Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

Two people who I respected enormously died this past week. They’d both touched my life, however briefly, and I had to comment on them.

I worked with Celeste Holm when she did a VO narration for me for a five picture set I did for the United Nations.
Ms. Holm was a star, one of the big ones from the era just before mine. My mother was very impressed that I was meeting her (so was I.) Take a look at her NYTimes Obituary for information about her great Oscar-winning career.

Things started off a little rocky when she arrived late with the UN representative who went to meet her and accompany her to the studio. There was some difficulty
with traffic. I had no problem with the late start, but my recording engineer – who had never heard of Celeste Holm – asked, “Is this the talent?” as she entered the room.

There was a long introductory narration for her to read, and I suggested we try going through it once so she would get familiar with it. Ms. Holm read it with many halts and huffs and stops and starts. But her expressions were basically right on the mark. I asked her for another take. With that she said she’d worked with William Wyler on her first film, and she’d done her first scene, she felt, perfectly. However, he continued asking for take after take finally ending with take 100. He used the first take. I listened and understood she wanted to read it only the one time. I responded by saying that William Wyler deserved 100 takes, but would it be possible for me to just get two? She did it perfectly on the second take. (It WAS a hard read, written by someone at the UN, not a script writer.)

By the way, I’ve never been able to find any film she did with Wyler, yet I’m sure he’s the director she’d named.

Richard Zanuck is a producer whose work I followed for ages. From Jaws to Driving Miss Daisy; Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid to Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland he was my idea of the consummate producer. Someone who put good films together and nurtured great talent.

At one screening, I recognized him sitting in the row behind me at the Academy theater and cautiously approached to say hello. After that brief meeting we always said casual greetings whenever we saw each other. I’ll miss seeing him in the world and so will Hollywood.

I was completely under the spell of Emily Hubley’s latest film and/or, a 5½ min short poetic meditation on creativity. The film plays in a semi-abstract mode as it animates from scene to scene always moving in beautifully colorful transitions. The music, while always melodic, doesn’t hit on a theme until the old piano kicks in behind the finalized work of art. A coda of sweet animation playing out on the blank slate we’d seen at the film’s start. This is a wonderful movie with constantly repeating images and symbols. The voices change from male to female – before the idea gels and after, while a muse (female) whispers to the artist. I sat through the film three times, and it continued to grow with each viewing, and I’m sure it’ll get bigger the next time I see it.

Look for this movie on the festival circuit. It’s one of Emily’s finest, a fully developed, visually exciting movie.

music – Yo La Tengo
voices – Kevin Corrigan, Emily Hubley and Tiprin Manday
compositing – Jeremiah Dickey
sound design – Eliza Paley

This past week was a good one for movies, from my point of view. I saw what I thought were three of the best so far. Two docs and one French.

The French film, on Tuesday, was Farewell My Queen by Benoît Jacquot. It was the story of Marie Antoinette in the last days before the storming of the Bastille, as told by a young woman servant who acted as a “reader.” She read to her Queen and, therefore, had limited access to Royalty with a bit of knowledge about the politics surrounding both the King and Queen. The film was quite entertaining, seriously thoughtful about the period and certainly more illuminating than a couple of other recent films about the subject. Well acted, directed and scripted (an adaptation of the book by Chantal Thomas.

Thursday night the Academy offered a documentary double feature. I didn’t really feel up to going but pushed myself and was glad I did.

The Queen of Versailles by Lauren Greenfield told the story of a billionaire couple as they attempt to build the largest private home in the world. Construction of the private home is just a symbol for the problems this couple face as they build their house on sticks assembled on easy money with loose mortgages which collapsed with the recession in 2008. All their money collapses as well and while the husband tries to regroup the wife, acting as if she understands, continues to spend wildly and unnecessarily. The husband who works, as he says, 24/7 to rebuild his company – which is also his private funds. It’s a struggle, and the film – which starts out like a reality TV show – turns into serious questions about affluence and waste. It’s a wonderful film.

Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry is a film by Alison Klayman which focuses on the Chinese artist/activist and dissident. The film offers a sympathetic but rounded picture of this admirable artist. The artist is all about communication, and his primary theme is about the political situation within his own country. His work is well known internationally (probably more so outside of China), and we get a very intimate portrait of the man, his work and his views. While being thoroughly informative, the film reveals a lot about the society in Beijing and we get to see how changes have developed quietly over the years. Ai WeiWei, himself, says that his not being imprisoned is enough of a proof that things are changing. (He does disappear for months and is obviously affected by the arrest once he’s been released – it takes him a number of months before going back to his constant twittering.) The film could have gone much deeper than it does, but the filmmaker is obviously trying to tell the story to an audience who doesn’t know who Ai WeiWei is. It’s a primer, and a bigger film is deserving, but we do get into the human side of the artist, which is well appreciated.

I’d heartily recommend all three films to anyone looking for something intelligent and adult. They’re all three very different from each other and offer what ever mood you’re looking for at the theater. Unless, of course, you yearn for Batman rising again.

Something has hapened to animation in the past few years. The budgets keep getting lower and lower and lower. Clients have no qualms about asking you to produce a project for free. Another, producing a series of short films, asks you to do a five minute film for $2000. That’s $400 for a minute of film. And the worst part is that you not only think hard about taking it (if you don’t), but you try to calculate how much more work you’ll get from the same producer when you do a brilliant film for them.

Naturally enough, after you’ve done the job you don’t get more from them, and you have to wonder why they don’t love you any more – even though you’ve done a great job.

It’s a horrible situation we’re in. The small studios are being squeezed to death by these low budget backers and times are getting tougher.

Richard O’Connor, at his site Ace & Son, starts a dialogue about this state of affairs. Worth the read, worth adding to the commentary.

- Several years ago, I’d posted Bill Peckmann‘s xeroxed copy of Rowland B. Wilson‘s 1962 book, Whites of Their Eyes.

Bill has now sent me new scans from the book, itself, and they’re worth posting in this better state. I hope you enjoy the diversity of Rowland’s style in the wide range of cartoons he’d done by 1962.

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In 1981, nestled in their idyllic abode in the cartoonist’s and
illustrator’s haven of Westport, CT., Rowland and Suzanne Wilson
had their own British invasion…

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…It was colleagues and friends of Rowland’s that he had
worked with previously at Richard Williams Studios in London.

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Following the visit to Rowland’s house, everybody dropped by
to see Row in his room at the PK&A Studios that he shared
with Bill Frake (Standing far left) and myself. Mark Mayerson (standing far right)

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The following pencil sketches are by RBW, from about the same
time period as the visit. They were done for ‘Tang’ commercials,
Rowland designed the characters and did the BG’s.

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- Bill Peckmann sent me a host of scans today of the book which collects the comic strip Buck O’Rue as drawn by Paul Murry and Dick Huemer. The book was written by Richard P. Huemer and Germund Von Wowern.

Paul Murry was noted for his work on Mickey Mouse comic book adventure stories. Here is a small sample of that work:

Here are two examples of Murry’s Mickey Mouse art,
a cover and the first page of the story.

. . . and if you go here you’ll find another post we had featuring more of his work.

Here are Bill’s comments:

The book collection of the comic strip ‘Buck O’Rue‘ was just released. The short lived strip was done by ‘moonlighting’ Disney greats Dick Huemer and Paul Murry back in the early 1950′s.

‘Buck’ would get a super duper glowing review from me if only I knew how to write a good one! So I’ll let the book speak for itself.

There are a couple of points about the book that I would like to mention. It is a heartfelt labor of love by the authors, Richard P. Huemer, Dick Huemer’s son and knowledgeable comic’s editor/historian Germund Von Wowern. The book is three hundred pages of great information, photos and of course, the strip itself, dailies and Sundays!

Here are the introductory pages:

Book Cover

Title Page

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Table of Contents

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Foreward by Don Peri

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Besides the collected daily and Sunday strips of ‘Buck’ in this huge 300 page book, there are also many wonderful pages with bio’s of, and art from Mr. Huemer and Mr. Murry.
Here are a few samples, and what treasures they are!

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Okay cowpokes and cowgals, it’s time to set the stage for adventures of ‘Buck’…

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…and introduce the cast of characters…

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And here’s a sample of the strip . . .

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- Out of the Vincent Cafarelli collection, we’ve found another burst of UPA drawings. We know they’re UPA because there are models and animation drawings from a Mr. magoo short: “People to People.” The accompanying drawings from commercial spots and segments of the Gerald McBoing Boing Show all come on the same paper stock. The peg system is Acme not Signal Corps (which leads me to believe that some of those I called UPA in a past post are really from the Gifford Studio.)

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This model and the other Magoo pieces here are from
the short “People to People” which features a gorilla.

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Per Mark Mayerson, in the comments section, the film was retitled
Terror Faces Magoo and was directed by Chris Ishii and Jack Goodford.

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See the film here.

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This model comes with the names “Lu” and “Vinny” indicated.
Obviously Vinny Cafarelli was Lu Guarnier’s assistant.

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The following three drawings are key animation poses of the Gorilla.

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An ad for Gold Bond powder

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This is obviously a drawing of the Tworlinger Twins, a
series done for the McBoing Boing show. The NY office
seems to have done a number of pieces for the show.

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These guys look similar to the three who open
the McBoing Boing Show carrying their logo.

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A vertical pan for a Savarin Coffee spot. A sign painter
pastes a placard of the product on a billboard.

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Part of another vertical pan for the Savarin spot.

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- Bill Peckmann continues to send me treasures. Here’s a calendar by Fritz Bumgarten with illustrations that werer taken from some of his many children’s books. The guy has a beautiful stle that feels like the work of many of the Disney Silly Symphonies and the early features. That Albert Hurter feel.

The calendar’s cover

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The back cover of the calendar.

As mentioned, these 12 months’ worth of images were culled from illustrations taken from some of the books by Fritz Baumgarten. Here are the covers of some of those Baumgarten books in Bill Peckmann‘s enormous collection.

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With all the reworked versions of Snow White in Live Action that are currently bombing at the box office, Disney cancelled another one that was in production. The Order Of The Seven had Soairse Ronan cast as the Snow White-like character. The story took place in Asia and had samurais.It’s not happening anymore. This is a good time to take a look at a great sequence from the wonderful original version. I originally posted this in January, 2009.

- It’s not always easy to kill a witch. This sequence from Snow White couldn’t be designed better. It’s short, it’s tense, it’s a tight sequence that handily does its job. The witch is killed in record time. Today, the sequence would be dragged out for half the length of the film.

Some of these drawings are great.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Hans Bacher continues with his beautiful background recreations, posting a number of clean backgrounds from Snow White, yesterday, on his blog. These are gorgeous and deserve your attention.

August 11th a big show and retrospective of the work of the Quay Brothers will open at the Museum of Modern Art. Part of the exhibit will be a small puppet world within glass casings that they created called “Dormitorium.” This was actually exhibited in New York several years ago, and I photographed that presentation. I thought this might be a good time to repost it, getting us all in the mood for the world of Quay.

The Brothers Quay have an exhibition on display at Parsons School of Design, 2 West 13th Street on the ground level. It’s on exhibit from now through October 4, 2009.

Stephen and Timothy Quay claim writers Franz Kafka and Robert Walser, animators Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica, puppeteers Wladyslaw Starewicz and Richard Teschner, and composers Leoš Janácek, Zdenek Liška, and Leszek Jankowski among their influences. All of these artists can be felt with each of the constructions on display.

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On entering you see a darkened room with boxes about
the size of your torso – maybe 3′ x 4′ – on display.

Of to the side there’s a theater with constantly running films
showing Quay brother works. One of every kind of chair.

Within the boxes there are whole worlds.
Magnificent detail upon detail.

To the next box for a wholly different world.

Again the amazing detail is brought to the enclosure.

A couple of the boxes are seen through a prism.
The interior is magnified.

You have to get close to it to get real clarity.
You virtually enter these little rooms.

Some of these worlds seem enormous.

There are many closeups one could take given all there is to see.

This little scene is in the upper left box of the full view above.

The central character on the main stage.

You can get an idea of the cases and the display.
All contain their own little worlds.

Another magnifying glass focuses on a feather.

Just beyond the feathered quill there’s the writer.

The last box near the exit has a label within.

Many of the cases can be viewed
from three different perspectives.

- Politics is starting to heat up, and I’m in heaven. I’ve got the Yankees doing great and have watched Mitt Romney on the run this past week. He’s pouting that the President hasn’t been fair when his campaign suggested that Romney may have committed a felony. Those papers said he was with Bain Capitol through 2001, and Romney said he was only the President, CEO and head of the company. He wasn’t running it for the last two of those years. Hard to imagine someone who was President, CEO and Head of the company but who had nothing to do with the company. He may have been flying East for two years to attend Board Meetings, but he wasn’t involved. This Presidential season is going to be a good one.

Images © 2012, Center for Visual Music
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- This past Wednesday I went to the Whitney Museum for the installation celebration of the show Oskar Fischinger’s Raumlichtkunst (Space Light Art – A Film Environment). This is a recreation of a multiple screen film event that Fischinger developed in Germany in 1926, where it was first shown. It was recently restored by the Center for Visual Music in Los Angeles with Cindy Keefer acting as curator of the piece. Barbara Fischinger, the daughter of Oskar and Elfriede, was in attendance for the opening.

The exhibit features three full sized screens of abstract animation playing side by side by side. There are multiple media being utilized in the animation, and they all move with their own life. There is traditional cel animation, wax cutting, cut out animation and all done in multiple runs through the camera using bi-pack. The three films are looped, but they are not synchronized so that every showing is different. Working with Fischinger’s original 1920s nitrate film, the Center for Visual Music restored the 35mm film via traditional photochemical processes, then transferred them to HD, digitally restored the color, and mounted this 3 screen recreation. The music playing includes a piece by Varese and two by John Cage.

The film is screened in a small screening room with plenty of standing room and a long bench in the rear. Heidi and I had met John Canemaker and Joe Kennedy at the event, and we went in together. There were one or two people standing and about four on the bench. Just enough room for Heidi and me to squeeze onto the bench, and the woman next to me got up and left. This led to the others on the bench leaving. It left John, Joe, Heidi and me alone in the room sitting. A private screening. We were able to talk about the film as it ran and enjoyed discussing animation stuff (Ones or Fours; bi-pack; reuse working with the negative etc.) Of course, it didn’t take long for the room to take on many more people, and we quieted down. We sat through the whole thing at least twice, then went out to talk with Cindy Keefer once we saw here.

In these days when experimental film usually means representational pseudo-surrealist exercises, it’s nice to see true experimental animation. Thoughts of Hans Richter, Walter Ruttman, Viking Eggeling and other great experimenal filmmakers from the 20s in Germany run through your head and create a real desire to see more of it.

Cindy Keefer and the Center for Visual Music has to be commended for the restoration of thispiece. It feels every bit a part of the 21st Century even though it was created more than 80 years ago. It’s very much in keeping with other exhibits currently on view at the Whitney.

You can purchase some of Fischinger’s work on line – here.
And, by all means, if you’re in New York get to the Whitney to see this film. It will be there until October 28th.

- The next night, Thursday, I saw the latest installment of Ice Age in 3D. Talk about wanting experimental films back again. As a matter of fact, I really didn’t want to go to it, but went just the same. The crowd at the Academy screening room totalled no more than 10 people, maybe 4 members, 3 of us animators. (Where were the other dozen animation members?) I walked out of Ice Age 3 so expected I might do the same this time around. The story on that one was dreadful.

All the same, this film. Ice Age 4, was actually modestly entertaining with a hit and miss script loaded with many bad jokes. All of the film’s humor (except for the annoying Scrat character) were verbal jokes – not quite what I’d aim for in animation. There were spurts of good animation and excellent performances by some of the voice actors. Others like Ray Romano, Queen Latifah and Denis Leary aren’t actors, so the performances we get are not very good. John Leguizamo and Wanda Sykes are good, but Peter Dinklage gives the film’s best performance. As a matter of fact, whoever animated his character, the Pirate leader, does the film’s best animation as well. It made the film worth watching.

I’ve always liked the art direction of Blue Sky so had no problem settling in to that world, and John Powell‘s music was, as expected, first rate and professional. However, I do somehow wish that the Blue Sky films had more of a sense of lyricism, a tighter synch with the musical score. They never seem to quite get that part of the animation world, a part that can be the magic in a film if it’s done well.

I thought this was worth seeing, but not worth rushing to. It’s probably the same review I’d give Madagascar 3 if I’d seen it, and I’ll see it toward the end of the year when the Academy gets around to screening all the animated features for us.

The NYTimes starts with an extremely positive review, but that’s for a Simpsons short that plays with Ice Age 4. Then it turns quite negative with A.O. Scott‘s review disliking the feature.

“They come close to inspiring a new theory of prehistoric extinction: All those species clearly died from the hot air that gathered in the atmosphere as a result of their inability to shut up for even a minute.
“It may be too much to expect novelty — then again, why shouldn’t we? — but a little more conviction might be nice. “Continental Drift,” like its predecessors, is much too friendly to dislike, and its vision of interspecies multiculturalism is generous and appealing.”

And Elizabeth Weitzman in the NYDaily News also is down on the film:

Something has surely gone wrong when there is not a single moment in “Ice Age: Continental Drift” that equals the four-minute “Simpsons” short that precedes it.

Likewise Kyle Smith‘s negative review in the NYPost:

The best part of “Ice Age 4” happens before it begins, with a funny five-minute short featuring the Simpsons.

- When you’re making a film called POE, people tend to give you Poe stuff. My sister, a while back, gave me the stamp pictured above when the US Post Office released it. I just thought I’d share it with you.

In the meantime we’re working away at the opening. I’ve finally got a storyboard I like and we’re now finishing off the animatic and will begin animating it very soon. It’s got a tight deadline since we’d like to have it ready to go to Toronto to try selling at the film festival in September.

Mike Barrier gives us the second part of the Phil Monroe interview. A solid read. He also reviews Brave. Some things are worth waiting for.

- The GIRAF Animation Festival has a final call out for submissions. The deadline for submission is August 1, 2012. I was curious about the Festival and when they asked that I try to help get the word out, I thought why not. I like that it’s in Calgary. Wasn’t that the place where they shot all those SCTV shows?

So here’s the info from their email:

The 8th annual GIRAF (or the Giant Incandescent Resonating Animation Festival) is looking for Animation submissions, in all styles, genres, lengths, and mediums. Our programs are a strong eclectic mix of animation, representing the best of the medium from Claymation to CG. We focus on presenting indie, experimental, and underground animations that push boundaries through new techniques, unique visions, and stimulating subject matter. Our 2011 program featured visiting artist David O’Reilly, and 3 of the 5 Academy Award nominees for Best Short Animation!

We DO NOT CHARGE A SUBMISSION FEE, and encourage short and feature length local, national, international, and student submissions.

Animators can submit online at: www.giraffest.ca

A couple of years ago I’d posted some cartoons from Rowland B. Wilson‘s 1962 book, Whites of Their Eyes. (You can see two of them at: part 1 and part 2.) However these posts were from a xeroxed copy of the book and the quality was a bit shabby.

Bill Peckmann now has a copy of the book and has sent me new scans of these great cartoons. Bill writes:

It’s kind of hard to believe that this 1962 collection of Sat. Eve. Post, the New Yorker and Esquire gags are from the beginning, formative years of Row’s early career. He was only 32 years old when this book came out. Most of us would be happy to top off a career with this kind of exceptional work.

The book’s dustcover

The actual book’s embossed hard cover.

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Here is an upbeat ’1984′ happening. Two legends in their own time, Carl Barks and Rowland Wilson, got to meet each other for the first time in Carl’s home town of Grants Pass Oregon. It was definitely a mutual admiration society!

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left to right, Gare Barks, Rowland, Carl and Suzanne Lemieux Wilson.

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The Barkses were then kind enough to introduce us to their good friend,
cartoonist Russell (Broom-Hilda) Myers and his wife.

L. to r. Gare, Mrs. and Mr. Russ Myers, Carl, Suzanne and Rowland.

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L. to r. Bill Peckmann, Russ and wife, Carl, Suzanne and Rowland.

- Since the Little Mermaid sequel – no wait, it’s a prequel – just aired on Disney Jr. a few days ago, I thought this a good time to post some of Kay Neilsen ‘s illustrations done for Disney back in the 30′s when they were initially thinking of doing the Andersen tale as a film. These frame grabs come from the extras on the Platinum Edition of the dvd.

(Click any image to enlarge)