Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– A peculiar alignment of the stars completed this week with the sad passing of Buzz Potamkin. His was the third key death to have happened within the past six months. Designer, Hal Silvermintz, and animator, Vince Cafarelli, also died this year, and they
were all key partners in the animation studio, Perpetual Motion Pictures. That studio rose from the noted studio of the ’60s, Stars and Stripes Productions, Inc. Buzz and Hal left Stars & Stripes joining forces in 1968 and moving on to open Perpetual. They were subsequently joined by Vinny.

Perpetual was one of the solid commercial companies in NY during the 70s and early 80s producing many key commercials of the time including the Hawaiian Punch spots and many MTV pieces. In fact, they designed the MTV spaceman logo. They also did several half-hour shows for TV including The Berenstain Bears.

In 1981 Hal Silvermintz and Hal Hoffer formed their own studio leaving Buzz and Vinny to regroup as Buzzco Productions. Eventually, Buzz left for California leaving Vinny Cafarelli and Candy Kugel ownership of Buzzco, which is still in operation.

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ASIFA East Fest

- Last Sunday night, ASIFA East celebrated with its awards program, its Festival. As usual, it was an overlong program that came in a bit over 2 hrs. 15 mins. There were’t many films I was taken with. Here are some mental notes I made during the show:

The Girl and the Fox by Base 14/Tyler J. Kupferer was the film that won an excellence in Design award. I thought it had the best animation of the program and would have given it that award as well. This is the film that stayed with me.

Car Crash Opera by Skip Battaglia won the award for best soundtrack, which was fitting, but it also should have won Best in Show and Best in Experimental Films. It’s an excellent film.

I always enjoy the Rauch Brothers‘ films. Theirs are richly animated and complex films. However, I would like to see them do something other than the Storycorps work. Their films are sophisticated enough that I’d like to see what steps they’d take next.

I also enjoyed Steve Subotnick’s latest film, Two. Probably the only really experimental of those that won an award in that category.

Taxonomy by Karen Aqua is a beautiful film, and it’s sad to note that it’ll be the last of her films.

I like Stephen Neary’s work and was glad to see his latest, Dr. Breakfast. But I found it somewhat derivative; a bit of John Kricfalusi was in there. It was still funny with some good animation.

I thought Pete List did a great job with Mo Willems’ children’s book, Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late. I was watching the iintricate camera moves pretty closely; very sophisticated stuff.

A History of Animation by Morgan Miller was just vulgarity for the sake of vulgarity. I saw it on-line and didn’t make it past the two minute mark. Here I had to watch it all. I guess it was “hip” but my older mindset only saw a poorly drawn film (which was the point, I guess) with sophomoric humor. I’m tired of this phase and am only looking for quality.

If I had been in charge of the Festival, I would have eliminated the Music Video category. None of them were more than ordinary; there wasn’t a “Best.”

I was also surprised that Bill Plympton’s bastardization of Winsor McCay’s The Flying House didn’t win any awards.

After the program we went to the fifth floor where there was a reception. Lots of sandwiches & salad and beer & soda. By 11pm, we’d about had it and skipped out of the late night gathering at Fiddlesticks Pub in the West Village. I was glad to finally be home though I wondered what I’d missed at the after party.

If any of you have thoughts about the ASIFA Evening, I’d be glad to hear your comments.

Here’s a list of all the winners.

BEST IN SHOW
John and Joe
StoryCorps/Rauch Brothers

Honorable Mention – Reddish Brown and Blueish Green
Samantha Gurry

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