Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

Museum Animation Programs

- The museums in New York are offering a number of important animation programs this summer. Now through October 28th the Whitney Museum is showing Oskar Fischinger: Space Light Art—A Film Environment. This was a multiple screen program he had devised in 1926 called Raumlichtkunst. It included 3 35mm films that were projected simultaneously. It has now been transferred to high definition video and is projected in a loop, so that it is constantly running for the museum’s audience. The film was recently restored by the Center for Visual Music in Los Angeles. From the museum’s posting it says: “Radical in format, its display of abstract shapes and colors produces, according to Fischinger, ‘an intoxication by light from a thousand sources.’”

The Quay Brothers at work

Meanwhile the Museum of Modern Art is having a gallery exhibition of the Quay Brothers‘ work. The brothers, originally from Philadelphia, have settled in London where for the past 30 years they created avant garde stop motion films. They’ve worked as illustrators, stage designers, and filmmakers. The installation showcases all of their work and features a series of “dormitoriums,” miniature décors created for their stop-motion films.There will also be a complete retrospective of their work including their early work, graphic design, calligraphic work, and works on paper. Their films include a complete retrospective of all the puppet films, as well as the student and live action films.
The program will rum from August 11th through January 7, 2013.
I’ll try to keep you posted on the upcoming film programs as they approach.

Also at the MoMA, Tues July 31st at 6PM and Mon August 6th at 8PM, Lou Bunin‘s version of Alice in Wonderland will be screened. The film is rarely screened theatrically and hard to find in DVD. While in production, Disney did everything possible to stop it from going forward, trying to take it to court. Both this Alice and Disney’s ultmately opened within months of each other. When it opened in England in 1950 the British censors objected to a caricature of Queen Victoria, and the film wasn’t released in England until 1985.

Jeff Scher continues to produce rich, abstract animated films. His latest is a music video for his “favorite new band.” I’ve embedded the film, below. Take a look.

- I received a note from Jossie Malis about a series he’s been creating called Bendito Machine. In his words:

Bendito Machine is a show which reflects on the innocence of a small, naive and clumsy species that cannot live without their machines, and which is guided by enlightened greedy bastards, who believe they have the answer to everything.

I was intrigued enough to go to his website and search out the films. There are four of them; they’ve just completed the last of the four. You can watch them all on line (here). They’re quite attractive pieces each about 5 – 10 minutes in length, and they’re all silhouette films. The filmmaking group is, naturally enough, a small one with obvious dedication to the work. It is quite attractive, and I encourage you to take a look.

They’ve recently started a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of raising money to do more of them; I think it’s a worthwhile project. Take a look at the films and consider for yourself whether it’s worth contributing – even as little as $1.

There are a couple of other nice reads out on the internet this week:

Traditional Animation features a good interview with Producer, Gary Goldman, on the 30th anniversary of The Secret of Nimh. The interview reviews all the elements that combined to create the studio and pull this first feature film together. This is a good site and worth visiting (and I don’t say that just because it includes an interview with me in its backlog.) There are many parts from news to forums to interviews.

Mike Barrier has a fine piece on the Harman-Ising cartoon, The Milky Way (the first non-Disney cartoon to win an Oscar). It features some beautiful preproduction artwork from the film.
Of course, on Mike’s site there’s also the great interview with Warner Bros animator, Phil Monroe. In case you haven’t yet read it, you should. Certainly if you have even the slightest interest in animation history.

Bill Benzon, in his very detailed and analytical way, takes on the script of Disney’s Dumbo on his blog, New Savannah. Anything Dumbo is worth reading, especially if it’s written by someone as erudite as Mr. Benzon.

One of those blogs that sits out there forever and has become a valuable piece of real estate for those, like I, who keep coming back to it is the Al Eugster Blog. Mark Mayerson set up this wonderful blog which honors a fine animator. There are many photos of Mr. Eugster in the many positions and studios he animated for. Pictures of the Ub Iwerks studio (Iwerks pitching horseshoes), the Disney Studio in 1935, the Fleischer Studio, or the pictures I sought out this week, the Gifford Studio in NYC. Many thanks to Mark for this hidden treasure as well as for his not-so-hidden treasure, his current blog, Mayerson on Animation. That site is a must-check daily.

Finally, what happens when you’re an artist and your email address has been pillaged by some idiot and all your “friends” on your mailing list have been contacted and told that you’ve been robbed in Spain and left penniless, so please send money? Well, if you’re Gene Deitch, you send out the following note to all on your mailing list who may have been approached:

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