Why You Buggin?

Saw Jonny A for the first time in a while last night.

He's helped us out on a few projects over the years, mostly on art production. Some compositing -a few segments for "Curious", "Make 'Em Laugh" and sundry other things.

He's a big fan of Mary Worth and put this together:

Get Those VCRs Ready

All About Prints makes its New York broadcast premiere on Channel 13 tomorrow. 1:00.

WLIW, Channel 21 will broadcast at 4:00.

We've been working hard on the DVD for a while. I'm not sure where you can order it, but if you'd like one email me and I'll see if we can make it happen.



The documentary encompasses history, technique and discussions with artists such as the great Will Barnet and Kiki Smith.



And some OK graphics too.

Goodnight, Harry Houdini

If I were better at birthdays and anniversaries, I would have noted a few months back- March 9, marked the 2oth anniversary of Fred Mogubgub's passing.

I think I was rehearsing the part of Bud Frump in our high school production of "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" at that time.

Here's one of his paintings from 1983.

Goodnight Harry Houdini

It's unframed. I just hang the canvas. Although a frame would make it even more interesting.

He's already painted a trompe l'oeil frame. The foreground highlights and the sheen to the left hand side indicate a window and curtain. Already you're looking through two levels. Two levels of peeping into a bedroom. The paintings on the wall are a futhur pleasure- reminiscent of Seurat's painting of the woman in three poses featuring other Seurats in the background.

And, of course, the handcuffs on the table. Goodnight, Harry Houdini.

Old Notes

Found an old notebook recently.

This contained several pages of notes from Richard Williams' Masterclass in 199something.


At first, I was impressed with how much I remembered. Not so impressive, really, since he doesn't have all that much to say. And I mean that in a good way.

Everything he talks about comes down to a few basic things.

These basics he summarized by crediting Bill Tytla with coining "Three Elements of Animation"; 1. Anticipation 2. Action 3. Reaction

He then translated that via Charlie Chaplin "Tell them what you are going to do. Do it. Tell them what you've done."


I appreciate the verfremdungseffekt of that. Pure Brecht in technique.

Tytla's elements, he added, imply everything else. "Learn how to do these things well and you can animate them."

After that, most of what he discussed was technique. How you apply these rules in specific settings.

Much of the information is printed in his book. But the book doesn't capture the expressiveness of the animation, or the of the man.

Dig!, The Book - part two

Here goes some more of the "Dig!" book. The first part is here.


The inventive layout, "repurposed" as we say, from the film makes you wish that John Hubley had created just one story exclusively for the book form.

Could he have had the same impact on illustrated storytelling that he had on the animated film?


Maurice Sendak's "Where The Wild Things Are" is generally considered the watershed children's book of the 20th Century.

I refer to "him" as though John Hubley is solely responsible for the films. Discounting the great animators, but moreso unfairly discounting the contributions of Faith.

This is because I don't like Faith's films. Criticism, by extension understanding, starts with "liking". "Like or dislike" can take you somewhere -lead you somewhere unexpected.


There are several reasons why I don't like Faith's films. A big reason- they're too "everybody gets a ribbon because everybody is great". They're soft. I don't like soft film.


That softness is what makes the films from John & Faith exceptional.


As good as John Hubley's UPA work is, it is primarily design. It's edgy.



I can only guess that it's Faith influence which adds the heart to John's well structured body of work. In turn, his edge -his design acumen, his musical ear, his cinematic flair -give us the exterior trappings of great work.

Dream

Not long ago we did the title sequence a few animation scenes for Joseph Mann's short film "American Dream".

The story centers on a third grade (or thereabouts) girl.

For the opening I did this concept drawing.



From there, Keiko Kuramoto took over and made the opening with a little input.

News Cycle Comes Around

I thought this would be a bit of historic ephemera. Hopefully, it will be -but Sarah Palin's holiday weekend resignation has once again placed her, unworthy, in the national spotlight.



In this video from last summer, Steve Brodner wonders about her appeal. We also must wonder about a Republican Party that would embrace someone so clearly out of her depth as a public official.



When we originally did this the editors at The New Yorker had issue with the "sexualization" of Palin in Brodner's drawing. Had they not been reading their own magazine? Did they miss the 24/7 coverage of the Governor calling her "hot"? It was one of the many points of her selection to Republican ticket that insulted voters of both parties and played to basest aspects of their own.