFA-SF THAT ISN'T?
Name___________________________ Local ($18)______
Address_________________________ Local & International ($40) ______
City____________________________ Zip_________ Phone_________________________
Mail your check and this form to: ASIFA-SF, Box 14516, San Francisco, CA 94114
ASIFA-SF
P.O. Box 14516
San Francisco, CA 94114
|
This issue was written by Karl Cohen. Newsletter production by Shirley Smith, Tara Packard and Ron Seawright. Copies are free to ASIFA-SF members. Membership is $18 a year, $40 for local & international. |
|
Membership/subscription is $18 a year or $40 for both local and international membership. |
© 2000 Animation World Network