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POSTS FOR “April, 2007“Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.
April 6, 2007 11:15 am
CalArts: 20 Years of Experimental Animation, 1970-1990 is a website that offers for viewing nearly twenty experimental shorts created at CalArts. The selections were chosen by Jules Engel who started the experimental program at CalArts, and includes works by many well known names including Joanna Priestley, Paul Demeyer, Henry Selick, Kathy Rose, Gary Schwartz and Eric Darnell. The image above is from Pink Triangle by Bob Doucette. (via Motiongrapher) 3 Comments » posted in Shorts 
April 5, 2007 10:33 am
The advice in the video above from guitar legend Dick Dale is geared towards musicians, but everything he says applies equally well to animation artists. To paraphrase, Dale suggests, “Save up your money, create your own films, build up your following by continuously getting your work out there, learn to market yourself and sell your own films. And most importantly, never surrender your creativity to studios because you’ll get screwed every time.” Many artists in animation have followed the path that Dale suggests, whether it’s John and Faith Hubley back in the day, modern independents like Bill Plympton and Don Hertzfeldt, or contemporary studios like JibJab and Brothers McLeod. The results: the Hubley family still earns money from films that were produced fifty years ago and Bill Plympton earns money from films that he produced twenty years ago. Which creator in the industry can say that his work still draws income 20-50 years later? Not many, that’s for sure. The most important thing to understand is that an artist like Plympton (or the Hubleys) also works on industry projects. In fact, you’re probably not a successful independent unless you’re producing commercial work because that means that your work has resonated with the mainstream. The difference between a career industry artist and an independent is that somebody like Plympton is able to produce commercial work on his own terms. And if he’s unable to do that, he can walk away from the project because his name and reputation have already been established on the strength of his personal work. In other words, he invested time upfront in building his ‘brand’ and that brand exists independent of any studio or network. It’s unnecessary for him to compromise his creative vision while creating commercial work. With the arsenal of cheap and powerful digital production tools available to artists today as well as all the new distribution channels, there is nothing that the big studios offer that a business-savvy independent couldn’t get on his own. It’s nice to have somebody like Dick Dale remind you of that sometimes. (video created by Tommy Liberto, link via Boing Boing) 28 Comments » posted in Ideas/Commentary, Bill Plympton, Brothers McLeod, Dick Dale, John Hubley
April 4, 2007 1:00 am
Our friends at the Van Eaton Gallery are hosting an event that I want to invite you all to. On Thursday, April 19, 2007 from 6:00pm-10:00 pm the gallery is hosting a gathering of animation book authors for a meet-and-greet, book signing and I think a panel discussion. The gallery folks have gone out of their way to get many authors to attend, the guest list currently includes Tom Sito, Nancy Beiman, Dean Yeagle, Stephen Silver, Rik Maki, J.B. Kaufman, me, Mark Cotta Vaz, Disney Archivist Dave Smith, and several others to be announced. In addition to our books for sale, Stuart Ng will be bringing cool stuff from his incredible stash, and Van Eaton will have rare original animation art, related to the book topics, on display. And refreshments. Don’t forget the refreshments. And it’s free. You have to RSVP because space is limited. More info here. At the Van Eaton Galleries, 13613 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423 (818)788-2357. Doors will open promptly at 6:00 pm. 4 Comments » posted in Books, Events
April 3, 2007 12:45 pm
It was announced late Friday and posted on several other websites since: the Walt Disney Treasures will go on. At least, for another year. This latest “wave” of releases are literally due to popular demand. Your voices were heard. In production for release on December 11th, 2007 are: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Leonard Maltin is back as host and producer. Each volume is a limited edition. Chronological Donald, Volume 3 features Duck cartoons from 1947 onward which, combined with the previously released two volumes, will complete our collection of every one of Donald’s classic short films. Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic is a “comprehensive look at the “Happiest Place on Earth.â€? The centerpiece is a new documentary with archival footage, including Walt’s own words, as well as new interviews, that reveal the secrets behind one of the world’s most famous destinations. The big prize in this group is the volume devoted to Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney’s first animated star. Silent shorts made from 1926 to 1927 are revitalized with brand-new musical scores. This collection will also include Leslie Iwerks documentary about her grandfather Ub, The Hand Behind The Mouse. More information on these sets will be posted here in the future. Click to read the official press release. 27 Comments » posted in Disney
April 3, 2007 5:28 am
Style5 is a new Toronto-based company that has admirable ambitions: to offer advertisers animation with more adult sensibilities and an edgier illustrator-driven design approach. The operation is in the capable hands of Sam Chou (the studio’s creative director) and Chuck Gammage (exec producer). Gammage, a fine animator and director in his own right, is no stranger to the commercial world and already runs his own successful production studio Chuck Gammage Animation. Style5 currently has a roster of six designers including Edel Rodriguez, Hobo Divine andRaymond Xu, and the studio is developing long-form projects to go along with its current slate of commercials, IDs and music videos. Their website, Style5.tv, offers some tantalizing examples of their work, and shows how they’re seamlessly blending contemporary hip-hop-influenced styles with solid classical animation principles. 12 Comments » posted in Advertising
April 2, 2007 3:51 pm
Here it comes! The first official release of the classic Max Fleischer cartoons on DVD, from Warner Home Video (who own the master film elements) by arrangement with King Features Syndicate. The first sixty Fleischer cartoons (in release order), including POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINDBAD THE SAILOR and POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS ALI BABA’S FORTY THEIVES, all restored from the original negatives. All Paramount titles restored. This is the real thing. If you love these cartoons your eyes will POP at the restorations. If you’ve never seen them you are in for a revelation. Four discs, over five hours worth of bonus materials, including audio commentaries by the likes of Mark Kausler, John K., Eric Goldberg, Leslie Cabarga, Mark Evanier, etc. (yes, and me too!). This is Vol. 1 and it goes on sale July 31st. Mark your calender now. Popeye The Sailor: 1933-1938 Volume One. I’ll have more info in the weeks that follow. 99 Comments » posted in Classic
April 2, 2007 8:41 am
One of the more inspiring trends recently has been seeing book projects by animation artists being picked up for distribution by mainstream book publishers. For example, last fall, Pixar’s Sanjay Patel had his book The Little Book of Hindu Deities published by Plume, an imprint of Penguin. Then, Pixar’s Ronnie del Carmen and Enrico Casarosa (along with Tadahiro Uesegi) had Three Trees Make a Forest released by Gingko Press. And now, the boys at Blue Sky Animation have announced that their graphic anthology Out of Picture will be published by Villard/Random House. The first Out of Picture volume will be reprinted this winter and a second brand-new volume will also debut from Villard. It’s no accident that mainstream publishers are increasingly looking towards the creative works of animation artists. There is an incredible wealth of talent working in our art form today, and most of them are not allowed to explore the full range of their creative potential in their day jobs. Today’s savvy artists, however, aren’t content to accept the realities of the current industry, and are pursuing new outlets of self-expression ranging from short films to comics to these book projects. If anything, I expect we’ll be seeing many more high-profile book projects from the animation community over the coming years. 11 Comments » posted in Books
April 2, 2007 2:42 am
Every year, for the past four years, the National Film Board of Canada has been running a neat program called Hothouse. The idea is simple: bring together a group of emerging artists from various disciplines and help each of them produce an animated short in 12 weeks. It’s kind of like a boot camp for cartoonists. The latest edition of Hothouse is just getting underway and eight artists—six Canadians and two Brazilians—will each have completed a film by the end of May. Their ‘mentoring director’ is Torill Kove, whose NFB short The Danish Poet won the animated short Oscar last month. The Hothouse website includes profiles of the filmmakers and a video podcast documenting each filmmaker’s experience. The completed Hothouse shorts from the past three editions can all be seen here. |
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