Platform Day 5

Renegade North attends the Flasher's Convention

Clockwise from left: Kevin Martonick, Alec Knox, Eric Killkenney, Jeremy Joseph, Ben Burch.
Sill awaiting at time of picture: Lucas Haley and our fearless leader David Weiner.
Behind the camera: Sam Niemann

The whole Renegade North crew decided to take a couple hours out from our Mr Men work to attend the "Flash: Love It or Hate It" panel discussion. The panel was moderated by Aaron Simpson of Cold Hard Flash and on the panel were Nina Paley, an independent animator working by herself on a Flash animated feature called "Sita Sings the Blues" (You should google it. It's totally gorgeous!) David SanAngelo of Soup2Nuts, Brendan Burch of Six Point Harness and two other panelists that I thought I'd be able to look up, but they're not listed, so I'll have to track down their names and positions for you.

Frankly, I'm not sure we got a lot out of the discussion. In fact, I think we should have actually been on the panel. That's not a criticism of the panelists. They were qualified, experienced professionals and entertaining to listen to. But we Flash professionals already know much of what they discussed.

• Flash is just a tool and an animator needs fundamental animation skills first.
• Macromedia has been behaving like head up their ass jerks for years and we all hope Adobe does better.
  
• Flash has limits and needs help from other tools like After Effects to be effective for film or broadcast.

I'm looking at my notes and trying to think of what I heard today at the panel that would be newsworthy for you, but I can't come up with anything. I'll talk to the gang about it tomorrow and see if I'm missing something. This post may have a post script.

Independent Flash Animator Nina Paley. On the left is David SanAngelo of Soup2Nuts

Brendan Burch of Six Point Harness and Aaron Simpson of Cold Hard Flash

Platform Day 4

I know someone is taking full advantage of the festival for networking opportunities. I heard shouted across a crowded theater, "Why haven't you given me a job yet?" I think whoever was being shouted at had the discretion not to shout the true answer back.

Here's some pictures:

This is Jen Prokopowicz (no kidding!) She did a standout stop-motion piece I saw at the open screening the day before, so when I recognized her in the crowd I wanted to go talk to her. Her film is called "Crumpled" and involves a charmingly animated man made out of paper. Currently a student in Phillidelphia, I think she's got a great animation future ahead of her!

Yes, these are actual puppets that were used in animation in the film! They were on display just outside the Aardman discussion given by Peter Lord which I sadly had to miss.

This is somebody, probably important (left) talking to Peter Lord of Aardman (right), also on display just after giving his lecture.

David Levy, President of ASIFA East and author of "Your Career in Animation - How to Survive and Thrive". I can highly recommend the book, and I get no money for saying so.

This is a shot of the parade that lead the way to all the animation installations peppered around town. Shot from the safety of an indoor balcony. We've had several days of gorgeous weather but I'm glad it rained. I'm not happy to see the parade rained on, but I think it just wouldn't have been a properly Portland experience if the whether had stayed consistently sunny and warm.

Competition Program - Television for Children
A really entertaining program!

My vote went to El Tigre. I'm just such a huge Jorge Gutierrez fan! The design is so lush and beautiful. On top of that I really enjoy the concept behind the show. A kid with superpowers struggles between the dual legacies of his noble superhero dad and his evil super villain grandfather. The show is action packed and full of beautifully done Flash animation, I think produced at Six Point Harness. Some complain it is just too frenzied. I certainly agree the cartoon kept up a pretty frantic pace. Sometimes I think it would be interesting to resurrect someone from my grandfather's era and put him in front of today's children's programming, just to see if he goes into instant epileptic seizure. But that would be playing God, and I've promised not to do that again after what happened last time.

In close competition for my vote was Adventure Time. It's hilarious! Adventure Time lovingly embraces every children's show cliche to ironic comic effect. Incongruous cliches come together, like the Conan the Barbarian type logo in the same cartoon with Princess Bubblegum's unicorn made out of a rainbow (her Rainicorn, or something like that) and you can't turn a corner without seeing some giant monster or snowboarding on the back of a penguin. But you could expect no less from a show called "Adventure Time"! The main character sounds like it's voiced by an authentic little kid who's a terrific actor. But the animation was pretty crude and not very stylish and while some kids might enjoy it, I think it's comedy comes from an ironic place rather than a genuine desire to appeal to kids. So...vote to El Tigre.

Deal or No Deal
I attended the panel discussion called "Deal or No Deal" about how to sell your show to the networks. The panel was made up of the big cartoon network's head acquisition executives. These are the people who hear your pitch and then have the power to green light your project for Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Disney Channel! That made them trustworthy on matters of what and how to present your pitch, but the fact they were all producers in the same children's demographic limited the discussion somewhat. Here's some of the important highlights I took away from the panel:

• They all agreed the most important thing is CHARACTER. They all complained about hearing pitches that involve wacky situations with a weak main character.
  
• KNOW YOUR CHARACTER. Be able to talk conversationally about him/her/it. Any question that could be asked about your character, you should be able to answer off the top of your head.
  
• The character should be interesting enough to be entertaining even sitting alone in his room. And in fact it was pointed out as an example that the Sponge Bob pilot did exactly that. Sponge Bob wakes up in the morning and goes through his morning routine for 10 entertaining minutes. Another demonstration was how many hilarious South Park scenes involve the guys waiting for the bus.
• Never read materials you brought in when you pitch. They want you to look them in the eyes and talk to them about your show.
• Realize that you're selling yourself as a creative person as well as your property. They're looking for a cartoon AND the creative lead who's going to run that cartoon.
• Don't bring too much material. I was surprised to hear that. They love to look at lots of drawings but there's no reason to include a huge show bible. It's their job as developers to help your show with that and it's actually not exciting for them if you think that work is already completely done. I was also surprised to hear that a seven minute pilot show can hurt a pitch more often than help it. Bring in under a minute of animation that gets your idea across.

Competition Program 5
Loved it! (Are you getting how great this festival is?) There was lot's of gorgeous work in several categories. Plus, I found myself seated in the special juror's row somehow. There wasn't any gate up when I arrived, but when I tried to wave a friend over, ushers prevented him from joining me. Sure enough I noticed I was sitting in between Bill Plympton and PES, scribbling in their little notebooks by the glow of their pen lights.

There were a couple head-scratchers and one abstract piece. There were a couple music videos. One from U2 (Windows in the Skies) that was really neat visually, but was kind of a turn off as it consisted of a montage of old U2 album covers and band photos. Just felt like a big add for U2 itself) There were a couple commercials that went down easy enough and a couple student films. "What happened to student films?" asked Lucas Haley of Renegade North. When did they stop being crude but charming demonstrations of potential and turn into these enormous lush productions with credits a mile long and scores performed by orchestras? No kidding! ORCHESTRAS!

Don Hertzfeldt had a new film and was in attendance. (Sorry, no photo opportunity) He's so brilliant! His film "Everything Will Be OK" is funny and moving and surprising. It was also 17 minutes long, yet made for under $5,000!

But I couldn't resist voting for "Tyger" from Brazil by Guilherme Marcondes (also in attendance but sitting next to Don Hertzfeldt and so the same photo problem) Inspired by William Blake's poem, it was just so beautiful and left me feeling so good.

Platform Day 3

There were lots of great people to meet at the ASIFA Social!

David Sproxton of Aardman, Dan Sarto of AWN, Ron Diamond of ACME Filmworks. I think they were actually near the ASIFA Social and not actually there, but I'm counting them as attendees.

Jerry Beck of Cartoon Brew, and Conch - local animator and radio host (Words and Pictures on KBOO FM)

Amy Collen of Happy Trails Animation

Marilyn Zornado, local Independent Animator and Platform Festival Coordinator

Theresa Drilling - one of only two American Animators at Aardman, Susanna Luck - Freelance Effects Animator.

Tommy Kiser - Asst Production Manager on "Jack and Ben" CG animated feature in development at Laika, Eric Vorland - Animation Appreciator, Andy Collen of Happy Trails Animation.

After the party was the ASIFA sponsored Open Screening. Bring a DVD, they'll show your cartoon. As you can imagine of any "open mic night" it was an extremely mixed bag. There were a few remarkably accomplished pieces and some that were truly painful to sit through. After each film they'd invite the animator to take a bow, but in retrospect it would have been much better to introduce the animator before viewing their film. That way you'd know if you were watching the work of a remarkably industrious youngster, or the worthless tripe of a recent art school graduate. They can look remarkably similar. I was embarrassed to have heckled someone's animation and then learn I was berating a 12 year old!

Platform Day 2

This is Susanna Luck, recognized at a coffee shop. Former hand drawn Effects Animator for Dreamworks (before they they made boring films and then decided people don't like hand drawn animation), currently a freelancer here in Portland. We had a fun, spirited, alternately optimistic/bitter discussion about the past and current state of our industry.

I needed to catch up on my work yesterday so I had to skip most of the festival's festivities. I guess by about 11:00 at night I was feeling caught up (with work if not sleep) so I managed to catch "Cartoons from Hell!" presented by Independent Animator Patrick Smith. Loved it! And since it's the only thing I saw yesterday I'm going to report the hell out of it.
Patrick Smith after attempting a Heavy Metal Wail on "Cartoons from Heeeellllll!" You can see he knew it was lame.

ASIFA Portland President Brian Larson with Patrick Smith.

The show was a collection of nine of Pat's favorite cartoons with a sharp edge or a dark side.

The stand out of the program in my opinion was "Seventeen" (2003) by Hisko Hulsing, a Dutch animator. It's the story of a young roofer who falls in love with a prostitute with disastrous results. Beautifully art directed, wonderful full and fluid 2D animation, and some remarkable technique. There are a couple camera moves that seem to be from a 2 field to a 900 field and back without any visible change in resolution. How'd he do that?

Also presented was the premiere of Bill Plympton's new short, "Shut Eye Hotel" which represents a departure for Plympton in a couple of ways. For one thing it's something of a noir. Literally, in the sense that it's for the most part made up of black and white pencil drawings (with occasional splashes of red!) and also noir in the sense that it's a murder mystery. It also demonstrates Plympton's first use of CG animation. He was asked about that at the Q and A segment. "It was too expensive, took too long and I'm never going to do it again." he said.

Also in the "darkly comic" category was Don Hertzfeldt's hilariously bitter "Ah, L'amour", and a collection of student vignettes called "25 ways to Die". What a great concept for an animation jam!

In the "just plain creepy" category were two stop motion animations; "Loom" and "The Box Man". Not my favorite cartoons just because that's not my thing, but both examples of incredibly accomplished and subtle stop motion animation, and I was effectively creeped out.

There was "Son of Satan" by JJ Villard, who has a unique, rough but charming style that makes you think, "I want to make a film like that, it looks fun and easy!" But you don't, do you? Because to do it like JJ Villard you'd have to stay angry for an extended period, which comes naturally to him.

The show opened with the overrated "Fifty Percent Grey" and closed with Patrick Smith's own "Puppet" which is my new favorite Pat Smith cartoon. The animation feels crisper to me than earlier cartoons (which probably doesn't make any sense. How about: more naturalistic but maintains its DIY charm? Or: surreal but grounded.), and features a remarkable original orchestral score.

Platform Day 1

Monday, June 25th, 7:30 or so, I didn't check the time: Portland Mayor Tom Potter took the stage to welcome us to the first Platform International Film Festival.

First off, I'm going to come right out and mention that the film I submitted to Platform was rejected. So it was with mild bitterness and a critical eye that I attended the opening night screening. Each film had to prove itself worthier than mine. Happily (or dejectedly) I was blown away by the films in the opening night screening!

What made them so worthwhile? The short answer is - Production Values! Not that money is the measure of a cartoon, but mine was made for the price of six reams of paper and in my spare time. If forced to use one word to describe all the entries in the opening night of festival competition, it would be: lavish! Of course, the category of the competition is "Short Film - Budget over $50,000" Not my category, so I'll reserve just a touch of bitterness.

The Festival opened with the Platform Signal Film (as will every screening, I assume). It's a brilliant bit of stopmotion/pixilation work based on the Platform cube shape logo, depicting a box's cross-country journey to join his brothers in spelling out PLATFORM. I wasn't the only one disappointed it wasn't included in the contest. It was every bit as entertaining as many of the films.

The competition included both narrative animations as well as 30 second to 1 minute commercial spots. A juxtaposition I found jarring and unpleasant. For example, the charming 2006 Academy Award winner "The Danish Poet", a 15 minute film about the narrator's parents met, was followed by a soap commercial. (A spectacular soap commercial to be sure!) A piece titled "The Knife: We Share Our Mother's Health", a black white and red montage of medical instruments, severed heads and showers of blood, was followed by a Fed Ex commercial.

My own vote went to Aardman's "The Pearce Sisters" by director Luis Cook. It seemed to be primarily 3D animation but had a wonderful hand painted look.It's a bleak tale of two hideous looking sisters eking out a hard seaside existence. To cut an 8 minute story short, they collect dead washed up sailors for a morbid tea party. It's hard for me to resist a tale so grim presented so beautifully.

My second choice would be "Story Ville", a black and white 3D animated salute to Ub Iwerks, New Orleans Jazz, and the Ferryman of the River Styx myth.

THE OPENING GALA
The music was too loud. You couldn't talk to anybody. Lot's of great people to meet and greet everywhere you turned, but my throat was killing me. The food (cheese and crackers) ran out before I got to the table. I'm only now realizing I paid $3.50 for a flat club soda!

Jane McIntyre - Director of Film at Portland Art Institute, Will Vinton - Free Will Entertainment, Robin Ator - Animator at Laika

Husband and wife animators, Paul Harrod and Joanna Priestly

Not a problem with the photograph, Independent Animator Bill Plympton was actually blurry.

David Weiner - Production Manager at Renegade North, Jan Johnson and Jenny Greyson - Producers at Laika, Sam Niemann - Renegade North Animator

Brian Larson - Freelance Animator and President of ASIFA Portland, Don Wallace - Wallyhood Animation Studio

Paul Golden - President of Ffake, David Weiner you already met

Team Tinactin: Kurt Enderley - Art Director at Bent Image Lab, Scott Foster - Sculptor at Bent, Ben Burch - Concept Designer and Renegade North Animator

Gary Hogue - Animation Student, Jerold Howard - Stop Motion Animator at Bent and Aardman, Theresa Drilling - Stop Motion Animator at Aardman

Renegade North Animators, Kevin Martonick and Alec Knox. Keeping to the shadows.

Renegade North Animators, Lucas Haley, Sam Niemann, Jeremy Joseph

ABSTRACTION VS COMEDY
I wasn't sure I'd last long enough to attend this 11:00 to 12:30 panel but I'm glad I did. A good natured smackdown of abstract animation films presented by Joanna Priestly, up against comedy shorts presented by Bill Plympton, as judged by an applause-o-meter. The tone was set when Joanna came to the stage in a robe and boxing gloves. There was some good trash talk between the presenters, who both have their animation roots in Portland and have been good friends for 20 years.

Bill Plympton explained that the idea for the match up came from a 2004 film by W.P. Merton his company Plymptoons produced called "Spiral". It caused what he called "a furor" at Annecy. SPOILER ALERT! If you think you'll ever get to see Spiral (and I recommend you do if given the chance), move on to the next paragraph. Spiral opens on a sheet of graph paper with a dot on it, accompanied by some plinky piano music. The dot enlarges and shrinks again, tracing a spiral shape and repeats this several times. Eventually a square lowers from the top of the screen while a triangle raises from the bottom to overlap the square in the middle. The shapes join and morph and disappear and then we're back to the dot. These two motifs repeat several times and you may start to notice some ambient noise filtering in with the plinky piano music. You can soon hear more clearly a bored and restless audience. Someone in the distance yells, "This sucks!" The boos and hisses get louder until gun shots ring out and the dot falls from the graph paper into a bloody heap. The triangle and square come out to berate the audience, "He had a family! We're just trying to bring you people some culture!" It's pretty funny.

In 2005, Annecy projected a film called "Rebuttal" by Steve Woloshen. Rebuttal starts out with the shimmering image of what might be oil paint on glass or ink on celuloid and a minimalist jazz piano sound track. Suddenly the music switches to a banjo hoe down full of hoots and yeee-haws and the text "IN YOUR FACE" scrawls across the screen as screenshots from Bill Plympton's first animated short "Your Face" are subjected to all manner of artistic and abstract deconstruction. Also tremendously amusing.

And so the feud began. Before I give you the results, I think the deck was a bit stacked and here's how. I think Joanna did a better selection job and probably picked the cream of the abstract crop while I believe Bill could have selected much funnier films. Second, Joanna excerpted 4 minutes out of a 16 minute piece. Unfair! We all know what sucks most about many abstract animations is they go on too long! Finally, the front row, and therefore closest to the applause-o-meter's readings, definitely belonged to Joanna's posse. I won't mention the meter reader was Joanna Priestly's husband, Paul Harrod. I think he nobly performed as an impartial judge.

I will mention that after 3 cartoons each the score was Abstract-17, Comedy-18. But Abstract had four films and so the score was based on an average. That made the final score:
Abstract 6.25, Comedy 6. Winner - Abstract!

Tune in next year for the rematch.