Monthly ArchiveNovember 2013



Daily post 24 Nov 2013 12:38 pm

MS. Found from Michael

Being the luckiest of people, I had a spill down an escalator and met a wall with 10 steel grids on it. Tried to reshape my face and of course, it hasn’t, unfortunately. But don’t worry. I’ll be back soon, writing.

So-

See ya real soon!

M-I-C-K-E-Y

Why? Because I probably like you.

S-P-O-R-N

Daily post 17 Nov 2013 11:58 pm

Don’t worry, I’m not done with the blog.

I’ve got some things planned and it could be as soon as tomorrow that I pass them along.
I’ve had some weird stuff going on in my life and I’m just trying to get past it.

Hang in there.

Michael

Daily post 13 Nov 2013 01:00 am

Good Will and Great Cartoons

Yesterday’s blog post was something I needed to write for myself.

Animation, as far as I can see hasn’t been going as well as I’d like. The good films have been few and far between.

During my career, I’ve been asked to be involved in a number of fine films. However, it’s the luck of the draw to be involved in good movies, also the power of your own abilities. I can’t tell you how many films, bad films, that have requested my help and participation. Also good films. They’ve been few and farther between, but they’ve been there.

The moment Weston Woods asked me to work on The Man Who Walked Between the Towers I knew this was a good one. It took me about five seconds to read the script and know it was great, and I knew I was working on a winner. There are other films that had the opposite reaction for me, and I was correct there as well.

Yesterday I wrote about a film I was asked to participate in. I knew the very second I saw the project that it would make a great film. None of the story stuff I wrote about – 60,000 flyer pilots (just a metaphor) coming to the rescue – was actually in the film. But the result is the same. The film is a feel good moment, and I know it will make a very good film. Even, god help me, if I’m not allowed to be part of it. It’s a good movie with a good story line. I just hope I am part of it, because I like it enormously.
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My point, here, is this. Please allow me the use of Miyazaki for my example. The man is a good = no, take that back, a great filmmaker. He not only knows a good film, but he knows how to make them better. The films ha makes become automatically better. He has something to say; he finds curious and complicated ways of telling those stories, and when he is part of a project he gets the most of the story.

He knew he had to make it a children’s film with the simplest of story directions. He had to reach the largest possible audience and be direct. He was, and the film he made was an unmitigated success.

With The Wind Rises he has made an adult film it’s the only way he could tell this tale. He also complicates the structure of the story, and despite the fact that he will not get the largest possible audience, he wants to be sure every aspect of the complicated story is told. This he does. He ignores a large section of the audience for the sake of making a richer story.

His work on the two films, in my mind, can only be seen as the work of a genius. His story is as full as it can ever become, yet he disappoints a small part of the audience searching for the obvious. I can only credit the man, the artist. I also take away very deep lessons about his artistry and what he wanted to do with it. I’ve seen Ponyo half a dozen times with full joy. With The Wind Rises, occurring post Tsunami and post nuclear meltdown, I am sure he has plenty to tell me, and I will see it again and again until I’ve gotten all of its pleasure.

Most prominently I believe he wants to be heard about man’s inhumanity to man. Despite all the natural disaster and chaos in our lives, he uses a man intent on carrying out the best war to get the full tale told. His method is enough to make me tear up, his story goes even deeper.
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So back to that film that I praised last night. The one that asked me participate in telling a sad and deep story. I am beside myself with joy at having been asked. I hope I remain connected with it. I am honored at having been asked. If I am allowed to continue with it, I will do my very best. If I am not allowed to continue through to the end,I’ll watch and have my opinion, and that’s one opinion I’ll keep to myself.

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It’s been a few days since I posted some artwork. Here are some piece I repost which were taken from the collection of Vincent Cafarelli. I’m curently sitting in his desk at Buzzco, so I’d like to see more of the great art that passd his way during the heyday of the commercial in NYC.

Among Vince Cafarelli‘s remaining artifacts there are lots of bits and pieces from several Piels Bros. commercial spots. I decided to put some of it together – even though they’re not really connected – into this one post.
There are animation drawings I’ll try to post in other pieces.

Here, we have a storyboard for a spot; I believe this is an abbreviated spot promoting some contest Piels beer was running. I think this is from a shortened version of a one minute spot since there are animation drawings which are obviously from the same setup, but they’re not part of this storyboard. (There’s an unveiling of the barrel, which is upside down.)

Since the boards are dated 1957, and given the use of signal corps pegs, I believe these were done for UPA.

Regardless, the drawings are excellent. I presume they’re hand outs to Lu Guarnier, animating, and Vince Cafarelli, assisting.

SmStoryboardHawaiian1 1

StoryboardHawaiian2 2

The following are three drawings from the opening scene of this storyboard. Others from this scene weren’t saved.


B1 1
Here’s Bert.

B35 2

H1 3
And here’s a single drawing of Harry from the scene.

Let’s follow that with layout drawings from two different spots. The first doesn’t really offer much, but the quality of the clean-ups and the drawing is first rate. I’m pleased to post it:

LayoutsA-B1a 1a

LayoutsA-B1b 1b

LayoutsA-B2 2

LayoutsA-B6 6

Here are layout drawings for the second of the two spots I have in hand. I presume this is also a spot promoting that contest.


LayoutsA-B21 1

LayoutsA-B23 3

LayoutsA-B24 4

LayoutsA-B27 7

LayoutsA-B28 8

LayoutsA-B29 9

- Here’s one of the scenes saved by Vince Cafarelli from a commercial he did while at Goulding-Elliott-Graham. The commercial was animated by Lu Guarnier, and Vinny was the assistant on it. Hence, he saved the rough drawings (instead of Bert Piels. (Sorry I don’t know what he’s saying, though I’m looking for the storyboard.)

So, here are Lu’s rough drawings in this CU


Harry2 2

Harry3 3 Harry4 4

Harry5 5

Harry9 9

Harry1010 Harry1111

Harry19 19

Harry2020 Harry2121

Harry2222 Harry2323

Harry25 25

Harry26 26

Harry34 34

Harry3535 Harry3636

Harry37 37

Harry38 38

Harry45 45

Harry4646 Harry4747

Harry4848 Harry4949

Harry52 52

Harry5353 Harry5454

Harry5555 Harry5656

Harry57 57

The following QT movie was made by exposing all drawings on twos
except for the extreme positions that were missing inbetweens.
For those, I dissolved from one extreme to the next.

It drove me crazy that Lu Guarnier always animated on top pegs.
Next week with the last of these three posts on this Piels Bros commercial, I’ll talk about Lu’s animation and some of my pet peeves.

Here’s the last of the three posts I’ve been able to cull from the drawings left behind in Vince Cafarelli‘s things. The 60 second spot was animated by Lu Guarnier and clean-up and assisting was by Vinnie.

Within this post there are drawings from two separate scenes. If you look at the storyboard (I’d posted the entire board in another post, but I’ve pulled the particular frames from the board to show again here), you can see what it is the characters are saying. I don’t have all the drawings for these two scenes; just those I’ve posted.

I’m also going to use these drawings of Lu’s to write about his style of animation. I was taught from the start that this was completely done in an incorrect way. I don’t mean to say something negative about a good animator, but it is a lesson that should be learned for those who are going through the journeyman system of animation.

bkdwnChartARight from the get-go I had some difficulty assisting Lu’s scenes. He started in the old days (early-mid Thirties) at Warner Bros, in Clampett’s unit, and moved from there to the Signal Corps (Army); then to New York working at a few studios before landing at UPA’s commercial studio. After that, he free lanced most of his career, as had so many of the other New York animators. They’d work for six months to a year at one studio then would move on to another.

I suspect the problems in Lu’s animation all generated from the training he’d gotten at WB. Lu worked in a very rough style. No problem there. An animator should work rough. These drawings posted aren’t particularly rough, but in his later years (when I knew him) there was hardly a line you could aim for in doing the clean-up. His style was done in small sketchy dashes that molded the character. Rarely was it on model, and always it was done with a dark, soft leaded pencil. There were others who worked rougher, Jack Schnerk was one, but Lu’s drawing was usually harder to clean up.

There was a rule that came out of the Disney studio, and, as both an animator and an assistant, I’ve followed it closely. When doing the breakdown charts (those ladders to the right of the drawing) all inbetween positions had to be exactly half way between drawing “A” and drawing “B”. If the animation called for it to be 1/4 of the way, you’d indicate that half-way mark then indicate your 1/4. If a drawing had to be closer or farther away – say 1/3 or 1/5th of the way – the animator should do it himself. This, as I learned it, was the law of the land. However, Lu would rarely adhere to it, and an assistant’s work became more complicated. The work was too easily hurt by a not-great inbetweener. I’ll point out an example of Lu’s breaking this rule as we come to it).

The First scene

Bd1 bd.1

h1a H1

b7 B7

b35 B35
These ladders are done correctly, per the Disney system.
#34 is half way between #32 & #35;
#33 is half way between #32 & #34.
#36 is half way between #35 & #38;
#37 (the 1/4 mark) is half way between #36 & #38.
However, Grim Natwick told me
- demanded of me –
that all ladders should appear on the lower numbered drawing.
The ladder here should be on drawing #32 for all art
going into the upcoming extreme, #38.
Lu never followed this rule, which means the
assistant generally had to search for the chart.

The Second scene

Bd2 bd.2

b108B108
This ladder is typical of Lu’s animation.
It would seem that #106 is 1/3 of the way between #108
and #105 is half way between #106 and #109.
and it also looks like #107 is 2/3 of the way between #108 and #109.

Because the numbers come on the last of the extremes, here,
more confusion is allowed to settle in.

b114B114

h1b H1

h4 H4

h9 H9
Again, the ladder appears on the later extreme. The assistant
shouldn’t have to go looking for it. The ladder should be on
the first drawing involved in the breakdown.
Again, the breakdown drawings are on 1/3′s, and
the inbetweens are 1/2′s of that. It makes it harder on the
people following up on the clean-up & inbetweens.

h14 H14

h19 H19

h28 H28

hm33 H33

hm34 H34


I don’t know if this style of Lu’s was a product of where he learned to animate or not. Jack Schnerk, a comparable animator – whose work I loved (even though he had a rougher, harder to clean up drawing style) – always broke his timing in halves and halves again. There were times when his animation went to one’s and he did most of all the drawings. I assumed he had an unusual timing, and he didn’t want to burden the Assistant with his schema. He also always carried the breakdown charts on the earlier numbered drawing – per Grim Natwick’s comment. In some way I felt that Lu was rushed to get on with the scene, and whatever method he used would be to get him there more quickly. (It was the assisting that was slowed down.) This may have been a product of his attempts to devise some type of improvisation in the animation. Lu’s work, on screen, was usually excellent, so he didn’t much hurt anything in his method.

It might also have been his method of trying to put SNAP into the animation. This was a WB trait from the mid-late Thirties. It was certainly in Lu’s animation. No doubt a hold-over from Clampett’s early days of directing.

The final thing to note is that Lu usually worked on Top Pegs. Animating on Top Pegs makes it impossible to “roll” the drawings and check on the movement of more than 3 drawings. You can only “flip” the three, checking the one inbetween, but it didn’t give you a good indication of the flow of the animation. This is obviously necessary in animating on paper. It also made it difficult for the cameraman as well as those following behind the animator. If there were a held overlay, this would have to be on bottom pegs since the animation is on top pegs. That requires extra movement of the expensive cameraman to change all the animation cels after lifting the bottom pegged overlay. It also risks the possible jiggling of the overlay as it’s continually moved for the animating cels.

Commentary 12 Nov 2013 04:48 am

The New Film

It is three in the morning and I’m in great pain.

Yesterday I met someone who is going to allow me to work on her film. It is a genius of an earth shattering film, and I am desperate to start on it. I hurt myself waking in the middle of the night banging my leg against the coffee table. Two hours later and it still hurts. I went to bed with this woman’s notion of an idea in my head, and it hasn’t stopped ringing in. I will kill myself to make this film now, soon, quickly. It needs to be made. Immediately. Now.

I cried because I thought the audience wouldn’t give it the necessary third round of applause. But they did. Again and again and again and more. They saw the film we had made in my dream.

I am going to make an 11 minute short film with Mimi Brennan and praise god she came to me with it. It is the film I was made to make – with her, of course. I didn’t know you yesterday; today you have changed my life.

No, I won’t write about it again. But I will make sure every eye who sees me in the future will see this movie. Thank you god for giving me the time and the space. Thank you Mimi Brennan for coming to see me with your brilliant, great movie idea.

Thank you Heidi for supporting me. You took me back into the bed, though I was soaking wet and you understood my desperate need to make great a little piece of Art.

Commentary 11 Nov 2013 03:43 am

Dead Letter Office

I tried hard, no, very hard to watch A Letter from Momo at the DVD box nearest me. This is an animated feature that G Kids, an organization that has taken on the task of distributing more adult-like film geared, now, toward children and has put films into running for nomination for the Oscar in recent year’s competition. Unfortunately,it wasn’t probable as my eyes see it, saw it and hope not to have to view it again. Momo is a good example of what they’re trying to put forward as intelligent prototype, but instead is more tedious.

I, on the otherhand, respect MOMO but wonder about its notion of excellence.

Ageless and not happy, the slow moving Anime-inspired animation they choose continues forward. Though there’s so little to say in some of these films. It’s tiresome and might I say tedious.

I sat through the film twice and actually considered a third viewing, but no, that wouldn’t have helped it for me; a lot of competent and tireless work moves ever forward. There’s too little to take with it. This is certainly uninteresting for children and I can’t imagine, many adults entertained, either. I wish I could say more for a film that puts so much work into its heart.This film should have started in live action and stayed that way. Any effects might have been more effective.

As one who prefers his animation straight (when Princess Mononoke over Tex Avery or The Illusionist over – god help us – Wall-E.

castaway
As long as we’re making odd comparisons, let’s continue for a bit more fun:
When the young Bob Hoskins overtakes his own performance as a live actor to compete with his own alter ego, that of that Hollywood’s biggest star and in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and makes much less of him for the future in film. From Back to the Future to Piranha 3D to attracts as many people as Angels in the Outfield and even the brilliant Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Only Christopher Lloyd could take a live action version of his animated self and be bigger. This is Hollywood with a capital STARDOM.

Well, back to that visit with Momo. Please send me a counter commentary if you have anything to say about it.

Here’s to Lloyd and Hoskins and other true geniuses who could understand what a Zemeckis wanted in these waters. A brilliant director who creates a four-way pass for Tom Hanks to break your heart. And he moves onto trash like Scrooge or Death Becomes Her to shed a tear for Hollywood.

God Bless that director who gives us a four-way crossing for Tom Hanks to break our collective hearts over the loss of Hollywood – now just another place for FedEx to stop and recall the dearth of Hollywood.

Daily post 09 Nov 2013 09:26 pm

Your Alice

Just who was ALice?

streepThis little girl who walked about with the intelligentsia of mid nineteenth Century Oxford. And she affected them all somehow. Charles Dodgson in a skiff took her boating on the Thames, posing as the writer Lewis Carroll, and told her stories of herself and the world that really didn’t exist in her mind but rather in Carroll’s. It took a hundred years for one of the greatest playwrights of our time, Dennis Potter, to make a movie of her older self looking back on the past years of a “Dream Child.” She inspired artists like all of the greatest with Raiph Steadman filling up volumes and volumes of illustrations with pictures of a good little girl acting bad. That slight resemblance to Meryl Streep who played Alice for Eve La Gallienne. It’s all too in-bred, artistically. Ask Robert Wilson who could barely get his character of Alice to pose for his photographs. Tom Waites wrote songs and a German theater troupe sung them.

The girl owes us nothing. She played the part for a small time minister and has happily lived through history of Art. She was not even a model for Picasso or Braque or Cezanne. Yet she changed history.

Tomorrow more of Ralph Steadman’s brilliance. That’s what I’ll post.

She was just a small child playing Cockaboody.

Animation &Books &Disney &Illustration 09 Nov 2013 02:31 pm

Waking UP

Q11

Q2 - Copy2

Q4 - A - Copy3

QA64

QA55

QA66
I’m still Here by Tom Waite and Kahleen Brenan

QA87
You haven’t looked that way in years you dreamed me up and left me here.

leaves18
How long was it you wanted me for you haven;t looked at me that way in years.

leaves29
Your watch has stopped and the pond is clear.

leaves310
Someone turn the lights back on I’ll love you til all time is gone

leaves411
You haven’t looked atr me that way in years.

leaves512
But I’m still here.

leaves613

leaves714

leaves815

leaves916
Song from Alice by Robert Wilson. Song by Tom Waite and Kathleen Brennan]

leaves1017
(photos by Steve Fisher)

Daily post 08 Nov 2013 04:44 am

The Terror

The list of film on the animation short lis for Best Animated Short Film include:
The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:

Feral, Daniel Sousa, director, and Dan Golden, music and sound design (Daniel Sousa)
Get a Horse! Lauren MacMullan, director, and Dorothy McKim, producer (Walt Disney Feature Animation)
Gloria Victoria, Theodore Ushev, director (National Film Board of Canada)
The Missing Scarf, Eoin Duffy, director, and Jamie Hogan, producer (Belly Creative Inc.)
Mr. Hublot, Laurent Witz, director, and Alexandre Espigares, co-director (Zeilt Productions)
Possessions, Shuhei Morita, director (Sunrise Inc.)
Requiem for Romance, Jonathan Ng, director (Kungfu Romance Productions Inc.)
Room on the Broom, Max Lang and Jan Lachauer, directors (Magic Light Pictures)
Subconscious Password, Chris Landreth, director (National Film Board of Canada with the participation of Seneca College Animation Arts Centre and Copperheart Entertainment).

The Academy’s Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting at screenings held in New York and Los Angeles. Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select three to five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in December.

__________________________________

Paul Julian is one of my favorite BG painters. He did a number of titles on his own for Roger Corman’s horror films. They’re had o see, yet I’ve gathered a number of them. This title sequecence was for The Terror, They are just beautiful paintings despite the fact that some of the color prints have deteriorated. It’s eas to understand whyjOHN Hubley took such a liking for his work on THE FOUR POSTER and ROOTY TOOT TOOT.

I’ve continually grown more interested in Paul Julian‘s work. He’s known predominantly for the Bgs he did at Warner Bros and the art direction he did on The Tell Tale Heart. However, there’s more film work he did independently.

The Hangman was a short film he did with co-director Les Goldman. Maurice Ogden’s poem is read by Herschel Bernardi in a very earnest tone. The artwork by Julian absolutely saves this film which was nominated for the Oscar.

Roger Corman also used Paul Julian for a number of opening title sequences for the low budget films he did in the 60s. I’m going to try pulling some frame grabs from a number of these title sequences so that I can place some focus on Julian’s work in these forgotten films.

I start here with The Terror a film Starring Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson. Julian uses a couple of pieces of artwork that he works over the course of the sequence with lots of lateral camera moves. Quite expressive work, though certainly not on a par with Tell Tale Heart.

1
(Click any image to enlarge.)

2

3

4

5

6
Starts at the bottom and pans up.

7

8

9
Monte Hellman directed Two Lane Blacktop.

10

11

12

13

14

15

You can watch a grayed-out version of this video on YouTube. The credits come on about a minute into it.

_______________________________________

Corman’s The Swamp Women

In this post taking frame grabs from Swamp Women, the print includes an obviously added on title card using B&W footage. The color film that follows is so deteriorated and choppy, in this print, that it’s hard to discern what color the original art was. So I’ve tempered it a bit to get rid of the magenta look. I suspect I’m getting close.

The imagery is definitely Julian’s. He had an obvious Ben Shahn influence to some of the work although he gets a bit more surreal in his compositions and designs.

There are fewer camera moves in this title. I’m sure the budget was low. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were in the hundreds (not thousands) of dollars.


(Click any image to enlarge.)

This first title on the rented DVD looks like it was pulled from a B&W print.

2

3a3b

4

5

6

7a

7b

7c

8a8b

9

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Commentary 06 Nov 2013 01:20 am

Late comes Early

I saw Miyazaki’s last film again last night. The Rising Wind is a quiet movie. A film full of desperate change, man doing his worst in the name of good. An Earthquake takes a train and a town, illness covers even the film’s heroine (not unlike Camille’ Scarlet Fever – but here the romanticism is kept to a quiet dignity. Planes are sent out to War chock-c-block full of bombs to rape even the most quiet village. It’s a film that keeps its torment below the tears, and an animated movie deals with serious adult subject matter. One would think the animator would go for the roiling climax, but that just what this film does not do. It’s a tempest in a teapot, indeed. This time the tea is naught but background for many character decisions. It’s an unorthodox movie, and I don’t want to give it ALL away, so I’ll stay there.

I loved the film. The opposite of Ponjo. No hysterics or comedy out of misery. I’d recommend it highly. Not Frozen or Crood or Despicable. Just humanity and reality.

The principal problem with the film’s lead character is that actions of his cause problems, they don’t resolve them. He should be using his brilliance to correct problems. Instead, it might be said that he is the problem. He’s a genius but for the wrong side.

Tonight I see Nebraska and am looking forward to the after party. There was one at this location last year for David Chase’s movie. All the Sopranos hung together. James Gandolfini left an impression of being healthy despite the girth. It didn’t work that wau. This should be more proof that Harvey Weistein throws some of the best parties. … I hope.

____________________________

I know that we had a stupendous couple of days on the Mad Tea Party and I think they were just excited, and I was very clear that when any of the directors are speaking, we need everyone’s respect.
Soon Coming to the Splog

drouinI’ve just spent a lot of time transcribing a lengthy interview I did with the wonderful Jacques Drouin talking about the Pin Screen device; after all he is now the world’s foremost authority on the device and it felt good to record some of his comments. His, following the work of Alexander Alexeïeff (1901-1982) and Claire Parker (1906-1981), is the foremost spokesman for the utensil which allows people to draw with more than a million pins, utilizing the shadow of t he pins as the medium of the drawings. Ever since reading about this device in Halas and Manville’s book, “Animation“, I have been intrigued and I remain fascinated.

The interview, as I said, is extensive – Mr. Drouin is a natural spokesperson for the pin screen, and it didn’t take much to get him to talk so intelligently and at length about it. The principal problem is that I am a poor reporter, and it’ll take me a bit of time to accurately and properly report what he had to say. I’ll have that ready sometime this week. For some reason I’ve taken to Mr. Droin despite the fact that this was our first meeting. I did look forward to it for quite some time. We were to have met via phone a couple of years back, but it didn’t happen. My fault entirely. I was glad to have met him here in person. He’s a gentleman.

____________________________

Oscar Toons

Yes it’s Oscar time. I’ve already commented a bit about the short films seen and how I missed half of them after getting quite ill midway through the lot of them. Sorry I can’t properly report but not sorry I missed most of them.

2dhorseOne of the more interesting of the batch in contention that I’d seen comes from Disney. Get A Horse is a short which does little more than play on 3D. It has the 2930′s Mickey drawn from that era and brought to life in 3D when Peg Leg Pete tries to hold things up. He and his horse pop out of the B&W world into 3D with color and there’s some gamesman’sship as the duo go back and forth competing with Pete for the fair damsel, Minnie. The short falls too clever for its own good and has nothing really to say except that movies exist on their own level whether 3D color or 2D B&W.
I know a lot of the younger voters were more captivated by the tricks of the trade exhibited in this short. If one there was something for the film to say. It felt that it had more ot offer thn FROZEN, but that still isn’t saying much.

Daily post 05 Nov 2013 04:16 am

More Sketchbook Material

It was more than a week ago that I posted some very nice inspirational and preproduction drawings printed in the wonderful Chronicle book, Animation Sketchbooks, edited by Laura Heid, who is not only an artist but an animator as well.

LÄ“t’s take a look at a few more. Shall we?



e1 1

e3 3

e4 4

e5 5
Maureen Selwood

e6 6

e7 7

e8 8
Cat Solen

e9 9

e10 10

e13 13

e14 14

e15 15

e16 16

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