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POSTS FOR “October, 2009“Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.
October 9, 2009 11:45 pm
56 Comments » posted in Disney October 9, 2009 12:00 pm
The latest video for the Canadian band Tom Fun Orchestra from the duo Alasdair Brotherston and Jock Mooney (we featured their previous piece here a couple of months ago). This one, done in a moody silouette style, was just nominated for a UK VMA award. 3 Comments » posted in Music Videos October 9, 2009 2:09 am
Recently I revisited The Visual Craft of William Golden, a book published in the early-Sixties about the legendary CBS creative director. There is an essay in the book by CBS exec John Cowden that sheds light on Golden’s artistic integrity, and helps to explain why the advertising work created under his guidance remains to this day the strongest body of advertising ever created for a TV network. Golden’s world revolved around graphic design, illustration and advertising, but I find his experiences to be relevant to creative people working in any commercial field, and especially animation. For example, Cowden recounted how Golden was offered a promotion from creative director to an upper management position. Golden flatly turned down the offer, Cowden wrote:
Contrast Golden’s unwavering integrity to all of the animation artists in recent years who have moved into high-profile executive and management positions. In every case—with the notable exception of John Lasseter—these artists have unwittingly weakened their creative influence and become part of the problem by entrenching themselves within broken production systems. Golden, who refused to become a part of upper management, also had his own ways of dealing with clueless business people. Again, from Cowden’s essay:
Here’s another example of how he dealt with the endless stream of unqualified individuals who tried to encroach on his domain:
Bill Golden demanded the best, and didn’t accept excuses from artists:
Unlike so many blockheads in positions of power within the contemporary animation industry, Golden could identify skill and talent with his trained eye. This is evidenced by the group of people who worked for him, which is a who’s who of mid-century illustration and design giants: David Stone Martin, Feliks Topolski, Leo Lionni, Joe Kaufman, George Lois, Ludwig Bemelmans, Ben Shahn, Miguel Covarrubias, and Jan Balet, to name but a few. Cowden’s memories of Golden are a reminder that great commercial work, whether it’s a piece of print design or an animated film, doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because of this:
13 Comments » posted in Ideas/Commentary October 8, 2009 10:52 pm
Don’t miss Anthony F. Schepperd’s video for Ape School’s “Wail to God.” The immediacy and intensity of his drawn animation is a real pleasure to watch. His stretchy character transformations and surrealist touches like the NSFW tit-trees give off a vibe of somebody who’s having fun with the possibilities of animation. 16 Comments » posted in Music Videos, Anthony Schepperd October 8, 2009 2:07 pm
A graduation film by Sjors Vervoort of The Netherlands, with sound design by Steven Aerts. While I would have liked to see the interplay between the cardboard creatures and their real-world surroundings pushed even further, there’s some imaginative ideas throughout the piece. 8 Comments » posted in Stop Motion, Student October 8, 2009 12:00 pm
Arthur Metcalf let me know that his first film, the festival-fave Fantaisie in Bubblewrap (2007), is finally online at YouTube’s Screening Room. The film’s premise is simple and the animation is even simpler, but Metcalf makes us empathize with bubblewrap, which is something of an accomplishment. 7 Comments » posted in Shorts October 8, 2009 10:04 am
CONTEST CLOSED! The first six readers who provided a correct answer to this question in the comments section below will receive a copy of the new DVD feature, Rob Zombie presents The Haunted World of El SuperBeasto (courtesy Starz Media/Film Roman). This film is for adults only and will require the winners to state they are over 18. Paul Giamatti plays Dr. Satan in The Haunted World of El SuperBeasto. Name any other animated film, animated TV series or independent animated short Giamatti has loaned his voice to. See the answers in our comments section below. CONTEST CLOSED! NO MORE ANSWERS ACCEPTED! 20 Comments » posted in Site News October 8, 2009 1:15 am
I was going to write a post about this, but my friend Pete Hammond at the L.A. Times beat me to it. This has been a pretty good year for animated features and by my count we have fifteen films that are technically qualified for an Academy Award nomination. In order to qualify for five nominees (as opposed the usual 3) the producers of all fifteen of these films must enter their features for nomination. Then a 16th (or better yet, a 17th and 18th) film must qualify – the rules state that five animated features can be nominated if 16 films qualify. Here are the fifteen that already played (or will play) theatrically this year for at least one week in Los Angeles, in order of release: 1. CORALINE – Focus Features. What, if any, other features are likely to open before now and the end of December? Perhaps The Secret of Kells, which had only one festival showing in LA. but no U.S. distributor that I know of. Perhaps the stop-mo A Town Called Panic, which recently played in NYC, will be given a run in LA? Maybe Disney, who are playing the direct-to-video feature Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure for one week at El Capitan in Hollywood, CA, next week, will submit it for Academy consideration? With ten (most likely all live action) films being nominated in the Best Feature category, it only seems fair that the animated feature race is upped to five contenders. Personally, I think there are more than enough good films this year worthy of a shot at the prize. |
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