Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- For my amusement, I’m posting an article written by Grim Natwick for the November 1969 issue of Cartoonist Profiles. Following the article, I’m posting the original typescript & handwritten finish by Grim. The manuscript is a carbon copy, the handwritten done in pencil.

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(Click on any image to enlarge to a legible size.)

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(Note: I’ve crossed out Grim’s address & phone number)

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- As I said last Sunday, I’m going to use Sunday posts for photos. I have a lot of shots of crews from many of my films. Everyone worked enthusiastically over the years, and I like giving attention.

So, this is the group in 1987 on Lyle Lyle Crocodile: the House on East 88th St. that worked in house. The studio at the time was located between Fifth & Sixth Aves, and I was there from 1985 thru 1988.

These are, Back row L to R : Lisa Crafts – animator, Tom Repasky – coloring, Susan Tremblay – coloring, Madeline Fan (full pic w/T-shirt) coloring, Caroline Skaife (leaning on Madeline) – coloring, Mark Baldo (w/puppet Lyle) coloring, Doug Vitarelli (leaning on Caroline) runner, Theresa Smythe – asst. animator.

Front row, sitting, L to R: Caroline Zegart – coloring, Steven Dovas – animator, John Schnall – Prod. Coordinator/Animator, Ray Kosarin – Asst. Animator/coloring, Michael Zodorozny – Layout, Bridget Thorne – Art Director/Bgs.

Some of the others who worked in the studio and not pictured in the group are: Elizabeth Seidman – ran the rendering and supervised the production, Greg Perler – editor, Kit Hawkins – studio coordinator, and me.

Working out of the studio on the artwork were: Tissa David – animator, John Dilworth – animator, John Canemaker – animator. Of course there were also actors, musicians, camera guys, and engineers.

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(Click on any image to enlarge.)
1) Lisa Crafts animating at her desk. Steve Dovas behind her.
2) Me at my desk with Mark Sottnick a producer of Santa Bear. Theresa Smythe on the right.

The studio was a good one. It was just over a music rehearsal studio where Tito Puente’s group practiced every afternoon. All we could hear was the endless bass line over and over and over and over and over and over. At one point, late night, we heard Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler rehearsing the new album they’d just done.

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Unfortunately, the large skylight made it easy for people to break in. It happened three times in one month, and all that was stolen were walkman radios from the crew. Ultimately, I gave up, and we moved downtown.

A shot of the whole studio from the door. (Things were tight.)
In the BG from L to R: Mark Baldo, Steve Dovas, Lisa Crafts, Ray Kosarin.
At the center table L to R: Susan Tremblay, Madeline Fan, Doug Vitarelli, John Schnall – behind Doug and Liz Seidman (in pink).

- Let’s see.
. First there was an interview with Patrick Smith on AWN.
. Then Amid Amidi commented on Cartoon Brew.
. Then David Levy wrote an editorial on the ASIFA-East newsletter/site.
. Then I had a couple of comments on David‘s comments.
. Then Amid was back to comment on David,
. Stephen Worth had a lot to say on my blog.
. Mark Mayerson commented on his site.
. Amid posted a number of the emails sent to him and led to sites & blogs that commented.
- And he continues to post more and more input on the subject.

Phew!

All that being said; I think there was a lot of good conversation on the subject. I was particularly taken by what Chris Robinson had to say on Cartoon Brew:

This obsession animators have with getting a tv series drives me crazy. Why is it your goal to have a tv series? Who said animation has to have regular characters, actors, and narratives? Your mommy? I see how it influences and ruins so many short films we receive at the OIAF because these works have not one ounce of personality, they are projects made to try to appease the desires/wants/needs of what they think SOMEONE ELSE wants…they are not making art, they are seeking markets to fit into.

This is a very high-minded response to the entire question of pitching vs making an independent film, but it’s the heart of the matter. You’re doing one or the other, but not both. Series samples are just that – samples. They’re not EVER fully developed. The maxim goes that a series doesn’t develop fully until the 2nd or 3rd year. An Independent short is all there is. (Usually. I can only think of one example of a series growing out of a truly Independent short – Bob’s Birthday. (I’ve discounted the Christmas card from the South Park people.) The only example I can think of a pilot acting as a stand-alone film is The Chicken From Outer Space.)

In essence, I think, Chris Robinson is right: Art is Art (a high & mighty term for most animated films), and commerce is commerce.

– Today, at Noon, a series of current family films will show at the Museum of Modern Art. Admission is free on a first come first serve basis. They have one of these each month. There’s a particularly interesting screening coming Dec. 9th.

Josh Staub‘s cg film, The Mantis Parable, is among those featured today.

- Tomorrow, Sunday Oct.22nd at 2pm, the Museum of Modern Art will screen Nina Paley‘s short film, The Stork.

- As I noted yesterday, - Hans Perk on his site, A Film LA, has posted the Ken Andersen LayOut Training Course from the Disney studio Nov, 1936. I’ve posted two of these – Part I and Part III.

I have a fourth lecture that Phil Dike gave on May, 1936; it was called a “General Discussion”. Unfortunately, two of its pages were copied off kilter, so more than half of pgs. 8 & 9 are missing. Since there’s still good information in there, I’ve decided to post it anyway. I’ve had to clean it up a bit to make a couple of pages legible.It follows:

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- Charles Solomon has written a very interesting article for the NYTimes on Goro Miyazaki‘s animated feature, Tales From Earthsea. Of course, Mr. Miyazaki is the son of the other Miyazaki, Hayao. The article discusses the problems of being the son of someone so famous and the expectant comparisons people have made about him and his work. Many of the critics seem to be negative. (Here’s the Variety review.)

The film has done well in Japan (though not quite up to the results of his father’s films) and has received some backlash from Ursula K. LeGuin whose Earthsea books were adapted for the film.

The U.S. release of Goro Miyazaki’s film is being held up by the Sci-Fi Network who owns the rights until 2009. They did a poor live action film which is available in dvd.

For some small information regarding Hayao Miyazaki‘s next feature go here or here.
Visit Daniel Thomas MacInnes‘ site Conversations on Ghibli.

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- Hans Perk on his site, A Film LA, has posted the Ken Andersen LayOut Training Course from the Disney studio Nov, 1936. I’ve posted two of these – Part I and Part III. This is the one, Part II, of the series that I was missing. I do have a fourth (actually the first one) that Phil Dike gave on May, 1936, but two of it’s pages were copied off kilter. I’ll post that soon.

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- Posting that caricature of the folks in my studio in 1992 gave me the idea that I should be posting links to blogs and sites that some of my ex-employees have. Here are a couple of them:

Stephen MacQuignon has always been interested in fantasy art, and his site reflects this -Stephen MacQuignon.

Jason McDonald has two sites – My Living Dead Girl and Jason McDonald Design.

Sophie Kittredge has a beautiful array of illustrations and maps – Craven Design/Sophie Kittredge.

Robert Marianetti and his partner David Wachtenheim have a studio site that is under construction – wmanimation.com

Doug Compton, animator extraordinaire, has his site – Karmatoons.

- From my earliest days, as soon as I’d learned who he was, I was a fan of Ub Iwerks.
I began to wonder if it was just the publicity and myth of Iwerks which had followed with him all these years. We read about all those 1930′s East coast animators moving to the West, not to work for Disney but to seek out Iwerks – it was well known that he was the “true artist” behind those Disney shorts.

With Bob Thomas’ 1958 book, The Art of Animation, I read, for the first time, about Iwerks and his importance. Only recently did I begin to wonder how responsible Iwerks actually was to Disney’s success. Was this just that myth being carried over the years? Or was he brilliant?

A quick look at the animation done at the time and we see some basics not yet developed.

There weren’t many stories written before Disney, so animators divided up their pictures. For example: They’d decide to do a film where Mutt & Jeff would go to Hawaii. One animator would start on the beach and end with them on surfboards. The animator would make it up as he went along until he turned out the required footage – maybe 2 minutes of work. The next animator would pick up Mutt & Jeff on surfboards and take them to being washed up on the beach, etc.

Obviously, the lead animator doled out rudimentary plot points, but a lot was left to the individual animator. Look at the book, Walt In Wonderland by Russell Merritt & J.B. Kaufman to see how Disney started developing stories during this period.

The same was true for animation techniques and methods. Animation burst out of its seams with the creation of Mickey Mouse. Disney had initiated a lot of ground work, but the medium really started growing with the enormous success of Steamboat Willie. Iwerks led the way, not only by the amount of work he did but the quality.

Take a look at these five Iwerks drawings from that short.
One of the first lessons an inbetweener learns is that a face turn shouldn’t have a direct middle in it. The middle drawing (#3 here) shouldn’t be straight on; it should favor, slightly, one side or the other.

Despite the simple drawings of Mickey, Ub Iwerks seemed to understand this instinctively. He didn’t really get lessons from anyone. As a matter of fact, he was creating the rules. This comes close to being straight on, but the mouth gives it away. The face is facing screen left.

Another simple inbetween lesson is to offset the inbetween (usually an animator or good assistant will set this up for the inbetweener.)

Here Mickey is standing upright on #1 and he’s upright on #5. Drawing #3 has him with knees bent, beating in tempo to the sound. Even though this is from the first sound cartoon, done in 1928, the offset rule is in effect.

I think it’s pretty clear that some sophistication has entered the animation that Iwerks was drawing. This same sophistication isn’t in other animator’s work.
(Click any image to enlarge.)

Add to this the fact that Iwerks was probably the fastest producing animator, and you probably have good reason for knowing he was the genius behind Disney.

This, of course, didn’t remain that way. After Iwerks left, leaving behind enough animators trained by him, their work developed exponentially. Better artists were entering the studio and bringing their talents to the work, and they started making a serious attempt to improve the work.

Iwerks stopped animating and stopped trying to improve the character animation. Instead, he tried to improve the camera – actually developing the mulitplane camera in his own studio. Animation, under Iwerks, didn’t develop.

The book by John Kenworthy, The Hand Behind The Mouse, gives some solid information that wasn’t previously published and puts a lot of material into perspective. Someday we’ll get another voice on this great subject with more critical insight.

Hair High, Bill Plympton‘s most recent animated feature finally opens in NYC on Wednesday. It runs from Oct 18 through Oct 25 at the Two Boots Pioneer theater .

Plympton will make personal appearances at the theater; every guest at the premiere will receive a drawing from Bill.

Cast members and other guests (including the “Krazy Kock” chicken mascot) will appear at the premiere.

(Read the NYTimes review.)

Hair High is the legend of a 1950′s teenage couple murdered on prom night who return as undead skeletons one year later for revenge. The film’s a romantic comedy with a zombie-horror twist. NY’s own independent animator, Bill Plympton. self-financed the film, co-produced by his friend and distant cousin, actress Martha Plimpton.

Hair High features an all-star cast including the voice talents of Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Silverman, David Carradine, Keith Carradine, Beverly D’Angelo, Martha Plimpton, Eric Gilliland, Ed Begley Jr., Michael Showalter, Zak Orth, Justin Long, Craig Bierko, Tom Noonan and animators Matt Groening and Don Hertzfeldt.

Also included in the screening will be Bill Plympton’s Oscar-nominated animated short Guard Dog, and its sequel, Guide Dog.

Pioneer Two Boots Theater
155 East 3rd St. (between Ave. A + B)
New York NY 10019
Showtimes: 212-591-0434
Advance Tickets: www.twoboots.com/pioneer/hairhigh.htm

For more information about the film:
www.hairhigh.com or www.plymptoons.com

– On the ASIFA-East newsletter & site, ASIFA-East President, David Levy comments on making Independent short films as opposed to sample/pilots for pitches you want to make.

This grew out of Amid Amidi‘s comments on Cartoon Brew regarding a statement Pat had made on AWN.

It takes three sites to track it all down, but it’s interesting to follow the thread. To read it all chronologically go: here, then here, then here.

- Speaking of Dave Levy, his book, Your Career In Animation continues to garner positive reviews. Everyone from Michael Barrier (06/29/06) to Jerry Beck to Tom Sito has said nice things about it.

The book is a good, easy read with much to offer anyone interestedkin animation.

Speaking of ASIFA-East, they have an open screening scheduled for Thursday night at 7PM at the School of Visual Arts.209 East 23rd Street, Rm. 502 Bet. 2nd & 3rd Ave

and then on Halloween (Oct. 31st) they show the The Best of British Animation Awards. Among those shown will be Rabbit which won the top short film prize at Annecy.
Same place; same time; different day. Come in costume.

- Here are a couple of animation links I came across:

. There’s a web site devoted to the work of Glen Keane that includes many pencil tests from his scenes as well as many drawings and model sheets.

. An animated film produced for the Vatican tells the life story of Pope John Paul II. Here’s the Catholic.net version of the story.

It was produced by the Spanish animation company, Cavin Cooper Productions.
José Luis López-Guardia was the producer/director.

To see the trailer for the film go here.

It isn’t Pope John Paul on the left but “Silver” from Treasure Planet. (Click to enlarge.)

. There’s a direct link to some of the images at the Disney exhibit in Paris at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. This looks to be an interesting show; one presumes since a lot of the influences are also apparently on display.

The 360 page catalogue is in French and on sale on line here.

. To get as far away from Disney as possible, there’s an extended article about Run Wracke and the peculiarly interesting and unsettling film, Rabbit. It’s an unsettling reworking of the Dick and Jane readers as the two kids display lots of greed and maliciousnous in the
8½ min short.

A clip from the film’s opening can be seen on the “Recent Work” section of Run Wracke‘s site.

Firoz (in current comments) left this link to the entire film:

- Since I have a lot of photos – I mean a lot of photos of my various crews over the years, I thought it’d be fun to post some of these and will use Sunday as the best day for it.

To break the habit before I start, I’m putting up a caricature of the staff done in 1992 by a fabulous artist and animator who worked for us. Rodolfo Damaggio was someone who came fully formed from Brazil. I gave him his first job in the US, and was glad that I did. He started as an assistant and it took him two days to become an animator. He was a dynamo to work with. He’s moved out of animation onto comic books (Superman, Green Arrow et al) and storyboards for feature films (Jurassic Park trilogy, Star Wars III, currently Iron Man).

(Click on image to enlarge.) A better crew you won’t find - at the steenbeck.

Pictured: (back row standing) Sue Perotto (animator), Elizabeth Seidman (production coordinator), Ray Kosarin (animator), Stephen Gambello (colorist/runner), Masako Kanayama (designer/Production Manager), Marilyn Rosado (studio manager), Rodolfo Damaggio (animator), Jason McDonald (colorist/storyboards/designer).

(Front row seated) Stephen MacQuignon (colorist), George (Dancing Frog), me, Ed Askinazi (editor), Denise Gonzalez (assistant/publicity).

Not pictured: Christine O’Neill (colorist, at the time) who doesn’t like her picture taken and worked out of the studio at the time. It always has bothered me that she wasn’t in there.

- My recent posting of art from Raggedy Ann & Andy prompted John Celestri to send me this clipping from the Cincinnati Enquirer re the kidnapping of Ann & Andy.

- Here are some more of Corny Cole‘s story board drawings from Raggedy Ann & Andy.

This first Layout marks the introduction of Raggedy Andy. He’s under the box. This drawing gives you a good idea of the detail Corny put into every drawing.

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

The following images come from the first shots of the Pirate Captain. He espys the new doll, Babette, and falls madly in love.

The first four stills are 8.5×14 copies of the storyboard; the remainder come from the director’s workbook. They’re all sequential.

I think the parrot, which was added in pencil, is the work of Asst. Director, Cosmo Anzilotti. The bird just shows up later, so Cosmo probably tried to give him some business.

It’s here that the Pirate goes into his song (everybody sings in this film) and concocts his plot to kidnap the French doll.