Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Recently my friend Lou Scarborough was in New York. We spent about a half dozen lunches together while he was here and had a lot of laughs talking about the past and some not so happy moments, as well, talking about the present. Our last lunch, before he had to leave town had to be cancelled and we missed it. I was glad to have been able to bring him to an Academy screening where we got to share some thoughts about Blue Sky’s Epic. We also saw Goro Miyazaki’s From Up on Poppy Hill one afternoon at the IFC theater. I’m glad we got to see one film we both enjoyed, somewhat.

Now I’ve received a letter from Jerry Beck with some sad information about our friend. Jerry writes:

Lou came down sick last Wednesday and his friend and roomate, Marc Schirmeister, took him to the hospital. He was operated on last Sunday for an obstruction in his digestive tract – that’s when they discovered the cancer. Lou has cancer of the prostate, colon and liver. He is at the UCLA Olive View Hospital in Sylmar, California.

Lou’s brother Cecil is arriving at LAX this afternoon, and will battle the rush hour traffic to get to the hospital.

Lou is stable but unconscious (they are keeping him sleeping because of the pain). He’s in intensive care in room 5B North in bed #9. The Nurse is Nurse Jerman. It doesn’t look good. (If you need any of the phone numbers, I can probably get them to you.

Lou did, at one time, have a blog where he left a lot of pencil art. If you’re up to reminiscing over Lou’s distinctive style of cartooning you can go to Scarboropolis.

- Speaking of Jerry Beck, he will soon be in New York and is planning a number of screenings, which as always will be interesting. One, scheduled for July 28th will be held at the BAMcinematek in Brooklyn, NY. This is dome under the auspices of the MP Academy and will include some rarely screened films:
Munro Dir. Gene Deitch (1960)
Ersatz Dir. Dusan Vucotic (1961)
The Hole Dir. John Hubley (1962)
The Pink Phink Dir. Friz Freleng & Hawley Pratt (1964)
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Double Feature Dir. John Hubley (1966)
The Box Dir. Fred Wolf (1967)

I am scheduled to be on a panel at 7pm that includes Jerry Beck, Emily Hubley and J.J. Sedelmaier. Presumably we’re there to talk about the films.

I’ve recently been the victim of the big corporation, Verizon, doing all sorts of play with my telephone and internet service. My poor wife, Heidi, can’t believe how horrendous this 3 week period was for me. It was debilitating, to say the least, but none of my films are damaged in the process. I can’t even imagine that . . . well, maybe I can.

Signe Baumane has heart-stopping, thrilling stories about her attempts to bring her feature film, Rocks in my Pockets, to completion. The film is about depression, can you imagine the making of the film about depression being the cause of the depression itself? She talks about the computers poor animators have to work with (not large corporations but those used by the likes of many of us) have to work with in making these films, and I can imagine worse than she’s been through, but thrilled to know she’s nearing the end without any large organizations tearing into her movie – yet. Take the few minutes to read her recent blog post about her film. It’s a good piece of writing with lots of clear warnings for all of us “small timers” who are still making films one frame at a time.

This is a subject that hasn’t come up in discussions with other independent animators doing their own feature films on home equipment. I’ll look forward to anything from Bill Plympton or Elliot Cowan on their films.

Read Computers on the Dots about her film, Rocks In My Pockets.

- Last week I was actually looking forward to The Lone Ranger and very disappointed when it was played more for gags than seriousness. Gore Verbinski was going more for Pirates of the Caribbean than Rango. He should stick to the animation. I liked Johnny Depp in his part as Tonto and the way he represents his half of the partnership. But for the “Masked Man” they played for gags making him the comedy star of the story. Surely there was a good partnership film in there. Instead of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon we could have easily had the Masked Man and Tonto. What’s the point? Why talk more about another failed film?

- This week, I saw three films; two were live action and adult, one was childish and for the most part animated by cgi EFFX people starring cartoon humans. Two were good.

Fruitvale Station was a first film by director/writer Ryan Coogler. It was about a young black man trying hard to change his life and live properly in America. Of course, it ended with his being killed in Oakland. He’s tried to raise his daughter well; he’s tried to go the straight and narrow by discarding the drugs he’s expected to sell (even though that sale would have been very easy and profitable), and he’s tried to be a good boyfriend to his potential mate and his mother. The story works hard not to make his a symbol but the real story they’re telling pushes hard to do the obvious. The director does a good job with a small cast of excellent actors led by the young star Michael B. Jordan. It’s an excellent and gripping film that deserves your attention.

The director, and two of its young stars answered questions for the NY Academy’s members. It was an excellent evening built around a fine film.

The well-known Danish director Thomas Vinterberg builds a quiet and subtle movie about a young teacher who has been trying to develop a good life in the small Danish community where he lives. He is named a child predator by his best friend’s daughter. The girl talks about images she’s seen on her brother’s friend’s laptop computer. Too quickly the staff at the school accept the girl’s words as truth and make it almost impossible for her to retract her confused accusations. The girl barely knows what she’s talking about, yet the entire community comes out against the innocent teacher. It’s a haunting film very well played and done in a low key manner. Whereas the story would probably most easily be played out through anger, Vinterberg merely has his teacher try hard to defend himself against the obviously non-true attack. When all seems to die down and settle in the teacher’s favor at the film’s end, it becomes clear that the story will never come clear. There will always be finger-pointing and hostilities for the rest of the lives in this small village.

It’s a very charged film, and was pleasantly covered by a short Q&A after the movie. A good experience for the best film of the week.

- Finally last night the overblown loud crash from the theater’s screen gave us the latest tiresome film from Guillermo del Toro. It’s hard to know who’s on the good or the bad side and if there is one. The film just didn’t stop coming at you. After 140 minutes, I’d had enough and left the theater. There was nothing more to learn. This is everything I find wrong with movies, and the deadening computer has put us at the center of the problem. After seeing Pan’s Labyrinth I came back to give Del Toro a second and third chance of entertaining me, but he never quite led up to his part of the deal. The Hellboy films left me flat, and the endless monsters and loud soundtracks left me cold.

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