October, 2001 Newsletter
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AWARD WINNING STOP-MOTION ANIMATOR BILLY GREENE MURDERED SEPTEMBER 10 He was 33 and had just moved back to the Bay Area from Portland where he had been working at Will Vinton's studio. He was coming home from the movies when he was shot outside of his new apartment in the 4300 block of Adeline in Emeryville. Police say there was evidence that the killer tried to remove his wallet, but had fled without it or its contents. His body was found just after midnight in a pool of blood according to the Oakland Tribune. No suspects were seen and no arrests have been made. Hamilton Billy Green was "just one of the sweetest, kindest people that anybody knew" said his father, San Francisco photographer and poet, Tinker Green. "He was a funny person who was always thinking of other people." A close friend told the reporter that Greene's artistic abilities reflected his "childlike innocence, subtle humor and off-handed modesty." A friend of his told me that Billy was the type of person who would have given the robber his wallet rather than risk his life for a few bucks. "The killing was totally senseless." We recently showed his new film, Thought Bubble, in a program of the winners of the Annual ASIFA-East 2001 Competition. Our audience voted this sensitive film about a down-and-out street person an honorable mention. It had premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and went on to be screened at several major festivals in Brazil, Korea, at France's Annecy and by the New York Film Festival. His earlier short Malfunction was shown on opening night of the 1998 Film Arts Festival and went on to be show at Slamdance. His commercial career includes stints at 181 Productions in New York, Clayart Trickfilm Studio in Frankfurt, Germany and Will Vinton Studio in Portland where he worked on the PJs. He returned to the Bay Area 5 weeks before his death to work on Phantom Investigators, a stop-motion series being produced at the Custer Street Stage in San Francisco by Josephine Huang and her husband Stephen. (Tim Hittle and Anthony Scott are two of the directors on this series being created by Wholesome Products for Warner Bros. TV.) Billy was a passionate and dedicated percussionist. He had been a drummer with Poltroon, a San Francisco band. For the past few years he performed with Portland's Brazilian samba marching band Lions of Batucada. He participated in Carnival 2000 in Rio de Janeiro. A memorial for Billy was held on Sunday, Sept. 16 at the Mission Cultural Center. Over 250 people attend the event. Lions of Batucada came from Portland to play and there was a screening of some of his films (his first films were made when he was 5 or 6). Later that night some of his friends held a bonfire at Ocean Beach in his honor. He is survived by his mother Robin Davey of Waterbury, Vermont and his father Tinker Greene of San Francisco. He was an only child. His ashes will be scattered in a private ceremony. Donations in his honor can be made to Greenpeace, 902 H Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20001 or to The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence at 1225 Eye Street, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20005. Friends of Billy Greene have establish a handsome web site at www.blackvan.net Anyone with information about the shooting should call the Emeryville Police (510) 596-3774. A SHORT TRIBUTE TO BILLY GREENE WILL BE PRESENTED AT OUR OCTOBER 17 EVENT. WE WILL SCREEN "THOUGHT BUBBLE" AND SOME OF HIS EARLIER WORKS - Exploratorium, 7:30 pm. JOHN ATKINSON'S NEW FILM SHOWN AT SIGGRAPH AND AT THE CRESTED BUTTE REEL FESTIVAL WHERE IT WON A SILVER AWARD Last year his short Aspire was shown at several festivals and won a few awards. Now, The Daydreamer is finished and has already won a silver award for best animated film at the Crested Butte Reel Festival. It is being included in a package of winners from that festival at iFilm on the Internet. The 5 minute short, made using Hash 3D Software, was show at SIGGRAPH 2001 by Hash Inc. One person said the short was "one of the most innovative demonstrations of the maverick product's filmmaking capabilities to date." Atkinson says his film "tells the story of an overworked, underpaid office worker who battles some extremely insistent daydreams while trying to meet a tight deadline." www.atkinsonproductions.com MONDO MEDIA BRINGS TO LIFE "JULIUS AND FRIENDS" BY PAUL FRANK Mondo Media has launched its newest Mondo Mini Show, Julius & Friends. The show can be viewed exclusively on Sony's just-launched broadband creativity platform, Screenblast.com Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore) is the voice of Julius, the monkey with the wide smile. A new episode will appear every two weeks, chronicling the characters' escapades in Planned Pines, USA, the first planned community for cartoon characters. In addition to viewing the episodes, visitors to the site will find other ways to interact with the show's characters. Mix Monkey, a browser-based animated set of turntables and sound effects, will allow fans to spin and scratch with the show's characters and giving viewers an opportunity to play DJ by inserting sampled dialogue and sounds from the current episode. Additionally, the "Meet the Cast" feature provides interactive character descriptions presented in the style of the show. "Everyone has been waiting to see how the Internet can truly be successful in terms of entertainment," said Jan Mallis, an executive producer at Mondo Media. "The Screenblast service allows users an entirely new interaction with content -- its creative approach encourages audiences to participate and be active viewers." PDI/DREAMWORKS HAS ANNOUNCED A FEW DETAILS ABOUT THEIR NEXT PROJECTS They include Tusker, a feature starring a herd of elephants, Shrek 2, and Madagascar, a feature about zoo animals who are returned to the wild by well meaning animal rights activists. They had been working on a conversion of Shrek to 70mm that was scheduled for release before Christmas, but recent publicity hasn't mentioned that project.. The only information I've seen in print about Shrek 2 is that it will reunite the voice cast of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz. Hopefully it will have the same writers. Jeffrey Katzenberg recently told USA TODAY that Tuskar, an action-adventure story set in Southeast Asia, ''is very much an homage to the classic World War II films such as The Dirty Dozen or The Guns of Navarone, in which a band of screw-ups have to go on an impossible mission in order to save the rest of the herd.'' Morgan Freeman, Jodie Foster, Gary Shandling and Dana Carvey are doing voices for the production. Madagascar is an adventure with a lion, zebra, giraffe and hippo who are rescued from a NY zoo. They are on a ship when it capsizes and the quartet ends up on the island of Madagascar. SHREK RECEIVES THE MOST ANNIE NOMINATIONS FOR A FEATURE AND WILD BRAIN GETS 8 NOMINATIONS For the 29th Annual Annie Awards Shrek was nominated for best picture and 11 other awards. Other films nominated for best feature are Blood: The Last Vampire, Osmosis Jones, and The Emperor's New Groove. Disney's Atlantis was left out, but it did get nominations in 6 other categories. Blood: The Last Vampire received its only nomination in the best feature category. The Emperor's New Groove was nominated in 11 categories and Osmosis Jones was nominated in 6. Shrek was nominated for best picture, direction, special effects, storyboards, writing, male voice actor, music, production design (2 nominations) and individual character animation (3 nominations - for Raman Hui, Paul Chung and Jason Reiseg). WILD BRAIN received 3 of the 5 nominations for best Internet production. Their works competing against each other in this category are Grove Monkee, Graveyard and Mantelope. Hubert's Brain was nominated for outstanding animated short, Poochini: Coffee Dog was nominated for best daytime animation TV production, their opening/closing for the Chuck Jones Show was nominated in the special projects category and 2 Wrigley's Winterfresh chewing gum ads, "Beat Box" and "Urban Hip Hopper" are competing for the best TV commercial award. This year's Annie Awards ceremony will be held on Saturday, November 10, 2001 at the Alex Theater in Glendale, California. For ticket information call (818) 842-8330. A full list of nominations is available at www.asifa-hollywood.org. "SHREK" DVD GOES ON SALE NOVEMBER 2 DVD collectors will be getting a lot of extras in the 2 disc set - goofs, interviews, a storyboard pitch, technical details, behind the scenes material, a reel of character design progression and much more. It retails at $26.99. Amazon.com is selling it in advance for $19.95. WESTERN IMAGES CREATES A SPOT FOR CINGULAR Western's CGI spot for Cingular Wireless is called "Balloon Art." It opens with an expanding blue toy balloon and the sound of stretching rubber. It ends with a likeness of George Washington crossing the Delaware made out of computer generated balloons. The spot was directed by Mark Dipp?, of Pandemonium and was animated using Alias- Wavefront Maya. SPAZZCO PRODUCES EDEN'S CRUSH ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEO FOR THE WEB Spazzco Animation in S.F has produced the video "Love This Way" by the pop female group Eden's Crush. Using a futuristic anime style, it depicts the group as interplanetary travelers who touch down on an angry planet. They use positive messages to transform the barren landscape into a lush paradise. The video is being run exclusively by cartoonnetwork.com as part of the site's Web Premiere Toons program. Spazzco is producing a series of animated music videos for Cartoon Network.com WELCOME FENIX GRAPH X They are a new creative studio specializing in digital animation and video production. Their talented team is "innovative, energetic, and dedicated to delivering razor-sharp results." They can do anything from a quick edit or a digital ink and paint job to a fully produced video with animation. They have ToonBoom software to do post-production ink/paint & compositing and can do 2D digital animation. They do web promotions, DVD authoring, and package design. You can check out their work at: www.fenixgraphix.com Fenix Graph X, 55 Stevenson, 4th Floor, San Franicso, Ca 94105 (415) 904-6290 WILD BRAIN HIRES AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR DENIS MORELLA Denis Morella's unique style of offbeat humor is evident in a series of recently completed shorts at Wild Brain for cartoonnetwork.com. He directed Uncle Squirly in Squirl Interrupted and Yogi Bear in Lullabye Bye Bear, A Meal of Two Cities and Hermann and Vermin. He also contributed to Wild Brain's recent ad campaign for Wrigley's Winterfresh gum. Prior to joining Wild Brain, Morella worked with Curious Pictures in San Francisco where he developed several pieces for the Cartoon Network. His Animate Your World won the "Best Animated Campaign" award at the World Animation Celebration. He also created and directed a 7-minute short Prickles the Cactus. From 1985 to 1996, Morella worked with Colossal Pictures. He distinguished himself in the '80's as the creator of Handicapped Pig Farm, a sick and twisted personal film made before that genre existed. Morella graduated from The Philadelphia College of Art with a BFA in animation. UNIVERSAL DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS (UDC) GETS SPUNKY. UDC, a privately held digital marketing company, has acquired new media content creator and distributor Spunky Productions. Spunky will retain its brand name and identity and will continue operations in Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Mansfield (Ohio) under their current management team. They run Spunkeytown and other sites with animation on the web. PULSE SUFFERS LAYOFFS Pulse, a San Francisco-based 3D media solutions company, laid off an undisclosed number of staff members on Monday, September 17, 2001. The company sees the staff cuts as a positive move, allowing them a greater ability to reach profitability. The company plans to move toward e-learning, while continuing its current licenses. Pulse recently powered a 3D "virtual tour" for the Website of NBC's comedy Will & Grace. Pulse is known for bringing Jim Henson's Muppets to life on the Web. WARNING: SPIKE & MIKE'S "SICK & TWISTED FESTIVAL OF ANIMATION" IS COMING TO THE BAY AREA The guys who first brought you Beavis and Butthead and South Park are ready to unleash their new collection of disturbingly grotesque animated short films. They boast "Spike and Mike's® Sick and Twisted® Festival of Animation® is not for those with an overly refined artistic palate an impressive batch of films selected to make your hot buttered popcorn come back up." The "all new" show will premiere 18 shorts and repeat two "favorites" from past shows Titles include Behind the Music That Sucks-Britney Spears, "a complete skewering of pop culture at its worst;" Bad Phone Sex, featuring comedian Chris Rock; Love That Pussy by DNA Productions, two primers on children?s literature - Harry Pothead and the Magical Herb and Choke, Spot, Choke; and Bill Plympton's Eat. Another title in the show is described as "a love song to the ladies from Tenacious D." It is F*@# Her Gently and it comes from John Kricfalusi's Spumco, Inc. The two revivals are John Magnuson's Thank You Mask Man (with a great soundtrack by Lenny Bruce and animation directed by Jeff Hale) and Hello, Dad, I'm in Jail by Cristopher Simon. Both are excellent works. The world primeres of this show were at midnight, Sept. 14 at Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex in Santa Monica, their Playhouse 7 in Pasadena and at Landmark's Ken Cinema in San Diego. It opens on the outskirts of our area in Santa Cruz at the Santa Cruz Cinema 9 for an October 12 - November 17 run (Fridays & Saturdays at 11:30 PM). The program plays in San Francisco at the Castro Theatre, November 9-17; the Roxie November 19-29 and at AMC's Van Ness Theatre November 30 to December 22. It comes to the Crest in Sacramento, CA, November 9-Dec 8 and the Towne in San Jose, November 30 - January 3. JAZZ AND ABSTRACTION IN BEAT ERA FILMS, MANY MADE IN SAN FRANCISCO, TUESDAY OCTOBER 2 at the PFA in Berkeley, SATURDAY, OCT. 13 at the S.F. Art Institute, 7:30 both nights. The program is A Man and His Dog Out For Air (Robert Breer, 1957, 3 mins). Chasse de Touches (Hy Hirsh, 1959, 4 mins). Caravan (Jordan Belson, 1952, 3.5 mins). Eneri (Hy Hirsh, 1953, 7 mins). Things to Come (Patricia Marx, 1953, 3 mins). Autumn Spectrum (Hy Hirsh, 1957, 7 mins). Bridges-Go-Round (Shirley Clarke, 1958, 3.5 mins). Mood Contrasts (Mary Ellen Bute, 1956, 7 mins). Film No. 3 (Harry Smith, 1949, 3.5 mins). Scratch Pad (Hy Hirsh, 1961, 7 mins). Catalog (John Whitney, 1961, 7.5 mins). Mandala (Jordan Belson, 1953, 3 mins). Yantra (James Whitney, 1957, 8 mins). D?fense d'Affiche! r (Hy Hirsh, 1958, 8 mins). La Couleur de la Forme (Hy Hirsh, 1961, 7 mins). (Total time: 82 mins, Color, 16mm, prints from The iota Center) PREMIERE OF A NEW WORK BY JORDAN BELSON. TUESDAY OCTOBER 9 AT THE PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE The premiere of Jordan Belson's Bardo is with a program of short works at 7:30. Bardo is said to be full of "lush and subtle images" and is a journey through the Buddhist waiting-period between death and rebirth. Experience "visual music" by a other contemporary independent animators. Ying Tan, who assisted Belson as editor on Bardo, is represented by two short works of her own, Elements in Transformation #1 and #2. Other works range from Mar Elepano's hand-drawn-on-film impressions of Vivaldi's Winter to Al Jarnow's Cubits. Also included is The Critic, 1963 by Ernie Pintoff and the voice of Mel Brooks. The show consists of works on both film and video and is 81 minutes long. PROGRAM: Pencil Dance (Chris Casady, 1988, 3 mins, B&W). Orphics 6.1 (Ed Zajec, 1997, 3 mins). Object Conversation (Paul Glabicki, 1985, 10 mins). Linear Dreams (Richard Reeves, 1997, 7 mins). Calculated Movements (Larry Cuba, 1985, 6 mins, B&W). IFSfilm (Joost Rekveld, 1991, 3 mins, Silent, B&W). Cubits (Al Jarnow, 1978, 4 mins). Winter (Mar Elepano, 1984, 4 mins). The Critic (Ernie Pintoff, Mel Brooks, 1963, 5 mins). ICRON (Bob Snyder, 1978, 10 mins). Elements in Transformation #1 and #2 (Ying Tan, 1998, 3 mins). Transfigured (Stephen Arthur, 1998, 5.5 mins). Luma Nocturna (Sky David, 1974, 4 mins). Bardo (Jordan Belson, 2001, 13 mins). DAMN! WTC/SEPT. 11 IMPACTS OUR UPCOMING EVENTS Just as this was going to press we received the following e-mail. "I am very sorry to have to tell you all that due to logistical problems arising from current events, we are going to have to postpone Richard's tour until next Spring. I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you. We hope that you will still welcome Richard in March. I'll be in touch soon to attempt to reschedule the events." Richard Williams had planned to be here in Nov. for talks and book signings for us, Pixar and ILM. At this point I do not know what we will do for our Nov. event. Any suggestions? OUR DEC., JAN. AND FEB. EVENTS ARE ANIMATED CLASSICS AND OPEN SCREENINGS FOR INDEPENDENT ANIMATORS, STUDENTS AND PROFESSIONALS Our December event will be a screening of animated classics. The 16mm prints (no video) will come from two private archives. The show will be Wed. December 19. Although the theme hasn't been chosen yet, we will probably include some ultra rare Iwerks titles that have never been released on video. All independent and student animators are invited to show their work at our annual open screening on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 (we can show ?" and ?" video and 16mm films). Our annual open screening for professionals will be held on Wednesday, February 20. All of the above events will be at the Exploratorium. FILM ARTS FOUNDATION OFFERING 4 SHORT CGI CLASSES in After Effects, Commotion, digital Blue Screen and a workshop with Roy Miles. All are in late Oct. or early Nov. Call (415) 552-8760 for information.
LOCAL SCREENINGSTuesday, October 2, KINETICA 3 SERIES: JAZZ AND ABSTRACTION IN THE BEAT ERA FILM Newly preserved prints of rarely seen films by Hy Hirsh and other San Francisco film artists in the '50s. The program includes films by Hirsh, Jordan Belson, Harry Smith, Patricia Marx, John and James Whitney and Mary Ellen Bute. At the Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley. 7:30 PM. Saturday Oct. 6, 11 am and Thurs. Oct. 11, 5 pm, Rafael, Mill Valley Film Festival, PETTESON & FINDUS: THE CAT-O-NAUT (2000, Sweden/Germany, for ages 4 and up). With SPACE CASE, Virginia Wilkos, 13 min. Tuesday, October 9, CONTEMPORARY VISUAL MUSIC at 7:30 pm. Premiere of BARDO by Jordan Belson, plus work by Sky David, Joost Rekveld, Richard Reeves, Ying Tan, Paul Glabicki, Bob Snyder, Chris Casady and other contemporary artists. At the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. Wednesday, October 10, 5 pm and Saturday, Oct. 13, 1 pm, Rafael, Mill Valley Film Festival, PROP AND BERTA, Danish with English subtitles read aloud, ages 5 and up. Friday, October 12, KINETICA 3 SERIES: JAZZ AND ABSTRACTION IN THE BEAT ERA FILM Rarely seen films by Hy Hirsh and other San Francisco artists in the '50s. Show includes work by Hirsh, Belson, Harry Smith, Patricia Marx, John and James Whitney and Mary Ellen Bute. At the ART INSTITUTE in SF, 800 Chestnut, 7:30 PM. Saturday, October 13, CONTEMPORARY VISUAL MUSIC at 7:30 pm. Premiere of BARDO by Jordan Belson, plus work by Sky David, Joost Rekveld, Richard Reeves, Ying Tan, Paul Glabicki, Bob Snyder, Chris Casady and other contemporary artists. At the Art Institute in SF.. Saturday, Oct. 13, 1 pm CANADIAN BOUNTIES animated films from the National Film Board at the Mill Valley Film Festival, Sequoia Theater. The selection will appeal to both adults and kids (Bully Bully Dancer Dance, Black Fly, The Dingles, etc.) Saturday, Oct. 13, 3 pm ANIMATION: WHAT'S UP DOC? a seminar at the Mill Valley Film Festival with Tom Bertino from ILM; Allison Abbate, producer of Iron Giant; Phil Robinson from Wild Brain and a speaker from PDI. At the Rafael. Saturday, Oct. 13, 5:45 pm and Sunday, Oct. 14 at 2:30 pm, ANIMARATHON, a 70 minute program at the Mill Valley Film Festival with Phil Robinson's Hubert's Brain, Tom Bertino's Work in Progress, Jonah Hall's Metropopular, Sean McBride's That Special Monkey, Lee Lanier's Millennium Bug, Webster Colcord's Extreme Man and Insane Boy, Eric Levine's Motion Capture, Bob Deaver's Bat City, Suzanne Twining's Terminator Tomatoes and Gordon Langley's Chicken. Robinson, Bertino, Twining, Colcord, Lanier and Leven in-person. At the Rafael. Wednesday, October 17, 7:30 PM, ASIFA-SF presents A TRIBUTE TO BILLY GREENE and ILM'S "WORK IN PROGRESS." Tom Bertino's Work in Progress is an experimental all digital 35mm short that was made at ILM to show-off new ideas and an unusual aesthetic approach for a company know for photo-realistic work. Bertino, a director with the company, has been working in secret for several years with a research and development team set up to explore an exciting new approach for ILM to render visuals. This is our first chance to see what they are up to. Bertino will talk about the challenges of making this work and may show behind-the-scenes footage. As a bonus we will show his first professional work. He did ink and paint on Sally Cruickshank's Make Me Psychic.
NATIONAL NEWSVOICE ACTOR DAVE BARRY DIED August 16 at his Beverly Hills home. He was 82. Barry began his voice-over career at Warner Bros. in the 1940's. Among his performances were caricatures of Humphery Bogart in Becall to Arms,1946; Slick Hare, 1947 and 8 Ball Bunny, 1950. In 1958, Barry took over as the voice of Elmer Fudd after the death of Arthur Q. Bryan. He also voiced Bluto in Popeye cartoons and worked on several Pink Panther shorts. "INDEPENDENT SPIRITS: FAITH AND JOHN HUBLEY" PREMIERES IN NEW YORK The documentary focuses on John and Faith Hubley's struggle to produce independent work in a commercial world. It covers John's break with the Disney literalism and linearity (he worked at Disney until the strike in 1941), his being blacklisted in the 1950's, his exploring the animation medium's potential to communicate serious ideas and to confront crucial social issues, John and Faiths use of innovative graphics and improvisational soundtracks, their pioneering use jazz (Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Quincy Jones, and other greats created soundtracks for them) and Faith's commitment to produce at least one independent short a year since her husband death in 1977. The documentary was directed by Sybil DelGaudio and produced by Patty Wineapple. They began work on the project in the mid-90's after completing the outstanding 4-part TV series Animated Women (produced by ITVS for public television). A half-hour episode of that series was on the work of Faith Hubley. ASIFA-East and NY Women in Film sponsored the premiere on Sept. 25 at the Proshansky Auditorium of CUNY Graduate Center (Fifth Ave. at 34th St.). Faith Hubley and Sybil DelGuadio were scheduled to speak at the event. NEW VIDEOTAPES AVAILIBLE FROM THE IOTA CENTER A new edition of The Films of Oskar Fischinger, Volume 1 has been released as part of iota's Kinetica Video Library. This edition includes new versions of Allegretto and Motion Painting No. 1 transferred from recently-restored prints. Also appearing in the store are tapes of work by Len Lye, Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage (hand-painted films), Norman McLaren, Glen McCay, Bill Alves, Hans Richter, John Whitney and Stan Vanderbeek. They also sell books and exhibition catalogs. The iotaCenter is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving, promoting and celebrating the art of abstraction in the moving image in all its many forms and under all its various names. The iotaCenter's Research Library in Los Angeles houses one of the world's largest collection of materials devoted to abstraction in film, video, performance, installation and computer-animated art. For more information: www.iotacenter.org "NADIA: THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER" (1990), THE FILM THAT SEEMS TO HAVE "INFLUENCED" DISNEY'S "ATLANTIS," IS AVAILABLE ON VIDEO AND DVD distributed by A.D. Vision Films. It was an extremely popular 39 episode prime-time TV show in Japan and a theatrical sequel, Nadia, The Secret of Fuzzy was made. In the US dubbed copies of the first 8 episodes were available on tape in the early '90's. Serious fans obtained bootleg copies of other episodes in Japanese. Last month's newsletter covered why fans of Nadia are disappointed that Disney didn't acknowledge that their Atlantis was quite similar to the earlier film in many ways. ANIMATION BLAST #7 is a very visual issue highlighting rare artwork rather than long interviews and reviews. The editor states "I'd be willing to wager (it) is the finest assemblage of artistic talent to ever appear in any issue on an animation magazine." While you may not like every image, it is an impressive selection. The talented artists are: Genny Tartakovsky who created Samuri Jack, Michel Gagne who did conceptual design work on Osmosis Jones, Floyd Norman (gag drawings) who did story work on Jungle Book, Mulan, Toy Story 2, Monsters, etc., Chuck Jones (covers for a 1950's square dance magazine - some with Bugs Bunny), Mark Kausler who has been working on It's The Cat when he isn't busy working on films like Osmosis Jones and Lion King, and Ray Aragon. There are "dream dolls" images by Ed Bell, Craig McCracken, John Mahoney, Leonard Robinson Shane Glines and Mr. Lawrence. There is also a silly article with lots of photos of Ward Kimball on Groucho's You Bet Your Life, 1954 and a fascinating collection of 11 newspaper ads for animated shorts and features (Alice in Wonderland, Tell Tale Heart, Unicorn in the Garden, Gay Purr-ee, Johnny The Giant Killer, The Yellow Submarine, etc.) Jerry Beck wrote an informative introduction to go with the ads. He plans to publish a book of them next year. The issue should be available from Tower Records, Comic Relief in Berkeley, by mail from Animation Blast, PO Box 260491, Encino, CA 91426-0491, and through AnimationBlast.com. Also Bud Plant's Incredible Catalog is now carrying the magazine. This issue has 16 pages of full-color and the print run is 7500, so the publication is expanding quickly. It has wide appeal and support from artists in the industry, historians and cartoons buffs. SOME ENTERTAINMENT STOCKS AT RECORD LOWS IMAX will probably be "de-listed" from the stock exchange soon as this once valuable stock was selling around 56 cents a share in late Sept. A year ago a share sold for $25. (Iwerks is a great company, but was dropped from the NY stock exchange this year when shares continued to sell for under $1 for longer than the specified length of time). Disney had a high of $41.94 earlier this year. The day this was written in Sept. shares were $17.10. (Disney is the nation's 2nd largest entertainment corporation.) On the other hand, Pixar has been doing OK in this period of downward moving stocks. Their 52 wk. high was $46 and their low was $26. The stock is now around $33 a share. LOOKING FOR GREAT HOLIDAY GIFTS OF ANIMATION BOOKS, DVDS AND TAPES? CHECK OUT THE NEW WHOLE TOON CATALOG (#19) The 9 new books being offered in this issue range from Ed Hooks' Acting For Animators to My Life as a Ten Year Old Boy by Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson. There are over 80 other animation books available from them. Their enormous video and DVD library includes lots of rare items including Lotte Reiniger's Adventures of Prince Achmed (1924, the oldest existing animated feature), The Animation Celebration (they bought up the last copies of this out of print series and sell them at list prices), Attack of the Cohl Pumpkins (80 min. of silent work by Emile Cohl), The Best of Zagreb Film, The Cartoons of Bob Godfry, 10 different compilation tapes of the work of Ub Iwerks, Contemporary Estonian Animation, and hundreds of other titles. Of course they have great Warner Bros. and Disney titles, Jan Svankmajer, early work by Willis O'Brien, and other items you would expect to find in a great collection. For a free 70 or 80 page catalog call (800) 331-6197 or go to www.facets.org to see their on-line catalog (look for on-line sales items). "THE HAND BEHIND THE MOUSE" BY JOHN KENWORTHY AND LESLIE IWERKS, Disney Editions, New York, $24.95 If you are at all interested in the history of American animation, this is an important book for you to read. While the key points in the book are covered by Ms Iwerks video of the same name, the book has a lot more depth to it and contains lots of details not included in her documentary. In the book you get an idea about what sort of a guy Ub was like, you learn about his working and social relationship with Walt (from 1919 until Walt's death in 1966). You learn about the growth and development of Ub's artistic skills from his being an expert at lettering in the early '20's to his being able to design and draw animated characters better and faster than any one else by the late '20's. There are many surprises in the book including solid information on how Mickey was actually developed and Ub's role in creating the mouse. Leslie Iwerks provides a detailed account as to why Ub left the Disney studio in 1930. She even provides some of the incidents that influenced him to do so. There is unexpected and interesting information about the life of the two animation greats in the 1920's including details about their first two studios going bankrupt, studio decorum, their romances, values, work ethics, and much more. Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was all of Ub's contributions to the Disney studio from 1940 until his death in 1971. Using the excellent records of the Disney archives, interviews with people who worked with him and other accounts, this section really comes alive and paints a clear picture as to who this remarkable man was. In contrast, the section on his career from 1930 - '40 as a producer of cartoons seemed somewhat weak as most of the people the authors needed to interview were no longer alive when they undertook this project and there were fewer archival records available. For example, we are told Ub spent a lot of time in the early 1930's in a basement workshop inventing things, but we are only told what two of those invention were. His multiplane camera stand, first used in a Willie Whopper cartoon in 1934 was a remarkable achievement. He also developed a distortion disc or lens that was placed in front of the camera lens to suggest Flip the Frog! was high on opium in A Chinaman's Chance 1933. I wonder what other brilliant things he developed in the early '30's. While the life of Ub Iwerks may be too esoteric to make any best seller list, it certainly should be on your must read list if you are at all interested in his career. It is an easy, enjoyable, fast read. You might want to keep your copy of Maltin's Of Mice and Magic handy when you read it as I found myself checking his filmography from time to time. The authors don't include every date you might want to know. The Hand Behind the Mouse is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of animation history. K. C. "THE HAND BEHIND THE MOUSE: THE UB IWERKS STORY" TO AIR ON TV. IT IS ALSO OUT ON HOME VIDEO Leslie Iwerk's informative documentary is scheduled to play on cable TV on the Independent Film Channel (IFC) four times: November 15 at 12:15 pm and 6:15 pm and November 27 at 11:45 am and 6:15 pm. They are showing a print with 3 or 4 minutes cut from it. A much shorter version played on Bravo (46-minute version) in September. Buena Vista Home Video released the film on VHS on September 11. The video contains 2 bonus Mickey Mouse cartoons, Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie (including outtakes and a previously censored scene). The film was narrated by Kelsey Grammer and features historic home movies, clips from his cartoons and on-camera statements by John Lasseter, Tippi Hedren, Ollie Johnston, Virginia Davis, Roy Disney Jr., Chuck Jones and other animators and scholars. Hopefully the tape will be easier to get than the book. I tried to find the book at Borders and the downtown Disney Store without luck. It is available from Amazon.com. Any good bookstore can order you a copy. ABOUT "THE ANIMATOR'S SURVIVAL KIT" BY RICHARD WILLIAMS I was asked not to write a full review until the book is released, but I can tell you that I was given a proof copy and it is terrific! I showed it to animator Kevin Coffey and he was amazed by its contents. He called it "an exceptional learning tool" and feels it will replace Preston Blair's books (created in the late '40's) as the basic primer for animators. It goes a lot further than Blair's work. Coffey believes Williams has done a great service by creating this work for animators. It frees them from struggling to figure out how to move humans and animals and lets them concentrate on doing creative things with their drawings. The book's tentative price is $30 in paperback and $50 for hardcover from Faber an Faber, New York & London. INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM OF CARTOON ART TO LEAVE FLORIDA. Due to an increasing debt, the museum will be leaving Boca Raton, Florida. The $3.8 million building will be put up for sale to pay off the museum's $2 million debt. An attempt to save the museum in its present location failed despite lots of national publicity. They tried to auction off their Ub Iwerks Steamboat Willie storyboards for over a million dollars, but nobody was willing to pay what they wanted. Now they hope to preserve the collection of more than 200,000 pieces of comic strips, editorial cartoons and other works by moving to an affordable space in New York or Connecticut. The museum was founded in 1972 by Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker. It moved south from Rye, NY in 1996, but it never drew the crowds that were needed to make the adventure profitable. They have presented several major exhibits of animation art over the years. Many of the works have come from Mike G! lad's amazing animation archive in Fremont, CA. Meanwhile plans for San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum remain vague. Their galleries were closed in April. They now have a downtown office and are looking for the right location to move to. It was decided that their original plan to move to a storefront on Market Street near the Warfield wouldn't work. 3RD WEEK WITH THE MASTERS IN INDIA has announced a few of their special guests. They are Raoul Servais, Piet Kroons, J.J. Sedelmaeir, Paul Driessen, Jimmy Murakami, Wendy Tilby and "many more." The event is Oct. 29 - Nov. 2. Toonzanimation.com THE INTERNET HASN'T GONE AWAY. MEMBERS ARE FINDING EXCITING NEW THINGS ON IT Chris Lanier recently sent an e-mail note to friends t that listed over a dozen animated works on the web that he recommends. Some first appeared this year on the web and most are at Animation Express at www.hotwired.lycos.com I found the works he discusses at Animation Express using their "browse all animation" search feature. There are almost 300 works posted on the site. The rest are on much smaller sites. I've visited most of his picks and was delighted to see a rich variety of aesthetic approaches. None of his picks are offensive or are examples of stupid pre-teen humor. Within hours of getting Lanier's list Adrienne Crew wrote and suggested I take a look at Angry Little Asian Girl by Lela Lee. It is illustrated radio, a non-animated cartoon strip with a strong soundtrack. It has politically correct content and is a refreshing experience. It appears Lela Lee has only done 5 episodes, but she has been prolific doing comic strips. Her work can be found at www.angrylittleasiangirl.com, on news.iwon.com and at netbroadcaster.com. Asia Week ran a nice article about her in their Dec. 10, 1998 issue, asiaweek.com.
WEBTOONSby Chris Lanier I restricted myself to animation done expressly for the web, or with web tools - there's plenty of great stuff done for film or video that's been distributed for the web, but I'm leaving those out of the loop for now. The first one up actually stretches the idea of what "animation" is - there's no story here, just a set of creatures you can interact with (and create your own variations of). The interactivity of the thing (and the communitarian nature of the site, where people post up creatures they've created to a centralized "zoo") makes it a definitively web phenomenon. And if giving faked life to lines and dots through motion isn't animation at its most basic, I don't know what is www.sodaplay.com Animation Express is a great collection of web cartoons. It's probably the most "artistic" umbrella of internet animation - cartoons as personal expression. I haven't gone through all the cartoons there, but several have caught my fancy - some for their look or style more than the story (but it's interesting to me to see how Flash has been utilized to develop its own effective native "looks"): A stream-of-visual-consciousness animation called Drawing 2 by Michael Strum. hotwired.lycos.com This is a very atmospheric dream-short starring Mr Man hotwired.lycos.com The easiest way to see Mr Man cartoons is to go to the Mr Man archive. Start with the first one and progress chronologically - they build off each other in a very interesting and funny way. The timing and the art on these are a sublime use of Flash - the Mr. Man series is probably my favorite Flash series going whitehouseanimationinc.com Piazzolla by Mirek Nisenbaum is a semi-abstract animation (with several representational digressions) illustrating a piece of music hotwired.lycos.com Time Is by Theodore Usher is a Flash animation with a wonderful textural quality to the art hotwired.lycos.com Some great stylization in this, "Bee Careful hotwired.lycos.com Fetch by Nina Paley. This one's cheating slightly - while it uses the Flash software, it was intended for 35mm film, and lives on the web as a Quicktime. But it's dern good, and it's also by my pal Nina Paley, so I'm including it hotwired.lycos.com And one more nepotistic cheat, Inside Out by Eric Feng - I met Eric at the Ottawa Animation Festival, and this piece of his is quite beautiful - existing on the web as a Quicktime, but being authored in a combination of Flash and AfterEffects hotwired.lycos.com Work Out by Mauro. I really like the movement in this one, "Mr Questionhead Works it Out" hotwired.lycos.com Moving away from "Animation Express," there's Brain Girl, which I first saw at RESFEST - episode 5, "Fishing," is my favorite of the ones I've seen rsub.com Symbolman beat out Romanov at the World Animation Celebration last year - particularly interesting is the way he tells the story without using traditional "shots" - it's just informational ideograms melting into one another: symbolman.com Another animators I met at the Ottawa festival has a charming series called Stick Girl" - the safe sex one is my favorite of the ones I've seen: stickgirl.com Jim Woodring, who's one of the great contemporary cartoonists, has adapted one of his Frank comic strips for web animation. To be honest, the story works better in its original comic strip form, but it's very promising that Woodring is out there making web toons: hollywoodcomics.com And lastly, the storyline on this one is nothing special, but the style is absolutely delicious (elsewhere on his site, he has a Quicktime movie of a great animated "video" he made for the Hank Williams tune Ramblin' Man): augenblickstudios.com DISNEY WILL NOT RELEASE MIYAZAKI'S "SPIRITED AWAY" Although Miyazaki signed a multi-million dollar deal with Disney to release his past films on film and video in the US, it appears the company has lost interest in Miyazaki. Spirited Away, his new animated feature is a top grossing film in Japan, but Disney/Buena Vista appears to have no plans to releasing it here. (They probably have first right to accept or refuse it for distribution and there are indications that they have decided to refused it.) David Jessen, VP of acquisitions at Buena Vista, said "Disney currently has no official plans to release any more of Miyazaki's films in America." Supposedly Disney was disappointed with Miramax's release of Princess Mononoke which was the highest grossing film in Japanese history ($150 million) until Titanic broke that record. It only grossed $2 million at US theaters. Disney's video release of Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service, 1998, sold over a million copies, but executives apparently have forgotten about that modest success. "A million dollars theatrically, to me that's big money," said Marvin Gleicher, president of Manga Entertainment in an article about his releasing Blood: The Last Vampire, a new Japanese animated feature. "I don't think another company would make money." The article by Michael Stroud (Wired News, Aug. 27, 2001) went on to say "Hollywood, by contrast, considers a film that earns less than $50 million at the box office a failure." There is a rumor that the loss of interest has something to do with Atlantis, a film influenced by Japanese animation. It did not break any records at the box office. I've herd some key Disney executives simply do not relate well to animated product that deviates from Disney's traditional format. More likely their accounting executives don't see enough profit potential in Miyazaki's work. He is considered Japan's greatest animation director by some fans and writers, but that isn't a good reason for Disney to release more of his classics on video (and they have the rights to several titles). For more on what Disney executives might be thinking, read the next article. (One theater booker that I asked about Spirited Away hopes Miramax will take it on without Disney's assistance.) KC COMMENTS ON THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF STUDIO EXECUTIVES DUMPING PROJECTS AFTER THEY ARE COMPLETED AND READY TO OPEN by Karl Cohen It may seem odd that a studio will put millions into producing something and will then dump it rather than go to bat and promote it to the public. Some films, like Spirited Away, may never open in the U.S., while others like Iron Giant, James and the Giant Peach and Monkey Bone opened with almost no publicity. It appears that the people who control the distribution of features at huge corporations like Disney and Warner Brothers are a different breed than those who approve and oversee the making of the productions. Also, since it takes so long to bring an animated project out, in some cases the executives that fought to make the film are no longer with the company when it comes out. (That happened to Monkey Bone.) The distribution executives have the power to decide that it isn't worth risking more money on something that they feel isn't going to be a sure hit. Large companies are not in the habit of turning films they can't market easily over to smaller distributors who can try to develop marketing and ad campaigns that are designed for smaller niche markets. People distributing Japanese animation (not Disney/Mirimax who handles Miyazaki's work) know how to target their products towards the smaller numbers of fans that support these films and make their releases profitable. Unfortunately it appears it isn't worth the large corporations time and money to tailor films they consider of questionable profitability to the "limited" numbers of people that might enjoy discovering the works. It seems Disney, Warner Bros. and other large studios feel that if the whole world isn't going to love their latest product, it is wiser to drop their interest in it and go on to something that they hope will be a sure hit. One animation scholar wrote me, "Most movie executives don't care about animation. The only reason any of them cared during they 1990's was that they couldn't ignore the huge grosses of The Lion King. Now, Shrek's and Pixar's powerhouse grosses have Hollywood caring about CGI. Japanese animation still means nothing to Hollywood (save for a breakout fad like Pokemon). We still have a ways to go to change the system." Books, record, tapes, and documentary films are also hurt by current business practices. At Disney the current business philosophy appears to have affected not only the release of Miyazaki's films to theaters, but also the release of videos, books and other products. Disney has helped finance/distribute several fine books, documentaries and videos including Leslie Iwerks' recent projects, books by John Canemaker and the documentary Frank and Ollie. Once these works are completed and the distribution contracts are signed, it appears Disney does not always go out of its way to promote them. While John Canemaker is quite pleased with the way they handle his book promotions, it was quite evident that Leslie Iwerks got almost no support from Disney when she visited the Bay Area in July (they had plenty of advanced notice, yet they didn't line up any book signings for her despite the company having several stores in the area.) I suspect a hung! rier, smaller distributor would be more aggressive and would try to develop more creative marketing schemes. It appears the current job cuts in all areas of Disney's corporate empire have hurt their publishing and distribution businesses. Cutting staff sizes to try to increase the profit margins (and hopefully impress the stock market) has resulted in fewer people to do the labor intensive chores of marketing and promotion. Another issue is Disney wanting to have some control over what is said about them in books published by other publishers. In the past they have asked some authors with non-Disney publishers to submit their text before they would grant them permission to publish images from Disney films. Sometimes permission to use photographs of Disney artwork has come at the last moment. This practice can inhibit free speech. There are cases where permission to use some images has been denied by Disney. When Jerry Beck wrote The 50 Greatest Cartoons for Turner, Disney granted the publisher permission to use images from classic cartoons on the condition they did not run any images from the Donald Duck film Der Fuehrer's Face. Beck used the cover of the public domain sheet music as an illustration for this Academy Award winning short.
FESTIVALSWEST COAST STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL DEADLINE IS JANUARY 18 for an early April event. It is open to all college students, no entry fee, animation category. This year's theme is "Overcoming Obstacles." Entries may be shot on any format but must be submitted on 1/2 inch VHS tape. The festival says they are a highly publicized, international event (I've never herd of them). For more information contact: Joey Garner, 24 Vidal Drive, San Francisco, California 94132, USA, (415) 430-1269 ex 0903; www.wcsfilmfest.org HIROSHIMA 2002 INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL The call for films is out for this major event. Entries deadline is April 10. No entry fee and festival pays for return of prints. A few cash prizes, judges are often well known animators. For forms contact Karl Cohen karlcohen@earthlink.com or (415) 386-1004 or contact Hiroshima 2002 Festival Office 4-17, Kako-machi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima 730-0812 Japan e-mail: hiroanim@urban.ne.jp 11TH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ANIMATED FILMS STUTTGART deadline for videos (VHS NTSC) is Dec. 1, entries must be shown in 16mm, 35mm or Betacam SP PAL. Prize money, no entry fee. Event is in April. For entry form Film und Medienfestival GmbH, Breitscheidstr. 4, 70174 Stuttgart Germany www.festival-gmbh.de ASPEN SHORTSFEST DEADLINE NOV. 12 & DEC 28 cash prizes, entry fee, previews on VHS, but only shows 16mm, 35mm or BetaSP at event. (970) 925-6882, 110 east Hallam Suite 102, Aspen, Colorado 81611aspenshortfest.org |
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This issue was written by Karl Cohen with contributions from Chris Lanier, Adrienne Crew, Kevin Coffey, AWN.COM, Animation Blast, Cartoon Research, Spike and Mike and other sources.Laura Tulloss did the layout, Shirley Smith handled the production and the mailing crew included Smith, Cohen and Ron Seawright. |
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