Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

There was a very nice article about Bill Plympton and his work in the Sunday NYTimes. The article featured a story about the music video done for Kanye West. For those who haven’t already see it, you can see the video here.

For those of you who havent had enough of Nick Park‘s films, there is a series about to premiere on BBC America. It’s built on the Oscar winning short film, Creature Comforts. The shows were directed by Richard Goleszowski; Nick Park acts as Executive Producer. The official premiere is Friday, Dec. 23 at 10:30pm, but there seem to be some showings earlier this week – including one today at 2pm. Go to BBC America for the complete schedule. Since I like the short, Creature Comforts, more than I do the Wallace & Gromit films, I look forward to seeing this series.

More PIXAR:

I found two more articles about PIXAR and MOMA that looked at the show from other interesting perspectives. The first from FORBES Magazine focused on money, the second The New York Sun reviewed it as an “Art” exhibition.

The School of Visual Arts last night opened its gallery to a show of animation art by five of their alumni: John R. Dilworth, Yvette Kaplan, Alex Kupershmidt, Chris Prynoski, and Tom Sito. On display was a sampling of art from each of the professionals who had formerly schooled at SVA and, in some cases, taught there. This amounted to a number of cels, animation drawings, and paintings.
Three of the four artists had worked at MTV when that studio flourished in New York. Hence, there was a wide range of material from programs for that network – everything from Beavis & Butthead to station IDs. It was quite an attractive sampling of work and showed a broad range of styles all well drawn.
It was nice to catch up with some of those I met there including Howard Beckerman, Bill Plympton and Biljana Labovic. Tom Sito and Yvette Kaplan, both of whom flew in from LA for the show, were both in good form. They and all of the artists had good reason to be proud of their work and this show.
Standout pieces for me were:
the thumbnails from Beauty and the Beast and animated-in-ink roughs of Roger Rabbit by Tom Sito;
the stunning model sheets of Courage from Courage the Cowardly Dog and cel setups from some of the independent shorts by John Dilworth; and
storyboard drawings from Ice Age by Yvette Kaplan.
Tonight, Howard will moderate a panel of the five artists discussing their careers post-SVA and answer questions. It takes place from 6-9pm in the amphitheater on the 3rd floor (where most of the ASIFA-East meetings are held). For more info follow link.

Last night I went to the Museum of Modern Art to see the opening of the Pixar exhibit of artwork from their films. (I’ll post comments on the show and its schedule later today.) There, I met up with Emily Hubley and her husband, Will Rosenthal. It was a pleasure to talk about her upcoming program at the Museum. The woman, like both of her parents, is a true artist, and I look forward to any new work. Here are details from the Museum’s film schedule:

An Evening with Emily Hubley:
Program includes animated segments from Bubble Boy (a work in-progress directed by Barak Goodman and John Maggio); Original Child (2003, directed by Carey Schonegevel); Blue Vinyl (2002, directed by Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold); Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001, directed by John Cameron Mitchell); Keeping Sound (a work in-progress directed by Peter Friedman and Jean-Francois Brunet). Also shown are animated shorts directed by Emily Hubley: Octave (2006), Her Grandmother’s Gift (1995, cowritten by Emily and Faith Hubley), and The Tower (1984, codirected by Georgia Hubley). A live performance Tactics of Desire (2005), with animation by Emily Hubley and music by Sue Garner is performed by Angel Dean, Sue Garner, Ted Reichman, and Megan Reilly. Program 90 min.
Wednesday, January 4, 8:00

I also want to thank Amid Amidi at Cartoon Brew and Emru Townsend at FPS for the kind and encouraging words they’ve written about this website and my work in general. As many of you in this business know, it’s tough to go at it day after day, year after year. A few positive words will carry you a long way.

There was an interesting article by Charles Solomon in the Sunday NY Times about the Pixar exhibition opening Wednesday at the Museum of Modern Art. Included in the show, along with lots of art and preproduction material from the films, will be a 3D zoetrope. Small 3D statues of the Toy Story characters will be placed in a zoetrope. When spun, they will come to life. Sounds creepy but interesting. Why aren’t more studios as imaginative as the Pixar people?

Thanks to Mike Barrier for his incredibly kind words regarding this site. He is the foremost historian in the animation world, and his site is one I check in on daily (just to see if anything’s been added). More often than not I agree with him on animation choices. His book, Hollywood Cartoon, is a must read for anyone interested in animation. www.michaelbarrier.com

The only other animation sites I visit daily are Cartoon Brew and Cartoon Modern. But then, everyone hits these regularly, don’t they?

Another site I like to check visit is Tom Sito‘s blog on the Gang of 7 Animation site. He reveals interesting/entertaining bits about each day in history. Endlessly entertaining.

Another site I visit, albeit less frequently than Barrier’s site is Toonhub. This site lists hundreds of other sites and gives lots of time for play. There are so many sites out there, I doubt we could find them all even if we wanted to. www.Toonhub.com.

I suppose eventually we’ll include a links page to this site. I’m a news junkie, especially politics, and most of what I read on the internet has to do with this subject, so I’m not sure how many sites I have to reveal to animators that would be of interest to them.

The short list of Oscar contenders has been positive for New York with three films on the list. They are Bill Plympton’s “The Fan and The Flower,” John Canemaker’s “The Moon and The Sun: An Imagined Conversation,” and our own “The Man Who Walked Between The Towers.” Coupled with “Badgered” and “Imago,” there are five 2D hand-drawn films on that list of eight.

On the short list for feature animation four of the ten titles are non-computer animated. There are two puppet films, “Corpse Bride,” and “Wallace & Gromit;” there are two 2D films, “Howl’s Moving Castle,” and “Steamboy.”

Since the Hollywood feature establishment has opted to get out of the 2D business, it’s especially gratifying – to one who has staked his life in this art form – to see that it’s still accepted as a viable medium by audiences. Not that I ever had a doubt about that – regardless of who wins the Oscar in March. As a loud and ardent supporter of 2D animation, I couldn’t be happier.

I’m happy with the way the site premiered yesterday. Already those first viewers can see that things have changed a bit. We’ve gotten rid of the opening logo page and now go straight to the main page. The QT movie opened too slowly for those with dial-up and, really, wasn’t necessary. Other changes and additions should be affected by the end of the week.

What I didn’t do yesterday was to properly thank those in my studio who put this site together. Adrian Urquidez is the main guy who has really rallied forward with the endless batches of material I gave him. I’m thoroughly impressed with the organization he’s put into it. Somehow it all seems so simple and clear cut now that it’s done. Paul Carrillo and Matt Clinton offered a lot of help with some complicated bits of their expertise. There’s just no way it could have been done so well without all three of them. Thank you.

Dec 05. Today is Walt Disney’s birthday. It seems like a good enough date for us to premiere this site. We’re going to try to make it interesting. Most of the site is dedicated to our films and the work of the studio. Hopefully, we can use this blog to keep up a small diary, perhaps post some pictures we find interesting, and let you know what we’re up to. We’d appreciate any comments about the site and hope to keep it liquid so that we add to it constantly.

So, we’re off and running.