Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- This blog stuff is amazing. History revealing itself.

Posted on the ASIFA Hollywood-Animation Archive site, today, is a most amazing document. Mark Kausler has loaned his set of bar sheets from the Rudy Ising directed short “Shuffle Off To Buffalo.” and Steven Worth has digitized them.

Bar sheets are the director’s work book used in breaking down a film musical note to musical note. Obviously, as depicted on these pages, found on the Animation Archive site, they were actually recorded on the sheet music, itself.

Over time things morphed, and there were actual bar sheets designed specifically for the director. These generally incorporated music, exposure/timing sheets and a place for action comments. Then, they seem to have dropped the musical notes.

Nowadays they seem to have dropped the workbook altogether. I try to work with them on most of my films. On Doctor DeSoto, for example, I actually built the camera moves on a waltz tempo musician, Ernest Troost, had written. I couldn’t have done this without bar sheets. They allow you to see the big picture – the movie – rather than the frames.

You can see what they look like in the Halas book Techniques of Film Animation to the left.

Here’s a set depicted in the Eli Levitan book Animation Art in the Commercial Film:

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

The bar sheets I’ve used in my studio look like the doc on the left. It allows me to see 400 frames in one glance. I can cut the track readings from the dope sheets and place them right onto the bar sheets.

The post on the Hollywood Animation Archive is a real find, especially for such an early document. Thank you Stephen Worth and Mark Kausler. Stephen’s also constructed a scene-by-scene visual breakdown and given a QT version of the cartoon to be able to better study the sheets.

What a fabulous chunk of animation history. One-stop-shopping for free.

- Here’s part 2 of the Disney Layout Training Course. Charles Philippi’s lecture on pans. I posted part 1 of this yesterday.

You’ll notice that I posted the first and third lectures of this series. I don’t have the second lecture which was given by Ken Anderson. Hans Perk, who does have the notes for this lecture, promises to post them when he gets the opportunity.
Keep a watch on his site. I will.

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- The following is part 1 of the Disney Layout Training Course’s 3rd meeting. Charles Philippi gave the lecture, and it’s a good one. It’s all about pans.

There was a time when I was working for John Hubley on Everybody Rides The Carousel where he had asked me to design a background and setup for a package to be sent out, that day, to Bill Littlejohn for animation. Fortunately, I had just read these notes the day before, and I used what I’d learned. Hubley gave me a nice compliment, and I gave it all to Charles Philippi.

Littlejohn, by the way, did one of my favorite scenes of the entire time I was at that studio. I have the large number of drawings and will someday post some of them. Beautiful animation.

This Layout course is some 18 pages long. Since that’s a job to post all 18, I’m going to break it up into two days. Tomorrow the last half will be posted.

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– New York’s Film Forum is about to start a retro- spective of Frank Tashlin‘s films. Of course, the former director of Warner Bros. cartoons turned to live-action films and became a somewhat eccentric director of unique comedies.

During the VO recording Tony Randall did for my film, Lyle Lyle Crocodile, Mr. Randall told me that he thought Frank Tashlin was the most creative director he’d ever worked with.
He used as a example a two shot from, I believe, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? Tashlin had set up a shot with Randall looking in a mirror, and the reflection of the person he was speaking to was also reflected in another mirror. However the mirrors had been arranged so that the two appeared to have their backs to each other in the reflection.

The films are only showing at the Film Forum for a day or two at most. Included, is a program of animated shorts Tashlin directed. These are on a double bill with Artists and Models (a Martin & Lewis feature.) Note that this program plays only for one day. So get your tickets. New 35mm prints.

The following features are scheduled:
Sept 1/2 FRI/SAT WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER?
SEPT 3 SUN: (Double Bill) HOLLYWOOD OR BUST and SON OF PALEFACE
SEPT 5 TUE: (Double Bill) THE LIEUTENANT WORE SKIRTS and BACHELOR FLAT

SEPT 6 WED: (Double Bill) ARTISTS AND MODELS and TASHLIN LOONEY TUNES (scheduled: Porky’s Romance, Scrap Happy Daffy, Porky Pig’s Feat, and more! )

SEPT 7 THU: (Double Bill) THE DISORDERLY ORDERLY and IT’$ ONLY MONEY

For more info on Tashlin’s films go here.
For an interview with Frank Tashlin by Michael Barrier go here.

- Amid Amidi on his Cartoon Modern site has posted some fine images by Jules Engel as prep work for 1001 Arabian Nights with Mr. Magoo. Take a look.

- Today I’m posting the Disney Layout Course which they held after hours. The first lecture was given by Tom Codrick on May 6, 1936. I have the first lecture, the third lecture by Charles Philippi and an earlier one held by Phil Dike (though this last seems to be missing two pages.)

I hope it’ll be useful. I’ll post another at a later date.

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– When I was younger it was an absolute thrill to see an animated series premiere in prime time. The very first one was The Flintstones. Hanna Barbera had succeeded with Huckleberry Hound and its spinoff shows (including Yogi Bear), and they made history with The Flintstones.

It didn’t take long for a second prime time show to premiere. Calvin and the Colonel was the darling of Charles Correll and Freeman F. Gosden who were the radio voices of Amos & Andy and had created the tv version of that show in early television. Once it was removed for racial profiling, they came up with an animated version of the same idea featuring cartoon characters.

I was as much taken by the list of artists who worked on the show as the show, itself. They were more WB & Disney people unlike the Hanna Barbera shows which initially seemed to use more of their MGM cohorts.

Look at these names in the credits: Chuck McKimson, Norm Gottfredson, Lee Mishkin, Phil Roman, John Sparey, Ben Washam, Tom McDonald, Volus Jones, Dave Weidman, Jim Davis, Bob Bemiller.
George Bruns scored the show – obviously while still working at Disney on 101 Dalmatians etc.
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The show premiered on ABC, Oct 3, 1961 at 8:30 PM and was produced by TV Cartoons which became Creston Studios for the show. (See this page at Cartoon Modern for other animated spots by this company.)

Voices: Calvin Burnside (voiced by Correll) was a big, brown bear, amiable but not very bright. Colonel Montgomery J. Klaxon (Gosden) was a fox, who was clever and not very trustworthy. Klaxon’s wife, Maggie Belle (Virginia Gregg), and Maggie’s sister was Sister Sue (Beatrice Kay). Paul Frees played Oliver Wendell Clutch, a slippery lawyer. I was a Paul Frees junky as a kid, so this show was a must see in my home.

I was young enough for the show to have had an effect on me. I’ve bought some 16mm prints of the show to see it again (before anything was available on vhs) and even a couple of cels and drawings. All memorabilia more than anything.

By the way, Topcat was the third show to premiere in prime time. how innocent things were back then.

- Tom Sito has a nice reminiscence of Friz Freleng on his blog today to celebrate Fritz’ 100th birthday anniversary.

- This story in today’s NYPost: EMMYS ‘TOON UP NOSES AT ‘PARK’

In the showdown of animated comedies, “The Simpsons” won the Emmy this weekend for best cartoon show – beating one of the most controversial episodes ever of “South Park.”
Comedy Central nominated the much talked-about “South Park” epsiode “Trapped in a Closet,” which skewered Scientology and was pulled off the air under pressure from Tom Cruise.

“Well, I guess this is what happens when you don’t mock Scientology,” said “Simpsons” co-executive producer Al Jean said afterward.

- Tom & Jerry quit smoking This is the headline in a Guardian/UK story. Apparently, all of the scenes which include smoking in the cartoons are going to be excised.

– There’s a another good article by Floyd Norman on the Jim Hill Media site.

It’s a piece about Windwagon Smith, a reminiscence by Floyd about his work on the short. It includes several good stills and a couple of decent photos of animator, Art Stevens, with assistants, Craig Williams and Floyd, himself.

I’ve always had a soft spot in my memory for this film and have watched it quite a few times. It’s the heir to Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill. The songs and corniness of Pecos Bill and the interesting visuals of Paul Bunyan. It’s the graphics I enjoyed.

I remember going to the theater to see PT 109 when I was a kid. One short wase advertised with the feature: Symposium On Popular Song Imagine my confusion when the wrong short went on, Windwagon Smith. I was a fan of Ludwig Von Drake on tv and was curious to see how they did him for theaters, and I expected the eventual Oscar nominee. I was also a big fan of Bill Justice and Xavier Atencio, who were directing mixed-media and more individual, daring shorts at the studio. I sought out their work.

Here was Windwagon Smith. Eventually, the design of the film finally pulled me in. It was also so well crafted that I ended up loving it.

And, sure enough, Symposium On Popular Song came on after it. Two for the expectation of one! I held both dear in my memory even though I see the faults in both.

Both were included on the “Treasures” dvd recently released. Unfortunately, the versions are poorly handled. Scratches from the mediocre prints show up as well as not the best tracks. To get the commentary from the Sherman brothers for Symposium, you can’t just hit an alternate audio track; you have to go back to the menu, search for extras and start the film over again. Annoying and cumbersome, and the audio track doesn’t even offer enough information about the music to make it worthwhile. Too bad they couldn’t get Floyd Norman to speak about it. That would have been a “Treasure.”

I can’t quickly locate a couple of drawings I have from this film, so I’m posting a few frame grabs and will put up the drawings at another time.

- There’s an article in Sunday’s NYTimes by Charles Solomon about Full Metal Manga the anime quest film.

- I’ve been doing a little catch up on my site stops this week and have a couple of interesting ones to point out. You’ve probably all seen these since they’re posted on the bigger animation sites, but, in case you haven’t, take a look.

– Amid Amidi has posted a Flickr set of photos of artists who worked in animation in the 1950′s. This is a companion piece to his book, Cartoon Modern and gets me even more excited about reading this book. The photos are not your usual studio pictures. The one to the left, of Aurie Battaglia was just too interesting for me not to post. (It comes from the collection of John Canemaker.)

You can see some of Battaglia‘s children’s book work posted on Shane Glines’ Cartoon Retro. Follow the chatroom link about half way down for some beautiful art.

For more stills from his film, Meet the Inventor: Robert Fulton, go to Amid’s website, Cartoon Modern. (Boy does this guy have the goods.) I have a 16mm print of this short (undoubtedly magenta by now), and it still holds up – unlike so many of the shorts from the McBoing Boing series. The art is always brilliant, but the stories often drag. This film is not The Mysterious Moustache of Raoul Dufy, but it’s still sharp.

And, finally, there’s a strange note posted on i am provincetown by his niece.

- Tonight and tomorrow night in LA, the Hollywood Bowl will be presenting Fantasia live on stage. John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra recreate the film’s music with film clips on the Bowl’s big screens.

- There’s a nifty Ward Kimball animation drawing posted at Jenny Lerew‘s Blackwing Diaries. This is always a great site to visit (as if I had to tell you.)

- The Trozo gallery has built a website to feature the paintings of the Peruvian artist, Eduardo Valdivieso. Take a look at some excellent paintings. I came to this site via Drawn, an excellent site in its own right.

There’s an article on Arthur Q. Bryan (the voice of Elmer Fudd) on AWN. This is more on this actor since Michael Barrier’s article in Funnyworld, years ago.

- Animated-News is at it again. They’ve posted another interview by Christian Ziebarth with Eric Goldberg. It’s a kitchen sink kinda interview, but it’s absolutely engaging. Glad to hear what Eric’s been up to. It’d be nice to see more of this type of interview on the site. Kudos to them; it’s always an informative read.

- On Tuesday, ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive posted a number of early UPA model sheets. These are little gems that should be studied. This site is one of the great ones out there. Everytime I visit, I end up staying for dinner – the guest they can’t get rid of.

- Last but not least is an ad for Honda Accord that took $6 million and took three months to complete. I’m not sure Rube Goldberg had intended this when he created his devices, but it’s still an interesting ad to watch. (Thanks John Dewitte.)

– Here are the remaining stills from the book by Harold Turney, “Filmguide’s Handbook to Cartoon Production”. These remaining stills show the technical parts in completing the film: camera operators, sound effects people, musicians and editors.

There are a few remaining stills in the book, but they’re predominantly shots of model sheets. All of them are available elsewhere (as are the models posted below.)

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I doubt many will be able to identify any of these people, but if you know someone, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, not too many people know who the non-animation personnel were.

In the above left we see Disney, director, Wilfred Jackson and composer, Frank Churchill. The FX man in the upper right picture is Jim MacDonald, who voiced Mickey Mouse after Disney finally gave up the role in 1946.

The following is another group of photos from my copy of Harold Turney’s book “Filmguide’s Handbook to Cartoon Production” which was made up the last two postings on this site. The remainder of the photos shows some model sheets and audio effx and technical people at work. I will probably post those tomorrow. Here’s to more people to identify.
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The bottom right photo shows pencil test camera operators at work. Nice to see a female filming, though a subsequent photo in the book shows a woman at work on final animation photography.