Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

Here are a small group of photos by Steve Fisher. A typical night in New York.

______________________________

Brother and Sister Try To Keep Fire House Alive

Maxine Fisher and her brother, Steve Fisher, took on Queens and the local politics.

You see, a while ago the Queens, local fire house located at 59-29 68th St., was quickly approaching its 100th – year – anniversary in 2014. Maspeth-born Steve Fisher and his sister, Maxine Fisher, refused to accept the behind-the-scenes decision to close this fire house. Despite the fact that it was quickly approaching the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to grant the firehouse landmark status, the last possibility for the firehouse and all those connected with it. It is a fire house that was instrumental in fighting the 911 disaster and being awarded for their participation in facing closure.

There was a last minute pitch to keep it alive the past Thursday (Sept. 18th), and the fight was married to the typical community array of local issues. Some publicity, a lot of letters from 911 families who were helped by the firehouse and their workers added to the pulse of the issue. But, at this point, it’s unsure whether three was enough to keep things going.

At the very least, one local pair of siblings did their very best to keep their community part of a living, thriving world.

Read more about it here.

This is what you can do in your community if you’re determined to participate.

____________________

Tom Sito Hits NY

Tom Sito arrived in New York this past weekend. He and I tried to get together but our schedules conflicted just a bit too much, and it didn’t happen. He was here on a book signing to promote his new book, Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation.

I was curious to go since Tom is purely a 2D cel animator. He has animated on Beauty and the Beast, Roger Rabbit, Aladdin and many others. He’s also co-directed Osmosis Jones as well as the Click and Clack series for PBS.I wanted to see how much knowledge he could have of cgi, and I was quite surprised. He seemed to have really known his stuff. Now I really want to read that book.

Tom’s past books include: Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation U-nions and Timing for Animation which was co-authored with Harold Whitaker.

Tom spoke at the School of Visual Arts on Monday and NYU on Tuesday evening. He then went to Boston to speak at Harvard on Wednesday.

____________________

Rising Wind

I’ve got my eyes pasted to the NYFilm Festival ticket sales. I want to see that new Miyazaki film, The Wind Rises, which opens in theaters November 8th. I’d go crazy if this won the 2013 Oscar. In my book, beating out The Croods and Monsters University shouldn’t be too tough. I want to be first in line to see it at Lincoln Center. Somehow, though, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Bill Plympton gave the film a negative review the other day on his website, Scribble Junkies. Either there’s too much talk for Plympton or he’s worried about it competing with his own feature for the award. I don’t think Bill is officially releasing Your Cheatin’ Heart this year, but it’s still this thing he’s got going about competition with the rest of the world.
____________________

Prisoners Chat up

Academy members got a nice treat this past Thursday evening. There was a screening of the film, The Prisoners which had an all-star cast. The good news was that a large blast of the cast attended a Q&A after the film. The cast included: Huh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Melissa Leo, Viola Davis, Terrance Howard, and Paul Dano. The even better news was that the movie was good. Too tense to look at the watch, the film still made it to 2 1/2 hours. I can definitely recommend it.

Moderator, Patrick Harrison for the Academy

Hugh Jackman-Maria Bello-Jake Gyllenhaal

Hugh Jackman

Jake Gyllenhaal

Maria Bello

Maria Bello and Jake Gyllenhaal

Melissa Leo

Paul Dano

Terrance Howard

Viola Davis – Terrance Howard – Melissa Leo

Viola Davis

_______________________

and Pieces

I’ve been just a bit disturbed lately. About animation. I haven’t found much about animation that I really want to write about. Except maybe I have to say that I miss 2D animation. Really good 2D animation. It all seems to be about history. Images from Pinocchio or Beauty and the Beast or some other image from the past. That’s all I seem to be posting lately. I guess because in a large part because I miss the good stuff. I mean I don’t really care about Monsters University or The Croods or any of these things being offered. I miss animation where every single drawing is something that had to be drawn. We just don’t have that much anymore, and I have to think about what I have to say. That’s a terrible thing to have to admit, but what else can I do? I miss really good animation and hope to have a lot to write about with Ernest and Celestine or A Letter to Momo or The Wind Rises because that gets me excited. I understand very well what Mike Barrier had to say a couple of months ago, when he talked about what he was writing when the spirit’s not in you. I’m certainly there, too.

John Canemaker has been making animated movies for ever. I know because we both started at about the same time. Somewhere in the late Seventies we exchanged our early films to get a look at what each other was doing when we were younger. Leslie was tuning out a lot of footage imitating sequences I’d sen in the movies: a couple of dogs (certainly not Lady or Tramp) eating lunch, a limited animation vizier climbing pillars in imitation of 1001 Arabian Knight not with Mr. Magoo.

John didn’t do much in the way of limited animation; he told me he wasn’t able to figure it out. My own work was definitively derivative. I’d redone the Flintstones opening – my own version. Gay Purr-ee led to my attempt at animating the impressionists. I saw something in a theater or on TV and would immediately immitate it. I did a lot of live action/animation combinations. I was fascinated by the modern work. Title sequences to Saul Bass’ films led to my versions. Once I’d seen UPA – the Gerald McBoing Boing Show, I did my own variant. There was a comedy album called The First Family.Vaughn Meador and other comedians impersonated the First family – the Kennedys – singing song parodies of the time. I did my parody of these sung-through albums that quickly lost synch. But you could see the effort that had been taken.

Whereas John worked only in 2D cel animation, I brought out lots of other wares. Clay was easy to animate and allowed me to turn out footage fast.
When we screened them for each other, we were both impressed even though we had to trade off the films and watch them privately. We both did great work; we both did horrible work. My father and brother-in-law constructed a multiplane set with about 16 levels of glass (easily 18″x24″) with about 8000 watts of light. I had my take on Fantasia to work out.

John’s early films – not those we’d shared with each other, but his more professional work – now have a DVD all their own, and I’d
like to talk about these pieces. The DVD, John Canemaker – Marching to a Different Toon will permanently act as a good sampling of one artist’s view of the world. It presents a multiplicity of styles with a wide range of subject matter.
Bottom’s Dream feels like a sketch out of Fantasia as we see a short piece derived from Shakespeare’s “Midsummer’s Night Dream.” Once Titania has turned Bottom into an ass there is a dance wherein he’s trying to escape from the curse. Composer, Ross Care brings Mendelsohn’s music to life as the film’s backdrop.

Confessions of a Star Dreamer features the actress, Diane Gardner, expressing the problems and joys of becoming an Actress. Confessions of a Comic did the same for an aspiring young stand-up comic. Several sequences froom some of the excellent documentaries are also incuded:Break the Silence: Kids Against Child Abuse (TV Movie documentary) (animator), 1988 You Don’t Have to Die (Documentary short), The World According to Garp’s animated seqeunces are also included.

I love the short Bridgehampton, which animates the beautiful garden John and his companion Joe Kennedy, hae developed over the years (see some photos of the actual garden here.) It’s a wonderful little spot on the earth and how joyful for John to make a film paying tribute to his own little bit of nature.

These films were all done just prior to John’s Oscar winning short, The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation, which is featured on its own DVD.

This is a rare collection of shorts and one you’ll enjoy if you want to know more about the fame animation historian/animator.

NYC – Pt 3

Continuiing with Mr. Sasek’s beauty of a book giving us a splendid tour of New York. (This post was started on Sept. 13 here.)

This is New York – part 3, the last part.

pages 38 & 394-6

pages 40 & 41

pages 42 & 43

Continuing with Mr. Sasek’s fine book giving us a splendid tour of New York. (This post was started on Sept. 13 here.)

This is New York – part 3

pages 36 & 37

pages 38 & 39

pages 40 & 41

pages 42 & 43

Here are a few more pages of Ralph Steadman‘s Alice In Wonderland. This takes us up to Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Major scanning coming up, so I had to break here.

1

2

3

4

5

In the past couple of weeks I’ve taken advantage of the new marvelous book by Tod Polson, a stunning publication for Chronicle Books on the design work done for animation. The Noble Approach, Maurice Noble and the Zen of Animation Design.

I gave some of the book’s many illustrations center stage and have enjoyed doing that. One day, I even posted art that came from J. B. Kaufman‘s two books on Snow White, The Fairest of them all and The Creation of Snow White and the 7 Dwarves. Can there be two more beautiful works of animation art than the throne on which the wicked Queen sits?

In the up coming week I hope to continue on through the Noble book, to take a deeper look at the book while more thoroughly giving critical attention to the films. I’ve barely touched on the work he did for WB, bypassing the tentative approach to the dominating final work. At the same time, I hope to look at Chuck Jones’ artwork and his dependence on others while allowing himself to break through a number of strong animation barriers. It will be fun for me – that is, until it isn’t.

Once we get to MGM and Tower 12 Productions things have changed and Noble spent a lot of time bringing those films to life. The two did dominate a wing of the studio with the Road Runner films making some of them among the great films of history.

I’d also started a series of posts on others. There’s one ongoing series featuring Ralph Steadman and over-sized material in his book. Steadman has such a large output of brilliant work it was purely by chance that we went to Alice. My wife, Heidi, is currently directing a theatrical production of Alice in Wonderland. Her research has forced open quite a few books on Dodgson’s thinking process. Top of the heap, open to a sublime image, I found myself an acolyte standing in a master’s garden wholly helpless in improving to match this genius of an artist.

So, I did start to post Alice images from that one book (and that’s the only well from which I’ll draw from. There’s a lot there, all in the raw waiting to be seen by you.

The Chronical book, Sketchbook of the Independents Animators it is also entirely encouraging and improvisational. However, I’m not sure that meets my needs for animation art. I see it more as a way of getting back to the drawing board. Unfortunately, I don’t find these artists as great as many others though there is brilliance among the mundane, I will try not to miss any if that great work.

I had started to write about The Quay Brothers. These twins come from Philadelphia and have worked out of Europe. There life’s work is on display at the Museum of Modern Art, and it is greatness desplayed in all its glory.

Finally, there is Sassek. Bill Peckmann sent me a book he did, and then another. Both were overloaded children’s which made for some fin multi-post selections. I loved Paris and had to reveal some wonderful pieces. What a treat. It feels as though Sassek was inspired by the earnest, brilliant artist, Ben Shahn. Recently, critics have taken apart Shahn’s work – he’s suddenly too political. That, to me, is the backbone and cause célèbre of Shahn’s paintings. Someone not demanding, along the whims of many others all fits together and helps create the 20th Century in Art.

Perhaps a couple of small posts I can offer will give some indication of that art. I hope it all will work as a schema. I think it will. Starting with some of the work I’ve already offered. Now to the meat.

Back on July 17th, I started posting this wonderful book. There were too many interruptions and the book didn’t get its fair deal. It’s a wonderful book full of post- Ben Shahn artwork. With all the interruptions, I’ve been destroying the book; it has a flow that’s been all but lost. So I’ve decided to start anew. And that will start with this post.

This is NY – Part 1


Cover

Front & Back Covers

pages 4 & 5

pages 6 & 7

pages 8 & 9

pages 10 & 11

pages 12 & 13

pages 14 & 15

pages 16 & 17

pages 18 & 19

pages 20 & 21

pages 22 & 23

How wonderful and appropriate it is to receive this biography of Maurice Noble in the mail. Such beautiful art that only works within the confines of the films being reviewed.

So often I play foolish rhyming games with myself and allow odd configurations to pop out of the type quickly passing in front of me. When I received this book the subtitle quickly gave me pause, “The Noble Approach. Maurice Noble the art and death of Animation Design.. Of course it took less than a second for the correct title to return to the cover in front of me. “Maurice Noble, the Zen of Animation Design.

Where did I get “death from” in those back recesses of my mind? Maurice Noble was probably the last of the GREAT designers from our masters’ age. Great artists like Rowland Wilson and Hans Bacher shape and form a movie and are responsible for much of the greatness that grows with the films they’re developing. Chuck Jones got a lot of glory; Maurice Noble brought the brilliance.

I’ve already started a series around Noble in honor of the excellent book released by Chronicle. I’m going to continue whole posts around the man’s art. There are at least another 4 das worth of information I have to get across, even if it’s just posting stills. Bear with my slow pace on it.

____________________________

Botanical Party

The NY Botanical Garden is ready to have its 16th Annual Internationa American Society of Botanical Artists at the Horticultural Socidty of NY (better known as the Botanical Gardens to you.)

This will take place on Sept 20th and run through November 22nd, 2013.

Dick Rauh, our first ASIFA-East President (and the longest to hold that esteemed position) is represented, as ever, with a beautiful work. His is the beautiful work you’ll be looking for. It’s a good opening night party you’re invited to on Sept 20th from 6 to 8 PM.

____________________________

Rocky Road of Impatience

Thanks to Jerry Beck‘s Cartoon Research, we’ve learned that Darrell Van Citters is putting together a book on the films of Jay Ward. Van Citters’ book on Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol is surely one of the best books about animation to have reached market. The material was not very easy to reach, and there was plenty of factual information that well informed those who were interested.

That most definitely was me. I can remember waiting quite impatiently for the Magoo film to reach television, and I felt fully satisfied when the material played on screen.

Now there’s a promise of the jackpot of material about Jay Ward and the work that small but wacky and very intelligent crew turned out. There’s been nothing like it and I look forward to the book form, impatientl.

I’d feasted on the written material in Keith Scott‘s well written book about Ward and his cohorts (The Moose that Roared) and certainly wanted more. Now we may have found it via the intelligent writing of Mr. Van Citters.

____________________________

When Maurice Noble first started in animation he went, of course, to Mecca, The Disney Studios, where he made a name for himself. He was a Bg painter there. Two of his more noted pieces included the seat for the Queen. Included in the designs was the signs of the Zodiac. This, of course, was a well know feature for the signs of the Dark Forces. Well known author, John Gardner, himself a specialist in medieval history and Art, included 12 chapters in his novel, Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf story. It’s a classic edition of the story as told by the monster, Grendel, himself.

Two of the illustrations of the Queen’s chair are pictured below:

1

2

Preproduction stills for THE OLD MILL.

3