Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- As in most years I did two cards. One is posted here:

I took the image from a movie I saw on TCM a couple of weeks ago. SANTA CLAUS is a wierd Mexican film where Santa battles a devil who tempts good boys and girls into doing bad. Santa has to scour the world searching for the devil to stop him in his bad actions and correct the boys and girls before they perform any naughty deeds.

When I was a kid, I had a Castle Film 8mm version of this movie, condensed to about 6 mins. I’d rigged a rough rear screen projection so that I could combine animation with shots of Santa in a home movie animation film I did. Seeing the whold movie brought back memories.

The set design is so peculiar that I had to draw a couple of the images. This one went through a couple of versions before it ended like this.

Anyway, all this to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a memorable holiday. All the best.

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- Today, in the Opinion Page of the NYTimes, you can find an animation designed and written by R.O. Blechman, animated by Ed Smith and composited and reworked a bit by me. We all worked for free on this spot (about a week’s work compositing) so the Times could post it without paying. Go here.

- When Cartoon Brew posted their comment about Yoni Goodman‘s site, DailyMation, I didn’t expect to be clicking into a daily inspiration. But that’s what it’s become.

Goodman, the Israeli animation director of Waltz With Bashir, says that he designed the site because he was tired of moving cut-outs around with Flash and wanted to break loose with some free-form animaton based on moving masses and having fun with it.

This shows. The pieces he puts up frequently are filled with life and are great to watch. All of the film clips are animated bits he’s pulled from life – his children are a major source of inspiration. This is alien to most American animation I’ve seen lately which seems more designed to rework other animated films rather than on the real world.

I wonder how many times Milt Kahl or Marc Davis went back to study past animated scenes? We study and learn from these old masters, but there has to be a time to let go and start looking at how real people act and react. This is what we have to animate. Yoni Goodman is doing great work, and it’s hard to understand why I’m not doing the same, myself.

I will.

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- Aardman Animation seems to have fallen into good hands. Sony has just agreed to a deal which would have them distributing the new features coming from the Bristol-based factory. The first of their joint films will be Arthur Christmas, a film Aardman had in the works which employs hand-held cameras in a cg environment. The film, Sarah Smith and Barry Cook are directing from a script by Peter Baynham, would be released next November.

A sampling of Pirates!

They’re also planning a difficult and elaborate stop-motion film in Pirates! based on “”The Pirates!”, the best-selling series of books by Gideon Defoe. This film will be a swashbuckling affair directed by Peter Lord.

Hopefully, this deal with Sony will be more productive than the one they had with Dreamworks.

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– Darrell Van Citters‘ blog Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol seems to be going right up to the wire. Will posts continue even after Christmas? After his Abe Levitow career bio, he posted information about the films UPA did immediately after Magoo’s Carol. and there’s also the “Unknown Christmas Carol”, segments that were deleted from the show even after being planned and animated.

The film recently played to full houses in LA at the Egyptian Theater and the Aero Theater. It was a treat to see it on a big screen when they screened it last year on the occasion of the book’s initial publication.

As I said back then, this book is a gem, self-published by Darrell Van Citters. I highly recommend you get it for your collection.

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Steve Fisher caught the Lunar eclipse last night and shares it with us:

2:52 AM

3:18 AM

3:30 AM

3:46 AM

4:19 AM

4:41 AM

The first time in 372 years that a Lunar Eclipse took place on the Winter Solstice. (There was also a meteor shower.)
Many thanks for sharing, Steve.

- John Canemaker’s latest column for Print Magazine is now posted on the website. Called Fred Astaire, the Human Mickey Mouse, the title was taken from a review of Follow the Fleet written by Graham Greene in 1936. John elaborates on the theme and gives video examples such as Thru the Mirror and Top Hat or Cock o’ the Walk and Flying Down to Rio or many others to back up his piece. Worth the read.

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- Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant, The director’s feature debut, will have a Holiday Week Engagement at the
Film Forum, December 22-28.

From the Press Release

Released at a time when digital animation, musical numbers and abundant pop-culture references were in vogue, the elegantly hand-drawn, filmed in Scope, IRON GIANT met with critical praise but underwhelming returns at the box office. The film so impressed Pixar they hired Bird for his next project, THE INCREDIBLES. Bird’s subsequent successes have aroused new interest in THE IRON GIANT, though it has rarely been revived in theaters.

Anyone who loves animation should see this rerelease, even if ou’ve seen it before. It’s an important film marking the start of the director’s career. It’s only playing for one week, so schedule it now.
December 22 – 28 at Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. (W. of 6th Av.)
with screenings daily at 1:00, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20 and 1010.

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- William Benzon‘s fine blog, New Savannah, has an excellent piece on Miyazaki‘s My Neighbor Tototoro. Bill wrote me about the article:

While the film is quite different from Porco Rosso or Spirited Away, I¹m pursuing the same conceptual thread, how Miyazaki deploys fantasy characters. In this case it¹s the Totoro. Despite that fact that they¹re the title characters, they don¹t appear until 29 minutes into the film, just over a third of the way through. And the way Miyazaki brings them in ‹ from acorns, to soot sprites, to Totoro ‹ is astonishing in its deft detail. And I didn¹t even mention Miyazaki¹s use of tunnel views (which starts early in the film, even before the camphor tree), though you can see it in the screen shots.

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- A reminder for all those living in NY and LA: The Illusionist will open on Christmas Day, Dec. 25th and will follow soon, thereafter, in other cities.

I’m sure there won’t be a lot of advertising behind it, but I suggest you see it. It’s my favorite animated film of the last year. Actually, it may be my favorite film of the year.

I’ve seen it once and have arranged to see it again and can’t wait to share it with Heidi. I’ll certainly write about it again, so you’ll have to put up with that or click to another blog.

- There’s a wonderful new blog post on Darrell Van Citters’ Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol blog. It features the story of Abe Levitow as told by his children, “REMEMBERING THE MOOSE” by Judy, Roberta and Jon Levitow. A great piece to read, I encourage you all to take a look.

This is a great site, by the way. Plenty of material about the artists who were involved in those changeover days at UPA. Great artists get their due, lots of artwork from the film and the period, and lots of info to learn.

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- According to Variety, Disney has picked up the distribution rights for the Spanish animated feature, Chico and Rita. This is director/producer, Fernando Trueba‘s first attempt at directing an animated film. Spanish graphic artist, Javier Mariscal, co-directed the film.

The film celebrates the Cuban jazz pianist, Chico, and his relationship with nightclub singer, Rita, as they leave Cuba to move to the jazz world of the New York in the late 40s.

Disney will release Chico and Rita Feb. 25 on more than 100 screens. (This, of course will allow Disney to enter it into next year’s Oscar fest. in an attempt to get the number up to 16 for a five nominee ballot.)

The film won for best feature at the Holland Animation Film Festival in November. The animated movie continues Trueba’s taste for Latin music, already reflected in three awarded musical docus (“Calle 54,” “Blanco y negro” and “The Miracle of Candeal”) and the creation of a Latin jazz record label.

It’s unlikely they’re expecting a wealth of cash from the distribution of the film except, perhaps, making something from the DVD, if it gets good reviews. I notice that they haven’t picked up the TV rights.

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– Meanwhile, writer/director, Geoff Marslett’s animated feature, Mars, opened in New York
yesterday. The NYTimes review by Jeannette Catsoulis wasn’t all that it might have been. She called it “. . . low key, low budget and low energy . . .” and pretty much left it at that. The film is another of those rotoscoped-animation type things not quite as energetic as “Waking Life” and “A Scanner Darkly.”

Marslett, who teaches animation at the University of Texas at Austin. The film is playing at: the reRun Gastropub Theater, 147 Front Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn.

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- William Benzon, again, has written several excellent pieces on animated films on the blog New Savannah. He has a two part article on Miyazaki‘s film Porko Rosso. The article intelligently argues the idea of a pig, the leading character, being the only non-human in a particular world where no one takes notice. Part 1 and Part 2.

There’s also a third recent article on thoughts generated by Miyazaki in his book, Starting Point, about how he constructs his films with an ever changing and growing storyboard that doesn’t get done until the film is, usually, already being animated. Go here to read this piece.

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- I received a letter, accompanied by a Press Release, from Don Hahn re the video release of his documentary, Waking Sleeping Beauty. Here’s part of the email letterL

After a yearlong trek though film festivals and art house cinemas, my documentary WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY is coming out on DVD this week and I hope you’ll get a chance to review it. WSB tracks the renaissance of Disney Animation from box office disappointments and the near closure of the studio, to great success with films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.

The positive response to the film has been bigger than I ever imagined. Not only has it appealed to the fans of animation, it’s also struck a chord with corporations and organizations of all kinds that have gone through their own periods of declines and resurrections. We found that WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY not only entertained, but touched people emotionally as well.

The DVD has over 80 minutes of bonus material with amazing footage of Howard Ashman working with Jodi Benson during the recording sessions for The Little Mermaid and Howard’s priceless talk to the animation crew about musical theater and animation. I also put together an audio commentary track that features alternate narration from Peter Schneider and myself as well as new unheard material from Glen Keane, Mike Gabriel, Kirk Wise, Rob Minkoff, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Roy Disney.

I hope you’ll get a chance to view the doc and announce to your readers that WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY is out on DVD tomorrow, November 30th.

I wrote about this film and reviewed it when it was released theatrically back in March of this year. You can read that here.

The Academy has announced its short list for animated short films. This list will be narrowed down to five come early January and the nominees will be announced on Jan. 25th.

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:

“The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger,” Bill Plympton, director (Bill Plympton Studio)
“Coyote Falls,” Matthew O’Callaghan, director and Sam Register, executive producer (Warner Bros. Animation Inc.)
“Day & Night,” Teddy Newton, director (Pixar Animation Studios)
“The Gruffalo,” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang, directors (Magic Light Pictures)
“Let’s Pollute,” Geefwee Boedoe, story-design-animation (Geefwee Boedoe)
“The Lost Thing,” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann, directors (Passion Pictures Australia)
“Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary),” Bastien Dubois, director (Sacrebleu Productions)
“Sensology,” Michel Gagne, director-producer (GAGNE International LLC)
“The Silence beneath the Bark,” Joanna Lurie, director (Lardux Films)
“Urs,” Moritz Mayerhofer, director (Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg)

I’m glad to see “Sensology” by Michel Gagne and “The Gruffalo” by Jakob Schuh and Max Lang on the list. Others I’m really sad to see there. And where is the one really funny film, Don Hertzfeldt’s “Wisdom Teeth”?

Congrats, also, to Bill Plympton for making the list for “The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger,”

You should go to Cartoon Brew‘s announcement of the full list of contenders to see what these films are about.

- Richard O’Connor has been posting excellent wrap ups of the daily events and films at Ottawa. If you haven’t been reading you should. Some of the capsule reviews of these shorts is excellent. Look to Asterisk for these posts.

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- This week PBS aired a magnificent show about William Kentridge which showed his process for animating pieces for the opera he directed at the Met, The Nose. His combination of animation and live action was just thrilling, and to watch him doing this live with a stop-motion camera (No computers, he. Norshtein would be proud) was mesmerizing. Mistakes and all add to the life of the pieces.

I was sorry to have missed this opera, now I’m even more so.

Jeffrey Brown of The Newshour interviewed Kentridge about the show. You can watch and/or read this interview here.

You can see a short trailer of the show here and if you keep coming back, I suspect they’ll eventually have the entire show up there.

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- Copngrats to Cartoon Brew editors Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi. Their breaking news about Brenda Chapman‘s being replaced on the Pixar film The Brave made it to the NYTimes on Thursday, and they got a nice mention. A nice scoop for them.

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- Bill Plympton told me that his film, Angels and Idiots, was doing so well at the IFC Center in NY that it’s been held over, again, for a third week. Here’s hoping the film runs another dozen weeks.

Those in LA shold look out for the LA opening Oct 29th at the Laemmle Sunset 5 theater.

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- Another site worth watching is the National Cartoonist’s Society blog. They presently have a display of drawings by Jack Davis. It was nice taking a look at some of the pieces they’re displaying. The double spread record album cover for The Mad Mad Mad Mad World just brought back a nice cozy feeling. Take a look at the site (and keep on looking after you’ve seen Jack Davis’ work.)

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- Watching Bill Maher, last night, the realization that a good part of the world doesn’t know the story behind Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas drove home. Much of the world is too young to have heard of or remember the big deal that was when Thomas was vying for his seat on the Supreme Court. Obviously, a guy who likes his porn, Thomas was also accused of some other questionable behavior. Believe me, his misdeeds outshone Bill Clinton’s, and Thomas still got to the big bench to help destroy that institution.

As animators, we also have a delicate history, and without careful watch and studious work on the part of the young, that history will also be forgotten. You have to get out there and see films to appreciate the animation history part of it.

Currently, I’m looking forward to the screening of the recently discovered Laugh-O-Grams at the MOMA. These shorts were restored by MOMA and will be presented for the first time at these two screenings. Serge Bromberg, the director of the Annecy animation Festival and a champion of early animation, will conduct the presentation of these first films by Walt Disney done in Kansas City. The films will have a piano accompaniment. There will be two screenings: Sunday Oct. 31st at 2:30pm and Thursday Nov. 4th at 4:30pm.

- There’s a breaking story on Cartoon Brew about Brenda Chapman and her short tenure at Pixar as director of The Brave (recently retitled from The Bear and the Bow.)

It’s obvious to me the once John Lasseter was put in charge of both Disney and Pixar studios, his head turned inside out. The first thing to happen was that directors were fired from Bolt (American Dog), Tangled (Rapunzel) and he had strong influence over Stephen J. Anderson on Meet the Robinsons, changing much of what had already been done (possibly for the better.)

Now the sword is attacking at Pixar and the victim is a woman, Brenda Chapman, who has already put together an amazing career and certainly deserves to be a director in the industry. There’s unrest in the Magic Kingdom, and we’ll have to watch Lasseter’s moves closely since it’s obvious that he’s getting heat. His recent history would show that he doesn’t seem to be taking it too well. Or at least his slate of directors isn’t receiving it well.

Even more alarming are the anti-woman comments left on Cartoon Brew. When one blogger writes, “…And I’ll be honest with one exception, Julie Taymor, I haven’t been blown away by most films directed by women and honestly neither has most of America …” You can see the level of negativity women have to take to get ahead in the business or, at the least, be treated equally with men. It’s no wonder they were relegated to the Ink & Paint department; many of these bloggers seem to agree with that. I felt embarrassment in reading many of the heartless comments.

Did we forget already that the Oscar last year was won by a woman, Katheryn Bigelow? And her film was chosen as the year’s best movie! The Oscars are not my code for judging the best films, but it certainly qualifies as, at least, a small statement about female artists.

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- The NY Times had an interesting article about the Quay Brothers in a recent edition of their paper.

The article is about a short film the brothers are making which will be screened at a retrospective to appear in symposia at the Mütter Museum, a 19th-century repository of curiosa at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and following that at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the LA Museum of Jurassic Technology.

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- Get Animated! is a Canada-wide series of free screenings, master classes and activities marking International Animation Day.

Watch the Natinal Film Board’s latest animated films on the big screen for free and attend special presentations with acclaimed directors from your area.

This year’s program:
Animation Screenings: NFB New Releases
Family Program Screenings: Fairy Tales for All

And meet the directors…
Come see Andrea Dorfman (Flawed) in Halifax, Chris Lavis with Maciek Szczerbowski (Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life) and Theodore Ushev with Chris Robinson (Lipsett Diaries) in Montreal, Anita Lebeau (Louise, Big Drive) in Winnipeg, Cam Christiansen (The Real Place) in Calgary and Matthew Talbot-Kelly (The Trembling Veil of Bones) in Vancouver. Plus, view the Hothouse 6 series in 3D in Toronto!

Go here to see clips of some of the films to be screened.

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- To celebrate Interanational Animation Day, the NY chapter of ASIFA, ASIFAEast, will have a screening of films on Oct 26th.
Admission: FREE!

Details of the films that’ll be screened will be coming soon.

SVA
School Of Visual Arts
209 East 23rd Street
(Bet. 2nd & 3rd Ave)
3rd Fl, Amphitheater
NYC

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Here’s a press release that came from the Museum of Modern Art re a show that John Canemaker will be hosting tonight in celebration of his recent book, Two Guys Named Joe: Master Animation Storytellers Joe Grant and Joe Ranft.

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters

Academy Award–winning animation filmmaker and author John Canemaker presents an illustrated lecture based on his new book Two Guys Named Joe (Disney Editions, 2010), an immensely entertaining and insightful portrait of the legendary animation storytellers Joe Grant (1908–2005) and Joe Ranft (1960–2005).

In his long career at Disney, Grant helped create such masterworks as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), Make Mine Music (1946), and Lady and the Tramp (1955), as well as more recent hits like Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994).

Joe Ranft, a Pixar creative cofounder and storyboard artist, is widely celebrated for his imaginative and irreverent contributions to such recent classics as The Brave Little Toaster (1987), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), The Little Mermaid (1989), Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Toy Story (1995), James and the Giant Peach (1996), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), and Cars (2006).

Canemaker will sign copies of his book after the lecture on October 1. On October 2, MoMA pays tribute to these master animation storytellers with a selection of wonderful animated features and shorts—including Fun with Mr. Future (1982), which hasn’t been screened in nearly thirty years, and a special screening of Dumbo (1941).

The MOMA’s programs for Two Guys Named Joe is organized by Joshua Siegel, Associate Curator, Department of Film. Special thanks to Howard Green and Wendy Lefkon.

There will also be screenings attached to the book signing of some Disney and Pixar films:

Screening Schedule

John Canemaker’s
Two Guys Named Joe: Master Animation Storytellers Joe Grant and Joe Ranft

October 1–2, 2010

Friday, October 1

7:00 John Canemaker’s Two Guys Named Joe. Canemaker discusses the work of Joe Grant and Joe Ranft in a lecture extensively illustrated with film clips and still images. Program 75 min. Introduced by and followed by a book signing with Canemaker.

Saturday, October 2

2:00 Fun with Mr. Future. 1982. USA. Directed by Darrell Van Citters. Joe Ranft contributed gags to this zany short, which was cobbled together from animated bits of a shelved Epcot TV special and is hosted by a talking Animatronics head (with wires exposed) wearing a bowtie. Courtesy The Walt Disney Studios. 8 min.

Luxo Jr. 1986. USA. Written and directed by John Lasseter. The first film to be produced by Pixar Animation Studios after its establishment as an independent studio, and the first CGI film to be nominated for an Academy Award. 2 min.

Tin Toy. 1988. USA. Written and directed by John Lasseter. This Academy Award–winning short anticipates Toy Story in its use of anthropomorphic toys as characters. 5 min.

Toy Story. 1995. USA. Directed by John Lasseter. Story by Lasseter, Pete Docter, Joe Ranft, Andrew Stanton. 80 min. Program 95 min.

5:00 Mickey’s Gala Premier. 1933. USA. Directed by Bert Gillette. Animation character designs by Joe Grant (uncredited). Grant’s first film at Disney, for which he designed all the celebrity caricatures. 7 min.

Who Killed Cock Robin? 1935. USA. Directed by David Hand (uncredited). Story and animation by Joe Grant, William Cottrell (uncredited), and others. Grant and Cottrell devised the satiric story, and Grant designed the characters, including Jenny Wren, a caricature of Mae West. 8 min.

Lorenzo. 2004. USA. Directed by Mike Gabriel. Screenplay by Gabriel, Joe Grant. An Academy Award–nominated short about a blue cat whose tail has a mind of its own. Grant created the concept, story, and character for this, his last film at Disney. Courtesy The Walt Disney Studios. 5 min.

Dumbo. 1941. USA. Directed by Ben Sharpsteen. Screenplay by Joe Grant, Dick Huemer. Courtesy The Walt Disney Studios. 64 min. Program 85 min.

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- The school of Visual Arts is having an in-house exhibit of Art called:

“Ink Plots: The Tradition of the Graphic Novel at SVA. It’s an exhibition of original drawings, books, prints and animation by over 100 artists.

Ink Plots traces the development of sequential art over four decades with selections from SVA faculty members and showcases
the work of SVA alumni who are pushing the boundaries of the graphic novel today.”

Here’s the poster for it:

Ink Plots: The Tradition of the Graphic Novel at School of Visual Arts
is an exhibition of original drawings, books, prints and animations by over 100 artists. Ink Plots traces the development of sequential art over four decades with selections from SVA faculty members and showcases
the work of SVA alumni who are pushing the boundaries of the graphic novel today.

VISUAL ARTS GALLERY
601 West 26 Street, 15th floor, New York City
Gallery Hours: Monday – Saturday, 10 – 6pm

EXHIBITION:
October 8 – November 6, 2010

RECEPTION:
Thursday, October 14, 5:30 – 7pm
Free and open to the public.

Honoring past and present SVA illustration and cartooning faculty members including:

Sal Amendola_______Sue Coe
Harvey Kurtzman_______David Mazzucchelli
R.O. Blechman_______Will Eisner
Keith Mayerson_______Jerry Moriarty
Tom Gill ____Mark Newgarden
Edward Gorey_______Gary Panter
Burne Hogarth_______Jerry Robinson
Klaus Janson_______David Sandlin
Frances Jetter_______Walter Simonson
Ben Katchor_______Art Spiegelman
Peter Kuper_______

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Benefit
Thursday, October 14, 2010, 7 – 10pm

MIDTOWN LOFT AND TERRACE
267 Fifth Avenue, 11th floor, New York City
Shuttle service from the reception to the cocktail party will be provided.

Individual tickets are priced at $250 with $100 tickets available to SVA alumni.
Proceeds from the benefit will be used to establish a scholarship fund for SVA illustration and cartooning students.

Tickets to the cocktail party may be purchased online at alumni.sva.edu/tickets or by calling 212.592.2302 or by
e-mailing serwin@sva.edu.

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Other Ink Plots related Events

WILL EISNER,
MASTER TEACHER AT SVA Monday, October 18, 7pm
SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street
New York City
Free and open to the public.

INK PLOTS
PANEL DISCUSSION
Wednesday, October 20, 7pm
SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street
New York City
Free and open to the public.

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS
LECTURE WITH DASH SHAW
Thursday, November 4, 7pm
SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street
New York City
Free and open to the public.

- On Thursday, September 23rd, John Dilworth will be speaking at the 92nd Street Y. It’ll include live music and special guests.

(Click image if you want to enlarge it.)

This is a pretty prestigious event for John, animation and the Y. It’d be great if there were a good showing of people to support it. That would mean the Y would offer more animation programs – something they haven’t often done.

Irrational Reactions: The Animated Worlds of John Dilworth
92nd St. Y – Tribeca
200 Hudson Street

Thurs. Sept 23rd, 8:00 PM
price $12.00

- Yesterday, Saturday the 18th, Heidi and I were married after living together for the past 23 years. The ceremony took place in a chapel at Marble Collegiate Church in NY. This is the same place that the infamous wedding between Liza Minelli and David Gest took place. (As a matter of fact the groomsmen were made to wait in the same room that Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson were made to wait before going on. I probably sat in Liz’s chair.)

The ceremony and a celebratory dinner were beautiful. In attendance were numerous members of our families as well as a few very close friends. A small group of about 30 people in total. It was great. We’re planning a party upcoming to celebrate with those we couldn’t invite yesterday.

For the first time I’m wearing jewelry.

My good friend, Larry White, came down from upstate to photograph it for me. We’ll see his photos later this week. These shots came from a Flip Video shot in the back of the church.

The bride enters

Greeting the beautiful bride at the altar.

Vows.
(L-R: Heather Stallings (Heidi’s sister), Jane Stouffer (Bridesmaid extraordinary), Heidi, Minister Stephen Pierce, me, Jerry Rosco (my brother and Best Man), Larry White (back of head), Bridget Thorne (my compatriot and super Groomsperson)