keyleedaud (REAL ESTATE)

If you have ever bought anything from Amazon online, you know that they send you emails to alert you to items they believe you will want based on your past purchases. Occasionally, though, the recommendations leave me scratching my head, such as this one: (Click to enlarge.)

I'm frankly amazed (and amused) that the video of Disney re-use is still generating comments after more than a week. I was certainly aware of how heavily Disney re-used animation during the Reitherman years. The video didn't surprise me so much as wrap things up in a neat package. Thad Komorowski has created a similar video cataloging Bob Clampett's history of re-use, some of which I wasn't aware of. Anyone who has worked in animation production knows the twin pressures of budget and deadline. While nobody has brought it up, Chuck Jones re-used animation multiple times within his half hour TV specials, including The Grinch and Riki Tiki Tavi . We can argue over a director's motivation and judge whether the end result has value or not, but I don't doubt for a second that given the opportunity, every director would opt for new footage instead of re-use.

Mark Kausler has updated the site for his independent film, It's the Cat . There are original cels for sale as well as artwork on display. One of the neat features of the cels for sale is that when you display them, you can flip between the cel and the drawing it is based on. If you buy a cel, Mark will throw in a DVD of the finished film for free. (If you just want the finished film, you can download it from MyToons for $1.99.) The real plum, however, is the complete pencil test online. I'm one of those people who loves pencil tests and prefers them to finished animation. I love seeing the pencil lines in the rough and even the grain of the paper animating. It's animation, unplugged. Run (or dance) over and take a look.

"And 44 percent of the time (there are commercial airline crashes), the two pilots have never flown together before, so they're not comfortable with each other." -Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers "A palpable energy is released when inspiration and dedication come together in a creative art. The energy is transformative in an individual who is innovative, but it is transcendent when manifested by a group. There are no words for the dynamic thrill of participating in a mutual mosaic of creativity." — Wynton Marsalis My father worked for over 60 years as a machinist. His job was to take a blueprint supplied by a client and figure out how to make the machine part using the tools and crew at his disposal. Often, my father had only the vaguest sense of what the piece would be used for; he rarely saw his piece assembled with any other pieces. The system worked because of the nature of blueprints. I grew up listening to my father talk about the challenges of making certain...

This Tuesday, March 24, Turner Classic Movies will be running four and a half hours saluting the work of animation director Chuck Jones. The complete schedule is here . Highlights include the TV premiere of the documentary Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood , as well as such noted cartoons as What's Opera Doc? , Duck Amuck , One Froggy Evening. The evening will also include early works, such as Jones directorial debut The Night Watchman , as well as Prest-O Change-O and Elmer's Candid Camera , two early steps in the evolution of Bugs Bunny. TCM will also screen The Phantom Tollbooth , Jones' feature, based on the book by Norton Juster, made for MGM. The entire program will be repeated twice during the evening, followed by 1001 Arabian Nights , a UPA feature starring Mr. Magoo and directed by veteran Disney director Jack Kinney.

For those in the Toronto area who might be interested, this year's industry day at Sheridan College will take place on April 30. In addition, I am in the process of booking the Bloor Cinema for a selection of this year's films. The dates I am trying to book are June 9 and 10, with both dates featuring the same films. Once details are confirmed, I'll pass them along.

Ressemblances dans les films Disney - Vidéos humour One of my students, Agnes Salek , pointed this compilation out to me. It is skillfully cut together, showing all the Disney re-use, most of which was the work of director Woolie Reitherman. It seems he never saw a scene he couldn't reconfigure. I think that only the material re-used for Beauty and the Beast is from the post-Reitherman era.

I was not aware of this film until today. It's from 1947, written and directed by Frank Tashlin for the Lutheran Church. Some of the crew, such as Wah Chang and Gene Warren, will be familiar to fans of stop motion animation of the time. The film is narrated by actor Lew Ayres. There is relatively little animation in this film. It is more a series of illustrations to accompany the narration. I don't know how much this film represents Tashlin's own religious feeling or how much it was simply an employment opportunity. At this time in his career, Tashlin had left Warner Bros. and was attempting to break into live action feature writing and directing. The year this film appeared, Tashlin first got credited as a screenwriter on the all-star musical Variety Girl . The Way of Peace followed a stint directing animated industrials for John Sutherland Productions, but it would be another five years before Tashlin got credit for directing his first live feature, fittingly titled...

The Toronto Star has an article today about the Purchase brothers, who hope to break into the live action film business and who are working on their reel. One of the pieces they've created is based on the video game Half-Life 2 and the piece has been watched more than 2 million times on YouTube . While I don't play video games and don't seek out films like the Purchase brothers are making, I do have to admire their skills, their dedication and their ability to entertain an audience. Most of all, I admire their resourcefulness. Their film was made for relatively little cash, though many hours were invested in it. Valve, the company that makes Half-Life 2 , is aware of the film and likes it, but they have no interest in a Half-Life movie as they've been disappointed in movies that have been made based on videogames thus far. While I have no interest in insulting people, I need to say that the Valve people are IDIOTS . They're stuck thinking about $60 million b...

I've had a link to David Nethery's blog listed here for a long time, but he has a second blog done for the Academy of Art in San Francisco that features news of new books and interesting clips. There are some pencil tests there of Sergio Pablos ' work on Treasure Planet , for example. In addition, there's news of a new book on effects animation by Joseph Gilland called Elemental Magic and the two volume collection of Disney artist Walt Stanchfield 's lectures on drawing for animation. I've added a link to the right and the site is worth checking on a regular basis.

Mark Kausler 's animated short, It's the Cat , is now available for purchase at MyToons . Set to a 1920s recording by Harry Reser's Syncopaters, the cheefully amoral cat plays pranks on the moon, a dog and the three blind mice. You can see the above preview in a larger size at the MyToons link above. I love this film because of the intricate synchronization of the animation and soundtrack. While the actual cartoons of the time period often just bounce repetitively to the musical beat, Kausler is constantly animating accents to hit off beats and notes in a very sophisticated way. The above clip really doesn't do the film justice as it stops before the most interesting animation. As I'm going to be teaching a workshop on animating to music in May and June, I was interested in Mark's process for dealing with the synchronization. He gave me a very detailed description of his process here . Scroll down for his comment. Mark is known both for his animation on fi...

Another great example of silent comedy slowed down to real time. Here's Ben Model working his magic on the opening factory sequence of Chaplin's Modern Times (1936). The bulk of this has been shot at 16 frames per second, so that watching it at 24 fps means that the action is 50% faster than life. Note the pauses in the acting that Model points out that separate the movements and gestures. This is so the actions read clearly when they are sped up. This sequence works in the finished film due to the inhuman speed that the workers must move on the assembly line. There's a sense of urgency that's not only funny but a story requirement: Chaplin's eventual nervous breakdown has to be believable. As noted by Ben Model in the comments, here is the sequence where Chaplin has his breakdown, first at the speed at which it was shot and second as it plays in the film, 50% faster than it was shot.

This week, two very good sources of information, one on the east coast and one on the west, have blogged their thoughts about animation students approaching the end of school year and moving into the wider world. Independent animator and instructor David Levy's thoughts about thesis films may be coming too late in the school year to be much help to this year's graduating students, but it's definitely worth reading for those students with a year or more to go. For those students who are graduating and looking at an uncertain job market, Steve Hulett, business rep of The Animation Guild, summarizes a talk he gave to the students at Cal Arts. Their advice sounds pretty good to me.