ASIFA-Hollywood: The International Animated Film Society
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Headless on All Hollow's Eve
As darkness falls on All Hollow`s Eve and my kids try to talk me into going out trick or treating with them, and I look fruitlessly for my latex severed head from my special effects slasher film days, my mind turns to one of my favorite animations from the Ub Iwerks studio, The Headless Horseman, 1934.
Headless Horseman
Last year I included it is my silent animation screening at San Diego Comic Con even thou it was created with a sound track and in Cinacolor. Ub helped create the first synchronized sound cartoon. What is he doing creating a silent film after being there at the birth of sound cartoons?
Sound cartoons would not have worked without his genius. He worked out the system of visual clueing for the conductor that made the second Steamboat Willie recording session successful, a system that is still used, with little modification, to this day. But 6 years later he created what amounted to a silent film with musical soundtrack accompaniment.
Ub Iwerks Studio
Why? I`ll tell you why. It works. Just like Charley Chaplin`s Little Tramp still silent after the coming of the talkies, it works and wouldn`t have worked with speech.
There is, sadly, a real inconsistency in the product of the Iwerks Studio. Some, like the 1932 Flip the Frog`s The Bully and What A Life are almost unwatchable. Others like Balloonland and The Headless Horseman are real gems. If you haven`t watched them lately, you should.
Cinacolor 1934
Happy All Hollow`s Eve and be sure to vote. I may have lost my head but not my mind!
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 5:25 PM
Headless Horseman
Last year I included it is my silent animation screening at San Diego Comic Con even thou it was created with a sound track and in Cinacolor. Ub helped create the first synchronized sound cartoon. What is he doing creating a silent film after being there at the birth of sound cartoons?
Sound cartoons would not have worked without his genius. He worked out the system of visual clueing for the conductor that made the second Steamboat Willie recording session successful, a system that is still used, with little modification, to this day. But 6 years later he created what amounted to a silent film with musical soundtrack accompaniment.
Ub Iwerks Studio
Why? I`ll tell you why. It works. Just like Charley Chaplin`s Little Tramp still silent after the coming of the talkies, it works and wouldn`t have worked with speech.
There is, sadly, a real inconsistency in the product of the Iwerks Studio. Some, like the 1932 Flip the Frog`s The Bully and What A Life are almost unwatchable. Others like Balloonland and The Headless Horseman are real gems. If you haven`t watched them lately, you should.
Cinacolor 1934
Happy All Hollow`s Eve and be sure to vote. I may have lost my head but not my mind!
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 5:25 PM
Friday, October 29, 2004
J. Stuart Blackton
My son Tobias came home from his high school video production class this week and told me that his teacher has shown a clip of Gertie the Dinosaur.
Toby has always been smarter than me when it comes to matters like this. Or maybe he doesn`t have my passion about early days of animation.He said that Gertie was the first animation and that might be on the test!
Did you tell him that he was wrong? Did you mention J. Stuart Blackton
or Emile Cohl? I said trying not to raise my voice and failing.
I didn`t want to contradict him in front of the class.
I hounded my poor son for most of the week and finally printed out the first 6 pages of my animation timeline for him to take in. He got his teacher aside and gave him the timeline. The teacher said that he had gotten his information from the same video from which he got the Gertie clip. I don`t doubt it.
Everybody in the U. S. conveniently forgets Emile Cohl and J. Sturat Blackton. I fear that the overlooking of Emile Cohl may have more to do with him being French. Stefan Kanfer in Serious Business dismisses Cohl in one short paragraph.
But then why is Blackton overlooked? I don`t think it has anything to do with him being born in England because most people are not aware that he was not born in the U. S. A.
I love the work of Winsor McCay, Gertie, Nemo, Steve the Mosquito, the Flying House, the Pet, but I have always been a little put out by his bold faced claim of having invented the animation process. Emile Cohl use to storm `sure McCay invented the animation process, 3 years after I did`. But then Cohl overlooked the work of Blackton.
Gertie the Dinosaur wasn`t even Mccay`s first animation. He did both Little Nemo 1911 and How a Mosquito Operates in 1912 before doing his Gertie animation for his vaudeville act. By that time Emile Cohl had created some 20 animations including the almost completely lost to fire George McManus comic strip adaptations of the Newly Weds animations that he did at Eclair Studio in Fort Lee, N.J.
If you want to count the cut out animation in J. Stuart Blackton`s Humorous Phases of a Funny Face as the first true animation then we have an animation created 5 years before McCay`s first animation and 8 years before Gertie.
Emile Cohl
Any way you look at it McCay`s title card claim of being the inventor of the animation process is untrue. But like a lot of untruths that are repeated over and over again this one has found its way into too many minds, books, and videos.
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 9:28 PM
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Over Protective On the Front Lines
Last year I was completely overjoyed when rare Disney wartime footage finally became available on DVD in the form of On the Front Lines, the War Years. I looked forward to being able to share Education For Death, Victory Through Air Power, and Der Feuhrer`s Face with my students.
The problem is that I couldn`t. I think that there is a slight touch of corporate paranoia going on over at the Mouse House legal department about anything that might even in the slightest be seen a maybe somehow tarnishing the Disney image.
Because somebody sure decided that it was very important to make the DVD user interface almost unusable by ramming disclaimer after disclaimer down everybody`s throats before thinking of letting us watch the treasures that we paid for.
Somebody made sure that we would all know that these films were made during a war and that they make fun of our war time enemies using rascal stereo types. Like the people that buy this DVD wouldn`t know that? I don`t think anybody is going to confuse this with a babysitter video.
Don`t get me wrong. I love Leonard Maltin and respect his writings and great contributions to animation. I just didn`t want to be forced to watch him giving corporate spin doctoring under the guise of introductions over and over and over again.
Did you know that if you dare to try to skip the intro the DVD locks up and then you get to watch the intros all over again?
I wanted to show my class Education For Death, Victory Through Air Power, and Der Feuhrer`s Face. What I got to show them was 3 introductions by Leonard Maltin, a lot of frustration and Education For Death.
Think guys, who are your audience for this product? We are not 5 year olds that are going to be traumatized out by seeing Donald Duck in a swastika cap. We are not going to stop coming to Disneyland because of our reactions to 60 year old propaganda films.
Most of us are mature adults and a fair share of us are educators trying to use your DVD`s to teach students. If you were trying to avoid bad will you sure picked the wrong way to go about it!
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 11:36 AM
The problem is that I couldn`t. I think that there is a slight touch of corporate paranoia going on over at the Mouse House legal department about anything that might even in the slightest be seen a maybe somehow tarnishing the Disney image.
Because somebody sure decided that it was very important to make the DVD user interface almost unusable by ramming disclaimer after disclaimer down everybody`s throats before thinking of letting us watch the treasures that we paid for.
Somebody made sure that we would all know that these films were made during a war and that they make fun of our war time enemies using rascal stereo types. Like the people that buy this DVD wouldn`t know that? I don`t think anybody is going to confuse this with a babysitter video.
Don`t get me wrong. I love Leonard Maltin and respect his writings and great contributions to animation. I just didn`t want to be forced to watch him giving corporate spin doctoring under the guise of introductions over and over and over again.
Did you know that if you dare to try to skip the intro the DVD locks up and then you get to watch the intros all over again?
I wanted to show my class Education For Death, Victory Through Air Power, and Der Feuhrer`s Face. What I got to show them was 3 introductions by Leonard Maltin, a lot of frustration and Education For Death.
Think guys, who are your audience for this product? We are not 5 year olds that are going to be traumatized out by seeing Donald Duck in a swastika cap. We are not going to stop coming to Disneyland because of our reactions to 60 year old propaganda films.
Most of us are mature adults and a fair share of us are educators trying to use your DVD`s to teach students. If you were trying to avoid bad will you sure picked the wrong way to go about it!
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 11:36 AM
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Soup Time
Mark Evanier http://www.newsfromme.com/ has this thing on his blog where he puts up a picture of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup when he is too busy to update his blog. I like that. I also like that fact that he has a link to Pogo Possum Political Postings. http://www.pogopossum.com/ Something much needed in this political day and rage.
If it wasn`t for the Disney strike Walt Kelly might have worked his whole career in animation and we never would have met the enemy that is us.
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 8:16 PM
If it wasn`t for the Disney strike Walt Kelly might have worked his whole career in animation and we never would have met the enemy that is us.
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 8:16 PM
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Classroom Truth vs. Corporate Truth
I spent all last Friday morning ripping down the idols of innocent children that have put their trust in me. Stated in other words, I was teaching the history of animation to college kids.
There is a certain sadistic pulling-the-wings-off-flies aspect to teaching the History of Animation. Muybridge, W.K.L. Dickson, William Friese-Greene, and Thomas Armat vs. Edison as inventor of the movie process. J. Stuart Blackton and Emile Cohl vs. Winsor McCay as the inventor of the animation process. J. R. Bray and Earl Hurd, Otto Messmer and Pat Sullivan, Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney, Bugs Hardaway and Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker.
The Students love the old cartoons and the dirt and scandal but something is crushed in them when they find that their heroes took the credit from other people.
That is because there is TRUTH and then there is CORPORATE TRUTH and the latter is in the books and the former, hopeful, is in the classroom.
I remember how hurt I was when a teacher told me just how Stan Lee `wrote` all those Marvel Silver Age comics.
It still hurts. Stan the Man was one of my heroes and one of the reasons I went to the Kubert School in the first place.
The dirty little secret is that even the historians have to compromise with the CORPORATE TRUTH in order to get access to the corporate controlled assets that they need to complete their works.
Now the corporations are just doing their duty and protecting their assets. They don`t want to show their star being a raciest, its bad for business. And they sure don`t want to admit that the founder of the company took credit for someone else`s work. Bad will, turns into poor sales.
That means that the only place for truth is the classroom and sometimes it is hard to be the one that has to get them ready for the buzz saw that is the business but then it is my duty, my job. Sounds just like the Adolf Eichmann defense to me. Why not just admit that I enjoy breaking their little hearts.
When my daughter was nine years old she almost got kicked out of California Adventure for bringing up Ub Iwerks in the `One Man`s Dream` part of the adventure. My kids have known the truth as best I could tell it from day one. They have been proofed against evil collage teachers like their dad.
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 8:16 AM
There is a certain sadistic pulling-the-wings-off-flies aspect to teaching the History of Animation. Muybridge, W.K.L. Dickson, William Friese-Greene, and Thomas Armat vs. Edison as inventor of the movie process. J. Stuart Blackton and Emile Cohl vs. Winsor McCay as the inventor of the animation process. J. R. Bray and Earl Hurd, Otto Messmer and Pat Sullivan, Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney, Bugs Hardaway and Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker.
The Students love the old cartoons and the dirt and scandal but something is crushed in them when they find that their heroes took the credit from other people.
That is because there is TRUTH and then there is CORPORATE TRUTH and the latter is in the books and the former, hopeful, is in the classroom.
I remember how hurt I was when a teacher told me just how Stan Lee `wrote` all those Marvel Silver Age comics.
I would drop off my pages and Stan would say something like next
month I want the Puppet Master to fight the Thing and Torch. Then I
would go home and write the story, do the layouts, pencil it. Ink everything but
the words in the word balloons and bring it back in. Then Stan would stand over
a letterer and tell him how to re-word my dialog in the balloons. That was how
he wrote all those comics. That and the fact that his uncle owned the company at
the time.
It still hurts. Stan the Man was one of my heroes and one of the reasons I went to the Kubert School in the first place.
The dirty little secret is that even the historians have to compromise with the CORPORATE TRUTH in order to get access to the corporate controlled assets that they need to complete their works.
Now the corporations are just doing their duty and protecting their assets. They don`t want to show their star being a raciest, its bad for business. And they sure don`t want to admit that the founder of the company took credit for someone else`s work. Bad will, turns into poor sales.
That means that the only place for truth is the classroom and sometimes it is hard to be the one that has to get them ready for the buzz saw that is the business but then it is my duty, my job. Sounds just like the Adolf Eichmann defense to me. Why not just admit that I enjoy breaking their little hearts.
When my daughter was nine years old she almost got kicked out of California Adventure for bringing up Ub Iwerks in the `One Man`s Dream` part of the adventure. My kids have known the truth as best I could tell it from day one. They have been proofed against evil collage teachers like their dad.
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 8:16 AM
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Volunteer Your Way to The Top
Networking, that is one of the main keys into the animation business. The other really important one is of course animation. You have to have a skill to sell. You have to be able to deliver and on time. The question always is, how come the people that have their chops together still have such a hard time getting their foot in the door?
You have a pretty good idea where I am going with this, right? You not only have to know something, you also have to know somebody or a lot of somebodies.
Volunteer, I keep telling my students, volunteer at Women in Animation, Comic Con, film festivals, volunteer at ASIFA-Hollywood. I write extra credit right into my syllabus for my animation students that are smart enough to take advantage of the side door I keep trying to show them into the world of animation.
Some of them get it like one of my former Brooks College students. He not only volunteered to help a presenter at this year’s San Diego Comic Con but he also came back and did free caricatures in front of the ASIFA booth to draw in the customers.
Or like one of my current Cal State Fullerton students who has been at every membership meeting and AFI showing since she started my class. She even joined ASIFA and volunteered to work the ASIFA table at the monthly L.A. Comic Con.
So what is not to get. When you volunteer to work for an origination made up of the people from the industry you want to join, you end up working next to people from that industry who just might have a job for you some day. You also get to know a lot of people who know a lot of other people. Your face becomes known. When you walk in the interview you are not starting cold.
Most important, you get a chance to prove your dependability and worth in a non-critical situation. One of the big reasons people in film hesitate to take a chance on the untried newcomer is because of the size of the risks and budgets.
(When I say non-critical situation, I mean it is non-critical to the volunteer origination, no one is going to lose their job if you mess up. It is still very critical to you because if you flake on the volunteer job you are marked for life. I know a couple of people who volunteered for Comic Con a couple of years back who cancelled out at the last minute or just didn’t bother to show up. I’ll not be recommending them for jobs anytime soon. They might be nice people but I don’t trust them anymore. They would have been better off never volunteering if the first place.)
That all said, the monthly ASIFA-Hollywood Act of Membership Meeting is held the last Wednesday of each month. For more info go to: http://www.asifa-hollywood.org/current.html .
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 5:29 PM
You have a pretty good idea where I am going with this, right? You not only have to know something, you also have to know somebody or a lot of somebodies.
Volunteer, I keep telling my students, volunteer at Women in Animation, Comic Con, film festivals, volunteer at ASIFA-Hollywood. I write extra credit right into my syllabus for my animation students that are smart enough to take advantage of the side door I keep trying to show them into the world of animation.
Some of them get it like one of my former Brooks College students. He not only volunteered to help a presenter at this year’s San Diego Comic Con but he also came back and did free caricatures in front of the ASIFA booth to draw in the customers.
Or like one of my current Cal State Fullerton students who has been at every membership meeting and AFI showing since she started my class. She even joined ASIFA and volunteered to work the ASIFA table at the monthly L.A. Comic Con.
So what is not to get. When you volunteer to work for an origination made up of the people from the industry you want to join, you end up working next to people from that industry who just might have a job for you some day. You also get to know a lot of people who know a lot of other people. Your face becomes known. When you walk in the interview you are not starting cold.
Most important, you get a chance to prove your dependability and worth in a non-critical situation. One of the big reasons people in film hesitate to take a chance on the untried newcomer is because of the size of the risks and budgets.
(When I say non-critical situation, I mean it is non-critical to the volunteer origination, no one is going to lose their job if you mess up. It is still very critical to you because if you flake on the volunteer job you are marked for life. I know a couple of people who volunteered for Comic Con a couple of years back who cancelled out at the last minute or just didn’t bother to show up. I’ll not be recommending them for jobs anytime soon. They might be nice people but I don’t trust them anymore. They would have been better off never volunteering if the first place.)
That all said, the monthly ASIFA-Hollywood Act of Membership Meeting is held the last Wednesday of each month. For more info go to: http://www.asifa-hollywood.org/current.html .
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 5:29 PM
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Art 480T Cal State Fullerton
When I was a kid, just out of high school, I was a lifeguard on Siesta Beach in Sarasota, Florida. People would retire after a full life of work, move south, and hang out at the beach doing nothing and soon die. Being active keeps you young and alive.
What can I say about Sol and Martha Sigall? They are the most alive, sharp, active, friendly, giving, and down right sweet couple in an industry of very nice people. I have read an awful lot of books about the history of animation but it is Martha and sharing people like her in this industry that have given me true understanding.
I first met Martha and Sol at the yearly Animation Afternoon of Remembrance a few years back. I happened to be siting next to them and we started up a conversation. The next year I brought my son and daughter to the Afternoon of Remembrance and we all talked with Martha and Sol.
I think my kids impress Sol because they already knew that Bugs Hardaway created Bugs Bunny. The short of it is that Martha and Sol kind if adopted my whole family. When we get together Martha and I always end up talking animation. When we talk on the phone they always want to know how the kids are doing.
Last night, in yet another kindness in a long list of kindnesses, Sol and Martha came and talked to my Cal State Fullerton History of Animation class. Dana Lamb, the head of the animation program at Fullerton, was thrilled to act as their chauffeur.
I saw Dana`s eyes light up a couple of times during dinner with that I-didn`t-know-that-is how-that-happened look that is often in my own eyes when talking to Martha and Sol.
Gems of insider understanding just fall from Martha`s lips without her even knowing it. Why Chuck Jones always bad mouthed and made fun of Leon Schlesinger, how the falling out between Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones came about, the great Ken Harris / Romer Gray story, the extra Porky Pig drawings in the Schlesinger storyboards.
Soon you too will all be able to share in the fount of information. Martha is in the last stages of putting out her book, `Living Life Inside the Lines`. I have read the first couple of chapters in draft form, it is schedules for Spring/Summer release, and I for one just can`t wait.
My class started at 7:00 P.M. with a graphics teacher down the hall asking if there was enough room for her students to set in on the class. The answer was yes. One of the cool things about teaching at a state university is the state of the arts classrooms.
I am guessing here. My class has 78 students. (that is not a guess) The class for down the hall has about 20 students. Then there was another 15 or 20 from the Pencil Mileage Club (the CSUF animation support club). I would say we had a full house.
The students were psyched. The format was a sit down interview with questions running the gambit from Martha`s childhood hinging out at Schlesginger`s Pacific Title Company to Sol`s reaction to the weirdness of Martha`s peer group. (he liked them)
One of the cool gems that came out was that Martha did ink and paint on of all of the Pvt. SNAFU`s between 1941 and 1943 but had no idea what she was working on at the time because she never got more than 10 cells at one time for security reasons. It was only years later when she got to see them that she knew what she had worked on and only then by the release dates.
We talked about her near misses on the picket line. The fire hoses at Warners and the paddy wagon at Paramount. (She had a dentist appointment so she didn`t get arrested)
I just got off the phone with Martha who called up to tell me that she and Sol had a really good time talking to my class last night. Isn`t that just the way. Here I am writing this blog about how great it was to have them in my class and she calls and thanks me and my students for her giving us the best class of my semester.. Thank you Martha, Thank you Sol. God bless you both. And I`m going to be first in line for you book when it comes out.
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 9:45 PM
What can I say about Sol and Martha Sigall? They are the most alive, sharp, active, friendly, giving, and down right sweet couple in an industry of very nice people. I have read an awful lot of books about the history of animation but it is Martha and sharing people like her in this industry that have given me true understanding.
I first met Martha and Sol at the yearly Animation Afternoon of Remembrance a few years back. I happened to be siting next to them and we started up a conversation. The next year I brought my son and daughter to the Afternoon of Remembrance and we all talked with Martha and Sol.
I think my kids impress Sol because they already knew that Bugs Hardaway created Bugs Bunny. The short of it is that Martha and Sol kind if adopted my whole family. When we get together Martha and I always end up talking animation. When we talk on the phone they always want to know how the kids are doing.
Last night, in yet another kindness in a long list of kindnesses, Sol and Martha came and talked to my Cal State Fullerton History of Animation class. Dana Lamb, the head of the animation program at Fullerton, was thrilled to act as their chauffeur.
I saw Dana`s eyes light up a couple of times during dinner with that I-didn`t-know-that-is how-that-happened look that is often in my own eyes when talking to Martha and Sol.
Gems of insider understanding just fall from Martha`s lips without her even knowing it. Why Chuck Jones always bad mouthed and made fun of Leon Schlesinger, how the falling out between Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones came about, the great Ken Harris / Romer Gray story, the extra Porky Pig drawings in the Schlesinger storyboards.
Soon you too will all be able to share in the fount of information. Martha is in the last stages of putting out her book, `Living Life Inside the Lines`. I have read the first couple of chapters in draft form, it is schedules for Spring/Summer release, and I for one just can`t wait.
My class started at 7:00 P.M. with a graphics teacher down the hall asking if there was enough room for her students to set in on the class. The answer was yes. One of the cool things about teaching at a state university is the state of the arts classrooms.
I am guessing here. My class has 78 students. (that is not a guess) The class for down the hall has about 20 students. Then there was another 15 or 20 from the Pencil Mileage Club (the CSUF animation support club). I would say we had a full house.
The students were psyched. The format was a sit down interview with questions running the gambit from Martha`s childhood hinging out at Schlesginger`s Pacific Title Company to Sol`s reaction to the weirdness of Martha`s peer group. (he liked them)
One of the cool gems that came out was that Martha did ink and paint on of all of the Pvt. SNAFU`s between 1941 and 1943 but had no idea what she was working on at the time because she never got more than 10 cells at one time for security reasons. It was only years later when she got to see them that she knew what she had worked on and only then by the release dates.
We talked about her near misses on the picket line. The fire hoses at Warners and the paddy wagon at Paramount. (She had a dentist appointment so she didn`t get arrested)
I just got off the phone with Martha who called up to tell me that she and Sol had a really good time talking to my class last night. Isn`t that just the way. Here I am writing this blog about how great it was to have them in my class and she calls and thanks me and my students for her giving us the best class of my semester.. Thank you Martha, Thank you Sol. God bless you both. And I`m going to be first in line for you book when it comes out.
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 9:45 PM
Monday, October 18, 2004
Martha and Sol Sigall
I just got back from my Cal State Fullerton History of Animation Class. I have to get up at 5 in the morning and unpack my car of all the stuff from the ASIFA table at last Sunday's mini comic con. (one of my students closed down the table and took the stuff home and then passed it off to me after my class). After I unload the car I have to be back on the road by 6:30AM to make it to my research and Development class that I am teaching at Brooks College.
What I'm trying to say is that I don't have much time to tell you about the great time my class and I had with Sol and Martha Sigall tonight.
Martha and Sol kindly came in to talk about the early days of animation and to share from their collect.
The head of Fullerton animaton department, Dana Lamb, made a special trip to prick them up and bring them to the class. The students were over the moon to meet this knowledgeable couple.
When I have more time I will go into more detail. For now, here are some photos.
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 10:55 PM
What I'm trying to say is that I don't have much time to tell you about the great time my class and I had with Sol and Martha Sigall tonight.
Martha and Sol kindly came in to talk about the early days of animation and to share from their collect.
The head of Fullerton animaton department, Dana Lamb, made a special trip to prick them up and bring them to the class. The students were over the moon to meet this knowledgeable couple.
When I have more time I will go into more detail. For now, here are some photos.
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 10:55 PM
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Whatever Happened to Beans?:
After the loss of Bosko and the complete failure of Buddy to take any kind of hold, Fritz Freleng created a raft of characters in his 1935 `I Haven`t Got a Hat`. This cartoon was an early watershed for the Leon Schlesinger studio but now is mostly remembered as Porky`s first picture.
The puppy twins, Ham and Ex, had the title song but really didn`t have enough personality to carry a career. They were too much alike and seemed to share a single personality. Oliver Owl was way too square for anything but the butt of pranks and supporting roles.
That leaves Porky and Beans and at the first it really looked like Beans was going to be the star. Even the Tex Avery `Gold Diggers of 49` starred Beans just like a lot of the other early Loony Toons.
Beans was sure of himself, an action comedy hero. He got himself in messes but then thought and fought his way clear.
But Leon Schlesinger loved Porky Pig. If Porky wasn`t in a cartoon Leon wanted to know why. If Porky was a human live action female starlet of the `30s we could make something of this. But as it is, all we can say is that Leon loved Porky Pig. Maybe it is because they both had a speech impediment? But I think it goes deeper than that. Leon loved Porky because the audiences loved Porky and Leon was smart enough to know a good thing when he saw it.
Leon Schlesinger was a lot smarter then his current reputation. According to Martha Sigall, Chuck Jones may have been paying Schlesinger back for his very hostile treatment of Chuck after Chuck lead the strike. Whatever the reason, Chuck always belittled Leon at every chance he got and maybe I can understand that.
But the very fact that Leon didn`t fire Chuck for leading a strike against him, like Walt did with Art Babbit, tells you something about the business sense of the Schlesinger studio head. He didn`t lose his studio to his distributor either like the Fleischers did to Paramount. So he can`t be the bumbling fool that he is painted.
That means that Beans failed on his own merit or lack there of. Why? I always liked the feisty feline. Why didn`t audiences and theater owners take to him? Maybe it is because he didn`t have human weaknesses, like Porky did. Maybe that is the reason that the public never really took to Beans.
Whatever the reason, poor Beans is gone and forgotten by all but a few of us. Too bad! What I want to know is why there hasn`t been a best of Beans DVD. It seems that there is a Gold Edition of just about everybody else. Why not Beans?
¶ 1:48 PM
The puppy twins, Ham and Ex, had the title song but really didn`t have enough personality to carry a career. They were too much alike and seemed to share a single personality. Oliver Owl was way too square for anything but the butt of pranks and supporting roles.
That leaves Porky and Beans and at the first it really looked like Beans was going to be the star. Even the Tex Avery `Gold Diggers of 49` starred Beans just like a lot of the other early Loony Toons.
Beans was sure of himself, an action comedy hero. He got himself in messes but then thought and fought his way clear.
But Leon Schlesinger loved Porky Pig. If Porky wasn`t in a cartoon Leon wanted to know why. If Porky was a human live action female starlet of the `30s we could make something of this. But as it is, all we can say is that Leon loved Porky Pig. Maybe it is because they both had a speech impediment? But I think it goes deeper than that. Leon loved Porky because the audiences loved Porky and Leon was smart enough to know a good thing when he saw it.
Leon Schlesinger was a lot smarter then his current reputation. According to Martha Sigall, Chuck Jones may have been paying Schlesinger back for his very hostile treatment of Chuck after Chuck lead the strike. Whatever the reason, Chuck always belittled Leon at every chance he got and maybe I can understand that.
But the very fact that Leon didn`t fire Chuck for leading a strike against him, like Walt did with Art Babbit, tells you something about the business sense of the Schlesinger studio head. He didn`t lose his studio to his distributor either like the Fleischers did to Paramount. So he can`t be the bumbling fool that he is painted.
That means that Beans failed on his own merit or lack there of. Why? I always liked the feisty feline. Why didn`t audiences and theater owners take to him? Maybe it is because he didn`t have human weaknesses, like Porky did. Maybe that is the reason that the public never really took to Beans.
Whatever the reason, poor Beans is gone and forgotten by all but a few of us. Too bad! What I want to know is why there hasn`t been a best of Beans DVD. It seems that there is a Gold Edition of just about everybody else. Why not Beans?
¶ 1:48 PM
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Copy-wrong Education
`Congress shall have the Power . . . To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.`
Yet another student came up to me after class this week with a really simple copyright question. It still amazes me how little artist are taught about intellectual property law in art schools. It seems to be the last thing art teachers and department chairs think about when they are putting together a program. But then they were not taught copyright law either. So it makes sense that they pass on the disease to their students.
I get a lot of questions about copyright from not only students but from teachers. I think it is because I have made it my business to correct the faults in my own art education.
Do I sound bitter, well yes. As great as my school was at teaching art they never taught me a damn thing about Intellectual Property Law. To be fair, it was the first years of the school and it was all that they could do to just pound art into our marble like heads. I talked to Joe Kubert just a little while ago and they are currently covering intellectual property law in their curriculum. Good for them, they are one of the few.
But what about the artists that find themselves without this important component in their survival kit? Remember a business major doesn`t have to know how to draw but you better know business law, because business programs are turning out students that look at the uninformed as their natural prey.
Enter Michael Lovitz! Michael Lovitz is this really cool guy who loves comics. He is also an intellectual property lawyer who gives free seminars on copyright and trademark law at comic book conventions.
I haven`t missed one of his classes at the San Diego Comic Con since I discovered him way back in 1996. And I always learn something new each time I attend.
At the 2001 San Diego Comic Con, in conjunction with Sirius Comics, he brought out this great little overview in comic book form, The Trademark & Copyright Book.
A must for all creative artists. It has a funny visual take on what could be a very dry subject if not handled in such a creative manner. Love the artwork by the Fillbach Brothers. Their comic take and super-literalism makes this not only an informative book but also an entertaining one. This comic book format survival tool is still in print. Price $2.95. http://www.cosmictherapy.com/featuredproducts.html
¶ 9:22 PM
Yet another student came up to me after class this week with a really simple copyright question. It still amazes me how little artist are taught about intellectual property law in art schools. It seems to be the last thing art teachers and department chairs think about when they are putting together a program. But then they were not taught copyright law either. So it makes sense that they pass on the disease to their students.
I get a lot of questions about copyright from not only students but from teachers. I think it is because I have made it my business to correct the faults in my own art education.
Do I sound bitter, well yes. As great as my school was at teaching art they never taught me a damn thing about Intellectual Property Law. To be fair, it was the first years of the school and it was all that they could do to just pound art into our marble like heads. I talked to Joe Kubert just a little while ago and they are currently covering intellectual property law in their curriculum. Good for them, they are one of the few.
But what about the artists that find themselves without this important component in their survival kit? Remember a business major doesn`t have to know how to draw but you better know business law, because business programs are turning out students that look at the uninformed as their natural prey.
Enter Michael Lovitz! Michael Lovitz is this really cool guy who loves comics. He is also an intellectual property lawyer who gives free seminars on copyright and trademark law at comic book conventions.
I haven`t missed one of his classes at the San Diego Comic Con since I discovered him way back in 1996. And I always learn something new each time I attend.
At the 2001 San Diego Comic Con, in conjunction with Sirius Comics, he brought out this great little overview in comic book form, The Trademark & Copyright Book.
A must for all creative artists. It has a funny visual take on what could be a very dry subject if not handled in such a creative manner. Love the artwork by the Fillbach Brothers. Their comic take and super-literalism makes this not only an informative book but also an entertaining one. This comic book format survival tool is still in print. Price $2.95. http://www.cosmictherapy.com/featuredproducts.html
¶ 9:22 PM
