Friday, May 30th

The Animation Show is taking over MTV2.com this weekend!  Well sort of...If you go to MTV2.com you can see that we are the main thing they are promoting.  We are very excited by this exposure!  Also, be sure to look for us on MTV2 the television channel...yes that is right MTV2 will be airing a 30 minute special of Animation Show selected short films.  Animation back on MTV2!  They will also be featuring little clips throughout the week.  If there is ever a time to watch MTV2 it is now!!!

Monday, May 12th

Smith & Foulkes of Nexus Productions just put up a new website for their new film "This Way Up".  The trailer gives you a little taste of how good this film is.  "This Way Up" is one of our first commissioned films and it truly was an honor working with these guys.  In the news section of the website they discuss how they pitched the idea to us.

Friday, April 18th

 The Animation Show is hosting a bicycle ride in Austin, TX on April 24th at 7pm.  We’ll be starting out at the West Mall – UT campus fountain near 22nd St and Guadalupe.  We’ve got Paul from Textual Healing  joining us on the ride providing some entertainment at a few stops along the way.  So if you live in Austin and you own a bike we expect to see you on Thursday night.  Plus we’ll be giving stuff away.  And on top of that you will get to hang out with Robert and I, which some would say is a treat as well (Ok it's mostly our mothers that say that about us but it should still be fun).

Thursday, April 10th

 After the last tour Mike asked us if we could look into commissioning some films for the new tour.  It's not something we've done in the three previous tours so we were excited about the possibilities. It took Robert and I all of about 2 seconds to come up with the dream list of animators to contact.  We had heard from a couple of people that Smith & Foulkes of Nexus Productions were thinking of making a short film.  After several emails and a few phone calls we had all agreed to make it happen.  They asked us if we had anything in particular we were looking for and the only thing we had mentioned was that in the last program there seemed to be several films about death so we were hoping to keep that topic in as few films as possible this year.  When we received the treatment for the film we thought it was really amazing and thought it was brilliant that the story was about two undertakers.

Another animator we've had the pleasure of working with this year is Joel Trussell.  We've always been big fans of the music video War Photographer and Mike thought an introduction from Joel would be super awesome.  Robert had a quick chat with Joel and then a few days later we received another really amazing treatment.  He has been a busy guy and he's had a limited amount of time to finish the film so we offered to help in any way.  He asked if we could help him with the music.  I have to say he's not only extremely talented but he's been incredibly fun to work with these last few weeks.

It almost goes without saying that we love PES and think he's crazy talented.  His films have been in almost every collection we've put out.  So it made perfect sense to see if he would create something new just for us.

The other animator we contacted about commissioning some new films from was Dave Carter.  He had submitted a couple of films into our online mobile phone film contest last year and they were some of our favorites.  His timing couldn't have been better because he was coming to Los Angeles all the way from Australia and he wanted to show us some films he had just finished.  He showed us the three original Pyshchotown films and we knew then that we had to have more.  We sent a copy off to Mike and he agreed with us that Dave is one of the best new up and coming animators out there.  So we asked Dave if he could make us a several new Psychotown episodes that would premiere in our program.

I know I've just gushed heavily about the 4 filmmakers above but working with them has been one of the highlights from these last 5 years on the Animation Show.  It’s an honor to premiere the films in our program and a special treat to have PES and Joel Trussell in attendance for our premiere night in Austin.

Thursday, February 21st

I just came across a good list of past Oscar winners that can be found on YouTube.  The list starts in 1931 and goes to 2006, with some missing years in between.  Obviously, it's not comprehensive but it's fun to look around. Here is one of my favorites Manipulation.

Friday, January 25th

Why can’t all commercials be this good?  I think this is one of the best ads I’ve seen in a long time.  I was completely sucked in by the amazing animation and as Motionographer points out it’s more like a short film than an advertising spot.  I hope you like it as much as I did.  You can view it here.  To learn more about the companies that created it visit Motionographer. 

Tuesday, December 18th

When Robert and I were working on the documentary we created for the Volume 2 DVD we had a really hard time choosing what was the most important information that needed to be included in the ten-minute piece.  So we tried to touch on all of the major moments or people in the history of animation and animation festivals.  One group we briefly discussed was UPA and their importance to independent animation.  Well there is a new book by our friend Amid Amidi that is now on sale, “Inside UPA”.  Here is a quote from Chris Robinson, director of the Ottawa International Animation festival:

“UPA were the Beats of animation. Like Kerouac,
Burroughs, Ginsberg and company, UPA rejected and
ignored the so-called rules of their art form and
created something fresh, mature, modern, and personal.
UPA was a haven for artists and thinkers, and just by
glancing through the marvelous collection of photos in
“Inside UPA”, it must have been a hell of an inspiring
and fun place to work. We need more studios like UPA,
and we need more books like this to celebrate the ball
breakers, ass kickers and risk takers who came before
us”.

There are only 1000 copies available so go out and order this one up before they are all gone.

For more information and to order through Pay Pal please go to one of these web sites:

www.upapix.com    

www.cartoonbrew.com   

www.tooninanimation.net

 

Wednesday, December 5th

Sundance just announced the short films selected for the 2008 festival.  It's interesting that Sundance separates the US films and the International films.  Clearly this is a strong year for international films.  For a complete list of short films you can read the press release here. Here is the list of animated short films:

US Animated Short Films

THE ADVENTURES OF BAXTER & MCGUIRE: THE BOSS (Director: Mike Blum; Screenwriters: Michael Weithorn, Nick Bakay)– This animated buddy-comedy chronicles the adventures of Baxter and McGuire, the closest of pals who never leave each other's side. They also just happen to be testicles.

CHONTO (Director: Carson Mell)–Wilted rock idol Bobby Bird literally tries to buy a friend when he adopts a monkey from a zoo in South America.

THE HISTORY OF AMERICA (Director: MK12)–A psychedelic western space opera.

MY BIODEGRADABLE HEART (Director: Dana Adam Shapiro)– A story about puppy love and how long it would take said puppy to decompose.

TEAT BEAT OF SEX (Director: Signe Baumane)– A take on sex exclusively from a woman's point of view.

International Animated Short Films

1977/ United Kingdom (Director: Peque Varela)– A small town, a growing knot, and a girl searching for her identity.

DOG/ Iceland (Director: Hermann Karlsson)– Remembering the death of a dog and the guilt of a boy that soon followed.

FLIGHTY/ United Kingdom (Director: Leigh Hodgkinson)– Butterflies in search of mates undergo penultimate speed dating, and for good reason: they have two weeks to live.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD/ United Kingdom (Director: Joe Tucker; Screenwriter: Joe Tucker and Raphael Warner)– Graham lives with his overbearing mother in a Christian bookshop, trapped in the seedy outskirts of a decaying nowhere town. He and his mother both love God, but in very different ways.

I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE/ Canada (Director: Cam Christiansen; Screenwriter: Kris Demeanor)– A suburban boy competes in a tennis match with his father in the suburbs of Calgary when three young men approach and start to rudely accost them.

I MET THE WALRUS/ Canada (Director: Josh Raskin)– In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. Using the original interview as the soundtrack, this narrative tenderly romances Lennon's every word in a cascading flood of multi-pronged animation.

LAPSUS/ Argentina (Director: Juan Pablo Zaramella)– A curious nun ventures into the darker side of her animated world.

MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI/ Canada (Directors: Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski)– Madame Tutli-Putli boards the night train, weighed down with all her earthly possessions and the ghosts of her past. As day descends into dark, she finds herself caught up in a desperate metaphysical adventure adrift between real and imagined worlds.

PARADISE/ France (Director: Yi Zhou)– A lyrical look at plants and bugs preparing for pollination in the spring.

THE PEARCE SISTERS/ United Kingdom (Director: Luis Cook)– An amusingly bleak-hearted tale of two weather-lashed old spinsters living on a remote and austere strip of coast, scraping out a miserable existence from the sea.

YOURS TRULY/ United Kingdom (Director: Osbert Parker)– Animation and live action collide in the story of Frank and Charlie, a dark romance of psychological tension that unfolds as the two men sacrifice their morals in search of what they love.

Wednesday, November 28th

Rob and I started working on the Animation Show about five years ago.  In fact January 2003 was the official start of the show.  So to celebrate that we’ve lasted this long, we are going to write a little bit more about the process of the show and what we do.

Submissions
Rob and I watch every submitted film on vhs, dvd or online that is sent to us.  I kind of regret that we didn’t keep a running total of all the films we’ve screened over the years.  If I had to guess, I would think we’ve watched close to 15,000 films in 5 years.   
In the beginning (2003) our system for keeping track of the films was pretty basic. We had two bookcases - one was for films we liked and one was for films we didn’t like.  In hindsight, this wasn’t a very good system.  We also made the mistake of having our first intern alphabetize the tapes, realizing afterward that he barely spoke English. At the time, Rob and I were focused on the theatrical tour and putting all of our energy into getting the first show out to theaters.  If someone had then told us that in five years we would be planning a fourth tour we would have laughed hysterically and thought they were crazy.  Then we would have asked, "why only 3 tours in 5 years?"  We were so naïve.

When the first submissions came in, we noticed a lot of them were coming to us on PAL.  We had some of the PAL tapes transferred to NTSC, but the cost of doing so was ridiculous, so I did some research and found this very fancy PAL/NTSC VHS player for $550.  It was one of our very first purchases, along with this incredibly useful map that we use almost every day (I believe Don mocked us for buying the map).

The PAL/NTSC player was such an exciting purchase that it caused a little bit of drama. We had to have a big discussion about the need for a second PAL/NTSC machine in our Santa Barbara office. (Don and Tim our old merchandise guru worked out of SB.) At the time, we just didn’t see how it made sense to have TWO(!) PAL/NTSC players.  We were on such a tight budget that a second player seemed like a luxury item.  If only we had continued to be so budget conscious...  Ironically, we used the PAL player so much it ended up breaking, and we had to buy a second player anyway.  Here is the original player,  broken and lonely.

Obviously, we’ve seen less and less VHS submissions, and more and more DVDs.  Therefore, we had to go out and buy a PAL/NTSC DVD player.  Unfortunately, the DVD player had some issues as well.  At one point a disc was stuck in the player and, to get it out, we had to do what the back of the player says not to do; We had to unscrew the top of the machine. 

We recovered the disc and avoided electrocution all at the same time. The player continues to work this day. (Yaay!)  Rob and I felt like we really accomplished something.

Thanks to our legion of interns, we now have a much-improved system to keep track of the submissions.  We even have a fancy database that is growing by thousands every year. 

So continue to send in those submissions.  We are always excited to watch another film.  In fact, every time we put in a new dvd, I say, “I think this one is going to save the show!”  I’m not really sure what we need saving from, but it’s fun to say.

We’ll try to come up with more stories and interesting information about the show for you that we haven’t shared in the past.

Wednesday, November 14th

Zune Arts (Microsoft) recently updated their website that they started over a year ago and I have to say I was completely surprised and blown away by the the works of nearly three dozen artists.  You can check it out here.  Zune is calling the art and animated short films a "collaboration" between Zune and the artists, I hope the artists are enjoying their part of the "collaboration" and they continue to do more animated short films.  I think my favorite one is "Moodbot" by Rob Shaw of Bent Image Lab (one of our favorite studios as well) set to a song by Bitter:sweet.  Enjoy!

Thursday, November 8th

Ruari Robinson of  "50% Grey" (from the first Animation Show theatrical tour and currently on Volume 1 DVD) has a new ad for Quechua, which makes hiking and outdoor clothing.  It's interesting to see similar shots and camera movements he used in 50% Grey and this advertisment.  You can see the spot here.

Saturday, November 3rd

Congratulations to Smith & Foulkes of Nexus Productions and Marc Craste of Studio Aka and their teams for both winning the British Television Advertising Craft Award for Best Computer Animation.  Smith & Foulkes won for their Coca Cola "Videogame" ad, which can be seen at www.nexusproductions.com

Marc Craste won for Lloyds  TSB "For The Journey" ad, which we talked about earlier this week and can be seen at www.studioaka.co.uk.  I think an  Animation Show/Nexus team up is in order if it means we can see these guys at work. 

The winner for the Best British Television Commercial of the Year went to Sony Bravia's "Paint" ad.  I know they spent months on effects and computer graphics but they actually shot this spot live. 





There is also a nice behind the scenes look at this ad you can watch at www.bravia-advert.com

Other winners from the BTA's can be found at www.btaa.co.uk

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