The ASIFA-Hollywood Volunteer Meeting for March was held last night at Woodbury University.

Edwin Austin (orange jacket) brought in advacados from his tree which ended up going home with the members after this group shot. I have plans for mine this weekend.

The hand in the above advacado shoot belongs to Paul Abramson. Drawn here by Jason Plapp co-creater of a new Nicklodeon project.



Not sure who the guy in the hat is but he looks cool to me.



The main part of the meeting was a workshop on filling out the Pro Registration form for the San Diego Comic Con (yes, it is time to plan for Comic Con)

The ASIFA presence at Comic Con was the main subject of the meeting. We are looking for artist volunteers to man or woman a drawing table at the booth this year. Also need people for the booth (as always) and people with mini DV cameras for the video crew (contact me).



Here is that guy in the hat again. This time he is working on the volunteer database before the meeting.

Other subjects talked about where upcoming ASIFA events, the Animation Rescue Team, and the upcoming move of animation materials from the Victory Street site. Paul shared a job posting from a filmmaker looking for an animator for a documentary.

Thanks again to Woodbury and Dori for letting up meet on your campus.

So far on the slate for next month`s Volunteer meeting; detailed planning for comic con and the set up the the Victory Steet move.  ¶ 6:50 AM

  UPA Screening Update:

I met these gentleman at the UPA screening, liked them and loved their history and could not remember their full names and details when it came time to label the photos. My friend Paul Husband has kindly supplied both.



Hi Larry,

Thanks for taking and posting those wonderful pix of the UPA tribute. I would like to give you caption info for the picture that you have without a caption, with Fred Crippen on the left talking to two other guys. The two other guys are:

(next to Fred, in the center of the picture): Paul Carlson. Paul produced over 100 Mr. Magoo commercials at UPA. He was Production Coordinator on Gay Purree (sp?) which was also made at UPA. Paul was also the inbetweener when he was at Disney on the "spaghetti kiss" scene of "Lady and the Tramp" . He wrote books on "How to draw" Mickey Mouse and Mr. Magoo, during his Disney and UPA tenures, respectively. In recent years, though uncredited, Paul was brought in to "punch up" the titles of the live action Mr. Magoo movie.

Paul is now working on an independent project, with his friend, the third guy on the right of picture, whose name is : "Bob Longo". Bob also worked at UPA in 1954 -55, and was an inbetweener on "When Magoo Flew" -- and also worked on one of the shorts that was shown at the screening, which one escapes me this moment. Bob started as a camera man. He left UPA, became a physicist, and worked designing aircraft. Since he retired from science/industry, he has gotten together with his old buddy Paul Carlson to make an animated special.

. . .

Best,

Paul  ¶ 6:25 AM

  March ASIFA-Hollywood Volunteer Meeting:

Tomorrow: Wednesday, March 29th 7 PM
Woodbury University
Room D104 in the Design Center
7500 Glenoaks Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91510

Subjects Under Discussion: Comic Con Volunteers - Animation Rescue Team

NORTH on the Golden State Freeway (5): Exit Hollywood Way north to Glenoaks and turn right.

SOUTH on the Golden State Freeway (5): Exit Buena Vista Street north to Glenoaks and turn left.

Go to the left past the guard booth and park in the large lot. The Design Center is at the back left of the lot.  ¶ 8:12 AM

  It is widely reported that Friz Freleng said that: When I die I don`t want to go to heaven, I want to go to UPA. The spirit of Friz was very happy at the Egyptian Theatre last night. I will label the event photos later today after I teach my animation history class at Laguna. (class subject for today: the strikes, the war and the birth of UPA - how is that for timing?)


Bert Klien - We talked about his upcoming short. He has a killer crew (including his mentor Eric Goldberg) I am looking forward to seeing it.

Mark Kausler, Tee Bosustow, Lou Romano

Fred Crippen

Nick Bosustow

Nick Bosustow & Howard Beckerman


Bert Klien, Mark Kausler, Eric Goldberg



Amid`s Funky Zagreb hat

June Foray



Bob Kurtz, Bert Klien, & Eric Goldberg

The granddaughter of Steve Bosustow - I ended up telling about how UPA came into being (strange - but she asked)

Bill Melendez (we talked about how much he loved working at Disney - strange thing to talk about at a UPA show)

Willis Pyle and Bill Melendez

Willis Pyle







Alan Zaslove









Sam Clayberger & Fred Crippen

Amid Amidi & Lou Romano

original of Fred Crippen Christmas Poster from 50s



a young Bill Melendez

we did not get to see Fudget`s Budget, the wrong film was in the can. But there was a very small piece of it in the documentary









The Brotherhood of Man - it was great to see this on the big screen



I will be finishing up the labeling and will write up a wrap up report of the event later on today. If you didn`t go you really missed out on a once in a lifetime event. (So I well rub that in a little more later)

LATER:
Great night, great screening with very good interviews. (very good job Jerry) The projectionist could have been faster in changing films and there was a 900th generation copy of a Johnny Carson / Magoo
commercial that should not have been shown (it was just too unviewable) Very small downside to a great, great event. I got a new slant on a important past animation event that I was able to use in class today. The only other small down of the night was my always hate of the hieroglyphs in the courtyard. They are so faked that they bug me every thing I come to the Egyptian.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT:
I got to hang out with the guests after the show. Heard some great stories from Bob Kurtz and Tom Sito. Hung out with some of my long time heroes and Fred Crippen even asked me if I was Bobe Cannon`s son. He said I looked like Bobe. So I think I will do that for a while.  ¶ 5:24 AM

  Yesterday I got this year`s sketchbook calendar from Kyle Boyd. Yes he is running a little late but well worth the wait.

Kyle sends these out each year to friends and co-workers. I am on his list because we work together on the Afternoon of Remembrance.

Each month is a page of 20 or 30 character designs. Really nice stuff. So how do you get one of these. The only way I can think of is to make friends with the guy in the cloth motoring cap that shows up at lots of the ASIFA events.



Here is a sample. This is January. If you want to check out more of his work click on over to http://www.kyleboyd.blogspot.com/  ¶ 9:34 AM

  UPA is to animation what the Bauhaus is to design

This is the big one folks, don`t miss it!



This Sunday at the Egyptian Theatre the big ASIFA-Hollywood / American Cinematheque UPA Tribute The fun begins at 6pm when we will be screening 35mm prints of rare commercials, industrials, TV productions, behind the scenes footage and Scope prints of classic theatrical cartoons (including ROOTY TOOT TOOT and TELL TALE HEART). We will have panels featuring UPA veterans (Bill Melendez, Willis Pyle, Alan Zaslove, Fred Crippen, Sam Clayberger) and guest animators (Mark Kausler, Pixar's Lou Romano). ASIFA members will recieve a discount on admission. Advance tickets are on sale at the box office now. See you there!

Prior to the screening, there will be a private reception at the Egyptian Theatre from 4:30-5:30. If anybody wishes to mingle with the UPA veterans in a more intimate setting, you can attend the reception by RSVP'ing by this Saturday to Tee Bosustow: bosumedia [at] yahoo.com. The cost is $15 and can be paid at the door.  ¶ 6:07 AM

  Archive: More Playboy Cartoons Today we returned to scanning cartoons from Chad Coyle's wonderful collection of vintage Playboy magazines...



The artists we focused on were Doug Snyed and Phil Interlandi.

Today was a very productive day at the archive. Marc Deckter, David Gemmill and Ryan Khatam volunteered their time to digitize and catalog the collection, and we had several artists stop by to view our exhibits and cartoons. If you are in the area and haven't stopped by yet, please do... We're open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1pm to 9pm.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive  ¶ 12:31 AM

  Theory of Demo Reels:

My theory on demo reels for people just starting out in the business is that demo reels are all the same and boring and nobody is going to recognize the work because a student hasn`t worked on any big projects yet and demo reels sure don`t show how the student handles story. And most important, you can`t enter a demo reel in a film festival.



Jesus Montero was my student for an internship/career planning class a couple of semesters back. I told him as I told his whole class that short animations are better than demo reels for beginners. He was the student from that class that listened to me and produced this great outlaw biker bug short animation entitled Unexpected. I am only going to show a small clip (which I think I can get away with under fair use) and sound has some problems because I had some real problems with the sound transfer so don`t blame that one on Jesus. The sound design was very good on his disk.



Okay, he didn`t get the part of the class about acquiring rights to the music so he still has a few legal hoops to jump through before he can enter his short in competition but all those demo reels are never going to get into the festivals no mater how many music rights are acquired. Good job Jesus. Now you have gone and done it. Now I am going to expect a lot from you in the future.

  ¶ 6:59 PM