Monthly Archives: February 2010

Brownstones to Red Dirt Postcard Art Benefit

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Sandeep Menon card

The generosity of the animation community never ceases to amaze me. Inbetween demanding workloads and crushing deadlines, we still manage to find the time to pull together and help with bigger causes. Just in the past few months, we’ve had the Help the Hodges campaign and Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich’s benefit for Haiti auction.

Now, two employees at Blue Sky Studios, David LaMattina and Chad Walker, will be holding an online postcard art auction between March 6-13. Over one hundred and fifty artists, including many Blue Skyers, have donated work. The proceeds from the “Brownstones To Red Dirt” benefit will go towards building a school for orphans in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and to create a school library for kids in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, which incidentally happens to be my own neighborhood. The use of wooden postcards and the choice to support these two projects is not random; the benefit is tied in to a feature-length documentary that LaMattina and Walker made a couple years ago about “a pen pal program between a group of at-risk sixth graders living in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn and orphans from the war living in Freetown, Sierra Leone.” The documentary website is BrownstonestoRedDirt.com.

There are a surprising number of beautiful and delightful pieces created for the auction. A preview of all the pieces can be found on the Brownstones to Red Dirt auction website. The postcards I’ve included in this post are, from top to bottom, by Sandeep Menon, Patricia Horing, Dice Tsutsumi and Nicole Gustafsson.

Patricia Horing card

Dice Tsutsumi card

Nicole Gustafsson card

“Higglety Pigglety Pop!”

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Higglety Pigglety Pop

Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, the filmmakers of Madame Tutli-Putli have finished a new 23-1/2 minute short based on the Maurice Sendak book Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life. The adaptation, which combines live-action actors and puppets with animation and digital manipulation, will be included on the Where the Wild Things Are Blu-ray release next month. Its world premiere will take place on February 28 at the Montreal Children’s International Film Festival. Spike Jonze was among the producers on this National Film Board of Canada production; Meryl Streep and Forest Whitaker provide voices in the film. The stills on the NFB website look intriguing, and I’m definitely looking forward to it based on the strength of Lavis and Szczerbowski’s last effort.

The Storyboard Book + Contest

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Storyboard Book

The Storyboard Book is a new product out of Brooklyn that may prove useful to animation folk. Each Storyboard Book is 32-pages, 3.5″ x 5.5″ and consists of 16:9 square-ruled storyboard panels. More description:

A lightweight, portable, and durable sketchbook for storyboarding, sketching, listmaking, visualization, plans, doodles, and just about anything else. The idea is simple: a frame for the action and space for notes, story, dialog, stage directions, enemies lists, etc. The Storyboard Book is designed to be used as a personal sketchbook, but also sized to be handy for project notes and ideas.

Packs of three are sold for $12 and can be ordered at TheStoryboardBook.com. We’re giving away a 3-pack to two lucky Cartoon Brew readers. Simply write a comment on this post saying “I want a Storyboard Book” by 3pm EST (noon West Coast time), and you’ll be entered in a random drawing. (Fine print: If you’ve won anything from the Brew in the past year you’re not eligible to participate. Giveaway open only to residents of US and Canada.)

CONTEST CLOSED: WINNERS ARE KELLY MCNUTT AND LAUREN S.

Concert Visuals by Naked

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The animated music videos above and below weren’t created to be seen this way. They are the creations of a “motion design” company called Naked. They are used as backdrop light shows for concerts and special musical events. The one above is synced to a track by Canadian pop singer Coeur De Pirate (Beatrice Martin). Directly below is a visual to accompany French DJ David Guetta; below that, a video backdrop for Mika (Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr.) followed by a video of his performance in concert, with the animation in use behind him.

Annie Awards video

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Until Asifa-Hollywood posts the official videos of this year’s Annie Awards (2/5/10 at UCLA’s Royce Hall), we’ll have to do with hand-held shakey cam videos popping up on You Tube. This one was shot from the nose-bleed seats, and the center screen is too bright to be properly photographed, but it does give you a sense of the event – It’s the first seven minutes of the ceremony, which includes a gag video of Tom Kenny battling William Shatner ala a sequence from Star Trek (“Arena“); Shatner’s opening remarks; and Seth Green presenting the Home Entertainment Award to Futurama’s creators.

Animation Block Party in LA

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NYC based Animation Block Party, is coming to Los Angeles this week.

ABP is an annual New York festival dedicated to showcasing the world’s best independent, professional and student animation. The Best of Animation Block Party will be screening at the New Beverly Cinema in Hollywood on Thursday February 18, 2010 at 7:30pm and 10:00pm.

This program is highly recommended. A complete list of the films being shown is listed here. Filmmakers in attendance at screenings include Mike Hollingsworth, Rebecca Sugar, Max Winston, Turner Lange, Ben Li and Caroline Foley. Both shows will be introduced by ABP founder, Casey Safron. You can buy tickets online at Brown Paper Tickets.com.

Out of a Forest by Tobias Gundorff Boesen

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Tobias Gundorff Boesen‘s Out of a Forest is a stop-motion effort out of Denmark’s The Animation Workshop, the same school responsible for Vegeterrible, which was featured on the site a few days ago. A lot of Out of the Forest was shot on location in forests around Viborg, Denmark, and the presence of prim and proper bunnies in this natural setting lends the film a magical flavor. The film was animated by Katrine Kiilerich, Frederik Villumsen, Christophe Peladan, and Tobias Gundorff Boesen, and the song,” Slow Show,” is by The National.

The Animation Workshop’s students first caught my attention a few years back with John K. Mortensen’s short Fishing with Spinoza (2007). If Out of a Forest and Vegeterrible are an indication, the school’s Bachelor program, which only began seven years ago, is worth watching closely.

The Sunday Funnies (2/14/10)

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At the top, today’s (2/14/10) Ink Pen by Phil Dunlap (it looks like the arms/legs belong to: (1) Mickey Mouse, (2) Hippety Hopper, (3) Popeye, (4) Magilla Gorilla The Grape Ape, (5) Snagglepuss & (6) Heathcliff); in the middle, Argyle Sweater by Scott Hilburn (2/11/10); and Adam at Home by Brian Basset (2/7/10).

(Thanks, Jim Lahue and Charles Brubaker)

Winsor McCay’s Hell House

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According to Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay news blog, the so-called “Hell house” at 1811 Voorhies Ave. (between Ocean Ave. and Shore Road) — currently inhabited by a horde of insects — turns out to be a former residence of legendary cartoonist and pioneering animator Winsor McCay.

According to the blog, “…the property’s owners seek to tear down the structure and replace it with condominiums. Failing that, they’re attempting to subcontract it to the city for a new life as a halfway house or homeless shelter. What should be done is a full restoration and landmarking.” We couldn’t agree more.

(Thanks, Anne D. Bernstein)

Getting Over Him in 8 Songs Or Less on HBO2

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Last month I told you about Debra J. Solomon’s remarkable one-woman hand drawn independent animation special, Getting Over Him in 8 Songs or Less. Tomorrow night, on Valentine’s Day, the film will receive it’s television premiere on HBO2 at 7:30pm Eastern/4:30pm Pacific.

This is a beautiful, funny and poignant film – and a rarity for HBO or any U.S. broadcaster to produce. Highly recommended – set the TiVo.

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