February, 2003
Karen Lithgow’s delightful Parisian Café turns out to be her first film! It was made using Flash, Director and After Effects.
Sprocket Ensemble did the music for this sophisticated little gem.
When I got to the event I discovered my ballpoint pen had leaked into my pocket, so the following list was drawn up by Liz Keim, who was the overworked projectionist for the evening. She wrote, ³Artists and titles include: Tim Blaskovich’s 16mm film 4861, Jessie Ford’s Phantom. Dela Longfish’s Jack and the Beanstalk, Adam Fisher’s The Loneliest Number, Rick Lucey’s Bambi Meets Godzilla II, Richard Raucci’s Lexicality, Steven C. Zabel’s Symbiotical, Don Thomas’s Bleenheimer, Rina Peterman’s Wizard So-So and the Real Dragonfly and Gorilla Mama, Alan Orcutt’s The First Vegetarian and Biff the Dragon Slayer, Ron Bowman brought three pieces including X-Con, Jason Leonard’s Sonata for the World, Carl Diehl’s Total Information Awareness, TJ Phan’s Bandage in a Bottle and No Limits, Tara Beyhm’s Daily Bread, Don Albrecht brought a fun collection called Don’s Film Festival (4 Flash shorts that were quite funny), Natalie Repp’s Peep Show and other pencil tests, Lizette Vega brought Escape and other pencil tests, Karen Lithgrow’s Marge and Howard in the Parisian Café, Lori Llanillo’s Snow Board, Yun Lauw’s The Human Race, other DeAnza College offerings included: Mike Godines’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Legos, Andre David’s Ushiwakamaru and Benkei, Anneke Mumita’s A Carrot’s Destiny, Madelaine Eriksson’s Catch of the Day and Isabella Melamed’s ‘From the Paper,’ Martha Gorzycki’s Unfurling 2001 will be screened at our February open screening.” DO YOU OR THE COMPANY YOU WORK FOR HAVE A REEL OF PROFESSIONAL WORK YOU ARE PROUD OF? If you answered yes, show it at our February open screening. See the event’s flyer for details. BILL PLYMPTON IS COMING TO THE BAY AREA IN MARCH Most of the details about his visit are vague, but he will present an all day class or workshop at San Jose State University on Thurs. March 6. For details contact Courtney Granner, Animation/Illustration Program. School of Art and Design, San Jose State University, jgranner@email.sjsu.edu On Friday, March 7 he will present ASIFA-SF an evening of new short work, rarely seen old work, documentary footage about his making Mutant Aliens, clips from Hair High (his next feature, now in production), work for the Internet and more. Bill will be bringing books, tapes, CDs and other things to sell and autograph. This will be an ASIFA-SF event at the Exploratorium. Members and their guests (1 per member) will get their choice of seating. If there are empty seats they will be given to the general public just before the free show begins. If you have several friends who will want to be there ask them to join our ASIFA chapter. On Saturday March 8 he will show one of his features in 35mm at the Balboa Theatre. This will be a midnight show. Details about all 3 appearances will be in our next newsletter. We will e-mail people on our e-mail list ahead of time when we get more information. OUR TV ANIMATION TRIVIA QUESTION WAS FINALLY SOLVED Ron Kurer who produces the excellent web site Ron Kurer’s Toon Tracker, wrote, “I believe she is referring to Fred, a character who appeared over the fictional Channel One on a TV set behind the Captain Kangaroo’s blackboard in the Treasure House. Puppeteer Maury Bunin created Fred utilizing Hank Stohl’s Aniforms concept. Aniforms utilized rubber outlines of the character, contained in a special case, that were manipulated by the puppeteer off camera using levers attached to the case. This was then caught on camera and chroma-keyed over a plain background and fed live into the TV set. Fred first appeared on the Saturday morning Captain Kangaroo show in 1965. Cosmo Alligretti provided the voice of Fred. Using the Aniforms process, Fred was able to interact live with the Captain and others.” The person who asked about the images replied, “THAT IT!!!” She now recalls that the character was indeed named Fred. She says, “Wow! Thank you...I can now sleep at night!!!” This is the show she was trying to identify with “neon-like lips.” It wasn’t Clutch Cargo or Space Angel with their superimposed human lips over drawings. The woman who was trying to figure out what her childhood memory is says, “It played on Captain Kangaroo and it looked like neon (which of course it couldn’t have been). Just a big face that was probably puppet controlled (knowing the types of technology that was available in the mid-60s).” Howard Beckerman recalls Aniforms on AWN.COM Ron Kurer’s well researched web site contains a vast amount of information. www.toontracker.com THE ASIFA-SF NEWSLETTER NEEDS TO HEAR ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING Lately the size of our local news section has shrunk. It should be the most important section of our newsletter, but it isn’t these days. So we need your help. Send us local animation news items (or has everybody quit animating to become stock brokers?). Send news to PO Box 14516, SF CA 94114 or e-mail karlcohen@earthlink.net LITTLE FLUFFY CLOUDS CREATED WORK FOR SEVERAL NATIONAL CLIENTS LAST YEAR Betsy de Fries reports they produced work for the Discovery Channel. McDonalds, Nickelodeon and other clients. They’ve also been developing websites and are producing two personal shorts. GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE IN SAN JOSE TO DEVOTE A LOT OF TIME TO THE GROWING MOBILE INDUSTRY The mobile conference (March 4-5) will be held within the bigger event (March 4-8). Alan Yu, director of the GDC said, "Billions of people own mobile devices today, and billions more will be sold. GDC Mobile gives the industry a fulcrum for planning the future of this exciting new entertainment platform." www.gdcmobile.com. SCULPTURES OF CARTOON CHARACTERS BY SCOTT AND SATOE HAILE ON EXHIBIT UNTIL MARCH 15 at San Francisco’s Glama-Rama Gallery & Salon. “Character Heaven is an explosive work of creative chaos. Cartoon characters are sculpted, then interpreted, and reinterpreted to create unique and unexpected identities. They work in sculpture, multimedia, animation and printmaking and their work has been called wildly imaginative and whimsical; like the couple themselves, a bittersweet blend of Tokyo Pop and Loony Tunes.” They are members of our ASIFA chapter and live in the Mission with their one-year-old son, Miku. Glama-Rama Gallery, the Bay Guardian’s best salon of 2002. is located at 417 South Van Ness Avenue, SF http://www.glamarama.com/ JASON SHIGA, WHO AMAZED US WITH HIS POWERFUL ANIMATION WHEN HE WAS IN HIS MID-TEENS, IS EXHIBITING HIS INNOVATIVE WORK ON PAPER AT THE
CARTOON ART MUSEUM They have begun a “Small Press Spotlight” and the first artist in the series is Jason Shiga from Oakland. Years ago
Shiga showed up at an open screening and blew us away with his images and energy. His work made its way into several festivals and was shown at Sprocket performances.
GARY SCHWARTZ TO TEACH “THE ARTS AND CRAFTS OF ANIMATION” IN THE BAY AREA Gary travels the world over teaching his popular classes. I’ve been told by dozens of people over the years that his classes are excellent and that he is a great teacher. He was one of the first teachers to use the Video Lunchbox so students can animate something and then see their work on a screen seconds later. Class meets May 5-11. Call Film Arts Foundation for details. “HATE MAIL: COMIC STRIP CONTROVERSIES” AT THE CARTOON ART MUSEUM to June 8. Some people are upset when they discover controversial issues
in the funny pages. This exhibit takes a look at contentious comics by some of the top cartoonists of the last 30 years, including Scott Adams
(Dilbert), Berkeley Breathed (Bloom County, Outland), Frank Cho (Liberty Meadows), Lynn Johnston (For Better or For Worse), Aaron McGruder
(The Boondocks), Wiley Miller (Non Sequitur) and Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury).
ANOTHER BIT OF BAY AREA HISTORY IS GONE, THE CUSTER AVENUE STAGES HAVE CLOSED Colossal Pictures ran them for several years, Henry Selick shot part of Monkeybone there and not so long ago they were used by the team that made the animated series Phantom Investigators. A LIMITED NUMBER OF TICKETS (20 OR 30) ARE AVAILABLE TO ASIFA-SF MEMBERS TO ATTEND NIK PHELPS AND IDEAS IN ANIMATION PRESENTING THE PROGRAM HE PRESENTED AT KROK 2002 on Sunday, Feb. 22, reception at 7 followed by the performance. This is a free event. It is not open to the public as it is being held in a small private screening room in SF. To obtain a ticket, to find out the location and to get other details call Nancy Denny-Phelps at (415) 681-3189
Sunday, Feb. 16, 3 PM, AARDVARKS, AMPHIBIANS AND ALL THAT JAZZ! At the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. “A hilarious collection of stop-motion and cel animation includes animals from both underground and underwater, with unique musical talents and unusual tales to tell.” Films include Hamilton Mattress (Barry Purves who created the fantastic Oscar nominated Screenplay and Next, UK, 2001), The Hungry Squid (John Weldon, NFB of Canada, 2001), Field Guide to Snapping (Nikhil Adnani, Canada, 2001), Glasses (Brian Duchscherer, NFB of Canada, 2001), Banjo Frogs (Nik Hilligoss, Australia, 1998) and I, Crocodille (Michael Sporn, US, 2001). Tuesday, Feb. 18, 7 PM, APOCALYPSES AND PICARESQUES, RECOVERED INNOCENCE AND STRUCTURAL FILM at the PFA in Berkeley includes work by Bruce Conner, Ken Jacobs, Larry Jordan, Christopher MacLane and Paul Sharits. Jordan’s Our Lady of the Spheres (1969) is a fine cut-out animation film ans Sharits¹s f is an unusual flicker film.
Saturday, Feb. 22, 7:30 PM PACIFICA CONCERTS PRESENTS NIK PHELPS AND THE SPROCKET ENSEMBLE IN AN EVENING OF ANIMATION AND LIVE MUSIC at the Sanchez Concert Hall, 1220A Linda Mar Blvd., Pacifica (650) 355-1882. Wed. Feb. 26, NIK PHELPS PRESENTS THE PROGRAM HE PRESENTED AT KROK 2002 This is a small private event being held in a small screening room. A few tickets are available for ASIFA members (see notice elsewhere in our printed newsletter for details). J. J. SEDELMAIER PRODUCTIONS HAD A PRODUCTIVE 2002 J. J. wrote us in January, “Love the SF ASIFA Newsletter!… We completed a 4 spot campaign for
FootJoy that also included print ads, website design, and even trading cards as a supplement to Sports Illustrated. It eventually went on to compete in
the London AD Awards, and has won in a comprehensive category at the ad awards in Boston. It was designed in-house.”
BILL PLYMPTON’S NEW BOOK OF CARTOONS CONTAINS SOMETHING TO OFFEND EVERYBODY Sloppy Seconds is a collection of work previously published in the National Lampoon, The New York Times, Playboy, Screw etc. When I showed it to my wife she opened it in the middle and said, “this is disgusting.” A few seconds later, she was laughing hysterically at another page. It is about 180 pages of fun (minus the pages you groan over). It isn’t sold at bookstores, porno shops or even from under the counter to underage kids. The only place you will find it right now is from Bill himself for only $12. (Tell him you are an ASIFA member and you save the $4 postage also, ask him to autograph it for you.) Send a check to Bill Plymptoon Studio, 119 West 23rd Street #206, New York, NY 10011 or visit Bill online www.plymptoons.com or www.awn.com/plympton/
JERRY BECK HAS WRITTEN A BOOK CALLED “OUTLAW ANIMATION: CUTTING EDGE CARTOONS FROM THE SPIKE AND MIKE FESTIVALS” It will be published in June, $24.95, 200 illustrations, 160 pages (9” x 9”). Paperback, from Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 100 Fifth Ave. NY, NY 10011 (800) 759-0190, advanced orders accepted “ANIMATION IN THE HOME DIGITAL STUDIO” BY STEVE SUBOTNICK has just been published by Focal Press. The book is for artists, amateurs, professionals, students, and anyone who wants to make animation as a form of personal expression using home digital tools. Available from Focal Press, 1(800) 545-2522 and online at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com. SUPREME COURT UPHELD EXTENDING COPYRIGHT PROTECTION RULES IN JANUARY This was a huge victory for Disney and other property owners who own rights to properties created
in the 1920’s and 30’s. It extends copyright protection (therefore profits) on songs, books and even cartoon characters including Mickey Mouse for another
20 years.
DISNEY SETTLED A $20 MILLION “WHISTLE-BLOWER” SUIT OUT-OF-COURT It was brought by Judy Denenholz in March, 2001 because she refused to sign-off on Disney’s response to an IRS audit. She believes the company was trying to cheat the IRS. She claims she was fired after clashing with Disney’s top lawyer. Disney denies her claims and said she wasn’t fired. They simply didn’t renew her contract when it expired. She sued under a law protecting whistle-blowers. Terms of settlements with Disney never disclosed. ZACK SCHWARTZ, A FOUNDER OF UPA, HAS DIED AWN.COM reported in their weekly Flash newsletter on 1/15/03 “Karl Cohen of ASIFA-SF has brought AWN the news that
animator Zack Schwartz, one of the founders of UPA, passed away on January 13, 2003 in Israel. After working at Disney, most notably as an art director on Bambi and
Fantasia, Schwartz went on to work under Frank Tashlin at Screen Gems and was a founder of UPA. In 1946, Schwartz sold his interest in the studio and moved to New York,
where he worked in television advertising, eventually becoming an advertising agency executive. After teaching at Sheridan College in Canada in the '70s and '80s, Schwartz
eventually moved to Israel, where he taught at the Animation Center in Tel Aviv.”
NEWS ABOUT THE WORLD OF GENE DEITCH Gene, who is an Oscar winning animator, puts together a fascinating Occasional Deitch newsletter that is published on the web at www.genedeitch.com. The new issue has articles about his well known son Kim Deitch, a page on his illustrations for a jazz publication (1945-1951), photos of a memorial in Prague to the victims of Communism, photos of the new “museum” in the historic building were he lived for many years (historic torture devices, etc. with a McDonalds next door) and much more. BOX OFFICE AS OF JANUARY 20 Lord of the Rings $300 million in 5 weeks, Harry Potter $257.9 million in 10 weeks, Wild Thornberrys $37.7 million in 5 weeks, Treasure Planet $37.2 million in 8 weeks, Jonah: A VeggieŠ $25.5 million in 16 weeks, Adam Sander $23+ million, Spirited Away $5.5 million in 18 weeks, Lion King $8.7 million in 4 weeks. ANOTHER IMAX ANIMATED FEATURE IS ABOUT TO BE RELEASED, BUT THE 3D SCULPTING LOOKS CRUDE The publicity photo in the February issue of Animation Magazine shows polar bears that look like crude carved soap sculptures. I hope SOS Planet by the European company nWave is better than the publicity image. The copy says the film is about endangered species. It was narrated by Walter Cronkite. When nWave created Haunted Castle, a delightful IMAX thrill ride type film, they avoided character animation by only having a few seconds of it in the film. The new work features sea turtles, polar bears, orangutans, gibbons, pythons and sea horses. VINTAGE ANIMATED BEER COMMERCIALS WERE SCREENED IN A SEATTLE BREW PUB THEATER BY ASIFA-NW The event on January 31, featured ancient animated ads for Schlitz, Blitz, Jax, and Blatz and even Seattle's Rainier Ale. ASIFA-Atlanta helped them find the material and the Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater in Belltown provided fresh suds for a price. www.asifa.net/usa-northwest THE FIRST BIG LEAGUE TELEVISED AWARDS CEREMONY FOR THE GAMES INDUSTRY IS COMING LATER THIS YEAR TNN, a unit of the MTV Network, plans to honor the creators and stars
of video games. No date is set for The Video Game Awards. The show is the brainchild of Abbie Hecht, TNN’s president of film and television entertainment.
ABOUT THE MAKING OF “FLUX” BY CHRIS HINTON At our 35mm screening in January at Dolby Labs, Chris Hinton talked about the making of Flux, his exceptional film.
The next day I e-mailed Marcy Page, the film’s producer at the National Film Board of Canada, about how excited I was to see such a fresh, visually unique looking film
done at a time when most animators are striving for detailed illusions of realism on their computers. She wrote back, “I really like this film for the same reasons that
you note. I think there is a similar feeling from many animators around the world that his visuals are fresh and though they are spontaneous and free, they are by someone
who has clearly taken fifty years to be able to draw like a child.”
JOHN CANEMAKER REPORTS THAT THE TISSA DAVID TRIBUTE AT NY’S MUSEUM OF MODERRN ART IN JANUARY WAS A BIG SUCCESS He writes that, “Braving 18 degree cold
weather, an audience of nearly 500 attended a warm tribute to legendary animator Tissa David at New York's Museum of Modern Art last night….”
NINA PALEY IS THE TOAST OF THE TOWN IN NEW YORK CITY She is also teaching animation at Pratt and is writing a book on Flash animation. NIK AND NANCY PHELPS TALK ABOUT THEIR WORK, PLANS AND MAKE A FEW SURPRISING COMMENTS ABOUT THE STATE OF ANIMATION by Karl Cohen For the past 5 years Nik and
Nancy have been presenting programs of new animation accompanied with music performed live by The Sprocket Ensemble. Nik writes the music and is a performer in the
group while Nancy and a great team of volunteers take care of everything else from projecting work to promoting the events.
While talking with them some interesting observations were made about animation and where it is headed. Nancy loves the sharp crisp image of 16mm and 35mm film. When they started working with animation most of the work was on film. Today very little is. Nancy fears that audiences in the future will not know what a sharp clean film image looks like. On the other hand Nik welcomes DVD and tape as it keeps production costs down and tape and DVD are less expensive to distribute. He wants a DVD burner so he can put entire Sprocket Ensemble shows on one disc. I was told the lowering of production costs has resulted in an increase of animation and live-action “filmmaking by people who should be doing something else.” They preview and reject a lot of “home movies” that do not appeal to their tastes. On the other hand they see a lot of imagination coming out of student work and independent artists. They sometimes find great undiscovered works at festivals, when they preview work at CAL Arts, at ASIFA-SF open screenings and in tapes sent to them. Nancy is outspoken about her dislike of how TV has come to dominate American culture. People just don’t go out as often so there is less support for many local art scenes as a result. People seem to adore bigger TV sets and the commercial perfection of computer generated images. As a result of their dislike of our TV nation they want to spend more time in Europe in the coming years. They will be in Belgium for most of March and they hope to find a place where they can live and work in Europe for an extended length of time. If that happens they fantasize about spending the late fall and winter in San Francisco, spring in New York and the rest of the year in Europe. Nancy also commented that she thinks other countries treat their artists better. Ireland has no income tax for artists and the government offers them grants. They have met artists at festivals from Finland and other countries who were traveling on government grants. She is disappointed there is very little government support for the arts in the US today. She is also disappointed that our corporations do little for the creative employees who want to do personal projects. They have no time for their own art when they are working 40 to 60 hours a week on commissioned work and when those projects end employees are often let go and are soon too broke to create art. “Our brightest are locked in cubicles with no time for personal creations after they leave college.” She hopes that someday that the government and/or major corporations like ILM, Pixar, and Disney will offer maturing artists grants to fulfill their personal visions. It is no secret that the Sprocket Ensemble isn’t making a profit from their activities. They are a non-profit group sponsored by Film Arts Foundation and they can only exist with the help of a great team of volunteers. Donations to them given through FAF are tax deductible. (Also, a couple of people have volunteered service to Sprocket so they could get credit for community service hours for unpaid parking tickets.) The volunteers include Steve Mobia projectionist, Michael Faklis technical support, Uma Lowe and Abbie Zack box office, Lance Alexander graphic design (great flyers), Richard Washbourne public relations, Vivian Perry programs and the filmmakers who trust them with their films. Other people that have helped them include their mentor Rock Ross, Gail Silva from Film Arts Foundation and ASIFA-SF. Nancy say being able to tell people FAF and ASIFA-SF were helping them gave them valuable creditability when they were getting started. Awards ceremony to be held Saturday, Feb. 1 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. The Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Home Video Production nominations are:
Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Short Subject
Outstanding Achievement in an Animated TV Commercial
Outstanding Achievement in an Animated TV Production
Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Production Produced for Children
Outstanding Achievement in a Theatrical Feature
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
Directing in an Animated Feature Production
Directing in an Animated Television Production
Effects Animation
Music in an Animated Feature Production
Music in an Animated Television Production
Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
Production Design in an Animated Television Production
Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production
Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production
Writing in an Animated Feature Production
JURIED AWARDS
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN PROMOTED BY TOP SELLING VIDEO GAMES On December 19, 2002 the National Institute on Media and the Family released their Seventh
Annual Media Wise Video Game Report Card and gave the gaming industry a failing grade for the first time. The report focuses on issues related to child
welfare. Areas of special concern include growing levels of video game addiction; inaccuracy of ratings; parental lack of awareness regarding content;
and the failure of many retailers to restrict children from "M" for mature-rated games. Among this year's findings was the growing tendency to depict
graphic violence against women in the industry's most popular games. For example, in this season's best-selling game, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, players
are rewarded for kicking a prostitute to death.
WEB ANIMATION FOR RESTAURANT PROFESSIONALS By Adrinne Crew Restaurant professionals and animators have a lot more in common than you would think. Both endeavors
require exhaustive amounts of time and effort to create a masterpiece that will be consumed in seconds. Painter, writer and website designer Gary Epting could
probably attest to this observation. A former waiter at the late, great Square One restaurant, Gary united with chef/writer Janet Fouts to launch a thriving online
community/magazine for restaurant professionals called ONTHERAIL.com.
AN AFTERNOON OF REMEMBRANCE was held in Los Angeles in January honoring departed friends from the animation community. The announcement for this non-denominational celebration listed the following 42 people as having passed on. Ryan Anthony, 5/1/2002, who worked as a storyboard artist for Disney and Warners from 1989 until 2001; Hilary Bader,11/13/2002, wrote for Warner Bros. on Superman/Batman Adventures and Batman Beyond for which she won two Emmys; Buddy Baker 7/26/2002, composer of music for television shows including Davy Crockett and The Mickey Mouse Club; Bill Berg 3/2/2002, Disney story man and artist who drew the comic strip Scamp; Bob Bransford 12/8/2001; Ruth Bullington, age 94, a cel painter at MGM, Hanna-Barbera and Lantz from 1939 until her retirement in 1973; Bill Carney 4/16/2002, an animator who worked for Van Beuren, Fleischer, Terrytoons, Disney, Hanna-Barbera, DePatie-Freleng and Filmation; Pat Collins 9/26/2002, a trainee artist at Disney Florida and Dreamworks; Raynelle Day 11/9/2002, an inker who worked at Fleischer, Warners, Disney, Larry Harmon and TV Spots, Beverly Felix 6/7/2001; Tom Ferriter 9/1/2002, an animator who worked for Disney, DePatie Freleng and Chuck Jones; Joseph Finck 7/14/2001; John Gati 7/30/2002 stop-motion animator and teacher at the School of Visual Arts in New York; Herb Hazelton 12/24/2002, a head designer at Filmation studio as well as a layout artist at Dreamworks; Tex Henson 12/2/2002, an animator, story artist, teacher at Disney and Jay Ward; Mercedes Hoffman 11/24/2002, a cel painter who worked for Warner Bros and Hanna & Barbera died at 102 years old; Ruth Howard 7/1/2002, a Disney inker; Daniel Hunn 5/17/2002, animator of New York commercials and director of the Maurice Sendak TV special Really Rosie; Chuck Jones 2/22/2002, artist, teacher, author and director, Warner Bros Animation Legend; Katie Kerwin 6/25/2002, Walt Disney ink & paint supervisor; Larry Kilty 7/3/2002, Hollywood Animation Guild Business Agent; Ward Kimball 7/8/2002; one of the legendary Nine Old Men of Disney; Craig Littell-Herrick 10/10/2002, animator, assistant and union activist who worked for Disney Filmation, Hanna Barbera; Lewis Marshall 8/20/2002, animator, storyboard artist and director for MGM, Hanna-Barbera, and DePatie-Freleng; Joe Mazzuca 1/20/2002, production head and Vice President of Filmation Studios; Glenn McQueen 10/29/2002, age 41, Pixar animator who worked on characters like Woody in Toy Story and Boo in Monsters Inc.; Rae McSpadden 1/27/2002, Hanna Barbera, Bakshi, Krantz and Sanrio; Gene Moss 7/15/2002, the co-writer of Roger Ramjet; Bob Onorato 5/6/2002, storyboard artist at Hanna-Barbera, MGM, Disney, Universal, DreamWorks; Marian Paxton 12/21/2001; Bill Peet 5/11/2002, one of the great Disney story artists and a childrens’ book author; Don Peters 10/4/2002, background painter who worked for Disney and Warner Bros.; Ernie Pintoff 1/12/2002, Academy Award winning director of the shorts including The Critic and The Violinist; Don Ruch 7/10/2001; Christine Serino 10/19/2001, she had worked as a texture map painter and artist at DreamQuest, Warner Digital, SimeX, Digital Fauxtography, Atomic Cow and Banned From The Ranch; George Singer 2/10/2002, director, producer and story artist for Halas and Batchelor, Jay Ward, Format, DePatie-Freleng, Pantomime, Sanrio, Hanna-Barbera, and Film Roman; Mike Svayko 11/2002, animator and director at Bakshi, Disney, Kookanooga, New World and Nickelodeon; Jeanne Selby Thorpe 11/1/2002, animation checker who worked for Mintz, Universal, Minitoons, Screen Gems, MGM, Swift, Chaplin, Graphic, Storyboard Inc., Quartet, Disney and UPA; Alexandr Vinukirov 1/10/2002, a Russian animator and director of the Snow Queen;. Thomas Warkentin 3/12/2002, a background artist for Warner Bros. television shows including Tinytoons and an artist on the Star Trek comic strip; Tom Yakutis 1/25/2002, a layout artist and animation union president and. Bob Zamboni 6/5/2002 an animation director who worked at Disney TV Animation. Thanks to Tom Sito for sending us this detailed list. LATE NEWS - PDI/DREAMWORKS ANIMATED “SHREK 4D” FOR UNIVERSAL STUDIOS IN LA, JAPAN AND FLORIDA The new "multi-sensory" attraction opens this summer. The 3D film (seen through "OgreVision" glasses) has the ghost of Lord Farquaad (Lithgow) trying to ruin the ogres' honeymoon. At the attraction, which will be housed in a castle-like building, guests will be ushered into a pre-show chamber where they'll be greeted by the late Lord Farquaad (a 5 minute video), who will inform them of his ghostly scheme to haunt the honeymooners. In the main theater the seats are capable of both vertical and horizontal motion, and equipped with tactile transducers, pneumatic air propulsion and water spray nodules. Shrek 2 is due in theatres summer 2004. THOMAS SCHUMACHER TO OVERSEE DISNEY'S THEATRICAL DIVISION; DAVID STAINTON NAMED PRESIDENT OF DISNEY FEATURE ANIMATION Thomas Schumacher moves from head of Disney Feature Animation to president of Buena Vista Theatrical Worldwide, the Disney unit that oversees live stage productions around the world. David Stainton will replace Schumacher as president of Disney’s Feature Animation dept. SEVEN FILMS COMPETING FOR OSCAR NOMINATIONS IN SPECIAL EFFECTS they are Harry Potter (ILM), Lord of the Rings (Weta Digital), Men in Black II (ILM), Minority Report (ILM), Spider-Man (Sony Pictures Imageworks), Star Wars: Episode II (ILM) and XXX (Digital Domain) NINE FILMS COMPETING FOR OSCAR NOMINATIONS IN ANIMATION they are Mike's New Car (Pixar), Chubbchubbs, (shown before Men in Black), Das Rocks (Germany), The Cathedrial, Poland (computer tour de force, shown at SIGGRAPH), Christopher Hinton's Flux (National Film Board Canada), Koji Yamamura's Mt. Head (Japan), From Darkness (Ireland Cartoon Saloon), Aunt Luisa (USA, with music by Guy Lombardo) and Ray Harryhausen’s The Tortoise and the Hare. (We showed 3 of them in 35mm at our Jan. 12.event at Dolby Labs.) GARY SCHWARTZ TO TEACH A 2ND CLASS MAY 5 - 9 AT FAF It is an afternoon class on stop-motion and pixillation techniques. His Arts and Crafts of animation meets evenings and all day on Sat. & Sun. ANIMA MUNDI, the 11th International Animation Festival of Brazil, will take place in July in Rio de Janeiro and in San Paulo. This is the most important animation festival in Latin America, with over 60,000 attendees. There is no entry fee for the competition. Details available online at: www.animamundi.com.br THE KALAMAZOO ANIMATION FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DEADLINE IS FEB. 28 Free for students to enter, $30 for personal films and $50 for commissioned work. Over $15,000 to be awarded in cash, products and services. Lots of categories. KVCC, P.O. Box 4070, Kalamazoo, MI 49003-4070 (269) 3773-7883 www.kafi.kvcc.edu THE CHICAGO UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL DEADLINE IS MAY 1 (early) and May 15 (late) The event begins in late August and is screened in Ladmark’s Century Centre Cinemas. There is an animation category and an award for best animation. They show most formats of film, tape and MiniDV. $30/$35 (late) entry fee. Past festival participants may enter without paying a fee. All entry rules & forms available at http://www.cuff.org. THE 9TH ANNUAL BRAINWASH MOVIE FESTIVAL DEADLINE IS EARLY MAY This is a festival that has tried to show almost everything submitted to it in past years. It has been held in funky clubs and on occasion in strange places outdoors. (It was projected on a warehouse garage door one year and we sat on the curb and on weed patches.) The running of it is anything but professional (which adds to the grass roots charm - if there is any). In the past the prizes have included fine junk like discarded sports trophies and worn out bowling balls. It is a local event, so enter, go and have fun if they show your work. Don’t expect George Lucas or NBC to offer you a big fat contract, but every year the producer says he is producing a TV pilot. They preview work on VHS tape or DVD. $20 entry fee before May 1, $30 before May 10. PO Box 23302, Oakland CA 94623-0302 (415) 273-1545, www.brainwashm.com “Walt & his cooler, Travels with a cryogenically frozen head.”
|
| This newsletter was written by Karl Cohen with additional material provided by Adrienne Crew, Gene Deitch, AWN.COM Giannalberto Bendazzi, J.J. Sedelmaier, John Canemaker, Ron Kurer, ASIFA-Israel, Bridget Erdmann, Liz Keim and other friends of our chapter. The mailing crew included Shirley Smith, Nancy Phelps, Tara Beyhm and Jason Leonard. Much thanks for your help and support. |
ASIFA-SF
P.O. Box 14516
San Francisco, CA 94114
| Membership in our chapter is $22 a year or $44 for joint local and international membership. |
SPROUT, A NEW SHORT FILM DIRECTED BY SCOTT PETERSON, PDI/DREAMWORKS
FEATURING RECENT WORK FROM CARTOONLAND, ILM, PDI/DREAMWORKS, TIPPETT, WILD BRAIN, AND OTHER COMPANIES SURPRISE US WITH YOUR PROFESSIONAL REEL
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 7:30 PM
Cartoonland will show for the first time in the US their work for Fox Kids London/Denmark and other recent projects.
|
|
|