ASIFA-Hollywood: The International Animated Film Society
Saturday, June 18, 2005
To Dub or Not to Dub
In honor of the up coming ASIFA screening of Howl`s Moving Castle
Friday, June 24, 2005 - 7:30pm
Harmony Gold Preview House
7655 Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood, CA
RSVP to (818) 295-5213
I thought I would take a look at Anime. Anime is here to stay. Something is going on here. Japanese animation is filling a need that is going unaddressed by Hollywood studios. I would guess that 60% to 70% of the students in my animation classes are trying to draw in an Anime style. That is huge, like the 60`s British Invasion in rock music.
But it is foreign film and needs to be made accessible in the English language. Howl`s Moving Castle and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence , the two big Japanese animation of this season, deal with this in different ways.
Howl`s was lovingly dubbed into English with an all star cast. Ghost in the Shell was subtitled. I am ambivalent here. If the dub is well done with a lot of care then it can translate the film into a form that American audiences can understand. There is a lot to be said for this approach since it means a wider audience and therefore more Anime in the U.S. market. A good thing as far as fans are concerned.
On the other hand, something is always lost in translation. Among the diehard Anime freaks the preferred style of watching Japanese animation is with subtitles. No one is trying to rewrite the script for U.S. markets they are just trying to translate it as closely as they can. But then with an English dub you can always put the subtitles back on and change to the Japanese soundtrack or even the English soundtrack with English subtitles for a deeper understanding there by getting closer to the true meaning.
But on the other hand subtitles are cheaper and means that a wider area of Japanese animation can be brought over. Since it is mostly the fans that are going to the movies so if they want to read subtitles then that is a way to get a movie in theaters with a low enough cost that the distributor can turn a profit with a smaller total box office.
I very much enjoyed both Ghost in the Shell and Howl`s Moving Castle. So I am up in the air about good quality English dubbing. I think it is a case by case situation. But one thing I can tell you is that I hate poor and shoddy English dubs. Or even good dubs that aren`t thought out.
Throwing star power at a dub without thought is never the answer either. Thinking back a number of years to a movie that no one knew what to do with, he may be a great, but weird actor. He may have an Oscar. I may have liked him in a lot of things but I will watch the movie in Japanese without subtitles every time before I will watch it with his out of place voice.
Friday, June 24, 2005 - 7:30pm
Harmony Gold Preview House
7655 Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood, CA
RSVP to (818) 295-5213
I thought I would take a look at Anime. Anime is here to stay. Something is going on here. Japanese animation is filling a need that is going unaddressed by Hollywood studios. I would guess that 60% to 70% of the students in my animation classes are trying to draw in an Anime style. That is huge, like the 60`s British Invasion in rock music.
But it is foreign film and needs to be made accessible in the English language. Howl`s Moving Castle and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence , the two big Japanese animation of this season, deal with this in different ways.
Howl`s was lovingly dubbed into English with an all star cast. Ghost in the Shell was subtitled. I am ambivalent here. If the dub is well done with a lot of care then it can translate the film into a form that American audiences can understand. There is a lot to be said for this approach since it means a wider audience and therefore more Anime in the U.S. market. A good thing as far as fans are concerned.
On the other hand, something is always lost in translation. Among the diehard Anime freaks the preferred style of watching Japanese animation is with subtitles. No one is trying to rewrite the script for U.S. markets they are just trying to translate it as closely as they can. But then with an English dub you can always put the subtitles back on and change to the Japanese soundtrack or even the English soundtrack with English subtitles for a deeper understanding there by getting closer to the true meaning.
But on the other hand subtitles are cheaper and means that a wider area of Japanese animation can be brought over. Since it is mostly the fans that are going to the movies so if they want to read subtitles then that is a way to get a movie in theaters with a low enough cost that the distributor can turn a profit with a smaller total box office.
I very much enjoyed both Ghost in the Shell and Howl`s Moving Castle. So I am up in the air about good quality English dubbing. I think it is a case by case situation. But one thing I can tell you is that I hate poor and shoddy English dubs. Or even good dubs that aren`t thought out.
Throwing star power at a dub without thought is never the answer either. Thinking back a number of years to a movie that no one knew what to do with, he may be a great, but weird actor. He may have an Oscar. I may have liked him in a lot of things but I will watch the movie in Japanese without subtitles every time before I will watch it with his out of place voice.
Friday, June 17, 2005
Friday Round Up
Yesterday saw strangeness in the page stats. Big numbers coming in. Lots of people in Japan lookng for things on Tom Sito I would guess. For the first time ever we had more over seas traffic than U.S. traffic. A total of 30% from Japan and 35% from Japan and China combined. Tom, you`re a star of the East. A lot of this came in before I even posted Tom Sito`s Far East Report Part 1 (Part 2 still to come).
It hurts, but I have had to put my animation project on hold until after comic con, just too much to do.
I started sorting animations yesterday. Big stacks to be viewed, picked, and edited. I have my silent animation screening to get ready. Always a fun one but a little hard to come up with new stuff.
I also have a screening this year called the Animation that Time Forgot, a screening of rare stuff that does not find its way to the TV for one reason or another (I plan on having a good mix of the or other).
The end of the semester if looming with all that entails. Comic Con Planning is taking over everything that is left over. Still have to update my e-Book; Animation on a ShoeString (TM). Just wrote a section on building a Support Rod System for Stop Motion Animation. Have to update the Digital Camera Section next. Life goes on.
Yesterday saw strangeness in the page stats. Big numbers coming in. Lots of people in Japan lookng for things on Tom Sito I would guess. For the first time ever we had more over seas traffic than U.S. traffic. A total of 30% from Japan and 35% from Japan and China combined. Tom, you`re a star of the East. A lot of this came in before I even posted Tom Sito`s Far East Report Part 1 (Part 2 still to come).
It hurts, but I have had to put my animation project on hold until after comic con, just too much to do.
I started sorting animations yesterday. Big stacks to be viewed, picked, and edited. I have my silent animation screening to get ready. Always a fun one but a little hard to come up with new stuff.
I also have a screening this year called the Animation that Time Forgot, a screening of rare stuff that does not find its way to the TV for one reason or another (I plan on having a good mix of the or other).
The end of the semester if looming with all that entails. Comic Con Planning is taking over everything that is left over. Still have to update my e-Book; Animation on a ShoeString (TM). Just wrote a section on building a Support Rod System for Stop Motion Animation. Have to update the Digital Camera Section next. Life goes on.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Bambi Screening
Mark Evanier has a report on the Bambi screening at the Motion Picture Academy posted here: newsfromme.com
Way Out East, Part 1
Tom Sito, Way Out East, Part 1
----A picture of me in a Japanese Newspaper enjoying Oshii's pavilion. Looks rather macabre to me.
Recently I traveled to China and Japan to lecture on animation. Stay tooned for some in-depth articles I'm writing for Animation World Network (AWN.com). But in the meantime I thought I'd blogg you a bit about it.
Pat and I flew out to Nagoya Japan to be a judge in the JDAF, the Japan Digital Animation Festival. It is a bi-annual competition for student films. Besides Japanese student work animated films were submitted from France, China, Thailand, Spain and Hungary. I gave a lecture on character animation and sat on a judge's panel with famed filmmaker Mamoru Oshii (PATLABOR, GHOST IN THE SHELL). Also part of the panel was IG producer Mitsuhisa Ishikawa (SPIRITED AWAY, GHOST IN THE SHELL), Professor Takami Yasuda of the Univ. of Tokyo and Prof. Yasuki Hamano, who is on the board of Ghibli besides director of the Akira Kurosawa Foundation. Studio Ghibli for those who don't know is the animation studio settled among the quiet beanfields outside Tokyo where Hayao Miyazaki made his films PRINCESS MONONOKE, TOTORRO and NAUSICAA.
We all had several dinners of Nagoya regional cuisine -barbecued eel, ground chicken balls and spaghetti noodles, and talked animation. Oshi is a soft-spoken man with a strong love for filmmaking and his pet Basset hound. He actually made the dog a character in his last film INNOCENCE, which played in North America as GHOST IN THE SHELL II. At one point he asked me to draw his dog "in the Hollywood-style". Oshii urged young filmmakers to not just study other animae films but be influenced by all world cinema. He in particular was inspired by many films of the European New Wave of the 50's and 60's. I showed him my copy of his biography in English, Stray Dog of Anime by Brian Ruh. He decided to do another portrait of himself on the inner cover.
Oshii's self portrait
It was a great competition and the judges were invited to critique student work as well as discuss how we all got in the business. The Grand Prize Winner was the short TOUGH GUY! By Shintaro Kishimoto. Oshii-san is writing a new film. Studio Ghibli has begun to develop the old European story Heidi. Prof Hamano gave me a new collection of famous Disney stories illustrated by old anime master Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka wanted to make a film of Pinnochio in the 1960's but the story goes that Disney legal department stepped in and Tezuka abandoned the project. They invited me to tour the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, which I shall write about in an upcoming blogg.
During the festival we traveled to the Nagoya Expo 2005, the Worlds Fair. The fair had dozens of major pavilions demonstrating the finest in environmental research and the most advanced robotics. Oshii-san had designed an entire pavilion there he calls the Mountain of Dreams. The upper canopy of the pavilion is shaped to recall Mount Fuji, an important symbol in the Japanese character. The inside is a multimedia extravaganza of light and sound. Studio Ghibli also was represented by an exhibit. It is an exact replica of Setsuki and Mei's house from Miyazaki's classic MY NEIGHBOR TOTORRO. The Nagoya Expo is set to run until Sept 25th. I'll have full details on it in AWN.
The festival ended and prizes given, we bid goodbye to Oshii, Ishikawa, Yasuda and Hamano and headed off for China.
Tom Sito
----A picture of me in a Japanese Newspaper enjoying Oshii's pavilion. Looks rather macabre to me.
Recently I traveled to China and Japan to lecture on animation. Stay tooned for some in-depth articles I'm writing for Animation World Network (AWN.com). But in the meantime I thought I'd blogg you a bit about it.
Pat and I flew out to Nagoya Japan to be a judge in the JDAF, the Japan Digital Animation Festival. It is a bi-annual competition for student films. Besides Japanese student work animated films were submitted from France, China, Thailand, Spain and Hungary. I gave a lecture on character animation and sat on a judge's panel with famed filmmaker Mamoru Oshii (PATLABOR, GHOST IN THE SHELL). Also part of the panel was IG producer Mitsuhisa Ishikawa (SPIRITED AWAY, GHOST IN THE SHELL), Professor Takami Yasuda of the Univ. of Tokyo and Prof. Yasuki Hamano, who is on the board of Ghibli besides director of the Akira Kurosawa Foundation. Studio Ghibli for those who don't know is the animation studio settled among the quiet beanfields outside Tokyo where Hayao Miyazaki made his films PRINCESS MONONOKE, TOTORRO and NAUSICAA.
We all had several dinners of Nagoya regional cuisine -barbecued eel, ground chicken balls and spaghetti noodles, and talked animation. Oshi is a soft-spoken man with a strong love for filmmaking and his pet Basset hound. He actually made the dog a character in his last film INNOCENCE, which played in North America as GHOST IN THE SHELL II. At one point he asked me to draw his dog "in the Hollywood-style". Oshii urged young filmmakers to not just study other animae films but be influenced by all world cinema. He in particular was inspired by many films of the European New Wave of the 50's and 60's. I showed him my copy of his biography in English, Stray Dog of Anime by Brian Ruh. He decided to do another portrait of himself on the inner cover.
Oshii's self portrait
It was a great competition and the judges were invited to critique student work as well as discuss how we all got in the business. The Grand Prize Winner was the short TOUGH GUY! By Shintaro Kishimoto. Oshii-san is writing a new film. Studio Ghibli has begun to develop the old European story Heidi. Prof Hamano gave me a new collection of famous Disney stories illustrated by old anime master Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka wanted to make a film of Pinnochio in the 1960's but the story goes that Disney legal department stepped in and Tezuka abandoned the project. They invited me to tour the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, which I shall write about in an upcoming blogg.
During the festival we traveled to the Nagoya Expo 2005, the Worlds Fair. The fair had dozens of major pavilions demonstrating the finest in environmental research and the most advanced robotics. Oshii-san had designed an entire pavilion there he calls the Mountain of Dreams. The upper canopy of the pavilion is shaped to recall Mount Fuji, an important symbol in the Japanese character. The inside is a multimedia extravaganza of light and sound. Studio Ghibli also was represented by an exhibit. It is an exact replica of Setsuki and Mei's house from Miyazaki's classic MY NEIGHBOR TOTORRO. The Nagoya Expo is set to run until Sept 25th. I'll have full details on it in AWN.
The festival ended and prizes given, we bid goodbye to Oshii, Ishikawa, Yasuda and Hamano and headed off for China.
Tom Sito
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
The Art of Pre-Production
It is that time again, end of semester presentations in my Research and Development class. Time for students to pitch their projects that they have been working on all semester.
It is the best of times it is the worst of times. Here is one of my students that stepped up to the plate today prepared. Not all of them do. Good job John.
Space Oddities images © Jonathan Williams 2005 Used with permission
It is the best of times it is the worst of times. Here is one of my students that stepped up to the plate today prepared. Not all of them do. Good job John.
Space Oddities images © Jonathan Williams 2005 Used with permission
Welcome Back
A big welcome back to Tom and Pat Sito. They should be returning today from the Far East where they took part in a couple of Animation Festivals.
Maybe if we ask real nicely Tom will write up his travels and show us some pictures? Good to have you back Tom and Pat. P.S. Antran wants to move about 65 boxes of animation archives stuff this Saturday.
Maybe if we ask real nicely Tom will write up his travels and show us some pictures? Good to have you back Tom and Pat. P.S. Antran wants to move about 65 boxes of animation archives stuff this Saturday.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
The Los Angeles Film Festival June 16th to 24th
This year, as most years, the LA Film Festival has some interesting animation programming.
There are two reasons to go to a film festival (not counting networking). One is to see films you can never see anywhere else. The other reason is to see films you have seen before but you have never seen on the big screen.
Los Angeles Film Festival fills each needs for me. Pre Anime Japanese animation, Iranian animation and African animation are not something you can ever see outside of a festival. As for the Alice Comedies (plus an Osweld and Walt`s earliest surviving Kansas City animation) are all well known to me. But is will be nice to see them in a clean print on the big screen.
For more information on the Los Angeles Film Festival`s animation programming go to: www.lafilmfest.com/film_spotlight.php
Screening Schedule:
Before Anime: Japanese Animation
Tue, Jun 21 9:30 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00
Sat, Jun 25 5:00 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00
A Decade of Iranian Animation-The 70s
Sat, Jun 18 4:45 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00
Tales and Legends from Africa
Sun, Jun 19 4:30 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00
Wed, Jun 22 1:30 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00
Walt Disney's Alice Comedies
Sun, Jun 19 1:30 pm DGA Theatre 1 $10.00
This year, as most years, the LA Film Festival has some interesting animation programming.
There are two reasons to go to a film festival (not counting networking). One is to see films you can never see anywhere else. The other reason is to see films you have seen before but you have never seen on the big screen.
Los Angeles Film Festival fills each needs for me. Pre Anime Japanese animation, Iranian animation and African animation are not something you can ever see outside of a festival. As for the Alice Comedies (plus an Osweld and Walt`s earliest surviving Kansas City animation) are all well known to me. But is will be nice to see them in a clean print on the big screen.
For more information on the Los Angeles Film Festival`s animation programming go to: www.lafilmfest.com/film_spotlight.php
Screening Schedule:
Before Anime: Japanese Animation
Tue, Jun 21 9:30 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00
Sat, Jun 25 5:00 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00
A Decade of Iranian Animation-The 70s
Sat, Jun 18 4:45 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00
Tales and Legends from Africa
Sun, Jun 19 4:30 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00
Wed, Jun 22 1:30 pm DGA Theatre 2 $10.00
Walt Disney's Alice Comedies
Sun, Jun 19 1:30 pm DGA Theatre 1 $10.00
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Brooks College Animation Seminar: presented by Stephen Silver. He is the head designer for Kim Possible, Danny Phantom, Dragon Tales, Crash Nebula.
Date: Monday, June 13, 2005
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Location: Brooks Cafeteria (Room P204)
4825 E Pacific Coast Hwy
Long Beach , CA 90804
Admission: Free
RSVP to: Jodi Hobbs
Lead Instructor Animation / Network Technology
562-277-4123
Jhobbs@Brookscollege.edu
