Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

I’ve been an animation fan forever. Back in the fifties (when I wasn’t yet in my teens) I wrote fan letters to Joshua Meador, Bill Justice, and Art Riley. I don’t know if any of them ever received any of my letters, since I always got back a 4″x6″ postcard from Walt Disney thanking me. Mind you, these cards were always interesting and different, so I’m not sorry to have received them.

In the sixties, Mike Barrier‘s Funnyworld Magazine opened the world to interviews with some real animators. Then you’d start to see similar articles in the likes of Millimeter or Film Comment. Chuck Jones and Tex Avery got lots of attention. I saved and cherished those issues. Hell, I just about memorized them. ASIFA East brought Bob Clampett and a dozen other animators from Yoji Kuri to Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston to our little New York corner of the world.

The point is that we got to know who a lot of animators were.

I could tell what scenes Ollie Johnston had done from those that Milt Kahl had done; I can easily identify Bobe Cannon‘s work from Ken Harris‘. (Can anyone but Cannon have drawn with such beautifully rounded lines as can be seen in the lion on the right?
No, that’s purely his work, and it’s there from the earliest right through to Moonbird. Just brilliant!)
{Check out this whole post on John Kricfalusi‘s site in 2006. Gorgeous.}

It became, really, the era of the animator. Many of them were deified by others like me, and deservedly so, even though others remained in obscurity. Watching stars like Dick Williams bring Harris and Hubley and Babbitt to London to train his staff brought fame to the little British studio. Dick soon brought as many famous animators to Raggedy Ann in New York. A star-studded staff assembled, for the first time, for their celebrity and ability and personality. (Star animators rather than star voices. Too bad there was no star writer.)

And Jim Tyer! There’s a whole cult of people who rally around Tyer’s work, and that pleases me. No one I knew, when I was a child, had any idea who Tyer was, but I searched every Mighty Mouse show on Saturday morning TV for a cartoon that had something of Tyer’s work on it. And of course, if you’re going to mention Tyer you have to talk about Rod Scribner. Bob Clampett wouldn’t be the same without Scribner’s scenes. One was East coast, one was West. One distorted the character off all semblance of drawing rules, the other distorted beyond belief (but probably – in his own way – kept the masses the same.)

We can all spot his work a mile off.
It’s Jim Tyer

This same rise to fame continued with some of the new guard. Glen Keane and Andreas Deja led a league of youngsters such as Eric Goldberg and Ruben Aquino and many others to small fame within the industry as the new golden era came to the Hollywood studios.

Meed I identify? Glen Keane & Andreas Deja.

Any good student can list off dozens of such names and can tell you what scenes they’ve done. The point that I’m ultimately getting to is that they’re all 2D animation. Where are the cgi lists of names? Where are the heroes from Toy Story and Monsters Inc. Not the directors. We all know who Brad Bird and Pete Doctor are; we know John Lasseter from Andrew Stanton, but who actually did the animation of some of those many scenes.
The names are on the credits just as Frank Thomas‘ name is on the credits of Bambi. But I can tell you immediately that Thomas did the scenes of Bambi ice skating, yet I don’t know who did the scene of Woody getting resentful, as Buzz Lightyear gets attention from the other toys. I know that Fred Moore did the scene of Lampwick turning into a donkey in Pinocchio, but I don’t know who did Merida’s mother, Elinor, in Brave. The scenes where the mother is transformed into and acts as a bear are beautifully animated, but the origin of those scenes seem anonymous. I don’t have the slightest clue as to who did them.

Grayson Ponti is one of the few who have sites that have praised some excellent cg work, and I can’t be thankful enough for his attention. Check out this post for a sample, but that was written a couple of years ago. We need more frequency and more currency.

I’ve made this complaint before. I talked about Glen Keane‘s work and got lots of hate mail. I said I was trying to learn who did which scenes so that I would know the better animators from the average ones. There were a couple of people who commented on my site and led me to a name or two. But not much changed, not really. I’d very much like it if some of you would comment here and tell me of animators I should be watching. Give me names of people who you think have done some brilliant work in cg films. Tell me the animator, tell me the scenes and I’ll try to offer some appropriate attention.

I don’t have access into the world of the cg artists and animators. I do know a few 2D artists who are working within that world, but it’s the animator who works exclusively in the medium I want to notice and give a little attention to. I need your help. I cannot do it if I don’t know who those animators are at Pixar, Dreamworks, Blue Sky, Disney, Sony and other places. If I don’t know their work I can’t give them credit.

Honestly, for me this year the best animated scenes were many of those of Richard Parker in The Life of Pi. Rhythm and Hues did the work.

This scene knocks me out every time I see it. Pi is trying to
train the tiger, Richard Parker, and the tiger kneads the wood
of the boat (as any house cat would knead a blanket or its
owner, while accepting the comments of his teen overseer.

I’ve contacted the EFFX house offering to give them any attention on my Blog that they’d like from me. Publicity is publicity. (Of course, there’s been no response, surprise, surprise.) Regardless I’m going to continue promoting this film. I love it. But I’d like to add animator names and key art people responsible for the great work. I need them to contribute to get that part right.
I was also equally astounded by most of the work of the Gollum in The Hobbit. One is straight cgi; the other is what used to be called “motion capture” and is now something much much more. There’s real feeling in both those films, and in both those films those characters exist. There can be no question of it.

Now, I’d like to know who is actually doing the creative work. behind the Pixar, Blue Sky and Dreamworks films. I want to talk with people from SONY or other studios. I have a lot of questions and I want to give focus to some individuals who deserve it.
Curran W. Giddens worked on Horton, Cars 2 and Monsters University. What can he tell me about animation?
Raffaella Filipponi worked on The Croods, Shrek and Over the Hedge. She’s freelanced a lot and is that how theses studios work?
Dave Hardin worked on I am Legend, Alice in Wonderland and Turbo. Can he learn the “art” part moving from job to job?

These people were chosen at random. I don’t know their work even though I’ve seen it. Is there a point when THAT will turn around? Do you have to keep on the move to keep working? Is it time to start promoting responses? We’re not working at Disney on a 15 year job that allows you to move from feature to feature without it hurting you attitude, never mind your work?

Perhaps you think (as I sometimes suspect) that no single person can be given credit for “animating” since so many people have their hands on the steering wheel trying to move those characters forward. If so, say that. If you think there’s a team of people that work wonderfully together, I’d like to know. Essentially, I’d like your help continuing this post. If you don’t want it to be in the comment section of this article but would like to add to the follow-up post I’m going to do, email me. msanimation@aol.com is the best address; it’s the place I check most often. Write as short or as long as you like. If I have to edit it I will, and I’ll let you know when it’ll be posted so you can see it as soon as possible.

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- Having seen most of the films in the Oscar race, I have a lot of thoughts about many of them, most particularly some of the animated films. Not the features, I don’t really have much to say about cgi films except that I wasn’t crazy about any of those I saw. There was a lot I really enjoyed about Brave, but that wore away over time, and I now find it hard to watch again on DVD. I will before the final vote.

A couple of the animated shorts have really dug into my mind, and I’ll try to comment on them before the nominations come out. The film that was entered that haunted me most was a puppet film called Oh, Willy!, but that didn’t end up on the short list, so I’ll wait to see it again at some Festival screening.

Of those on the short list, only one seems to be by a genuine Master of the medium. Otomo Katsuhiro deserves more than a little respect in that he’s made several giants in the Japanese Anime medium. AKIRA (1988) was considered a classic when I was told about it in the early 90s. I made many attempts to get through it, but had problems following the film’s story and gave up at least five times. There was no doubt that enormous work and craftsmanship went into the making of the film, with its unusual angles and forceful drive. Every scene seemed to be overwhelmed with activity, and so much came at me that I pulled away.

Otomo was a writer on the film, MEMORIES (1995), which I was quite taken with. It didn’t have the heart of Myazaki, undoubtely my favorite Japanese director today, but there was quite a bit to enjoy there. I’d like to see it again and look closer at Otomo’s sections. In 2004 he wrote and directed the enormously respected STEAMBOY. This film, like others he has directed, is stunningly produced with enormously gifted graphics, but I tend to find myself unable to emotionally connect with its characters and story. There was much less of a problem than I’d had with AKIRA, but it didn’t wholly connect to my taste.

This year we have the extravagantly attractive and completely alarming 12 minute short, COMBUSTIBLE. I don’t for the life of me see how this film could be left off the nominee list, so I want to write about it before those nominations come out. I haven’t met an animator, yet, who hasn’t praised the craft of this film to the hilt. Yet. again, it seems to be an emotional thing that affects many I’ve spoken with. This film does speak to me with its pent up feelings and hidden emotions ready to combust at any moment.

The courtyard leads from the unravelled scroll into
the claustrophobic home with pent up emotions.

The movie starts out with a slowly moving scroll that unravels for us and we begin to pan down the very long image until bits of it start animating. Then the first big sequence grows out of the scroll. We see two children, neighbors, as they play with and around each other. It’s all played out in long shot on that scroll – an extension of that first image, above, and it isn’t always certain what their game is. We do realize that both the boy and girl are close with each other and grow up that way.

We learn that the two are separated by their parents, especially the girl’s father. The boy is all but disowned by his family as he has developed a passion for a career as a fireman. We see this when a nearby fire breaks out, and the perishable buildings immediately ignite.

The girl is made to behave as her middle class society demands of her.

The girl’s father has no kindness for the boy, and often throws nasty comments and remarks his way, at one point degrading him for getting a large tattoo. The boy has marked himself with a fireman’s imagery, and he runs away to become one. The girl’s father plans to marry off his daughter to a suitor, though there is no doubt she is in love with her childhood friend, who has left her.

To me the key scene in the film shows the girl, alone in a room, bored, throwing paper fans to fly in circles about a room. One accidentally falls on a lantern, and slowly ignites. The girl, at first, races to get help, but ultimately stares with a thrill as the lantern burns and other objects in the room catch fire.

This fire, I’ve learned is ased on historic incidents. The Great Fire of Meireiki which was also known as the Long-Sleeved Kimono Fire and the Great Fire of Greengrocer Oshici were similar fires of the time. The secret love affair ends in flames, but the film glows with strength of this love and other hidden emotions. Something I have no doubt which is close to the author, Otomo.

The girl, from her POV, throws fans circling about the room.
Her ennui takes form in these fans, searching for that flame.

As I said the film’s life burns with a fury during the sequence in which the heroine accidentally lights the great fire, and her emotional games wreak havoc in many homes, hers included. Although her love tries to save her, she ultimately dies among the flames. The tedium on her face as she throws the paper fans shows all the hidden and pent up emotions within her. The fire she starts brings out an excitement as she realizes her one love will return to try to save her. He does and comes close to achieving the happy ending for her.

Crowds of firefighters descend upon the city as the flames
immediately burst into a violent and dangerous fire.

They work out of the darkness of the night with
the light of the fire burning against them.

I’m not sure of the exact order of these scene, these images were
sent to me and Ive assembled them in the numerical order they came.

Finally, the girl hears her love come to save her.

He has been placed in charge of separating and destroying the
building that is the fire’s center. The girl’s house and his own family’s.

He goes at his task methodically and swiftly.

Unfortunately, the girl does not know his plan and she moves directly into the fire.

This is a complex story told in a very complicated way, and the techniques of animation must employ every beat to pull it off. Otomo has the craft in hand and works hard to relay the story. He adds many aspects of his own culture to wash into the sory driving home the realism of the story.

His normal difficulties in having characters who properly emote, at least for Western audiences, seems to be employed to add to the emotional thrust of the story. It’s a very well executed short film and firmly acts like a great short story bringing so much to a short slice of a tale. The tale of a culture and the people who not only make up that culture but act out in history.

It’s one of several excellent films on that short list this year, and I look forward toward seeing the nominees that will be chosen.

- When you run a studio in New York, and you’re an animator, there’s a good likelihood that at the quiet moments when work is slow, you’ll be working on your own bit of animation. Whether it’s a short film or a test of something you’ve always imagined animating, it’s hard not to keep pencil to paper (or stylus from the Cintiq.) Vinnie Cafarelli was just such a creature. After seeing a show of Picasso’s works he took the flier and started animating the image Picasso had done. It never got to completion; those were the days of the expensive cameraman and laborious cel process. But I can take Vinnie’s work and finish it in AfterEffects and Photoshop. Here’s my exosure of his basic animation. No X-Sheets were left behind. Here’s the art; here’s the QT movie.

This is the original flyer that got Vinnie going.
He built all his animation up from this printed piece.

The Background

The “character” drawings follow:

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The following QT movie was made of the
drawings above. Since there were no X-Sheets
For better or worse, I came up with the timing, myself.

- I received a number of wonderful gifts this Christmas. Among them, from Heidi, came the two – count them, two – J.B.Kaufman books: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Art and Creation of Walt Disney’s Classic Animated Film and The Fairest One of All: The Making of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . Receiving one of these two books, both of which are expensive, is a luxury and a great gift to be treasured, but to receive both is above and beyond the treasure category. This is beyond the hoped for. And of course if you were asked to give the “list” of hoped for books, you feel guilty just requesting them. One of these books is expensive; the other is VERY expensive. Together, it’s outrageous. Unless, of course, you’re Mitt Romney’s child.

So I received both. I It was like having the Squid AND the Whale in my house, and I spent the day, in between Christmas outings, fingering both books delicately. I’d seen the less expensive book, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Art and Creation of Walt Disney’s Classic Animated Film, on a couple of different occasions. It’s beautiful.

The other book, the one that costs almost twice the price of the first, I’d seen that book on a table – away. No copies. That made me want it all the more. It’s the book that has more of the writing in it. And that’s what I want – the words, the history. Those images are glorious, but the thoughts and ideas of Kaufman and others he’s investigating are the stuff I search for today.

I started digging into and reading this second book: The Fairest One of All: The Making of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , and there were no disappointments here – not yet. As a matter of fact, it’s to the contrary.

In the rear of the book, “Section Four: Production Notes,” Kaufman breaks the film drafts down verbally. Scene to scene, cut to cut we read who the directors are, who the animators were as well as their key Assistants. And the Effx Animators as well as the Asst Directors.
Funny how I thought, just now, how these last 3 names are less important than others. I don’t know why or if I really believe that. The information is there to disprove it one way or the other. This is a fine little section of the book. It gives real homage to the people behind the glorious animation of this film. Maybe someday we’ll be able to figure out who did which background. Take a look at that scene of the Queen sitting on her throne. Why is there no record of who was involved in painting that amazing backdrop? I seem to remember Maurice Noble talking about the scene, but I don’t have the verification to back up such a claim. I’m not a historian; I just have a faulty memory. All we have is whatever information the Disney archives can tell us. If they were able to tell us anything, Mr. Kaufman most certainly would have taken the information to print.

The Queen at the magic mirror. Note the astrological
signs surrounded the mirror from the very beginning
- see above preliminary drawings.

I’m not going to review the two books here; I haven’t really read them and can’t do that. I do know that they’re great books; you can sense it, see it, feel it, smell it. Snow White’s a seminal film for me. I get a thrill whenever I see some of the scenes from this movie, and I’m always hooked on it. The two books will keep me busy and help to let me feel the reason I love animation.

Truth be told, I can’t imagine anyone giving me more information than Mike Barrier did in his book, Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Or again he did it in The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney. The writing in those books is brilliant, but so, too, is it great reading in Kaufman’s books. The story by Barrier is complete, and I’ve already read both of his books half a dozen times, each. These two Kaufman books will keep me busy, and I’m happy for that. I’m sure the story will be more than complete here, too. I don’t know if there’s any more to learn, but I somehow suspect we will have a new view. At least I have good reason to believe so; I know I’m in the hands of a good historian, and I don’t expect to put these books down.

The Queen on her throne -
ah, there’s a background!

But I’ll save that for the real review.

By the way, don’t ask me why I called this post the heading I chose. Guernica Eyes. It seemed to fit, especially with that last Joe Grant drawing I’ve displayed. An amazing talent in a studio filled with amazing talent. When you see some of the art he did for Snow White, you can have no doubt of that. (As if you would after reading John Canemaker‘s Two Guys Named Joe.

- For years Heidi and I would go to Central Park to watch the runners do their mini jog; there’d be fireworks following it. We haven’t been there in a while, so we went last night. Boy has it gotten bigger. We saw a lot of runners but didn’t see the race. I guess we weren’t even in the area where the race took place.

I took some photos.

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We used to enter the park at Tavern on the Green.
But now that beautiful site of a restaurant has turned
into some boarded up unattractive thing. It’s sad.

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We walk in complete darkness tring to find out where we’re going.
That’s Heidi walking just ahead of me.

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Following the lights we started seeing some people.

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The crowds were deeper into the park, and the trip was longer.

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We had to go as far as the bandshell where some hip-hop
loud music and a light show was taking place.

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Some of those in the audience were trying to dance to
the music which had no real rhythm to it. Just loud.

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The crowds started thronging and Heidi and I pulled back a bit.
We headed for a different area.

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That’s Heidi posing for a picture, but you
can’t really make her out very well.

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So I went in for a tighter picture.
It was a bit better.

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We moved over to a statue. I couldn’t make out what it was.
When I got closer, I realized it was just a mass of eagles.

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The fireworks couldn’t have started a moment too soon.

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The fireworks display here is always close so it feels big, yet
small enough not to be overwhelming in a Macy’s kind way.

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This was the cue to leave before the masses caught on that it was ending.

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Once they caught on, we’d be bombarded with people. Didn’t want that.

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Lots of people had settled outside the park to watch the fireworks.
Actually it wasn’t a bad place to watch the show.

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Some other people sitting waiting for the subway had their
213 tiaras in hand. These things have gotten pretty sophisticated.

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We had a good time and went home to a nice little spread
that Heidi had bought and set up for us. We ate shrimp and
chèvre and pâté by candlelight. A nice start to a new year.

Happy 2013, Everybody

- We’ve come to the end of another year. I face the new year without my trusted computer. You work for a number of years on one particular machine, and you get to know what to expect. Photoshop has its own kinks on each different machine as does AfterEffects or the Wacom tablet. With each machine the same pen and the same tablet gives me wholly different lines no matter how I try to focus the brushes that the computer offers. Finally, finally I get the lines and the shapes that I want on a specific screen with just the right pressure I want to exert, and wallah!

No computer. Yesterday morning, Sunday, the computer just wouldn’t turn on. I found a really trusty place to bring my sick machine to be examined, but, it being New Year’s weekend, this is the one Sunday they’re not opening. So I wait till today, Monday, New Year’s eve (when they’ll close early) and will carry my computer there at 9am to get a check out. No doubt they’ll tell me something before they close at 1pm.

Of course, I suspect the worst, the motherboard (what a name) is probably damaged, though I hope not. I hope I just haven’t been properly putting the cord in place, and it’s not getting the electricity it needs. But, as I said, I expect the worst. I expect to have to buy a new machine and hire the computer repair place to dig out all my files and reconstruct them for me on the new computer. Then I’ll have all those programs like Photoshop and AfterEffects and the Wacom tablet that I’ll have to buy new software (since I don’t have the outdated disks I once used to install them onto the dead machine. If I do have them, they’re n storage somewhere in New Jersey or the Bronx or whereve that particular lot of things is stored.) Money just seems to grow on trees when you don’t have any. I’ll figure it out.

I’m more worried about my files. I’ve been working months on the opening of POE and have about 40 secs of finished animation sitting dormant on a possibly dead disk. I have animatics I’ve been doing for presentation – not one piece of art outside that machine – for HBO that I’d hoped to finish this weekend. Forget that. Just hope you don’t have to do them yet again. Files and files and files. Many of them are saved on an external drive, but not the last two months worth of work. I’ve been remiss in saving back up. You can be sure I’ll visit “justcloud” or “backupGenie” or some-such in the future and will become a regular habitué.

Life’s so full of precarious options, and you can’t let them get you down when they don’t seem positive. Everything happens for a reason, and I’m sure there’s a reason for this, too. Maybe I should be shifting completely over to Mac. I’ve been a PC supporter all along, but have a powerful Mac sitting at my brother’s loft for protection. All my other studio computers are in storage in some other state. No, the key studio computer – the one we used for all our editing – is safely ensconced in my brother’s loft. When you can’t trust a storage unit, trust the most reliable person you know. And I have been working Mac at Buzzco all these months (working mornings on Mac and afternoons on PC on the very same scenes can drive you schizo quickly. Something as simple as using “Ctrl” is one place on PC and another on Mac. How many times, after the fact, have I had to do an operation a second time because my fingers went to the wrong place. All niggling complaints, I know. Especially when I have a real complaint/worry. Hopefully, I’ll have all those files back. I’m sure I will.

My brother also has all of Tissa David’s artwork for POE. I’ll need to get that soon, too. I want to inbetween what she’s done to see how it moves as anmation rather than animatic. After all she posed at the animatic on sixes or twelves as her whim carried her. We both agreed that it would ultimately have to be redrawn and reanimated for the final, but now I’d like to keep it as is (except for the opening sequences so that we can get her younger version of “Eddie” to look more like the older version. Bo, I have that logo on there. I just remembered that. It took months for me to satisfy myself with logo-looking portrait of Edgar Allan Poe to use for the Tee-Shirts and postcards, etcetera to send out for the Indiegogo souvenirs. I’m pretty sure that’s also on the computer I use at Buzzco. It’ll wait till Wednesday to find out. When I go back to Buzzco.

Thinking back to the time we worked on that animatic of POE. Tissa never touched a computer. Her drawings were done on punched letter sized paper – 8 ½ x 11. She animated (“animaticed”?) using a penstick on the paper. No rough drawings, and they were all rough drawings. They were finals, most of them will be finals. Life was so much easier back then, yet from the entry position so much harder. It was more fun though, lots of communit. Today we’re all bent into the glow of the television screen and we probably listen to earphone music or noise, and we don’t intercommunicate with those around us. Not like the olden days, when we’d have conversations while doing the work. Of course there was the shut up time, but there was also the community time. How many times did Heidi comment, when walking into my studio, “It’s so quiet here.” You guys have to get music. We did play music once upon a time, but then it all went into the earphones. Everybody into their own TV world. Alone with the animated character. Sorry, it’s a stupid complaint from someone getting to be an old timer. An old timer worried about his machine doing that line that took a long time to perfect. Wondering if he’ll ever get it back again.

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Update

J.J. just called from the New York Computer Help group. It wasn’
t the “notherboard” but a power line that was the cause of the problem. He has the part in stock, and I should have my computer back – fully functional – by 3pm. Only $160.

Let me tell you, I recommend them highly. If you’re in New York and need any computer help, go there. They’re friendly, fast and great. They could have taken me for a ride if they really wanted. I expected to have to pay through the nose to get that repaired. They’re life savers. It’s going to be a nice New Year.

New York Computer Help
53 EAST 34th STREET, 3rd FL.
NEW YORK, NY 10016
(Park and Madison Avenues)
(212) 599 0339

- Steve Fisher is much more energetic than I during this holiday break. (Actually, I don’t really have a holiday although I am doing a lot of different things with a very different pace. My break is really more a mental one.) Consequently, he took a lot of interesting photos in search of Christmas decorations in New York’s higher rent district. Thus sayeth Steve:

Yesterday, I finally had a chance to take advantage of a sunny, dry day [between storms] to look for Christmas decorations on landmark buildings. I decided to follow two guided walking tours of the Upper East Side – the Henderson and Treadwell Districts. The Henderson District, at the East Side Drive between 86th and 87th Streets had several decorations, but the Treadwell District, on 61st and 62nd Streets between Second and Third Avenues, less so.

Here is the first bunch – of the Henderson District. I’ll follow up shortly with other bunches.

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The following were taken in the Treadwell Historic District, on 61st and 62nd Streets between Second and Third Avenues [along with the first several taken along the walk from the Henderson district].

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Even though this building is in the Treadwell Historic District,
I made a separate bunch of snaps for it.

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Trinity Baptist church

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At this point, Steve took the Tram to Roosevelt Island to visit the FDR Memorial. This trip will show up on the blog next Sunday.

Blog

- This past week Nathan Theis left a comment on my blog.Ienjoy goig to the sites and blogs of those who comment on mine. It helps give me a bit of an idea of who’s writing on my site and also shows me what’s out there. I do live in a somewhat hermetecized world here, and unless I venture outside my own realm, I won’t have much idea of anything beyond myself. Or something like that.

Anyway, I went to Mr. Theis’ site and was surprised at how much I enjoyed the trip. His work is predominantly ads he’s done, and his animation is limited to say the best, but the guy is funny. He really had me laughing quite a few times, and I have to recommend you take a look. Just go here and click on any of the images.

Thanks, Nathan, for the laughs, and keep up the great work. Your timing is impeccable.

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Week

This past week, of course, was Christmas week and a lot of events were limited. No Academy screenings were held. I have to admit that once you get used to seeing three to four films a week, it gets tough to pull back. I’ve actually been tempted to watch some on DVD. Though I don’t feel that judging a film on DVD is ok for Academy voters, there are a number of films that are probably good that will not have a chance in hell of getting nominated. Bernie, for example, is probably one of these. I actually am looking forward to seeing this movie, but there are no scheduled screenings in New York, that I know about. I don’t know what choice I have but to watch that film on my TV. (Watching on a computer screen would be a real insult.)

I spent Christmas Eve at a friend’s house. She usually has an open house where a number of artistic types show up. There were only a couple of couples there when we’d arrived. It was quiet but fun. The chili was great and we had some great conversation.

On Christmas Day, I was tempted to spend the day with my brother having dinner and catching up. He lives in the Village and it’s surprising how infrequently we see each other despite that. Instead, Candy Kugel had a dinner party for about 20 people, all friends of hers, none in the animation community. Heidi and I ended up spending a lot of time with an older woman who seems to have a lot to do with events at the 92nd Street Y. She was the person behind their “Lyrics and Lyricists” evenings. Wetalked opera and I pushed the conversation to modern opera – Phillip Glass, John Corigliano and John Adams. The woman really knew what she was talking about with this subject and it was a real treat to talk some other artform (besides animation, I mean) in depth.

We did leave to meet up with my brother afterwards. He’d expected to go out with some friends, but that didn’t turn out since some of the people never made it into the city. Instead the three of us met up for drinks at a local pub. (He lives a block from Candy and the bar was in between the two.) It really made for a nice capper for the evening. I went home to read more of the J.B.Kaufman Snow White book I’d received from Heidi (much more about this tomorrow.)

On Wednesday we went to see The Life of Pi again. Now I’m convinced that it’s the best animated film of the year. The movie is not perfect but it may be my favorite film of the year. It tackles such huge subjects and leaves you smiling at the end. It also has one of my all-time favorite actors in a lead. Irrfan Khan has appeared in many films and
he’s always brilliant, but his performance in episodes of HBO’s In Treatment were just magnificent. I wish I had those on DVD. I will get them, though. Surely with HBO I’ll be able to make copies somewhere along the line, if I don’t find and buy the discs on line. (By the way, that series – not just for the Irrfan Khan performance – has some of the best acting and writing I’ve seen on television recently.)

His role in Pi is almost the equivalent of the straightman in a comedy routine in that he is used primarily to act as the storyteller. The story is bounced off of him, and he reveals what had happened in his trip to the Americas. The film, like all of Ang Lee’s movies, starts with a story about a family, however dysfunctional. As it turns, in this film, the family is a warm, loving ideal one, it just has an odd wa of living. Once that family is broken apart all the seams come loose, and even god is challenged in this movie. (I’m not quite sure that the book had as wide a range as the movie, but they work off each other wonderfully, and yet each stands wholly on its own.

I like this movie a lot and will see it again.

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The rest of the week was dedicated to writing and working.

I’ve had a lot of blog writing to do; it all felt like catc h-up, for some reason. I have a few pieces to present this coming week, but I needed a couple of posts to put up for the end of this week. This one, for example, is like all my Saturday posts – done at the last minute. They’re all a bit crazy since I usually end up writing them at about 3 in the morning.

I am also reading with absolute joy about Snow White (J.B. Kaufman, again.)

I’m also working on a couple of animatics for a presentation I hope to give to HBO this coming January. Once I’m finished with the animatic at hand – a very personal piece that wold be part of a half-hour show I’m hoping to do -, I’ll be able to get back to POE, and believe me I’m looking forward to that. Reading Snow White has me biting at the bit. I want to go there.

Edgar Allan Poe (seated, far right) working
at the Museum of Natural History in NYC.

This daguerrotype, possibly by Paul Beck Goddard, is the
oldest-known photograph of an American museum interior.

- Bill Peckmann chooses one of my favorite artists to end the comic strip posts for 2012. Dick Moore’s is a champion to me, and his work on the Mickey Mouse strips is wonderful.
I, personally, like the way he draws Goofy. But this is Bill’s entry, so here he takes over the post:

I’ve always been a fan of Dick Moores’ Disney comic art work, especially the two Mickey Mouse comic books that I have, (we’ve posted one already) if he did more than these two, I’m not aware of them. And if he only did these two, wow, that is really our loss. He had a great understanding of the Mick and the Goof characters.

His combination of excellent story telling and outstanding art makes you wonder what he could have done with Mickey and Goofy, if he would have had the same lengthy run with them that he had with his super successful Gasoline Alley comic strip.

The magazine cover

Here from 1952 is Dick Moores’ “Mickey Mouse and
the Wonderful Whizzex” Dell comic book.

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The end of the story, but…

…I thought it would be fun to line up these two panels from
Moores’ 1936 comic strip “Jim Hardy” next to the following panel
from “Wonderful Whizzex” done sixteen years later.

- I’ve thought about stop motion animation recently. Films like ParaNorman are beautifully made oversized spectacles that feel, to me, as if they were trying to mimic cg animation. The quality of the 3D animation has just about moved to the “slick” mode; the work has gotten so well done. This is the ultimate effect of mixing the computer with actual puppets, dolls that the computer creates that are then filmed. Isn’t that what happens with the hundreds of thousands of facial positions that are being created? I have a preference for Tim Burton’s puppet motion in films like Frankenweenie. You can feel the fingerprints on those dolls, unlike the excellent work done on ParaNorman.

I know, I’m complaining about the work being too well done. Too good to satisfy me. I just wonder what Ray Harryhausen would have done in this market. How would his films – rarely on ones, often clunky in its movement – have been accepted by modern audiences? Would audiences balk at that? Or would his extraordinary imagination take the bill and give us plenty to take in?

Last night I went to the movies and saw a lot of 3D action adventure trailers of films coming soon: Jack the Giant Slayer, Oz: The Great and Powerful, even the 3D version of Jurassic Park. There were more of them whose titles I’ve forgotten. They all seem the same – Loud and crushing with all those violent 3D moves. The same whooshing sound effect with every cut. It’s hard to get excited about any of them.

I once posted an article featuring Jason and the Argonauts. There was a chapter from Mr. Harryhausen’s 1972 book, Film Fantasy Scrapbook, about that film. I’d like to show it again. The book is written in the first person singular and collects B&W images like a scrapbook.

Here it is:

Of the 13 fantasy features I have been connected with I think Jason and the Argonauts pleases me the most. It had certain faults, but they are not worth detailing.

Its subject matter formed a natural storyline for the Dynamation medium and like The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad strayed far from the conventional path of the “dinosaur exploitation film” with which this medium seemed to be identified.

Taking about two years to make, it unfortunately came out on the American market near the end of a cycle of Italian-made dubbed epics based loosely on the Greek-Roman legends, which seldom visualized mythology from the purely fantasy point of view. But the exhibitors and the public seem to form a premature judgment based on the title and on the vogue. Again, like Sinbad, the subject brewed in the back of my rnind for years before it reached the light of day through producer Charles Schneer. It turned out to be one of our most expensive productions to date and probably the most lavish. In Great Britain it was among the top ten big money makers of the year.

A preproduction drawing (above) compares favorably with a film still (below.)
The drawing is quite a bit more dynamic. (After all, it is Dynamation!)

(Click any image to enlarge a bit.)

Likewise, a drawing of the hydra (above) film still (below.)

Harpies (Above & Below)

Some of the difference in basic composition between the pre-production sketches I made for Jason and the counterparts frames of the production is the direct result of compromising with available locations.

For example, the ancient temples in Paestum, southern Italy, finally served as the background for the “Harpy” sequence. Originally we were going to build the set when the production was scheduled for Yugoslavia. Wherever possible we try to use an actual location to add to the visual realism. To my mind, most overly designed sets one sees in some fantasy subjects can detract from, rather than add to the final presentation.

Again, it depends on the period in which it is made as well as on the basic subject matter. Korda’s The Thief of Bagdad was the most tastefully produced and designed production of any film of this nature but unfortunately the budget that was required would be prohibitive with today’s costs.

The Skeleton Sequence was the most talked-ahout part of Jason. Technically, it was unprecedented in the sphere of fantasy filming. When one pauses to think that there were seven skeletons fighting three men, with each skeleton having five appendages to move each frame of film, and keeping them all in synchronization with the three actors’ movements, one can readily see why it took four and a half months to record the sequence for the screen.

My one regret is that this section of the picture did not take place at night.
Its effect would have been doubled.

Certain other time-consuming technical “hocus-pocus” adjustments had to be done during shooting to create the illusion of the animated figures in actual contact with the live actors. Bernard Herrmann’s original and suitably fantastic music score wrapped the scenes in an aura of almost nightmarish imagination.

In the story, Jason’s only way of escaping the wild battling sword wielding “children of Hydra’s teeth” is to leap from a cliff into the sea. (Above left) A stuntman, portraying Jason for this shot, leaps from a 90-foot-high platform into the sea closely followed by seven plaster skeletons. It was a dangerous dive and required careful planning and great skill. It becomes an interesting speculation when dealing with skeletons in a film script. How many ways are there of killing off death?

(Above right) Another angle with the real Jason jumping off a wooden platform into a mattress a few feet below. The skeletons and the rocky cliff were put in afterwards while the mattress was blotted out by an overlay of sea.

Director Don Chaffey and Ray Harryhausen discuss the leap with Italian stunt director Fernando Poggi.

When transferring published material to the screen it is almost always necessary to take certain liberties in the work in order to present it in the most effective visual terms. Talos, the man of bronze, did exist in Jason legend, although not in the gigantic proportions that we portrayed him in the film. My pattern of thing in designing him on a very large scale stemmed from research on the Colossus of Rhodes.

The actior: his blocking the only entrance to the harbor stimulated many exciting possibilities. Then too, the idea of a gigantic metal statue coming to life has haunted me for years, but without story or situation to bring it to life. It was somewhat ironic when most of my career was spent in trying to perfect smooth and life-like action and in the Talos sequence, the longest animated sequence in the picture, it was necessary to make his movements deliberately stiff and mechanical.

Most of Jason and the Argonauts was shot in and around the little seaside village of Palinuro, just south Naples. The unusual rock formations, the wonderful white sandy beaches, and the natural harbor were within a few miles of each other, making the complete operation convenient and economical. Paestum, w its fine Greek temples, was just a short distance north. All interiors and special sets were photographed in a sm studio in Rome.

(Above left) Talos, the statue of bronze, pursues Jason’s men.

(Above right) Talos blocks the Argo
from the only exit of the bay.

Pre-production drawing of Jason speaking to the Gods of Greece.

For the second unit operation a special platform had to be fitted to the Argo in order to achieve certain camera angles. Although it looks precarious it was far more convenient than using another boat for the shots.

The Argo had to be, above all, practical in the sense that it must be seaworthy as well as impressive. It was specially constructed for the film over the existing framework of a fishing barge. There were twin engines for speed in maneuvering, which also made the ship easily manipulated into proper sunlight for each new set-up.

Harryhausen off the book’s back cover
to give an idea of scale of drawing sizes.