This Week In Gene Deitch's "How To Succeed In Animation"
Gene Deitch Associates, Inc. - possibly the most insignificant animation studio in the history of peg-holes, but MUNRO was born there, and it became my way-station to an entirely new life...
Gene Deitch Associates, Inc. - possibly the most insignificant animation studio in the history of peg-holes, but MUNRO was born there, and it became my way-station to an entirely new life...
Gothenburg, Sweden's 3rd Dimension is looking for a SOFTWARE DEVELOPER to help create a Maya interface aimed towards 3D Studio Max, Maya, Lightwave and Softimage users. . . Tehran, Iran's Alian Shiveh Co. Ltd, an animation studio, is looking for a 3D ANIMATOR. . . Blue's Clues-Nickelodeon in New York is looking for an EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT to a supervising animation director and animation producer. . . Ireland's Clockwork Monkey Media is looking for a COMIC BOOK ARTIST/WRITER to work on series that they plan on publishing this year. . . Century City, California's EMA Multimedia, Inc.
What do "Osmosis Jones," "Shrek," "Ice Age," "Final Fantasy," "Mutant Aliens" and "Chicken Run" have in common..?
The 3rd edition of the Ottawa International Student Animation Festival (SAFO) (October 18 - 21, 2001) will feature entries from all over the world competing in six categories. This year, students from the United States lead the pack with twelve films making it into the competition. Animation school Cal Arts receives a special honor as a nominee in the best school category. "With over 800 entries from 39 countries, it had been a difficult task for the selection committee," says Festival founder Chris Robinson.
This week's updates to the Calendar of Events include: ASIFA-Hollywood Monthly Membership Meeting: Wednesday, July 18, 2001, Burbank, California USA. ASIFA-Hollywood Presents An Evening With Tom Sito: Wednesday, July 25, 2001, Burbank, California USA. Animation Workout With Guest Director Ginny McSwain: Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Burbank, California USA. Fantastisk Film Festival: Wednesday, September 19 - Sunday, September 23, 2001, Lund, Sweden.
Plympton's new series of comics is extracted from the comic book "Polls Apart - How To Tell A Democrat From A Republican," by Kathy Paton & Bill Plympton...
- The Ghibli Museum: Miyazaki's Genius On Display
Get an inside peek! Tom Sito visits the construction site of what is sure to become a destination for animation fans worldwide - the Ghibli Museum, honoring none other than Hayao Miyazaki, one of animation's foremost legends.
- Confirming a New Tradition: Cal State Long Beach's 2nd AnnualJapanese Animation Festival
The June Acrobat issue of Animation World Magazine is now on-line! June focuses on independent animation. Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman interviews Mo Willems, the creator/director of "Sheep In The Big City" about his career, his inspirations and a small sheep in a big city. Chris Robinson profiles Don Hertzfeldt, Ülo Pikkov, Andreas Hykade and Priit Tender, four of the brightest new stars in independent animation.
As the mergers continue, Disney answers the AOL Time Warner and Viacom call and grows for the first time since the 1996 Capital Cities/ABC merger. On Saturday, July 21, 2001, the LA TIMES Sallie Hofmeister reported that the Walt Disney Co. will buy Fox Family for $3.3 billion plus assume $2.1 billion of the troubled ventures debt. Long in the rumor mill, this new acquisition is supposed to be final and announced within a few days according to Ms. Hofmeisters sources. Obviously the true value for Disney in this deal is obtaining the fifty international Fox Family channels.
Stephen Johnstone has been promoted to the newly created position of senior vice president and general manager, Cartoon Network Europe, Middle East and Africa. Johnstone started with Turner eight years ago in the advertising sales division before moving into television channel management. More recently, he has held the post of head of interactive for Turner's entertainment networks. In his new roles, he will manage Cartoon Network's TV channels, interactive services and off-channel commerce.
Wild Brain, Inc. has named Steve Ramirez vice president of marketing and business development and Andrew Steiner as vice president of sales. In his new position, Ramirez will provide the strategic direction for Wild Brain's marketing and new business efforts. His responsibilities include developing brand strategy, creative advertising, public relations, licensing and merchandising and corporate identity. Ramirez joins Wild Brain from Collaborative Media, publishers of the popular etown.com consumer electronics Website where he served as VP of marketing.
Wolfmill Entertainment has acquired the rights to ASTOUNDING SPACE THRILLS, an Internet adventure comic strip. The show will follow the adventures of the explorer Argosy Smith after The Shift, a cosmic event that transformed the laws governing the universe. "Steve Conley's created a fascinating universe filled with entertaining characters who give ASTOUNDING SPACE THRILLS a quirky humor that blends perfectly with the adventurous stories he tells," said Marv Wolfman, a partner in Wolfmill Entertainment.
Phoenix Media Group Ltd. has obtained the universal rights to the LITTLE DINOS cartoon series throughout North America. The show is a 26-episode series that presents both popular science and scientific fantasy. Produced by Guangdong South Natural Science Museum Co. Ltd., LITTLE DINOS follows the birth, development, domination and extinction of dinosaurs. "We see the LITTLE DINOS series as a perfect complement to our own MANFRED MOOSE character," said Ron Irwin, chief executive officer of Phoenix Media Group. "Both are dedicated to imparting knowledge to children in a fun and entertaining way.
TOPIX, a character animation, special effects, film titling, type and broadcast design firm, has designed and produced the animation and special effects for the 4th Annual Golden Marble Advertising Awards and the 3rd Annual Golden Marble Promotion Awards. "For the 4th Annual Golden Marble Advertising Awards our job was to give the show a distinctive look and to create a 5-second identity for each of the 32 Golden Marble Advertising Awards. We catered to the playfulness of children's advertising, but the work had to play to an audience which is a really sophisticated, savvy bunch of ad execs.
4Kids Entertainment, Inc. has teamed with Burger King for a national promotion to launch Kids WB!'s upcoming 3D series CUBIX. The series is the first original production for 4Kids and is set to premiere on Saturday morning August 11. The 5-week promotion will run nationally in participating U.S. Burger King restaurants from August 27 through September 30. Burger King will run national TV spots, in-store advertisements, a kids newsletter and a birthday mailer to kids club members in support of the campaign.
Macromedia, Inc. has teamed with Intel Corporation to optimize the Macromedia Flash Player for the Intel XScale microarchitecture utilizing the Intel Integrated Performance Primitives (IPP). As a result of this partnership, users will be able to experience high quality MP3 audio when playing Macromedia Flash content on devices built using Intel applications processors. The optimized code will be available to device manufacturers for use with the Macromedia Flash Player Software Development Kit (SDK) later this year.
People still like dinosaurs. JURASSIC PARK III roared into first place at the weekend box office with an astounding US$50.3 million. The pterodactyl tirade, with primary visual effects by ILM, has rounded up $80.9 million since its Wednesday debut. Family fave CATS & DOGS fell from third to land on its paws in fifth, grossing another $6.77 million. The canine comedy, with primary visual effects by Tippett Studios and Rhythm & Hues, has caterwauled in $72.38 million to date. SCARY MOVIE 2 placed in seventh, grossing out audiences to the tune of $4.4 million.
The 22nd Annual International Monitor Awards were established by the Association of Imaging Technology and Sound to showcase the best in electronic production, post-production and digital media. The nine craft areas are editor, visual effects, graphic design, 3D animation, color correction, sound design, audio mixing, original scoring and best achievement. The event accepts entries from film, television, shorts, PSAs, music videos and interactive media.
FrameStore has created photo-realistic water and cloth for a new spot promoting the Dyson Contrarotator. Director Philip Hunt decided to use a mixture of 3D CGI and motion control photography to produce the ad. FrameStores head of CGI commercials, Andrew Daffy, supervised the creation of photo-realistic mechanical parts, 3D water and cloth simulation for the washing load. "One of the greatest challenges was achieving the seamless blends during the storytelling.
Boston-based ViewPoint Studios has completed two on-air promotional packages for Discovery Communications. The first promotional package was for Animal Planet International's "Whale of a Week," which features a line-up of shows revolving around whales. Molly McCarthy, associate producer of international on-air promotion for Discovery Networks International, said, "Our goal was to create a promo that would travel across all regions of the world and portray the beauty and mystery of whales, while maintaining the international on-air look of the Animal Planet network.
Children's software publisher Knowledge Adventure has announced the release of two new 3D action/adventure games on CD-Rom -JURASSIC PARK III: DANGER ZONE! and JURASSIC PARK III: DINO DEFENDER. DANGER ZONE! has players racing against time to collect dinosaur DNA before the ancient reptiles become extinct again. DINO DEFENDER has gamers trapping or tranquilizing renegade dinosaurs. "Kids love dinosaurs and Jurassic Park is the premier dinosaur brand the world over," said Leslie House, vice president, Knowledge Adventure.
Nick.com has announced the launch of its first online comic book, THE CRIMSON CHIN, an interactive spin-off of Nickelodeon's animated comedy series, THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS. The TV series follows the adventures of 10-year-old Timmy Turner and his troublesome fairy godparents Cosmo and Wanda. In August, in a move for TV and online convergence, THE CRIMSON CHIN Webisodes will debut as one-minute interstitials on Nickelodeon.
On July 12 in New York, the International Flash Film Festival handed out this year's honors. Thirteen winners from the U.S. and around the world received the "arrow" award. The festival is the highlight of the Flashforward2001 conference and expo. The work of all 60 finalists, selected from over sixteen hundred nominations, was screened for the 200 attendees. The winners can be seen at: www.flashforward2001.com. Finalists and winners were selected by two panels of judges from the Flash community.
Maureen Furniss reviews five more short films straight from the festival circuit. This month we learn about:The Shadow of Doubt by Cynthia Wells, Patrick Smith's Drink, Grace by Lorelei Pepei, Chicken Kiev by Thomas Stellmach and We Are Immortal (Nous sommes immortels) by Daniel Guyonnet. Includes four QuickTime movie clips!