Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

Here are a small group of photos by Steve Fisher. A typical night in New York.

______________________________

Brother and Sister Try To Keep Fire House Alive

Maxine Fisher and her brother, Steve Fisher, took on Queens and the local politics.

You see, a while ago the Queens, local fire house located at 59-29 68th St., was quickly approaching its 100th – year – anniversary in 2014. Maspeth-born Steve Fisher and his sister, Maxine Fisher, refused to accept the behind-the-scenes decision to close this fire house. Despite the fact that it was quickly approaching the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to grant the firehouse landmark status, the last possibility for the firehouse and all those connected with it. It is a fire house that was instrumental in fighting the 911 disaster and being awarded for their participation in facing closure.

There was a last minute pitch to keep it alive the past Thursday (Sept. 18th), and the fight was married to the typical community array of local issues. Some publicity, a lot of letters from 911 families who were helped by the firehouse and their workers added to the pulse of the issue. But, at this point, it’s unsure whether three was enough to keep things going.

At the very least, one local pair of siblings did their very best to keep their community part of a living, thriving world.

Read more about it here.

This is what you can do in your community if you’re determined to participate.

____________________

Tom Sito Hits NY

Tom Sito arrived in New York this past weekend. He and I tried to get together but our schedules conflicted just a bit too much, and it didn’t happen. He was here on a book signing to promote his new book, Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation.

I was curious to go since Tom is purely a 2D cel animator. He has animated on Beauty and the Beast, Roger Rabbit, Aladdin and many others. He’s also co-directed Osmosis Jones as well as the Click and Clack series for PBS.I wanted to see how much knowledge he could have of cgi, and I was quite surprised. He seemed to have really known his stuff. Now I really want to read that book.

Tom’s past books include: Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation U-nions and Timing for Animation which was co-authored with Harold Whitaker.

Tom spoke at the School of Visual Arts on Monday and NYU on Tuesday evening. He then went to Boston to speak at Harvard on Wednesday.

____________________

Rising Wind

I’ve got my eyes pasted to the NYFilm Festival ticket sales. I want to see that new Miyazaki film, The Wind Rises, which opens in theaters November 8th. I’d go crazy if this won the 2013 Oscar. In my book, beating out The Croods and Monsters University shouldn’t be too tough. I want to be first in line to see it at Lincoln Center. Somehow, though, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Bill Plympton gave the film a negative review the other day on his website, Scribble Junkies. Either there’s too much talk for Plympton or he’s worried about it competing with his own feature for the award. I don’t think Bill is officially releasing Your Cheatin’ Heart this year, but it’s still this thing he’s got going about competition with the rest of the world.
____________________

Prisoners Chat up

Academy members got a nice treat this past Thursday evening. There was a screening of the film, The Prisoners which had an all-star cast. The good news was that a large blast of the cast attended a Q&A after the film. The cast included: Huh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Melissa Leo, Viola Davis, Terrance Howard, and Paul Dano. The even better news was that the movie was good. Too tense to look at the watch, the film still made it to 2 1/2 hours. I can definitely recommend it.

Moderator, Patrick Harrison for the Academy

Hugh Jackman-Maria Bello-Jake Gyllenhaal

Hugh Jackman

Jake Gyllenhaal

Maria Bello

Maria Bello and Jake Gyllenhaal

Melissa Leo

Paul Dano

Terrance Howard

Viola Davis – Terrance Howard – Melissa Leo

Viola Davis

_______________________

and Pieces

I’ve been just a bit disturbed lately. About animation. I haven’t found much about animation that I really want to write about. Except maybe I have to say that I miss 2D animation. Really good 2D animation. It all seems to be about history. Images from Pinocchio or Beauty and the Beast or some other image from the past. That’s all I seem to be posting lately. I guess because in a large part because I miss the good stuff. I mean I don’t really care about Monsters University or The Croods or any of these things being offered. I miss animation where every single drawing is something that had to be drawn. We just don’t have that much anymore, and I have to think about what I have to say. That’s a terrible thing to have to admit, but what else can I do? I miss really good animation and hope to have a lot to write about with Ernest and Celestine or A Letter to Momo or The Wind Rises because that gets me excited. I understand very well what Mike Barrier had to say a couple of months ago, when he talked about what he was writing when the spirit’s not in you. I’m certainly there, too.

NYC – Pt 3

Continuiing with Mr. Sasek’s beauty of a book giving us a splendid tour of New York. (This post was started on Sept. 13 here.)

This is New York – part 3, the last part.

pages 38 & 394-6

pages 40 & 41

pages 42 & 43

Continuing with Mr. Sasek’s fine book giving us a splendid tour of New York. (This post was started on Sept. 13 here.)

This is New York – part 3

pages 36 & 37

pages 38 & 39

pages 40 & 41

pages 42 & 43

In the past couple of weeks I’ve taken advantage of the new marvelous book by Tod Polson, a stunning publication for Chronicle Books on the design work done for animation. The Noble Approach, Maurice Noble and the Zen of Animation Design.

I gave some of the book’s many illustrations center stage and have enjoyed doing that. One day, I even posted art that came from J. B. Kaufman‘s two books on Snow White, The Fairest of them all and The Creation of Snow White and the 7 Dwarves. Can there be two more beautiful works of animation art than the throne on which the wicked Queen sits?

In the up coming week I hope to continue on through the Noble book, to take a deeper look at the book while more thoroughly giving critical attention to the films. I’ve barely touched on the work he did for WB, bypassing the tentative approach to the dominating final work. At the same time, I hope to look at Chuck Jones’ artwork and his dependence on others while allowing himself to break through a number of strong animation barriers. It will be fun for me – that is, until it isn’t.

Once we get to MGM and Tower 12 Productions things have changed and Noble spent a lot of time bringing those films to life. The two did dominate a wing of the studio with the Road Runner films making some of them among the great films of history.

I’d also started a series of posts on others. There’s one ongoing series featuring Ralph Steadman and over-sized material in his book. Steadman has such a large output of brilliant work it was purely by chance that we went to Alice. My wife, Heidi, is currently directing a theatrical production of Alice in Wonderland. Her research has forced open quite a few books on Dodgson’s thinking process. Top of the heap, open to a sublime image, I found myself an acolyte standing in a master’s garden wholly helpless in improving to match this genius of an artist.

So, I did start to post Alice images from that one book (and that’s the only well from which I’ll draw from. There’s a lot there, all in the raw waiting to be seen by you.

The Chronical book, Sketchbook of the Independents Animators it is also entirely encouraging and improvisational. However, I’m not sure that meets my needs for animation art. I see it more as a way of getting back to the drawing board. Unfortunately, I don’t find these artists as great as many others though there is brilliance among the mundane, I will try not to miss any if that great work.

I had started to write about The Quay Brothers. These twins come from Philadelphia and have worked out of Europe. There life’s work is on display at the Museum of Modern Art, and it is greatness desplayed in all its glory.

Finally, there is Sassek. Bill Peckmann sent me a book he did, and then another. Both were overloaded children’s which made for some fin multi-post selections. I loved Paris and had to reveal some wonderful pieces. What a treat. It feels as though Sassek was inspired by the earnest, brilliant artist, Ben Shahn. Recently, critics have taken apart Shahn’s work – he’s suddenly too political. That, to me, is the backbone and cause célèbre of Shahn’s paintings. Someone not demanding, along the whims of many others all fits together and helps create the 20th Century in Art.

Perhaps a couple of small posts I can offer will give some indication of that art. I hope it all will work as a schema. I think it will. Starting with some of the work I’ve already offered. Now to the meat.

Back on July 17th, I started posting this wonderful book. There were too many interruptions and the book didn’t get its fair deal. It’s a wonderful book full of post- Ben Shahn artwork. With all the interruptions, I’ve been destroying the book; it has a flow that’s been all but lost. So I’ve decided to start anew. And that will start with this post.

This is NY – Part 1


Cover

Front & Back Covers

pages 4 & 5

pages 6 & 7

pages 8 & 9

pages 10 & 11

pages 12 & 13

pages 14 & 15

pages 16 & 17

pages 18 & 19

pages 20 & 21

pages 22 & 23

I am a fan of the work of John Ford. If I’m caught catching a minute of one of his films, you’ll see me stay through to the end. Likewise I have almost as great a respect for the animation design work of Maurice Noble.

It never fails. I get to the point where I’ve just about run out of hope for animation, and I feel like the greatest pessimist in the world. When I say “animation,” I mean 2D. Every frame is controlled by one person. The rest – cgi – is, to me a graphic effect, electronic puppetry. I’m certainly not talking about the overacted cg action you see in most films done today. Most animation to me, these days, is something that’s done in a computer by teams of people, and isn’t wholly designed as “personal.” There are, of course, the exceptions. When something like THE LIFE OF PI shows up, it feels like magic; the magic you expect of great animation.

There’s just too much of everything in most current animation; even the flash Mickey Mouse spots go too fast with their Zips, Pans, Takes; the simplest move seems to go over the edge. Gestures are bigger than they need be, actions are over the top, dialogue is too loud and frenzied unless it wants to be quiet – then, it really is dead. The animator became that big red button they have at “Staples.” You press it and the client can fix what he has to – his way. The poetry has vanished from the art form when this animation begins. Too bad there’s no personality in those big red buttons.

_________________

John Ford made some of the most beautiful movies we have on film. Many of these are Westerns, Westerns which notably featured some of the most extraordinary, natural land masses photographed. The incredible buttes and sights appear in the Arizona Desert, called “The Painted Desert”, and whether they were shot in the glorious golds, violets and other colors or even shot in B&W they add extraordinary sights to these films. If they weren’t already there, constructed and painted by some god, Ford would have had to have a mass of people construct these images.

Working to a better advantage is the art director Maurice Noble who created his original version of the “Painted Desert” mostly out of his own imagination. I suspect he and a couple of other artists were all it took to develop these animated scenics: far fewer people and a lot less time.

As I said, Noble’s desert was original, a recreation of the actual “Painted Dessert” but one that developed out of Noble’s imagination. These are almost as beautiful as the real thing, in that “design-y” way Noble’s art had.

So here we have two film plans. Elaborate impersonal scenery that was designed by Mother Nature, vs the personal designs delicately designed by Maurice Noble. Both are very different but have similar effects on the films they inhabited. A personal world Ford shares with us and another that Noble constructs for the backdrops of the Coyote and Road Runner. Both set designs are larger than life and full of that very-same-life. It’s in gloriously wonderful color (even thoughmany of these sets were shot in B&W) it’s just the beginning of the strength of these films. We’ll look further to see what more has been offerred to us in their films.

It was on Friday that two kittens got lost underground on the NYC Subway tracks. It stopped and entire track line for over two hours until the kittens were caught and retreieved. I thought
it apprporiate to repost this post from four years back. It took some four hours to keep the subway closed until they retreieved the kittens.

- I’ve often been curious about the generation that lived through the late 30′s early 40′s. The animated cartoons that were made during this roughly six year period often feature enormously cute characters going through cute storylines. The audiences must have loved it considering the fact that there are so many of these films, including Oscar nominees and winners.

Lend A Paw, The Milky Way, Merbabies, Wynken Blynken and Nod, Two Little Pups, and any of the Sniffles cartoons all featured good animation and high prduction values but terminally cute material.

The Three Orphan Kittens of 1935 was an Oscar winner and as cute as all getout. Not only are these mischievous kittens, but they’re also orphans. The film was directed by David Hand and featured a seuquence by Ken Anderson in which floorboards were animated to try to capture the illusion of 3D.

A number of children’s books were produced from this material, and I offer here the illustrations from one smaller-sized book. It was originally published in 1935 and was obviously such a success that it was reprinted in 1949.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Innercover front and back.

The title page.

1 2

3

4 5

6

7

8 9

10

11

12 13

14 15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

The back cover.

Here are a couple of preproduction drawings done for the film.

It’s interesting to compare this material with the excellent shorts by Simon Tofield featuring Simon’s Cat. Both utilize pet cats as the featured star; both are lightyears apart from each other. They’re both representative of their time. Two different kinds of cuteness. One works today.

Noblesse Oblige

I can’t tell you how pleased I am to have received the biography of master designer, Maurice Noble by author, Tod Polson. The book has been one I’ve anticipated of for quite some time. I must admit a bit of disappointment in the number of illustrations throughout, but there’s still plenty there to write about, and I will take two posts combined to review this important book.

_________________________

Late Nite Mystery

While in the hospital a week ago, I didn’t sleep very much. One channel in NYC, CBS, has been replaced by Time Warner and they’re predominantly showing older children’s fare late night. A number of the Pixar features including Cars, A Bug’s Story and a few other unimportant pieces were shown along with several independently produced odd films.

Only one feature really stood out for me. It looked like a Mexican version of Alice in Wonderland almost as though it were drawn by Bunuel and combined with some eccentric live action. It blended very eccentric cg animation with live action, and 2d art that was beautifully drawn and felt purely original. At one point a screen full of characters that looked as though they’d been drawn by the early Picasso, moved across the frame. The black line art was almost blown out by the overexposed whites, and it certainly was purposefully done.

Small groups of simply dressed people move through the screen, and they all looked like poor Mexicans.

I’ve searched to find the title of the movie, but haven’t had any luck. I’m sure it had a French title. If this sounds at all familiar, let me know. I’d like to own a copy and would like to write more coherently about the movie.

_________________________

Almond Milk

I’ve really taken to a couple of simply drawn animated spots by Blacklist / Studio AKA. The art directors are: Lindsey Butterwick, Danica Conneely, and Michael Fiore. The spot seems to be be cgi trying to cover the look of 2D animation, and they’re very successful, to me. Gently composed commercials that always feel positive and happy.

They also seem to there no matter what channel you turn to.

Here are some for Ralph Steadman’s rose painters. from his unique Alice in Wonderland illustrated.