Commercials
Many years ago, when I was an undergraduate student, I volunteered to transcribe
an oral history interview with Hans Richter, one of the pioneers of European
avant garde cinema, whose career dated back to the 1920s. One of the comments
that stuck with me all these years was about an offer he had to make an
advertising film. As he considered himself first and foremost an artist,
he refused. Later, after seeing the resulting film, he was so delighted
that he changed his mind towards working on such films.
Today, with the likes of Spike Lee making commercials, the specter of selling
out has long since vanished; this has been especially so for animators,
as early on advertising films became an integral part of the animation
mainstream. Thus, the commercial studio run by Julius Pinschewer in pre-Nazi
Germany was certainly one of the most important in that country's animation
history, employing the likes of such artists as Oskar Fischinger, among
others; Fischinger, in turn, supported his experimental work by working
on commercials, including the first one to employ marching cigarettes (well
before Lucky Strike did in the US in the early years of TV). (The key role
advertising films have played in helping establish animation in Norway
is vividly illustrated elsewhere by Gunnar Strøm's discourse on
"Fumes From the Fjords.")
In the United States, Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) probably had his professional
introduction to animation via advertising films, long before his books
were adapted to the screen and he wrote the original story for Gerald
McBoing-Boing. With the coming of television, commercial studios liberated
many animators from dependence on a few theatrical studios as their almost
sole source of employment; in fact, spot houses came to dominate the New
York animation industry in the 1950s. It was an era when such studios as
UPA and Hanna-Barbera set up major commercial operations and which is still
looked upon as a Golden Age of American Animated Commercials.
Today, with the worldwide toon boom going on apace, commercials no longer
play as dominant a role in the global animation community; nevertheless,
it remains a fertile ground for creativity. In the US, this can be seen
by increasing use of independent animators and designers by such companies
as The Ink Tank, J.J. Sedelmaier, Klasky Csupo, Duck Soup and Acme Filmworks.
At the same time, digital studios like Blue Sky and Rhythm & Hues use
their commercials as a means to push the boundaries of CG animation. With
the proliferation of new TV channels around the world, many of whom are
advertiser supported, animated commercials would seem to have a very long
life ahead of them.
Thirty
With this issue, I am stepping down as Editor of Animation World Magazine
to devote more time to various personal projects, including The Animation
Report, the industry newsletter I edit and publish. It is not a decision
I took lightly, as editing Animation World Magazine has been a wonderful
experience, which enabled me to both explore the heady possibilities of
publishing on the Internet, as well as establishing an exciting new journal
of news and opinion.
Before departing, I would like to offer a few observations about Internet
publishing. When I was first approached about this assignment in
late 1995, the conventional wisdom held that none of the old rules for
putting together a print magazine really applied to online journals. After
all, given the nature of computers, readers probably had little tolerance
for articles of more than a few hundred words. Needless to say, we ignored
this sort of opinion and realized that Internet publishing gave one the
freedom to publish longer articles without having to worry about printing
costs. (As it turns out, the most popular article in the first issue was
Barry Purves' "The Emperor's New Clothes," a delightful essay
on computer vs. stop-motion animation, was one of the longest we ran in
our early months. In fact, it continued to be read widely for several months
after it became a back issue!) The same freedom to print longer articles,
without worrying about running up printing bills, has also allowed us to
print articles in an author's original language as well as in English.
But perhaps the most important freedom I found is the ability to reach
out across international borders and address the worldwide animation community
with unparalleled ease. And it is for this opportunity that I will always
remain grateful.