OUR ANNUAL OPEN SCREENING FOR STUDENT AND INDEPENDENT ANIMATORS WILL BE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2005, 7:30pm, at the Exploratorium, free. This is going to be a great show. We already know there will be works by Gene Hamm, Karen Lithgow, Alan Orcutt, Guillermo Gomez, David Chai (Thunderbean Animation), Aaron Gracy, John Fadeff, Chelsea Walton, David Howell and Patricia Satjawatcharaphong. Discover Flames of Passion, enjoy a vacation with Howard and Marge in Hawaii, meet creatures from a distant planet and have other unusual adventures in this great evening of film.
In our June 2004 newsletter I reviewed Patricia Satjawatcharaphong's Reflections when it was shown at SF State's Film Finals. "Reflection shows a young woman wandering through a cave filled with stone statues. There are references to western mythology and it appears that the statues momentarily come to life in the woman's mind. In the end we learn that this is the story of Medusa told from her own point-of-view. The visuals are fascinating and elegantly drawn. The music track features a violin composition written for the film by Nik Phelps. It adds a great deal of richness to the atmosphere of Satjawatcharaphong's fine work." See it Jan. 12 at the open screening.
John Fadeff, a SF State student who won the first Gordon B. Thomas Memorial Scholarship, will show The Sweeper, an impressive 4 minute work-in-progress. It is hand-drawn, hand-colored and then scanned into a computer to give the 2D art a multiplane look. He knows how to control the motion of his different layers and to pull focus so his work had a wonderful sense of depth and space to it. His visuals have the richness and expertise of old master paintings. Fadeff has a fine arts background and worked as an illustrator before returning to college.
Everyone is welcomed to bring independent and student work (animated) unannounced. The museum can show 16mm, VHS tape and DVDs. We start at 7:30 and can go until almost 10 if there is that much work brought in. See the event's flyer for more information.
KIM LIBRERI JOINS ILM He is a visual effects supervisor and founder of ESC Ent., the company in Alameda that did the Matrix series and then vanished.
OUR ANNUAL OPEN SCREENING FOR PROFESSIONAL ANIMATORS/STUDIOS WILL BE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 7:30pm, at the Exploratorium, free. We never know what the entire program is in advance, but we already know Paul Nass will show a reel of his animation for Las Vegas slot machines, David Chai/Thunderbean Animation will show part of their More Stuff We Don't Know Anything About campaign for a legal company, Wild Brain will amaze us.and Luna Media (Catherine Margerine) will screen Hope, "a collage of music, sounds and images that illustrates the cause and effect of life out of balance, and suggests a new path to harmony." Hope is a 6 1/2 minute story based on the ideas of Native American storyteller, Willy Whitefeather. It was funded by the Dancing Tree Foundation.
Everyone is welcomed to bring a professional/studio reel unannounced. The museum can show 16mm, VHS tape and DVDs. We start at 7:30 and can go until almost 10 if there is that much work brought in.
CRITTER PIX IN SAN RAFAEL IS A NEW ANIMATION COMPANY WITH BIG PLANS In an article in the Marin Independent Journal (December 8, 2004, business section) The president is quoted as saying, "We've been able to watch Pixar so closely that we have learned from their mistakes and we can duplicate what they've done well. We want to have a run rate of one feature film per year in one-third the time that it took Pixar to get that run rate."
Their first production will star Ollie the Otter and Kelly Williamson, president and founder of the San Rafael company. expects to have it released by early 2007. They expect to have 130 people on staff early this year. They move into a 25,000' studio space this month. They will work with Regency Enterprises who produced Free Willie, JFK and Hollywood Confidential.
THUNDERBEAN ANIMATION IS A NEW COMPANY IN SAN JOSE run by David Chai (who also teaches at San Jose State) and Steve Stanchfield. They started the studio in Michigan and are now located in both Ann Arbor and San Jose. They most recently produced a series of spots for a legal firm and will show a sample of that work at our February 9 open screening for professional companies.
At www.thunderbeananimation.com you can see samples of their past commercial work, recent projects and some of their short films (25 Ways to Die, Flames of Passion). Commercial work on their sample reel includes clips from Space Jam (Warner Bros.), The Proud Family (Disney), Karate Kat (Gannon) Rocky and Bullwinkle (Jay Ward), Tonka Joe (Hasbro/Infogames, and other companies). It isn't clear on the website what they did for those companies, but the clips are great. I asked David and found out, "For Space Jam; cleanup, inbetween, shadow model. For Proud Family; layout, animation. For the last three: Animation direction, animation."
THUNDERBEAN IS ALSO RELEASING DVDS OF CLASSIC CARTOONS Jerry Beck recently wrote, "Thunderbean Animation has started releasing a series of DVDs of classic cartoons that are a must for your home animation library. I never thought I'd live to see the day someone would issue The Complete Adventures of Cubby Bear - and since no one else had the guts, Thunderbean has done it! This is a marvelous DVD - Thunderbean has collected all 20 Cubby Bear epics - including the three rare Harman-Ising productions (done in that period between leaving Leon Schlesinger and signing with MGM). Surreal gags, crazy animation and hot jazzy soundtracks!"
David Chai says his partner Steve Stanchfield has put together the DVDs. He is a film collector and animation historian. They also have DVDs out of rare Fleischer Popeye cartoons and original Felix the Cat gems. The 'Popeye Original Classics' DVD was produced with the help of the Official Popeye Fanclub as well as numerous private collectors and historians. It features 7 Fleischer black and white cartoons and their 3 "color specials." All of the films were mastered from 35mm material. The disk also features a wealth of bonus materials, including still galleries, interviews, a tour of the Fleischer studio and more. See reviews of their products at Amazon.com for more information.
MICHAEL "LIPPY" LIPMAN HAS UPDATED HIS WEB SITE It includes a sneak peek at his rough animation for Ragtime Rabbit. It has other examples of his character design work, samples from his sketchbook and other work. www.lippy.com
WILD BRAIN GETS $30 MILLION IN FINANCING FOR THEIR "OPUS" FEATURE The money comes from Valence Capital Management. Syntek Capital AG is also a financial partner in the project. As part of the new financing deal, Wild Brain is adding two Valence members to their board of directors. Opus is a joint production with Miramax and Dimension Films and is based on an idea by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and illustrator, Berkeley Breathed.
THE 13TH FLASH FORWARD AND FLASH FILM FESTIVAL WILL BE IN SF APRIL 6-8 The event has more than 70 confirmed speakers. For information about entering the competition (Jan. 10 deadline) visit www.flashforwardconference.com.
THE GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE IS MOVING TO SAN FRANCISCO IN 2005 It will be at the Moscone West Convention Center March 7 - 11. Register online by February 9, 2005 and save up to 30% on GDC 2005 www.gdconf.com!
SALON.COM, A GREAT ONLINE MAGAZINE THAT INVESTIGATES IMPORTANT STORIES, FOUND SERIOUS LABOR PROBLEMS AT ELECTRONIC ARTS (EA) In the feature article "Santa's Sweatshop" they say that although the company grossed $2.96 BILLION! in its last fiscal year they, "Routinely squeeze hundred of hours of uncompensated overtime from its programmers and artists" and that employees work from 9 AM to 10 PM seven days a week "with the occasional Saturday night off for "good behavior." A spouse posted a lament on the Internet and got over 3,000 responses. Some writers confirmed that people put in 80 and 90-hour work weeks at EA.
It also turns out there is a class action suit against the company for "back pay for uncompensated overtime." Apparently other high tech companies are run in the same manner so the coming years may see major labor disputes in Silicon Valley.
When I first heard about overtime problems at EA a few years ago, I thought workers got the same hourly rate after they worked a 40 hour week and were not paid time-and-a-half or double-time. I was wrong. In the article the lawyer for the man that filed the suit against EA said, "Right now EA doesn't pay them at all for that time. They get a salary for 40 hours a week. And any time that they put in above 40 hours is uncompensated." It used to be these long hours were required when a project was ending. Now I'm told they are required every week.
At our December meeting two former EA members were present and they not only confirmed the article was true, but they also told how EA treats people poorly in other ways. What I heard really disgusted me and I'm also concerned that certain local animation schools are feeding these sweatshops with their graduates. Is it right for schools to be training students for work in the games industry so they can get exploited royally? One "trade" school prides itself on having a "great" games department and another boasts on their website at how they have placed their graduates at EA. Unfortunately there are kids who have always wanted to create electronic games no matter what and local schools are glad to train them. I think there is something wrong with this picture.
I wish I could say not all games companies are like EA, but EA has bought up Maxis and other companies or put the competition either out of business or simply pushed them aside with their products. Stores give their limited shelf space to the best selling products and EA has deep pockets when it comes to ads and promotions, so they get lots of shelf space. I suppose there are game companies with good labor relations, but I don't hear about them. (Dec. 2, 2004 available online for free if you scroll quickly through an ad. www.salon.com) KC
NEWS OF ELECTRONIC ARTS BEING A "SWEAT-SHOP" ALSO APPEARED IN THE "NEW YORK TIMES," "SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS" AND OTHER PAPERS (November 21, 2004) The article "DIGITAL DOMAIN; When a Video Game Stops Being Fun" by Randall Stross begins, "Charles Dickens himself would shudder, I should I think, were he to see the way young adults are put to work in one semi-modern corner of our economy. Gas lamps are long gone, and the air is free of soot. But you can't look at a place like Electronic Arts, the world's largest developer of entertainment software, and not think back to the early industrial age when a youthful work force was kept fully occupied during all waking hours to enrich a few elders."
The article confirmed what was in the Salon.com article and had more information about the lawsuit. There were also other details in the article. One EA employee interviewed was making about $60,000 a year although he was working on the average of 82 to 84 hours a week. He was getting stock options, free laundry, free meals and free ice cream and other snacks. "But he said they soon came to feel that seeing the sun occasionally would have had more of a tonic effect." The article can be read online on the NY Times website (free, just register).
A LOS ANGELES ANIMATOR COMMENTS ON THE GAME ANIMATION LABOR SITUATION The person wrote, "So many fly by night `art schools' flooding the market and kids crazed to work for these companies. Willing to make less and work more to get a 3D job. A generation who live, eat and breathe video games. Robots."
"The Hanna Barbera Kids used to get off at six and work normal hours. If you are in animation for the art and creativity (like you are supposed to be) you have only about 8 hours of creative juices before you are tapped out for the day. Even doing robotic-like operations in Maya after eight hrs will give you brain freeze. I have worked in 3D, 2D, and line production experienced it myself and shared these experiences and work energies with and on a crew. Same perspective."
"I know ILM is a union shop and people are treated pretty well as I have several friends working over there. They get full benefits, vacation, two additional weeks off for the holidays and best holiday parties ever. This EA situation sounds way uncomfortable. They don't make that much and actually less than a schoolteacher with no time off, and really unreasonable hours. Yes Karl, sweatshops." The writer also suggests the animators' union might meet with EA's artists.
A FORMER DISNEY ANIMATOR HAS THIS TO SAY ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC ARTS REVELATIONS IN THE PRESS "This has been the model in the games industry for years, although it seems to have gotten much worse recently. It's the same as ever - bad planning and poor decisions by producers and management, which roll downhill and hit the art and programming teams. Immovable deadlines and 11th hour changes have made this standard operating procedure for years; however, now that the stakes are higher the problem is worse."
Another former Disney artist once told me the union has tried to talk with EA workers and has gotten nowhere. The workers believe it is a great honor to be with the top game company, regardless of how they are exploited. Besides, they see themselves as artists, not common labor. I was told they feel artists don't need unions and artists who have tried to organize are shown the door as soon as the boss finds out who they are. KC
A FINAL WORD BY A FORMER GAME ANIMATOR He emailed me that the article deserves "wide distribution to all the damaged animation veterans of the game industry, if that helps deliver a much-deserved indictment and PR black eye against a certain 'revered' game development institution, it ups my 'warm and fuzzy' quotient for this time of year!! In other words, thumbs up!!!"
LOCAL SCREENINGS & EVENTS (top)
Wednesday, January 12, 2005, 7:30pm, ASIFA-SF'S ANNUAL OPEN SCREENING FOR INDEPENDENT AND STUDENT ANIMATORS This is going to be a great show. We already know there will be works by Gene Hamm, Karen Lithgow, Alan Orcutt, Guillermo Gomez, David Chai (Thunderbean Animation), Aaron Gracy, John Fadeff, Chelsea Walton, David Howell and Patricia Satjawatcharaphong. Got an animated work? Bring it unannounced and we will show it. (Reels from professional animators/studios will be screened at our open screening on Wed. Feb. 9) At the Exploratorium and it is FREE! Invite your friends.
Wednesday, January 12, 7:00pm, STORYTELLING IN THE INTERNET AGE will be presented at the Ninth Street Independent Film Center. The topic is the future of "techno-storytelling" with documentary filmmaker, writer and teacher, Carroll Parrott Blue; Flash technology pioneer Louis Fox; animation whiz, entrepreneur and activist Brad deGraf and video and digital artist Lynn Hershman-Leeson (Technolust, Conceiving Ada), 145 Ninth Street, SF (between Mission & Howard). $10 advance, $5 students (415) 552-5950.
Thursday Jan. 20, Saturday Jan. 22, Friday Jan. 28, and Saturday Jan. 29. FOUR CHANCES TO SEE ZOETROPE," A DANCE/ANIMATION PIECE, being presented by Chris Lanier in collaboration with Element Dance Theater. He says, "It's a half-hour piece, which combines projected animation with live dance. We've looked at areas where the arts of dance and animation overlap, and have created several short vignettes around these intersections. Some vignetttes have a vaudeville-like quality. Others are more abstract. We'll be screening some Betty Boop, an animation by Charlie Canfield, and some original animation I created for the piece. Should be a fun show." It is at Dance Mission, as part of the "Women on the Way" Festival. 8PM Dance Mission Theater is at 3316 24th Street (at the corner of Mission). http://www.ftloose.org/
Feb. 18 - 20, WONDER CON for lovers of comics, science fiction and fantasy, collectors of stuff, etc. at the Moscone Center in SF. www.wondercon.org
VISIT OUR WEBSITE
NATIONAL NEWS (top)
THE OSCAR FOR BEST ANIMATED SHORT WILL BE SELECTED FROM ONE OF THE FOLLOWING 10 FILMS Each year the Academy draws up a "short list" of films and then selects 5 of them that will get Oscar nominations. This year the animation committee selected the following 10 from a field of 38 entries.
the list:
Birthday Boy, Sejung Park, Australia/Korea
Suite For Freedom, Acme Filmworks, USA
Ward 13, Peter Cornwell, Australia
Gopher Broke - Blur Studios, USA
In The Rough, Blur Studios, USA
It's The Cat, Mark Kausler, USA
Guard Dog, Bill Plympton, USA
Ryan, Chris Landreth, Canada
Lorenzo, Mile Gabriel, Disney
Fallen Art, Poland
Six of the films have already been seen here. Marty McNamara invited ASIFA-SF members to DeAnza in August (via last minute Internet invitations - a good reason for us to have your email address) where we saw Sejung Park's impressive Birthday Boy.
In November Ron Diamond showed 3 of the titles in 35mm at Dolby to ASIFA-SF members. They were the visually stunning Ryan, the extremely handsome Lorenzo and Suite for Freedom, a beautifully done and moving work about slavery and the Underground Railroad. It was animated by Caroline Leaf, Aleksandra Korejwa and Luc Perez. We also showed Ryan at our delightful party in December at the Bay View Boat Club. (Thanks again Nancy and Laura for some fabulous food & pastry and Jack Davis for being our host.) In October we saw It's the Cat, a brilliant tribute to 1930s animation, and Guard Dog, a great laugh getter, in our screening of winners from the 2004 ASIFA-East Competition. Our audience voted It's the Cat 2nd Place and gave Guard Dog an Honorable Mention. Also, Bill Plympton was here early last year and showed Guard Dog as a work-in-progress at a Sprocket performance. While he was on stage he made a drawing of his dog and donated it to our chapter. We auctioned it off at our November event (thanks again Bill). We plan to show Ward 13, an exceptional stop-motion work, at our January open screening.
THE 7 FILMS ON THE ACADEMY'S VISUAL EFFECTS OSCAR SHORT LIST.ARE: The Aviator, The Day After Tomorrow, I, Robot, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,, Spider-Man 2, emony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD'S ANNIE AWARDS is an industry award competition. The Incredibles got 16 nominations while Shrek 2 and Shark Tale got 7 each. While they award lots of prizes to TV shows, they only have one category for independent shorts. This year the nominated shorts are Ryan by Chris Landreth, Rockfish by Blur Studio, It's the Cat by Mark Kausler, Lorenzo from Disney and Agricultural Report by Barley Films. The Incredibles, Shrek 2, Spongebob and Ghost in Shell 2 got nominated in the Best Feature category.
"THE INCREDIBLES" IS GETTING LOTS OF NOMINATIONS It is no surprise that it has been nominated for best picture at the Golden Globe, Annies and other competitions. The Los Angeles Film Critics and the NY Film Critics nominated it as the best
animated feature and it made the top 10 features of 2004 list from the American Film Institute.
FOX NEWS REVEALS "WHAT MICHAEL MOORE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT DISNEY" (12/13/04) The fight last spring over the distribution of Fahrenheit 9/11 goes deep into the slime of politics. When Eisner decided he wasn't going to allow Miramax to distribute Moore's film, the press said he did not want to seem "partisan" when he forced Miramax to drop their distribution plans.
It turns out Aylwin Lewis is on the board of both Disney and Halliburton, a company that Moore attacks in his film. It also turns out that Art Levitt III is involved with Disney development deals and is a confidant of Eisner. Art Levitt III's father, a former head of the SEC is now a senior advisor of the Carlyle Group, another outfit Moore attacks in his feature. The son has been involved with the development of Disney World's Pleasure Island, the Disney World Marketplace, their Resort and their Vacation Club. I'm sure he didn't want to upset papa by working for a company that distributes "that" kind of film.
Of course the original rumor that Eisner didn't want to upset George W. Bush's brother still makes sense. If Jeb Bush had gotten upset at Eisner for distributing what I assume he considers an awful film, he could have made life more difficult for good old boy Eisner. Seems Mike Eisner's company runs a theme park in Florida so it isn't nice to get Jeb p.o.ed at him. Good old boys do look out for each other and get nasty when they are crossed. Michael More probably didn't see any of this coming when he signed with Miramax.
IN AN ARTICLE MADE UP OF WALT DISNEY QUOTES, WALT SAYS, "I'VE NEVER BELIEVED IN DOING SEQUELS. I DIDN'T WANT TO WASTE THE TIME I HAVE DOING SEQUELS; I'D RATHER BE USING THAT TIME DOING SOMETHING NEW AND DIFFERENT. It goes back to when they wanted me to do more pigs." In another quote he said, "By nature I'm an experimenter. To this day I don't believe in sequels. I can't follow popular cycles. I have to move on to new things. So with the success of Mickey, I was determined to diversify." On another occasion he said, "You hate to repeat yourself. I hate to make sequels to my pictures. I like to take a new thing and develop something, a new concept.
The article is on the web at www.savedisney.com. The above quotes are near the end of Story! Story! Story! Walt Disney Speaks, compiled by Bert Dawes. I thought the quotes would be of interest as Michael Eisner has become fond of making sequels. The article doesn't have footnotes so you get no idea when Walt said what is quoted or why. But it does give insight to his genius. I doubt we will ever read a book of quotes by the current heads of the studio unless it is self-published. KC
JOHN CANEMAKER FILM TO PREMIERE AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART IN NYC The Moon and the Son is a 30-minute autobiographical animated film by John Canemaker. The world premiere will be Wednesday, January 5, Museum of Modern Art
at 7:30pm. (Repeat screening on Sat., January 8 at 2:30pm)
The film features the voices of actors Eli Wallach and John Turturro. It explores the difficult emotional terrain of father/son relationships as seen through Canemaker's own turbulent relationship with his father. The film employs a variety of animation techniques -- literally drawing understanding from its dark subject matter.
Canemaker has created an imaginary conversation with his deceased father using memory, fact, conjecture, trial transcripts, audio recordings, home movies, photos, snapshots, and original animation to tell the story of his father's life and his own. www.johncanemaker.com
WHY DOESN'T SF'S MUSEUM OF MODERN ART SHOW MUCH CONTEMPORARY ANIMATION? I THINK IT IS THE GREATEST ART FORM OF OUR TIME AND WHAT IS BEING SHOWN IN NYC (AND AT ASIFA OPEN SCREENINGS IN SF, SEATTLE, PORTLAND, ATLANTA, ETC.) PROVES INDEPENDENT ANIMATION IS ALIVE AND WELL. IS THE TROUBLE HERE THAT THEY AND THEIR ART DEALER FRIENDS DON'T KNOW HOW TO PACKAGE AND SELL IT?
BILL PLYMPTON TO HAVE OFFICIAL NEW YORK PREMIERE OF "GUARD DOG " AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART It will be in a program of live action shorts on Monday, Jan. 3 at 8 PM and on Jan. 21 at 5 PM.
Bill also tells me his next short will be quite different from his past work. The Fan and the Flower is a black and white work based on a script by Dan O'Shannon who wrote for the TV show Frasier. He says it is a cute and sentimental story. It has been animated and he is working with the author on the final edits. He expects it to be entered in festivals soon.
Another film in the works is a sequel to Guard Dog. This time it will be Guide Dog (for the blind). The subject suggests several ghastly jokes.
Bill was roasted at Caroline's Comedy Club, as part of the New York Comedy Festival, a couple of months ago. New York animators took jabs at him. He told me John Dilworth did the best job. John showed Bill's Oscar nominated Your Face scene by scene. He would stop the film and comment about Bill's fixations and other mental problems that are manifested in the sequence just shown.
Bill also said Patrick Smith is producing the second volume of Avoid Contact. The first Avoid Contact DVD is a great must have collection.
NEW YORK ANIMATORS PREVIEWED LOTS OF NEW WORK AT A GALLERY SCREENING LAST MONTH The remarkable Signe Baumane organized a gathering of the clan at The Taste of Arts Gallery. She emailed me, "It was fun. Lots of people came and the program was very strong. I showed Bill's new film about fan and flower, my new film about a dentist, Pat Smith's new film Handshake, Xeth's Feinberg's new Bulbo series, Fran Krause's brand new Moonraker, Alex Budovskiy's "Old Brazil and many more - all animation all from New York! Two festival people attacked me after the screening. They wanted the DVDs of the films for their festivals. All this proves that NYC is the place for Independent Animation - fresh and undying." It sounds like the 2005 edition of the ASIFA-East competition and Volume 2 of Avoid Eye Contact will be great.
ASIFA-ATLANTA Lou Hertz, who is their guiding light, tells us that they have expanded their screening schedule to one program a month and that the chapter is growing in size. Their third annual "Roll Your Own" (show of local work) will be in February. They plan to send a complimentary DVD of work by Atlanta animators to all ASIFA chapters later this year..
Atlanta has become an active animation production center thanks to Turner. Turner's Cartoon Network operates three in-house animation studios. There are also at least 3 independent studios that are doing about 50% of their work for non-Turner clients.
TOM "THE HUNGER ARTIST" GIBBONS TO HAVE THE WORLD PREMIERE OF HIS NEW FILM AT SLAMDANCE The 2005 Slamdance Film Festival, to be held Jan. 21-28 in Park City, Utah, will show Gibbon's Still I Remain (A Fish Out of Water) in a competition for best animated film. The other contestants are Sheol by Ruben Muller from Canada, Patricia Grey by Anne Koizumi from Canada, Days that were Filled with Sense by Fear by Loszly Csbki from Hungary, Egg by Beth Zeitlin and The Guilt Trip or the Vaticans Taske a Holiday by Lisa Barcy. The festival is also showing 2 animated films out of competition, Magda by Chel White and Dambo by Teruhito Noji & Yosuke Takeuchi from Japan.
The event also has Anarchy-online screenings. These films have been competing year-round on the festivals website www.slamdance.com and now the winners are in competition with each other for the Global Anarchy Award. They are: Claude: A Symphony of Horror by Matthew Gray Gubler, Elegy by Nadine Takvorian, Food for Thought by Richard Turke, Milton is a Shitbag by Courtney Davis and The Coil by Dimitrios Pouliotis from Australia.
SUNDANCE WILL SHOW 10 ANIMATED SHORTS THIS MONTH They are: 9 by Shane Acker, A Buck's Worth by Tatia Rosenthal, The Meaning of Life by Don Hertzfeldt, Motel by Thor Freudenthal, The Birthday from Finland by Kari Juusonen, Fallen Art from Poland by Tomek Baginski, It's Like That from Australia by the Southern Ladies Animation Group, Moo(n) from U.K. by Leigh Hodgkinson, Ryan from Canada by Chris Landreth and Through My Thick Glasses from Norway by Pjotr Sapegin.
ASIFA-NW'S MARILYN ZORNADO HAS A NEW BOOK OUT The Longest Beach by Zornado and Fay Malloy is "an eccentric guide to Washington State's Long Beach Peninsula in the off season. They follow in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark to tell personal stories describing the pleasures to be discovered after the tourists have left for the season." Illustrated with "small watercolors." Limited hand-bound edition is $14.95 plus shipping. (503) 289-9096
www.FremontGardenPress.com
NEW FILMS BY JOANNA PRIESTLEY & PAUL HARROD FILMS WERE SCREENENED IN PORTLAND IN DECEMBER at the Northwest Film Center's Guild Theater. Joanna premiered Dew Line, "an abstract, animated tapestry of botanical and biomorphic forms." Paul premiered Stain, his first live action film, a story of sexual attraction, self image, and the fear of exposure. The program will also include Slacker Cats, a pilot demo for an animated television series directed and designed by Harrod (produced at Will Vinton Studios), Fighting Gravity, a documentary tour of Priestley's studio and a peek into her creative process and an interview with sound designer, Lance Limbocker, who created the soundtracks for Stain, Slacker Cats and other films by Priestley.
THE LA ANIMATION COMMUNITY WILL HOLD AN AFTERNOON OF REMEMBRANCE ON SATURDAY JANUARY 29 at 1 PM at the DeMille Barn (Hollywood Heritage Museum) 2100 N. Highland Ave (across from the Hollywood Bowl). This is an annual event for the animation community to share memories of people who contributed parts of their lives to this art form. Among those to be honored are: Dayton Allen, Arthur Alsberg, Pete Alvarado, Lila Bakke, Jill Bauman, Jackson Beck, Elmer Bernstein, Mary Bloomquist, Jack Bradbury, Michelle Charest, Else Cruz, Bill Danch, Danny Dark, Ruth Eisengart, Leota Gibeaut, Yvonne Hansford, Helen Hanson, John Hench, Renee Henning, Harry Holt, Guy Hudson, Volus Jones, Richard Kempster, Jack Kerns, Jim Ludtke, Sam McKim, Dr. Bill Moritz, Joe Morrison, J.P. Miller, Bill Nunes, Mike O'Mara, Lee Orgel, Robert Peluce, Tony Pope, Ronald Potter, Jason Raize, Frank Thomas, Donald Trumbull, Kathrin Victor, Ivor Wood, Mitsuteru Yokoyama, and Lou Zukor. The event is presented by the Animation Guild, ASIFA-Hollywood and Women in Animation.
NYC ACM SIGGRAPH PRESENTED WORK ZONE WITH NINA PALEY in December at the School of Visual Arts. Work Zone is an informal series of short presentations by digital artists who show and discuss recent work or works-in-progress.
Last month Nina, who teaches animation at Parsons , and Aneza Sebek, a filmmaker and coordinator of the BFA/MFA Design Technology program at Parsons, talked about "Africa Animated," a pilot program that is developing an animation school in Kenya. She recently wrote us, "I taught animation in Nairobi for 3 weeks this summer, and you can see the results this Wednesday when Anezka Sebek and I present work from "Africa Animated" at SVA." Nina lived in SF for several years and was quite active with ASIFA-SF
ADAM ELLIOT WHO WON THE OSCAR LAST YEAR just emailed Nik and Nancy Phelps that he will not be going to the Oscar ceremony to be a presenter or coming to SF as he just got money to develop the script for a stop-motion feature. He is anxious to get going as he hasn't done any animation since completing Harvie Krumpet 2 years ago.
CHEL WHITE DIRECTED THE OFFICE MAX AD WITH A STOP-MOTION EDDIE STEEPLES In a 2/3rd-page article in Film and Video he said the ad agency liked his The Narrator That Ruined Christmas done after 9/11 in 2001 for Saturday Night Live. People are beginning to remember cgi isn't the only way to work in 3D.
THE HAYAO MYAZAKI WEBSITE HAS IMAGES FROM HIS LATEST FEATURE Howl's Moving Castle is breaking box office records in Japan. For information about his latest work visit http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/howl/
A DIFFERENT KIND OF REVIEW OF "POLAR EXPRESS" One of our members wrote the following. I doubt the Chronicle or hip alternate newspapers would publish this, but I think the writer has some excellent observations to share with us.
"Just got this month's newsletter and read your Polar Express review with great relish. I saw it in 3D IMAX last weekend, and I really liked it. You and I have the same take on it. If ever there was a `stoned-mandatory-experience' it's THIS film. (I WASN'T stoned... next time for sure.)
I think that what really worked for me was the `amusement park event' feel of the piece. Without the IMAX 3D component, I'm sure it would've felt like a completely (?) different experience. I enjoyed it as an `experience' as opposed to liking it as a film-story.
I was really caught up in its hermetic dream-like atmosphere. Even the amateur-feeling animation gaffs were not really a problem for me. (I even surprised myself on that.) There is something wonderfully strange about the moCap movements coupled with the live-action feature quality of the BG elements and the train and the effects... It's almost a completely different experience from a `cartoon' 3D piece like, say, The Incredibles. Pol-Ex doesn't feel like a cartoon to me. Feels more like a dream or a storybook. I think that this must have been very difficult to pull off. It felt unlike any other film I have ever seen. Maybe a bit like Blue Velvet in its dream-like after-images in my memory."
AWN.COM HAS JUST PUBLISHED AN EXCELLENT INTERVIEW WITH HENRY SELICK about his work on Life Aquatic and his next projects. Sample: TJ: I know some fish in the screenplay didn't make the cut. The rat-tail envelope fish made the trailer but not the film. And the screenplay mentions a bright red octopus in the scene with the submerged plane. Did that get made?
HS: It got made. It got made to fly out of a window. Originally they went inside the plane and there was a sea scorpion, but the whole sequence got trimmed. The movie was running long. Those exist. And the octopus, we made it a paisley-colored octopus. awn.com
ROY DISNEY ANNOUNCED HE WILL NOT RUN A SLATE OF CANDIDATES AGAINST EISNER AT THE NEXT DISNEY ANNUAL BOARD MEETING He says conditions have improved somewhat, but his website is still full of articles that dwell on the company's faults. For some strange reasons only a few mention the company's virtues. At least the next annual board meeting should run smoother than the last one.
THREE MORE ANIMATED WORKS ADDED TO THE NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY They are the campy Duck and Cover which includes the barely animated Bert the Turtle showing kids how to survive an atomic blast, Fleischer's Popeye Meets Sinbad the Sailor and an obscure Charlie Bowers short There It Is. Bowers is a great talent from the silent and early sound eras who combined live action with stop-motion in many of his works. Look for the wonderful DVD of his work, but it doesn't include There It Is. I suspect only 1 or 2 prints of it exist. I hadn't heard of it until now.
STILL UPSET ABOUT THE LAST ELECTION? "A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt.... If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake." --Thomas Jefferson, 1798, after the passage of the Sedition Act.
ASIFA-SF
P.O. Box 14516
San Francisco, CA 94114
This issue was written by Karl Cohen and proofread by Pete Davis. The mailing crew includes Laura Tulloss, Nancy Phelps and Shirley Smith. Special thanks to the contributors to the articles about Electronic Arts.
SIGNS OF THE TIME - DISNEY "MAY" OUTSOURCE TV ANIMATION PRODUCTION TO INDIA The new studio exists and Walt Disney India has launched new channels. I assume they are still training their artists before announcing the first series that will go into production there.
FESTIVALS (top)
KALAMAZOO IS MORE THAN A GREAT GLENN MILLER SONG - NEXT ANIMATION FESTIVAL IS MAY 13-15 The call is out for work by studios, independents and students. They celebrate animation as entertainment, education, employment and art. Over $15,000 in cash and awards and NO ENTRY FEE! In the 2003 there were about 330 entries. There was about 3,500 people attending the mid-west's biggest animation event. For details visit http://kafi.kvcc.edu. or call 269-373-7883.
GIANNALBERTO BENDAZZI WILL BE A JUDGE AT ANIMA '05. Having your work seen by Europe's greatest animation scholar is just one reason to enter. Anima is a major event in South America and there is NO ENTRY FEE! Deadlines are February 18 for films and video and March 4 for Internet animation. The festival will be in Crdoba, Argentina, April 27th to 30th, 2005. For rules and entry forms http://www.animafestival.com.ar
ASIFA-SF PRESENTS OUR
ANNUAL OPEN SCREENING FOR STUDENT AND INDEPENDENT ANIMATORS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2005, 7:30PM
at the Exploratorium, free
This is going to be a great show. We already know there will be works shown by Gene Hamm, Karen Lithgow, Alan Orcutt, Guillermo Gomez, David Chai (Thunderbean Animation), John Fadeff, Aaron Gracy, Chelsea Walton, David Howell and Patricia Satjawatcharaphong. Discover Flames of Passion, enjoy a vacation with Howard and Marge in Hawaii, meet creatures from a distant planet and have other animated encounters in this lively animated evening.
Everyone is welcomed to bring independent and student work (animated) unannounced. The museum can show 16mm, VHS tape and DVDs. We start at 7:30 and can go until almost 10 if there is that much work brought in. (Reels by professional animators/studios will be screened at our open screening on Wed. Feb. 9.) Come and meet the artists.
THE PROGRAM WILL INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING PLUS LOTS OF SURPRISES
Karen Lithgow will take us on The Hawaian Vacation with Howard and Marge
Gene Hamm is bringing Guardian Angel Puddies, the sequel to Guardian Angel Puddy and A Patriotic Sing-A-Long, similar to a Max Fleischer sing-a-long except the song, written by Hamm, isn't going to make it to the top 10. It is called If You Draft the Old Farts. Hamm says, "You should find it quite funny."
Patricia Satjawatcharaphong's Reflection, 6 1/2min., a highlight of SF State's 2004 Film Finals.
John Fadeff's The Sweeper, is a hand drawn work with a multiplane look by a gifted SF State student
David Chai/Thunderbean Animation will show Flames of Passion
Aaron Gracey's Dimensions, is a 5-minute, 2-D work about a man who is abducted by creatures from another planet. He discovers a new dimension. See a Quicktime clip at www.doublea-ronproductions.com
Chelsea Walton's Jack and Middy Retire is 4:30-min., hand drawn and colored, composed in After Effects
David Howell's award winning The Gargoyle. It was made at the Academy of Art
Alan Orcutt's Living In A Hole, a visually compelling look at a young man dealing with depression
Guillermo Gomez will show his "sub-masterpiece" Insult to Injury "this time with sound"
plus Ward 13, an action packed puppet film from Australia by Peter Cornwell. It is on the Academy's short list.