Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– Michael Barrier has an excellent essay on his site about Paul Hindemith‘s visit to the Disney Studio. The article was written by Don Draganski, and it’s a revealing piece of information. A letter by Hindemith discussing in depth his thoughts on Disney, Stokowski, and Fantasia which was in progress. Draganski, as Barrier informs us, is a composer in his own right.

I once saw an exhilerating ballet by the Joyce Trisler Danscompany. Trisler was a student of Jerome Robbins who was brilliant in her own right. They performed a piece by Hindemith called “The Four Temperaments.” I fell in love with the music as much as the ballet. I tried in vain, at the time, to buy a recording of the piece, but there were none available. Trisler’s was a privately recorded copy. I saw the dance several more times falling more and more in love with it.
Paul Hindemith

As a youngish animator, I couldn’t help seeing the world through my own medium. I devised an idea to combine the ballet with animation which, like the music and the ballet, would be abstract. Just when I screwed up the courage to contact Trisler she died. She was young, and I was so upset at the lost talent that I had only so recently discovered. I did meet with someone from the company who represented them. They were eager to get involved. Eventually, however, the idea frittered away, and we never did it. This was years before computers would have made the plan an easy and relatively inexpensive one to execute. It was also a time when there was little money for the arts (Headline, NYDaily News: Ford to NY: Drop Dead) and raising funds for something with so little commercial value was not easy.

As an animation enthusiast and a fan of film scoring, I’ve always been intrigued by articles by musicians that talk of the world of music as it relates to animation. Ross Care is one composer (he scored my first short film, Byron Blackbear & the Scientific Method) who has written extensively about animation and has provided commentary tracks for animation dvds. Years ago, he arranged one of my favorite ASIFA-East programs. Alexander Steinert, officially the conductor on Bambi, came to analyze the score for that film and showed how the April Showers sequence developed musically.

Thanks to Mike Barrier for such an informative essay.

– There’s an excellent interview with Brad Bird at the Spline Doctors’ site. It’s nice to know how together this guy is; everything he articulates here is good for any young person in animation to hear – actually, it’s good for old people, too.

He has some thoughtful comments on the 2D vs 3D argument, on some of the Disney Masters, and it’s even interesing to hear how he pronounces the name of his new film – Ratatouille. (Not too surprisingly, this movie’s promotion comes with a pronunciation guide.)

Thanks to Mark Mayerson for leading me to the podcast.

- The Oscar nominated shorts – Animated & Live Action – are being screened in the best possible way today at noon and 4PM at the Academy Lighthouse theater, 111 East 59th Street. It costs $5 general admission/ $2 with student ID.

You can also see them at the IFC Center at 323 Sixth Avenue. Check their schedules. It also includes a couple of the shorts which were on the short list.

Joanna Quinn‘s short Dreams And Desires: Family Ties is not among those included nor is Dan Hertzfeldt‘s Everything Will Be OK.

Bill Plympton‘s shorts preceed all Live Action films at this theater. Good for him.

- In case you haven’t noticed, Hans Perk continues to post the Pinocchio drafts on his site A Film LA. What a resource this site is. I feel like I have my own little archive to go to. Thanks Hans.

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