Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Howard Beckerman brought a DVD of his home movies of he ASIFA East Animation Festival of 1980. (Actually, I think there are two separate years on this video. People are wearing different clothes in the latter half. However, I can’t be sure.) These are the faces of the crowd who came to those wine and cheese gatherings before the awards. Now, you have sandwiches, wine, beer and soda AFTER the awards. It’s still the place to see a large group of the animation cognoscenti in NY.

I’ve tried to identify as many people as I can and have printed out some stills to do just that. Here are some people to look for.

(L) Candy Kugel / (R) John Canemaker

(L) Russell Calabrese / (R) George Griffin

(L) Carol Millican (center) / (R) John Gati

(L) Tissa David / (R) Sam Magdoff

(L) Nancy Beiman & Dean Yeagle / (R) me, Michael Sporn

(L) Iris Beckerman / (R) Iris Beckerman

(L) Lu Guarnier / (R) Harriette Rauh (right side)

(L) Charles Samu / (R) Will Friedwald & Jerry Beck

(L) Iris Beckerman & Prescott Wright / (R) Sam Magdoff & Irra (Duga) Verbitsky

(L) Francis Lee / (R) Dick Rauh

(L) Don Duga / (R) Joey Ahlbum & Jerry Beck

(L) Dick Rauh / (R) Irwin Lapointe (center w/tie)

(L) Jane Aaron / (R) Charles Samu

(L) Dick Rauh – Pres / Prescott Wright – Guest Speaker

(L) Joey Ahlbum / (R) David Ehrlich & Joey Ahlbum, Chas & Kathy Samu (behind David)

David Ehrlich

Here’s the silent video of the Festival celebrities.
See if you can identify any of those I missed
(and let us know in the comments.)

_______________________________

- Jake Friedman has a blog that’s nothing short of sensational. His entire focus is on the history of Art Babbitt, making the blog’s title, The Art Babbitt Blog, quite appropriate. Having spent some time with Babbitt, it’s interesting to see the picture of the man on this blog.

The material is very meticulous, but there are some really precious pieces on display. I particularly like the drawings displayed from the silent Terry cartoon, “Scene 30″ of the Terrytoon short Chop Suey.

_______________________________

- Last week we saw the first half of Wallace Tripp‘s book, Sir Toby Jingle’s Beastly Journey. Today we conclude our post of the book. Wallace Tripp is certainly an influence on many animator’s work. His fluid drawings look like animation work. Many thanks to Bill Peckmann for scanning the book and sending these pages on to us.

Here, then, is part 2:

Front Cover

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

31

Back Cover

- Before going directly into the subject of today’s post, let me give a little twist toward our current on line promotion, Indiegogo.

As you may know, we sought funds on Kickstarter a few weeks back trying to raise some cash to create a terrific trailer for POE, the animated feature we’re seeking to produce. That fund raising scheme wasn’t as successful as we’d hoped; money offered was not collected, and we’re taking what we’d learned and moved to a different venue, Indiegogo. There, we’ve started from scratch.

POE is a film we’d like to produce and are hoping we’re not too far from the starting gate. SSince we’ve developed a script, drawn a storyboard, created about 20 minutes of animatic (story reel) from the few voices we’d recorded, the next and most likely step would be to animate some of it and get it to our sales group to help raise the necessary capital. That’s where we are. If you’ve already given your support to this project, I thank you sincerely. If you’re not aware of it, I encourage you to look at the website for POE, poestory.net, or the Facebook page, or Indiegogo where all the action is happening. Moral support is almost as good as financial. If you’d like to tell any of your friends about it. I’d appreciate that too. In all, I have to say Thank you for your help.

- Stephen Worth at Animation Resources recently posted anew his copy of Nat Falk’s How To Make Animated Cartoons. When I was a kid I cherished my copy of this book – actually it was a library booik, but I was the only one who ever checked it out of my local library, and I basically had it out permanently. There was something about those clumsy looking Terrytoon drawings that I absolutely enjoyed. (Don’t forget that the Mighty Mouse Show was one of the very first Saturday morning TV shows, and every kid my age was affected by it.)

Aside from all the information about studios and drawing characters etc., there were the pages where you could see the animation drawings all lined up, just as in the Preston Blair book. It was something I didn’t take lightly. I always was curious how those cycles pictured moved. The one, above, was one that stood out in my memory. I always thought it eccentric and was curious to see it in action.

Well, now I can do it given the simple technology at hand. So I put the page through Photoshop and layered the drawings, then dragged it past AfterEffects, and behold a QT movie. Here’s the results, pictured below:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

And here’s the QT movie of the cycle.
It’s on two’s, and
it’s not a pretty picture.
I think Carlo Vinci may have animated it.

I did a similar thing, in a different post, using another walk cycle from this book. That was done in 2009. A cycle of “Puddy the Pup.” That worked a little better but not by much.

- Last week I introduced you to the late Vince Cafarelli‘s collection of animation artwork. This is a collection of artwork he had saved from the different studios he worked at. A solid part of the collection is this storyboard from the 1949 Popeye cartoon, “Barking Dogs Don’t Fite.”

The story and storyboard was done by Jack Mercer and Carl Meyer. I’m sure you recognize Jack Mercer’s name as the voice of Popeye, but he was also the voice of Swat the Fly in Hoppity Goes To Town. Carl Meyer voiced his partner, Smack the Mosquito. I love the drawing style of one of them (I don’t know who did which); it’s reminiscent of some early twenties comic strip art. The two artists draw Olive very differently. One draws a circle for a head; the other gives her a bubble cheek, and this is the one I favor. I also love his Popeye. It’s too bad the film looks so mediocre in its final incarnation. For some reason, they’ve given Popeye a powder blue uniform. I don’t think the Navy actually had such a uniform.

There are a lot of drawings to this, so I’m forced to break it into three parts.
I’ve also posted the YouTube version of the short at the end of this post.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11
I love this drawing!

12

13

14

15
Olive gets breasts, at least, for one drawing.

16

17
There is no number 18. 17 dissolves to 19.

19

20

21
What an hilarious Popeye!
Right out of the Toonerville Trolley.

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

.
___________________________

.

.

.

.

.

.- John Halas was certainly a great promoter of animation. And while doing this he also promoted himself. A very prolific writer in a time when animation was rarely mentoned, even in film magazines.

Chris Rushworth, whose site built around his collection of art from the Halas & Batchelor feature, Animal Farm, has sent me this article from Films In Review, 1969. (I used to buy this magazine, loyally, as a child for the reviews and articles about soundtrack music.)

Anyway, I thought it’d be fun to post the old article (which is obviously, pre-computer. As a matter of fact, pre video.)

.

Magazine Index

1

2

3

4

5

- Well, I’m following my fancy. I’m into Paul Julian‘s beautiful painting style, and have found a treasure trove in the UPA collection DVD, Jolly Frolics. Here I have one of the better UPA films, Georgie and the Dragon. It’s a rather simple story, beautifully directed by Bobe Cannon and animated by Rudy Larriva, Bill Melendez, Grim Natwick and Frank Smith. The exceptional script is written by three strong, animation pillars: John Hubley, Bill Scott and Phil Eastman. Paul Julian and Jules Engel seem to have done the backgrounds together.

1
The tartan BG with the yellow type sets up
the Scottish location for the film.

2
For the second card they reverse the scheme:
yellow BG with a tartan filled type.

The credits dissolve as the BG pans
and the camera slowly moves in.

4

5

6
I think you can distinguish between the Paul Julian Bgs
and the Jules Engel bgs. Julian was more apt to use
drybrush in his work, and it gives it a singular look.

9

10

11

12

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

24

25

26

27
Just look at these wild poses even though
the characters are at rest.

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41
UPA didn’t just introduce a new kind of design,
it brought a new style of animation that made
that design work.

42
Bobe Cannon was the perfect animator to direct
the animators in this new looseness and sense of
graphic movement in animation.

43
As evidenced in many of these wild poses.

44

45

46

47

48

49

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

Go here to see the comic book adaptation of the cartoon.

I found the following model sheets on Stephen Worth‘s excellent site, AnimationResources.

Edgar Allan Poe had two great loves in his life. The first woman, Elmira, was engaged to marry him when he was a student at the University of Virginia. She ultimately sent him a “Dear John” letter when her parents forbade her to marry someone whose station in life was lower than hers.

Shortly thereafter he’d been forced to leave the University for lack of funds. His stepfather, John Allan, refused to give him more money, and Poe left the school penniless.

He soon learned that his Aunt in Virginia had also been evicted from their home with her 13 year old daughter, Poe’s cousin, Virginia. Edgar suggested that the three of them share an apartment and thus make it easier to finance their living quarters. To do so, and to not be scrutinized by society, Poe married Virginia, his 13 year old cousin. It would have been scandalous had he not. He immediately fell in love with her and saw her as the love of his life. Most Poe historians believe, however, that they did not consummate their marriage.

A singer, Virginia ultimately died, at the age of 21, after a vocal problem led to pneumonia. Her illness stretched out for a long time because they did not have money to care for her properly. This led to guilt and anger for poor Edgar who could not help his love, and it’s when he did turn to alcohol. However, he gave it up after his wife’s death and stayed sober the rest of his life. Virginia was the Annabel Lee of the famous poem he’d written after her death.

Several years later, he learned that his original love, Elmira, had recently been left a widow when her husband had died. Poe and Elmira reunited and were engaged to marry when he suffered the curiously peculiar death that he did.

It’s my thesis, in the film we’re trying to finance, that Poe’s problem was not alcohol or drugs (this was a negative slur invented by his biographer, Rufus Wilmot Griswold). The real difficulty throughout Poe’s life was poverty. He did everything possible to resolve this, but did not succeed, even unto his death at age 40. On the very day of his death he was to travel to Philadelphia (he’d just bought the tickets) where he was to meet Muddy, his Aunt. He was to start a new literary journal, and they were meeting to obtain financing that she had arranged. Something happened before he got onto the train, and he was found delirious, in a near coma, outside a tavern, wearing someone else’s clothes. He was placed in a pauper’s hospital and died three days later.

Indiegogo is the site we’re using to try to raise capital to finance a trailer for the film in the final style of the movie. This will help sales. We’re within inches of a sale to a cable station for the US Broadcast which will hopefully give us traction to make other sales. Come hell or high water, I’m going to see this film finished.

If you can take a look at the Indiegogo site and leave a comment of support, even if you can’t donate any money. That alone will give encouragement for us to go on. And tell your friends, especially those you think can contribute $15 or more.

– 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.

___________________________

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

- After posting Wallace Tripp‘s book, Granfa Grigg Had A Pig, it became obvious to me that we had to post more. Bill Peckmann sent this first half of the book, Sir Toby Jingle’s Beastly Journey. It was illustrated AND written by Tripp and is a delight. The drawings are beautiful, and the book has a great flow. I hope you enjoy it.

1

2

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

to be concluded next week.

.
_________________________

Indiegogo POE

- And now a word from our sponsor. I’d be remiss if I allowed a post to pass without the mention of our fundraising campaign for POE. That is, of course, the feature we are promoting, the feature we are trying to finance and hope to raise enough money to get a trailer completed. To that end, we’ve established a spot on Indiegogo a week ago where we are aiming for the highest. Please visit the site, tell your friends to tell their friends, and perhaps we’ll reach our goal. Many thanks, regardless, for your wonderful support.

- Before we get to the subject at hand, I just wanted to place a reminder that we’re racing toward raising money for my animated feature, POE, which has been in preproduction for some time. Now with the help of INDIEGOGO, and your contributions, we’re looking to complete a film of completed animated footage which will properly showcase our film. You can find out more about it at Indiegogo or at Poestory.net or the Poe Project Facebook page. Whether you can contribute funds or not, I thank you, i advance, for any support you can give. Even telling a friend of a friend about it may help.
Thank you.

- Lately we’ve been looking at models and preproduction drawings. Here are more of the sketches done for Lady and the Tramp found on the DVD extras gallery (in a somewhat tiny screen size). These are preproduction pieces by a number of different artists over a number of different years. They all exhibit a life of their own that’s pleasant to visit. Very cartoon compared to the film they made.

(Click any image to enlarge.)