ASIFA-Hollywood: The International Animated Film Society
Monday, October 31, 2005
I just got this email from some people that say that we met at San Diego Comic Con. I believe them I just don`t remember it for some reason. If you are in the North Country this sounds fun.
Hello!¶ 9:03 AM
If you are receiving this e-mail, then we had spoken to you about the Emerald City ComiCon at a convention during this past year, most likely in San Diego.
The Emerald City ComiCon is the largest comic book & pop culture convention in the Pacific Northwest. It is held at the Qwest Field Event Center (next door to Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks) in beautiful downtown Seattle, Washington. Our attendance last year was over 6,000 and we expect to well surpass that this year.
The show dates are April 1st & 2nd, 2006, and do not conflict with any other shows that weekend.
We have three types of setups available: dealer, exhibitor or artist alley.
For Exhibitor booths, please contact Brian Meredith -
brian@emeraldcitycomicon.com
For Dealer booths, please contact George Demonakos -
george@emeraldcitycomicon.com
For Artist Alley tables, please contact Chris Rangel -
chris@emeraldcitycomicon.com
General Inquiries, please contact info@emeraldcitycomicon.com
All the information is located on our website at
http://www.emeraldcitycomicon.com/
We look forward to hearing from you and please don't hesitate to contact
us with any questions!
Thanks very much,
The Emerald City
ComiCon Organizers
Drawing Lesson Animation:
Lynn Kubasek, good friend, former animation student, and censored Laguna banner designer, sent me this link to one of the best drawing lessons I`ve seen since John Totleben use to hang at my studio. drawing of a women
It looks like the drawing was done on a digital tablet and all the actions saved to a script and then played back as a Flash animation. Kind of like the J. Stuart Blackton single sheet animation in Humorous Phases of a Funny Face only with no politically incorrect images created from stereo type names. (It seems to be on a Russian site with lots of other script saved drawings) ¶ 5:34 AM
Lynn Kubasek, good friend, former animation student, and censored Laguna banner designer, sent me this link to one of the best drawing lessons I`ve seen since John Totleben use to hang at my studio. drawing of a women
It looks like the drawing was done on a digital tablet and all the actions saved to a script and then played back as a Flash animation. Kind of like the J. Stuart Blackton single sheet animation in Humorous Phases of a Funny Face only with no politically incorrect images created from stereo type names. (It seems to be on a Russian site with lots of other script saved drawings) ¶ 5:34 AM
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Very strange, I was in a room filled with a great many animation history heavy weight cartoon buffs and we were watching cartoons that none of us had seen. It was like some surreal dream in more ways than one.
I told you, you should have made a point of coming out to the AFI screening of the Mintz Karzy Kats. Rare, surreal, off the wall bazaar cartoons unseen in 70 years.
The place was packed with animation buffs, film people, amateur and professional animation and film historians. Leonard Maltin, Mark Kausler, Milton Gray, Joe Dante, Ray Pointer, Jerry Beck, the list goes on and on.
I only got there a half hour early and I had to park on the hill and walk down the funky blacktopped steps of death. Heaven knows when these films will see the light of projector again. Big thanks to Jerry Beck who put together a great show, Michael Schlesinger who lent the restored prints, and the folks at Sony that did the restoration.
There is some talk of a second showing of some of the other restored Karzy Kat cartoons. I truely hope that this will come to pass. ¶ 6:21 AM
I told you, you should have made a point of coming out to the AFI screening of the Mintz Karzy Kats. Rare, surreal, off the wall bazaar cartoons unseen in 70 years.
The place was packed with animation buffs, film people, amateur and professional animation and film historians. Leonard Maltin, Mark Kausler, Milton Gray, Joe Dante, Ray Pointer, Jerry Beck, the list goes on and on.
I only got there a half hour early and I had to park on the hill and walk down the funky blacktopped steps of death. Heaven knows when these films will see the light of projector again. Big thanks to Jerry Beck who put together a great show, Michael Schlesinger who lent the restored prints, and the folks at Sony that did the restoration.
There is some talk of a second showing of some of the other restored Karzy Kat cartoons. I truely hope that this will come to pass. ¶ 6:21 AM
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Friday, October 28, 2005
Lights, Action, Animate:
Yesterday was happily spent working on my animation, the fantasy dance scene with lots of 20% to 40% ghost images fading in and out over an image of little girls dancing. Killer compositing with gradient variegated smear masks, not the easiest process.
I find myself animating at the composite and mask level by copying image/mask sets to create the timing and movement I want. I then have to manipulate each copied mask to create the fade in/fade out ghost image effects. Long process with many, many passes and a lot of trial and error but this scene is starting to come together the way I want it to.
I should have been grading tests for my Monday night class but you have to set priorities. There is always something else that tries to claim more importance. But you just have to take a stand. I animate, therefor I am
¶ 7:01 AM
Yesterday was happily spent working on my animation, the fantasy dance scene with lots of 20% to 40% ghost images fading in and out over an image of little girls dancing. Killer compositing with gradient variegated smear masks, not the easiest process.
I find myself animating at the composite and mask level by copying image/mask sets to create the timing and movement I want. I then have to manipulate each copied mask to create the fade in/fade out ghost image effects. Long process with many, many passes and a lot of trial and error but this scene is starting to come together the way I want it to.
I should have been grading tests for my Monday night class but you have to set priorities. There is always something else that tries to claim more importance. But you just have to take a stand. I animate, therefor I am
¶ 7:01 AM
Thursday, October 27, 2005
We have know that the sky was falling for some time but we did not know the date. Now we know the date of the screening for Disney`s newest release. And since I have already put in my RSVP it is only fair that I let you people know that the RSVP line is open.
¶ 7:41 AM
You and your family are cordially invited to attend a screening of Disney`s
CHICKEN LITTLE
plus a Q&A with Disney CG Supervisor Kevin Geiger
This epic tale presents a new twist to the classic fable of a young chicken who causes widespread panic when he mistakes a falling acorn for a piece of the sky. In this hilarious adventure, Chicken Little is determined to restore his reputation - - but just as things are starting to go his way, a real piece of the sky lands on his head! Suspense, chaos, and plenty of laughs ensue, as Chicken Little and his band of misfit friends, Abby Mallard (aka Ugly Duckling), Runt of the Litter and Fish Out of Water, attempt to save the world without sending the town into a whole new panic. This time, when it comes to saving the world, it helps to be a little chicken.
Q&A following with CG Supervisor Kevin Geiger!
Friday, November 4th - 7:00pm
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
5230 Lankershim Boulevard
North Hollywood, CA
RSVP to (818) 295-5213
Rated G, Running Time 81 minutes.
Play`n Catch Up:
Yesterday was spent in poster design. I have Mark Kausler coming into one of my classes and needed a poster to make the other Art and Animation classes on campus aware of his presence. I have known Mark for a long time but you really don`t know a filmmaker`s career until you look them up on the Internet. This is a closed event so I am not going to tell you any more about it. I will do Photos and a report after the fact.
This next event is open to everybody and a one-time opportunity. I speak of none other that Krazy Kat. This Saturday is the Jerry Beck AFI screening. Don`t miss this screening. Heaven and hell (they talk on a hotline) only knows when these cartoons will be screened again and there are no videos, DVDs, 16 mm, or 8 mm copies. This is you one chance don`t blow it.
Titles to be screened include:
RATSKIN (1929)
PORT WHINES (1929)
FARM RELIEF (1929)
SLOW BEAU (1930)
JAZZ RHYTHM (1930)
HONOLULU WILES (1930)
APACHE KID (1930)
TAKEN FOR A RIDE (1930)
STORK MARKET (1931)
RUSSIAN DRESSING (1933)
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE (1933)
BOWERY DAZE (1934)
Not on Video or DVD - and won't be!
Saturday October 29th • 3:00 pm
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE
Ted Ashley/ Warner Bros. Screening Room
2021 N. Western Ave.
Hollywood, CA
ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD MEMBERS: FREE ADMISSION • GENERAL PUBLIC: $10.
Been jumping through hoops with the Annie pre-judging for Gaming, This is the first year for this category and it seems to need a lot of help abirthing.
Last Friday was the juried award meeting and I am pleased with the way it went. More on that when the announcements are made.
Currently watching James and the Giant Peach forgot how surreal and just plan good it is.
I am starting to hunt up a video crew for the Annies. Last year it was all last minute because that was when I found out that nobody was going to film the event. This year we are not going to make the same mistake and just grab warm bodies and hand them a camera. This year I am approaching film and TV programs. Which is what I will be doing today.
Remember, the ASIFA Animation Archives (AAA? no) is open today. 1 PM to 9 PM. The stuff going on there is great. It really is starting to come together. Every time I walk into 2114 W. Burbank Blvd now days I am bowled over by the changes. ¶ 7:05 AM
Yesterday was spent in poster design. I have Mark Kausler coming into one of my classes and needed a poster to make the other Art and Animation classes on campus aware of his presence. I have known Mark for a long time but you really don`t know a filmmaker`s career until you look them up on the Internet. This is a closed event so I am not going to tell you any more about it. I will do Photos and a report after the fact.
This next event is open to everybody and a one-time opportunity. I speak of none other that Krazy Kat. This Saturday is the Jerry Beck AFI screening. Don`t miss this screening. Heaven and hell (they talk on a hotline) only knows when these cartoons will be screened again and there are no videos, DVDs, 16 mm, or 8 mm copies. This is you one chance don`t blow it.
Titles to be screened include:
RATSKIN (1929)
PORT WHINES (1929)
FARM RELIEF (1929)
SLOW BEAU (1930)
JAZZ RHYTHM (1930)
HONOLULU WILES (1930)
APACHE KID (1930)
TAKEN FOR A RIDE (1930)
STORK MARKET (1931)
RUSSIAN DRESSING (1933)
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE (1933)
BOWERY DAZE (1934)
Not on Video or DVD - and won't be!
Saturday October 29th • 3:00 pm
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE
Ted Ashley/ Warner Bros. Screening Room
2021 N. Western Ave.
Hollywood, CA
ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD MEMBERS: FREE ADMISSION • GENERAL PUBLIC: $10.
Been jumping through hoops with the Annie pre-judging for Gaming, This is the first year for this category and it seems to need a lot of help abirthing.
Last Friday was the juried award meeting and I am pleased with the way it went. More on that when the announcements are made.
Currently watching James and the Giant Peach forgot how surreal and just plan good it is.
I am starting to hunt up a video crew for the Annies. Last year it was all last minute because that was when I found out that nobody was going to film the event. This year we are not going to make the same mistake and just grab warm bodies and hand them a camera. This year I am approaching film and TV programs. Which is what I will be doing today.
Remember, the ASIFA Animation Archives (AAA? no) is open today. 1 PM to 9 PM. The stuff going on there is great. It really is starting to come together. Every time I walk into 2114 W. Burbank Blvd now days I am bowled over by the changes. ¶ 7:05 AM
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
A Boatload of Cool 50s Design!
Today, Dan Goodsell of Tick Tock Toys stopped by the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive to drop off some drawings from the Ray Patin Studios to be digitized. Dan has agreed to join the Archive Alliance and allow his collection to be included in the Archive. Check out some amazing samples on the Animation Archive Website.
Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive ¶ 8:16 PM
Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive ¶ 8:16 PM
ANIMATION WORLD NETWORK LAUNCHES THE NEW AWN SHOWCASE!
I spent a little time this morning over at AWN`s new Showcase. I plan of spending a lot more time there in the near future.
I spent a little time this morning over at AWN`s new Showcase. I plan of spending a lot more time there in the near future.
* ANIMATION WORLD NETWORK LAUNCHES THE NEW AWN SHOWCASE!¶ 5:57 AM
Animation World Network is proud to announce the launch of the new AWN
Showcase. Check it out now — http://showcase.awn.com!
Highlighting the visual content of AWN and its members, this collection of galleries shows off the imagery of AWN’s main publications, Animation World Magazine and VFXWorld, renowned animators and selected showcase gallery members from around the world.
Visitors will be able to browse images from films to paintings both traditional and digital. Featured artists include Bill Plympton, Peter Chung, Raoul Servais, Frédéric Back, Michaël Dudok de Wit, Georges Schwizgebel and Priit Pärn.
AWN Showcase Member Galleries are dedicated to exhibiting and celebrating the artistry of independent animators from around the globe.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Just got this from I'm not sure who, but it seems worthy of passing on:
Subject: SIGGRAPH Ex Student Volunteer Opportunity
Dear Educator,
Are you in contact with graduated students who were Student Volunteers or Team Leaders at SIGGRAPH in 2003, 2004 and/or 2005?
SIGGRAPH 2006 has a new program to mentor Ex Student Volunteers as apprentices in s2006 sub-committees.
The deadline for applying for these apprentice positions is fast approaching:
2 November 2005, 5 pm Pacific time
Please forward the below submission information as appropriate.
Thanks!
Jacquelyn Martino
a ahref="mailto:xsv@siggraph.org">xsv@siggraph.org
SIGGRAPH 2006 XSV Chair
===
Subject: SIGGRAPH Ex Student Volunteer Opportunity
SIGGRAPH 2006
XSV: Ex-Student Volunteer Mentoring Program
Call for Participation Deadline Approaching:
2 November 2005, 5 pm Pacific time
Submission details are online here:
mentoring
Submission forms are online here:
forms
Call For Participation:
Have you served as a Student Volunteer in SIGGRAPH 2005, 2004, or 2003? Are you
finished with school and no longer qualify for the Student Volunteers Program?
Were you just so jazzed by the volunteering experience that you want to stay
involved, but you're not exactly sure how?
Wonder no longer because SIGGRAPH 2006 wants to collaborate with you on a new
initiative.
We are looking for a very few recent undergraduate or graduate students who have
been outstanding SIGGRAPH Student Volunteers and who are interested in further
critical SIGGRAPH conference volunteer work. Individuals who are interested in
ACM SIGGRAPH and starting careers in computer graphics and interactive
techniques will be selected for the opportunity to apprentice with a SIGGRAPH
2006 committee.
As an apprentice, you will be assigned to a specific committee and mentored by
the respective program chair. With mentored assistance, you will take on
appropriate responsibilities within a team of volunteers that works to make the
conference a success. If you are selected, your responsibilities will start in
December 2005 and will continue until the conference is over in August 2006.
This initiative promises to be very competitive. Only one position exists in
each of these committees:
Courses
GraphicsNet
Panels
Sketches
And one position will be shared by these two committees:
Educators
Research Posters
Interested individuals will not apply directly, rather, they will be nominated
according to the process outlined in the Nomination Procedures.
If you are interested in this program, you will need to find someone to
nominate you. Take a look at the Nomination Procedures to find out more about
who to ask for a nomination. If you are nominating a recently graduated student
for one of these apprenticeships, you should also take a look at the Nomination
Procedures.
Then step up and check out the program details:
Eligibility
Roles and Responsibilities
Frequently Asked Questions
Jacquelyn Martino
xsv@siggraph.org
SIGGRAPH 2006 XSV Chair
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ¶ 6:16 AM
Subject: SIGGRAPH Ex Student Volunteer Opportunity
Dear Educator,
Are you in contact with graduated students who were Student Volunteers or Team Leaders at SIGGRAPH in 2003, 2004 and/or 2005?
SIGGRAPH 2006 has a new program to mentor Ex Student Volunteers as apprentices in s2006 sub-committees.
The deadline for applying for these apprentice positions is fast approaching:
2 November 2005, 5 pm Pacific time
Please forward the below submission information as appropriate.
Thanks!
Jacquelyn Martino
a ahref="mailto:xsv@siggraph.org">xsv@siggraph.org
SIGGRAPH 2006 XSV Chair
===
Subject: SIGGRAPH Ex Student Volunteer Opportunity
SIGGRAPH 2006
XSV: Ex-Student Volunteer Mentoring Program
Call for Participation Deadline Approaching:
2 November 2005, 5 pm Pacific time
Submission details are online here:
mentoring
Submission forms are online here:
forms
Call For Participation:
Have you served as a Student Volunteer in SIGGRAPH 2005, 2004, or 2003? Are you
finished with school and no longer qualify for the Student Volunteers Program?
Were you just so jazzed by the volunteering experience that you want to stay
involved, but you're not exactly sure how?
Wonder no longer because SIGGRAPH 2006 wants to collaborate with you on a new
initiative.
We are looking for a very few recent undergraduate or graduate students who have
been outstanding SIGGRAPH Student Volunteers and who are interested in further
critical SIGGRAPH conference volunteer work. Individuals who are interested in
ACM SIGGRAPH and starting careers in computer graphics and interactive
techniques will be selected for the opportunity to apprentice with a SIGGRAPH
2006 committee.
As an apprentice, you will be assigned to a specific committee and mentored by
the respective program chair. With mentored assistance, you will take on
appropriate responsibilities within a team of volunteers that works to make the
conference a success. If you are selected, your responsibilities will start in
December 2005 and will continue until the conference is over in August 2006.
This initiative promises to be very competitive. Only one position exists in
each of these committees:
Courses
GraphicsNet
Panels
Sketches
And one position will be shared by these two committees:
Educators
Research Posters
Interested individuals will not apply directly, rather, they will be nominated
according to the process outlined in the Nomination Procedures.
If you are interested in this program, you will need to find someone to
nominate you. Take a look at the Nomination Procedures to find out more about
who to ask for a nomination. If you are nominating a recently graduated student
for one of these apprenticeships, you should also take a look at the Nomination
Procedures.
Then step up and check out the program details:
Eligibility
Roles and Responsibilities
Frequently Asked Questions
Jacquelyn Martino
xsv@siggraph.org
SIGGRAPH 2006 XSV Chair
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ¶ 6:16 AM
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Media Change Over Almost Over:
There are several phases to a change from one media format to another. The last two are fun but sad (sad because it has to end) for the collector of hard to find media, in my case animation, the next to the last phase is the rush to market with all of the Public Domain stuff in the new format. We saw that 30 years ago with video and we have been seeing it happening for the last year and a half with the 99 cent DVDs.
The Public Domain DVD phase looks like it is ended. Walmart is no longer carrying dollar DVDs and the 99 Cent Only Stores haven`t had anything new for ages. It has run its course. The vaults have been sacked and nothing new/old is coming forth. (not every thing I wanted made it to market - where are the Scrappy cartoons oh where are the Krazy Kats?)
Now comes the last phase, the sell off of the old media. My local Salvation Army has had bins and bins of videos for sale, sometimes as cheaply as 25 cents but currently 75 cents. The video stores are getting rid of their videos. Maybe they will be renamed DVD stores?
Now I am not letting go of my video technology (I don`t let go of my LPs and turntable either when that change over was taking place and man did I score some hard to find tunes). Let go of VHS, not now that the good stuff / the rare stuff / the cheap stuff is coming on the market.
I have never really bothered to pick up Fun and Fancy Free, not my favorite Disney piece. Too saccharin for my tastes. Bongo in particular was made for a time and taste that I have no connection with at all. But at 75 cents I am glad to add it to my collection.
I also picked up an awful lot of Tom and Jerry, Donald Duck, Pluto, and Huckleberry Hound cartoons. (not rare stuff, not hard to find, but not stuff I have bothered with adding to the collect until now when the price is right). My real find is in old horror flicks. I glommed onto a copy of Gargoyles a movie that I always thought had a lot to do with the great Disney animated series of the same name. Picked up a better copy of Them and picked up the under rated Frighteners. (Jackson`s next 3 movies did a lot better at the boxoffice)
My wife made the real score with 14 episodes of Star Trex in a boxed set. You know, the real ones with Spock and Kirk and the tacky special effects. So you guys just keep changing over and unloading your outdated media. Don`t worry about it. We will take care of your discards. We will be glad to take care of your discards! ¶ 12:21 PM
There are several phases to a change from one media format to another. The last two are fun but sad (sad because it has to end) for the collector of hard to find media, in my case animation, the next to the last phase is the rush to market with all of the Public Domain stuff in the new format. We saw that 30 years ago with video and we have been seeing it happening for the last year and a half with the 99 cent DVDs.
The Public Domain DVD phase looks like it is ended. Walmart is no longer carrying dollar DVDs and the 99 Cent Only Stores haven`t had anything new for ages. It has run its course. The vaults have been sacked and nothing new/old is coming forth. (not every thing I wanted made it to market - where are the Scrappy cartoons oh where are the Krazy Kats?)
Now comes the last phase, the sell off of the old media. My local Salvation Army has had bins and bins of videos for sale, sometimes as cheaply as 25 cents but currently 75 cents. The video stores are getting rid of their videos. Maybe they will be renamed DVD stores?
Now I am not letting go of my video technology (I don`t let go of my LPs and turntable either when that change over was taking place and man did I score some hard to find tunes). Let go of VHS, not now that the good stuff / the rare stuff / the cheap stuff is coming on the market.
I have never really bothered to pick up Fun and Fancy Free, not my favorite Disney piece. Too saccharin for my tastes. Bongo in particular was made for a time and taste that I have no connection with at all. But at 75 cents I am glad to add it to my collection.
I also picked up an awful lot of Tom and Jerry, Donald Duck, Pluto, and Huckleberry Hound cartoons. (not rare stuff, not hard to find, but not stuff I have bothered with adding to the collect until now when the price is right). My real find is in old horror flicks. I glommed onto a copy of Gargoyles a movie that I always thought had a lot to do with the great Disney animated series of the same name. Picked up a better copy of Them and picked up the under rated Frighteners. (Jackson`s next 3 movies did a lot better at the boxoffice)
My wife made the real score with 14 episodes of Star Trex in a boxed set. You know, the real ones with Spock and Kirk and the tacky special effects. So you guys just keep changing over and unloading your outdated media. Don`t worry about it. We will take care of your discards. We will be glad to take care of your discards! ¶ 12:21 PM
Saturday, October 22, 2005
At The Archive: Coal Black
I posted some frame grabs from Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs on the Animation Archive Blog.
http://www.animationarchive.org
This is one of the greatest cartoons ever made, but you won't see it on home video. However, it is available for viewing at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive ¶ 7:58 PM
http://www.animationarchive.org
This is one of the greatest cartoons ever made, but you won't see it on home video. However, it is available for viewing at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive ¶ 7:58 PM
Saturday Update, the Annies, Volunteer Meeting, Krazy Kat:
Here we are on the weekend. Things are moving quickly in the headlong rush to the Annie Awards. Just scored a number on talented camera-men for the Annie video archive shoot. Have to call Ed Gonzalez today and start working out details.
Last night was the juried awards, the June Foray, Ub Iwerks, Winsor McCay awards. I personally am quite pleased with the group of people we will be honoring this year but of course I can not release those name just yet.
My Gaming and TV Production judges are all in line and I have the meeting for the Gaming judging all lined up.
In my last entry, blow, I included a question from an animation history test. The answer is the Flintstones, the first U.S. prime time television animation. Designing a test is a lot harder than most people think.
This question is one I no longer use. The problem with this question is that the student tends to not really read the question. They tend to skip the prime time part of the question and answer what is the first made for television animation. Which of course is Crusader Rabbit. I want to test knowledge of subject and how well I am getting that knowledge across to the students, not reading comprehension. Therefore that question is out.
This Wednesday, October 26th, is the ASIFA-Hollywood membership volunteer meeting. 7 PM at the Animation Center in Burbank. 2114 W. Burbank Blvd. Exciting things are happening with the Archive and this will be the first volunteer meeting dealing with Annie Volunteers. So make sure to make it to this meeting.
A week from today, October 29th, is Jarry Beck`s AFI screening of the Charles Mintz Krazy Kats. Don`t miss these. They are impossible to see anywhere. I would not miss this one for anything short of a major emergency impacting the universe as we know it. ¶ 8:52 AM
Here we are on the weekend. Things are moving quickly in the headlong rush to the Annie Awards. Just scored a number on talented camera-men for the Annie video archive shoot. Have to call Ed Gonzalez today and start working out details.
Last night was the juried awards, the June Foray, Ub Iwerks, Winsor McCay awards. I personally am quite pleased with the group of people we will be honoring this year but of course I can not release those name just yet.
My Gaming and TV Production judges are all in line and I have the meeting for the Gaming judging all lined up.
In my last entry, blow, I included a question from an animation history test. The answer is the Flintstones, the first U.S. prime time television animation. Designing a test is a lot harder than most people think.
This question is one I no longer use. The problem with this question is that the student tends to not really read the question. They tend to skip the prime time part of the question and answer what is the first made for television animation. Which of course is Crusader Rabbit. I want to test knowledge of subject and how well I am getting that knowledge across to the students, not reading comprehension. Therefore that question is out.
This Wednesday, October 26th, is the ASIFA-Hollywood membership volunteer meeting. 7 PM at the Animation Center in Burbank. 2114 W. Burbank Blvd. Exciting things are happening with the Archive and this will be the first volunteer meeting dealing with Annie Volunteers. So make sure to make it to this meeting.
A week from today, October 29th, is Jarry Beck`s AFI screening of the Charles Mintz Krazy Kats. Don`t miss these. They are impossible to see anywhere. I would not miss this one for anything short of a major emergency impacting the universe as we know it. ¶ 8:52 AM
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Spent all day yesterday hunting up judges for the TV Production. Nailed it down about 4 PM yesterday. Now I have to get my test designed before 5 tonight. So I will just leave you with this:
16. In the U.S. the first prime time animation was:¶ 10:15 AM
a. Crusader Rabbit
b. Ruff and Reddy
c. Huckleberry Hound
d. The Flintstones
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Tuesday Update:
I have just inherited the Nominating Chairship (sic) of another Annie category, Television Production. Not an area that I really know a great deal about, but there it is. I am scrambling around for Judges that do know something about it. So this is going to be a short one today.
I`m listening to the radio on my way home form dropping my kids at school this morning and there is some kind of trivia contest going on. Mark and Brian, a Disney owned radio station and the question is Who is Stromboi? and people are saying 101 Dalmatians.
Okay, I know that animation isn`t everybody`s thing and I couldn`t tell you who played in the World Series the week it happens but Stromboli, Bill Tytla`s masterful character animation, how blind do you have to be to miss that? He gave me nightmares as a kid. These people were kids right? Everybody saw Pinocchio as a kid and then you take your own kids and how can you say 101 Dalmatians. Which reminds me, I have to design a test for my Monday night class. Who is Stromboi? don`t think so, too easy of a question. ¶ 10:11 AM
I have just inherited the Nominating Chairship (sic) of another Annie category, Television Production. Not an area that I really know a great deal about, but there it is. I am scrambling around for Judges that do know something about it. So this is going to be a short one today.
I`m listening to the radio on my way home form dropping my kids at school this morning and there is some kind of trivia contest going on. Mark and Brian, a Disney owned radio station and the question is Who is Stromboi? and people are saying 101 Dalmatians.
Okay, I know that animation isn`t everybody`s thing and I couldn`t tell you who played in the World Series the week it happens but Stromboli, Bill Tytla`s masterful character animation, how blind do you have to be to miss that? He gave me nightmares as a kid. These people were kids right? Everybody saw Pinocchio as a kid and then you take your own kids and how can you say 101 Dalmatians. Which reminds me, I have to design a test for my Monday night class. Who is Stromboi? don`t think so, too easy of a question. ¶ 10:11 AM
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Animation Archive: Popeye And Li'l Swee Pea
Read today's report on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive website...
Stephen Worth
DIrector
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 7:22 PM
Stephen Worth
DIrector
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 7:22 PM
Monday, October 17, 2005
Aki Umemoto, Creative Director at Mattel, is a good friend of ASIFA and a long time member. He uses a lot of animation and animators in his work at Mattel and he is the guy I call on when I want to talk about the other 80% of the industry that is not dealing with TV and feature animation. When he is not making toys he is involved with improv. Here is a posting of his next show.
Hi all! My next improv show is on 11/12, Saturday night at the Piero Dusa Promenade Playhouse in Santa Monica. 1404 3rd St. Promenade, SM, 90401. It's on the 3rd St. Promenade near Santa Monica Blvd. We have two shows: 7:30pm and 9:30pm, and guess what? I'm in both shows and co-directing the 9:30 show! This will be the last performance of April's Fools this year, so please attend if you can. Tickets are $12 for each show or for those who can take it, $20 for both shows!¶ 6:58 AM
Spam! Spam! Spam! Embrace the evil you can not conquer and make it your own. Are you tired of fighting an unending battle with the spam legions of hell? Make spam work for you. Like found art, here is found dialog free for the stealing.
Kind of like an Aardman Lip Sync dialog track. You can`t pay someone to mis-write something like this. Offcourse (sic) you can try.
Show your friends you have made it with our reproduction watches.
I am Mr.John Graham,Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, GRAHAM IMPORT AND EXPORT COMPANY LTD
Oh my God my brother You'll never guess what happened to me on saturday. Basically found alternative date site free of charge. So many gals are there messaging and meeting eachother. And offcourse there is someone (or more than one) for you. Although most of them want one-nighters, there are also those who like it serious.
This is a confirmation message :)
Be gentle with yourself, learn to lvoe yourself, to forgive.
I'm 67 years old. I was very wary of putting my details on the Internet, I lvoe Mickey Mouse more than any woman Ive ever known.
Very Respectfully,
Mr. John Graham.
MANAGING DIRECTOR/CEO
Kind of like an Aardman Lip Sync dialog track. You can`t pay someone to mis-write something like this. Offcourse (sic) you can try.
calhoun you pictorial me, teleost beefy kayo . typography you concurred me, scandinavia . chalet you winemaster me, wobble negotiate homemade . breadroot you stony me, calumniate chairperson .¶ 6:39 AM
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Animation Archive: Natwick on Iwerks
I'm going to make you all visit the Animation Archive Blog for this particular treat... Craig Davison has contributed an audio interview with Grim Natwick to the Archive, and I have posted a short excerpt where Grim reminisces about Ub Iwerks. You won't want to miss this...
http://www.animationarchive.org
Thanks to Craig Davison and Reg Hartt for this important bit of history!
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 12:28 AM
http://www.animationarchive.org
Thanks to Craig Davison and Reg Hartt for this important bit of history!
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 12:28 AM
Friday, October 14, 2005
Esopus: John Canemaker on a Single FrameI love getting packages in the mail. Thursday I got a great package. Two copies of Esopus #5 (a reading copy and an archive copy) with the rich smell of printers ink that always takes me right back to my childhood days of hand setting type. (so I had a weird childhood)
The printing on this periodical is art to someone that knows about printing, square blocked glue bound non-standard signatures with single page inserts of special papers. It is like one of the works I use to get at the Gutenberg Show where every printer set up their press on the floor and tries to out do every other printer on the convention floor with quality they could not afford in real print runs. And the papers in this volume, each paper choice is driven by the article need not by cost or ease of signature assembly.
Esopus, as a publication just blows me away. It even comes with a CD of original commissioned music specially composed for this publication. I think the word I am looking for is cutting edge or maybe avant-garde kind of mixed with craftsmanship and something that means highest quality all at the same time. Maybe that is what Esopus means?
The content is all over the map of the arts world. But in a good way. I haven`t had time to give it a comprehensive read but I did get off on the letter to a lost love typed on two sides of a white paper bag. There was even a printed receipt inside the bag for 65 cents, no tax (food item) that is dated December 1977.I did read, with great joy, Let a Thousand Drawing Bloom by John Canemaker. That is the reason I got this early Christmas package in the first place.
John takes one frame from Walt Disney`s 1940 Fantasia and gives us a trip through the hand drawn animation process complete with reproductions of every piece of artwork used to create that single frame. Everything is printed to look as close to the original as humanly possible. That means transparencies printed on vellum to give the see through quality of animation bond and production sketches first done on black paper printed on black paper so that the look of the work is as close as can be to pastels on black paper. As someone that spent a lot of my teen years running a printing press this has a richness that is true love of craft. Esopus would surely have please William Morris.
The strange thing for me was seeing one sentence (His boss, William Randolph Heart, once requested that he draw a portrait of Heart`s mistress, the actress Marion Davies) that I first read in a student`s paper five years ago quoted here in John`s article.It got me to thinking about just how much research John was putting into this simple little article. He had to jump through some hoops to get access to Al Zinnen`s great nephew (privacy regulations at my college being what they are) and all that work was reduced to less than two paragraphs. How much more research is there lurking out there behind every other sentence on the page?
So I`m think John, the original release of Fantasia was 125 minutes or 7500 seconds. Take that at 24 frames Per Second for about 180,000 frames. If we go easy on you and average it out on 2s then that leaves just 89,999 more frames you have to analyze. That is going to make you a very busy man. Hope to see you at the Annies, anyway.
For info on Esopus: http://www.esopusmag.com ¶ 5:55 PM
Thursday, October 13, 2005
10/13 Archive Update
You might notice that the Animation Archive website looks a little different. We moved things around so both the blog and the static site are combined into one single page now. Bookmark this page and tell your friends about it...
www.animationarchive.org
Jason Jones and Marc Deckter were in today. They helped catalog the Clampett cartoons and enter them into the filmographic database. We also fired up the scanner and captured our first batch of drawings for the media database. It's fitting that the first artwork entered into the database is by Mike Lah. Mike was Tex Avery's right hand man, and was a good friend of ASIFA-Hollywood, serving as Board Member and Treasurer. When he passed away, Mike's family donated the archives of his studio to ASIFA-Hollywood. Here are some samples of drawings from commercials directed by MIke Lah that we entered into the database today...
If you'd like to come down and help out on Tuesday, drop me an email at... sworth@animationarchive.org
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 7:26 PM
www.animationarchive.org
Jason Jones and Marc Deckter were in today. They helped catalog the Clampett cartoons and enter them into the filmographic database. We also fired up the scanner and captured our first batch of drawings for the media database. It's fitting that the first artwork entered into the database is by Mike Lah. Mike was Tex Avery's right hand man, and was a good friend of ASIFA-Hollywood, serving as Board Member and Treasurer. When he passed away, Mike's family donated the archives of his studio to ASIFA-Hollywood. Here are some samples of drawings from commercials directed by MIke Lah that we entered into the database today...
If you'd like to come down and help out on Tuesday, drop me an email at... sworth@animationarchive.org
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 7:26 PM
Judge Not Lest Yee Be Game:
I just nailed down my nomination judging team for the new Gaming Annie. Most of them are from Orange County (lots of gaming companies down this way) so it looks like we will be holding the final nomination judging in Orange with our one L.A. based judge doing the long drive this year (sorry Jon).
I think I have a good mix; the Animation Chair of a high profile Local Art College, a gaming historian, a CGI movie animation / FX guy, a Gaming animator, and the manager of my local Gaming Store. I think that about covers the field. And I think the Gaming Store manager is a nice touch. Very grass roots and in the trenches where the real world meets the gaming reality.
I am really stoked about the New Gaming Annie category. It is long over due and I am proud to be the Nominating Chair for this first year of composition. I just hope we get some killer stuff submitted. ¶ 11:03 AM
I just nailed down my nomination judging team for the new Gaming Annie. Most of them are from Orange County (lots of gaming companies down this way) so it looks like we will be holding the final nomination judging in Orange with our one L.A. based judge doing the long drive this year (sorry Jon).
I think I have a good mix; the Animation Chair of a high profile Local Art College, a gaming historian, a CGI movie animation / FX guy, a Gaming animator, and the manager of my local Gaming Store. I think that about covers the field. And I think the Gaming Store manager is a nice touch. Very grass roots and in the trenches where the real world meets the gaming reality.
I am really stoked about the New Gaming Annie category. It is long over due and I am proud to be the Nominating Chair for this first year of composition. I just hope we get some killer stuff submitted. ¶ 11:03 AM
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
FIRST BLOGIVERSARY:
DATELINE: Tuesday, October 12, 2004:
It has been one complete year since I took over this Blog. The ASIFA-Hollywood Blog was started in April of 2004 by Steve Worth to report on the Animation Archive Project.
Unfortunately, the Animation Archive Project did not get off the ground at quickly as was hoped and this Blog sat idle for months while nothing seemed to happen on the Archive front. (thank gods that is no longer the case and Steve is back writing about the Archive Project in these pages)
So at the October 2004 ASIFA-Hollywood Board meeting I put forth that we should / I should do something with the Blog. That it should and could be the daily voice of ASIFA-Hollywood. I didn`t get a counter until half way through December 2004 so I can not state the starting number of visits in October 2004.
But in January of 2004 (the first full month with a counter) we had a little better than 2,500 visits. In July when we were reporting on Comic Con we had over 7,000 visits and last month we had 6,000 visits. We are coming up on 45,000 hits since mid-December 2004. I started the Blog with this article on the poor state of business law training in our art schools. I celebrate today by running a re-print.
DATELINE: Tuesday, October 12, 2004:
It has been one complete year since I took over this Blog. The ASIFA-Hollywood Blog was started in April of 2004 by Steve Worth to report on the Animation Archive Project.
Unfortunately, the Animation Archive Project did not get off the ground at quickly as was hoped and this Blog sat idle for months while nothing seemed to happen on the Archive front. (thank gods that is no longer the case and Steve is back writing about the Archive Project in these pages)
So at the October 2004 ASIFA-Hollywood Board meeting I put forth that we should / I should do something with the Blog. That it should and could be the daily voice of ASIFA-Hollywood. I didn`t get a counter until half way through December 2004 so I can not state the starting number of visits in October 2004.
But in January of 2004 (the first full month with a counter) we had a little better than 2,500 visits. In July when we were reporting on Comic Con we had over 7,000 visits and last month we had 6,000 visits. We are coming up on 45,000 hits since mid-December 2004. I started the Blog with this article on the poor state of business law training in our art schools. I celebrate today by running a re-print.
¶ 5:39 AM
Copyright & Trademark Book
`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
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Archive Update: Scanner Calibration
Today I installed the color correction software we are using to calibrate the Epson 11x17 scanner with our 30 inch Apple Cinema Display and HP Color ScanJet 3550 laser printer. I used a color key painted by Jules Engel from Format Films' "Alvin Show" as a sample. Here is what the painting looks like...
To give you an idea of the resolution of the scanner, here is a detail on Alvin's eye at 1600 dpi...
...and that isn't even the top resolution of this scanner. It goes up to 2400 dpi! It has a transparency adapter so we can scan slides as well.
I plan to start scanning soon, so if you would like to volunteer, give me a call on Tuesday or Thursdays during office hours at 818 842-8330.
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive ¶ 8:11 PM
To give you an idea of the resolution of the scanner, here is a detail on Alvin's eye at 1600 dpi...
...and that isn't even the top resolution of this scanner. It goes up to 2400 dpi! It has a transparency adapter so we can scan slides as well.
I plan to start scanning soon, so if you would like to volunteer, give me a call on Tuesday or Thursdays during office hours at 818 842-8330.
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive ¶ 8:11 PM
Charles Mintz Krazy Kat cartoons. Impossible to see anywhere.
This is your only chance there is no where else you are going to be able to see these very rare cartoons. It would be my guess that we have Michael Schlesinger to thank for this treat. Thank you Michael! Don`t miss this one folks.
ASIFA-Hollywood presents
KRAZY KAT
Rare 1930s Columbia Pictures Cartoons Unseen in over 70 years!
George Herriman's Krazy Kat was one of the first comic strip characters adapted to animated cartoons (starting in 1916!). When the cat made the transition to talkie cartoons, she became a he - as well as a little more Mickey and lot less Herriman - in the process.
Krazy was featured in a long-running series of black and white sound cartoons produced by Columbia Pictures Corp. beginning in 1929 (and ending in 1939). This program will present many rare original Charles Mintz Krazy Kat cartoons in 35mm - newly restored by Columbia Pictures - including several that were never distributed to television or seen since their original release. This is one for the hard core cartoon buffs - and anyone else who loves funny, bouncy, pre-code musical cartoons from the 1930s. Don't miss this rare classic cartoon event!
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE
Ted Ashley/ Warner Bros. Screening Room
2021 N. Western Ave.
Hollywood, CA
ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD MEMBERS: FREE ADMISSION • GENERAL PUBLIC: $10. ¶ 7:21 AM
This is your only chance there is no where else you are going to be able to see these very rare cartoons. It would be my guess that we have Michael Schlesinger to thank for this treat. Thank you Michael! Don`t miss this one folks.
ASIFA-Hollywood presents
KRAZY KAT
Rare 1930s Columbia Pictures Cartoons Unseen in over 70 years!
George Herriman's Krazy Kat was one of the first comic strip characters adapted to animated cartoons (starting in 1916!). When the cat made the transition to talkie cartoons, she became a he - as well as a little more Mickey and lot less Herriman - in the process.
Krazy was featured in a long-running series of black and white sound cartoons produced by Columbia Pictures Corp. beginning in 1929 (and ending in 1939). This program will present many rare original Charles Mintz Krazy Kat cartoons in 35mm - newly restored by Columbia Pictures - including several that were never distributed to television or seen since their original release. This is one for the hard core cartoon buffs - and anyone else who loves funny, bouncy, pre-code musical cartoons from the 1930s. Don't miss this rare classic cartoon event!
- RATSKIN (1929)
- PORT WHINES (1929)
- FARM RELIEF (1929)
- SLOW BEAU (1930)
- JAZZ RHYTHM (1930)
- HONOLULU WILES (1930)
- APACHE KID (1930)
- TAKEN FOR A RIDE (1930)
- STORK MARKET (1931)
- RUSSIAN DRESSING (1933)
- SOUTHERN EXPOSURE (1933)
- BOWERY DAZE (1934)
- Titles to be screened include:
Not on Video or DVD - and won`t be!
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE
Ted Ashley/ Warner Bros. Screening Room
2021 N. Western Ave.
Hollywood, CA
ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD MEMBERS: FREE ADMISSION • GENERAL PUBLIC: $10. ¶ 7:21 AM
Monday, October 10, 2005
Fire Destroys Aardman`s Past: (the Studio Did Not Burn Down)
Some people were reporting yesterday that Aardman Studio burned down. It did not. It was a storage unit. There were still some bad losses. Here is the Aardman press release.
On the day that Aardman celebrate a chart-topping opening weekend in the US with Wallace & Gromit The Curse of the Were-rabbit, news of a fire at our storage unit in Bristol has been devastating.
The facility used to store sets, awards, and historical artefacts, is not a part of the Aardman studio, and we are glad to report that no Aardman staff have been affected. However, we have lost a number of irreplaceable storyboards, awards, props and pieces of film memorabilia from our 30 year history.
None of the material from the new Wallace & Gromit film The Curse of the Wererabbit was in storage at the time, but we have lost many original sets from Chicken Run, Creature Comforts, and the three Wallace & Gromit short films, that were used for reference and toured around the world for exhibition.
This will not in any way affect existing or future Aardman productions as 100% of sets and props are purpose built for each production.
Wallace & Gromit The Curse of the Were-rabbit: www.wandg.com ¶ 11:45 AM
Some people were reporting yesterday that Aardman Studio burned down. It did not. It was a storage unit. There were still some bad losses. Here is the Aardman press release.
On the day that Aardman celebrate a chart-topping opening weekend in the US with Wallace & Gromit The Curse of the Were-rabbit, news of a fire at our storage unit in Bristol has been devastating.
The facility used to store sets, awards, and historical artefacts, is not a part of the Aardman studio, and we are glad to report that no Aardman staff have been affected. However, we have lost a number of irreplaceable storyboards, awards, props and pieces of film memorabilia from our 30 year history.
None of the material from the new Wallace & Gromit film The Curse of the Wererabbit was in storage at the time, but we have lost many original sets from Chicken Run, Creature Comforts, and the three Wallace & Gromit short films, that were used for reference and toured around the world for exhibition.
This will not in any way affect existing or future Aardman productions as 100% of sets and props are purpose built for each production.
Wallace & Gromit The Curse of the Were-rabbit: www.wandg.com ¶ 11:45 AM
Morning Email From Canemaker:
This sounds like early Christmas to me. I just hope the mailman doen`t bend it trying to get into my mailbox. If you are any kind of animation geek you might want to hunt up this publication.
You are completely welcome John, all I did was put you in touch with Al Zinnen`s family and they were very happy to have someone of your caliber interested in Al`s work. ¶ 6:48 AM
This sounds like early Christmas to me. I just hope the mailman doen`t bend it trying to get into my mailbox. If you are any kind of animation geek you might want to hunt up this publication.
HI LARRY,
This week I am having sent to you "A THING OF LAVISH, ECCENTRIC BEAUTY" according to the NY Times.
It is the arts magazine ESOPUS, published twice-yearly "featuring fresh, unmediated perspectives on the contemporary cultural landscape from artists, writers, filmmakers, playwrights, photographers, architects, designers, musicians, and other creative professionals. It includes long-form artists’ projects, critical writing, fiction, interviews, and, in each issue, a CD of specially commissioned music."
In the Fall 2005 (#5) issue, you will find my illustrated article "Let a Thousand Drawings Bloom: The Making of One Frame from the Disney Animated Classic FANTASIA," pp. 66 - 79.
It is the complete layout for scene #18 from the Dance of the Reed Flutes flower ballet from the Nutcracker Suite sequence. The illustrations are the original layouts for the scene from my animation art collection, including the pastel-on-black-paper inspirational sketch by Elmer Plummer;
and four drawings by layout artist Al Zinnen (printed on velum so readers can see through them, as did the scene's animator Cy Young); the instructional sheet attached to the layout; and a frame blowup of the final scene.
My text explains the processes, and is also a subtle lament for the beauty and artistry of hand-drawn animation.
Hope you enjoy the issue. Tod Lippy is the mag's editor. For more info, visit: http://www.esopusmag.com
Thanks for your help!
John
You are completely welcome John, all I did was put you in touch with Al Zinnen`s family and they were very happy to have someone of your caliber interested in Al`s work. ¶ 6:48 AM
Sunday, October 09, 2005
New York State of Mind-Travel:
Gary Sassaman, from Innocent Bystander is in NYC this week. He has posted a group of time travel like blogs talking about the New York City I knew and loved in my Kubert School daze.
The old times in Manhattan was not quite the Fleischer / Van Beuren / Doc Savage world of the 30s but it felt a lot closer to that dangerous sinful world than the family-friendly Times Square of today.
I love his remembrances of the early Comic Convention scene is NYC. I was at a lot of those conventions but never remember meeting Gary there not that that means we never rubbed elbows on dealers floor. Maybe I`m just getting old and like to talk about my glory days. If you are in the same boat stop on over and give him a read. ¶ 11:23 AM
Gary Sassaman, from Innocent Bystander is in NYC this week. He has posted a group of time travel like blogs talking about the New York City I knew and loved in my Kubert School daze.
The old times in Manhattan was not quite the Fleischer / Van Beuren / Doc Savage world of the 30s but it felt a lot closer to that dangerous sinful world than the family-friendly Times Square of today.
I love his remembrances of the early Comic Convention scene is NYC. I was at a lot of those conventions but never remember meeting Gary there not that that means we never rubbed elbows on dealers floor. Maybe I`m just getting old and like to talk about my glory days. If you are in the same boat stop on over and give him a read. ¶ 11:23 AM
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Report on Kimba 40th Aniversary Goodies:
One of the things discussed at last Wednesday`s ASIFA board meeting was some of the goodies that will be for sale at the November 10th Kimba 40th Anniversary Celebration. We got to look at faxed pages of a full-color book coming to us from Des Moines, Iowa, via Melbourne, Australia. It looks to be a treasure and the only place it will be available in the United States, outside of full 'Kimba' DVD box sets, will be at the Kimba Anniversary Celebration on November 10th. Centerpiece of the colorful book is a meticulously researched chronology called "How Kimba Came To Be", compiled & written by Fred Patten and Robin Leyden, edited by Fred Ladd. "Kimba, The White Lion" was acquired from Mushi Production, Japan, in 1965 and distributed here by NBC Enterprises.
But that book is not the coolest treasure. There is also a complete filmography of Kimba with synopses of every one of the 52 episodes in the Series, synopses written forty years ago by the writers of the English adaptations themselves. This filmography, tucked away since 1966 in NBC archives, will be available only at the ASIFA-Hollywood Kimba 40th Anniversary
All profits from this event will go to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive project. So dig deep, you will be supporting a good cause.
Tickets are $6 for ASIFA-Hollywood members, $8 for non-members.
Thursday November 10th - 7:00 PM
Glendale Central Library
222 E. Harvard Street
Glendale, CA ¶ 7:46 PM
Happy Birthday Art Babbit:
Tom Sito has a piece over at the Gang of 7 Blog on Art Babbit. It is Arts Birthday today. You need to get Tom to tell you the Bill Hurtz story from Art`s Funeral. It is one of the true classic stories of animation history. With luck it will be in Tom`s upcoming book on the Animation Strikes.
http://www.g7animation.com/news ¶ 6:37 PM
Tom Sito has a piece over at the Gang of 7 Blog on Art Babbit. It is Arts Birthday today. You need to get Tom to tell you the Bill Hurtz story from Art`s Funeral. It is one of the true classic stories of animation history. With luck it will be in Tom`s upcoming book on the Animation Strikes.
http://www.g7animation.com/news ¶ 6:37 PM
Volunteer Call: The Animation Archive Bio Squad!
One of the key resources in our virtual archive will be the biographical database. This will include information on the people who made the films... birth and death info, filmographies, biographical info, etc. This database will form the basic research for the main gallery of our proposed museum... the exhibit that tells the history of animation by the stories of the people, not by studio or character. So you can see that this is very important.
We are forming a team of volunteers to gather information for the biographical database... The ASIFA-Hollywood Bio Squad! The squad will take the names of the people who have won the Winsor McCay award over the years and gather research material related to them. This will involve going to the UCLA Film Library, searching newspapers and trades for references, gathering info from first hand sources through interviews, transcribing the tributes in the Annie Program Books, etc. Eventually, this information will be boiled down into a capsule bio and full bio for the biographical database.
There's no more important aspect of the archive that you can volunteer for. If you are interested in being a part of this, call me at the archive any Tuesday or Thursday during office hours (1pm to 9pm) and I'll put you on the list. The squad will be meeting sometime in November and names and tasks will be divided up at that meeting. Don't miss it.
Thanks
Stephen Worth
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 5:54 PM
We are forming a team of volunteers to gather information for the biographical database... The ASIFA-Hollywood Bio Squad! The squad will take the names of the people who have won the Winsor McCay award over the years and gather research material related to them. This will involve going to the UCLA Film Library, searching newspapers and trades for references, gathering info from first hand sources through interviews, transcribing the tributes in the Annie Program Books, etc. Eventually, this information will be boiled down into a capsule bio and full bio for the biographical database.
There's no more important aspect of the archive that you can volunteer for. If you are interested in being a part of this, call me at the archive any Tuesday or Thursday during office hours (1pm to 9pm) and I'll put you on the list. The squad will be meeting sometime in November and names and tasks will be divided up at that meeting. Don't miss it.
Thanks
Stephen Worth
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 5:54 PM
Friday, October 07, 2005
Were-Review No Spoilers:
Stop whining all the time about how you are spoiled and can`t enjoy a movie unless you watch it with a audience of Hollywood movie lovers that are all respectful, no talking during the film, clap during the credits and then take your ticket out in the lobby and get it punched so you don`t have to pay for parking. said my daughter and then she was immediately fearful that I would quote her on the blog yet again. No daddy, don`t quote me. I`ll be good! I promise. Too late.
I went to see Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit today. I was the first one in the line when the Ciniplex opened at 10:45 AM. It would have been nice to see it with an audience but no Gods, not like the Madagascar audience I got a couple of months back at my local mall. If I have to make the choice of laughing by myself or wanting to kill the people next to me because they are rude talking during my movie then I will laugh by myself thank you all very much.
And did I like Wallace and Gromit? Do I think it is going to kill at the box office? Do I agree with Jerry Beck that it is the best-animated film so far this year? Well yes. It is a wholly remarkable film. It had that Nick Park feel of his earlier shorts.
It is the same pleasant world of his Oscar winner earlier short films. Wallace is wholly Wallace and Gromit is the lovable super intelligent dog we all love so much. The animation is the stop motion hand craft of the earlier Aardman films that warms my heart. As much as I loved Chicken Run there was something a little too slick about its animation for my taste.
Helena Bonham Carter voices a lovely goofball romantic lead who is a strong nutty foil for the bumbling Wallace. Ralph Fiennes plays an okay but one dimensional villain that isn`t quite up to the robo-dog of The Wrong Trousers but that is comparing apples to apples. Comparing Wallace and Gromit to other animations still leaves Nick Park and Steve Box way in the lead.
So do I think that Were-Rabbit is a prefect movie, flawless, without fault of any kind? No. There are one or two very small things and the one that really bothers me the most is an uncomfortable straying from the innocent world view of the earlier films for 2 cheap sexual throw away sight gags one with melons and the other with a nuts sign. But that is small. I can live with that. Most people will not know the boys well enough to even see this as being out of character.
Even if you can`t see this movie at a screening with validated parking you need to go out and see it today. Okay, tomorrow at the latest. Oh, and DreamWorks, you are going to need to do at least one more screening for the ASIFA voting membership and after that the Academy is going to have to see it. ¶ 7:11 PM
Animation Archive Update
Thursday was a busy day... Lots going on!
Marc Deckter stopped by to volunteer. He started the filmographic database by entering the info on the B&W Popeye cartoons. He'll be back again to help next week. Victoria Schwerin was down from ASIFA-San Francisco along with a friend of hers, and they helped set up the Epson 2400 dpi 11x17 color scanner and the HP color laser printer. Victoria was very excited about the project, and took a stack of brochures up to distribute at Pixar and ASIFA-SF. There are lots of volunteer opportunities, so stop by and take the tour and watch a few rare cartoons. The office hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1pm to 9pm. 2114 Burbank Bl, just east of Buena Vista.
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 3:06 PM
Marc Deckter stopped by to volunteer. He started the filmographic database by entering the info on the B&W Popeye cartoons. He'll be back again to help next week. Victoria Schwerin was down from ASIFA-San Francisco along with a friend of hers, and they helped set up the Epson 2400 dpi 11x17 color scanner and the HP color laser printer. Victoria was very excited about the project, and took a stack of brochures up to distribute at Pixar and ASIFA-SF. There are lots of volunteer opportunities, so stop by and take the tour and watch a few rare cartoons. The office hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1pm to 9pm. 2114 Burbank Bl, just east of Buena Vista.
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 3:06 PM
The Works of Raoul Servais:
Benjamin De Schrijver, who is one of the reasons that our readership is so high in Belgium, writes with a look at the work of Raoul Servais
Benjamin De Schrijver, who is one of the reasons that our readership is so high in Belgium, writes with a look at the work of Raoul Servais
¶ 7:00 AM
Hey Larry,
It just hit me that I forgot to reply to your e-mail. I am a student in character animation - currently enrolled in AnimationMentor.com - and am mostly into the more commercial disney-esque animation. But that`s mainly due to the great animation and, in the ones I like, involving storylines. But I`m also a fan of the fantastic art direction in a lot of alternative animation, that, once again in the ones I like, exceeds the more commercial field by far. Unfortunately, I haven`t seen too much of that, and that`s why I try to keep up with blogs like cartoonbrew.com, which often give links to some of the good alternative shorts.
About Raoul Servais . . . you`re right, he was a quite important animator. I forgot how he actually got into the field, but I believe he had been experimenting with it in his youth, and later got the opportunity to do something with it, instead of decorating rooms. I should check the DVD I`ve bought about him. Or you could also check www.raoulservais.be, which has a long biography on it. In the beginning, his films had more of a comedy feel, but later he went on to do very surreal pieces of art. That might have had something to do with him having worked with Henri Matisse, on a big wall painting project in a Belgian casino. In his career he won many awards, among which Annecy awards, Palme d`Or`s, and many others, and he made one feature film as well, called Taxandria, which was a live-action/animation mix and flopped. In 1963 he founded the first animation school of the European continent at the Royal Acadamy of Fine Arts Ghent, which is only a few miles away from where I live and some of his work has been shown in many museum all over the world, such as the MoMA in NY and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. And, on a minor note, he happened to be President of ASIFA from 1985 till 1994 ;-).
So like I said before, there`s much more information about him at www.raoulservais.be, but maybe it`s even better to check out some of his work. Many of his shorts are available at Atomfilms: Raoul Servais
I urge you to check them out, they`re fantastic. Some of them are a bit slow, but others are just amazing. My personal favorite is To Speak Or Not To Speak, a political satire, which is also one of my favorite animated short films ever.
I hope you`ll enjoy it,
- Benjamin
The Los Angeles Professional Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH Presents:
A Special Screening of the SIGGRAPH 2005 Electronic Theater
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
(Note: This is a Tuesday not a Thursday as stated in the postcard)
The SIGGRAPH 2005 Electronic Theater showcases the best of the best of computer graphics. Experience the year`s finest achievements in animation, visualization, simulation, visual effects, and technical imagery. This presentation premiered at the SIGGRAPH 2005 Conference in Los Angeles in early August. The Electronic Theater screening also includes a pre-show event: a live graphic performance by J. Walt Adamczyk entitled Autocosm: Gardens of Thuban specially created for SIGGRAPH 2005 & re-created for the Los Angeles Professional Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH screening. J. Walt Adamcyzk will perform and speak about the performance before the screening of the Electronic Theater.
For a map showing direction and parking information, see etcenter.org/Downloads/DCL_map.pdf
FEES / REGISTRATION:The event is free to LA SIGGRAPH members. The annual membership fee for LA SIGGRAPH is $35 (checks or cash only). We encourage new members. For membership information please visit www.la.siggraph.org. Walk in/one time visitors will be charged $15. ¶ 6:09 AM
A Special Screening of the SIGGRAPH 2005 Electronic Theater
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
(Note: This is a Tuesday not a Thursday as stated in the postcard)
The SIGGRAPH 2005 Electronic Theater showcases the best of the best of computer graphics. Experience the year`s finest achievements in animation, visualization, simulation, visual effects, and technical imagery. This presentation premiered at the SIGGRAPH 2005 Conference in Los Angeles in early August. The Electronic Theater screening also includes a pre-show event: a live graphic performance by J. Walt Adamczyk entitled Autocosm: Gardens of Thuban specially created for SIGGRAPH 2005 & re-created for the Los Angeles Professional Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH screening. J. Walt Adamcyzk will perform and speak about the performance before the screening of the Electronic Theater.
PROGRAM:
6:30-7:30 P.M. Social Hour - Free Hors d`oeuvres and beverages
7:10-7:30 P.M. J. Walt Adamcyzk performance of Autocosm: Gardens of Thuban
7:30-9:45 P.M. Screening of SIGGRAPH 2005 Electronic Theater
LOCATION:
Digital Cinema Laboratory
at the Pacific Hollywood Theatre
6433 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90028
For a map showing direction and parking information, see etcenter.org/Downloads/DCL_map.pdf
FEES / REGISTRATION:The event is free to LA SIGGRAPH members. The annual membership fee for LA SIGGRAPH is $35 (checks or cash only). We encourage new members. For membership information please visit www.la.siggraph.org. Walk in/one time visitors will be charged $15. ¶ 6:09 AM
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Reminder: The deadline to submit work for the Annie Awards is this Friday, October 7th. http://www.annieawards.com
¶ 8:35 AM
Hy Eisman talks back. The other night I was feeling strange and wrote out a Blog piece on Hy Eisman my old Kubert School teacher. A Popeye fan (Hy is doing the Popeye daily stripes now) let Hy know that his name had been taken in vain. I got an email from said venerable teacher this morning and I pass it on to you.
So Hy, I got your school wrong. I noticed that you accepted the rest of the story as written. Sorry to hear that you were unable to block it out of your memory. Good to hear from you and my daughter wants to be an artist so you may find that name on your list real soon. ¶ 8:13 AM
Hi Larry,
A Popeye fan sent me your note on ASIFA--you still don't get anything right!
I went to the Art Career School at the famous Flatiron Building. And Don Adams was older than me--a year ahead in school. Art Student's League stays in your mind because I thought you'd go there and get out of my class.
I still do a triple take every time I think of you and suffer from everlasting whiplash. Glad to hear that you're suffering with students too. I wonder-- do you remember my saying that "if you ever do anything rotten in your past life, you come back as an art school instructor." Repeat that to your students to keep them on the straight and narrow--and they won't end up like you.
I'm still at Kubert once a week and writing and drawing the Sunday Popeye and The Katzenjammer Kids which can be seen in full, blazing color at www.kingfeatures.com
Best regards to your wife who I remember as a wonderful student. (Actually I think of you fondly, yet still breathe a sigh of relief when the new list of students each year is missing one, unique name.)
Hy
Thought for Food:
I saw the promised-land last night or the first promise of that land. Last night at the ASIFA-Hollywood Executive Board meeting I got to see the ways that the ASIFA Animation Center are being transformed into the Animation Archive / Library so long looked for and talked about.
I got there early, as I always do, because of the long commute (it is better to start early, miss the heavy traffic, and then hang out in Burbank then to curse the bumper to bumper). Steve Worth was the next one in because he has been waiting for the archive to happen for half his life and he can`t stay away now that it is.
Steve showed me some of the black and white Popeyes and there was one with an unedited politically incorrect scene that I have never seen. I had never seen! IT IS HAPPENING! The Archive is coming about. And that is so good. We, in the animation industry, need an archive that deals with the animators not the studios.
Each studio tells their own history and that is as it should be but until now no one has tried to tell the story of animation from the level of the people that moved in and out of the studio stories.
One thing that was decided at the Board Meeting, and it is something we have long known would happen, is the banning of food and drive from the archives premises. The Archives and Library are starting to look like an archive and library now and we can no longer afford to treat it as a clubhouse.
Our monthly Volunteer Meeting (last Wednesday of each month) will be the one function that will be most strongly impacted by this long anticipated policy change. For years we have had pizza delivered after the meeting as part of a social / networking event. This will no longer be possible because of the changing nature of the Animation Center.
The social / networking aspect of the event is still an important part of volunteer experience and will continue. But now that it is necessary to move food and drink out of the animation center, the social hour / networking event following the monthly Act of Membership Meeting will be moved down the street to the Coral Cafe. We hope everybody understands the need for this change. ¶ 8:11 AM
I saw the promised-land last night or the first promise of that land. Last night at the ASIFA-Hollywood Executive Board meeting I got to see the ways that the ASIFA Animation Center are being transformed into the Animation Archive / Library so long looked for and talked about.
I got there early, as I always do, because of the long commute (it is better to start early, miss the heavy traffic, and then hang out in Burbank then to curse the bumper to bumper). Steve Worth was the next one in because he has been waiting for the archive to happen for half his life and he can`t stay away now that it is.
Steve showed me some of the black and white Popeyes and there was one with an unedited politically incorrect scene that I have never seen. I had never seen! IT IS HAPPENING! The Archive is coming about. And that is so good. We, in the animation industry, need an archive that deals with the animators not the studios.
Each studio tells their own history and that is as it should be but until now no one has tried to tell the story of animation from the level of the people that moved in and out of the studio stories.
One thing that was decided at the Board Meeting, and it is something we have long known would happen, is the banning of food and drive from the archives premises. The Archives and Library are starting to look like an archive and library now and we can no longer afford to treat it as a clubhouse.
Our monthly Volunteer Meeting (last Wednesday of each month) will be the one function that will be most strongly impacted by this long anticipated policy change. For years we have had pizza delivered after the meeting as part of a social / networking event. This will no longer be possible because of the changing nature of the Animation Center.
The social / networking aspect of the event is still an important part of volunteer experience and will continue. But now that it is necessary to move food and drink out of the animation center, the social hour / networking event following the monthly Act of Membership Meeting will be moved down the street to the Coral Cafe. We hope everybody understands the need for this change. ¶ 8:11 AM
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Update:
So here it is Wednesday and I haven`t been able to animate yet this week. Crazed things going on. Sometimes it is hard to believe that anybody ever has enough time. On a minor note I have been running around looking for judges for the Gaming Annie. Doing pretty good so far. Still have maybe one more slot to fill.
It is in to Burbank tonight for the ASIFA board meeting. Lot is happening there. Annie planning is heating up. Many other things going on at the Board level.
At my Cal State Fullerton History of Animation class I am coming up on Snow White and I can not find my copy of Goddess of Spring so it is into the stacks this weekend. The Animation Strikes are next on the list, then cartoons at war and straight on into television.
Re-watched The Incredibles and this time it was the music that jumped out at me. The music has always been incredible and Michael Giaccino`s score has always been an important part of the movie but this time it just jumped out at me. Maybe it is because I have seen the film enough times to know it well and that lets the music come through.
Working my way through the Legacy Collection of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein is currently being viewed in small chunks, not the best way to watch but what can you do.
The Archives will be open tomorrow, Thursday, from 1 PM to 9 PM. Exciting stuff is going on as you can see further down these pages. Stop in and see us and maybe even be part of the happenings. ¶ 11:32 AM
So here it is Wednesday and I haven`t been able to animate yet this week. Crazed things going on. Sometimes it is hard to believe that anybody ever has enough time. On a minor note I have been running around looking for judges for the Gaming Annie. Doing pretty good so far. Still have maybe one more slot to fill.
It is in to Burbank tonight for the ASIFA board meeting. Lot is happening there. Annie planning is heating up. Many other things going on at the Board level.
At my Cal State Fullerton History of Animation class I am coming up on Snow White and I can not find my copy of Goddess of Spring so it is into the stacks this weekend. The Animation Strikes are next on the list, then cartoons at war and straight on into television.
Re-watched The Incredibles and this time it was the music that jumped out at me. The music has always been incredible and Michael Giaccino`s score has always been an important part of the movie but this time it just jumped out at me. Maybe it is because I have seen the film enough times to know it well and that lets the music come through.
Working my way through the Legacy Collection of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein is currently being viewed in small chunks, not the best way to watch but what can you do.
The Archives will be open tomorrow, Thursday, from 1 PM to 9 PM. Exciting stuff is going on as you can see further down these pages. Stop in and see us and maybe even be part of the happenings. ¶ 11:32 AM
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Today At The Archive: Mascots and Music
Linda from the Act of Membership meeting was in to lend a hand backing up the B&W Bob Clampett cartoons we are entering into the collection right now. And we had several visitors to take the tour and see what we're doing.
One of those visitors was Dan Goodsell, author of Krazy Kids' Food!, an incredible visual guide to 1950s and 60s food graphics. Dan is a cartoonist and longtime collector of pop culture graphics. His website, The Imaginary World is full of amazing images from his collection.
A friend of mine sent me a link to his site a week ago, and I was impressed with the quality of his collection and the way he generously shared it on the web. In particular, his collection of artwork from the Ray Patin Studios, and the amazing collection of shelf talkers and point of purchase signage caught my eye. One of the main focuses of ASIFA-Hollywood's physical archives is documenting info about the local independent commercial houses that produced the hundreds of cereal mascot and other animated commercials that made such a great impact on baby boomers.
I emailed Dan and invited him to come by and visit the archives. He stopped by today with an amazing collection of artwork under his arm... beautiful drawings from Ray Patin and Playhouse Pictures and original designs for Post cereal boxes. I showed him some of the artwork in ASIFA's archive... the Quartet Films files of Tony the Tiger and Snap Crackle Pop spots and the "hero" boxes... the actual prop cereal boxes used in the live action segments of those spots. Dan was very interested in the archive project, and has agreed to allow ASIFA-Hollywood to scan some of his collection for inclusion in the archive database.
Another visitor to the Archive this week was Daniel Goldmark, author of Tunes For Toons. Daniel is a friend of mine from Spumco, and I showed him the archive and invited him to get involved. He's agreed to provide biographical material on cartoon music directors and scans of cartoon related sheet music. This is another area of research that hasn't been collected in the past, and I'm excited to be able to include it in the archive.
Tomorrow, Antran will be renting a truck and moving things in and out of storage, so the place will be a little better arranged very soon!
Thanks for your support,
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive ¶ 6:30 PM
One of those visitors was Dan Goodsell, author of Krazy Kids' Food!, an incredible visual guide to 1950s and 60s food graphics. Dan is a cartoonist and longtime collector of pop culture graphics. His website, The Imaginary World is full of amazing images from his collection.A friend of mine sent me a link to his site a week ago, and I was impressed with the quality of his collection and the way he generously shared it on the web. In particular, his collection of artwork from the Ray Patin Studios, and the amazing collection of shelf talkers and point of purchase signage caught my eye. One of the main focuses of ASIFA-Hollywood's physical archives is documenting info about the local independent commercial houses that produced the hundreds of cereal mascot and other animated commercials that made such a great impact on baby boomers.I emailed Dan and invited him to come by and visit the archives. He stopped by today with an amazing collection of artwork under his arm... beautiful drawings from Ray Patin and Playhouse Pictures and original designs for Post cereal boxes. I showed him some of the artwork in ASIFA's archive... the Quartet Films files of Tony the Tiger and Snap Crackle Pop spots and the "hero" boxes... the actual prop cereal boxes used in the live action segments of those spots. Dan was very interested in the archive project, and has agreed to allow ASIFA-Hollywood to scan some of his collection for inclusion in the archive database.
Another visitor to the Archive this week was Daniel Goldmark, author of Tunes For Toons. Daniel is a friend of mine from Spumco, and I showed him the archive and invited him to get involved. He's agreed to provide biographical material on cartoon music directors and scans of cartoon related sheet music. This is another area of research that hasn't been collected in the past, and I'm excited to be able to include it in the archive.Tomorrow, Antran will be renting a truck and moving things in and out of storage, so the place will be a little better arranged very soon!
Thanks for your support,
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive ¶ 6:30 PM
Volunteer Call Answered
Thanks to Daisy Church for providing this amazing bookmark file for the archives...
Animation Bookmarks
Daisy created this list along with her classmate, Sterling Sheehy.
ASIFA's goal has always been to recognize the people who make the animated films, and this bookmarks list is organized perfectly. You can go down the list and see the history of animation in *people*. Amazing!
Thanks, Daisy!
Stephen Worth
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 10:35 AM
Animation Bookmarks
Daisy created this list along with her classmate, Sterling Sheehy.
ASIFA's goal has always been to recognize the people who make the animated films, and this bookmarks list is organized perfectly. You can go down the list and see the history of animation in *people*. Amazing!
Thanks, Daisy!
Stephen Worth
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 10:35 AM
The Eisman Cometh
As of late I have been thinking a lot about my old Kubert School teacher, Hy Eisman. I think it is a combination of belated guilt and the passing of Don Adams (Hy went to The Art Student`s League with Don and always claimed that Don Adams was the hotshot artist in his class). Maybe a little more on the guilt side because I am teaching now and Hy was my teacher and I was not an easy student. And Hy was the teacher I was least easy on.
The Kubert School was insane at the time. All the teacher were not teachers they were professional artists teaching for the first time. All the students were the best of there little worlds now looking at the likes of Totleben and Bissette and wondering if we could compete.
Hy was doing Little Iodine as the time. He was my teacher. He was the master of the prolonged triple take. I was the proud recipient of a two year long version of his best world class triple take. I would walk in a room and he would look at me like he could not believe I was doing what I was doing, i.e. living.
It started like this. Hy gave us a comic stripe assignment early in our first year at QBU. I went all out and did a duo-shade Beowulf based stripe called Prehensile and Grendel very bad pun ending dealing with coffee and a couple of Danish, got great review when I finally got it published a couple of years later. It is crude by my current standard but at the time is was the best thing I had ever done. And I was proud of it.
No, no, no, I wanted Nancy humanoids He crushed me. Now first off I had sweat blood into this piece and secondly Nancy was an old, dull, has been stripe in the eyes of the hip student I felt myself at that time. I was hurt and I took that hurt out on the next Hy assignment, a full-page stripe due after Christmas break.
Rick Grimes had a character called Weird Dick that was the subject on another Hy Eisman triple take. So I did a stripe called Weirder Dick and I will not go into what that character did to the poor Nancy humanoids. Let us just say that I gave Hy Eisman whiplash on the second leg on his triple take.
My parents lived in Sarasota, Florida at the time and Rick Grime, Steve Bissette, and I did the Christmas vacation trip down from Dover, New Jersey in 24 hours straight (or not so) quick family time with tree and packages and watching Jimmy Steward, and then 24 hours back with everything I owned in the car and my cat. Not enough room to have a spare thought, claustrophobic somebody always with the cat on their lap, tight, tight, insane.
One of the things I brought back with me was a shorthaired wig that I had used for job hunting in the early days of my longhaired rebellion. Another item was a Nauru jacket that was my sole formal wear for nigh onto 15 years.
I wore both into school the first day back showing up about 2 hours into Hy`s class. Hy, I just have been driving for 24 hours straight and I`m about to crash out. I left the assignment on your drawing table. I`ve got to get home and to bed. Hy looked strangely at me in my semblance of a suit like garment and my seeming new shorter hair and mumbled okay
Okay, maybe he didn`t mean to throw the first punch. Maybe he was just speaking another language. Maybe when he referred to Nancy humanoids in some sick way he meant a good thing. Maybe I over reacted. Maybe I shouldn`t of had Sluggo do what he did to Nancy. Things just got stranger and stranger between Hy and me when I showed up to the next class with long hair uncut. And that led straight to me convincing Hy Eisman that I had jumped out of a third story window.
I had always been a climber. And because I had grown up in Florida were everything is flat, flat, flat that meant trees and buildings. The Kubert School was in a three story Victorian mansion and I was suffering a heavy case of Acrophilia from day one at the school.
It was in my second year of Hy Eisman`s famed triple take and the battle of wits had fallen out to a pattern where Hy seemed shocked at everything I did, like breath, while deep down not really letting me see him being shocked at all (I told you he was good) and me trying to really get a rise out of him. I think it was friendly. I always enjoyed his classes.
The second year students had been moved up to the third floor, the maid`s quarters of the old Baker Mansion. My class was broken into two groups. The more favored students in the bigger of the 2 classrooms and my group pushed 12 deep into a room that should have fit maybe 4 drawing tables. Hy had to go back and forth between classrooms.
There was one more empty little classroom on our floor and it was right next to our blackhole. At one time it had been part of one large room. A wall had bisected the space at some time in the past splitting a window in two. There was an old style radiator right next to our half of the window. Outside the window was a two and a half foot wide snow gutter.
I was setting on the windowsill with one foot on the radiator and the other out the window on the snow gutter. One hand was holding the window of the empty classroom and I was all set.
Hy, Hy come quick! Larry`s goin ta jump! Hy showed up in the doorway 9 compacted drawing tables between us. I can`t stand it anymore and it is all you fault! I screaming and I pulled hard on the windowsill of the empty classroom next door. I swung out one window and into the other window and into the empty room.
I hit the floor running and was down the short hall before Hy Eisman was halfway across the drawing table and student packed room. As he stuck his head out the window to look for my shattered body I came up behind him, laid an arm across his shoulder and said Did he jump?
Is there a moral here? I don`t know. Maybe never turn your back on a student? Maybe I deserve to be a teacher even if I haven`t run into a student like me? Maybe don`t step on a student`s artwork because you are stepping on their ego? Look what happened when they wouldn`t let Hitler into artschool. Fund the arts becuase you really don`t want us artist going into another business. ¶ 4:20 AM
As of late I have been thinking a lot about my old Kubert School teacher, Hy Eisman. I think it is a combination of belated guilt and the passing of Don Adams (Hy went to The Art Student`s League with Don and always claimed that Don Adams was the hotshot artist in his class). Maybe a little more on the guilt side because I am teaching now and Hy was my teacher and I was not an easy student. And Hy was the teacher I was least easy on.
The Kubert School was insane at the time. All the teacher were not teachers they were professional artists teaching for the first time. All the students were the best of there little worlds now looking at the likes of Totleben and Bissette and wondering if we could compete.
Hy was doing Little Iodine as the time. He was my teacher. He was the master of the prolonged triple take. I was the proud recipient of a two year long version of his best world class triple take. I would walk in a room and he would look at me like he could not believe I was doing what I was doing, i.e. living.
It started like this. Hy gave us a comic stripe assignment early in our first year at QBU. I went all out and did a duo-shade Beowulf based stripe called Prehensile and Grendel very bad pun ending dealing with coffee and a couple of Danish, got great review when I finally got it published a couple of years later. It is crude by my current standard but at the time is was the best thing I had ever done. And I was proud of it.
No, no, no, I wanted Nancy humanoids He crushed me. Now first off I had sweat blood into this piece and secondly Nancy was an old, dull, has been stripe in the eyes of the hip student I felt myself at that time. I was hurt and I took that hurt out on the next Hy assignment, a full-page stripe due after Christmas break.
Rick Grimes had a character called Weird Dick that was the subject on another Hy Eisman triple take. So I did a stripe called Weirder Dick and I will not go into what that character did to the poor Nancy humanoids. Let us just say that I gave Hy Eisman whiplash on the second leg on his triple take.
My parents lived in Sarasota, Florida at the time and Rick Grime, Steve Bissette, and I did the Christmas vacation trip down from Dover, New Jersey in 24 hours straight (or not so) quick family time with tree and packages and watching Jimmy Steward, and then 24 hours back with everything I owned in the car and my cat. Not enough room to have a spare thought, claustrophobic somebody always with the cat on their lap, tight, tight, insane.
One of the things I brought back with me was a shorthaired wig that I had used for job hunting in the early days of my longhaired rebellion. Another item was a Nauru jacket that was my sole formal wear for nigh onto 15 years.
I wore both into school the first day back showing up about 2 hours into Hy`s class. Hy, I just have been driving for 24 hours straight and I`m about to crash out. I left the assignment on your drawing table. I`ve got to get home and to bed. Hy looked strangely at me in my semblance of a suit like garment and my seeming new shorter hair and mumbled okay
Okay, maybe he didn`t mean to throw the first punch. Maybe he was just speaking another language. Maybe when he referred to Nancy humanoids in some sick way he meant a good thing. Maybe I over reacted. Maybe I shouldn`t of had Sluggo do what he did to Nancy. Things just got stranger and stranger between Hy and me when I showed up to the next class with long hair uncut. And that led straight to me convincing Hy Eisman that I had jumped out of a third story window.
I had always been a climber. And because I had grown up in Florida were everything is flat, flat, flat that meant trees and buildings. The Kubert School was in a three story Victorian mansion and I was suffering a heavy case of Acrophilia from day one at the school.
It was in my second year of Hy Eisman`s famed triple take and the battle of wits had fallen out to a pattern where Hy seemed shocked at everything I did, like breath, while deep down not really letting me see him being shocked at all (I told you he was good) and me trying to really get a rise out of him. I think it was friendly. I always enjoyed his classes.
The second year students had been moved up to the third floor, the maid`s quarters of the old Baker Mansion. My class was broken into two groups. The more favored students in the bigger of the 2 classrooms and my group pushed 12 deep into a room that should have fit maybe 4 drawing tables. Hy had to go back and forth between classrooms.
There was one more empty little classroom on our floor and it was right next to our blackhole. At one time it had been part of one large room. A wall had bisected the space at some time in the past splitting a window in two. There was an old style radiator right next to our half of the window. Outside the window was a two and a half foot wide snow gutter.
I was setting on the windowsill with one foot on the radiator and the other out the window on the snow gutter. One hand was holding the window of the empty classroom and I was all set.
Hy, Hy come quick! Larry`s goin ta jump! Hy showed up in the doorway 9 compacted drawing tables between us. I can`t stand it anymore and it is all you fault! I screaming and I pulled hard on the windowsill of the empty classroom next door. I swung out one window and into the other window and into the empty room.
I hit the floor running and was down the short hall before Hy Eisman was halfway across the drawing table and student packed room. As he stuck his head out the window to look for my shattered body I came up behind him, laid an arm across his shoulder and said Did he jump?
Is there a moral here? I don`t know. Maybe never turn your back on a student? Maybe I deserve to be a teacher even if I haven`t run into a student like me? Maybe don`t step on a student`s artwork because you are stepping on their ego? Look what happened when they wouldn`t let Hitler into artschool. Fund the arts becuase you really don`t want us artist going into another business. ¶ 4:20 AM
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Don Markstein has just added Scrappy to his very long list of toon reviews at toonopedia.com. If you have not seen his site before you owe it to yourself to visit.
http://www.toonopedia.com/scrappy.htm ¶ 11:29 AM
Event Reminder:
VES Animation Event Part 2:
The Nuts and Bolts of Animation Producing
THURSDAY - OCT. 6, 2005
7:00PM - 10:00PM
Warner Bros. Screening Room #12
4000 Warner Blvd. Gate 4, Burbank, CA 91522
Cost - $15 VES members and ASIFA members/ $20 non-members
For more info check the First Posting on this event ¶ 9:18 AM
VES Animation Event Part 2:
The Nuts and Bolts of Animation Producing
THURSDAY - OCT. 6, 2005
7:00PM - 10:00PM
Warner Bros. Screening Room #12
4000 Warner Blvd. Gate 4, Burbank, CA 91522
Cost - $15 VES members and ASIFA members/ $20 non-members
For more info check the First Posting on this event ¶ 9:18 AM
Are You Game:It seems any more that my life is broken up into getting ready for Comic Con and Getting Ready for the Annies. They are not mutually exclusive because it truth I work on Comic Con all year round and the Board works of the Annies in the same mode. It is just that in half of the year one is in ascendance. And at this time it is the Annies.
This year there is a separate Gaming category and I am looking for Judges for this important new award. Been talking to friends in the industry. If you work in the Gaming industry or related fields drop me an email. larry@agni-animation.com ¶ 8:56 AM
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Volunteer Call: Animation Bookmarks
Here is another Volunteer Call for the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive...
We are now networked with a high speed DSL connection. We need someone to put together a bookmarks file with web resources related to animation, organized into subfolders by categories. This set of bookmarks will be available at the three iMac workstations in the Archive office.
If you would like to help us create this bookmarks file, please email me at sworth@animationarchive.org.
Thank you
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 9:14 PM
We are now networked with a high speed DSL connection. We need someone to put together a bookmarks file with web resources related to animation, organized into subfolders by categories. This set of bookmarks will be available at the three iMac workstations in the Archive office.
If you would like to help us create this bookmarks file, please email me at sworth@animationarchive.org.
Thank you
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive ¶ 9:14 PM
