I just learned that three months ago Kristian Pedersen uploaded her experimental animated short film
Bøygen in its entirety.
It's been years since I saw this at the Ottawa International Animation
festival, but it is still one of my favorites. Bøygen is a
little under 6 minutes, but the motion, the shading, and the music are just
esquisite. As I watch it, I see influences of Oskar Fischinger and Walther
Ruttman in her work. Over years of attending animation festivals, experimental
animation has grown on me and it's films like Bøygen that have inspired
me to do more research into visual music and grow my appreciation for this
form of filmmaking. Special thanks to Chris Robinson, Kelly Neal, and the rest of the crew at the Ottawa International Animation Festival for their continuing support of experimental animated films. I could put this film on repeat and watch it for hours on
end. Hope you all enjoy.
I hadn't planned on going to Ottawa this year. Too much going on, too much money going out--home repairs, car repairs, and the like. And it's not like I hadn't had a little vacation time between TAAFI in the late winter and Gen Con during the summer. But when a colleague offered me space in his hotel room, well, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. If you're going to make a nine-hour drive to Ottawa, you'd be hard pressed to find someone better than animator and ASIFA Secretary Jim Middleton to travel with.
Thursday - on the way to Ottawa
Blue skies, clear weather, smooth sailing. Kept an eye on
social media to see who was here and who was having trouble making the journey
to the Great White North. Pilar Newton-Katz & Glenn Ehlers were already there. Sarah Donahue-Galasso was
dealing with bus trouble. Fortunately, she and her students would be on their way
soon.
The bed and breakfast was a very good choice – just two blocks south of the ByTowne. Shortly after checking in, we walked over to the festival to get our passes and saw Thomas
Reynolder. His new book is built around the merger of augmented reality and the
phenakistoscope, complete with a smartphone app. Very cool project! Saw his Stampfer Dreams in the competition screenings later that weekend.
The Spanish film retrospective had some solid entries. But
the real gem of the evening was Flow. What a beautiful film. Perfect example of
the “show don’t tell” principle. Wonder if it was made with Unreal Engine... with those lush backgrounds and environmental FX. No dialogue, just body language.
Would love to show this film to my class. Might share the trailer with them. Check it out below to see what I'm so excited about.
Friday
Got up early enough to make it to a pair of panel discussions--ones that are relevant to the "career advice" lecture I give my class on the last day. Spoke to Aubry Mintz on the way in this morning. Glad to hear he’s doing well.
'Staying Strong in Tough Times' and 'Navigating the Animation Pipeline: Industry Roles & Career Strategies' were chock full of valuable information and insights into an industry that is currently taking a beating. No getting around it, times are difficult for the animation industry right now. We've seen these ebbs and flows in the past though. So I'm optimistic about the future, it's always about slogging through the valley while you're preparing for the good times to return.
Afterwards, Jim and I walked to the picnic. Was fun as always –
good food, better company. On my way out, Sarah waved me over to chat. Caught up
with her and Glenn and had the chance to meet some of her students.
Our yearly impromptu R.I.T. grads reunion
Well a short nap later and it was off to the "Threads and Fibers" textiles in animation screening. The films were interesting. The curator opened with a
little history. Wasn't anything like the historical embroidery animation work that I've done, but the films were still engaging nonetheless.
While waiting for the Canadian Panorama, had to chance to
touch base with fellow ASIFA Central member Josh Harrell and Bryce Hallett from TAIS. Not many Toronto people here, sadly. Lynn Dana Wilton couldn’t make it. And neither Bryce nor I had spoken to Ellen Besen in
quite a while. Need to write and see how she's doing.
The Canadian Panorama was hit-or-miss. Opening film Not Enough Womb for the Two of Us by Cameron Kletke was very clever. Some of the other films... well, there was a lot of really
good technique there but a number of the stories felt kinda preachy. Didn't speak to me where I was at. I kept drifting back to Not Enough Womb... Solid bit of filmmaking. Keep it short, keep it funny!
Saturday
Pleasant enough day. Weather was beautiful. Walked over to
the NAC for the Animation Expose. Very few studios there—think I counted three. I remember seeing Jam Filled and Mercury
Filmworks, but it was mostly schools and a vendor (or two). Disappointing, but was understandable that the big USA
studios ducked out this year. Hollywood is taking a beating right now. Hope the day’s lectures and panel discussions made up for it to all
the students that drove in from the States and across Canada looking to get their portfolio reviewed or make some job connections.
Afterwards, we
walked to the Arts Court to see if there were any animation installations or virtual reality stations. No luck
on either front but met up with Josh again and bumped into David Chai. Rest of the afternoon was competition screenings with a diversion to the
used bookstore next to the ByTowne Theater. Picked up two C.S. Lewis books on my list and a collection of
Khalil Gibran’s poetry. Interesting stuff. Short and digestible. Very reminiscent of the poems they used for the Prophet.
I had a really nice dinner at the Keg. Gotta love some of those old haunts. Jim and Deanna had
another event to get to, so I made my own way around Ottawa. Met up with Jim
and James Murray for the Drink & Draw event, but not until after I chatted up
Andrew Doris and met Jamie Gallant. My drawing skills were as rusty as ever.
But I was seeing some areas where I could improve. Called it an early night.
Think the best film I saw that day was Pinocchio by Jonny Crickets--got a solid laugh out of that one. It's been posted on YouTube: Part One and Part Two--definitely NSFW though.
Sunday
The day began with the World Panorama and was followed up by Competitions 4 & 5. Again, some really good films there. Hung out and Jim and Deanna again, before they had to leave for
another event. So I wandered around the market, had my yearly Beavertail, walked around a little more, then it was off to dinner. Man cannot exist at the festival on popcorn alone!
Met up with Jim afterwards
for the Best of the Fest screening. Then we went to the closing night party to say our goodbyes. Chatted up Thomas and Pilar. And I met Chris Dainty on the way out – got to
tell him how much I enjoy the sponsor reels that he and his team animate every year. Then it was back to the
hotel. Going to be a long drive tomorrow. And a difficult time packing. I stocked up on books at the AniBoutique. Need some reading over the winter. I think the histories of Nelvana and Norman McLaren will definitely fit the bill.
Monday
The drive home was uneventful. Always a good time when
traveling with Jim though. So many great conversations about film, animation, and
teaching. Left me with a lot of ideas for my class and future animation plans. I may ponder some of those bucket list trip ideas, but a visit to the Ottawa International Animation Festival is always a good decision.
The year has come to an end and once again I find myself looking both backward and
forward. What projects have I completed? What would I like to accomplish in
the coming year? Well, in addition to updating my history class for it's new format,
there were two main projects I worked on this year that I'm particularly proud
of.
The first was a cookbook for my nephews. One graduated from high school and the
other from college. So I spent over six months talking to my mother and other
relatives in order to gather recipes that have been in the family for
generations--a number of which my nephews would have tried out when they came to
visit. Each recipe had a story (or just an anecdote) on why it was in the
cookbook as well as snippets of our shared history. I also included as many stories
of our family history as I could find--even going so far as to trace our
family tree back seven generations, which included the geneology work performed by relatives who had done much of this research in the years leading up to my project.
Sadly, due
to the Bolshevek Revolution and the Vietnam War, I couldn't go back very far
through the Shemko and Nguyen/Pham lineage since most of those records have been
destroyed. But, we do have some very detailed records of the Wilson, Crotty, and
Shults lines. One big surprise was the work that my cousin's family did in
discovering who my Grandpa Wilson really was and where he came from. I never knew that
six generations back, we have an ancestor who immigrated from Italy to
Ireland.
Well, I honestly doubt that the cookbook will mean much to my nephews right now, at
their current ages and where they are in life. But in about fifteen to twenty
years, when they have kids of their own and they start fielding questions of
what it was like when they were kids and 'where do we come from', I think the
Family Heritage Cookbook will mean something really special to them.
The second project was no less of an achievement, one years in the making and
that has been on my mind since being furloughed during the economic crash of
2008.
On more than one occasion, I've stated that I want to make more films that are
fun and uplifting. A lot of this comes from my work as a forensic animator.
The rest comes from my trips to Ottawa. The Ottawa International Animation Festival is a very inspiring
experience and yet at the same time it's a very humbling experience. I see
the works of filmmakers like Michèle Cournoyer and Andreas Hykades. They are
entertaining on one level, thought provoking on another, but overall they make
me confront the fact that I don't yet have the ability to handle serious
topics with the skill and delicacy that they do. I know that we shouldn't
compare ourselves to other people, but I often find myself listening to
podcasts and audiobooks about serious subjects (like the Rape of Nanking or the
history of Russia) and wonder how I would portray such events in animated
form--an attempt to convey the tragedy and the horror of the event without it
devolving into a spectacle that robs the event of its meaning.
This all leads into the other thing I'm proud of this year: convincing my boss
to let me do a little internet advertising towards our existing client base.
Yeah, yeah, I know, how does this relate to the above, bear with me. I've
worked for Investigative Mechanics for over twenty years now. During that
time, I've been filming car wrecks (and animating a few) in order to document
evidence for court cases. Sometimes, I even get to make these 'mini documentaries' that explain
technical issues to non-technical judges and juries.
And for at least the past fifteen years, through the good and bad economic times, I've
been trying to convince my boss to advertise the company. As he's somewhat
old-school, he's always balked at my ideas, preferring to gain new business by
word-of-mouth advertising through satisfied clients. However, we've got a
rather sizable library of cases that we've worked on and some are pretty
interesting. So, when I pitched the website update and redesign this year, I took a
little time to write-up some cases and animated the following video about one
of our more interesting cases -- complete with some new animations to explain
the issue we discovered.
Now it's one thing to produce a short like this one: dry, technical, but
interesting to its target audience. It's another thing entirely to produce a
film that can tackle a more difficult subject and make it appeal to a much
broader audience. This is where I really admire filmmakers like Cournoyer and
Hykades. I've watched Hykades' film "The Runt" many times over the years and
discussed it with a fair number of people. I keep coming back to the 'rite of passage' theme of
guiding a boy into manhood by teaching him the lesson that 'for him to live,
something must die'. Most people I've spoken to are stuck on being horrified by
the death of bunnies. They stop there and don't seem to consider the deeper
lessons that Hykades may have been trying to reveal to his audience--some that he
may have learned as a boy himself. Cournoyer's film for the NFB "A Feather Tale" with its themes of sexual fetishism and objectification is a little easier to find common ground with people who've watched it. We tend to see the same themes in the metaphorical imagery of a man who objectifies his wife told through the visuals of a farmer and a chicken.
I'm honestly not sure if producing films like the aforementioned is a goal I should be working towards or if I should stay in
my lane. Though films like "A Feather Tale" may not have the
immediate payoff as a comedic animated short film does, I suspect that the serious
animated film may have a longer term payoff as it's meant to affect us at a deeper level. Bears further thought.
I remember sitting in a Toronto theater in 2014, watching the annual TAIS Summer Screening. They had put out the call to their members for the yearly anijam. That particular year's topic was "robots". So I banged out something quick over an evening and submitted it. That night, knowing that I couldn't match the artistic skills of my fellow animators, I went for a simple one gag story with a 'subversion of expectations' event thrown in for good measure.
And it worked.
The crowd got a good chuckle out of the ten second animation and I heard someone in the audience say that it was clever. I had taken my roll of the dice and it paid off.
There are a lot of funny stories in my past that I'd like to share to a wider audience. But there are also some serious and poignant ones as well. The first step to take is to write them down--which I've been doing for several years now, if for no other reason than to get them out of my head. As I close the book on the 2023 projects and look at my free time for 2024, I'm left wondering which stories I should invest my limited time and energy into: those that will make people laugh in the moment or those that will make people think over the long term?
Well, enough rambling. Happy New Year, everyone. Time for me to get back to learning the latest upgrade to Moho Pro.
The travel restrictions had ended. And yet I was on the fence about going back
to the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
Since 1994, I had only missed two festivals (though I made sure to collect the
program books for those two years). As time had progressed, a Fall trip to
Canada -- usually with a brief yet enjoyable layover in Toronto or Niagara --
had become a welcome routine. As we entered September, I still hadn't decided
whether or not I wanted to go, but I reserved a hotel room just in case. I
could cancel the reservation up to the day before the festival so I was in no
danger there either way.
While I had attended the virtual OIAF festivals during the lockdown, and had
scheduled other events during that time to ensure that I would have my own
"Ottawa" experience, I had to face the very real fact that I wasn't the person
that I was before the lockdowns. I had been broken out of my routine and saw
what other things were out there
(1).
But I received an e-mail from a colleague who asked me if I was going to the
festival. And he was someone who I've wanted to hang out with for quite some
time now, so the die was cast and the festival pass was purchased (2) and I waited patiently for the trip.
September 20, 2023
Day one of my triumphant return to Ottawa!
It turned out to be a ten hour drive to Ottawa. Would have been a nine hour
drive, but the traffic in Toronto was pretty tough to wade through. However,
time flew by as I was talking with Jim Middleton the entire way. We discussed
film, animation, music, the state of the animation industry, vintage film and
sound equipment, and teaching modalities.
We arrived in Ottawa around 8:30-ish. Plenty of time to pick up our passes
before they closed at 9 p.m. and then check into the hotel. After a tasty
dinner at the Aulde Dubliner, it was off to the opening night party. We saw
festival Artistic Director Chris Robinson and chatted up fellow animator Pilar
Newton-Katz. Didn't see anyone else that we knew. The Pub 101 was packed with
students. Jim and I then walked around the city and reminisced about places
that had closed down and were overjoyed a the larger number of places we
remembered that were still there. Was looking forward to having a crepe and a
Beavertail at the Byward Market that weekend.
Over dinner, Jim listened to one of my animated short ideas. He was very
encouraging. I think that having a set of completed storyboards before the
semester ends is an achievable goal. Would be nice to show something to the
kids--let them know that I do produce something other than animations of car
crashes. And maaaaybe have something for next year's International Animation
Day... and TAIS Summer screening. Heck, would be nice just to have something
non-technical and artistic to show. I honestly never realized how difficult it
would be to complete a short film when you're working full time. Makes me
appreciate the work my professors back at R.I.T. did all the more. Seemed like
every other year, either Stephanie or Skip would have a film in competition.
September 21, 2023
Was a nice start to the day. Everyone is pretty friendly. Met up with some
regulars (and ASIFA members) Gary Schwartz, Josh Harrell, Brooke Keesling, as
well as Pilar while Jim and I were at the Chez Ani, waiting for the first
event of the day: "Dots, Lines, Washes: Animating Ink". Should be a
fascinating presentation. The presenter was introducing the films. I was
hoping that she'd include some technique in her opening presentation and I was
not disappointed.
The whole screening was good -- would've been better without all the stupid
students looking at their stupid phones though. You paid to be at a festival,
sitting in a theater where you came to see some beautiful art... and you're
surfing the net and texting your friends instead of watching the films. I
don't understand people. The program opened with Ryan Larkin's
Walking. Still a solid film even after all these years. She also showed a clip about
Disney's ink and paint process as well as how they did background painting
back in 1938--I didn't realize that the backgrounds in Snow White used
watercolor. You can see the segment she showed in the linked video at time
marker 3:22 to 4:28. But the whole video on YouTube is worth a watch:
How Walt Disney Cartoons are Made, 1938.
There were three other films that really spoke to me from the program: 1947's
Boogie Doodle, by Norman McLaren,
Feeling from Mountain and Water, a 1988 film produced by Te Wei, and lastly, a clip of some animated shrimps
done in the style of artist Qi Baishi. The linked video shows Qi Baishi
painting shrimps and shows a clip of the film at the end. The film clip we
watched was from Three Shrimps, 1950, but the video on YouTube is 'Rare video of Chinese painting master Qui Baishi painting shrimp.' Such beautiful films. I made some notes so that I could go back later,
track them down, and watch them again.
Saw Lynn Dana Wilton on the way out. Was real sorry to hear that she had been
ill, but she's looking very rested and healthy. Wish that the two films she
submitted had been accepted to the festival. Would really like to see more of
her work. I had seen on LinkedIn that Lynn posted a link to an anijam she
participated in. Would love to know what segment in the overall film was hers.
After a short conversation, it was off to the World Panorama. I could already
tell that it was going to be a great day of screenings. Every program I really
wanted to see was that day--including the Canadian and Canadian Student
Panoramas. Once I'd seen those screenings, everything else that week would be
gravy. There were some really decent films with amazing technique--especially
a direct-on-film short by Richard Reeves titled Intersextion (the
trailer for which you can see below)--but the one thing I noticed which seemed
to be lacking from a lot of the films I saw that afternoon was "story". Jim
noticed the same thing. We were left wondering if colleges are still teaching
story in these animation schools. I must admit to being a bit spoiled in that
regard. Back at R.I.T., Erik's philosophy was 'it all begins with a story'.
After dinner, we went to the Salon de Refuses party. Got the chance to catch
up with Toronto animator James Murray. Met a student (Joshua) who recognized
the "Stop motion" t-shirt I was wearing. Turns out a professor of his was one
of the people who started the Montreal Stop-Motion Festival. Small world. Went
inside the venue and it was packed, but not packed enough to prevent me from
meeting 'the' George Maestri. He seemed surprised when Jim and I talked about
reading his articles in Computer Graphics World back in the day and
owning/using all of his books to study 3d CGI character animation.
George, if you ever see this, I wasn't kidding about owning your four books
and how fascinating they have been.
Some are still available on Amazon... just sayin'
On the way out of the party, we bumped into Brooke. Once again, her
husband was out camping in "redwood country" while she was giving panels and
doing some networking at the festival for her company. The solitude he was
experiencing sounds really lovely. For years now, I have been living vicariously
through stories of him going camping out in the middle of nowhere with some
books to read and peace and quiet to enjoy. I hope to meet him in person some
day. Sounds like one of those really chill guys who you can hang out with and
swap travel stories over a pint. Course, maybe next year I'll follow his example
and head out to the wilds of Northern Michigan with a couple books and my
camping gear (and a crate of bug spray).
Heading back to the hotel room, I saw Linda Siemensky on the elevator. She's
working at a new company. Hope it's a good fit for her skills and talent.
Reminded me that I hadn't yet seen Glenn, my friend and fellow R.I.T. alum.
Wondered if he was going to make it this year? Didn't see our fellow grad
school alum Sarah either. She was usually there shepherding a bunch of
her students from the university over in Buffalo where she teaches.
Friday, September 22, 2023
Wow what a whirlwind of screenings and people. Saw Barry Sanders while in line
for the morning screening. Wonder how many of the Toronto animation
crowd were at the fest over the weekend? Afterwards, Jim wanted to get his
steps in, so he and I walked to the picnic where we chatted with Gary, Brooke,
Josh and some nice girls from a school in Philly. This was the two girls'
first OIAF ever. I handed out lots of free info for job hunting. I'm a little
disappointed in myself. I didn't take a photo of the festival cake... or
cupcakes... I don't know what they had for dessert at the picnic. At that
point, I was a little tired of fighting Canadian yellow jackets over who was
going to drink my soda so I opted for enjoying a brisk walk back to the
hotel and taking a delightful nap before the evening screening.
The nap after the picnic served me well. I was awake and alert--enough to see
Joan Gratz standing there in the aisles right before the screening. Had a nice
chat with her before the films started playing. Joan was a pistol as always,
but unfortunately she had to deal with a number of delayed flights on the way
here. This prevented her from arriving in Ottawa until later in the morning.
She ended up dozing a bit through the screening. I couldn't blame her.
Regardless, no matter how much or how little, it's always a treat to spend
time with her.
The World Student Panorama afterwards was very impressive. There's a number of
films there that I want to rewatch and analyze--once the films finish their
festival run and the kids put them in their online portfolios (hopefully). A
very Canadian-themed dinner with Jim consisted of poutine and Beavertails. And
lots of conversation about the state of education--and how to be better teach
students.
"Yeah, I really missed these!"
Saturday, September 23, 2023
Saturday morning. Weather was beautiful. It was such a nice walk to the
National Arts Center for the professional development panels and the job fair.
Saw Bryce Hallett and Lynn there with an animation stand--two more friends
from Toronto. Took lots of notes at the morning session about thriving in
tough times. A lot of good info, much of which will make it into some of my
future lectures.
Stopped by the cosplay drawing area at the NAC before having shwarma's for
lunch. I really need to get better at drawing! Could've spent more time there
and I'm pretty sure it would've been very productive. At the beginning, I was
struggling and producing nothing but crap. So I took a step back and started
looking at action lines. I'd draw an ellipse for the models' heads then work
my way down their spines to their legs -- all following the line of action in
their poses. Within a couple drawings, everything started to open up. Then I
focused on proper proportions and a bit of perspective. The gains came much
faster. My arm loosened up and I shifted from drawing with my wrist to drawing
with my whole arm. More gains were immediately reflected in the quality of my
drawings. Didn't want the moment to end but had to get to the competition
screenings. I took a number of photographs so I could go back and do some more
drawings off of these models later on.
Before leaving the NAC, I had the chance to chat with Bryce and Lynn. It
was far too brief. Afterwards, I made a mental note to attend the TAIS Winter
screening if at all possible. Have missed my friends in the Toronto animation
community terribly.
Bryce Hallet (l) and Lynn Dana Wilton (r)
The competition screenings were pretty much what you'd expect. Chris has
stated to me that he programs the competition screenings "rhythmically". It
has felt to me and colleagues that the screenings have a "thematic"
sensibility--i.e. one screening is usually predominantly humorous, another
dramatic, one that usually deals with human sexuality, and so on. After
hearing from Chris about his process, I'd actually like to hear more about his
methodology--programming "rhythmically" sounds pretty fascinating. I've only
put together some private screenings for my friends or ASIFA events, so my
experience is limited and it's usually based upon building a program based
upon a variety of techniques and across several periods of time. This year, I
was informed that the competition screenings were based on the theme of
'gender-based violence'. Honestly, had I know that going in, I would've
skipped all the competition screenings and spent the entire day at the NAC
sketching cosplay models and going to the panel discussions. A lot of good
technique overall, but just not to my tastes. There definitely were
some really good films in competition though, like
Living the Dream by Director Ben Meinhardt.
And A Crab in the Pool (directed by Alexandra Myotte and Jean-Sébastien
Hamel) was a very heartfelt look at two children coming to terms with their
mother's battle with breast cancer--see the trailer below.
But my favorite film from the entire festival was the the OIAF "Sponsorship
Reel" film by Chris Dainty and his crew. It's not on YouTube or Vimeo just
yet, but Chris posted it on his LinkedIn page. It's worth a watch!
Seeing that little beaver flipping pages as he animates just gives me a
chuckle every time. Chris and his team perfectly encapsulated the feel of an
animation festival in Canada.
After the screenings, I had a decent meal at Level One -- but not until I had
tried out the "Caves" VR exhibit. Was nice to know that my new eyeglass
prescription allows me to see Virtual Reality, though it was a touch
uncomfortable trying to wear VR goggles and my glasses at the same time. Saw
Jim on the way in to the Saturday Night Party. Went to the 'drink and draw'
event and did a little more sketching. Continued focusing on line-of-action
and proportions. Continued to see immediate results, but still see so much
room for improvement. Before I left, I had the opportunity to talk with José
Pou from this morning's 'surviving in tough times' talk. We were on the same
page in so many ways: especially about how these downturns in the industry are
opportunities to hone your skills while you're looking for your next gig. That
and there's no shame in delivering pizzas or doing some other job while you're
out there looking for that dream animation job.
Then it was off to the hotel. Caught up with Jim. Ran a load of laundry and
started to pack for the trip home. Felt waves of nostalgia over the past
couple days. Saw some great people. It was well worth coming to the festival
this year. The only epiphany I had was that many of the films I watched kind
of reinforced the fact that I really want to make films that are funny and
uplifting. Sort of follow the Bill Plympton model of 'keep it short, keep it
funny'.
"Just a fraction of the booths at the job fair."
Sunday, September 24, 2023
Technically I wasn't due back to the office until Tuesday morning. But
during the drive to Ottawa, I got a call from the office that the e-mail
wasn't working. I recognized the error message. It wasn't good. Nor was it
something that I could troubleshoot over the phone. I told them to use their
tablets to access their e-mail directly from the server and I'd fix it when
I got back. When we got to the hotel on Wednesday evening, I looked up some
possible solutions online--and also found a couple refurbished computers
from Micro Center if I had to do a full replacement. We got back to Michigan
around nine-ish in the evening. Jim left for home. I ran to McDonalds,
grabbed some dinner to go, and drove straight to the office. Three hours
later, and the computer problem had just gotten worse. I fixed the problem
(sort of), however, doing so required me to re-register the business
versions of Microsoft Office--and the boss's computer wouldn't talk to the
Microsoft servers. I went home, somewhat defeated. The next morning, I gave
the boss the options: buy a new computer and I'd transfer all the software
and data or I could call Microsoft and see if they could help. In short
order, I was driving down to Detroit with purchase orders for two computers.
So. Not the best end to my vacation, but it certainly had it's moments. And
I have to admit, it was nice to have that three hour drive down to Detroit
and back.
I did a lot of thinking about the trip during that short drive. Still don't
know if I'll get to go back to Ottawa next year. But it was definitely worth
attending the festival this year. Figured the best course of action was to
start saving up money now so that if I decided to go, everything would be
fully funded and all I would have to do is make some reservations and buy a
festival pass.
* * *
1. For a couple years now, I've been planning a future trip to see some
of the world's greatest art museums. I have already visited the Musee
d'Orsay, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the
Art Gallery of Ontario, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the
National Art Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington
D.C. On the list of museums to see are the Louvre, the Hermitage Museum in
Saint-Petersburg, and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
2. And a rental car reserved as my car has over 285,000 miles and I
wasn't going to push my luck.
Carl "Skip" Battaglia, Stephanie Maxwell, Marla Schweppe, Me. (l to r)
So it's Fall and I'm back teaching again.
One of my colleagues said that I should consider working on a film during my spare time and then showing it to my students on the last day of class. Sort of a "hey, I did this over the past four months in my spare time, think about what you could accomplish." Well, as I was shuffling through the backlog of stalled ideas and "y'know, if I ever get the time" sketches, I came across this little gem from my former professor Carl "Skip" Battaglia. Back in 2008, I was toying with the idea of an abstract animation but it didn't fit into the mold of narrative animations that I was used to using when designing films. As Skip is an accomplished animator who is very knowledgeable about experimental techniques, I reached out to him:
Hi Skip,
Hope this letter finds you well. It was a real treat to talk to you and your daughter at Ottawa and see what you've been working on for the past year. Sorry that you didn't win the award for experimental/abstract animated short film, but was very happy to see your film in the competition. Well, after watching your latest film (and reviewing your Skip's Pics DVD), I've bumped up an abstract/experimental-style animation on my list of projects. The entire short animation deals with the techniques and artistic style that I'm learning about in my Oriental Watercolor class this semester. However, as I'm working through the planning stages of this film, I'm finding that the traditional treatment-script-storyboard-soundtrack method that I use to plan films just isn't lending itself very well to abstract expression. I'm getting kind of frustrated trying to get a film to fit into a mold that it wasn't designed for. So, I was wondering if you could suggest a couple of books that you use to plan your films that I could read?
Thanks Skip, and see you in Ottawa '08. Hopefully by then, I'll have a couple of films to run alongside you and Stephanie. And please give your daughter our best from me and Ted. Hope she does well in her final class. =)
Sincerely,
Charles Wilson
This was his response:
Hi Charles:
There are no hard-and-fast books in experimental design for animation.
I read philosophy and poetry, study painting. I have always listened to a lot of musics, including experimental, free jazz, South American, and African. My notebooks and sketches provoke some things. Knowledge about film continuity (which you have), animation production, storyboarding (pay attention to the vectors of movement; I arrow them in/over in red pencil) are helpful as the storyboard will come directly in response to your premise for the film.
Sometimes I begin with a rough idea, then score a musical track via ProTools to give me a scratch soundtrack to animate to for the sake of rhythm, tempo, drama -- and to have a timed track to give to a composer later.
Thinking historically, the books which have been most helpful are/were:
Rudolph Arhheim, "Art and Visual Perception."
H. Marshall McLuhan and Herley Parker, "Through the Vanishing Point."
"Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind."
books on graphic design, painting process...
... and everything I teach, and films I've viewed.
I'd also think about designing the film in reverse or out of sequence from your usual methods. It would enable a new approach (which seems to be what you're looking for).
Good to see you. Let me know how this goes.
Get loose!
Skip
Now, as I'm currently composing a short book on the importance of mentors for my nephews, I could go off on a rant about how important it is to maintain professional relationships with your professors after graduation and how important mentors are in your career. But to be honest, the main reason I posted this e-mail is because Skip has since retired and I want his knowledge to be shared with a much wider audience.
One of those Ottawa International Animation Festival experiences that remains near to my heart is
when I bumped into Erik at the festival back in 1996. He was going to have
lunch at the Blue Cactus Bar & Grill with graduates Ted Pratt, Bill
Trainor, and a young lady whose name I don't recall.
I do remember that while taking the graduate computer animation program
classes, she moonlighted as one of the models for the figure drawing class to
make a little extra cash. She rode a motorcycle and she kept calling Erik "E.T.". Both she and
Bill were working at Xerox at the time. At the festival's closing day party,
she and I sat outside the building and talked for a little over an hour --
well, she talked mostly. Nice enough girl, but hard to get a word in edgewise.
Lot of life experiences packed into a few short years, that one.
Bill was wound a little tight but a decent enough guy. Didn't talk much,
seemed lost in his own thoughts most of the time. He was the Grad Lab
Supervisor before me and had helped me recover and distribute a Director Lingo
script that allowed students to automatically export Director image frames
from the computer to an optical disk recorder. Oddly enough, I still have the
script file in my archives.
Strangeness in the Night by Ted Pratt
Ted Pratt was a good guy (still is, afaik, we haven't talked in a couple of years). When
Erik introduced us, I immediately recognized his name from the R.I.T. demo
reel that the department sent me during my senior year at Taylor. It was a VHS
tape that had Ted's student graduate film Strangeness in the Night, among
others. At the festival's closing picnic, Ted was very encouraging, reassuring me that "yes, there were jobs out there for graduates and I'd have no trouble making enough money to pay off my student loans."
Shadowpuppets by Chuck Gamble
I still have that VHS tape and ended up digitizing the films for my R.I.T. archive project years ago--including films like:
Chuck Gamble's Shadowpuppets, which was the first ever computer animated student film shown at the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater;
Christopher Walsh's Uaguzi. He went on to animate the flying dagger in 1994's the Shadow after graduating from R.I.T. and still works in the VFX industry;
Hikmet Safuoglu's trippy film within normal limits, which was animated to the equally trippy song 'I Robot' by the Alan Parsons Project;
Elouise Oyzon's beautiful first year film conjugations. She went on to teach at R.I.T.'s School of Interactive Games and Media. I still see her occasionally at the class reunions;
And the delightful Ignorance is Bliss? which M. Shan Yeung animated to look exactly like a Chinese ink painting.
Ignorance is Bliss? by M. Shan Yueng
I once asked Elouise if she had a copy of her graduate thesis that I could
show at a class I was teaching. She said that it was all on an old computer. She wasn't even sure if she could recover the film anymore. And while I
was sad for her, I was doubly glad that I had preserved that VHS tape. I have
to wonder, how many people will get to see these beautiful student films from
the early years of computer animation (1990 to 1993)? I once tried to get copies of these films uploaded to RIT's student film archive "SOFAtube". Unfortunately
my efforts were unsuccessful, a victim of university politics.
conjugations by Elouise Oyzon
Each one of these films was produced by students in the graduate computer animation
program that Erik founded at R.I.T. Each of these films has Erik's
fingerprints on them. How many students entering R.I.T.'s graduate animation program will see that plaque on the wall with Erik's name on it and wonder who he was or what influence he had on the films we produced during his tenure?
Back to Ottawa:
As the five of us sat there at the Blue Cactus, it wasn't about work or school or imparting any great lessons about life or anything like that. At that moment, Erik wasn't just my professor or my mentor, he was my friend. He talked to all of us as you would talk to friends. A couple days later, we'd all go back to Rochester and fall back into those roles of professor and student, but for that moment, we were just a couple of people sitting at a pub talking about animated films like we'd known each other our whole lives.
When Erik was undergoing chemotherapy, he didn't want any of his students to see him or the toll that the treatment took on him. But fortunately, Ted Pratt didn't listen. Since he lived a short ways away from where Erik was convalescing in Berkley, Ted drove out there to see him. While I knew Erik was sick, I had no idea to what extent. He didn't talk about it much. I tried to keep in touch with him and sent him a 'get well soon' basket of fruit and veggies, which he appreciated. He had moved out to California by then. His college girlfriend was taking care of him during his chemotherapy and Erik wanted to be closer to his children Erica and Kristofer. While still in Rochester, I helped him translate a computer program he had written in BASIC to something that would run on a PowerPC. He wanted to update a film he had made years earlier. It was all about spirograph drawings animated to a jazz soundtrack. He and I never finished it. Producing an experimental animated film while he was on chemo was a tall order, but I still feel like I failed him. We could produce the images he wanted, no problem, but we just couldn't get the PowerPC to talk to the optical disk recorder. Erik left for Berkeley shortly thereafter.
That was some of the last contact I had with him. We exchanged a couple e-mails after that but I got busy with life over those two years and Erik was undergoing a regimen of treatments and healing. Then, a couple months after messaging me that his cancer was in remission and he was feeling optimistic about the future, I got the e-mail from Marla about Erik's death.
To say that her message hit me like a ton of bricks is an understatement. My friend was gone and I was left with only six years of memories. Now don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful for those six years. But the point of my rambling is this: the things that we thought were important at the time more often than not end up being inconsequential when compared to every lost moment that we could have spent with our family and friends.
Social media has brought many evils, but it's also done us a great service by allowing people to transcend time and distance in order to reconnect. Physical letters are fine and all, but they cannot compare to the conversational nature of an e-mail or instant messaging. So I encourage you to savor those moments in the now where you can talk to people you care about. And take a moment to contact those who have drifted away, even if it's just to say 'hi, how have you been?' Some day, you may find yourself longing for those precious moments where you can hear your friend's voice one last time.
Well, vacation is over and it was very productive.
After I found my original set of polyhedral dice earlier this year, I started rebuilding the vintage D&D collection that I had back in the early 1980's. Part of that was the solo module "Maze of the Riddling Minotaur". So I rebuilt two characters that I remembered from back then and finally completed that adventure... after thirty years. It was such an enjoyable experience that I framed the map for posterity's sake--and hung it on the wall of my gaming room. But, in order to not be the classic example of the shut-in gamer, I also made it a point to be a little social by doing some miniature wargaming with friends.
Later on that week, I took some reference
photos of the emu and the kangaroos at the local zoo for later sketching. Then visited the Detroit
Institute of Arts and explored the history of a couple artists while looking at
their paintings (Otto Mueller and Joan Miró)--as well as learned something new
about puppetry that I have integrated into one of the assignments for my History of Animation class.
"Bathers" ~1920, Otto Mueller
In order to keep my time off 'animated', I caught up on some animated shows, short films, and a feature. Wrote a
treatment for a short film and dusted off an animation that I'd like to
complete over the next year. And I made the obligatory "OIAF 2022" cupcakes. I couldn't be in Ottawa in person, but I was there in spirit.
Being in the area was a good thing though. My housemate is currently helping with end-of-life care for one of his friends and he needed a little time off. So after being gifted a pair of tickets to the Renaissance Festival from a friend, we got to walk around and relax at the Festival. We then ended the week walking around Meijer Gardens, enjoying one of the few remaining warm and sunny days
of the season (and taking lots of reference photos of flowers, fish and landscapes).
Now even though I was "technically" on vacation, I still taught my History of Animation class at Central, and I made it a point to let the kids know that I was on vacation and what I was doing with my time. I ended up putting it all into a handout--some of which reads as follows:
So, this leads into the question: during class, why did I make it such a point to mention my plans about taking some time off?
It's because "burnout" is a real thing.
Most, if not all of you are preparing to enter a very competitive field where you will make your living off of your ability to be creative. If you're not careful, instead of working on your given assignment, you'll find yourself staring at a blank canvas (or computer screen), unable to form a coherent thought. And both the inspiration and the steady stream of ideas you once relied upon are nowhere to be found.
In order to combat this, I encourage you to develop an outlet where you can recharge your internal batteries. And it doesn't have to be related to your field of study--as you can see, mine just happen to be mostly art/animation-related.
And it doesn't have to be an expensive activity. Two of my close friends from Grad School like to "get away from it all" by doing the Walt Whitman thing: spending time outdoors and in nature whenever possible.
Steve was distance runner in High School, so he'd go jogging around campus on a regular basis after classes. Then once a week, he'd have a pint of Guinness at the pub and just hang out there and talk to people. To this day, Steve still walks to work through the countryside in Norway.
Glenn, he likes hiking the Adirondack Mountains over in upstate New York and posting nature photos on Facebook.
When I was in graduate school, my activity was sketching animals. To keep it
affordable, I bought a yearly pass to the Seneca Park Zoo. Then, almost every
Saturday, I'd spend a couple hours walking around with my sketchpad and drawing
the animals. Now that I've graduated, I like to do art and animation-related
events--whether it's spending a weekend learning an old animation technique or
watching an animated feature here in town or driving down to Detroit and
spending an afternoon looking at art.
It's these breaks that will help you decompress from the stresses of work
and feed your soul. Often, when I feel like I've got brain fog, I find a couple
hours at looking at art and letting my mind wander is all it takes to get the
ideas flowing again. These periodic breaks give you something to look forward
to when it's been a tough week at work and it's a good way to reward yourself
for when you've stuck it out and finished your tasks for the day, the week, or
the month.
And again, they don't have to cost a lot of money. It costs Glenn and Steve
nothing to walk (or jog) through nature. When Fathom Events brings first-run anime
features to Lansing, tickets are around ten dollars. An afternoon at the DIA
costs $14 for admission to the museum and $7 for parking. And only ten dollars
when I want to take my sketch pad and go drawing at the local zoo--even less if
I buy a yearly pass to the DIA or the Zoo.
Maybe you played a musical instrument in High School. Or you like to play a
sport. Maybe journaling is your thing. Or you'd like to try urban sketching. It
could be an activity you enjoyed when you were younger or something new that
has always interested you.
I encourage you all to explore your interests outside of your field of study
(or your career) and find an activity that you enjoy, something that you can
make your own and which will help you get away from the stresses of your job.
Finding out what works for you, what activities help you recharge and recover,
is one of the keys to longevity in your future career as a creative.
A week later, one of my students came up to me before class and thanked me for that particular handout. Turns out that as she was entering the last year of her degree, she was experiencing significant burnout and my advice spoke to her right where she was at.
I won't say anything trite like "it was a teachable moment" or anything like that. I was just happy that I was reaching a student where they were at and that my advice helped them solve a very real problem.
The 2022 Ottawa International Animation Festival is next week and their schedule of events, talks, screenings, and retrospectives went live on their website in August.
This year's screening and event schedule had I been there.
Part of the fun for me is looking through all the events and screenings then putting together my personal OIAF schedule--taking care to ensure that I get to see and do everything on the list but still setting aside time to eat and sleep.
While there are always a lot of good films to watch, my favorite events have to be the four panorama screenings: Canadian, World, Canadian Student and World Student. It's those screenings that seem closest to my tastes and still have a wide variety of techniques and narrative structures.
However, given that Canada is still restricting who can enter their country, 2022 will be the second Ottawa International Animation Festival that I've missed in the past twenty-eight years. My first OIAF was in 1994 when I was a newly minted grad student at R.I.T., but the first one I didn't attend was in 2005. That was the year that the OIAF went to a yearly format. For several years before that, they had been running their Student Animation Festival in the off-years between their traditional biyearly Ottawa Festival.
This has turned out to be a similar situation to my Gen Con experience. As we've been travel restricted for the past two years, I've been attending the virtual events: Ottawa's online festival and Gen Con Online. Even though we couldn't be there in person, people didn't miss out as everything went virtual through streaming services and third-party websites. This year however, I attended Gen Con Online because even though the convention was held in-person in 2022, there were restrictions imposed by the convention that prevented a lot of us from attending. But, at least they still had online options. Ottawa is now going back to their fully in-person format. And as I can't cross the border into Canada, I won't be there.
It wouldn't be an issue if they still had an online offering of screenings and presentations like they did over the past two years. But, for whatever reason, the OIAF won't be doing a split-format this year. And I'm not getting down on them. Festival Artistic Director Chris Robinson and I have spoken in the past about how an online festival is far more work to pull off than you'd expect. Given what hoops we had to run through to move our ASIFA Central yearly retreats online, I don't doubt the fact that the Ottawa festival's efforts are exponentially greater. Personally, I think that they're making the right call doing either one or the other. It's been a tough two years and they need to make the best decisions possible for the long-term viability of the festival. I'd honestly rather miss out for a year than see an attempt at a hybrid online and in-person event with limited resources and end up losing the festival entirely.
But it still aches. I look forward to visiting Canada every year. Throughout the year, I'd work extra jobs and save money so I could spend a couple days relaxing in Toronto, visiting with friends, and soaking up the culture. Some years I'd search through the used book stores for those rare, out-of-print treasures. Other years, I'd visit multiple cultural and artistic centers, like the various museums and the zoo where I'd take lots of photographs and videos for reference material all while doing some sketching in my sketchbooks. And then there was meeting up with friends in town and discovering some new restaurants as well as enjoying others from trips past. And there were always opportunities for personal growth. During my last trip to Canada in 2019, I confronted my fear of heights and did the CN Tower Edgewalk. After being energized by the short respite, I'd drive the remaining five hours to Ottawa and spend the next five days watching some of the best animated films the world has to offer all while talking to colleagues and enjoying the rich culture of Canada's capital city.
For Gen Con this year, since I couldn't be there in person, I attended their Online events but also made my own convention experience by playing some games with friends at my local game store and rebuilding a portion of my vintage gaming collection that was lost to the sands of time. This year, I plan to do something similar for Ottawa.
Instead of spending money on food, travel, hotels and the occasional souvenir in Canada, I'm going to save money for next year by doing things in the area that are relatively inexpensive.
I still plan on following the Festival on social media and watching the trailers and bumpers that they post on YouTube. But I'll be putting together my own schedule of films to watch during that week's vacation--I'm looking at you Evangelion:3.0+1.01 (Thrice Upon A Time) and Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf. Then there's the Netflix relaunch of Bee and Puppycat which went live on September 6--which I've been saving for a binge-watching session. And the latest episodes from season 6 of Rick and Morty... I'm definitely going to get my money's worth out of those streaming services. I'll also be ordering a couple program guides and t-shirts from the festival for my collection, just like I did in 2005. So I'll still have an unbroken series of program guides and festival readers running back to 1994. If I'm feeling up to it, I might even make a batch of "OIAF 2022" cupcakes for my "evening screenings". And since I'll still be in Michigan, there's no reason to take a vacation day from teaching at CMU. Nothing says "animation" like spending a day instructing students about the rich history of animated film and watching some cartoons with them.
Will also have to fit in a trip down to the Detroit Institute of Arts to soak up a little culture (I already have a yearly membership). And a visit to the zoo should be in order (I really need to dust off those sketchbooks and get some drawing time in). I've also got a copy of one of the last books Bendazzi wrote before he passed away, called 'Twice the First: Quirino Cristiani and the Animated Feature Film' which I'd like to read. And Chris Robinson has an article on the state of Canadian animation which he published in August that I need to review. Should be a full week.
Interestingly enough, Fathom Events is bringing back Studio Ghibli's Howl's Moving Castle for a limited three-night screening during my vacation--starting on the last day of vacation. 'Howl' is one of the few Ghibli movies that I don't like. However, last semester, a student of mine wrote a term paper talking about 'Howl' and I have to admit that her paper was so well researched, so engaging, so interesting that it has awakened the desire to take another look at this movie with new eyes. Would be a nice endcap to the week off of work. So, all things considered, my vacation time can be enjoyed for very little in the way of out-of-pocket expenses.
I think though, one of the better uses of my vacation time will be to take a second look at a film that I've been trying to work on for a couple years now. The first step will be a quick viability study -- making sure that I have the time and the resources to complete it before next June. Then I'll do some quick thumbnail storyboards and see if the story still holds up. After that... who knows. Maybe I'll have an entry for 2023's festival.
So last fall, the Ottawa International Animation Festival changed the format for their Festival program book. In the past, they offered print versions for the in-person event, and some years even had PDF versions on Issuu.com so you could download and read them after the fest. Since 1994, I've been maintaining an archive of these program books. Some have had additional material, like interviews and articles, but all have had listings of the films in the competition and retrospective screenings--along with their creators' names and companies.
In 2020, since we were in lockdown, the OIAF uploaded a PDF version of the program book for the online festival--which I immediately downloaded, printed, and had coil bound. This was mainly for my archive but also so I could peruse it during the online screenings and write down the names of my favorite films, or the ones that I wanted to see again, or make a list of animators whose work I wanted to explore in greater depth.
Unfortunately, last year's online festival saw them move to a different website format and they didn't issue a program book. All the screenings and festival information was on the website but the site itself was pretty clunky with regards to locating the film and animator information. After the festival I had planned on making my own program book. Unfortunately, it would've required a lot of copy-and-pasting. But, it would've been worth it just to have that information.
Well, time dragged on and I got busy, so by the time I was ready to commit to the task, the festival had migrated to their new website and a lot of the information simply wasn't available anymore.
However, having attended the OIAF for twenty-eight years, I've gotten to know festival Artistic Director Chris Robinson. So I shot him a quick e-mail asking if this information would be archived and presented anywhere in the future. Within a couple hours, Chris e-mailed me a link to the Festival's public final report for 2021. And while it wasn't a program book as I had seen them in the past, it had all the information that I was hoping for!
As it's now been printed, coil-bound, and inserted into my archive, clearly, it was well worth taking the time to ask.
Well, due to the ongoing plandemic, I was stuck in the States for another Ottawa festival. Fortunately, the OIAF made the decision to host the festival online for another year. Unfortunately, while this year did provide a few opportunities for reflection, it had left me with some disappointments.
Disappointments like when planning next year's trip (hopefully), I made the unwelcome discovery that Marche in Toronto had closed shop for good. On the one hand, I can't be too angry as it looks like the parent company had planned on closing all their locations in Canada and leaving North America prior to the outbreak. Still, it was one more prominent landmark from my childhood that is now gone. I don't see the ROM, the CN Tower, the Science Museum, or Casa Loma going anywhere though. So, there are still some "historical" sites with good memories to match up with the new locations that I've discovered over the years.
And the part of the festival that I've come to look forward to the most is catching up with fellow RIT Alums Glenn and Sarah (they were first year grads in the same program when I was a third year grad). But, can't do that when we're all stuck at home (a Zoom meeting room just isn't the same as being there in person).
On the bright side, like last year, the OIAF had extended the festival to two weeks so attendees all over the world (read that: across different timezones) would have time to see everything that we wanted. Personally, I enjoyed racing home from work to cook dinner and watch the evening screenings during the first week of the festival. Downside is that I got sick during the second week of the festival, so, I was bedridden for almost the entire duration of my week's vacation. There were two bright spots though: one, I just wheeled my laptop into my bedroom and listened to all the panel discussions and presentations--so I didn't miss a bit of the festival. Then I'd shuffle downstairs and watch the screenings on my television later in the evenings. The other, well, since my illness is a chronic malady that I've had for decades, I did some more digging on the Internet and found a natural remedy that seems to alleviate some of the symptoms. Didn't cure it outright, but it reduced the pain significantly and cut down the time I was laid up, so it was worth the time spent in research as the doctors and specialists I've seen in the past have had no solutions.
Though probably one of the biggest disappointments this year though was that there was no 'program book' for the festival. For whatever reason, the OIAF had all their information about the festival and films online, loaded onto a website that wasn't that easy to navigate, whereas in the past it was either printed or on a PDF that we could download and follow along during the screenings. To make this clear: I have saved all my festival readers & program books since the first one I attended in 1994 (and I even have a program book from the one OIAF that I've missed). But, so as to not be defeated, I printed out the 40 Years of Ottawa collection of essays document that they released in 2017 and had it bound. It was a little bittersweet as I read the sections that Jacques Drouin authored since he had just died, but I did enjoy the essays written by animation luminaries, a number of which have become friends and professional acquaintances through the festival.
No, for the week that I laid there in bed, listening to the panels and presentations, I mostly stared at the ceiling and processed information in search of inspiration, or something thought provoking--like from the following:
Hometown Heroes: One-on-One with Jennifer Kluska
"Animation has always been a narrative industry."
"Find what you love about animation and embrace it even if it's strange or weird"
"Animation is also a hugely collaborative industry." ... "Don't be an asshole. It's not profound, but it's true."
"You never get better by not drawing, so be drawing constantly."
"Can you show something concisely?" (regarding what she looks for in a storyboard).
Behind-the-Scenes of Aardman's Robin-Robin
I thought the tests that they did before pre-production were fascinating: especially figuring out how the lighting interacted with the different set and background materials, as well as the motion tests they ran when they were figuring out how the models should move. It's something that I hadn't thought of during my small forays into stop motion. Usually, I'm just trying to figure out how to reduce/eliminate that damned flicker that shows up from frame-to-frame!
Another profundity was when they talked about how some actors' performances didn't fit within the physicality of the puppet: "finding a voice that fits within the physical puppet." Having experienced this difficulty when watching certain English dubbed anime, it's one that resonates with me -- sometimes the voice actor is just out and out wrong for the character (especially when compared to the original voice actor.
The Making of Pixar’s SparkShort Nona
I loved the attention to the different frame sizes that they displayed during the film: in the real world, the TV world, and the playtime world (4:3, 1:185, 1:235 etc.). It was one of those little details that geeks like me would notice.
'The Sparkshorts program is looking for good storytellers not just scriptwriters.' This hits pretty close to home as one of the things that Erik stressed (in his scriptwriting class and in other classes) was to learn how to tell a good story. One of his little nuggets of wisdom was: 'you can make a film worth a million dollars using a software program worth ten dollars. And you can make a film worth ten dollars using a software program worth a million dollars'. Story is key.
'A single film runs for six months of production time.' My thesis took one year from start to finish, but I was working a full-time job at the same time. I'm willing to bet that if I had nothing to do but work on my thesis, six months to complete it would be pretty accurate. Still, to produce a film with at the production quality of Nona, it still impresses me that they can get it all done in six months.
My Career as a Storyboard Artist
"Story is king" ~José Pou
- "If you don't get that storyboarding job you work on your own stuff... study film... Geek like crazy." ~Bradley Cayford
- "Really hit the 'friends in the industry/professional network' pretty hard..." (was happy to hear that since I encourage networking to all the kids I meet who want to be animators) "...and studying film." -- Kubrick was the example José gave.
José really made me want to go back and review my books on editing and Soviet Montage theory that we read during Grad School.
Jar with Design of Plum and Bamboo Unknown artist ~ Korea
Well as the week started to wind down, I felt well enough to venture outside my home. Since I hadn't been able to do any of the usual things like have a nice meal at a decent restaurant, I decided to end the week with a trip to the Detroit Institute of Arts. I didn't mind the reduced numbers of people there, made for a much more peaceful visit, but they shut down the cafeteria, so having lunch there wasn't in the cards. However, there is always something special about spending a couple hours surrounded by art and architecture that feeds my soul. And I left Detroit feeling refreshed. Though as I drove home, I was struck by the thought so common to many nowadays: "hopefully next year will be better."
By day, I'm a mild-mannered forensic animator, but during evenings and weekends, I work on my own animated films and various artistic endeavors for clients. I'm a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology's M.F.A. Computer Animation program and a current member of ASIFA, MATAI, and the Toronto Animated Image Society.
Building upon the 2008-2009 project for the NY MET and Bard Graduate Center, I am currently animating gold-and-silk needlework stitches and managing lesson webpages for an online course presented by Dr. Wilson-Nguyen for her Thistle-Threads Historical needlework website.
