Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– I’ve enjoyed sharing some of the animation drawings I own via this site, and I hope to keep doing it. The drawings, to me, are so valuable in that they reveal the personality of the animators, even more than the finished films.

I have a bunch of copies of drawings by Frank Thomas from Sleeping Beauty. It’s the sequence in which the three fairies, within the hidden cabin in the forest, use magic to create a dress for Aurora.

Below, on the right, are some of the roughs from this scene. On the left are the final cleanups.

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

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– On Tuesday evening ASIFA-East will be celebrating the work of Bruno Bozzetto, Italy’s Master of Animation, with the screening of his film, Allegro Non Troppo, the animated parody of Fantasia.
I’ll be hosting a Q&A afterward, and we hope there’ll be a good turnout for this film.

Mr. Bozzetto is on his way to Ottawa as a judge. They’ll also be hosting a more extensive retrospective of his enormous output. Any of you heading to Ottawa should attend as many of these screenings as you can. His work is brilliant.

The ASIFA-East screening will be held at: The School of Visual Arts, 209 East 23rd Street, 3rd floor amphitheatre on Tues, Sept. 19. Admission is FREE.

(pictured: The cover to a small booklet I own written in 1972 by Giannalberto Bendazzi, entitled: Bruno Bozzetto, Animation as a First Love.

Go to the Bruno Bozzetto website and explore the flash films. They’re great.

- Last week Cartoon Brew posted a link to I Get Mad, a Sesame Street spot on YouTube. The spot was directed by Derek Lamb and animated by John Canemaker. I’ve been thinking about this piece all week. Actually, not just that piece but all of John’s work.

I’ve been a friend of John’s since about 1973 when we both entered the world of animation. We met the year John had done a couple of short films Lust and Greed, both of which won awards at the ASIFA-East festival. I gladly helped John with the cut & paste part of his next film, Street Freaks and have followed his work as a film maker, writer and Oscar Winner through these many years. I watched from the sidelines as John did quite a few Sesame Street spots, not only for Derek Lamb but for Bruce Cayard as well.
(Emily Hubley, me, my Mother, John C.
at a party in my studio 10 yrs. ago)

I’ve now got a collection of great books, magazine articles, and dvd’s that John has produced, and I have to say his is a singular talent.

I don’t think there’ve been any other animation historians who have been so wide-ranging in taste and so wide-reaching in publication. John has written tirelessly about:
some of the important figures in early silent animation – Winsor McCay and Otto Messmer come easily to mind;
some of the most commercial figures – look at the array of volumes John has done on Disney and Disney artists;
and some of the most Independent of animators – articles on everyone from Dali to Kathy Rose to Oskar Fischinger to Suzanne Pitt.

The odd part about it is that all of the writing – despite the variety – is authoritative, well researched, and easy reading. John has a casual and entertaining way of slipping the reader into a very informative article about even the most eccentric of animators. Undoubtedly, this is the reason he and his work is so beloved in animation circles.

His many lectures given around the world from MOMA to Zagreb to Telluride (where John is currently speaking and screening films) are entertaining, informative and colorful.

Yesterday, I did a bit of writing about Amid Amidi and his new book, Cartoon Modern. I discussed Amid in comparison with Michael Barrier, and I expressed my enormous respect for them both. I wanted to include John Canemaker in there, but I felt that John was a different breed of historian. Both as a writer/historian and as an Independent film maker/animator, John has trod a solitary path in animation history. His writing is certainly unique in that it is so widely varied and so sensitive to the artist’s visions and feelings. His films are unique in that you can easily spot one with the very first frame you watch; he has a style all his own that has been imitated by many of his students but never captured by them.

Expressing his own voice in his own Independent films has colored John’s writing and made it so unique, and seeing I’m So Mad again has me wanting to say as much.

– In case you haven’t seen this yet, the Arario Gallery, a Korean gallery, has on display some skeletons for noted animation characters. The Roadrunner, obviously, is pictured to the left. Felix the Cat, Mickey the Mouse and the Coyote are also depicted as are photos of the constructions in process. Though there are enough photographic stills of the sculptures and a number of sketches, I wish there were a bit more text to let us in on the reasoning behind them. (Thanks to Boing Boing.)

- This is the second version of this idea I’ve seen. Michael Paulus, on his website, displayed skeletal systems for 22 cartoon characters. These are pretty hilarious if you haven’t seen them.
(Click on images to enlarge)

More imagination has gone into these illustrations than went into the Korean sculptures. Paulus is an exceptional artist, and you might take a browse around his other art works displayed.

– For real animation skeletons, let’s talk 3D armatures.

Would be puppet animators out there who are looking for realistic (meaning cost-controlled) armatures for their puppets, go to Monterey Motion Puppets to get instructions on how to do it.

They also have a number of their armatures on display at the site. “Junkman,” pictured on the right, is one of their “skeletons.”

- This blog stuff is amazing. History revealing itself.

Posted on the ASIFA Hollywood-Animation Archive site, today, is a most amazing document. Mark Kausler has loaned his set of bar sheets from the Rudy Ising directed short “Shuffle Off To Buffalo.” and Steven Worth has digitized them.

Bar sheets are the director’s work book used in breaking down a film musical note to musical note. Obviously, as depicted on these pages, found on the Animation Archive site, they were actually recorded on the sheet music, itself.

Over time things morphed, and there were actual bar sheets designed specifically for the director. These generally incorporated music, exposure/timing sheets and a place for action comments. Then, they seem to have dropped the musical notes.

Nowadays they seem to have dropped the workbook altogether. I try to work with them on most of my films. On Doctor DeSoto, for example, I actually built the camera moves on a waltz tempo musician, Ernest Troost, had written. I couldn’t have done this without bar sheets. They allow you to see the big picture – the movie – rather than the frames.

You can see what they look like in the Halas book Techniques of Film Animation to the left.

Here’s a set depicted in the Eli Levitan book Animation Art in the Commercial Film:

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

The bar sheets I’ve used in my studio look like the doc on the left. It allows me to see 400 frames in one glance. I can cut the track readings from the dope sheets and place them right onto the bar sheets.

The post on the Hollywood Animation Archive is a real find, especially for such an early document. Thank you Stephen Worth and Mark Kausler. Stephen’s also constructed a scene-by-scene visual breakdown and given a QT version of the cartoon to be able to better study the sheets.

What a fabulous chunk of animation history. One-stop-shopping for free.

– New York’s Film Forum is about to start a retro- spective of Frank Tashlin‘s films. Of course, the former director of Warner Bros. cartoons turned to live-action films and became a somewhat eccentric director of unique comedies.

During the VO recording Tony Randall did for my film, Lyle Lyle Crocodile, Mr. Randall told me that he thought Frank Tashlin was the most creative director he’d ever worked with.
He used as a example a two shot from, I believe, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? Tashlin had set up a shot with Randall looking in a mirror, and the reflection of the person he was speaking to was also reflected in another mirror. However the mirrors had been arranged so that the two appeared to have their backs to each other in the reflection.

The films are only showing at the Film Forum for a day or two at most. Included, is a program of animated shorts Tashlin directed. These are on a double bill with Artists and Models (a Martin & Lewis feature.) Note that this program plays only for one day. So get your tickets. New 35mm prints.

The following features are scheduled:
Sept 1/2 FRI/SAT WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER?
SEPT 3 SUN: (Double Bill) HOLLYWOOD OR BUST and SON OF PALEFACE
SEPT 5 TUE: (Double Bill) THE LIEUTENANT WORE SKIRTS and BACHELOR FLAT

SEPT 6 WED: (Double Bill) ARTISTS AND MODELS and TASHLIN LOONEY TUNES (scheduled: Porky’s Romance, Scrap Happy Daffy, Porky Pig’s Feat, and more! )

SEPT 7 THU: (Double Bill) THE DISORDERLY ORDERLY and IT’$ ONLY MONEY

For more info on Tashlin’s films go here.
For an interview with Frank Tashlin by Michael Barrier go here.

- Amid Amidi on his Cartoon Modern site has posted some fine images by Jules Engel as prep work for 1001 Arabian Nights with Mr. Magoo. Take a look.

- I recently viewed a cgi short that I thought was an impressive effort. The Mantis Parable by Josh Staub tells the story of a caterpillar trapped within a jar, with no way out. A mantis makes its way into the room where the jar is kept and realizing the caterpillar’s problem tries, without much effort, to help. Just as the mantis gives up, he’s trapped by the jar-keeper and placed within a jar of his own. Needless to say, the ending will be resolved by a butterfly.

It’s an attractive film with a very strong style and animation equal to the film’s story. The short has done well – meaning it’s won awards at a number of festivals (Rhode Island, Palm Springs, Winnepeg, Black Maria, Chicago Int’l Children’s Film Festival) and been represented at others. I suggest you look out for it at festivals. Go here to listen to an interview with the director.

Most importantly, to me, a cgi artist has stepped up with his own effort to produce a strong film. I look forward to future projects from Josh Staub.

– Per The Hollywood Reporter, Blue Sky studio has optioned and is developing William Joyce’s book, “The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs.” Oscar winner Chris Wedge is attached to direct. Remember that Joyce designed Robots and Rolie Polie Olie .

The story (from the publisher) is: The brave good bugs march off to save the garden, but first, they must fight the evil Spider Queen before summoning the Leaf Men to save the day.

It’s a story of ancient elfin magic, epic adventure, and a salute to the power of memory, loyalty and love.

Let’s hope “the brave good bugs” don’t look like Antz or The Ant Bully. Given Joyce’s artwork and Blue Sky’s reputation, we can assume the design will have grace.

- It was a nice surprise to find a copy of the latest Animation Blast in among the bills yesterday.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Amid Amidi‘s been giving us progress reports for weeks and warning that it should be sent out soon, but, for whatever reason, I wasn’t really expecting it. (Just today, Amid tells us at Cartoon Brew, that 1/4 of the issues have gone out.) When a mag takes as long as this does to develop, you sit back and wait on it. The anticipation is on a low boil, and it makes the arrival so much more enjoyable.

It was the case all those years with Michael Barrier’s Funnyworld. The sheer enjoyment of holding the most recent copy of that publication was enormous. (Unfortunately, disappointment always settled in when you finished reading it, so you’d have to go back and reread earlier issues.)

This is true for Animation Blast. I wasn’t expecting it in the size envelope in which it arrived. The magazine has taken a different dimension. It’s a bit larger than my copy of A Contract With God, and it’s about half as thick.

The contents:
- an article by Pete Doctor on Disney animator, John Sibley;
- an extensive article on Twice Upon A Time (I have a longish story about that one that I’ll save for another day – perhaps after I read this article);
- Jerry Beck‘s article about wartime art by animation artists;
- David Calvo’s article about The Three Caballeros (was this called Three Gay Caballeros once or is it just the song?);
and much more.
The magazine is jam packed with art old and new and has a dynamic modern graphic style all its own.
Go here to see more detail on its contents.

Presently, I’m over the top and have a lot of reading to do. I suggest anyone who hasn’t ordered a copy do it. They’ll go fast. Go here.

– There’s more about the Tom & Jerry anti-smoking story in a number of papers. Apparently, they’re also censoring Scooby Doo’s smoking habits from the H&B cartoons. Here are some of the stories in today’s papers:

- The NYTimes has a short piece.
- ITV has their version
- as does ABC
- Ditto China Daily. (China Daily!)

- I’ve been doing a little catch up on my site stops this week and have a couple of interesting ones to point out. You’ve probably all seen these since they’re posted on the bigger animation sites, but, in case you haven’t, take a look.

– Amid Amidi has posted a Flickr set of photos of artists who worked in animation in the 1950′s. This is a companion piece to his book, Cartoon Modern and gets me even more excited about reading this book. The photos are not your usual studio pictures. The one to the left, of Aurie Battaglia was just too interesting for me not to post. (It comes from the collection of John Canemaker.)

You can see some of Battaglia‘s children’s book work posted on Shane Glines’ Cartoon Retro. Follow the chatroom link about half way down for some beautiful art.

For more stills from his film, Meet the Inventor: Robert Fulton, go to Amid’s website, Cartoon Modern. (Boy does this guy have the goods.) I have a 16mm print of this short (undoubtedly magenta by now), and it still holds up – unlike so many of the shorts from the McBoing Boing series. The art is always brilliant, but the stories often drag. This film is not The Mysterious Moustache of Raoul Dufy, but it’s still sharp.

And, finally, there’s a strange note posted on i am provincetown by his niece.

- Tonight and tomorrow night in LA, the Hollywood Bowl will be presenting Fantasia live on stage. John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra recreate the film’s music with film clips on the Bowl’s big screens.

- There’s a nifty Ward Kimball animation drawing posted at Jenny Lerew‘s Blackwing Diaries. This is always a great site to visit (as if I had to tell you.)

- The Trozo gallery has built a website to feature the paintings of the Peruvian artist, Eduardo Valdivieso. Take a look at some excellent paintings. I came to this site via Drawn, an excellent site in its own right.

There’s an article on Arthur Q. Bryan (the voice of Elmer Fudd) on AWN. This is more on this actor since Michael Barrier’s article in Funnyworld, years ago.

- Animated-News is at it again. They’ve posted another interview by Christian Ziebarth with Eric Goldberg. It’s a kitchen sink kinda interview, but it’s absolutely engaging. Glad to hear what Eric’s been up to. It’d be nice to see more of this type of interview on the site. Kudos to them; it’s always an informative read.

- On Tuesday, ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive posted a number of early UPA model sheets. These are little gems that should be studied. This site is one of the great ones out there. Everytime I visit, I end up staying for dinner – the guest they can’t get rid of.

- Last but not least is an ad for Honda Accord that took $6 million and took three months to complete. I’m not sure Rube Goldberg had intended this when he created his devices, but it’s still an interesting ad to watch. (Thanks John Dewitte.)

– Currently playing at the Film Forum in New York is Jan Svankmajer’s most recent feature, Lunacy.
I loved this line in the NY Times review by Manohla Dargis: Mr. Svankmajer’s provocations skew toward the intellectual and the shivery rather than the pop and the visceral, and at his best, he doesn’t just get under your skin, but also deep in your head, too.

That’s enough to get me into the theater. The trailer is designed to keep me away. (The least the distributor, Zeitgeist Films, could do in promoting their own film is to spell Edgar Allan Poe correctly. There are two A’s in Allan.)

The Onion also had a review worth reading.

Thank heaven for the Film Forum. They consistently give us alternative films we couldn’t otherwise see. Kudos to Karen Cooper and all the rest involved in the theater and its programming.

There was a time in NYC when a number of theaters would show the more daring films and older movies with pristine prints. Those movie houses have all but disappeared except for the Film Forum which continues like a beacon just around the corner from my studio. It’s a haven for film lovers in New York.