May, 2003
ASIFA-SF MEMBERS ARE INVITED TO ATTEND A LUNCHEON IN HONOR OF VOICE TEACHER AND ACTRESS LUCILLE BLISS,
BY WOMEN IN ANIMATION IN LA ON SAT. MAY 10 Lucille lives and teaches in San Francisco part of each year and
has been a member of our chapter for over 25 years. Her first voice roll was an evil sister in Disney's
Cinderella, 1949. Since then she has voiced Smurfette, Crusader Rabbit, and hundreds of other characters.
Learn how she got into voice over and hear her tell stories about some of the old timers! She is a really
entertaining storyteller so show up if you are going to be in LA. Saturday, May 10, 2003, from 12:30 to 3,
The Smoke House Restaurant, 4420 Lakeside Dr., Burbank. (across from Warner Bros.),: $20 per person, RSVP to
310-535-3838 by May 7, send checks to WIA/Bliss lunch. PO Box 251, Topanga, CA 90290
A NEW COMPANY HAS OPENED IN SAN FRANCISCO - WELCOME ALLIGATOR PLANET They have entered into a joint business venture with TV-Animation of Copenhagen, Denmark. They will market to North America programs made with TV-Animation's real-time broadcast tool, the Cartoon Broadcast System (CBS), and originate new material with it. The names associated with this venture are quite impressive. They include Ralph Guggenheim as
Alligator Planet's executive producer. He was Pixar's producer on their early shorts and on Toy Story.
He met the TV-Animation people at MIPCOM in October, 2002, and formed Alligator Planet in January 2003 with former
Colossal Pictures stars - Eli Noyes, Tim Boxell and Alan Buder. The system is presently being used to create
content fairly cheaply for the Nelly Nut show airing on the BBC and elsewhere in Europe.
www.alligatorplanet.com
IMAGINENGINE WAS HONORED BY THE BOLOGNA CHILDREN'S BOOK FAIR by Bridget Erdman The event was held in Bologna, Italy, April 2 - 4th. The Fiera del Libro per Ragazzi is an internationally acclaimed congregation of authors, publishers, illustrators and lovers of children's books. Part of the fair is the Dust or Magic conference put on by Warren Buckleitner, editor of Children's Software Review. Every year the conference gives the New Media Award to exceptional CD-Rom's. This year Imaginengine's STARBRIGHT ASTHMA CD-Rom was nominated and Mark Loughridge and Bridget Erdman were asked to attend the conference and demo the product and the SHOAH-Children Speak CD-Rom (currently in production). One of the winners was Zoombini's Island Odyssey, animated by Imaginengine for Riverdeep/The Learning Company (the present name for what was once The Learning Company in Fremont). Although their Fremont studio was eventually closed after the sale of the company to a larger corporation, they are still in the Bay Area with an office in the old Broderbund building in Novato. They now do all of their development out-of-house. Work is sent to Ireland, India and to Imaginengine! A really great animated CD-Rom that won a new media prize in Bologna is Fritz and Chester Learn to Play Chess. Kids are taken on an adventure while they learn the basic techniques of chess. The game uses metaphors, so the king moves like a sumo wrestler and the rook is really pong or breakout (always moving on the angles). The animation and art are very well done and retain the feel of an illustrated storybook. It is published by Terzio and was presented by Ralph Mollers. Another exceptional product that was shown in Italy is Croatian Tales of Long Ago, Part One. It was written in
1916 by Ivana Brlie Mazuranie and is touted as the 'Slavic Tolkien.' The well-told stories are interesting and the
art is fantastic. This beautiful CD-Rom was the winner of the Story Category of the FlashForward 2002 in San Francisco.
Hawkins founded Electronic Arts in 1982, where he was CEO for nine years and chairman of the board for 12 years. He was a pioneer in the development of sports video games and introduced numerous business practices to the game publishing industry. He also has several credits for game design of such games as High Heat Major League Baseball, Doctor J and Larry Bird Go One on One, John Madden Football, and Army Men. Hawkins holds a bachelor's degree magna cum laude in strategy and applied game theory from Harvard College and an
MBA from Stanford University. The meeting is at Cogswell Polytechnical College at 7PM Meeting is free to IGDA members,
$5 for non-members, free for students with ID.
Friday, May 16, 2 PM SAN FRANCISCO STATE'S ANIMATION FILM FINALS See completed and works-in-progress done with stop-motion, hand-drawn, computer and other techniques. Coppola Theater. Free. Wear a Hawaiian shirt and come to their colorful luau after the screening. Thursday, May 22, 7:30 PM, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, HAPTIC RETRACTIONS: A CAMERALESS EVENING with Alexis Bravos, Karen Johannesen, Steve Polta and slit (?) in-person. Program also includes work by Rock Ross, Stan Brakhage and other artists. Friday and Saturday, May 23 & 24, THE SEX WORKER FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL (no kids - some of it is rated X) will be screening an amazing collection of live action and animated flesh before your very eyes (adults only) at the Roxie at 16th and Valencia. Jimmy Picker is flying in from greater Flatbush to screen The Age of Ignorance (22 min., 35mm in widescreen). It will be the conclusion of an all animated program. The first part of that show will be an hour of animated shorts with music provided by Nik Phelps and the Sprocket Ensemble. (The screening will probably be on Saturday afternoon and it will include Roof Sex by Pez [shown at Cannes and Annecy], 5 Fucking Fables by Signe Baumane, Buried Treasure by an anonymous group of NY animators in 1928 and other delightful surprises). In another program they plan to show Chronicles of an Asthmatic Stripper by Sara Jane Lapp. Her animation consists of 1500 ink, wax and gouche drawings. The 5-minute film has already been shown at the Ann Arbor Film Festival and at theaters and museums with film programs in Boston, St. Louis, New York, Bologna (Italy) and in other locations. Another fascinating work that will be shown is Orange Blossom by Everett Orbit (of Tacoma, WA), a 4 min.
burlesque act. It was shot with 7 video cameras, edited digitally and then every 3rd frame was printed out on paper.
Everett worked full-time for 10 weeks hand-painting each frame. Finally they were shot on threes with a digital camera.
Check the festival's web site closer to the event for details. www.bayswan.org/swfest
OREGON PAPER BREAKS A SURREAL NEWS ITEM, WILL VINTON HAS "BEEN LAID-OFF" FROM THE STUDIO HE FOUNDED On April 19 The Oregonian announced that Will Vinton has told his friends and workers that he had resigned from the board and that he was being laid-off by the company. While the paper said he sold a majority interest in the company about 6 months ago to Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, someone close to the situation told me he didn't sell anything, he just "lost control" of his company. I was told it was a really surreal situation worthy of a documentary or Hollywood feature some day. In any case Knight was appointed to the board of directors and he arranged for 3 of his friends to be on the 7-member board. In the 27 years Vinton headed his company they won worldwide recognition for their work. Over the years the studio was awarded dozens of Cleo awards, 11 Emmy awards and numerous other accolades. "Claymation," Vinton's registered trademark name for the process of animating clay, has become so well known as a word that it has been mis-used for many years as a common generic word for all stop-motion animation using clay. Over the years the company produced the California Raisins ads and hundreds of other commercials. The studio's educational shorts have included award winners about Mark Twain, evolution and other topics. Their entertainment shorts included the Oscar nominated Great Cognito (1982), Mountain Music (1976) and other fine films. They also did sequences for features, two popular animated TV series and dozens of other exceptional projects. In the 1980s Expanded Cinema distributed a compilation feature of Vinton's work to theaters across America. Vinton came on the scene with a bang, winning an Oscar before the company that bears his name existed. Working with fellow Bay Area student Bob Gardiner (Will was a Berkeley student and Bob went to College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland), they created Closed Mondays (1974). No reason has been given for Vinton's departure from the studio, but business hasn't been good for many medium sized animation companies since 9/11. Today there are fewer animated ads on television and fewer animated TV series animated in the US by independent studios. The Oregonian implied that CEO Jeff Farnath has been pushing for the company to get into feature production and out of the business of creating animated commercials. The studio's public relations company hinted to the newspaper that more changes can be expected as the business is restructured. At the time of Vinton's departure the studio had begun pre-production on Corpse Bride, Tim Burton's next stop-motion feature. It will be produced in England by the Vinton Studio with a mostly British crew; however, several of the key personnel will be from the US. They include David Bleiman, the feature's producer and his wife Edie who will be the film's editor. Bleiman worked in the Bay Area in the 1980s as line producer on the last Gumby TV series and in the mid-'90s he was co-owner (with Ken Pontac) of Danger Productions, the company that made the delightful Bump-In-The-Night TV series for ABC-TV. AnimationBlast.com ran Vinton's farewell address to his friends and co-workers on their excellent website. The following is the message that was sent out: "Hi everybody, I want you all to know that on Monday, April 14th, I resigned from the WVS Board of Directors. Today, I have been laid off along with a number of staff members and I will be leaving the Company as an employee right away. I want to thank each and every one of you for the fabulous work and contributions you've made to this company in the past. It has been one amazing 27 year run! - And I have no (well, few!) regrets! When I think back on the highlights of my career I'm astounded at some of the great things we did together - but the best part of it all was working collaboratively with some of the best people and talent anywhere! That has been my greatest pleasure! Because I think of most of you as friends as well as colleagues, I want to invite you to talk with me about this change if you are interested, anytime. This evening from 5:45 on, I plan to meet with some of you at Bridgeport Pub to talk and to celebrate (as in a "wake"). You are all invited to join if you want! If you have thoughts, want to talk about it or have questions, or just want to toast to many years of incredible work we have done together, please join me. Most of us go back many many years - others I've only known for a short time, but we have become close friends - so I'm happy to let you know what I am doing and where I am going and why. Again, thanks a million everybody! And best of luck to you all! May your futures be bright, fun, successful and, above all, animated! ~Will Vinton" I hope Vinton will go on to bigger and greater accomplishments. (I was told he has already started to move forward using a desk in a friendly office run by former employees.) He has an excellent reputation as an artist, studio head and individual. He ran one of our nation's greatest animation studios for 27 years. Will, thanks for the incredible memories and good luck and best wishes for the next 27. ~KC P.S. I suspect Phil Knight is going to learn the hard way that the studio's biggest asset wasn't the name, buildings or
equipment. It was Will Vinton. Several people have told me that removing Vinton from his studio is an award-winning act of
stupidity. Time will tell if they are right.
New York's Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art is displaying some Bill's drawings. He will be there on May 8 to sign copies of
Hair High, the graphic novel, and Sloppy Seconds, a book of his delightful cartoons from years gone by.
Maurice's father was a founder of MGM who was made 3rd or 4th in command at the studio. His parents spared him no expense as he grew up. In his teens he dated movie starlets and knew what made the '20s roar. His life changed dramatically in 1934 when he and his fellow Dartmouth classmate Budd "What Makes Sammy Run" Schulberg, signed up for a $325 "all inclusive" summer trip to the USSR. The two college juniors were in the first group of students to visit Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. While America was struggling to rebuild itself in the midst of the depression and Hitler was turning Germany into a Fascist state, they were shown how Russia was solving its problems by educating its population and by providing employment for all along with universal health coverage and other benefits unheard of in other parts of the world. As a Jew he was impressed that anti-Semitism was a crime in the USSR. He was young and probably naive and impressionable. The trip had a profound influence on him. (In recent years he recognized that he had been taken on a carefully managed tour that avoided discussing or showing the country's problems.) Maurice became politically active after he returned to the US. He went to Communist Party functions. He became a successful Hollywood writer of live action features and he was active with the screenwriters' union. In 1944, while waiting for his commission papers in the Navy to arrive, he reluctantly accepted a job at Disney to work on the script of Uncle Remus. The project was renamed Song of the South before it was released. Rapf thought taking the job might hurt his career. Writing for animation wasn't considered as a very worthy credit to have, but Disney assured him most of the film would be live action. Rapf was also worried the film might contain racist material. Disney said he was being hired to remove such material from the script. Rapf said Disney hoped a left-wing writer could figure out how to avoid potential problems that existed in the first treatment of the script. Disney hired Rapf knowing he was Jewish and a radical. This contradicts individuals who claim Disney was anti-Semitic and intolerant of people to the left of center after the strike in 1941. Maurice always spoke with a great deal of respect about Disney. One of the reasons I've been impressed with Rapf is he quit the project when he found out Dalton Reymond, the author of the first treatment of the script, had told a woman in another department that he was Rapf and if she went out with him he might get her a good job at MGM. Instead of accepting his resignation, Disney moved him onto another project, an early draft of Cinderella. He would also work on So Dear to My Heart in his 2 _ year stay at Disney. After work he helped write the animated short The Brotherhood of Man (1946). Another reason I'm impressed with him is his admitting that Song of the South was a failure in terms of being acceptable to all. He said he was invited to be on a panel discussion after the film was released and when a representative of the NAACP attacked the film he couldn't defend it because he agreed, "it was racist." Disney had removed some of his changes, but he felt that even if his draft of the script had been used it would have offended some people. I heard him say several times over the years, "Song of the South is a film that should never have been made." Rapf left Hollywood for New York in 1950. He knew what was coming and he hoped he could avoid embarrassing his parents by being out-of-town when the witch hunt started. He moved east but couldn't escape the House Un-American Activities Committee and their "friends." He was investigated and interviewed by the FBI and had trouble finding work. He talked freely about his trouble as a blacklisted writer. He took writing jobs under assumed names. He worked on industrial films and other projects where clients didn't care about blacklists. Eventually the blacklist faded away. He became a film critic and professor at Dartmouth College. For a time he headed the school's film studies department. I've met some of his students and all spoke highly of him. Rapf wanted people to know what it was like to be a Communist in the 1930's and to be blacklisted. In the book Tender Comrades by Patrick McGilligan and Paul Buhle, 1997, he says, "I never knew anyone in the party, in all the years I was associated with it, which was a long, long time, who was seeking anything but humanistic goals. Certainly, there was never any attempt on the part of the people I knew to overthrow the government of the United States We did believe in class struggle. I still believe in class struggle." This may be somewhat unusual for an obituary, but Rapf was an honest and frank man who didn't hide the truth. He contributed a great deal to my book Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators. I've interviewed other blacklisted film people and many would rather not discuss what happened. To learn more about Rapf read his autobiography BACK LOT, GROWING UP WITH THE MOVIES, published by Scarecrow Press in 1999. It is excellent reading and it should fascinate most serious readers of film history. It is a well-told, fascinating story and he covers a side of the industry rarely written about. The 240 page book retails for $35. Scarecrow has a toll free number (800) 462-6420. Special thanks to Jerry Beck for letting me know of Rapf's passing and to David Ehrlich who teaches at Dartmouth for
introducing me to Rapf. For those who feel it is important to include the following information in an obituary, Rapf was 88.
He died late on Mon. April 14 (or was it in the first hours of April 15?) and he died of complications of old age. He is survived
by a daughter who is a college professor in Oklahoma and according to the NY Times a 2nd daughter, a son and 4 grandchildren.
To create the disaster footage they began with photographic plates of the real bridge when traffic was light. ComputerCafe
had to create gridlock by "tracking the plates, rebuilding the bridge surface, cloning cars and stopping the traffic manually"
according to Jeff Goldman, their digital effects supervisor. Using reference stills taken during the traffic shoot, and pictures
and information from the bridge's visitors' center, ComputerCafé animators modeled the structure from scratch in LightWave.
Close-ups of the underside of the bridge, as it begins to crack apart, shots of cars plunging over the sides and practical
explosions were created by Hunter-Gratzner Industries, Culver City, California, with miniature photography. The long shot of
the bridge breaking up was modeled by ComputerCafé's Steve Arguello and was based on aerial footage shot from a helicopter. The
left tower is real but everything to the right is completely CGI, including some of the water. Almost everything was taken from
the live plate, rebuilt, moved around and cleaned up before the bridge collapsed.
www.computercafe.com
He also says his son Paul Jr. had a part on West Wing. Paul Sr. can be reached at
paul@boyingtonstudios.com. His website is www.boyingtonstudios.com. Take a look.
Whenever possible I send news stories about people and companies to the people in them to check for accuracy. For example
in the Murray Rapf obituary I sent it to a close friend of Rapf who saw him on a regular basis. He passed it on to Rapf's daughter.
She approved it. She was upset that a national wire service reported her mother was still alive when she had died about 10 years ago.
People connected with Will Vinton Studios were contacted regarding the story in this issue about them and checked it for accuracy.
A couple of changes were made to correct errors printed in a Portland newspaper. The story is more interesting as a result.
Chairman, Animation & Digital Media, CCS, (College for Creative Studies) 201 E. Kirby, Detroit, MI 48202 wk: (313)-664-7699 fax
(248)-723-5771 cell: (917)-603-0262 Ebakst@ccscad.edu
www.ccscad.edu
MADCAT'S DEADLINE IS JUNE 4 for a Sept. 5-30 festival in San Francisco.The MadCat Women's International Film Festival "exhibits cutting-edge independent and experimental films directed or co-directed by women." An entry form, guidelines and fact sheet can be obtained at www.madcatfilmfestival.org, call (415) 436-9523 or email info@madcatfilmfestival.org. MadCat organizes a tour of selected works to universities, art houses and museums in the winter and spring. ASIFA IS AN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION ASIFA IS MANY DIFFERENT THINGS - ASIFA-AUSTRIA IS QUITE DIFFERENT FROM US CHAPTERS by KC ~ I have been talking with Thomas Renoldner renoldner@asifa.net via e-mailing. He became our international ASIFA President in March 2002. He wrote me, "ASIFA-Austria was formed 20 years ago and today it has 30 members. It provides members an animation and sound studio for their use, it organizes workshops and screenings, guides scientific research into Austrian animated film history, sends films to festivals, has a video and book archive and is active with other projects."One of their projects is running the excellent international ASIFA website (http://asifa.net). Another project of the chapter is organizing an international animated film festival to be held in Vienna. It is too early to announce details about the proposed event. One of their publications is "a little booklet that ASIFA published about the history of Austrian animation between 1920 and 1970 - This project was made in connection with '100 years of cinema' celebrations in Europe." It turns out Austria's commercial animation industry existed from 1920 to 1970. The present movement of celebrating animation as a personal or independent art form began in 1984 when the Academy of Applied Arts opened its Studio for Experimental Animation. Today, animation is alive and well in Austria and they are quite proud that Copy Shop by Virgil Widrich was nominated for an Oscar in 2002 in the short film category. The film combines "all kinds of digital techniques and finally was recorded using a 35mm animation stand from paper prints." On a personal note I told him how much I enjoyed my stay in Linz, Austria in 1968. It turns out he was born there in 1960 and
lived in this delightful town on the banks of the Danube until he was 20. I was charmed by the cafes along the river, the delightful
food, and the people. I loved Linz's wonderful baroque and rococo architecture, especially a small rococo church we chanced to discover
a few miles up river from the town.
He says the present organizational structure seems to be based on an old concept and does not reflect the fact that ASIFA is a series of local groups whose members motivation comes mainly from what they get back from the group. Consequently it is my opinion that the "international" should better organize the communication and cooperation between these groups, and further projects that we can do together "on an international level. After numerous discussions about the situation the president proposes a change of the "political" system from a direct democracy to a representative democracy. The former (also called "basic" democracy) has proven its value in small communities, where everyone knows everyone, communication profits from short range and mostly everybody is concerned by most of the issues, but finds its limits when the "body" it is designed for grows too big or too complicated. The latter (also named "parlamentary" democracy) is the system most widely used in the political world - the way most democratic countries have organized their citizen's participation in the election and decision making process. To give a concrete example: Today a big part of the ASIFA membership comes from the United States, but on the international ASIFA Board only two representative from USA are allowed. In the future I would like to see from each ASIFA Chapter in the USA one representative on the international ASIFA Board. So, ASIFA San Francisco should have its own delegate, like ASIFA Hollywood, ASIFA Central, ASIFA Northwest, etc. I believe, that this way we can form a stronger feeling of identification of all our members. At present all ASIFA members vote on the candidates for the International ASIFA Board, but - frankly speaking - they don't know them. The result of the last ASIFA General Assembly showed the weak sides of the old structure. Only 12 candidates had the needed 50% of the votes, and many important chapters (like e.g. Switzerland, Italy and others) lost their representation on the ASIFA Board. He want to have people from all ASIFA groups on the board, so all members can influence what ASIFA is doing on the international level. While he believes in the original idea and spirit of ASIFA, to promote the art of animation and to build an international network of animation enthusiasts, still is important today, he believes that the organizational structure has to be adopted to the needs of the present. At the EGA in Annecy he will need 33% of the member present or represented by proxy in order to change the ASIFA Statutes. You can attend the meetings in Annecy and vote, can sign and mail your proxy to Vesna Dovnickovic, the ASIFA General Secretary (she lives in Croatia); or you can give them to any member who is going to Annecy. For details about the new structure visit: http://asifa.net. or http://asifa.net/new.structure. WHAT OTHER INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS SAY ABOUT THE PROPOSED CHANGES by KC ~ I am not very familiar with the workings of ASIFA on the international level, so I asked several people who have been part of the process to comment. I do know that past boards have had many members who were elected to them and than did little or nothing to help ASIFA grow (some never showed up again after being elected to the board). I also realize that it is not how the board works as a body, but what work people actually do that makes ASIFA grow. The first I mail I got back was from a present board member. It said, "I am in favor of the proposal. Its been developed by Thomas with input from the board over the course of many months. I believe that it eliminates the dead weight of unaccountable board members. Although I am not going to Annecy, I am going to proxy my vote to someone who is." The second reply, from a former board member, said, "I'm behind Thomas' new proposal. Ideally it will ensure that ASIFA does something more in the future. Basically its creating a parliamentary system of sorts...and it is, in my view, bringing the chapters closer together and giving them more say/representation on the international board." "The only downside to it is that ASIFA still needs strong volunteers and they haven't had that in years. The 'executive' board itself will be smaller. Thomas is acknowledging that only a small group actually get any work done....but by expanding this parliamentary board directly involving chapter representatives in the actions of the international board, that makes so much sense to me. I've never understood why every chapter was not represented in some fashion on the international board. This new system will hopefully improve communication across the whole of ASIFA." Another former member of the board said, "TRUST THOMAS." He pointed out that what makes ASIFA work now are the local groups that are active and have meaningful agendas. He hopes the new plan will get more people involved in building a stronger international. The president of ASIFA Central says, "What this does is lets representation grow from where there is member interest and involvement. It recognizes that there are strong chapters in the world, and that chapter energy is what keeps ASIFA alive and vital. It makes the board more representative in terms of being a voice for all members, rather than the arbitrary limiting of members per country. It also will provide a conduit for communication across chapters, as chapter representatives meet and share information within this international context. ASIFA needs to do something to make a more active board, and I think this is a wonderful, fair and equitable scenario. I think it will work. I support it without reservations." The last former board member that I heard from said he liked the plan, but he added that most ideas need volunteers and/or financial support to turn them into projects that work. I suggest that people who have paid their international dues and who are not going to Annecy, should support the reorganization plan by signing your proxy and naming Sarah Fay Krom, president of ASIFA-Atlanta as your representative. She is going to Annecy and has agreed to represent our interests. Send signed forms to Sara Fay Krom before May 20 at 1126 Brookhaven Commons Drive, Atlanta GA 30319 |
| This issue was written by Karl Cohen, Bridget Erdman, Thomas Renoldner and other contributors. Much thanks to all who provided a quote, tip, news item or article. Pete Davis went over the copy for mistake (I've probably added a few since he read this). The mailing crew included Laura Tulloss and Shirley Smith. Tara Beyhm is the keeper of our mailing list. |
| Questions? Contact Karl Cohen (415) 386-1004 or karlcohen@earthlink.net |
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. |
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