ASIFA-Hollywood: The International Animated Film Society
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Volunteer Your Way to The Top
Networking, that is one of the main keys into the animation business. The other really important one is of course animation. You have to have a skill to sell. You have to be able to deliver and on time. The question always is, how come the people that have their chops together still have such a hard time getting their foot in the door?
You have a pretty good idea where I am going with this, right? You not only have to know something, you also have to know somebody or a lot of somebodies.
Volunteer, I keep telling my students, volunteer at Women in Animation, Comic Con, film festivals, volunteer at ASIFA-Hollywood. I write extra credit right into my syllabus for my animation students that are smart enough to take advantage of the side door I keep trying to show them into the world of animation.
Some of them get it like one of my former Brooks College students. He not only volunteered to help a presenter at this year’s San Diego Comic Con but he also came back and did free caricatures in front of the ASIFA booth to draw in the customers.
Or like one of my current Cal State Fullerton students who has been at every membership meeting and AFI showing since she started my class. She even joined ASIFA and volunteered to work the ASIFA table at the monthly L.A. Comic Con.
So what is not to get. When you volunteer to work for an origination made up of the people from the industry you want to join, you end up working next to people from that industry who just might have a job for you some day. You also get to know a lot of people who know a lot of other people. Your face becomes known. When you walk in the interview you are not starting cold.
Most important, you get a chance to prove your dependability and worth in a non-critical situation. One of the big reasons people in film hesitate to take a chance on the untried newcomer is because of the size of the risks and budgets.
(When I say non-critical situation, I mean it is non-critical to the volunteer origination, no one is going to lose their job if you mess up. It is still very critical to you because if you flake on the volunteer job you are marked for life. I know a couple of people who volunteered for Comic Con a couple of years back who cancelled out at the last minute or just didn’t bother to show up. I’ll not be recommending them for jobs anytime soon. They might be nice people but I don’t trust them anymore. They would have been better off never volunteering if the first place.)
That all said, the monthly ASIFA-Hollywood Act of Membership Meeting is held the last Wednesday of each month. For more info go to: http://www.asifa-hollywood.org/current.html .
larry@agni-animation.com
You have a pretty good idea where I am going with this, right? You not only have to know something, you also have to know somebody or a lot of somebodies.
Volunteer, I keep telling my students, volunteer at Women in Animation, Comic Con, film festivals, volunteer at ASIFA-Hollywood. I write extra credit right into my syllabus for my animation students that are smart enough to take advantage of the side door I keep trying to show them into the world of animation.
Some of them get it like one of my former Brooks College students. He not only volunteered to help a presenter at this year’s San Diego Comic Con but he also came back and did free caricatures in front of the ASIFA booth to draw in the customers.
Or like one of my current Cal State Fullerton students who has been at every membership meeting and AFI showing since she started my class. She even joined ASIFA and volunteered to work the ASIFA table at the monthly L.A. Comic Con.
So what is not to get. When you volunteer to work for an origination made up of the people from the industry you want to join, you end up working next to people from that industry who just might have a job for you some day. You also get to know a lot of people who know a lot of other people. Your face becomes known. When you walk in the interview you are not starting cold.
Most important, you get a chance to prove your dependability and worth in a non-critical situation. One of the big reasons people in film hesitate to take a chance on the untried newcomer is because of the size of the risks and budgets.
(When I say non-critical situation, I mean it is non-critical to the volunteer origination, no one is going to lose their job if you mess up. It is still very critical to you because if you flake on the volunteer job you are marked for life. I know a couple of people who volunteered for Comic Con a couple of years back who cancelled out at the last minute or just didn’t bother to show up. I’ll not be recommending them for jobs anytime soon. They might be nice people but I don’t trust them anymore. They would have been better off never volunteering if the first place.)
That all said, the monthly ASIFA-Hollywood Act of Membership Meeting is held the last Wednesday of each month. For more info go to: http://www.asifa-hollywood.org/current.html .
larry@agni-animation.com
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Art 480T Cal State Fullerton
When I was a kid, just out of high school, I was a lifeguard on Siesta Beach in Sarasota, Florida. People would retire after a full life of work, move south, and hang out at the beach doing nothing and soon die. Being active keeps you young and alive.
What can I say about Sol and Martha Sigall? They are the most alive, sharp, active, friendly, giving, and down right sweet couple in an industry of very nice people. I have read an awful lot of books about the history of animation but it is Martha and sharing people like her in this industry that have given me true understanding.
I first met Martha and Sol at the yearly Animation Afternoon of Remembrance a few years back. I happened to be siting next to them and we started up a conversation. The next year I brought my son and daughter to the Afternoon of Remembrance and we all talked with Martha and Sol.
I think my kids impress Sol because they already knew that Bugs Hardaway created Bugs Bunny. The short of it is that Martha and Sol kind if adopted my whole family. When we get together Martha and I always end up talking animation. When we talk on the phone they always want to know how the kids are doing.
Last night, in yet another kindness in a long list of kindnesses, Sol and Martha came and talked to my Cal State Fullerton History of Animation class. Dana Lamb, the head of the animation program at Fullerton, was thrilled to act as their chauffeur.
I saw Dana`s eyes light up a couple of times during dinner with that I-didn`t-know-that-is how-that-happened look that is often in my own eyes when talking to Martha and Sol.
Gems of insider understanding just fall from Martha`s lips without her even knowing it. Why Chuck Jones always bad mouthed and made fun of Leon Schlesinger, how the falling out between Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones came about, the great Ken Harris / Romer Gray story, the extra Porky Pig drawings in the Schlesinger storyboards.
Soon you too will all be able to share in the fount of information. Martha is in the last stages of putting out her book, `Living Life Inside the Lines`. I have read the first couple of chapters in draft form, it is schedules for Spring/Summer release, and I for one just can`t wait.
My class started at 7:00 P.M. with a graphics teacher down the hall asking if there was enough room for her students to set in on the class. The answer was yes. One of the cool things about teaching at a state university is the state of the arts classrooms.
I am guessing here. My class has 78 students. (that is not a guess) The class for down the hall has about 20 students. Then there was another 15 or 20 from the Pencil Mileage Club (the CSUF animation support club). I would say we had a full house.
The students were psyched. The format was a sit down interview with questions running the gambit from Martha`s childhood hinging out at Schlesginger`s Pacific Title Company to Sol`s reaction to the weirdness of Martha`s peer group. (he liked them)
One of the cool gems that came out was that Martha did ink and paint on of all of the Pvt. SNAFU`s between 1941 and 1943 but had no idea what she was working on at the time because she never got more than 10 cells at one time for security reasons. It was only years later when she got to see them that she knew what she had worked on and only then by the release dates.
We talked about her near misses on the picket line. The fire hoses at Warners and the paddy wagon at Paramount. (She had a dentist appointment so she didn`t get arrested)
I just got off the phone with Martha who called up to tell me that she and Sol had a really good time talking to my class last night. Isn`t that just the way. Here I am writing this blog about how great it was to have them in my class and she calls and thanks me and my students for her giving us the best class of my semester.. Thank you Martha, Thank you Sol. God bless you both. And I`m going to be first in line for you book when it comes out.
larry@agni-animation.com
What can I say about Sol and Martha Sigall? They are the most alive, sharp, active, friendly, giving, and down right sweet couple in an industry of very nice people. I have read an awful lot of books about the history of animation but it is Martha and sharing people like her in this industry that have given me true understanding.
I first met Martha and Sol at the yearly Animation Afternoon of Remembrance a few years back. I happened to be siting next to them and we started up a conversation. The next year I brought my son and daughter to the Afternoon of Remembrance and we all talked with Martha and Sol.
I think my kids impress Sol because they already knew that Bugs Hardaway created Bugs Bunny. The short of it is that Martha and Sol kind if adopted my whole family. When we get together Martha and I always end up talking animation. When we talk on the phone they always want to know how the kids are doing.
Last night, in yet another kindness in a long list of kindnesses, Sol and Martha came and talked to my Cal State Fullerton History of Animation class. Dana Lamb, the head of the animation program at Fullerton, was thrilled to act as their chauffeur.
I saw Dana`s eyes light up a couple of times during dinner with that I-didn`t-know-that-is how-that-happened look that is often in my own eyes when talking to Martha and Sol.
Gems of insider understanding just fall from Martha`s lips without her even knowing it. Why Chuck Jones always bad mouthed and made fun of Leon Schlesinger, how the falling out between Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones came about, the great Ken Harris / Romer Gray story, the extra Porky Pig drawings in the Schlesinger storyboards.
Soon you too will all be able to share in the fount of information. Martha is in the last stages of putting out her book, `Living Life Inside the Lines`. I have read the first couple of chapters in draft form, it is schedules for Spring/Summer release, and I for one just can`t wait.
My class started at 7:00 P.M. with a graphics teacher down the hall asking if there was enough room for her students to set in on the class. The answer was yes. One of the cool things about teaching at a state university is the state of the arts classrooms.
I am guessing here. My class has 78 students. (that is not a guess) The class for down the hall has about 20 students. Then there was another 15 or 20 from the Pencil Mileage Club (the CSUF animation support club). I would say we had a full house.
The students were psyched. The format was a sit down interview with questions running the gambit from Martha`s childhood hinging out at Schlesginger`s Pacific Title Company to Sol`s reaction to the weirdness of Martha`s peer group. (he liked them)
One of the cool gems that came out was that Martha did ink and paint on of all of the Pvt. SNAFU`s between 1941 and 1943 but had no idea what she was working on at the time because she never got more than 10 cells at one time for security reasons. It was only years later when she got to see them that she knew what she had worked on and only then by the release dates.
We talked about her near misses on the picket line. The fire hoses at Warners and the paddy wagon at Paramount. (She had a dentist appointment so she didn`t get arrested)
I just got off the phone with Martha who called up to tell me that she and Sol had a really good time talking to my class last night. Isn`t that just the way. Here I am writing this blog about how great it was to have them in my class and she calls and thanks me and my students for her giving us the best class of my semester.. Thank you Martha, Thank you Sol. God bless you both. And I`m going to be first in line for you book when it comes out.
larry@agni-animation.com
Monday, October 18, 2004
Martha and Sol Sigall
I just got back from my Cal State Fullerton History of Animation Class. I have to get up at 5 in the morning and unpack my car of all the stuff from the ASIFA table at last Sunday's mini comic con. (one of my students closed down the table and took the stuff home and then passed it off to me after my class). After I unload the car I have to be back on the road by 6:30AM to make it to my research and Development class that I am teaching at Brooks College.
What I'm trying to say is that I don't have much time to tell you about the great time my class and I had with Sol and Martha Sigall tonight.
Martha and Sol kindly came in to talk about the early days of animation and to share from their collect.
The head of Fullerton animaton department, Dana Lamb, made a special trip to prick them up and bring them to the class. The students were over the moon to meet this knowledgeable couple.
When I have more time I will go into more detail. For now, here are some photos.
larry@agni-animation.com
What I'm trying to say is that I don't have much time to tell you about the great time my class and I had with Sol and Martha Sigall tonight.
Martha and Sol kindly came in to talk about the early days of animation and to share from their collect.
The head of Fullerton animaton department, Dana Lamb, made a special trip to prick them up and bring them to the class. The students were over the moon to meet this knowledgeable couple.
When I have more time I will go into more detail. For now, here are some photos.
larry@agni-animation.com
