Just to remind you that Aki is performing with "Splinter Cell" at the Creative Grounds at Atwater Village: 3042 Glendale Blvd., 90039. It's this Saturday night at 8pm and it's only $5 at the door. To get there, take the 5 fwy N. to Los Feliz and get off at Glendale Blvd, make a right and it's right there. Hope to see you there!

jjsedelmaier
shards
cycling
tribune
mantropycontrol

They list:

Ant & the Grasshopper (which is no where on the disk)
Superman, the Bulleteers
You`re too Careless with Your Kisses (Rudy Ising 1932 - very Cob Web Hotel like)
All This and Rabbit Stew (bad print)
Bosko`s Party (it plays the end twice - very sloppy editing folks)
Daffy the Commando (Fritz 1943 - the reason I bought the disk)
Robin Hood Makes Good
To Duck or Not to Duck

hi larry,

i notice that none of our sites are up on your link site, and, knowing it was merely an oversight, thought i'd send them over to you:

http://frederator.kz/

http://teenageroblog.blogspot.com/

http://wubby.typepad.com

http://frederator.kz/newtoons/

thanks,

Fred

Fred Seibert
Frederator Studios
419
Park Avenue South
Suite 1007
New York City 10016
212 779 4133 xx

They finally kowtowed to the inevitable . . . censorship. Ah well, seven weeks is much more than a gallery show and here, the point is proved that Laguna Beach has become gentrified and is no longer an Artist Community but an attempt to embellish the nouveau riche (in Newport and Crystal Cove).

HI all!

I've got two improv shows coming up. The first one is with a new troupe called Splinter Cell and we're playing on:

Saturday July 30th
8pm
Creative Grounds: Coffee Shop and Stage,
3042 Glendale Blvd.,
LA, CA 90039.

$5 at the door.

The second show is with the April's Fools Troupe:

Sunday, August 21st
8pm
Suzy's Bar and Grill
1141 Aviation Blvd.
Hermosa Beach, CA

It's in the strip mall at the corner of Prospect and Aviation, right next to Big Lots. This show is free, just order food or drinks.

After the August show, we'll be playing every second Sunday at Suzy's at 8pm. If you can't make the August show, please try one of our monthly shows. Suzy's is going to be our home for awhile, so please tell your friends.

Hope to see you at one of the shows.

-aki-

Hi Larry

Just wanted to thank you for inviting me to be part of the ASIFA panel today. It was great to hear everyone's thoughts, and I really enjoyed the experience, as well as the audience involvement.

It was also great to finally meet Donovan Cook: As I mentioned, my first job as a layout
artist was on his show 2 Stupid Dogs in 1993. It was such a weird sensation sharing a panel with such a talent like Donovan - particularly as I was a lowly trainee when he was directing!

. . . .

Thanks again. I really enjoy being part of ASIFA and hope you`ll consider me again for any similar
programs in the future.

Best wishes
Eddie

Hi Mr. Sito,
I hope you don`t mind my trying to reach you. I am 27 years old and just recently graduated from the School of Visual Arts as an animation major in Manhattan. I know you are old-school Disney and I would love to get some advice from you.

I am finding very quickly that the animation industry today is not what it was when I started school. It is so computer oriented and not the paper and pencil industry I so dearly wanted to work in years ago. What I am mainly concerned about is the lack of mentor/apprentice learning. I want to really LEARN how to animate, not plug in a key frame here and there and let the tween tool do the rest. I went to school hoping to learn enough to get a job somewhere and allow my REAL education to happen through the mentoring that I was under the impression would happen there. I want to learn the skills the old animators at Disneys passed onto you guys when you started.

Do you have any advice as to where I can find that now? It`s difficult to be so passionate about an art form that is changing right before your eyes and not always for the good, before you even got to take a shot at things. Any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Warm Regards,

Patrick Costa


Dear Patrick,

Thank you for your note. I understand your feelings. The animation business is not the same business I joined way back in 1975. But if it is any comfort, back then when me and my friends like Eric Goldberg wanted to do full Disney-Warners animation, we were told we were crazy. We were told animation, as such, was dying. That the films we loved so much like Pinnochio and Blitz Wolf were done with Depression Era budgets. That we would never see that kind of quality ever again. Back then, no one could see The Little Mermaid or the Simpsons in the future.

The lesson learned is no one can predict how this business may change. We may evolve like computer music. When the Moog Synthesizer was invented people said there would be no more orchestras, no more garage bands, no more jazz quartets. So audiences got their fill of synthesizer, then wanted to hear the brass of the trumpet and the gut of the strings. Orchestras and garage bands are fine.

There is a danger that the original skills of character animation and cinema technique are going to be lost while everyone is so busy learning the latest software. I`ve discussed with other educators the issue that too many classes have an overemphasis on modeling, as though animation is merely a dreary step until lighting. To stay with the musical metaphor, it`s as if an orchestra spent most of their time building their instruments rather than playing.

My best advice is to be stubborn in what you want. When Jim Henson was trying to make it in the late 50s, early 60s he was told "Sock puppets? Why are you wasting your time?" He made his Muppets something people wanted to see. If you desire to learn full 2D animation you are going to have to explore beyond the borders of your home town to see who is doing the good stuff. Animation of that sort is still best learned master-to-apprentice, and I say that as a university faculty. You have to find out who is still doing the good old stuff and how you can get on it. In my career I had to move first to Nelvana in Toronto, then to London for Richard Williams. We used to be called animation gypsies. Out here in LA there are still small pockets of resistance to the Digital Invasion. Around the world the argument 2D vs.3D is not as extreme as it is in the US and the UK.

Quality 2d went underground in the 60s and 70s and it may have to again. But it is becoming less likely to do a full time career strictly with a pencil. You will have to know some 3D for gigs between the ones you want to do. I don`t think the 2D fat years of the 1990`s will come back, but the major studios overemphasis on 3D as the only magic formula won`t last either. It will evolve and grow, as you will. So keep your ear to the ground and your eye on the prize. Success doesn`t go always to the best draftsman or the best hustler, it goes to the stubbornest.

Tom Sito

Few minutes waiting to FTP new Comic Con schedule. Still need people. Started work at 8 AM yesterday still burning CDs at 4 AM. Too fried to figure hours. My ebook Animation on a $hoeString(TM) is updated. I will be posting info on my site after Comic Con.

Got a care package from Mr. Fun yesterday in the middle of madness. Floyd Norman`s new book How the Grinch Stole Disney . Mr. Fun don`t sugarcoat his punches (mix`n my metaphor or fives). Floyd sure has a wicked pencil on him. Great little love letter from somebody who never walks on eggshells. If you were at Disney you will completely love this, if you are any kind of animation fan you will too. (that means everybody that comes to this site) Great Stuff! Thank you Mr. Fun I read it twice during 2 different computer crash reboots.

One more presentation and 3 and a 1/2 syllabi to go.

Hi Larry,
Here is the story in a nutshell about "Las Abejas" (The Bees). I have a nitrate print of this Mexican cartoon in an early two-color process (1930s) that I first showed to Jere Guldin at UCLA archives about 3 years ago.

Jere contacted Mexican film archives and they only held a b/w print of the film, the color print being extremely rare. The print is brittle and old, but got through Jere's Steenbeck OK.

The story is a little like the bee section of Jean Image's feature cartoon: "Johnny the Giant Killer" (Jeannot L'intrepide). The nursery section of the hive is shown with wax cradles and baby bees inside. The villain was a wasp.

I think Jere was awaiting word of possible funding for the preservation of this cartoon from the Mexican State Film Archives. There was talk of combining the b/w footage with the color, as there were frames missing here and there. So far, nothing further has happened.

It would be great to see this subject preserved, as it seems to be one of the few surviving examples extant of an early Mexican cartoon in sound and color. I would give you more information about the filmmakers, but the print is in storage right now.

Best Regards,
Mark

12:30-2:00 ASIFA Presents: State of the Animation Industry - A panel discussion about where animation is and where it is going with some of the top names in the field. Donovan Cook (director of the first Mickey Mouse feature: The Three Musketeers), Eddie Mort and Lili Chin (Mucha Lucha), Aki Umemoto (Creative Director of Mattel Toys) Jon M. Gibson (Freelance animator and long time gaming reporter), and Matt O`Calaghan (director of Curious George). Moderated by Larry Loc. Room 3

6:00-7:00 Pitching An Animated Series - How do you get your cartoon on the air? Selling an animated series isn`t as easy as it seems. The process is as creative as it is frustrating—and equal parts unpredictable—but is there a magic bullet to developing a sure-fire hit? The major networks get thousands of pitches every year, so is there a secret recipe to getting your idea on the top of the pile? Maybe—and these are the people to tell you: Eric Coleman, VP for animation, development and production at Nickelodeon; Heather Kenyon, senior director of development original animation, at Cartoon Network; and Mike Moon from Walt Disney Television Animation; and creators Lauren Faust (Milky Way & the Galaxy Girls), Jorge R. Gutierrez (El Macho), and Gabe Swarr (Big Pants Mouse), all of whom are industry veterans currently in development on projects with the aforementioned executives. This will be an hour chock-full of wisdom, woes, and all the wacky stuff in-between, moderated by animation writer/creator Jon M. Gibson (also in development). Room 6B

5:30-7:00 ASIFA Presents: History of Silent Animation - Larry Loc teaches animation and animation history at Cal State Fullerton and Brooks College and is a member of the executive board of ASIFA-Hollywood, the International Animated Film Society. Join him for his yearly screening of rare silent animation classics. Room 7B

You have to see Jerry Beck`s worst cartoons. There is nothing like 2000 people singing the theme to Might Mr. Titan at the top of their voices

10:00-11:00 Jerry Beck`s Worst Cartoons Ever - If Ed Wood were an animator, these are the cartoons he would have made. Animation historian Jerry Beck presents an all-new selection of some of the worst animated films ever made. This hilarious program showcases the terrible stories, awful artwork, crappy dialogue, and horrible animation of television cartoons from the 1950s and 60s. Past favorites such as Super President (a one-man weapon of mass destruction), Mighty Mr. Titan (a physical fitness propaganda cartoon show), Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero (a space cadet with far-out adventures), and Clutch Cargo (he with the live-action lips) will be joined this year by Rocket Robin Hood (and his band of "Merry Men"), Bucky & Pepito (hands down, the worst cartoon series ever made), Rankin-Bass`s King Kong (move over Peter Jackson!), and many others. Room 6A

Academy Award nominee, council and animation branch member Bill Kroyer will lead the evening`s dialogue with an inside look at 2-D and 3-D animation tools of the trade, examining the impact these tools have made and continue to make on the animator`s craft. The evening`s special guests will include Academy Award winner Brad Bird ( The Incredibles ), Aladdin Genie animator and animation branch member Eric Goldberg, Academy Award winner Jan Pinkava ( Geri`s Game ) and Lord of the Rings Gollum animators Richie Baneham and Steve Hornby. They all will share their views on the complexities of the animator`s tools through case studies and will discuss how new tools continue to shape the animated performance. Clips of obscure and iconic character animation will be showcased throughout the evening, and a panel discussion led by animation branch member Tom Sito will complete the program.

11:00-12:30 Margaret Kerry: Voice Actor Tryouts - Margaret Kerry, the rotoscoop model for Disney`s Tinker Bell and the lips of Clutch Cargo, brings her years of voice acting skills to this unique voice acting training session. Here is a chance to learn the tricks of the voice acting trade. Room 6A