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BARBARA KLUTINIS WINS A $500 AWARD AT THE 34TH ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL. THE CINEMATHEQUE WILL SHOW THE WORK MAY 19. Her film WIND/WATER/WINGS is a 21 minute optically printed work with color added in the optical process. The work was made a frame at a time and it uses complex traveling mattes and slow motion created in the printing process. The images are of things that move including the wind, water and wings. The sound design for the film is by Barbara Klutinis and Pamela A. The film's award at Ann Arbor was for best use of sound design.
The screening of hew new film will be Sunday, May 19 at 7:30 PM. Also on the program will be new work by Jim Flannery, Inger Hansen, John Turk, Andres Sanz and others. Klutinis teaches film history at the College of San Mateo and animation to 6th graders after school at the Rooftop Elementary School in SF.
RICHARD C. ZIMMERMAN PREVIEWED HIS NEW SHORT BEFORE PACKED HOUSES AT SPIKE & MIKE'S SHOW - IT'S A HIT! Zimmerman, a stop-motion animator who has worked on Henry Selick's features, made Birdhouse in his spare time. The film has a wonderful fresh look to it, a solid script, and exceptional production values. More important in the fact that 1000 people went crazy with applause and laughter at each show the night it was shown.
LORIE LOEB AND 4 FORMER STUDENTS DID ANIMATION FOR A DOCUMENTARY THAT WILL AIR ON PBS this fall. The hour documentary is about a group of actors who performed a play in Bay Area schools that was written by Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello). The animated section is based on comic art by kids who had seen the play. Loeb, who teaches animation at SF City College's Fort Mason Center, worked with 4 of her former students on the project. Her assistants were Audrey Larsen, Terry Harned, Tochiko Kamiyama and Victoria Zurkan. Kamiyama did the charming animated paper puppet that was shown at our annual open screening in January.
And congratulations to Lorie Loeb and her husband. She just gave birth to a boy named Paul.
UC BERKELEY GRADUATE FILM STUDIES STUDENTS HELD A MINI-ANIMATION CONFERENCE On Friday April 12 Eliot Smyrl, an animation scientist from Pixar spoke about their recent feature.
On Saturday 6 people presented papers on a variety of subjects. The most impressive was by author/film historian Russell Merritt who talked about the torment Disney put Pinocchio through. Nicholas Sammond, a student from the University of California, San Diego, presented a paper to Merritt's. He is studying the history of behavioral child psychology and talked about "Imagineering the Normal Child: Disney and Development." His paper covered how psychologists tried to determine what the normal child was in the early 20th Century and how Dine, who was considered a wholesome teller of stories for kids, terrorized his young audience with some of his shorts and features.
Kevin Sandler who is teaching at the University of Michigan-Dearborn presented his latest version of "Gendered Evasion: Bugs Bunny in Drag." It was a well researched and thought out study. He spent almost an hour showing clips of Bugs kissing and showing up in drag. Everybody loved the clips, but he really didn't really need to take an hour to prove Bugs wasn't gay, but kissed guys and wore skirts to fool and/or humiliate the men who were chasing him.
My favorite paper was by Amy Holberg, a graduate student at UC Berkeley. She talked about the depiction of the Lower East Side and Jewish culture in early Betty Boop cartoons. She not only presented examples of Jewish images and jokes in Fleisher cartoons, but she also discussed why they were used and their significance. Holberg, Amy Zilliax and Ajay Sreekanth were the organizers of the conference.
Much to my surprise I got a call from Holberg the night before the conference asking me to pinch-hit for a speaker who had to fly to Moscow (Russia, not Idaho). I talked about my recent work on the elimination of racist stereotypes that appears in the current issue of Animation Journal. I also discussed new material I had uncovered on a recent research trip to Los Angeles.
The final speaker was Eric Smoodin, a visiting associate professor in humanities at UC Berkeley. Smoodin is the author of Hollywood Cartoons from the Sound Era and the editor of Disney Discourse. He gave a brief paper on "Who Was the Sponsor of Our Mr. Sun? Audiences, Television and Science in the 1950's. These sponsored films were distributed to public schools for many years. Students say Smoodin is a very popular teacher and I hope ASIFA-SF members will have the opportunity to meet him while he is in the Bay Area.
NEWS FROM PIXAR Believe it or not the company has been making news again. The April 3 issue of Daily Variety reports they gave Wall Street a "peep at Toy Story technology" at the annual Big Picture Conference sponsored by Variety and Schroder Wertheim. In the article they mention the feature cost roughly $25 million to $35 million to make.
As for box office news, the film had grossed almost $185 million in the USA by April 2. It was still playing in 161 theaters. Toy Story is not the only animated feature on list of the top 20 grossing films in history. The other two are Aladdin and Lion King.
LIVING ROOM FESTIVALS IS ALIVE AND PLANNING TO SHOW EIGHT SHOWS ON KQED THIS FALL They have raised enough money to produce 8 hour long show. The programs being planned will be built around themes so their will not be an entire show of outstanding animation. There are 12 groups including ASIFA-SF working together on the planning committee. Animation related to the themes of the shows will be included in several programs. Details about the animation to be aired will be in the next newsletter.
COMPUTER ANIMATION TRAINING PROGRAM FUNDED BY CALIFORNIA EMPLOYMENT TRAINING PANEL People can gain low cost experience in 3D Studio and Animation Master. Qualifying employers can have their employees trained at a very nominal cost depending on the size of the company. Unemployed individuals with an established California unemployment insurance claim, or an exhausted unemployment account are also eligible for free or low cost training. The training center also offers classes on Softimage and other graphic systems.
For details contact Bruce Klimoski, Continental Training Center, 1333 Willow Pass Road, Suite 212, Concord, CA 94520. (510) 680-2875 or fax 680-1514.