Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

Two short articles appeared in Variety last week and they caught my attention. The first drew an audible HUH! from my mouth as I read it on the subway:

Seth MacFarlane‘s “Family Guy” stage show is headed to Carnegie Hall, with two dates booked for next month.

“Family Guy Sings!,” set for Nov. 24-25, will feature the cast of Fox’s animated hit in a live perf of two uncensored episodes of the show, along with musical numbers from various episodes and bonus material
that never made it to the air.

Thesps will be accompanied by a 40-piece orchestra led by “Family Guy” composer Walter Murphy. The perf will also include a preview of “The Cleveland Show,” the. spinoff series bound for Fox next year.

The live stagings of segs from the 20th Century Fox TV-produced laffer were a big hit at Montreal’s Just for Laughs comedy fest in 2004 and 2007. Similar live shows have been mounted for limited runs in L.A., Gotham and Chicago during the past three years.

The Carnegie Hall shows will be the most elaborate yet for the troupe of MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, Seth Green and Mike Henry. “We hope the good people at the hall are ready for a barrage of masturbation jokes that’ll make Igor Stravinsky’s ‘Concerto No. 69′ look like George Gershwin’s ‘Clean Wholesome Hugs,’” MacFarlane said.

The “Family Guy Sings!” Carnegie dates will be presented by Just for Laughs and producers David J. Foster and Jared Geller.

What else can be said? Is Broadway next? Looks like I won’t be able to make it to this show.

The second article was of more interest:

Acad touts Canuck toons
Canuck animated shorts will be feted in Washington on Oct. 27, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences delivers “A Salute to the National Film Board of Canada.”

Hosted by animation critic and historian Charles Solomon, the event will celebrate more than five decades of the NFB’s Oscar-nominated and winning pics with screenings of “Neighbours” (1952), “Walking” (1969), “Bob’s Birthday” (1993), “Ryan” (2004) and “The Danish Poet” (2006). The show will be followed by a panel discussion with NFB chair and government film commissioner Tom Perlmutter, NFB animation producer Marcy Page and Torill Kove, who directed Oscar winner “The Danish Poet.”

Event takes place in the William G. McGowan Theater at the National Archives in D.C. Tickets are free.

I actually wondered whether I could make it to the show. . . I can’t.

The NYTimes, today, has an extensive review of the Blu Ray disc of Sleeping Beauty.
O, Prince! How Clear You Are on Blu-ray Nice coverage.

There’s a new animation magazine on the market called GOmotion MAGAZINE. You can see a sample on line here. It’s predominantly oriented to cgi users.

Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir has been submitted by Israel as its contender for the foreign-language Oscar.

The film is also eligible for animated feature, but not for documentary. As reported in Variety, the film has instigated some complaints to the Academy over their documentary rules. Currently, a doc has to perform in NYC for a week prior to Aug. 31st to be eligible. If Sony Pictures Classics had followed this rule to qualify, the film could not have participated in the NY Film Festival.

A host of executives and festival veterans are calling on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to revise the rule. However, if the Academy does agree to change the rule, it wouldn’t help Bashir since the revised rule wouldn’t go into effect until 2009.

The film uses hand-drawn animation to illustrate Folman’s interviews with participants of the 1980s Lebanese war, including the massacre of Palestinian civilians. It was done, primarily, in Flash, and moves pretty stiffly. In fairness, I have to say I wasn’t overwhelmed by the film, so I suspect it’s not a challenge to either Religulous or Wall-E (not that I can say I liked either of those).

-Tuesday, September 30th marked the 80th anniversary of Mickey Mouse’s big sound recording. It was the second session that took three hours and ended brilliantly.

The film didn’t debut until November 18th when it opened at the Colony Theater in NYC. This theater was enormous, similar to Radio City Music Hall or the Roxy. There was a stageshow with the feature film as well as numerous shorts. In 1928, the Mickey Mouse cartoon was a hit – audiences demanded the cartoon be shown more than once on the program.

This small landmark passed virtually unnoticed, even on the blogosphere. The only site I know that mentioned it was Joe Campana‘s Animation Who & Where.

Perhaps things will be different for the November anniversary of it’s theatrical debut. I vividly remember the 50th Anniversary when they screened Steamboat Willie again at the Colony (now the Broadway Theater)for some invited guests and a bunch of stragglers, myself included. Of course, two other shorts were released earlier that same year in their silent version: Plane Crazy and Gallopin’ Gauchos.

- Speaking of Mickey Mouse, much has been made of the demotion of Glen Keane from director of Rapunzel to Directing Animator. The Cartoon Brew piece has generated quite a few comments and most of them bemoan the action taken by producers Lasseter and Catmull on the upcoming feature (projected release 2010). Keane has been involved as director for the past seven years.

My view is a bit different (and of course I have no information other than my own guesswork to go on) on the situation. Consequently, if anyone has a more informed psition, plese let me hear it.

I think that Disney has never treated directors of their animation features as any more than glorified production coordinators. They work incredibly hard to keep the people below them happy while at the same time trying to satisfy the wishes and needs of those above them. There are a lot of people above them these days. It becomes a position of controlling traffic and keeping the ship sailing fluidly. It’s not about opinion.

Certainly, directors have their say and their influence, but the Animation Directors have always dominated at Disney. You can’t tell me that Woolie Reitherman won many arguments directing Milt Kahl on any of the films – or Frank Thomas, or Marc Davis. These guys worked together intimately, but Fred Moore or Ward Kimball or Bill Tytla had their say, and Ben Sharpsteen or David Hand kept them happy while making sure Walt was happy.

This was very much unlike the situation at WB where a Chuck Jones or Bob Clampett ruled and was the most heard voice in the production. Animators, there, were certainly subservient to the directors.

Undoubtedly, this had to do with the budget of the WB cartoons over the Disney product. The single voice of the WB films dominated because they had to control every penny – it was too tight. Action, cutting, layout, even writing were subject to the budget, and the directors made sure they came in on that budget.

At Disney’s this became the rule in many of the later shorts, such as Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom where the director like Ward Kimball and the budget dominated, but, for the most part, the animators ruled at Disney.

Glen Keane’s move back to animation – excuse me, Directing Animator – is, in my eyes, a promotion. Lasseter and Catmull had to bring out the real Glen Keane while getting the production moving. (There also seems to be more involved than we’ve heard. Ed Catmull reports that Keane had to “attend to some non-life threatening health issues.” Of course this doesn’t explain why co-director Dean Wellins “removed himself.”)

- I received an email yesterday from Tom Sito (who’d heard it from Jeff Massie) that Gerard Salvio died June 23 at the age of 82. Gerard was the last Business Agent for Local 841 of the NY chapter of the Screen Cartoonists Guild. He and I bumped heads quite a few times during the production of Raggedy Ann, but we always did it with civility and good temper. After that feature, the Guild slowly fell in NY, eventually becoming part of another union.

Tom’s note points out that there’s an obituary on page 70 of the latest IATSE Bulletin (which I don’t have). This obit appeared in the NY Daily News: Gerard R. SALVIO, June 20, 1926 – June 23, 2008. Of complications from renal failure. Optical Cameraman for MPO & EUE; Business Agent, Screen Cartoonists Local 841, IATSE & later IATSE Int’l Rep. Gerard is survived by his wife, Ann Salvio, (nee Terpay); his daughters, Katherine Salvio, Lenore Hinrichsen, Janet Littlejohn & his granddaughters Danielle Hinrichsen & Sara Littlejohn.

Jeff Massie also pointed to this book about Gerard written by one of his daughters.

- Allan Holtz’ Stripper’s Guide, a site featuring lots of interesting information and examples of past comic strips, has a post highlighting the Van Boring strip done by “Tish Tash,” otherwise known as Frank Tashlin. Of course, he was the man who directed Scrap Happy Daffy and The Disorderly Orderly as well as plenty of other animated and non-animated films. Tashlin also did a short-lived comic strip. Obscure examples are on display at this site.

There’s also a follow-up post on Scott Marks’ Emulsion Compulsion.

There’s an excellent interview with Tashlin (and another example of Van Boring) on Mike Barrier‘s site – naturally enough.

If you’d like to know more about Tashlin (and you should) look at this NYTimes article._______Tashlin & Bob Hope “The Lemon Drop Kid”

And speaking of Mike Barrier, if you haven’t read his piece on Phil Klein, check it out. There’s a wealth of material there, and it flows so effortlessly for Mike. (Or, at least, it seems that way.) I have to say I love this site.

Another site I love is A Film LA, Hans Perk‘s gem. So much material shows up there. Recently he had an ad I remembered from the ’50s. It took me by surprise. It advertised for the Disney Animation Kit available from Disneyland’s Art Corner.
I actually bought one of those kits and animated on the light box for many years after making almost two hours of 8mm animation before I even got to college. Lots of memories in that one ad.

The kit included books on how to draw Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. It also had a book on tips on animating (stretch & squash, follow through, etc.) I lost those books but got copies of them when Disney held a big event at NY’s Lincoln Center in 1973. The set also included a lightbox – a wedge you constructed made of beaver board with three holes to place three circular wooden pegs into it. They gave a couple of flip books and a couple of exposure sheets. That kit probably solidified my desperate desire to get into animation when I was a kid. Is there anything comparable today to inspire children?

Then, to top off that post, Hans has given us the scene drafts to The Alpine Climbers, a brilliant Mickey short. This site is probably the equivalent, at least for me, of the Art Corner at Disneyland.

You can see a closer look at at the Animation Kit on Jenny Lerew’s site, Blackwing Diaries, where she also displays a couple of the books.

I received this email from NY animator, Willy Hartland. He’d bought a Puppetoon head and is trying to locate the film it comes from.

I need help authenticating that it’s in fact a Puppetoon head.
It’s clearly a chef character, from perhaps a TV commercial, because
I have yet to find the character on my various George Pal DVDS.
Hopefully someone will be able to identify the character from some obscure short or TV spot.

Underneath the head, is written, “#5 smile.”

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Chef with hat off.

View from below.

When Willy described it to me in Ottawa, I clearly remembered a chef character from one of the shorts, though I couldn’t remember which one. This is definitely the character I remembered, and I still can’t remember the film.

It doesn’t seem to be on the dvd The Puppetoon Movie, though there are a number of shorts not included on that such as: many of the Jasper shorts, or the musical shorts Dipsy Gypsy (a great one), Rhapsody in Wood, or the excellent Dr. Seuss shorts, 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins and And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street.

Unfortunately, most of these films are out of our reach and impossible to view.

This face doesn’t look unlike the incidental characters from Tom Thumb, the 1958 live-action/animation film starring Russ Tamblyn. In that movie, there’s an Asian character with an almost identical head.

If anyone has a clue as to which film the head appeared in, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

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- Today’s NYTimes has an article about Sylvain Chomet and his battle with Universal Pictures over credit in the feature, The Tale of Despereaux. Read these two paragraphs:

In both an e-mail message and a telephone interview this week, Mr. Chomet — who was fired as the director of “Despereaux” more than two years ago — accused both the studio and the film’s producers, Gary Ross and his wife, Allison Thomas, of using his designs and concepts in the movie without acknowledging his contribution. It is a claim the filmmakers strenuously dispute.

Mr. Chomet’s unusually open challenge may simply point to a gulf between European practices, which grant artists enduring “moral rights” in their work, and an American approach that says, in effect, a deal is a deal.

Sylvain Chomet

The article goes into more depth and is worth the read.

- Ken Priebe wrote a review of the first SPARK Animation Festival which took place in Vancouver. Check it out.

- There’s a new blog on the ASIFA East site. Called The Exposure Sheet, it offers new comments on events attended by NY members. Initial comments are on Ottawa, Dick Williams at MOMA and the feature film panel at ASIFA East this past week.

When I bought it, this drawing was sold as one from The Three Little Pigs (1933). However, I wasn’t completely convinced and went searching. The image actually comes from The Big Bad Wolf (1934) as the wolf jumps into Grandma’s house.

I’m not disappointed since I love this pose so much, and there’s nothing quite like it in The Three Little Pigs. (Though I do like the original’s one suspender rather than the two here.) Of course, a drawing of the wolf as the Jewish peddler would be priceless.

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

A frame grab from The Big Bad Wolf.

- I had mixed feeleings about last night’s ASIFA East event – a panel of Independent Animators who had made feature films or were involved with features in progress. It was hosted by Cartoon Brew’s Amid Amidi and featured panelists: Emily Hubley, Daniel Kanemoto, Bill Plympton, Tatia Rosenthal, and me.

- Bill, of course, has done six features. Idiots and Angels is the most recent.
- Emily had done a live/animation mix feature, The Toe Tactic.
- Daniel started a feature, Articles of War, ran out of funds after finishing a short – a part of the film – and is raising more capital.
- Tatia has finished a clay animated feature, $9.99, which is about to be released.
- I’ve done preproduction on a feature, Poe, and am still trying to put it together to get it into production.

The audience was overflowing with lots of people sitting on the floor. SVA students surrounded pros like John Canemaker, Candy Kugel, Don Duga, Irra Verbitsky, Bridget Thorne and many others. It was well attended.

The disappointment for me did not come from the panel. Their comments and answers I often found elucidating and interesting.

Amid asked the nuts and bolts questions to get it going, and then he opened it to the audience who had a very large number of questions.

The problem, I thought, was that the questions were centered ENTIRELY on the nuts and bolts: raising the budget, spending the budget and organizing the budget. The fact is that there were a bunch of people who had some experience on the panel, and all anyone was interested in was how to get money. Maybe it’s the mood of the country; maybe everyone these days is ready to do their own feature; maybe my head is too high in the clouds, and I thought there’d be more thought about the “Art” of it.

Feature films are completely different from short films. Timing is different, story is different, art direction & animation are different. It’s all different. There were no questions about the actual art of the feature. I was a bit surprised at that.

There was no one who talked about constructing the story and making it a palatable feature. This has been the hardest part for me. Who wants to make a beautiful film that puts people to sleep – even if it is financially successful. It’s really hard work, and I can’t say how much I love doing it and wish I were able to jump in full throttle. (I will, of course, do it full time as soon as the check arrives.)

Perhaps the next panel will talk a bit more about the art and less about the financing of it.

The two stills above come from obvious sources.
Bill Plympton’s image, upper Right, comes from his feature, Idiots and Angels.
Emily Hubley produced Toe Tactic. This is the still upper Left.

- Last Saturday night, in Ottawa, Richard Williams responded to John Canemaker ‘s questions about his career with enthusiasm and a pleasant grace. He knows how to tell a story and makes it good listening. On Saturday, he had an audience of animation people, and it helped to shorten some of his comments; no additional explanation was needed. The program went a bit long and had to be cut in the middle to give ample time for Dick to showcase his dvd
series – the Animation Survival Kit.

Last night, the show shifted to the Museum of Modern Art. More clips were added. (There was no Raggedy Ann on Saturday – at MOMA Emery Hawkins’ Greedy was screened. There also was no scene from The Christmas Carol – at MOMA the flying over London sequence was shown.) The show was more relaxed and time stood still for a while. The crowd was a good one, and the ticket was hard to come by.

My favorite moment was at the start. I sat alongside Tissa David, who’s 86 now;
Dick, going down the aisle, stopped to say a very personal hi to her before getting on stage. He also came immediately to her after the show. Tissa hadn’t seen him since her work on The Thief ended years ago. She’d told me the night before that she was going to the program because it might be the last time in her life that she’d have the chance to see Dick. She was tired immediately after and left once the program ended, not staying for a private MOMA dinner. _____________________Doug Crane (in blue) and Irra Verbitsky (to his rt).

The show had a lot more material in it and had a different feel than the Toronto program. Again, Dick and John sat knee-to-knee on stage, and Dick answered questions. However, there were fewer opportunities for Dick to elaborate with lengthy side stories. John pushed him always back on topic and shot a straight arrow to get all of Dick’s career in.

Afterwards, there was a dinner for some who were connected to Dick and his wife, Mo Sutton.
Josh Siegel, MOMA Asst. Curator, Department of Film, had arranged a nice sit down. Of course, John Canemaker and Joe Kennedy were there as was Chris Wedge and his wife, Jeanne, as was Amid Amidi and friend, Celia Bullwinkle, as well several others. Heidi and I sat a distance from
___________Josh, Amid, me, Dick and John _______________ Dick – three tables were gathered together, though he came over to say hi, and we talked again after food.

_
Sorry for the quality of some of the photos; it was the best I could do in the dark theater.

- I have some access to the internet, so I’ll try to post a wrap up of my days here. If I wait till Monday too much will back up and I won’t be as thorough. Kindly, excuse the lack of pictures since I don’t have access to photo sharing. I’m taking many and will post them when I return on Monday. Pictures I’m posting come from other sites. So, here’s what I saw on Tuesday and Wednesday.

- I arrived in Ottawa on Tuesday at about 5:30 pm. Fran Krause was on the same flight, and we chatted during the trip. He had a short, pilot film he’d done for Cartoon Network as part of the Children’s TV program; I have a retrospective coming this Saturday. I was also scheduled to talk twice on Wednesday to two groups of children. The flight was inconsequential; no delays, no problems. Carry on luggage, take off your shoes, get on the plane. The Hotel I was assigned was the Hotel Indigo – a great hotel though it ends up being at least a mile away from anything. Lots and lots of walking during the stay.

On Wednesday, I walked to the National Gallery where I would have a short screening and talk to a theater full of children. Arriving, I met with the Festival’s Jerrett Zaroski, who had arranged things for me. He sadly told me that the second show that day had been canceled. Apparently, Canada’s government decided to cancel school buses for extracurricular activities – the kids couldn’t get there. Actually, I think Jerrett was more disappointed than I; I was glad to have the time for myself to reacquaint with Ottawa.

However, there was this first show, and about 200 kids arrived en masse. They were loud until the program started; then they were absolutely silent. On leaving, I’d decided, at the last minute, to take a BETA copy of LYLE LYLE CROCODILE. I knew this 1/2 hour show would be a crowd pleaser and would brighten this show. I also added DR. DE SOTO and THE MAN WHO WALKED BETWEEN THE TOWERS. It made for a diverse show and gave me about 45 mins. to talk. I talked before and after each film, and gave the kids 25 min. for a Q&A which had to be shut down when time arrived. The program went really well and started the trip off well for me.

After lots of strolling, I went to a screening of WALTZ WITH BASHIR. It’s an odd film that didn’t overwhelm me. The story was good, but the imagery consisted of poorly animated illustrations of the soundtrack. Chuck Jones used to call it illustrated radio. The film was done primarily with Flash.

This show was followed by the first of the short film competitions. There was a lengthy introduction and opening, which included a speech by Festival director, Chris Robinson, and an award presentation to Karl Cohen by Marcy Page and Deanna Morse. This finally led to the program that was excellent as Festival short programs go. The quality of the films here, so far this year, is at least “good” with a couple of really brilliant films I’m pleased to have seen and look forward to seeing again.
Three, in particular, from this show really stood out for me.

The Noir was an extraordinary tour de force of animation by Serge Elissalsde. Excellent design built around a very live line against white background. It was about a man who feared drinking his tea almost as much as he feared pigeons.
The Heart of Amos Klein was was an Israeli film by Michal Pfeffer and Uri Kranot about the Israel-Palestinian conflict. In about __________The Heart of Amos Klein
10 minutes it gave a complete history
of the problems there and focused on one tyrannical Israeli officer and how, even his one death, might have changed events. Well animated and nicely designed. It was a subject I wasn’t interested in yet was wholly drawn into this thoroughly compelling film.
The House of Small Cubes was far and away the best of the night and I can’t imagine any other film in the Festival bettering it. A brilliant Japanese short from Kunio Kato, it told of a man who lived in an ever flooding house that cascaded into the life story of this elder occupant. It was beautifully designed, animated,__________The House of Small Cubes
scored and produced film. A real treat.

The Opening night party followed at a club called Helsinki. It felt more like a bar with a strobe light that attended to the loud music while we were all given a free drink. I went in with Candy Kugel who left quickly, tired and trying to confirm her quarters – she’d just arrived – and I talked with John Halfpenny and Barry Ward (of Bardel Animation). An hour was enough for me; I was tired too. It was a great first day.

I received the following press release from MOMA re their program to be held next Monday. I’ve been told that this will be a different show from the one being conducted in Ottawa.

MASTER CLASS:
RICHARD WILLIAMS IN CONVERSATION WITH JOHN CANEMAKER

Monday, September 22
7:00 p.m.
The Roy and Niuta Titus 2 Theater
Three-time Academy Award winner Richard Williams discusses his long and influential career in a conversation with animation filmmaker and historian (and fellow Oscar-winner) John Canemaker.

Williams, who was awarded Oscars for Special Achievement and for Visual Effects as the director of animation of the Walt Disney/Steven Spielberg blockbuster Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and for his short film A Christmas Carol (1971), is one of the finest animation filmmakers of our time.

His stunningly crafted, award-winning films have featured the work of veteran animators from the Disney studio’s “Golden Age” and from Warner Bros. Cartoons, most notably Grim Natwick (Snow White), Art Babbitt (Fantasia), and Ken Harris (Bugs Bunny). Williams also learned from his friends Milt Kahl (Pinocchio, The Jungle Book), and Frank Thomas (Bambi, Cinderella).

A distillation of his acquired knowledge went into the exuberant animation he directed for Who Framed Roger Rabbit and, most recently, into an unparalleled and indispensable series of instructional DVD master classes based on his bestselling book The Animator’s Survival Kit.
Illustrated with clips from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Charge of the Light Brigade, A Christmas Carol, Raggedy Ann & Andy, the animated titles from The Return of the Pink Panther, award-winning commercials, segments from The Animator’s Survival Kit, and more.

Organized by Joshua Siegel, Asst. Curator, Department of Film, and John Canemaker.

_______________________

Then on Tuesday ASIFA East will hold this program:


ASIFA- East

A panel discussion on the state of NY Independent Animated Features.
Hosted by Cartoon Brew’s Amid Amidi and featuring paneiists:
Emily Hubley, Daniel Kanemoto, Bill Plympton, Michael Sporn, and Tatia Rosenthal.
Clips wif! be screened and a Q and A by the audience will conclude the event,

Tuesday, September 23
SVA, 209 E. 23rd St.
3rd floor Amphitheatre
7 PM, Admission: FREE

Check out our web site for the latest news at www.asifaeast.corn

- Last week, Saturday, we heard all day about the hurricane, Hanna, which had turned into a Tropical Storm and was about to strike NYC as it ripped up the East Coast. We were advised of enormous rains and heavy winds. I spent much of the early morning preparing my studio – which is subject to flooding since it’s below ground level – in the event of a flood. I moved Lola, our studio’s kitten, to my home to fight it out with Alex, my house cat.

The flooded corridor that leads to my studio’s front door – 10pm last Saturday.

The storm came and dropped 4½ inches of rain in about four hours. I came back to the studio about 10pm to see the damage, if there was any. The answer was not much. There was a lot of water in the corridor leading to the studio, but the sandbags held any water out. I was pleased.

This week we have replaced images of Hanna with the horrific pictures of Ike. Texas was getting smashed, and despite the fact that so little damage had inconvenienced me, I was able to feel upset at the images that started to come in from Galveston and Huston. My heart goes out to them, and I can only hope the worst of the hurricane season is past us. Times are changing, and we have to start thinking seriously about this climate of ours and the earth that’s feeling our abuse.

- From bad news to good. I was riding high when I learned that Hans Bacher is back. His late and glorious sites which honored animation design and art, has been revived. Gone is the low cal Google Blogspot; in is the more durable and solid WordPress. I’ve added the link and have visited the site a half dozen times. I urge you to do the same.
The site is called: one1more2time3.wordpress.com

And speaking of Hans Bacher, let me remind you of his brilliant book, Dreamworlds. I think this is the foremost book on the art and design of animation filmmaking. There is nothing even comparable on the market. If you’re serious about animation as a craft, you should already own this book. It’s filled to the brim with images of stunning artwork from many well known features. It informs about color, design, storyboard, composition – everything all animation artists should know, and it’s in depth. It’s the equivalent of Dick Williams’ book on animation; but this is on design.
Let me repeat, this book is a beauty.

I couldn’t resist posting this video I found on YouTube from Jim Lefevre. If you go to his website, you can find other vids showing how the piece was done. It’s quite original.
This video comes to life about 42 secs into it.