Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– AWN has an interesting (though somewhat dated) article about a seminar held at School of Visual Arts to hear what came of some of its more luminous animation graduates.

(pictured) Tom Sito, John Dilworth, Yvette Kaplan, Chris Chris Prynoski and Alex Kupershmidt responded to questions which were compiled by AWN writer, Joe Strike.

The program was part of an exhibit of art by the ex-students of SVA. I reviewed the art and the opening here though I didn’t get to the seminar.

- I’d also recommend everyone go to Oscar Grillo‘s blog. He has some beautifully drawn images of his take on some classic comic strips. I’d love to see some animated film versions of the characters as they look here. This man is an artist.

- On my Lou Bunin posting, Mark Mayerson asked: “Somewhere I remember seeing a drawn walk cycle of a dodo bird that Art Babbitt did for Bunin’s feature.”
The answer came from Mark Harding: “The Babbit cycle is on page 189 of Shamus Culhane’s Animation, From Script to Screen.”

I thought I’d post these two pages from that book. There are two more of these studies for Bunin’s film, and the book includes an enormous wealth of other animation referential material. It’s a must-own for animation fans.

(Click either image to enlarge.)

- There’s a good interview at Cartoon Brew by Amid Amidi. Garrett Gilchrist has recently completed a compiled version of Richard Williams‘ film The Thief and The Cobbler: Recobbled Cut. Garrett had sent me a copy of this compilation, and it’s the real deal. He’s done some magnificent and laborious work getting it to the wonderful condition. It’s like watching an excellent rough cut of the film. See it (in 17 parts) on You Tube. Garrett’s website is OrangeCow.org.

- Thanks to Rhett Wickham at Laughing Place. There’s a great article posted there about John Lasseter’s guidance on future animation projects. It seems clear that 2D animation might not be dead after all.

- The South African artist, William Kentridge uses animation as part of his art. He’s made a number of flip books that are stunning pieces. I’m posting a small part of one of these here to show the fingerprints of art. You’ll note he used an existing book and just painted his images on the pages. Of course this proves we can make Art without expensive tools; we just have to do it.

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

To continue with my interest in animators that leave fingerprints, I return to the father of all puppet animators, Jiri Trnka. I have this Graphis Magazine article from 1947. This was published before any of the great Trnka films: The Hand, Archangel Gabriel and Mother Goose, Midsummer’s Night Dream.
Regardless, there are still some beautiful images in his earlier work.

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

(Note: Graphis printed in three languages; all of the English is included.)

- I’ve been a big fan of the “Toonerville Folks” for a long time. I didn’t find the strip for a while. When I was young, a local TV channel, an ABC subsidiary, ran a lot of old silent Aesop’s Fables. They had classical music backing them up; usually Bizet filled the bill.

One year they upgraded by throwing a number of the Van Buren shorts in betwen the Terry silent films. These Van Buren films, many of them directed by Burt Gillette or Tom Palmer, were odd. There were a number of films with Greek gods as their stars. Then came the shorts with Molly Moo Cow and those with the Toonerville Trolley characters.
(Click on any image to enlarge.)

I liked these and learned from the credits that they were adapted from a comic strip by Fontaine Fox. So, I sought out the comic. Of course, in those days, prior to computers, all you had was the library to research things. My local branch had only one or two examples of the comic strip which ran from 1915 through 1955.

The animated shorts were made in the mid-thirties when Van Buren tried a run to improve their films. Neither sound and color nor the acquisition of the rights to this strip didn’t help; even the “terrible tempered Mr. Bang couldn’t help.” The studio closed before the decade had ended.

In 1978 I worked with R.O. Blechman as his Assistant Director to put together the PBS show, Simple Gifts. This was a packaged of six segments adapted around Christmas with a number of different illustrators designing the segments. One of them, the one I was most attracted to was The Toonerville Trolley. Blechman bought the rights from King Features (at an enormous price) for a four minute film in the middle of the program. I’d worked hard to get the piece to animate. I even did a one minute sample of the film in my off time at night, and I thought it was pretty good. However, Blechman was afraid of losing me in the operation of his studio. (We were doing more commercials than show, and I hated it.) Bill Littlejohn did a nice job of animating the entire piece which was completely subcontracted out to him. That was probably appropriate since Bill worked at Van Buren when they produced these shorts.

One of the most violent films I can think of is Raging Bull.

The show starts with an incredibly lyrical, slow-motion sequence in B&W with blood-red credits, in small type, (designed by Dan Perri). Over this very slow motion footage of a brutal fight an operatic aria plays on the soundtrack, and the live action cutting flows beautifully with the music.

(All of these images from the opening of Citizen Kane – another brilliant opening sequence – can be enlarged by clicking them.)

We have been pulled into the story, we’re captured by the imagery – actually the images mixed with the beautiful vocal. Because of the slow moving images, we’re not thrown by the violence we see on the screen as Robert DeNiro gets beaten violently. It’s sublime poetry.

Finally the credits end, the last image hits us with a JOLT – normal speed and the loud smash – as DeNiro’s face gets brutally punched. We’re into it.

From this we cut to the story of Jake Lamotta, DeNiro’s character. We’re slowly drawn into the story of the fighter, and we’ve already adjusted to the violence we can expect to come. But it’s not going to be in slow motion anymore.

Martin Scorsese knows how to open his film. He slowly pulls us in, allows us to adjust to the incredible violence we’ll see, and then introduces his characters – slowly.

We haven’t been hurled into a violent film and been expected to sit patiently with an unlikeable character for two hours. It doesn’t work that way. We have to learn who these characters are, see their vulnerable spots and then be allowed to watch them be heels.

The topical sentence, the first sentence of a novel is probably the most important. The same is true for film; that opening sequence sets the tone for the whole movie. Crash! Boom! Bang! or lyricism.

Making films is a difficult proposition. Anyone can assemble images, but complex difficult storytelling is an art. Scorsese is one of our greatest artists.

Enough about Art Onto another subject: Money.
The grosses for Cars may not be as overwhelming as Disney had hoped, but it’s obvious that it will be a smash in merchandisiing. Per the Jim Hill article I linked to yesterday, Disney guessers had hoped for $300 million domestic from the Pixar film but have now lowered their sights to $200 million for the film that cost $125 million. But the real money will come from the merchandising per this Daily News article. They expect to wrangle $600 million this year. Should Michael Eisner be thanked now?

- In the past week I’ve seen a number of animated films. Cars is the only one I saw in a theater. On television, my television, there were a lot of other films: Robots, The Incredibles, Lady & the Tramp, one of those Bugs Bunny compilation things, and Toy Story. On dvd I watched: the complete Norstein, about ½ of Raggedy Ann & Andy, some old Hubley commercials, and the opening of Bambi.

(Quiet)

That’s a lot of animation to watch. Some of it was accidental, some of it was on purpose. Most of the films just showed up on tv, and I watched. However, I thought of something while watching Cars and was curious to follow up on some of the others.

Back when I was a teenager, after viewing a lot of animated features, I realized something. My favorite part of most of these films happened within the first fifteen minutes or so. I particularly loved the openings, the introductions to the characters.

Snow White until she finds the dwarfs’ cottage; Bambi born in the woods; Pinocchio as a puppet until that magnifecent shot of the village wakening; Lady as a pup up to the point where she scorns the Tramp (even that great introduction to the rat); that great intro to all of the characters in 101 Dalmatians right up to the Twilight Bark. I could go on for a while.

It’s true, even of non-Disney features: Hoppity comes home to a torrent of trouble happening amongst the other bugs in Mr. Bug Goes To Town; Gulliver‘s landing and that great tie-him-up sequence; the intros of Hans & Kay & the Snow Queen in the Universal-Americanized version of The Snow Queen; Magoo and his nephew meeting other principle chartacters in 1001 Arabian Nights. Ok, maybe Im pushing it now.

But you get my point. Those quiet, unassuming introductions were just so delightful. We were given some real screen time to get to know all of the important characters,
and they were wonderfully developed before the story really started to unveil.

Today we’re thrown hard-core into a film. After the powerful Lion King opening – those first four minutes or so – everything has changed. Like TV shows, you have to get the attention of all the little buggers out there. (Forget the fact that they paid to see the film and are trapped in a theater, many of the kids are going to watch the show on tv anyway.)
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(Not so quiet.)
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I think Toy Story does it well; they’re loud and fast-paced, but we get to know a lot of the characters in the nursery before the adventure begins. I also liked Robots; it gives us a nice gentle opening really reinforcing the lead character and his family. We don’t meet the louder, more violent characters until our hero gets to the city. Cars starts off with a high tension couple of shots happening inside Lightning McQueen’s head, with his voiceover, then the tension really starts. Or at least it’s loud and fast-paced. We’re sort of thrown into the movie. The world of Pinocchio and Lady & The Tramp is left far behind. Probably not better or worse; it’s just different.

- Lane Smith has a funny pre-4th of July posting today on the site for his book, John, Paul, George & Ben.

- I’ve come to enjoy checking in with Ward Jenkins‘ site. He has such a sweet and gentle personality (as comes across in his blog, at least) that I usually end up smiling after reading it. Today’s posting is one of those times. I also love the very personal touch he brings to it.

- In a completely different way, I enjoy Eddie Fitzgerald‘s blog. His story of his first animation job is funny, revealing, and reminded me of some of my first days.

- Jim Hill Media has an interesting article about the box-office take of Cars. Is too much being made of box-office take these days? Should we be more concerned about the “artistry” of these films?

- Following up on Saturday’s entry about Lou Bunin, I thought I’d bring a little note of attention to another master working in this medium, 3D animation, today.

Barry Purves has made a number of absolutely beautiful films and has created in his own studio some masterfully realized pieces. His work has a discriminating taste, graceful and controlled movement with superb acting, and an intelligence that is rarely found in animation today.

He was nominated for the Academy Award for his film Screenplay, a virtuoso work which follows the rules of Kabuki theater and presents a double-layered story of a man watching and revealing a story from his past which eventually rips through the past and tears at the present. It’s a work of animated puppetry, displayed as theater and a stunning film that should have won its Oscar.

Rigoletto presents the opera in a condensed version that has been reduced for television. It’s a packed half-hour which places you into the full opera and allows you to follow it without any confusion. It has a majesty in its sweeping and dynamic camera moves which whisk you along in the luscious music; they carry you along through the depths of the complex story. It’s a wonderful film that certainly grows richer with each viewing.

Other works he’s done include a wonderful film about Gilbert & Sullivan: The Very Models gives us the pair as seen through the eyes of D’Oyle Carte. A rich and entertaining diary into the making of this film can be found on AWN and a short clip of the film is available there as well.

As a matter of fact, I found his diary there so entertaining, I’ve also followed the diary he keeps on his own website.

You can get a small glimpse of Barry Purves‘ craft by viewing the clip reel at Acme Filmworks. But you’re left without the full heft of his work until you’ve seen the complete storytelling ability he presents in the whole films.

As you can tell, from some of my recent postings, I have always had a love affair with puppet animation. There’s something extraordinary about that medium that has drawn me in. I’ve always demanded a tactile approach to animation, including all of the 2D work I’ve done.

I remember seeing Lady & The Tramp in 1955, on its first release (I was nine.) It was then that I consciously noted that one of the backgrounds in the “Bella Notte” sequence (I can now see that it was an Eyvind Earle BG) had texture in its paper. The board it was painted on came through the animation photography and reached out to me. The human hand became evident in the film.

Perhaps, this was what I loved so much about animation in the first place. Humans did it, and it was self-evident. Being reminded of it, in the subtlest ways – usually unintentional, added to my joy.

Perhaps this is what brought me to John Hubley’s films. Those films were so obviously painted: characters and BG were both used by the photographer to combine for us, and the unintentional was often caught on screen. (I immediately loved those highlighted rings double-exposed around the characters in Moonbird, the brush strokes of The Hole, the transparency of the characters’ paper in Of Stars and Men.) It added to the experience.

In a sense, I was brought out of the film but held in it and given the opportunity to love it even more.

I’ve had this same sense with the best 3D animation. Though I was always there viewing it, I was also caught up in the emotions of the film. Trnka’s masterful film, The Hand, had my understanding those tears and sweat on the little potter were moistened ink that had been his painted eyes. But the anguish I felt the first time I saw the film and that effect has never left me. The perfections of the Human Hand in that film forced the imperfections of the puppet potter to be revealed until it destroyed him.

Perhaps this is also what keeps me from embracing cgi animation. Despite the faked textures of the computer, it’s so obvious that it is not real. At least not when the characters are cartoons.

A very small example of what I’m trying to communicate stands out for me in Cars. The paint job of newer cars has a flecking/speckling of glitter within the paint. In the right light, the main character, Lightning McQueen, had this paint job. Everytime I saw it, I was distracted and pulled out of the film. Like the real paint on a real car, that flecking was embedded within the paint, itself. It didn’t feel like the byproduct of a human hand; it felt like a computer trick.
I am no more capable of coloring the computer skin of that computer hand than I am of painting a real car. It isn’t tactile for me, it’s just distracting.

It’s just something I never feel I can reach out and touch. This is something that has been overcome, for me, in a couple of films. The Incredibles gets very close often. Moments of Robots, such excellent design for the medium. Some of Toy Story.
(Click on any image to enlarge and enjoy the textures.)

Of course, I recognize that this is my problem. However, I recognize it’s a problem that other people probably have and wonder if there isn’t a solution. In The Iron Giant, the Giant is animated by a computer. I was told that the animation had to be rigged to be animated on “two’s” so that it wouldn’t separate from the rest of the hand-drawn animation. Oddly, it felt totally acceptable to me; I saw no problem and accepted that robot. There has to be, in there, a way to resolve it – I’m just thinking here and don’t expect anyone to try to follow what I’m saying. Perhaps if “human” problems, technical problems, were added to the animation. . . No this is even too stupid for me.

In my collection, I have this article from an out-of-print Close-up Magazine, and I thought I’d post it for the 3D lovers out there.

– Back in the days when I was scouting New York for any possible job in the animation industry, my love of puppet animation came to the rescue.

Through ASIFA East I’d met John Gati and had talked with him through many trips on the subway (we both lived in Queens at the time), about 3D animation. John made his living with model animation for commercials, though his love was full-out puppets. At a dry time for me, he offered 2-3 days work helping him on a commercial spot for Care*Free Sugarless gum.

The Care*Free gum had to undress itself (take off the wrapper) and jump on a scale. Trident gum, did the same on the other end of the scale. Which weighed more? Care*Free, of course.
(Click on any image to enlarge and read.)

I prepared the packaged gum, wired it up for 3D movement and helped in the shoot. Just as we were completing the spot, word came down that Trident was changing its package. We had to do the spot again. Another two days of work for me.

#1 #2

Midweek, another spot started on the other side of the studio (a large open room with a lot of cameras, movieolas and equipment. Lou Bunin had just started animating a Lucky Charms commercial with a puppet elf. This was a test commercial General Mills wanted to view to see how the character worked in 3D. (Obviously, they didn’t do the change.)

For a couple of days, I got to watch and talk with Lou seeing how real characters were animated. It was memorable for me, a neophyte in love with all things animated.

#3 #4

Lou Bunin had done a memorable feature of Alice In Wonderland which was released at the same time as Disney’s film. This puppet film, is probably closer in feel to what Lewis Carroll was thinking when he wrote Alice, and the film should be seen for comparison.

#5 #6

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Years later, after I’d formed my own animation company, I found my first short film to produce for a company called Learning Corporation of America. This was a non-theatrical division of Columbia Pictures. For LCA I did two short films, Byron Blackbear and the Scientific Method and Why We Need Doctors.

Assigned to me as my assistant Producer for LCA was a woman named Amy Bunin.

In a quiet moment alone, I asked if she were related. It turned out that Amy was Lou’s daughter, and I knew that some sort of karma was at work.

#7

Thad of Animation ID has posted a number of cartoons of interest: –
- The Tex Avery short One Cab’s Family tells the story of a family of cars with a hot-rodder amongst them. This short offers beautiful design, excellent direction, good story, great track.

I often wondered which film influenced the other: this or Susie The Blue Coupe. Both done in 1952. Both look similar, though the Disney film is lusher. Those windshields for eyes.

(Susie The Blue Coupe – thanks to Cuckoocomics.)

- Larry Doyle produced a series of shorts using the Warner Bros. characters as if they were in a TV sitcom. I’m not sure that actually was the plan when they were made.
Deliciously unfunny. Completely unwatchable. You can try if you like.
Thanks to Thad for posting them. I otherwise might not have seen the minute I watched.

- There’s an interesting biography of Charles Dickens animated by the Rufflebrothers for the BBC at Bleak House. This is the site for the BBC live action drama, Bleak House, and the flash animated piece gives an idea of Dickens’ life. It’s an on-line accompaniment to the series. I think the animated piece stands up on its own, although it gets a bit dry.

Aardman animation has just sold their Big Jeff shorts to MTV2 for airing starting late June. You can get a sample of these shorts at Big Jeff.com.