Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Yesterday, the NY chapter of the Motion Picture Academy screened 32 films to vote on a short-list in preparation for the nominations. It took seven hours of animation viewing, and there were about 20 of us – I didn’t actually take count – in the small Dolby screening room. I was going to comment today, but find I need more time to sort out my thoughts. I’ll do a short commentary tomorrow.

- Anyway, today is photo Sunday.
Having recently pored over some of the artwork from Raggedy Ann & Andy (the NY contingent of the 1977 feature film), I wondered if I had any photos that I could post. There weren’t many that I could find quickly, but the few I did find are here.

The first two stills were taken for the John Canemaker book, “The Animated Raggedy Ann & Andy.” I think only one of the two appears in the book.

(Click any image to enlarge.)
Obviously, that’s Dick Williams with me looking over his shoulder. Oddly I remember being in this position often during the film. It’s probably the first image I have of the production when I look back on it. Dick and I had a lot of conversations (about the film) with him “going” and me listening.

When I did actually grab time to do some drawing, this is my desk. It sat in a corner of a room – across from Jim Logan and Judy Levitow. There were about ten other assistants in my room, and there were about seven rooms filled with assistants on the floor. I had to spend time going through all of them making sure everybody was happy.

This slightly out of focus picture shows Dick Williams (R) talking with Kevin Petrilak (L) and Tom Sito. That’s Lester Pegues Jr. in the background. Boy were we young then!
These guys were in the “taffy pit,” meaning they spent most of their time assisting Emery Hawkins who animated the bulk of the sequence. Toward the end of the film, lots of other animators got thrown into the nightmarish sequence to try to help finish it. Once Emery’s art finished, I think the heart swoops out of that section of the film.

This photo isn’t from Raggedy Ann & Andy, but it just might have been. That’s the brilliant checker, Judy Price showing me the mechanics that don’t work on a scene on R.O.Blechman‘s Simple Gifts. This is the one-hour PBS special that I supervised after my Raggedy years. However, Judy was a principal on Raggedy Ann, and we spent a lot of time together.
Ida Greenberg was the Supervisor of all of Raggedy Ann’s Ink & Paint and Checking. She and I worked together on quite a few productions. I pulled her onto any films I worked on after Raggedy Ann. She was a dynamo and a good person to have backing you up.
I’m sorry I don’t have a photo of her from that period.

This is one of my favorite photos. Me (L), Jim Logan, Tom Sito (R). Jim was the first assistant hired after me – I’m not sure I was an assistant animator when they hired me, but I was being geared for something. The two of us built the studio up from scratch. We figured out how to get the desks, build the dividers, set up the rooms and order the equipment.
To top it all, Jim kept me laughing for the entire time I was there. I can’t think of too many others I clicked with on an animation production as I did with him. He made me look forward to going into work every day.
We frequently had lunch out, he and I, and I think this is at one of those lunches when Tom joined us. It looks to me like the chinese restaurant next door to the building on 45th Street. Often enough, Jim and I would just go there for a happy hour cocktail before leaving for the night.

I should have realized how important that period was for me and have taken more pictures. Oh well.

- I’d like to post a piece by James Stevenson that appeared in his book, Something Marvelous Is About To Happen. It’s a great take on comic strip cartoonists and the relationship they have to their strips. Here it is, The Last Days of Tootie and Fred.

1 2
(Click any image to enlarge.)

3 4

5 6

7 8

9 10

1112

- Hans Perk on his site, A Film LA, has posted what I think is one of the most important pieces on the internet today – as far as animation goes.

He has taken the Disney short, Thru The Mirror, and added a click track (aural and visual) to it. This is the finest representation of timing in animation that you’ll find. The cartoon is great, the animation is great, and the click track gives you the same focus the animator had. Go!

There’s nothing more valuable I can report today.

- The 8th Annual Animation Show of Shows will play in NYC on Friday, Nov 10th at 11am.

The films scheduled include:
He Who Cheats Doesn’t Win (Rajiv Eipe, Kaustubh Ray)
Danish Poet (Torill Kove)
Gentleman’s Duel (Francisco Ruiz, Sean
McNally)
A My love (Alexander Petrov)
Shipwrecked (Frodo Kuipers)
No Time For Nuts (Chris Renaud, Michael Thurmeier)
Tragic Story With Happy Ending (Regina Pessoa)
Lifted (Gary Rydstrom)

Some of the filmmakers will be in attendance to answer questions afterwards including:
Torill Kove
Marcy Page
Regina Pessoa
Abi Feijo
Chris Renaud, and
Michael Thurmeier

FREE ADMISSION ! Come early, only 260 seats!

- There’s another excellent piece at the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive blog. They share with us a nicely illustrated presentation and translation of the biography of the Wan Brothers, who first started animating in China in 1925.

They are the artists behind the Princess Iron Fan, China’s first feature-length film completed in 1941. On the site, you can view both Uproar In Heaven and the documentary biography of the brothers.

- Continuing with yesterday’s posted Jax Beer commercial, as promised, I am putting up some of the film’s layouts. This represents about 2/3 of them.

The art was done by Mordi (Mordicai) Gerstein, who also directed the spot. Grim Natwick animated the spot and Tissa David assisted him. Of course, this was in the days before auido tapes could be handed out, so the animator would get a phonograph of the soundtrack. They could mark it with a white pencil to indicate key spots.

I thought that this in conjunction with yesterday’s prep material gave a good indication of the preproduction that went into making a commercial back in 1962.

That said, here are the layouts:

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

2 3

4 5

6 7

8 9

1011

- Here’s the material for a Jax Beer commercial. It was done by a NY studio named Pelican in 1962. There were about 75 people on staff at Pelican back then.

This spot was directed by Mordi (Mordicai) Gerstein. He left animation to write & illustrate children’s books in th 70′s. (He won the Caldecott Medal for his book, The Man Who Walked Between The Towers. This was the book I adapted to animation last year.)

What follows is the storyboard and the director’s workbook. (It appears to be an agency board, though it’s drawn in a style that looks to be Mordi Gerstein’s. Perhaps boards from the agency were drawn by the studios back in 1964; I’m not sure. The layouts were drawn by the same artist.)

Tomorrow I’ll post some of those layouts.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

2 3

The workbook has several flaps on it that indicate changes in timings. There are also glue stains where I assume other flaps fell off. (See page one, last row, first column.) Each column represents 16 frames/one foot of film. Odd numbers are marked off.

Each row contains 8 feet of film/128 frames. Each page represents 32 feet/512 frames. It would have been smarter to keep to even numbers.

More modern exposure sheets generally have 80 frames/five feet per page. This also divides into two feet of 16mm film. (Handy.) The numbers add and divide smartly and easily. But then most people don’t use exposure sheets anymore.

- This week I’d received an interesting comment on my “Splog” about Michael Myerberg‘s puppet feature, Hansel & Gretel. Since this post was done a time back, the comment could be easily missed. I’d like to draw some attention to it, since I rather enjoyed it:

I saw this movie during it’s initial run in 1954. I was three years old. The experience made such a lasting impact that it led me into a career in sculpting.

In 1999 I had the opportunity to take molds off the last known remaining puppet. It was of Rosina the Witch and the armatures designed by Jim Summers still worked as beautifully as they must have when the film was being shot.

In the early 1970’s I worked for one of the animators, Sky Highchief, who relayed a lot to me about the actual filming. The original plan had been to do an animated version of Aladdin, but this was dropped in favor of doing Humperdink’s opera as Hansel and Gretel was considered a better commercial risk. The film was shot in sequence. As money started running out for Myerberg and the release date loomed the push was on to complete the project in time. This accounts for the fluid animation at the front end of the film and the rather “muddy”, jerky movements of the characters at the end. Also all the Enchanted Children and Angles in the Dream Sequence have the faces of Hansel and Gretel. There was no time to do original sculpting for these puppets so they just pressed what had already been done into service. According to Highchief the New York studio was vandalized shortly after the film was completed and many of the remaining sets and props simply consigned to the trash bins. The film was not a success for Myerberg and plans for other stop-motion films abandoned.

I talked with members of the Myerberg family in early 2000 and they claim that all the original elements of the film are still intact. Considering the awful DVD currently available and knowing it’s place in stop-motion animation history I am amazed that nobody has taken it upon themselves to do a restoration.

from: David Robert Cellitti

As I wrote in response, I do have some information about the Aladdin feature that Myerberg had explored. Here’s the document:

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

- These photos come from 1989 just after my studio moved downtown from 34 West 38th Street to 632 Broadway. It was a dynamic new area of NY in the Village that was popping with people. We remained in this space until 2002.

At the time these photos were taken, the studio wasn’t crowded. Those pictured here were among the mainstays for awhile and were with me for a number of years.

The studio, itself, was a big, wide open space. An ex-Art Gallery, it was separated by dividers that contained paints, cels, paper, et al. At one point or another, these dividers housed people preparing the art for camera.

Back row L to R: Theresa Smythe, Mike Winiewski, Ray Kosarin, George McClements.
Sitting L to R: me, Jason McDonald, Steve MacQuignon, Mary Thorne, Masako Kanayama

Above: The wall, just behind us in this group photo, led to an editing room where the editor worked. (At the time it was Greg Perler, who soon moved to Hollywood, and was replaced by Ed Askinazi.) The green room to the back left of the editing area was used for storage. We’d obviously just moved in because the walls here were covered with steel shelving not too long after this photo was taken.

Against the wall R to L: Ray Kosarin, Mike Wisniewski, George McClements, a divider, Steve MacQuignon, Masako Kanayama. Theresa Smythe sat all the way in the back during this photo shoot. Normally, she sat up front.
To the left is Mary Thorne (who most often worked across from me outside of the picture frame.) Out of picture is Jason McDonald just behind Mary.

(Above) This is the studio from my space. In the foreground is a divider and a shelving unit (in which my tape machines & video equipt were housed) which were part of my space.

L to R: Masako, Steve (partially hidden), George, Ray (standing), Mary.
(Jason isn’t at his desk. At the time he was a p/t runner/artist; so he may have been on a delivery. He eventually rose in the studio to Art Directing/Bg Artist.)

(Above) And here we are from the back of the studio looking forward. You can get a glimpse of my area all the way at the end, behind the shelving units in back of Ray.

4 5
4. Jason MacDonald, rendering
5. George McClements & Mike Wisniewski, both animating

6 7
6. Mary Thorne, rendering on cels
7. Masako Kanayama, production coordinating

8 9
8. Theresa Smythe, animating
9. Stephen MacQuignon, coloring art

I’m not quite sure what we were working on at the time. I believe we were in the middle of a video called Baby’s Storytime which had Arlo Guthrie narrating favorite tales – mostly Aesop.
We were about to start The Red Shoes and a series of six other half-hour shows. We had just completed Abel’s Island and The Hunting of the Snark a couple of months prior.

Things were good at the time.

10. Ray Kosarin, animating

- One of my favorite experiences in my animation career was working on the Hubley film Everybody Rides The Carousel. This was a feature done for CBS. It was adapted from the work Childhood and Society by the noted psychologist, Erik Erikson‘s. His book was a treatise on the development of humans; he broke the stages of man down to eight.

In Hubley’s film, each stage was represented by a horse on the Carousel.

At the sixth stage, my favorite part of the film, two young adults find each other, fall in love, separate and come back together. The female Voice/Over was done by a Yale student in her first film role, Meryl Streep.

Here’s a layout by John Hubley, given to Tissa David for a seminal scene in the film. The boy and girl have fallen in love and present themselves to each other wearing symbolic masks; they cannot reveal their true feelings to each other. The masks, which don’t come off, cause them to grow apart and separate.

In this one rough drawing, John expressed volumes, and Tissa animated what is, to me, possibly the best scene in the film.

To show how it ended up, I’ve taken some key frame grabs from the actual film. The scene actually plays out slowly, and acts as a coda at the height of the sequence.

1 2
(Click any image to enlarge.)

3 4

5 6

7 8

9 10

11 12

13 14

The artwork was colored on layers of vellum designed for architects. It came in rolls and had to be cut and punched. Little of the paper’s grain showed when it was bottom lit. The drawings were inked and colored with magic markers: water based ink lines and alcohol based fill colors. (This prevented the ink lines from smearing.)
It was photographed from below – like a pencil test. To soften the background a blank layer of the vellum was used between the background and the characters. The masks were doubled into the scene after it was shot. They were filmed top-lit at 80% exposure.

This was the technique for this one sequence in the feature. Most of the rest of the show was shot traditionally, top lit. Each stage had its own technique and color scheme.

– For those who haven’t seen the Yuri Norstein segment from Winter Days, it has been posted by Daniel Thomas MacInnes at Conversations on Ghibli. Give yourself the two minutes to watch it.

The piece, in a slightly longer version, is on YouTube as well.

There’s a small clip of this work on the Norstein dvd, but watch it in its entirety.

Daniel also posts several other beautiful segments from this amazing film by Kotabe & Okuyama and Takahata here.

- Turner Classic Movies is about to show a couple of animated features on their jam packed schedule for November.

On November 12 at 8:30, they’re screening Brad Bird‘s feature, The Iron Giant. It’ll be nice to see a version of this without endless commercials on television. (Though the DVD release is excellent.)

On November 12 at 10:00 pm, they’re showing Grave of the Fireflies. For information about this film, I, once again, suggest you go to Conversations on Ghibli.

On November 12 at midnight, Lotte Reineger‘s The Adventures of Prince Achmed will screen. This is the first animated feature, a silent film made in 1927, and if you haven’t seen it at least once, watch it, tivo it or tape it.

Look out for November 12th.

- TCM also continues with the Cartoon Alley series on Saturdays:
Nov 4th at 11:30 AM: Features three Tex Avery George and Junior Cartoons:
Henpecked Hoboes (1946), Hound Hunters (1947) and Half-Pint Pygmy (1948).

Nov 11th at 11:30 AM: Features three WB Bugs Bunny Cartoons:
A Wild Hare (1940), Elmer’s Pet Rabbit (1941) and Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt (1941).

Nov 18th at 11:30 AM:: Features three MGM Spike Cartoons:
Counterfeit Cat (1949), Ventriloquist Cat (1950) and Garden Gopher (1950).
(This is repeated Tuesday Nov. 21st at 6AM.)

Nov 25th at 11:30 AM: Features three WB Bugs Bunny/Cecil Turtle Cartoons:
Tortoise Beats Hare (1941), Tortoise Wins By a Hare (1943) and Rabbit Transit (1947).

– On Nov 24th, the day after Thanksgiving, Ray Harryhausen is featured. TCM is going to air a number of his fantasy features.

8:00 PM 7th Voyage Of Sinbad, The (1958)
10:00 PM Jason And The Argonauts (1963)
12:00 AM Mysterious Island (1961)

However, the real treat will be the shorts sandwiched in between these features. Harryhausen did a number of fairy tale films that are rarely seen and will certainly be the highlight for the night.
This will be a television premiere that seems to be going unnoticed. Again, get out your Tivos (or in my case tape.)

These can be seen at:
9:45 PM RAPUNZEL (1951)
1:45 AM KING MIDAS (1953)

Flushed Away has opened today. With it there are the reviews. In NYC you get strikingly contrasting views. The NYTimes’ A.O. Scott gives it a glowing review (“…it strikes me as unlikely that any British action picture released this year will surpass “Flushed Away.”). The NYDaily News’ Jack Matthews is so-so over it. 2½ stars.

I hope Dreamworks makes a bundle and realizes they’ve lost future work with Aardman, an honest and respectable animation studio working with dignity in a world of muck.