Author Archives: Amid Amidi

About Amid Amidi

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This Is How Film Fundraising Worked Before Kickstarter

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Fred Mogubgub was among the New York animation scene’s innovative figures of the Sixties and Seventies. One of his most famous artistic statements wasn’t on film, but on the side of a building in Manhattan. It was part of an extended series of stunts that he staged during the 1960s. Richard O’Connor of Ace & Son animation studio wrote on his blog about Mogubgub’s work at the time:

What may be his best-known work was made at this time–a three-story mural painted on the outside of his Sixth Avenue studio. The left side was a beautiful woman, design by Irene Trivas, the right hand side was a word bubble saying “Who Will Give Mogubgub Ltd. Two Million Dollars To Make A Feature?”

Without the two million Mogubgub still made a feature. The Day I Met Zet runs 71 minutes and has 72,000 scenes. Zet consumed Mogubgub for three years. In 1967 a distributor offered him three points of advice after screening a work print- the next day the film was in the trash and he started over. When the New York Film Festival refused Zet, the filmmaker mounted a protest. He marched through Lincoln Center with a sign reading “Fuck the New York Film Festival”. When the police came he threw the film into the trash and ignited it. The newspapers had shown up questioning him -”How many hours of work was he destroying?” “Why this protest against the Festival?” Mogubgub stood by silently as he watched an old 16mm print go up in flames. Meanwhile the whole proceeding was being filmed. He planned to make it into a short called The Day I Burned Zet.

To learn more about Fred Mogubgub’s life and work, read Richard O’Connor’s essential series of blog posts about Mogubgub: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Also, don’t miss this terrific collection of Mogubgub drawings on Michael Sporn’s blog.

GKIDS Heats Up the Oscar Animated Feature Race

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Today, family animation distributor GKIDS announced that they will qualify four animated features for consideration in the Oscars Best Animated Feature Film category. The films are Goro Miyazaki’s From Up On Poppy Hill (Japan), Jean-Francois Laguionie’s Le Tableau (France), Joann Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux’s The Rabbi’s Cat (France), and Rémi Bezançon & Jean-Christophe Lie’s Zarafa (France/Belgium).

GKIDS has had an outsized influence in the animated feature category over the past three years, earning three Oscar nominations–Secret of Kells in 2010, and A Cat in Paris and Chico & Rita in 2012. Their strategy has been simple and it doesn’t involve producing a single frame of animation; rather they pick up U. S. distribution rights to foreign animated features that otherwise will never appear in America. It’s a win-win for both GKIDS and the filmmakers.

Even the major film studios benefit from the situation. That’s because the four films that GKIDS will enter this year push the current number of animated feature contenders to 15. A minimum of 16 features is required to have five nominees in the category, and it is very likely that will happen now.

The 15 films currently in contention are as follows:

The Lorax (Illumination Entertainment/Universal)
The Pirates: Band of Misfits (Aardman/Sony)
Madagascar 3 (DreamWorks Animation)
Brave (Disney/Pixar)
Ice Age: Continental Drift (Blue Sky/20th Century Fox)
ParaNorman (Laika/Focus)
Hotel Transylvania (Sony)
Frankenweenie (Disney)
Rise of the Guardians (Dreamworks Animation)
Wreck-It Ralph (Disney)
A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman
Zarafa (Pathe/GKids)
The Rabbi’s Cat (TF1/GKids)
Le Tableau (Rezo/GKids)
From Up on Poppy Hill (Studio Ghibli/GKids)

Seth MacFarlane To Host “SNL” Season Premiere

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Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane is like the Neil Armstrong of the animation community, venturing into places that other animators have never dared to go. In another first for an animator, it was announced today that MacFarlane will host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 15.

(Photo of Seth MacFarlane via s_bukley/Shutterstock)

Kelly Richardson’s “Mariner 9″ Animates Futuristic Mars Landscape

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How might Mars look like a hundred years in the future, after we’ve sent dozens of rovers to explore the planet? That’s the idea that Canadian digital media artist Kelly Richardson wanted to explore in her new animated video installation Mariner 9. The piece debuted earlier this month at the Spanish City in Whitley Bay, UK, and will have its North American premiere at next month’s Toronto International Film Fesitval as part of their Future Projections exhibit.

The 20-minute piece is projected on a panoramic 39-foot screen. In the words of the artist, “Mariner 9″

presents a panoramic view of a Martian landscape set hundreds of years into the future, littered with the rusting remains from various missions to the planet. Despite its suggested abandoned state, several of the spacecraft continue to partially function, to do their intended jobs, to ultimately find signs of life, possibly transmitting the data back to no one.

In interviews, Richardson said that she referenced data and imagery from NASA missions to help recreate the topography of her speculative future, but the goal of this research wasn’t so much strict accuracy as authencity. She modeled and animated the landscape with Terragen software, and used Lightwave to create the vehicles.

I can only imagine that the subtle movements across a large screen would look striking, but the sheer scale of Mariner 9 demands that it be viewed in person before passing any judgement on its effectiveness. As a general comment though, I can point out that it’s similar to another artwork profiled on Cartoon Brew earlier this year called “Transforming Still Life Painting”, in which animation was used by a fine artist to create subtle movements within a fixed shot.

The question becomes then whether these animated canvases constitute a unique development in animation art? They certainly extend the medium beyond a linear cinematic experience. But in the case of Richardson’s Mariner 9, couldn’t the same detailed still landscape with subtle animated variations (and accompanying soundscape) be achieved simply by remaining motionless in any number of CGI computer games? If those games were projected onto a panoramic screen, would it achieve a similar effect?

If a piece like “Mariner 9″ isn’t exactly revolutionary, it at least uses animation in a new context and directs it toward a different end, which is not a bad thing. It also forces us to acknowledge that the visual language of animated film, interactive gaming, and digital fine art is converging more quickly than ever before.

John Canemaker Remembers Tissa David

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Eminent animation historian John Canemaker wrote a lovely tribute to animator Tissa David for the Wall Street Journal. It’s packed with great insights, including this quote from David: “Animation is such a long, hard work. You have to keep doing, doing, doing to learn. You can only have one love if you want to be an animator: animation. You can’t devote yourself to it part-time.” Tissa David passed away last week at the age of 91.

(Photo of Tissa David via Michael Sporn’s Splog; drawing from the collection of John Canemaker)

Spike Lee On The Value Of Owning Your Own Brand

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Film critic Patrick Goldstein recently wrote his last piece for the LA Times. The article, “Wanted: A Few Good Mavericks“, is about the lack of originality in Hollywood and it’s worth reading in full. In particular though, Goldstein’s bit about what sets Spike Lee apart from other directors in Hollywood stood out:

In 1988, not long after his first success, I heard Lee give a speech to a group of black college students in which he preached the value of capitalism. If you didn’t own your own business or brand, he said, you’d always be working for the man. As a filmmaker, Lee has practiced what he preached. He runs a Brooklyn-based production company that has made enough money, largely through Lee-directed ads, to allow him to fund internships and college prep programs as well as make such message-oriented documentaries as “When the Levees Broke,” the Emmy Award-winning TV miniseries about the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. It’s what makes Lee different from indie peers Paul Thomas Anderson or Wes Anderson. They are gifted filmmakers, but they seem to disappear down a rabbit hole between films, while Lee is always on call, weighing in on issues that matter.

How do Spike Lee’s thoughts fit into today’s animation world, where selling one’s creation to a TV network is often considered the pinnacle of success? Is giving up control of one’s creation a prerequisite for success in our industry, or can artists who own their brands carve out successful careers? Can an artist sell a creation to a corportion, but still maintain the integrity of their personal brand ? There may be no easy answers, but I think these are questions worth asking.

GIVEAWAY: “A Mary Blair Treasury of Golden Books”

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Random House, which is a sponsor of Cartoon Brew this month, has provided us with FIVE copies to give away of their new book A Mary Blair Treasury of Golden Books. The official description:

Fans of illustrator Mary Blair will cherish this never-before-published treasury of her Golden Books, which includes material that hasn’t been in print in decades. I Can Fly is here in its unabridged glory, as are Baby’s House, The Up and Down Book, and The Golden Book of Little Verses. Many of the finest pages from The New Golden Song Book are included, to round out this gorgeous collection. All of the original artwork has been digitally reproduced, and has never looked more breathtaking! Academy Award-winning animator John Canemaker–author of The Art and Flair of Mary Blair–wrote the foreword for this highly anticipated book honoring one of the most beloved illustrators of our time.

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED! The winners are:

Matthew Gerber
Eben Zboch
MyFriendLovesMaryBlair
Sasha
AJ

Giveaway is open to anyone living in the United States. To enter into a random drawing, simply comment on this post. Giveaway ends at 12 pm Pacific Time on August 29. Do not comment multiple times or you will be disqualified. Make sure to leave a real contact in the e-mail field (it is hidden from view and will not be used for any purpose other than to contact if you win).

Animation Director LeSean Thomas: “You Have To Anticipate Failure If You Intend To Innovate”

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LeSean Thomas, the supervising director and creative producer of Adult Swim’s Black Dynamite, spoke at TEDxSinchon about his experience moving to Seoul to work in South Korea’s animation industry. There’s nice nuggets of hard-won experience throughout.

Yu-Gi-OH-OH! A Veteran Anime Director Is Arrested For Massacre Threats

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Japanese police in Osaka arrested 42-year-old animation director Masaki Kitamura today for allegedly threatening to drive a truck into random pedestrians and “then stabbing whoever I can with a knife before committing suicide.” Kitamura, who has directed or assistant directed animated series such as Yu-Gi-Oh, Wolf’s Rain and Mobile Suit Gundam 00, made the threat on the Osaka City government’s website. He had planned to carry out the attack on August 5th in a shopping area on Otaku Road, which houses gaming and anime stores. Police ID’d the IP address of the online posting to a wireless connection owned by Kitamura, although the director denies that he was responsible for the threat and says, “I’m completely innocent.”

If the police are to be believed, Kitamura enjoys making threats of all kinds. They are also investigating whether he made a bomb threat against a Tokyo-to-New York Japan Airlines flight on August 1st. That threat, which also turned out to be false, forced the plane to turn back to Tokyo’s Narita Airport.

(More on Anime News Network and Hollywood Reporter)

William A. Emmons: The Disney Animator Who Almost Was

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The old adage goes that history is written by the victors. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other stories worth telling. Recently, I’ve been in touch with the daughter of William A. Emmons. If you haven’t heard the name, that’s understandable. He worked in the animation industry for only three months.

Bill Emmons started his employment at the Disney Studio in the summer of 1940 as a trainee/traffic boy. It was the bottom rung of the studio hierarchy, but to get even that far required a certain level of skill and talent.

Someone at the studio must have spotted the promise of the nineteen-year-old Emmons, who was barely a year out of high school at the time. His daughter Charlene Craig remembers that her father had done “some art training at the Chouinard Art School…[which] may be how my father’s name came to WDP’s attention.”

Emmons worked hard during those few months, but the studio was competitive and he didn’t make the cut. The studio let him go in the fall of 1940, citing that he needed more art training and drawing experience.

Though his family knew that he had worked at Disney, Emmons rarely discussed the experience while he was still alive. Looking through her father’s files, his daughter recently discovered a stash of Disney keepsakes that he kept from his time at the studio.

Before I get to what Emmons saved, let’s hear more about what happened after he was let go from his Disney. His daughter writes:

I think it was pretty impressive that somehow word of his drawing skills made it to L.A. and he was invited by Disney fresh out of high school to try out and give his best especially since many of his co-trainees appeared to be college graduates such as his mention of a possible roommate recently graduated from UCLA with more under his belt. My father’s vision even with corrective lens was a challenge, so the intensity and kind of detailed work required was very fatiguing on his eyes.

He was very pragmatic about this disappointment figuring he may not have been suited for this kind of work anyway. In the end he returned to San Diego to work on specialty paint work for war planes at Consolidated Vultee for the war effort. He was able to get several draft deferments due to his artistic expertise until spring of 1944. Those late war Army Air/Force draftee trainees were slated to be part of a land invasion in Japan, but as you know the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in August 1945 which stopped that awful fate with huge anticipated US casualties.  In retrospect not working at Disney may have saved his life given the chance he may have gotten drafted far sooner. 

Ultimately my Dad put his artistic and illustrating talents to work for 34 years at the San Diego School District as their education materials and audio visual media illustrator. Not nearly as exciting and glamourous as working at Disney but the pay and benefits afforded the raising of us four children and a more than generous retirement plan to support my elderly mother today.

Emmons saved many mementos from his time at Disney, including a letter from the studio expressing interest to hire him signed by Disney exec Vernon Caldwell, several of his Disney pay stubs, and an original menu from the studio Animation Coffee Shop. Among the most fascinating artifacts left behind in Emmons’ files is a letter that he wrote in September 1940 to his sister Doris, who was living in Manila, Philippines with her submarine officer husband, John.

The charming correspondence provides a unique glimpse into the life of a Disney trainee. Emmons had started working there just a few months after the company had moved into its brand-new sprawling Burbank campus. The size of the studio obviously made an impression on the young Emmons. In the letter to his sister, he included a hand-drawn map of the studio grounds.

We’d like to thank Bill’s daughter, Charlene, who has graciously allowed Cartoon Brew to share the four-page letter that Bill wrote to his sister. I’ve included the pages below, as well as a transcription below each page with a few minor spelling corrections for ease of reading.

[page 1 - The Mickey line art on the top left is a tea bag tag from the studio]
9/23/40

Dear Doris & John:

Joke – “My pants are on fire!”
“Where are you?”
“Home on the range”

Well how are things coming?

Congratulations on making your rate John. I just know you will get on farther, too.

We surely are glad to hear from you & I know you are very glad & happy to hear from us. It really is getting lonesome–now–for we haven’t seen each other for quite a long time. If you take pictures send some to Ma & Pa, Doris. You know for a while I begin to think that I haven’t a sister. But I do. And John, you know, I am looking forward to the time when we all go out together again.

Thanks for my letters you sent me. I appreciated it, & I know Ma & Pa thank God hat we all can receive them & read them.

Now Ma & Pa are more lonely because we both hope have left them Dor, so we will have to try to write more. I guess it must be pretty quiet do there. They say they might sell out, possibly. I don’t know what to say to help them but I think it will all work out after [a]while by letting it take its own course.

I’m glad you are back in Manila. I hope you stay there. Mother got a little worried over you 2 in China.

I am getting quite an experience here at this boarding house. This makes my 5[th] week & also with the studio.

I’ll bet you’re saying, “Just think Bill got in ‘Disney Studio’ Gosh Am I Proud!” Well–

[page 2]
It surprised me too. Really it all came out but it rather did take me off my feet. I hope I can make good. If you 2 were here we would have celebrated, eh?

I’m sending home my extra $ that I make.

Now about the studio.
1.) It is located below Burbank, which is N. of Hollywood.
2.) I live in walking distance of the studio (just across st.)
3.) There are about 950 employees. The largest group of incorporated artists in the U. S.
4. I have animation training in the morning. We are drawing things (& cleanups) & have fig. draw. classes.
5.) In the afternoon I carry coffee, ice cream, tea, etc. – all refreshments right in the studio to all the animators. Yes there is a coffee shop on the 1st floor there & we carry it for them. We are called traffic boys for we do all the messengering & delivering for the whole studio. In other words we all are office boys. We all wear a uniform of tan color & it says TRAFFIC on our shirts.
6.) Really, the whole workings of the studio are hardly describable–there is so much to see.
7.) The [Studio] covers 51 acres of ground, but not all complete (& covered ‘by’).
8.) Disney is trying to put out 9 feature reels a year. They are getting better too.
9.) Some of the future shows “Fantasia”–”Dumbo”–”Bambi”–”The Reluctant Dragon”–later “Peter Pan”–& “Alice in Wonderland” & possible “Wind in the Willows” way later.
10.) There is a special room for traffic on each floor & it takes care of everything on its floor.
11.) There are 3 dumbwaiters for the 3 story buildings, going up & down all day.

[page 3]
[Hand drawn map of Walt Disney Production's Burbank studio].
“And is it classy WOW!”
“No wonder I’m tired walking around this place!”
The names here applied can be figured out. They play ping-pong next to the cafe in spare moments. The parking lot is as big as the building territory here. There is a filling station right within the studio–near the main gate. The main 3 story building is the honey. 1st floor–Animation–effects–inbetweening action, etc.
2nd – Story dept., backgrounds, sweat boxes–where they argue over a picture in rough drawings before they go for real production. The 2nd story is where all the shows really originate. The 3rd is the tops–the directors work there & that’s where Walt is. There is also another projection theatre there too.

9/26/40
Well Doris & John, I won’t be able [to] draw any more pictures for this letter.

[page 4]
Another: “Do you like the kind of women who talk a lot?”
“Well, what other kind is there?”

I’ll write again soon again, early in Oct. How are the rains coming along?

I hope you don’t have to go to Singapore.

Do some painting Doris.

You’ll soon be home. Just don’t think about the time. I’ll be seeing you soon.

Keep dry.
Lots of luck John.
Wash your socks Doris.
Love,
Bill
Write Ma & Pa when you have time.

Genndy Tartakovsky Talks “Hotel Transylvania”

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Genndy Tartakovsky on making Hotel Transylvania:

“I took all the aesthetics I like from 2-D and applied them here. I don’t want to do animation to mimic reality. I want to push reality. You want to have your own identity. You don’t want to have an expression that Pixar has. That was super important to me. In 2-D, the way you draw defines you, but in CG the computer takes away your identity. I wanted to make sure the movie had my point of view.”

There’s more surprisingly frank commentary from Genndy in this LA Times piece.

D’oh! U. S. Postal Service Printed 682 Million Extra “Simpsons” Stamps

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Apparently, people who watch The Simpsons don’t like to mail letters. According to the Washington Post, the U. S. Postal Service had anticipated it would sell 1 billion commemorative stamps featuring characters from The Simpsons. They sold less than a third of that and ending up destroying 682 million unsold stamps, which had cost them $1.2 million to print.

Patrick Boivin Teams With Aardman For Nike Spot

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Even if you don’t care about football shoes, this Nike commercial provides good entertainment value. Montreal-based filmmaker Patrick Boivin (of Iron Man vs. Bruce Lee fame) directed the stop motion spot starring a marionette version of footballer Andrés Iniesta. Aardman produced the animation, South Korea’s Coolrain created the figures, and Wieden+Kennedy (London) was the agency.

(Thanks, @eee)

Calling Los Angeles Artists: Support Kevyn Wallace On Monday

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Last August, animation veteran Kevyn Wallace was driving down the 134 Freeway in Los Angeles, just a half mile from the Walt Disney Feature Animation where he had worked in the layout department on films like Tarzan and Mulan. As he was driving, an L. A. driver’s worst fear was realized–he was hit by a drunk driver. Eyewitness accounts from that evening said that the other driver’s car slid around the freeway and clipped another car. Then, the driver’s car spun around and faced Kevyn’s car straight on.

The high-impact crash punctured Kevyn’s gas tank and his car exploded into flames. A couple of good samaritans stopped on the freeway and attempted to rescue him from his burning vehicle. Unable to free him, they ran back to their own cars to find something to cut the seatbelt with. The witnesses reported that Kevyn, strapped into his seat, screamed for help as he struggled to free himself. Meanwhile, Kevyn’s windshield exploded. He miraculously managed to pull himself out of the car–but not before he had suffered burns over 90% of his body. Kevyn was placed into an induced coma and died a little over a month later at the LAC+USC Burn Center.

It was a life tragically cut short at age 47. Kevyn had worked on dozens of animation projects including The Simpsons Movie, The Land Before Time series, and Bébé’s Kids, but at the time of his death, he had embarked on a new career path. He had returned to his alma mater, Art Center College of Design, to earn a Master’s degree in filmmaking. Animation remained always close to his heart. The class project he was working on was a documentary about African-American animators.

I spoke to one of Kevyn’s sisters, Niva, earlier this week. She told me about her family’s efforts to find justice for Kevyn and bring some closure to the painful event. To their disappointment, the driver who caused the crash hasn’t served any time behind bars and has been freed on bond for the past year. His punishment to date has been to wear an alcohol monitoring bracelet and to turn over his passport. The family is understandably frustrated by the drawn-out legal process, but recognizes that the judicial system will ultimately determine whether the other driver bears any responsibility for the death of Kevyn Wallace.

There’s not much Kevyn’s family can do at this point, but they are making a public plea for support from the animation community. They tell me that one of the most important hearings in the case against the other driver will take place this Monday, August 27th. The defendant may either enter an open plea or choose to continue to a jury trial, which would begin next month. Kevyn’s family is asking his friends, colleagues and fans to show up to the hearing on Monday morning. In the words of his sister, they want to “put a face on Kevyn” and show that he’s more than just a statistic.

Kevyn’s sisters have spent the last year attending all the hearings related to his case. But the court has no sense that Kevyn was part of the much larger animation family, an important contributor to the art form, and a guy who was liked and appreciated by many. Kevyn’s family feels that a courtroom filled with industry professionals could make a positive impact. It would be amazing if the 400 people who showed up at Kevyn’s memorial would show up again, but even a fraction of those people would be a powerful statement of strength and support from our community. If the defendant chooses to enter an open plea, Kevyn’s colleagues will even have a chance on Monday to make statements to the court before the sentencing.

The hearing is scheduled for this Monday, August 27th, at 8:30 AM. The hearings generally take an hour or two, but Kevyn’s family would appreciate anybody who can come, even if they can’t stay for the entire hearing. Here’s where to go:
Los Angeles Criminal Courts Building
210 West Temple Street
11th Floor, Room 114