Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– I’d like to call your attention to a new website we’ve started, as of today.

Now that my feature, POE, is nearing its production start we’ve decided to devote a site specifically to that film. This is an outgrowth of the Poe Page we’ve had at MichaelSpornAnimation.com.

Much of the artwork and clips have been carried over from the old Poe page,
however on Poestory.net, new materials will be added more frequently. There will also be a running journal which will be an extension of the one we’d started on the older site. However, it’s expected that this one will also have entries by others working on the film.

We hope to be able to give a running visual and verbal log of our production as it goes through its growth in the next 16 months. The images up today will continue expanding even through the next week until we’ve started to settle into a regular routine.

- You may know the name of G. Michael Dobbs through the two animation publications he’s produced, Animato or Animation Planet. Or you may know him through his websites, Out of the Inkwell and Made of Pen and Ink.

Now Mr. Dobbs has a new animation book on the market, and I encourage you to look for it.
Escape! How animation broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s describes how animation “escaped” the kidvid onus and moved into more of an adult vein.

As the press release reads:

From the shock value of “The Simpsons,” to the experiment of putting “Ren & Stimpy” on MTV to the popularity of anime among teens, animation saw a revival due to a variety of reasons that came about rather organically, as Dobbs shows in his book.

The book includes interviews with all of your favorites: John Kricflausi, Bill Plympton and Ralph Bakshi. The rise of the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon are detailed and the story of the modern, changing adult feature is told: Beauty and the Beast to Bee Story and Beowulf.

G. Michael Dobbs also continues to write his history on the Fleischer brothers and their studio. You can get a remarkable sample of this long-in-the-works book at his Made of Pen and Ink site on which two chapters are posted.

– The extraordinarily vital FPS website is currently holding their fourth annual charity auction live on ebay until the 30th of November.

There are quite a few fine animation goodies for auction via the site. Books, dvds, cds, posters, models and other items are all available and will help the Cancer Research Society. What a great use of their website!

Included among the items to be auctioned are:
__Art of Disney Japanese exhibit catalogue, Art of Disney Japanese exhibit DVD
__Once Upon A Time/Il etait une fois Walt Disney Montreal exhibit posters
__dvd shorts donated by NFB:
______Madame Tutli-Putli
______The Danish Poet
______Ryan
__books:
______Animated Cartoons by E.G. Lutz, 1926 edition
______The Art of Bee Movie ______The Art of Beowulf
______The Art of Cars _______.___The Art of Ratatouille
______The Art of the Incredibles

A full list of items is available here. Go – before Nov. 30th, get some good stuff, support Cancer research and keep your eye on the great site: FPS.

One final note. In case you haven’t noticed, Hans Perk is at it again. He is posting the drafts to Disney’s feature, Alice in Wonderland. The man and his site, A Film LA, are a veritable well stream of animation information.

These are the titles of the films which have been accepted to compete in the Best Animated Short competition for the Oscar. New York members of the Academy (which included quite a few people who traveled from Canada) were assembled to watch the films and vote their choices for the shortlist which will be immediately assembled. From that shortlist of about 10 films, five will be selected as the nominees to be announced in late January.

_1. EL Dia De Los Muertos (The Day Of The Dead)
_2. A Gathering Of Elephants
_3. The Day My Soul Became A Star
_4. Tales Of The Old Piano, Beethoven
_5. Art’s Desire
_6. Fission
_7. Jeu
_8. Printed Rainbow
_9. Mortel
10. Madame Tutli-Putli
11. My Love (Moya Lyubov)
12. Peter And The Wolf
13. Verschlossen (Closed)
14. Shuteye Hotel
15. Anna And The Moods
16. Ark
17. Blind Man’s Eye
18. Boog And Elliot’s Midnight Bun Run
19. The Chestnut Tree
20. The ChubbChubbs Save Xmas
21. How To Hook Up Your Home Theater
22. I Met The Walrus
23. Map Of The Underground
24. Meme Les Pigeons Vont Au Paradis
_____(Even Pigeons Go To Heaven)
25. Mirage
26. Mr. Schwartz, Mr. Hazen & Mr. Horlocker
27. My Date From Hell
28. The Needful Head
29. Once Upon A Christmas Village
30. The Order
31. The Pearce Sisters
32. Sleeping Betty (Isabelle Au Bois Dormant)
33. Yours Truly

I don’t intend to review these shorts.
After my certainty last year that the best film. Joanna Quinn‘s, Dreams and Desires: Family Ties, would win the Oscar – only to be shocked that she wouldn’t even get a nomination, I’ve learned my lesson. You can’t predict these things, so I won’t.

I would like to talk about the most known of these shorts. I was glad to have seen a number of films I’ve heard about for the past year, and I feel I can finally comment – without giving much of an in-depth criticism. You should think for yourself on these.

The Pearce Sisters was remarkable in its use of cgi animation to animate a rather dark story. It was quite attractive, and, I have to say, did quite a fine job of animating the illustration style. However, it made me think of Caroline Leaf’s Two Sisters. That’s a very different and lovelier film with a similar subject.

For almost a year now, I’ve seen clips from Peter And The Wolf and have read about it. I’m glad to have finally seen it. The film is a daring alteration of the Prokofiev story written for his musical piece. The use of the silence at the open is quite stark and interesting in its approach. It’s an extraordinarily good film with very fine puppet animation. However, I was a bit surprised at the ending; there was no anticlimax. I also felt the credits in silence was a mistake. Sort of the animated version of The Sopranos with less justification than David Chase had.

Just as often, I’ve heard about and read about My Love (Moya Lyubov) by Aleksandr Petrov. Like his other films, this is an elaborate and romantically painted piece. It was a well told story, done with extraordinary skill. I wish I were a fan of Mr. Petrov’s work, but I must admit a prejudice against the style of painting he uses. However I completely respect the complex animation work he’s done.

I have to say I’ve never liked Goofy. From the first, when I’d heard how they were making How To Hook Up Your Home Theater, a continuation of the endless series of unfunny shorts produced in the forties and fifties, there seemed little for me to cheer about. The new regime at Disney was actively trying to recreate one of those mediocre Goofy shorts from that period. Then I’d read a number of reviews after the screening at Ottawa. When Michael Barrier spoke so highly of it, I certainly looked forward to seeing it for myself. And you know what? They succeeded in imitating the feel of those films. (However, I can’t understand why the outlines are so thin. Goofy never had such a thin line in those shorts.) But, really, what difference does that make? It’s a Goofy movie. Not for me. I suppose Donald & Chip n Dale are next. I guess I’m glad they’re training young directors and animators to do 2D work.

This is the fourth time I’ve seen Bill Plympton’s most recent short, Shuteye Hotel. It’s a wholly new look for Bill; the use of cg artwork almost disorients you at the start. You don’t feel as if you’re in PlymptonWorld until the police vehicle pulls up. I quite like this change; it feels right. The film takes Bill’s style to other levels.

Finally I’ve seen Madame Tutli-Putli. This, for me, was the best film on the program. Amazingly sensitive puppet animation which recaptures some dark period in our history (or maybe it’s our future.) I found the live-action eyes extraordinarily distracting and wish they were able to have done the film without them, but, regardless, I felt moved by these characters and the complex story told. It’s a beautiful film.

A final note: I must admit my disappointment in not seeing Koji Yamamura‘s film, Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor, on the list. I’m such a big fan of Mr. Yamamura’s work that I would have liked to have seen it as part of this event. Maybe next year.

The NY Times has 2 articles about the Performance Capture in the weekend’s #1 film, Beowulf. (UGH! And, no, I do not think it’s a positive that so many people are going to see this animated film.) #1 & #2

There are a lot of animation events around my world today.

- The MP Academy is holding their screening for the animated shorts that are eligible for __nomination. The program starts at 11:30 today and will go for the length of the films (with
__a break for lunch.) I’m assuming I won’t be done with that until 7PM. I expect that the
__films will be as they usually are:
____There are the great ones that undeniably should be nominated.
____There are those that are just good and do not stand up.
____There are those that you can’t wait to get on with it. The dull.
__Since I don’t know how many films, nor any of the titles to be screened, I’ll report on this
__screening after the fact.

- In LA, there’s the Raggedy Ann reunion. Jim Hill has a great article on this in case you’d
__like to know more about it. They will show a 35mm print of the film (thanks to Mark
__Kausler) and will chat about the experience of working on the film. It was intended that
__we would have a NY version of the event at the same time so that the Raggedy people
__in NY could feel as though they were a part of it. However, given the long
__Academy screening scheduled for us, given the lack of a suitable copy of the film to
__screen, and given the lack of a space to hold the event, it’s obvious we weren’t able to
__have it here. The timing isn’t right, I guess. Raggedy Ann, the film, always did suffer the
__fate of being an “also ran.”

__If you’re in LA, go to it. The film has moments worth seeing, and the chat should be fun.
_______Raggedy Ann & Andy Reunion
_______November 17th at 3pm
_______Mark Goodsen Auditorium
_______American Film Institute
_______2021 N. Western Bl
_______Hollywood, CA

– Nina Paley will hold a preview screening of her
__82 mins. feature film, Sita Sings The Blues.
__Nina says:”We’ll screen the whole 82-minute
__feature on DVD, then the 3-minute 35mm film
__test of “Battle of Lanka,” so you can see just how
__gorgeous it looks on film.”

__Saturday, November 17, 7:00 pm and 9:00pm
__NYU Tisch School of the Arts
__room 006, (lower level)
__721 Broadway
____between Waverly Place and Washington Place
__New York City
__Free!

__If you want to attend the New York screening,
__please RSVP with “Sita NY” in the subject, to:
_______Nina_Paley@Yahoo.com.

__Space is limited, and priority will be given to
__those with names on the list. This is just a sneak preview;
__“the bigger and better genuine premiere will happen in 2008.”

__The 7pm show is full, so you probably should expect to go to the 9pm show if you’d like
__to see it.

Finally, I’d like to direct you to the monthly column in today’s NYTimes by cartoonist, James Stevenson. His work is just about my favorite these days, and this piece is excellent. It’s called “Balloons Over Broadway” and tells the story of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

- Last night concluded the Michael Sporn weekend at the Museum of Modern Art. What a treat for me to renew my acquaintance with some of the many films I’d done over the years and to find out how many of them still hold up. Others I would have liked to have trimmed down for the occasion. As the wolf says in The Amazing bone: I can’t help being who I am; I didn’t make the world.

Last night it was a treat for me to gab on the stage of the Titus 2 theater within the museum and to casually answer some intelligent questions put to me by both John Canemaker and Josh Siegal. It really was a somewhat controlled conversation; they didn’t seem to have a list of prepared questions that I was required to answer. (Maybe they did, but it didn’t feel that way from my vantage point.) We just talked.

And talk I did. It was planned for the event to last an hour, and we went to two hours – almost exactly. I’d prepared 44 mins of video clips, and we strolled across those clips hitting some key spots in my career. It was fun, and the audience seemed to enjoy it. The theater was about 90% filled. At first it seemed like only close friends were coming, but at the last five minutes the place filled up. It turns out that only close friends did come. The audience was so supportive. I still can’t believe Michael and Phyllis Barrier came so far to be there. The same is true of John and Cathy Celestri. But it was also a long trek for a lot of others to come out on a rainy evening to watch ME talk. I can’t tell you how touching it all is.

My primary goal here was to thank some of those individuals that were so important to me over the years. Tissa David, Maxine Fisher, Christine O’Neill, Bridget Thorne and most importantly Heidi Stallings. So I did. To top it all, I’ll have it on tape when the museum gives me a copy of the video record they made of the program.

Afterward the museum offered us cocktails next door at their restaurant. A relaxed, enjoyable way to end the evening and to sit back with some of those who came. Many thanks to John Canemaker and Josh Siegel for taking the time to put this together. It meant a lot. Now it’s back to business.

– Last night, I saw the Dreamworks/Seinfeld concoction of an animated feature. Bee movie. The title is meant as a pun on “B” movie; unfortunately, that’s what this really is – a second rate film.

I should keep my opinion to myself, but I can’t. I have no intention of putting down any of the excellent artists, designers, or animators that worked on this film. They did what they could given the circumstances.
Let’s talk about what I see as “the circumstances” given the fact that I know NOTHING about the making of this film other than what Jerry Seinfeld said on Charlie Rose or that I was able to guess from the movie, itself.

The story is pathetic. If it had been just a mass of uproarious, funny jokes, I’d have been happy. In fact, I didn’t hear too much laughter in the theater, and I wasn’t brought to smile even once. It wasn’t funny. In fact, about midway through the film, I felt that I was watching some kind of bastardized Industrial or Educational film about bee pollination. The only problem was that the information was so simple that I knew that wasn’t the case. Jerry Seinfeld should be ashamed of his role in this product, and I believe that was probably the problem.

Now, the problem with the “craft” of the film. It was all at the top.

For some reason, the actors were directed to push their performances way – I mean WAY over the top. Renee Zellwegger has given many fine performances during her career – including King of the Hill and Shark Tale. Her acting in Miss Potter was extraordinarily subtle and nuanced. However in Bee Movie, she shouts her lines, overperforms every word and telegraphs every simple sentence. Yet, alongside John Goodman, she’s the maestro. His performance as a prosecuting attorney allows him to don a Southern accent and pretend he’s doing Inherit The Wind in some regional dinner theater where he’s trying to shout over the clinking tableware and devour all of the scenery. It’s an embarrassing performance. Even Patrick Warburton, not the greatest actor is fine in many other animated films including The Emperor’s New Groove, yet here he’s required to scream his every line. I don’t get it; it’s as if they were all forced to give heightened performances to try to make the poor writing funnier. It didn’t work.

The poor animators, saddled with these readings, animated what they got. Hence, the shouted lines were overanimated – that’s the only way they could work – with an aggression that I haven’t seen in quite some time.

The film was dreadful. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to offend anyone out there who’s worked on it, but I did not enjoy the experience. Of course, it’s only my take on the thing, and my opinion is just that.

By the way, why is it that these animated features consistently rob the insects of two of their appendages? Bug’s Life and Bee Movie choose to illustrate bugs as having two arms and two legs, unlike real insects which have six. At one time, the Jerry Seinfeld character comments on the eight legs of spiders, making us even more aware of the shortchanged bees in this movie. For Pete’s sake, even the ugly Nasonex bee has six legs, though for some reason he has an hispanic accent. Who’s making these choices?

- Now let’s talk about ART in animation.
The ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archives is currently displaying an exhibit of early Grim Natwick art. There are photos of the exhibit at their site and a couple of excellent scans of Grim’s early animation drawings. If you haven’t seen these, you ought to visit their site – or the archive, itself.

GRIM NATWICK’S SCRAPBOOK
An Exhibit Presented By The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive
2114 W Burbank Blvd
Burbank, CA 91506
Tuesday through Friday 1pm to 9pm

- This month, Jeff Scher reworks a 1945 musical film, Yours, for the NYTimes. Kudos to Jeff for another fine piece. One a month for The NY Times. Would that other newspapers would take it on to support a bit of animated art. Support it by adding your hit to their post.

Today’s NYTimes also includes a review of a number of animated DVDs including: “Ratatouille,” “Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1,” “Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5,” “Chuck Jones Collection,” and “Fantastic Planet.”

If they’re animated, they must be connected.

Yesterday
- An art exhibit of William Steig’s work opened yesterday at the Jewish Museum. It’s nice to note that Steig’s original art for Doctor DeSoto, The Amazing Bone and Abel’s Island will be on display at the same time that my films of his books will be shown at the Museum of Modern Art.

Note that art from his beautiful book, Shrek, will also be displayed. (Looking at Steig’s stunning illustrations, it’s hard to understand how such an ugly solution evolved into the films’ style.)

“The Art of William Steig” runs through March 16 at the Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Ave., at 92nd Street; (212) 423-3200.

Next Weekend
- It was a kick getting my regular email from MOMA – I’m a member. Labeled MoMA Film E-News, November 2-16, 2007 I expected some small mention but was surprised to find the following:

Michael Sporn
November 9–12

Michael Sporn has been a vital creative force in New York animation for thirty-five years. Prior to opening his independent studio in 1980, the Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award–winning producer/director worked closely with many legendary animation artists on commercials, shorts, and feature-length films. Sporn has produced a remarkably diverse range of animation, including feature film titles (Sidney Lumet’s Prince of the City), television specials (HBO’s Lyle, Lyle Crocodile), and even visuals for the Broadway stage (the 1981 musical Woman of the Year). A sensitive interpreter _____________Doctor De Soto. 1984. USA.
of children’s stories for the screen, Sporn has ____________Directed by Michael Sporn
carefully adapted to animation the unique styles
of storybook illustrators like William Steig, Russell Hoban, Bernard Waber, and Mordicai Gerstein. Sporn’s own production design distinguishes his adaptations of such classic tales as The Red Shoes and The Hunting of the Snark, as well as socially conscious films like Champagne.

I guess I just didn’t expect as much attention. I have to admit I love it; who wouldn’t? What I most look forward to is giving some of these films a small bit of attention. There are a few films that I do cherish, and I’m glad they’ll be projected on a big screen. Mike and Phyllis Barrier will be in town as will John and Cathy Celestri. It’s been some time, and I will be happy to see them again.

Here, again, is the complete breakdown of the shows appearing in MOMA‘s catalogue:

Friday, November 9, 6:30; Repeated Saturday, November 10, 1:30. T2
Michael Sporn Program 1: New York Stories

Mona Mon Amour. 2001. Humorist Patti Stren looks for love in all the wrong places in this comical monologue of modern-day neuroses. 9 min.
Champagne. 1996. A moving animated documentary portrait of Champagne Saltes, a bright and sassy fourteen-year-old who lived in a convent school while her drug-addicted mother was in prison for murder. 13 min.
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. 2005. On an iconic moment in New York history, the day in 1974 when French aerialist Philippe Petit made his death-defying tightrope walk across the towers of the not-yet-finished World Trade Center. Based on Mordicai Gerstein’s Caldecott Award-winning book and narrated by Jake Gyllenhaal. 10 min.
Lyle, Lyle Crocodile. 1987. The comic misadventures of Bernard Waber’s beloved neighborhood reptile (in the classic children’s book The House on East 88th Street) are narrated by Tony Randall with songs by Charles Strouse (Annie). 26 min.
The Little Match Girl. 1991. Abandoned to the wintry streets of New York, a little girl inspires compassion for the homeless in this lovely rendition of the Hans Christian Andersen tale. Narrated by F. Murray Abraham. 26 min. Program 84 min.

Saturday, November 10, 3:30; Repeated Sunday, November 11, 2:45. T2
Michael Sporn Program 2: Fables

Doctor DeSoto. 1984. An Oscar-nominated adaptation of William Steig’s classic story about a clever mouse-dentist who outwits a conniving fox. 10 min.
Abel’s Island. 1988. A sudden gale storm whisks William Steig’s Edwardian mouse, Abelard Hassam di Chirico Flint, away from his wife and home, depositing him on a primitive, deserted island. With the voices of Tim Curry and others. 26 min.
The Red Shoes. 1990. Using a vibrant palette, Sporn transposes Hans Christian Andersen’s touching tale to contemporary Harlem. Narrated by Ossie Davis. 26 min.
The Hunting of the Snark. 1989. Lewis Carroll’s wondrously nonsensical poem, narrated by James Earl Jones, is brought to life through a range of visual conceits and animation techniques. 19 min. Program 81 min.

Saturday, November 10, 5:30; Repeated Sunday, November 11, 4:45. T2
Michael Sporn Program 3: A Peaceable Kingdom

Goodnight Moon. 1999. Margaret Wise Brown’s sixty-year-old book, with illustrations by Clement Hurd, has pride of place in every American child’s bedroom, and is joyously brought to the screen in this award-winning adaptation. Narrated by Susan Sarandon. 4 min.
The Marzipan Pig. 1990. Based on Russell Hoban’s deeply touching fable of unrequited love involving a marzipan pig, a bee, a taxi meter, a flower, a mouse, and a clock. Narrated by Tim Curry. 26 min.
The Amazing Bone. 1985. Dark adventures await Pearl, William Steig’s sweet-natured piglet, when she discovers a magical talking bone that has fallen out of a witch’s basket. 12 min.
Ira Sleeps Over. 1992. A delightful adaptation of Bernard Waber’s story about a momentous sleepover, with songs by Tony Award-winning composer William Finn. 26 min.
The Story of the Dancing Frog. 1989. A sophisticated British widow becomes the stage manager to a debonair frog, who dazzles crowds the world over with his cakewalk, polka and tap dance routines. Based on the book by Quentin Blake, narrated by Amanda Plummer. 26 min. Program 94 min.

Monday, November 12, 7:00. T2
An Evening with Michael Sporn.

The artist in conversation with animation historian/filmmaker John Canemaker and MoMA assistant curator Joshua Siegel, illustrated with clips from his award-winning animated films, including a new short, Pab’s First Burger, and an excerpt from his feature-length work-in-progress about the life and work of Edgar Allan Poe. Sporn’s career is also traced through his commercials, public service announcements, title sequences, and visuals for the Broadway stage. Program 90 min.

- The Film Society of Lincoln Center is hosting a series called,
Beyond Boundaries: The Emergence of Croatian Cinema (Oct 26-Nov 13).

Included in this program is a selection of some of the best films from the Zagreb School of Animation, which quickly became the cutting edge following its unveiling at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958. I wrote about Zagreb and one specific film, Tup Tup, back in March and I posted this magazine article about the studio.

The animated films slated to screen include:

__The Loner Vatroslav Mimica, 1958
__Concerto for a Submachine Gun ____Dusan Vukotic, 1958
__The Inspector Is Back! ____Vatroslav Mimica, 1959
__The Piece of Shagreen Leather ____Vlado Kristl, 1960
__Don Quixote Vlado Kristl, 1961
__The Substitute Dusan Vukotic, 1961
__The Wall Ante Zaninovic, 1965
__Curiosity Borivoj Dovnikovic-Bordo, ____1966
__Revelry Zlatko Bourek, 1966
__Passing Days Nedeljko Dragic, 1969
__Satiemania Zdenko Gasparovic, 1978

These films will screen at the following dates and times:
__Sat Oct 27: 2pm, Thu Nov 8: 3:45pm, __Fri Nov 9: 9:15pm, Wed Nov 14: 2pm

For more information and tickets, go here.

In honor of this program, here are some frame grabs from Nedeljko Dragic‘s excellent film done in 1974, Diary. It was an animated diary he did in the style of Saul Steinberg.

_____(Click any image to enlarge.)

- – The Michael Musto article in the current issue of the Village Voice contains a short passage about Marjane Satrapi. This isn’t the usual material you get to read about Satrapi in her push toward the opening of Persepolis – scheduled to open wide on December 25th.

By any name, the New York Film Festival closed with Persepolis, the inventive animated film based on Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel about an Iranian Eloise growing up through political tumult, a gay boyfriend, and a grandmother who soaks her tits in ice water, even her nipples. In the midst of the Café des Artistes dinner for the film, Satrapi left her ice water on the table to go outside and smoke like a chimney as she fielded my queries. Was her childhood in Iran all bad? “Primo Levi said total happiness doesn’t exist,” Satrapi replied, puffing away. “Total sadness doesn’t exist either. We had our good moments.” What brought her the most pleasure? “Smoking in the toilet with friends,” she admitted. “I loved putting something forbidden in my mouth in the toilet.” And she didn’t even have to tap in the stall!

Will publicity as good as this allow Ms. Satrapi to beat Bee Movie to the finish line come Oscar time? Animation is usually given the back seat in the PR rush. Unless you have a Bee Movie where Jerry Seinfeld is out there on Oprah pushing everyone (including Oprah) to wear Bee hats, you’re in the ghetto of the publicity machine. If you can’t act like an infant, there isn’t going to be a whole lot of press.

I’m pleased to see Musto write about Satrapi like this. It means she’s stepped over the border into adult-world. Her film is being treated like a real film not a kiddie comedy. It’s a big step in the right direction. It’s also nice that it’s being done by a woman. Arguably, Bakshi did the same years ago, certainly with Heavy Traffic which made many “Best Films of the Year” lists. However, the current fodder of second-rate animated features has thrown things back a few years, and we need a good representative to bring things up somewhat. We can hope that Marjane Satrapi will lead the quiet charge.

Paul Lasaine has a great new site which reveals some of the incredible artwork he’s done for a number of films.

He has a beautiful post which details some of the matte paintings he did for Disney in the years he worked in their matte department. Films like Dick Tracy, The Jungle Book (live action), and Lord of the Rings show before and after shots of the artwork he did for those films.

This is a beautiful site with lots of examples of Paul’s artwork – including background art he did for Prince of Egypt as the supervisor. There are examples of art he did for a number of features.

_
The image on the left is the live action constructed set for the film Dave; on the right the same shot combined with Paul’s matte painting.

The painting, above, is from a version of Moby Dick he was helping to develop at Dreamworks. The Brizzi brothers would have directed it.

This is turning into a regular stop for me, an excellent site. Check it out tout de suite.

I’m a sucker for silent movies. I think I’ve read at least a dozen biographies of D.W. Griffith, and I’ve seen a lot of his films (probably all of the features) at least once. I’m impressed with the drive and the love those people put into their work. They didn’t think of it as an art form, and they weren’t considered artists in their time. But in the end, there can be no doubt that some of the filmmkaers of the time were creating art.

A scene from Griffith’s The Birth of A Nation. It’s a recreation of Ford’s Theater as Lincoln gets shot.

I once saw a silent feature with no musical accompaniment. The silence was defeaning. It was amazing how silent the audience remained throughout the feature film. I guess the film was absorbing enough to make that audience unaware of the silence. That was about 15 years ago; I wonder if the same would occur today.

DW Griffith on the Booth Theater set under construction.

Watching silent films with organ music playing background is not the ideal way to see them. Most piano players who back up these films also aren’t really up to the task. But when you see a film with a great pianist or a good orchestral score it makes all the difference. There’s a musical group called the Alloy Orchestra that enhances the films they accompany, and allows the movies to live up to their full potential. I suggest you try to attend one of their programs if they’re in your neighborhood. (Or just buy one of their cd’s; you won’t regret it.) I suggest Metropolis or one of their sampler albums.

A rare picture of D. W. Griffith and Billy Bitzer on location for Biograph around 1912. Bitzer is lining up a. shot through ground glass, which he has inserted into the gate — there was no viewfinder on the Mutograph camera. This large machine, which punched its own sprocket holes, was smaller and more portable than Biograph’s first cameras. Negatives made with it are still providing superb quality prints.

________(Click any image to enlarge.)

– Sunday night marked the closing of the NY Film Festival. The closing film of the festival was Persepolis, and it was reviewed in the NY Times by Stephen Holden. Here are a couple of quotes from his review:

Because it is animated, “Persepolis” is a bold choice for the festival’s closing-night selection. “A cartoon?” you may sniff. “How dare they?” But the movie is so enthralling that it eroded my longstanding resistance to animation, and I realized that the same history translated into a live-action drama could never be depicted with the clarity and narrative drive that bold, simple animation encourages.

“Persepolis” makes you contemplate the processes of history. Buried under each wave of “reform,” it suggests, are cultural traditions that will eventually resurface no matter how repressive the climate of the moment. The movie is also tacitly feminist in its depiction of Islamist patriarchs as ludicrous misogynist prudes.

“Persepolis” has a lot in common with last year’s closing-night film, “Pan’s Labyrinth,” which portrays life in the wake of the Spanish Civil War through the eyes of girl who transmutes fear into ritualized fairy-tale fantasy. Both films are immeasurably enriched by examining war and social upheaval through innocent female eyes.

I saw the film last night and have had a lot of mixed thoughts about it. Ill report on those thoughts later this week after I’ve allwed them to settle for a bit.

Mark Mayerson, yesterday, found and posted some interviews with Marjane Satrapi answering questions at the NYFilm Fest. They’re worth a look if you’re interested.

- Are you interested in knowing what Chris Robinson‘s Mango Salad tastes like? Or would you like to know how Bruno Bozzetto makes Spaghetti and Meatballs. For desert would you like Jerry Beck‘s recipe for cupcakes?

The Art Institute of Pittsburgh has just such the cookbook for you. A bunch of animators have put their cooking thoughts on their favorite foods into menus for you.

Chocolate Crackel, Marillenknodel, Lamb Korma, Hot Cross Buns, Croque Monsieur, Fish Heads & Rice & Fried Bananas (yes animators are CWAZY!) These recipes are among many others in this great little book; the profits of which support the EDMC Education Foundation of the Art Institue of Pittsburgh.

To order the book, send checks or money orders payable to the
EDMC Foundation. The book sells for $10.

(Proper way to address the envelope)
Angela Love
Media Arts & Animation
Art Institute of Pittsburgh
420 Blvd. of the Allies
Pittsburgh, PA 15219

This is the Art Institute‘s site.

If you’d like to see an animated ad for the book go here.