Monday Morning Music Video

Here's a new one from the great Jeff Scher for Paul Simon.






Not much to add other than the obvious: artists make things artfully.

Monday Morning Music Thing

My pal Cynthia Mitchell made this a few years ago.

She's a painter by trade and had never done anything with animation.



It's a bit raw, but it has it's moments.

I think it's the duty of animation professionals to encourage everyone to produce independent work.

Monday Morning Music Video

Here's a music video we consulted on, produced by David Cowles and Liesje Kraai for They Might Be Giants.

It's mostly puppets.


The 2D animation was done by our very own Christina Capozzi Riley.

Covers

A little while back we posted a few album covers we're referencing for a documentary we're doing a bit of animation for.

Here are some more.

We're animating Ros Serey Sothea for the film.

She was "The Golden Voice" and kind of like the Cambodian Nancy Sinatra -except without the famous dad.

She was born in a village and worked collecting shellfish from the shore until eventually convinced by the townsfolk to enter an American Idol style competition.

She was taken under the wing by Sinn Sisamouth (the Cambodian Phil Spector/Jerry Lewis without the domestic issues).

When the Khmer Rouge took power, she -like most artists and intellectuals -met with a bad end.  The regime not only had her killed but worked to eliminate all traces of her music.

Stupidest Giraffe

Aren't too many parts nowadays for singing giraffes, nor album cover designers.

They're still out there, sure.  Sometimes turning the limitations of 3.5 inch CD into a little piece of art, sometimes turning it on it's head entirely.

The time of taking over two sides of 12 inch has gone, instead the designer has to think about what looks good on a mp3 player.

Cover art is no longer a sales tool.  It's an afterthought.

This is a 1970 bluesy-prog album produced by Shel Talmy.

I bought it for the cover about 20 years ago.

Credit to the comic goes to "Angus McGill and Steve Thomas".  The most I can find on them is that Angus McGill was a countercultural writer in the 60s, possibly along the lines of Terry Southern.

I like the apparent crudeness and naivety of the illustration.  Upon inspection, there's a sophisticated painterly quality.  Kind of like Red Grooms or Maira Kalman.

The album is gone, record stores on gone, even the music video has taken a tumble.  I hope we'll see a new resurgence of illustration and art as "marketing" for music. 


This post was inspired by the posters (which I like a lot) on Sixth Avenue for the new Christina Aguilera album. 

Above is not the poster, but the same illustration.

Disney-ish Music

"Stay Awake" recently came up on the shuffling iPod and it hit right to play the album all the way through.

Produced and created in 1988 by Hal Wilner (who's 1985 "Lost in the Stars" was my introduction to Kurt Weill which quickly to Brecht who pulled me down the rabbit hole I find myself today) the album doesn't sound dated, necessarily, but the excitement it stirred 20 (gah -20!) years ago is gone. "Lost in the Stars", on the other is still rousing -from Andrea Parkins' first accordion pull though Van Dyke Parks' singular interpretation of music from the Broadway play "Johnny Johnson".

Growing up in the 80s, the Disney product had little to offer a boy.  Most of the classic films weren't available and the big re-releases;Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, etc. were aimed at girls.

Sure, The Black Cauldron and Tron had macho appeal but not enough to impart any special feelings towards the name "Disney".  That's deadly to nostalgia business -which is the Disney Co's main vein of revenue.

"Stay Awake" may still sway a listener with that childhood connection to Disney films, not for everyone.

Oddly, my childhood had a different Disney influence -courtesy of K-Tel records most likely.

Disneyland Records produced a two volume "Disney's Children's Favorites".  These disks collected traditional and public domain songs.

The artwork isn't horribly offensive  -although I didn't like it as a child and I still don't care for it much.  Of course, it's uncredited.

This is how I learned at an early age that "Sidewalks of New York" is the same melody as "Bicycle Built for Two". (I prefer the former a.k.a. "East Side, West Side").

You'll sometimes hear an artist or writer say "I'm influenced by everything I see, hear, touch and smell."  And you'll think, "That's an evasive answer to a stupid question."  When you really think about it, it's not all that crazy of a statement.

Joost Swarte: Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba

Joost Swarte is best known as a descendant of Hergé's clear line school of cartooning.  He's probably second best known as an industrial designer.

In animation, however, he's probably best known as the designer of the Holland Animation Festival logo.

He's third best known for playing olde tyme music with R.  Crumb and other cartoonists.

Sometime in the 20th Century I came across a CD of non-old tyme music with his name on it.

"Sound Shopping" is listed as a collaboration of Dutch electronic musicians Arling & Cameron with Joost Swarte.  Swarte is only listed as a co-writer on three tracks.

The music is, to me, an accurate representation of the illustrator's work.

Here's an example.

On The Leeds Side Streets

Why do hundreds of thousands of children dream of being rockstars? Why so few longing to be animators?

So Disney is opening a new picture this weekend. So Cartoon Network is cutting back on its programing. So Nickelodeon is doing something too.

If I were 8 years old I might care. By the time I turned 9, I had discovered the turntable and my father's record collection. I discovered a digestible artform which was mysterious and exciting, and artform which continued to speak to me as I matured.

Cartoons? Not so much.

And just as pop music loses its excitement, something unexpected comes along and reminds why its so powerful. The first time I heard Cornershop in 1995, even Belle and Sebastion (better than Disney, not up to Cocteau) a few years later, The Handsome Family's "Milk and Scissors"; these sounds and stories make profound visceral impact.

Animation has done that to me maybe four, five times. JJ Villard's "Son of Satan", Hubley's "Eggs" (not surprisingly, it was probably the music), Fierlinger's "Drawn From Memory".

Live film emotionally connects with mature audiences as a matter of course. When I hear people bemoan the goings on at Disney or another behemoth corporation that entertains toddlers it's hard to imagine any relevance to my life.

I Just Want A Hula Hoop

1958's "Witch Doctor" may have been a smash hit for David Seville and his sped up accompanists, but it wasn't until a year they were revealed to be "The Chipmunks".



The Chipmunks became a ubiquitous "property" in the early 1980s. It's become increasingly questionable with each incarnation.

David Seville's first experiments with sped up recording remain highly engaging entertainment.



I picked up "The Chipmunk Song" 45 for 25 cents on Saturday. Christmas in August.

Nassau Crosses Ann Street

Thinking of Charles Ives.

Almost Forget Today's Post

Partly due to Michael Jackson, mainly because work on a piece for the upcoming Ottawa International Animation Festival guidebook.

"Leave Me Alone" directed by Jim Blashfield who will be the subject of a retrospective this year
-and hopefully a good write up in Festival Reader.

This will be maybe the fourth piece I've written for the Festival and the first profile subject I don't know personally.

2009 Poster designed by the talented Theodore Ushev

Festival essays have tricky requirements. They need to be informative and factual but they should give you insight into the personality of the filmmaker's work. The essays have to be enlightening without being critical -that's the tricky thing. An artist's flaws are often the keystone their work. You have to find another way to get to their core.

I'm The One Who Loves You

Today we have "Yo Gabba Gabba" and the They Might Be Giants DVDs.

OK enough. Decent design, competent animation. Solid music.

But the music isn't this good.



These shows were produced by Rankin Bass and Animated at Halas and Batchelor in London.



The great Jack Davis did the character designs. Rankin Bass regularly called on the Mad Magazine artist as well as his colleague Paul Coker, Jr.

Maybe it's my American chauvinism, but this music speaks with a clarity and vitality that Merseybeat skiffle only hopes to match.

Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa

A few years back I got a call from the British Consulate, they were doing a survey on something or other.

I invited him over and we talked for about twenty minutes. Ever since I've gotten invitations to select events from the Consulate.

Most people, it turns out, immediately hang up when asked to help about such things. The fruit of politeness.

Last night was preview show of John Lennon: The New York City Years hosted by Prince Andrew, Duke of York.



It's interesting that pop flotsam gets not just a Hall of Fame, but a SoHo Annex to boot. The permanent installation at the museum consists of video displays by decades and genres followed by paraphernalia, mostly broken discards from drunken teenyboopers. The kinds of things you'd find on the walls of a really good TGI Fridays.

The Lennon gallery is a large white room. It contains notes and drawings from his time in New York, 45s, articles of clothing, sundry discards from the basement of the Dakota.

Lennon used his celebrity to an end. Although his philosophy was fairly shallow -its strength was its simplicity. His celebrity, gained as a teenaged heartthrob, was parried to something else. Something beyond him. That's interesting. T-Shirts and photographs of T-Shirts only address the cult of celebrity which brought about his assassination.

Mayor John Lindsay's letter fighting for Lennon and Yoko Ono's deportation is the most moving part of the show. It spells out why Lennon was a great representative of New York (and by extension America) and eloquently takes the government to task.

Second in strength is one of Yoko Ono's "Telephone Pieces". A white phone with a sign to answer when it rings. If it did ring, the artist would be on the other end. A clever use of celebrity -without Yoko Ono's fame, the effect is minimal. Just as she and Lennon used their popularity in the late 1960s for fight for their beliefs, she trades on that celebrity today to supply meaning to the work.

this is a different "Telephone Piece", but the same idea

The final wall of the exhibit is a sheet of paper that will be "delivered to President Barack Obama" upon the close of the show. The signees want "stricter gun control laws" -there is the problem with T-Shirt politics but what else would you expect from a museum for Top 40 skiffle music.

Be Bop Til You Drop

Lots of energy expended yesterday.

1) delivering a motion graphics project
2) getting started on drawn animation for documentary
3) illustration project with lots of seesawing
4) starting up video editing/website stuff for Jon Faddis

Faddis helped us out on the last of the Naked Campaigns for Sundance and "The New Yorker", his track makes the film.



He's a hard bopper and was a protege of Dizzy Gillespie (best known as a vocal contributor to John Hubley).



Here's a Faddis clip from several years back.



So I haven't had the time to put together a proper post for today, but it throwing this together I found a great one for tomorrow.

Born in Cheyenne, Died in Chula Vista, Living on in the National Film Registry

20th Century movies and television comedies used "home movies" as the punch line to weak jokes.

Personally, I've always loved home movies. Last weekend my high school pal Dan Barry reminded me how we would drive to yard sales and tape record people as they sold their heirlooms for whatever you're willing to pay.

This isn't voyeurism, it's not exploitation. It's a hardy optimism that every person has within them a genius, and every super 8 film had the capacity to be hilarious or profound.

The New York Times noted the passing of Sid Laverents at 100. A noble age for a man who represented some of the best characteristics of the American citizen.

Here's one of his films, "Multiple Sidosis".



Don't be put off by the slow start. The first minute is home made charm, the next couple are a sort of process documentary -but around the 5:00 it becomes transcendent.

Keep your eyes peeled for the Walt Disney influence.

It's Spring...

Michael Sporn did a typically illuminating post on this John Hubley "Electric Company" film a little while back.

This film is the perfect example of picture working against soundtrack to highlight and define one another. An ideal Alienation Effect (opposed to gesamkunstwerk).




Of course, the soundtrack was completed before the animation was begun. Tissa David, who animated this (read Michael's post -it's great) once asked Hubley the same question I asked her. "How do you know the soundtrack will work if you record it all beforehand?"

His response: "If the music works and is good, the picture will work and be good." And there we have a secret from the gods.

How Rich!

How rich can you get?

Our culture prizes obscenity, so "obscenely rich" might be the answer.  Now to answer that question with another question: Do you plan on riding a stretch limousine through the eye of a needle?

You're never gonna know 'til you've met

Priviledge, exclusivity, a velvet rope around the world.  We call them "heroes" or "celebrities" -purveyors of a secret knowledge.  That knowledge "heroes" and "celebrities" are uninteresting.  If the ticket buyer finds this out -there goes the millions.

This young boy

You can respect businessmen like Bill Gates or Walt Disney, who amassed huge fortune from hard work.  They may not have been nice people, they may have squashed competition and put forth questionable product -but they have the dignity their own devices.

A young boy? As rich as you can get?  What has he done?  What contributions to mankind has this young boy made?  Is it simply the position of his parents and the family name?

Richie Rich is his name

Figures. Either that or Cash Gold.

He's rich enough he's in the "Rich Hall of Fame"

I've been to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Samuel F. B. Morse,  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John James Audubon and few dozen other full names dignitaries.  Now an entire museum dedicated to wealthy.  Not their achievements, not their philanthropy -just the mass of their wealth.

His bank account is as rich as his name

For those amongst us who don't yet understand: this prepubescent twirp has more money than will pass through your hands and the hands of all your generations.  Adore him.  He's rich.

Now that's rich!

I'll say.

Richie Rich!

Once more with feeling -the obsessive vanity of a do-nothing billionaire, a Paris Hilton in a Little Lord Fauntleroy -say the name.  Say. The. Name.

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday

Moved yesterday.

No pictures yet.

It was frustrating.  Let's put it this way, in the words of Tissa David: "In Hungary, being late -it is like spitting in someone's face."

Lateness spirals, like in a production, ultimately causing us to be late for The Handsome Family concert at the Highline Ballroom.

We only missed two songs, though.

Their latest "LP", "Honey Moon", was released this week.

The live performances exceeded the record.  I usually prefer the record.

When an artist creates an album like their 2000 recording "In The Air", everything else has a hard time measuring up but their subsequent work has never fallen short.  2006's "Last Days of Wonder", for example, is a moving meditation.  Exquisite even. 

The problem with being brilliant, is that people come to expect it.

Me and My Arrow

During his long battle with cancer I gave my father two CDs, both sort of reflections on death. One was The Last Days of Wonder, the other Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.

Maybe that's why the only song on Neko Case's new album, Middle Cyclone, which has any appeal to me is the Nilsson cover, "Don't Forget Me" -a sad comedy, a fortune cookie.



Somewhere, there's an alternate animation history in which Nilsson's The Point is not forgotten. It's the first animated feature produced for television. Only one animator, Fred Wolf, is credited (with two additional animators).

The style is typical 1970s animation design -like so many Electric Company shorts. Nice enough, but I can't help but wonder what Hubley would've done with it.

Regardless, the music is what makes the film. The music and the "soul" of the picture.

While some consider the 70s a duldrum for animation; films like this, Heavy Traffic, Hubley's Carousel, Richard Williams' Christmas Carol suggest a path -or many paths -that the artform could take.

Stepford Process

After the recent post about Ivan Brunetti I tried to find the illustrations he did for our "Stepford Wives" pitch.

We had gotten the brief from the producer.  Of course we wanted the job badly, but people rarely want to work with you if you seem desperate, and they rarely want to hire you if you show arrogant disinterest in their project.

So it's a fine line to walk.

We typically, at least when dealing with the endangered species known as "professionals", will work up three design variations.  In this case, the director (Frank Oz) had a pretty clear idea of style.  So we asked Ron Barrett, Ivan Brunetti and Phil Marden to work up some models based on a storyboard Brian created.

I can't locate any of those unused designs (I think Brian has them squirreled somewhere), but I did find our first animatic.  Frank Oz and his producer, Leslie Converse, preferred Phil Marden's illustrations so we had Phil re-draw the storyboard.
Let me also point out that this sequence is substantially different from the final.
The changes actually came well after we completed production, after the picture had gone through several rounds of test screenings.
Here is the first pencil test from the original.  Animation by Doug Compton.

We finished it up pretty closely to this (there's a flipped drawing in the birds, and some of the other timing is off).  But after some recutting to the entire film, the animation needed to be modified as well.
The original production schedule allowed 12 to 16 weeks from layout to compositing.  We have to redo nearly the whole segment in about 8 days.

Above is the final version as seen on TV!  Compositing by Alex Reshanov

*****************

Today is Marvin Gaye's birthday.

Here's a clip we did for the American Masters documentary on Marvin Gaye that aired a few months back.



The film was directed by Sam Pollard.

These projects are all the more rewarding when you have a personal connection to the material. On childhood drives my father would quiz me about the artists on the radio. Just "Who sings this?", but for an eight year old that's not a simple question. I could always get Marvin Gaye, though. My father had a 4 LP set -I think the cover was pink, and I knew all eight sides note for note.