ASIFA-Hollywood: The International Animated Film Society
Monday, January 31, 2005
The Incredibles - Pixar Animation Studios - Best Animated Feature
2005 Annie Awards 
The Annie Winners List
The Annie Winners List
2005 Annie Awards / Annette O`Neil, one of the people behind the scenes that ran the show and made everything happen. Thank you Annette.
Certificates of Merit
2005 Annie Awards / Antran gives out certificates
DreamWorks Animation SKG (for always being there and always willing to help)
Sivert Glarum (for going to bat and saving a piece of animaiton history)
DreamWorks Animation SKG (for always being there and always willing to help)
Sivert Glarum (for going to bat and saving a piece of animaiton history)
2005 Annie Awards / Virgina Davis - Remeber, it all started with this little girl / this great lady. The highlight of this year`s Annies for me was the chance to spend about 20 minutes talking to the girl that started it all. Alice for Cartoonland.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
What Am I Doing Up At This Hour? (not to mention the 3 before)
I dreamed last night that I was on that boat to heaven. No, not really. I dreamed that I was the lawyer for Ed Gonzalez who was in court for breach of cell phone contract. I had just come up with a great defense when I woke up to remember that the forms for the video crew that had made their way from our lawyer to Antran had not made their way from Antran or our lawyer to me. Time to pull out my copy of Understanding Animation Contracts and do some serious cribbing.
All is done and all, I hope, is remembered for today`s Annies. Time for a bath for me, but you don`t need to hear about that.
Speaking of remembering, the son of Frank Thomas spoke about his father yesterday, he told one story about his father that I liked very much.
Frank called Disney H.R. to tell them when he wanted to take 2 weeks of vacation. The H.R. person told him that he could not take vacation because his H.R. folder was full and there was no more room to write the vacation information into his record.
Frank told the Anile Retentive that it sounded like they had a real problem because he was taking his vacation. He then hung up the phone a little forcefully.
Sometime it is a delicate dance between the creative and the legalistic and sometimes one or both of the partners are wearing steel toed work boots with a bag over their head and sometimes, like today, the e-mail chain of communications just does not flow correctly. We do what we have to when we have to and we all dance on.
All is done and all, I hope, is remembered for today`s Annies. Time for a bath for me, but you don`t need to hear about that.
Speaking of remembering, the son of Frank Thomas spoke about his father yesterday, he told one story about his father that I liked very much.
Frank called Disney H.R. to tell them when he wanted to take 2 weeks of vacation. The H.R. person told him that he could not take vacation because his H.R. folder was full and there was no more room to write the vacation information into his record.
Frank told the Anile Retentive that it sounded like they had a real problem because he was taking his vacation. He then hung up the phone a little forcefully.
Sometime it is a delicate dance between the creative and the legalistic and sometimes one or both of the partners are wearing steel toed work boots with a bag over their head and sometimes, like today, the e-mail chain of communications just does not flow correctly. We do what we have to when we have to and we all dance on.
Saturday, January 29, 2005
I did not take a camera to the Afternoon of Remembrance because I thought that it would be disrespectful. Other people had cameras so I was wrong. As fortune would have it my 14 year old daughter, Raven, did sketches of all of the speakers.
I will be dealing with some of the speeches and great stories later but right I have to charge the walky-talkies for the video archive crew and look at the John and Faith Hubley special that Martha and Sol taped for me.
All and all, it was a great event and well worth the trip into Hollywood. And to the girl from USC that I talked to about the ticket, e-mail me I just got a cancellation. larry(at)agni-animation(dot)com
Remembrance
I will be dealing with some of the speeches and great stories later but right I have to charge the walky-talkies for the video archive crew and look at the John and Faith Hubley special that Martha and Sol taped for me.
All and all, it was a great event and well worth the trip into Hollywood. And to the girl from USC that I talked to about the ticket, e-mail me I just got a cancellation. larry(at)agni-animation(dot)com
Remembrance
Party Games of Reality
So there is this game I play with my history classes when I want them to understand how concepts of reality and even reality itself changes from generation to generation. It is called different things by different people. It is that party game where you whisper something to the first person and then she/he whispers it to the next and so on and so on and scooby dooby doo until the message is completely changed by the time it gets to the last person.
History is like that game only you never get to ask that first person in the line of whispers what really was said.
I am off to hear the whispers of the past today and I am going to take notes.
History is like that game only you never get to ask that first person in the line of whispers what really was said.
I am off to hear the whispers of the past today and I am going to take notes.
An Afternoon of Remembrance
Lasky-DeMille Barn
2100 N. Highland (At the Hollywood Bowl)
Hollywood
Saturday Jan. 29th
1 PM
Thursday, January 27, 2005
If You Can Keep My Head, My Son, When All Else Are Losing Theirs
Back on All Hollow's Eve I told you that I had lost my head. This was a latex head, much deteriorated, that was my very first ever movie decapitation back in the days that I did FX for grade Z slasher flicks.
I was sad about this loss because it was a bridge to my distant past and a family All Hollow`s tradition. I am happy to report that my son has found my lost head in the bottom of his closet.
Ironically, I get my head back on the very day that Annette and I are losing our minds trying to handle all of the comp tickets for animation schools.
I was sad about this loss because it was a bridge to my distant past and a family All Hollow`s tradition. I am happy to report that my son has found my lost head in the bottom of his closet.
Ironically, I get my head back on the very day that Annette and I are losing our minds trying to handle all of the comp tickets for animation schools.
Are you wondering what to wear to the Annies to set off that tux? These are available at Target. Thanks to Steve Gattuso, long time ASIFA volunteer.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Annette O`Neil runs this month`s Act of Membership meeting. The main topic is the Annies but the Afternoon of Remembrance, Comic Con, and the Animation Rescue Team are also talked about.
these are some of the people that help make the Annies happen. Many come back year after year to work the event.
So I read over the stuff I wrote last night and man was I, well you know, tightly whatever. I guest that is the good thing and the bad thing about a web log. That was what was happening with me working on putting together the Annies. And that is just me. I am a small part of the show. There are all these other people out there doing as much and much more to bring this thing off. It makes you think when you have the time.
Tonight is the monthly volunteer meeting for ASIFA. This meeting will be about the Annies.
2114 W. Burbank Blvd.
Burbank
7 PM
Tonight is the monthly volunteer meeting for ASIFA. This meeting will be about the Annies.
2114 W. Burbank Blvd.
Burbank
7 PM
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Stream of Conscienceness Pollution
It was the best of days it was the worst of days. I`ve been having a dickens of a time with my e-mail server and schools are calling up saying can I just have 9 more tickets and I`m playing phone tag with people and schools and I have no idea (yes, he said dickens of a time) if I got the e-mails back with the answers (sorry about that) I desperately need, and I lost my ASIFA animation wheel pin today that I have had for over 10 years and I am miga-bummed about that.
On the up side my Research and Development class went okay and my talk to the Brooks College Animation Club went really well and had a big turnout, and I really think I got across the importance of networking and membership in ASIFA-Hollywood as a part of any animation career plan, and if that didn`t work, the naked greed should have cut in when I flashed all of the invites to screening and this year`s Annie swag.
Another thing on the up side. I just got a call from Martha Sigall telling me that she taped a John and Faith Hubley special for me. Martha always puts me in a great mood and I am looking forward to seeing Sol and Martha this Saturday at the Afternoon of Remembrance. (make sure you go) Thank you Martha, you made my day. It was the best of days, it was the best of days.
On the up side my Research and Development class went okay and my talk to the Brooks College Animation Club went really well and had a big turnout, and I really think I got across the importance of networking and membership in ASIFA-Hollywood as a part of any animation career plan, and if that didn`t work, the naked greed should have cut in when I flashed all of the invites to screening and this year`s Annie swag.
Another thing on the up side. I just got a call from Martha Sigall telling me that she taped a John and Faith Hubley special for me. Martha always puts me in a great mood and I am looking forward to seeing Sol and Martha this Saturday at the Afternoon of Remembrance. (make sure you go) Thank you Martha, you made my day. It was the best of days, it was the best of days.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Getting Ready for the Annies
Rough day today. Lot on my plate. Spent all morning trying to give away Annie Tickets to students at Southern California animation programs, Cal Arts, USC, UCLA, Laguna College of Art and Design, Cal State Fullerton. Most of these people are not sitting in their offices waiting for someone to call them. They are out in classrooms teaching students. But by the end of the day all but one school has called back.
Then it was a meeting this afternoon of the Archive Video Crew for this year`s Annies. Ed Gonzalez, this year`s director, and I met with student volunteers at Laguna College today. This year we are trying to get the archive video out of the home video category and into a more professional end product that we will be proud to add to the Animation Archive.
For all of you on the Video Crew that are looking in to see your photos. Thanks it ups the number of hits on the web log. The Annies are at 216 Brand Blvd., Glendale this Sunday the 30th. Video Crew needs to be there at 1PM.
Still have to finishing prepping for my classes. Have the Act of Membership meeting Wednesday night 7 PM at the animation center 2114 W. Burbank Blvd. Where we have to hammer out all the loose ends for the Annies. (If you plan of volunteering for the Annies you need to make it to this meeting)
Tomorrow I talk to the Animation Club at Brooks College about ASIFA and the benefits of student membership in ASIFA-Hollywood. ($20 a year, the best deal in town - remember the Annies swag and the free screenings)
Sometime before Sunday I have to pick up the mini DV tapes for the Archive Shoot, print up more business cards, finish up giving out student comps, and brush my teeth, get some sleep, first star to the right and straight on til morning.
Rough day today. Lot on my plate. Spent all morning trying to give away Annie Tickets to students at Southern California animation programs, Cal Arts, USC, UCLA, Laguna College of Art and Design, Cal State Fullerton. Most of these people are not sitting in their offices waiting for someone to call them. They are out in classrooms teaching students. But by the end of the day all but one school has called back.
Then it was a meeting this afternoon of the Archive Video Crew for this year`s Annies. Ed Gonzalez, this year`s director, and I met with student volunteers at Laguna College today. This year we are trying to get the archive video out of the home video category and into a more professional end product that we will be proud to add to the Animation Archive.
For all of you on the Video Crew that are looking in to see your photos. Thanks it ups the number of hits on the web log. The Annies are at 216 Brand Blvd., Glendale this Sunday the 30th. Video Crew needs to be there at 1PM.
Still have to finishing prepping for my classes. Have the Act of Membership meeting Wednesday night 7 PM at the animation center 2114 W. Burbank Blvd. Where we have to hammer out all the loose ends for the Annies. (If you plan of volunteering for the Annies you need to make it to this meeting)
Tomorrow I talk to the Animation Club at Brooks College about ASIFA and the benefits of student membership in ASIFA-Hollywood. ($20 a year, the best deal in town - remember the Annies swag and the free screenings)
Sometime before Sunday I have to pick up the mini DV tapes for the Archive Shoot, print up more business cards, finish up giving out student comps, and brush my teeth, get some sleep, first star to the right and straight on til morning.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
It`s a Small World
Question, just how small is this industry, animation, we work at? Those of you on the inside know just how very tiny it really is.
Why am I talking about this question today, I may ask me? Very small, says I. In the last 2 days I have been called on, not once but twice, to comment on and make decisions affecting a school that is now being run by someone I taught with some time back, someone who was an out and out jerk to me, someone who stepped on me on his way up to whatever small heights.
The first time, yesterday, I was asked if I thought this school, now run by jerk person in question, was a good school for a former student, later team teacher, and friend of mine to continue his education at?
The second time was when I had to decide today which schools would be offered student comps for the upcoming Annies.
Now the school in question that said person is now running was only marginal on the list at best and was only being considered at all because the animation program had been run at one time by a person that was a good friend to ASIFA in the past.
I tell my students to look around the classroom because if they stay in the industry these are some of the people they will be working with for the rest of their lives.
I still work with, hang out with, and stay in touch with Kevin Alteri, Steve Bissette, Craig Boldman, Dave Dorman, Tom Foxmarnick, Chris Kalnick, Karl Kesel, Ron Randall, Dave Schwartz, John Totleben, Tim Truman, Rick Veitch, Stan Woch, and Tom Yeates, some of the guys that I went to school with at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Human Sacrifice all those years ago in ninteen hundred and seventy nine.
You have got to wonder about a person that does not know this simple truth. How can someone run an animation program and not know that you can`t afford to make enemies in the industry? You might wonder also just what my response was on the two questions about said person`s program?
The guy that asked about the school, I told him the truth. He is a good friend. I told him about cheaper options with better networking contacts. I also told him that the program was run by a person that had been a jerk to me, but that didn`t make it a bad program.
The Annies student comps? Hey, I would have had to justify swinging tickets to this program in the first place. I`m sorry for the students but I am not going out on a limb for someone that was a jerk to me. (/END OF INDUSTRY LESSON)
Why am I talking about this question today, I may ask me? Very small, says I. In the last 2 days I have been called on, not once but twice, to comment on and make decisions affecting a school that is now being run by someone I taught with some time back, someone who was an out and out jerk to me, someone who stepped on me on his way up to whatever small heights.
The first time, yesterday, I was asked if I thought this school, now run by jerk person in question, was a good school for a former student, later team teacher, and friend of mine to continue his education at?
The second time was when I had to decide today which schools would be offered student comps for the upcoming Annies.
Now the school in question that said person is now running was only marginal on the list at best and was only being considered at all because the animation program had been run at one time by a person that was a good friend to ASIFA in the past.
I tell my students to look around the classroom because if they stay in the industry these are some of the people they will be working with for the rest of their lives.
I still work with, hang out with, and stay in touch with Kevin Alteri, Steve Bissette, Craig Boldman, Dave Dorman, Tom Foxmarnick, Chris Kalnick, Karl Kesel, Ron Randall, Dave Schwartz, John Totleben, Tim Truman, Rick Veitch, Stan Woch, and Tom Yeates, some of the guys that I went to school with at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Human Sacrifice all those years ago in ninteen hundred and seventy nine.
You have got to wonder about a person that does not know this simple truth. How can someone run an animation program and not know that you can`t afford to make enemies in the industry? You might wonder also just what my response was on the two questions about said person`s program?
The guy that asked about the school, I told him the truth. He is a good friend. I told him about cheaper options with better networking contacts. I also told him that the program was run by a person that had been a jerk to me, but that didn`t make it a bad program.
The Annies student comps? Hey, I would have had to justify swinging tickets to this program in the first place. I`m sorry for the students but I am not going out on a limb for someone that was a jerk to me. (/END OF INDUSTRY LESSON)
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Creative Family
Just ran into an old painting I did about 15 years ago. It is based on some very nasty creatures from the earth`s core as told by Edgar Rice Burroughs. At the time I painted this painting I had just come back from a private screening of the restored Tarzan and His Mate.
Tom Yeates, the Tarzan illustrator and my best man; Danton Burroughs, the grandson of Edgar Rice; myself and a couple of other people headed up to MGM and completely enjoyed ourselves watching this movie with the nude scenes restored.
So what does this have to do with animation? I`m not sure that it has anything to do with animation, in another way it has everything. It sure has a lot to do with creativity and how the imagination of one person can capture the minds of generations.
How many artists have taken a crack at illustrating the works of Burroughs or Arthur Conan Doyle? For every Burroughs or Conan Doyle there are thousands and thousands of creative people that never create that one project that resonates down the ages. But they don`t stop trying.
So where am I going with this? I`m not sure but these people, all these people, in a very real sense are my family by the very act of committing to the creative process. It is a commitment, a leap of faith that makes us kin.
A few make it big, most of us hang on for years somehow making a living and trying to create because we have to. Some fall away and get square jobs and have benefits and big screen TV`s and late at night wonder if they could have been a contender. The ones that keep trying are my people.
This coming week the creative family called animation get together to honor our members that have left the ranks with their boots on. The ones that touched millions, the ones that were not really known outside the creative family, all of them my family because they have committed to the creative community called the animation family.
No RSVP needed to come hang out with your family
Just ran into an old painting I did about 15 years ago. It is based on some very nasty creatures from the earth`s core as told by Edgar Rice Burroughs. At the time I painted this painting I had just come back from a private screening of the restored Tarzan and His Mate.
Tom Yeates, the Tarzan illustrator and my best man; Danton Burroughs, the grandson of Edgar Rice; myself and a couple of other people headed up to MGM and completely enjoyed ourselves watching this movie with the nude scenes restored.
So what does this have to do with animation? I`m not sure that it has anything to do with animation, in another way it has everything. It sure has a lot to do with creativity and how the imagination of one person can capture the minds of generations.
How many artists have taken a crack at illustrating the works of Burroughs or Arthur Conan Doyle? For every Burroughs or Conan Doyle there are thousands and thousands of creative people that never create that one project that resonates down the ages. But they don`t stop trying.
So where am I going with this? I`m not sure but these people, all these people, in a very real sense are my family by the very act of committing to the creative process. It is a commitment, a leap of faith that makes us kin.
A few make it big, most of us hang on for years somehow making a living and trying to create because we have to. Some fall away and get square jobs and have benefits and big screen TV`s and late at night wonder if they could have been a contender. The ones that keep trying are my people.
This coming week the creative family called animation get together to honor our members that have left the ranks with their boots on. The ones that touched millions, the ones that were not really known outside the creative family, all of them my family because they have committed to the creative community called the animation family.
An Afternoon of Remembrance
Lasky-DeMille Barn
2100 N. Highland (At the Hollywood Bowl)
Hollywood
Saturday Jan. 29th
1 PM
No RSVP needed to come hang out with your family
Friday, January 21, 2005
Filling Space and Time
Every day I have to write something. The blank page is there looking at me and it is my self appointed job to fill this space. Sometimes it is easy and sometimes it is difficult. Lots of things are happening now that we are running up to the Annies so I should have lots of things to talk about and I do but no time to write it out.
That is what I have coming up. At least it should give me something to write about.
- I meet with Aubry Mintz from Laguna College of Art and Design for a breakfast meeting last Thursday morning. Looks like his students may be filling in some spots on the Annie Archive Video Crew. Ed Gonzalez and I will be meeting with prospective members of the video crew this Monday at Laguna College.
- Wednesday is the last Act of Membership meeting before the Annies, 7 PM at 2114 W. Burbank. If you are a Annie volunteer make sure you are there for the meeting.
- Saturday the 29th is the Afternoon of Remembrance. Don`t miss this event that starts at 1 PM at the DeMille barn.
- Sunday the 30th is the big event, the Annies. The last couple of years of have worked the front end, tickets and greeting. I'm planning on kicking back this year and just being part of the audience for a change.
- February I start visiting college animation programs in a new program to talk about the benefits of ASIFA membership for animation students.
- Next comes the ramp up for Comic Con. I lied about just being a member of the audience at the Annies, I will be buttonholing people about presentations at Comic Con. I shouldn`t have warned you about that.
Paper, What Paper?
The Annies are a project of love. Almost all of the labor is donated by hundreds of industry pros giving their time. The judging material is passed from hand to hand. From Nominating Chair, to Nomination Judges, back to Event Programming, then on to the Editor who selflessly cuts together the reel for the Nomination Screenings and the Annie reel for the Award Show.
There is a lot of handling by a lot of people and a lot of chances for something to go wrong. Surprisingly, very little does go wrong with the filmed categories. The problems always seem to happen with the paper categories, something always seems to get miss placed or out of order with Feature and TV Character Design, Production Design, or Storyboards. These people have worked hard they deserve to have their work seen.
The Annie ballots have to be in today at ASIFA. I turned mine in last night at DreamWorks. The sad thing was that I had to turn mine in with a couple of things incomplete, as did most of the other voters who had come out for the screenings. There was some mess up in the process with some of the paper categories and somethings could not be seen for judging.
Now I know that all of the work is done by volunteers that have real jobs and real lives and there is a lot of work and there is a basic chaos that sets in, in that kind of setup. Things are beings scanned and edited, and moved from volunteer to volunteer. The volunteers do a great and thankless job and are heroes but the paper categories have always been a problem by their very nature, always been the red haired stepchild. We know how to handle and produce film but paper is just a step in that process, not a finished product.
It is time to change the process. I would like to see the Pixar model followed in the future. They posted everything on a web site this year. It was right there for anybody to see. We wouldn`t have to paw through all the entries looking and comparing and holding up the start of the screening. I would like to see this done by every studio that has Character Design, Production Design, and Storyboards in competition next year. Then these people, these masters of visual storytelling, would truly get their due, would get a fair vote from their peers.
There is a lot of handling by a lot of people and a lot of chances for something to go wrong. Surprisingly, very little does go wrong with the filmed categories. The problems always seem to happen with the paper categories, something always seems to get miss placed or out of order with Feature and TV Character Design, Production Design, or Storyboards. These people have worked hard they deserve to have their work seen.
The Annie ballots have to be in today at ASIFA. I turned mine in last night at DreamWorks. The sad thing was that I had to turn mine in with a couple of things incomplete, as did most of the other voters who had come out for the screenings. There was some mess up in the process with some of the paper categories and somethings could not be seen for judging.
Now I know that all of the work is done by volunteers that have real jobs and real lives and there is a lot of work and there is a basic chaos that sets in, in that kind of setup. Things are beings scanned and edited, and moved from volunteer to volunteer. The volunteers do a great and thankless job and are heroes but the paper categories have always been a problem by their very nature, always been the red haired stepchild. We know how to handle and produce film but paper is just a step in that process, not a finished product.
It is time to change the process. I would like to see the Pixar model followed in the future. They posted everything on a web site this year. It was right there for anybody to see. We wouldn`t have to paw through all the entries looking and comparing and holding up the start of the screening. I would like to see this done by every studio that has Character Design, Production Design, and Storyboards in competition next year. Then these people, these masters of visual storytelling, would truly get their due, would get a fair vote from their peers.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
The Animals Show Up For Annie Screening #2
I of course am talking about Frank Gladstone not Annette or this great display of DreamWorks` upcoming Madagascar.
I did get Frank calm enough to ask about the upcoming Nick Park Wallace and Grommet feature. He said it would be coming out after Madagascar and gave a month but I am not going to pass that one on because I`m not sure if that info was for publication.
The screening went well, and was well attended but not completely full. We got to look at the production and character design artwork but did not get to look at storyboards that somehow did not make it to the theater last night. The storyboards will be there tonight at the third and last of this year`s Annie Award screenings.
Reminder, ballots are due at ASIFA on the 21st. We will be accepting ballots at tonight`s screening which would save you a stamp.
I of course am talking about Frank Gladstone not Annette or this great display of DreamWorks` upcoming Madagascar.
I did get Frank calm enough to ask about the upcoming Nick Park Wallace and Grommet feature. He said it would be coming out after Madagascar and gave a month but I am not going to pass that one on because I`m not sure if that info was for publication.
The screening went well, and was well attended but not completely full. We got to look at the production and character design artwork but did not get to look at storyboards that somehow did not make it to the theater last night. The storyboards will be there tonight at the third and last of this year`s Annie Award screenings.
Reminder, ballots are due at ASIFA on the 21st. We will be accepting ballots at tonight`s screening which would save you a stamp.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005