Cartoon Brew’s first-ever Student Animation Festival has arrived. Slide over to Cartoon Brew TV to watch the first short Fuzzy Insides by Michaela Olsen. Then join us every week for the next ten weeks to discover today’s student filmmakers who are headed towards becoming tomorrow’s top animation talent. Here is the line-up of student films we’ll be screening, all of which are debuting on-line exclusively on Brew TV.
It’s time for another episode in our special film series “The Modern Art of Gene Deitch.” This week, we’re presenting Building Friends for Business, an industrial film for Swift & Company. The 1949 film is among the first projects that Deitch ever directed and an example of his early modernist approach to animation design and filmmaking. Click over to Brew TV to watch Gene Deitch’s Building Friends for Business.
If you comment on Cartoon Brew, please review the commenting guidelines before participating in any discussion. We have occasionally been lax in enforcing certain guidelines, and will be redoubling our efforts to ensure that the comments section is not abused. In several recent posts, some of the guidelines have been repeatedly ignored, notably the following:
* It is OK to post with a nickname or alias, but your email address (which we will NEVER share publicly), must be a real, permanent email address. Comments with fake or non-permanent emails will be deleted.
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We understand that the vast majority of readers want to participate in a professional and respectful forum that allows for an open, critical discourse on the art form. By following a few basic guidelines, you can help to create a positive and respectful environment for everybody on the site.
The time has come to announce the selections for Cartoon Brew TV’s Student Animation Festival. When we put out the call for entries for our inaugural online festival, we didn’t really know what to expect. So we were thrilled to receive 122 student films from all corners of the globe including Brazil, Singapore, India, Australia, and all over Europe, the US and Canada. The quality of entries impressed us greatly, and it was no small challenge whittling down our choices to ten films. Thank you sincerely to each and every filmmaker who submitted work. Because of your enthusiasm, we are encouraged to continue building on this idea and turning CBTV’s Student Animation Festival into the premiere online showcase for young animation filmmakers.
Here are the ten films that will comprise the first-ever Cartoon Brew Student Animation Festival. Screenings will begin on June 23:
August
Directed by Matthias Hoegg
Year of Production: 2009
School: Royal College of Art
Country: Great Britain
Pdingpdoong
Directed by Krishna Chandran Nair, Manasi Parikh, Nupur Mukherjee, Chewang Lepcha
Year of Production: 2009
School: National Institute of Design
Country: India
Always, Only, Ever
Directed by: Barbara Benas
Year of Production: 2010
School: Columbus College of Art and Design
Country: USA
Pillow Peter
Directed by: Nigel Clark
Year of Production: 2010
School: School of Visual Arts
Country: USA
Slim Pickings Fat Chances
Directed by David de Rooij and Jelle Brunt
Year of Production: 2010
School: Willem de Kooning Academy
Country: The Netherlands
Fuzzy Insides
Directed by Michaela Olsen
Year of Production: 2009
School: Rhode Island School of Design
Country: USA
Tiny Hats
Directed by Penelope Gazin
Year of Production: 2010
School: California Institute of the Arts
Country: USA
Artichoke Hearts
Directed by: Kazimir Iskander
Year of Production: 2010
School:Minneapolis College of Art and Design
Country: USA
Death Buy Lemonade
Directed by Kyu-bum Lee
Year of Production: 2010
School: Sheridan College
Country: Canada
The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar
Directed by Bahij Jaroudi
Year of Production: 2009
School: Kingston University
Country: Great Britain
Last notice: Just three days left to submit to Cartoon Brew TV’s Student Animation Festival. Click HERE for rules and submission details.
A reminder: only TEN days are left to send in submissions for Cartoon Brew TV’s Student Animation Festival. Visit our festival page for rules and submission information. We have received several dozen entries to date from the US, Canada, and across Europe and Asia, and we are delighted not only by the number of submissions but by the quality of the work. The task of selecting the line-up of films for our inaugural festival will not be easy.
Welcome to our very special film series “The Modern Art of Gene Deitch.” Over the next few weeks, we’ll be presenting some of the rarest and most obscure modern shorts by animation legend Gene Deitch. To kick off the series, we’re starting with what is arguably his rarest film: Howdy Doody and His Magic Hat, a short that he created at the renowned mid-century animation studio UPA (United Productions of America). Lost for over half a century and only discovered last December, this film has never been publicly exhibited. Nearly sixty years later, we’re delighted and honored to present the world premiere of the film. Click over to Cartoon Brew TV to watch Gene Deitch’s Howdy Doody and His Magic Hat.
Beginning next week, join us at Cartoon Brew TV for a special film series celebrating the “Modern Art of Gene Deitch.” If you think you’re familiar with the animated works of the legendary Gene Deitch, think again. We’ve been collaborating with the master himself to dig out his rarest and most obscure modernist shorts. We even found one film that Gene hadn’t seen in fifty-five years! Many of the films in our line-up are industrial and educational shorts which were never intended to last more than a few years, much less into the 21st century. But the artistry and craftsmanship that Gene and his crew put into the films have given them a far longer shelf-life than anybody anticipated–and soon audiences will be enjoying them again.
It’s the time of year when lots of students are adding the finishing touches to their films so it’s a perfect time to announce Cartoon Brew TV‘s inaugural student animation festival. We’ve lamented privately for years that no online showcase exists for really great student films so we’ve decided to take it upon ourselves and present a showcase on Brew TV. We want to give the spotlight to student shorts of the highest caliber–the most original, the most thought-provoking, the ones that make us laugh out loud, the most emotionally engaging. Screenings will begin on Brew TV in May, one new film a week for up to eight weeks, depending on the number of submissions that are accepted.
Here are the rules: Obviously, it must be a student film. Films cannot be posted online anywhere before their premiere on Cartoon Brew TV. Only works completed after March 1, 2009 will be considered. Submission deadline is April 30, 2010. To submit, please email a private link of your film to studentfest (at) cartoonbrew (dot) com (ex. a password-protected Vimeo page or on a personal webpage). This is NOT a contest; every film that we choose to present will be compensated with the same fee that we pay all filmmakers who participate in Brew TV. Selection committee is comprised of Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi. Selections will be announced on May 3.
Cartoon Brew launched six years ago today. We’re not doing a whole lot to celebrate–unless eating raisins counts as a celebration–but we didn’t want to let the day pass without some sort of acknowledgment. It would be an understatement to say that the online animation scene is different today than when we launched in March 2004. Back then there was no YouTube or Vimeo, no animation podcasts, only a handful of animation blogs (our pathetic blogroll from March 2004 illustrates the barren landscape of the time), and a much smaller community of animators and cartoon aficionados online. Since those days, the online animation community has grown a lot, and if our site traffic is any indication, continues to grow a lot. In fact, if we may blow our own horn for a moment, we’ve set new traffic records on the Brew five of the last six months.
Your enthusiasm and excitement for this amazing art form and its limitless possibilities is what keeps us motivated to update everyday. And we’re not planning to stop anytime soon. Cartoon Brew TV will return in April with a very special month of new episodes, and we’re refreshing the site’s look and adding new features later this spring. To be sure, many people gravitate to the site for our occasionally controversial topics, but we get our greatest satisfaction from exposing readers to new films, artists, and ideas. When somebody tells us that we made them aware of a classic piece of animation they hadn’t seen before, or when a young, talented artist writes to say that being featured on the Brew got them a job, that’s when we know we’ve done our job right. Who knows what the next six years will bring, but even if the entire industry switches over to making “emotion capture” films, we promise to keep doing what we do as long as you keep reading and participating. Cheers!
Dear Sesame Street,
We, the undersigned, would like to register our concern over the contest you are now conducting with Aniboom. We are concerned that your contest includes a solicitation of original design concepts, characters and content to be produced on a speculative basis by cartoonists, artists, motion designers and animators.
This approach, requesting new and original work to be created in competition, is one that we believe seriously compromises the quality of work that is entered into “competition” and is questionable, at best, for a reputable organization to request.
Sesame Street has long been a highly esteemed provider of educational programming for children. From its inception, it has shown respect and support for the independent animation, film, and design communities. Artists have responded by creating lasting work — that is as valuable for children and adults today as when it was first created. We applaud that work, and hope that Sesame Street will continue to push the fields of animation and film-making. As such, we also think that Sesame Street should uphold the ethics and professional behavior we’d like our own children to grow up with. Is the education we want to pass on to them that artists’ and animators’ work is not valuable? That the only way to ‘make it’ is through winning a contest?
There is a more appropriate way to explore the work of various artists. A more effective and ethical approach to commission new work is to ask a pool of talent to submit examples of their work from previous assignments as well as a statement of how they would approach your project. You can then judge the quality of the artist’s previous work and her way of thinking about your project. The artist you select can then begin to work on your project by designing an original solution to your criteria while under contract to you, without having to work on speculation up front.
Design should not be a one-way street, with artists creating work in a vacuum. We believe the best design, art and content comes at the request of a specific brief, mission or client. Speculative design competitions and processes result in superficial assessments of the project at hand that are not grounded in a client’s specific needs. Art always has something to say.
There are few professions where all possible candidates are asked to do the work first, allowing the buyer to choose which one to compensate for their efforts. (Just consider the response if you were to ask a dozen lawyers to write a brief for you, from which you would then choose which one to pay!) We realize that there are some creative professions with a different set of standards, such as advertising and architecture, for which billings are substantial and continuous after you select a firm of record. In those cases, you are not receiving the final outcome (the advertising campaign or the building) for free up front as you would be in receiving an original film or character design.
There are many artists, animators and cartoonists who can provide you with original and highly creative new work that will far exceed your expectations, with respect for an appropriate budget and schedule. We can think of dozens off of the tops of our heads who we’re sure would love to work with Sesame Street. And we’d would love to point you in their direction.
We believe that “leveraging the power of the web” is an exciting prospect and casting a wide net can quickly provide many interesting results. But we think that more considered curation and the selection of applicants whose goals may be more closely aligned with your own can provide better results.
It’s your contest, though and you are free run it as you wish. But you will do so without our participation.
Your consideration of these professional issues is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Cartoon Brew
Motionographer
See the full list of document signers and how to put your name on the list after the jump. (UPDATE: Over 200 people have now signed the letter.)
Cartoon Brew’s traffic has grown significantly over the past few months resulting in an increase in the number of comments posted by readers. We welcome everybody’s participation, but to ensure a high level of discourse and civility, please make sure to review our guidelines for posting comments before commenting on the site. The following two points will be more strictly enforced in the future:
* It is OK to post with a nickname or alias, but your email address (which we will NEVER share publicly), must be a real, permanent email address. Comments with fake or non-permanent emails will be deleted.
* Be considerate and respectful of others in the discussion. If your comment is defamatory, rude or unnecessarily antagonistic, it will be deleted without comment.
News media stories about the Oscars are cropping up all over and all of them are parroting the same factoid: Up is only the second time since the inception of the award that the Academy has nominated an animated film for Best Picture. (The first time was Beauty and the Beast in 1991.) What they should be writing is that today is a milestone day because two animated films were nominated for an Oscar: Up and Avatar.
There is little doubt in the minds of both Brewmasters, Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi, that Avatar will eventually be recognized as an animated feature as more and more films are created using the constantly evolving performance capture animation technique. Within the industry, most already recognize the film as heavily animated, from top feature film animators who wonder why Avatar‘s animators are receiving so little credit for their work on the film to animation union rep Steve Hulett who stated that if, “Avatar isn’t halfway to three-quarters animation, I will eat my computer.” Most importantly, had this film been submitted to the Academy for consideration in the animated feature category, it would have qualified under the Academy’s own rules.
While James Cameron’s publicity machine may be unwilling to acknowledge the extent of animation used in creating Avatar, let us be the first to congratulate Mr. Cameron on his nomination for his groundbreaking piece of animation.
We wanted to take a moment to thank some of our recent sponsors. We’re growing the site and planning lots of great things for the future on Cartoon Brew, and it is in large part due to the support of the companies and individuals who advertise on the site.
Our major sponsor for the past couple months has been Animation Mentor. They do a fine job of training students for CG animation work, and we’re glad to have them on board. If you’re curious to find out more about the school, they are hosting a live, behind-the-scenes look tomorrow evening, September 17, at 6pm(PST). You can register to virtually attend the free webinar at Animation Mentor’s website.
Other sponsors who have joined us recently include:
I Love My Scarf: A Picture Book by Kyle Boyd
The book Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol: The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special
For info about advertising on Cartoon Brew, please visit Reachout Media.
Today’s 22nd episode of Cartoon Brew TV is a special one as we present an exclusive preview of Disney’s return to hand-drawn animation, The Princess and the Frog. This behind-the-scenes clip, courtesy of The Walt Disney Company, discusses the villain of the film, Dr. Facilier. The piece, entitled “Conjuring the Villain,” includes comments from supervising animator Bruce Smith and voice actor Keith David about their work on the character. Click over to Cartoon Brew TV to catch an early look at Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.
