Animation
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Lessons Learned
Orson Welles is reputed to have said, “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” In film school, these limitations are called assignments, and this issue’s Extra Curricular offers an assortment of assignments designed to ignite the creative process. They’re gathered from a group of screenwriters, animators and filmmakers who teach at schools across the country. Assignment #1: Look Hard Mary Sweeney, who teaches a course called “Dreams, the Brain and Storytelling” in the Screenwriting Division of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, offers this simple but powerful writing assignment, which can be […]
by Holly Willis on Jul 18, 2013 -
Alix Lambert and Sam Chou Launch Crime: The Animated Series at MoCA
Published in 2008, Alix Lambert’s Crime is one of the most fascinating books on the subject, bringing together in one gorgeously-produced volume interviews with various artists and dramatists who have chronicled crime as well as actual criminals themselves. But the book is just one element of Lambert’s practice surrounding this topic. Her Crime has taken the form of gallery shows, theater pieces and now, animated films. This week Lambert and animator Sam Chou will launch Crime: The Animated Series at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. From MoCA: MOCATV presents a screening of short animated episodes from our […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 8, 2013 -
Animating 1000 Parts: Creating the Short Day Shift
Ian Timothy, 18, is about to graduate high school — applying to art schools hoping to study animation — but he already has several years of animation experience under his belt. He created his first stop motion at 12 using a DV camera, and quickly discovered he liked doing it so much that it became “pretty much a full-time thing.” Timothy won a Silver Telly Award for animation in 2013, has created animation for music videos, and is currently working on an animation for Adult Swim for the Cartoon Network. In the following interview Timothy talks about the short Day […]
by Michael Murie on Feb 27, 2013 -
Chris Sullivan on his Animated Feature, Consuming Spirits
I first became aware of Chris Sullivan’s epic experimental animation Consuming Spirits while trolling the Tribeca Film Festival website, searching for cutting-edge work that might play well in the wild southwest. (I served as the director of programming for the 2012 edition of the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival.) Needless to say, Sullivan’s painstakingly handcrafted, novelistic tale of darkly intersecting lives at a small town newspaper – one that eschews any hint of flashy Disney for highly detailed Cassavetes – turned out to be both a must-see and a must-get for me. So I was pleased to recently have the […]
by Lauren Wissot on Dec 30, 2012 -
Watch “25 New Face” Julia Pott’s Awesome New Short The Event
When I interviewed Julia Pott a few months back for her “25 New Faces” profile, she told me about the new film she was working on, a short about love and the apocalypse, based on a poem, which she had been commissioned to make by Channel 4. The Event, part of the Random Acts series, is Pott at her best, with her fierce imagination, beautiful hand-drawn animation and tragicomic sensibility colliding to make something really special. The Event from Julia Pott on Vimeo.
by Nick Dawson on Oct 4, 2012 -
Lady Vengeance: Trailer Happy, Scaring the Children Edition
Trailers have the ability to psyche us up, freak us out, turn us off, and lead us very, very astray, but the heightened anticipation is part of the fun, regardless of how accurate a representation of the film that cleverly constructed little bugger ends up being in the end. Recently there’s been a spate of trailers for horror-themed animated children’s films, starting with ParaNorman (pictured above), which opened today. So which of these flicks is most likely to either give your kids nightmares, or send them down a lifelong path of genre appreciation? Let’s judge a book by its cover […]
by Farihah Zaman on Aug 17, 2012 -
WATCH “25 NEW FACE” JULIA POTT’S GREAT SHORT, “BELLY”
“It’s about being a kid and so in touch with spooky things,” said animator Julia Pott about her short film Belly when Nick Dawson interviewed her for this year’s “25 New Faces” list. “I called it Belly because it’s about living with this thing that you’ve lost in the pit of your stomach for the rest of your life. I really like feeling sad. It’s so good sometimes to just wallow in misery.” The short that captivated us here at Filmmaker is now online. Watch it below. Belly from Julia Pott on Vimeo.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 24, 2012 -
Animator Nick Criscuolo and Laika
The story of Laika, the Soviet dog sent to space with the knowledge that she would not return alive, is one of adventure and sorrow. She was simultaneously the first animal to orbit the earth and the first to die in orbit. One can’t help but anthropomorphize her and everything she must have experienced. Animator Nick Criscuolo has illustrated Laika’s journey in the music video he made for the song “I Can’t Breathe,” by Sharon Van Etten. He explains his own attraction to the Laika tale: “It’s a story that’s close to my heart because I love science; it […]
by Alix Lambert on Apr 21, 2012 -
SUNDANCE ANIMATORS IN ACTION
The third in Mike Plante’s Home Movie Show is ten minutes of calm as three animators just draw. With Brent Green (Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then), Julia Pott (Belly), Kataneh Vahdani (Avocados).
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 9, 2012 -
The Best Animated Films of 2011
It’s a good time to be making animated films, enough so that even regular indie filmmakers may want to sit up and take notice. Animation has always been on the cutting edge of film artistry and technology, and in a year that saw innovative use of motion capture, rotoscoping, CGI, and 3D (in documentaries, no less), an animated picture may be indie film’s next big thing. 2011 was also exciting because it gave us a wide open field for cartoons. For over a decade Pixar has dominated feature animation, but there’s now room for newcomers and underdogs to enjoy their […]
by Randy Astle on Dec 29, 2011
