Two forthcoming animation events in Los Angeles caught my eye. The first is the 2nd AniMazing Spotlight Animated Shorts Festival, which will be held Saturday and Sunday, September 4-5, at Woodbury University, Burbank, under the able direction of Tee Bosustow. (Tee is the son of UPA co-founder Stephen Bosustow; the festival website also hosts [...]
Entries from July 31st, 2010
Coming Events in Los Angeles: AniMazing Spotlight and A Fischinger Celebration
July 31st, 2010 · No Comments · Abstract films, Animation Festivals, Events, Filmmakers
Tags: AniMazing Spotlight Animated Shorts Festival·Center for Visual Music·Elfriede Fischinger·Oskar Fischinger·Tee Bosustow
Animation Filmmakers Who Like and Do Mocap
July 27th, 2010 · No Comments · Motion capture, Stop motion animation
My March 9th posting on motion capture, “Oh Motion Capture, What Art Thou?,” elicited an interesting comment from Vita Berezina-Blackburn, an animation specialist at Ohio State University, who finds motion capture to be closer to traditional puppetry than cel animation and wish there would be more films featuring experimental use of motion capture which has [...]
2009 Movie Box Office Break UK Records, While Attendance Also Blossoms
July 25th, 2010 · No Comments · British cinema, Film exhibition, Film industry, Stereoscopic films
While there’s much suspicion about the validity of Avatar’s box office performance due to inflated 3D ticket prices, the UK Film Council’s 2010 Statistical Yearbook paints a different picture. As reported by The Guardian, last year was the best ever in terms of box office takings and the second best year since 1971 in terms [...]
Tags: Avatar·UK Film Council
Two Films Added to the New UK Memory of the World Register
July 18th, 2010 · No Comments · Awards, British cinema, Documentary films, Feature films
The young David Lloyd George’s dream of David and Goliath in Maurice Elvey’s The Life Story of David Lloyd George. On July 14th, the UK’s National Commission for UNESCO announced the 10 items and collections to be included in its first UK Memory of the World Register, which follows in the footsteps of UNESCO’s [...]
Tags: Britain’s Loneliest Isle·Maurice Elvey·St Kilda·The Life Story of David Lloyd George·UK Memory of the World Register
More of John Bailey on 3D
July 14th, 2010 · No Comments · Cinematography, Stereoscopic films, Technology
Ace cinematographer John Bailey’s newest posting on 3D, “3-D, 3-D, 3-D, in All Directions,” is essential reading for those interested in stereoscopic cinema. In it, he reports on “a 3-day 3-D workshop sponsored by IATSE Local 600 and longtime master 3-D guru Buzz Hays” as a jumping off point to discuss the problems and possibilities [...]
Tags: John Bailey
Twilight’s Sulky Vampires
July 13th, 2010 · No Comments · Film and TV criticism
No, I haven’t seen any part of The Twilight saga and am not about to pass judgment about it sight unseen, but thought I would bring Charlie Brooker’s latest column for The Guardian, “Twilight’s sulky vampires are less frightening than a knitted cushion,” which notes in part: The central theme, apparently, is abstinence; the heroine, [...]
Are New Oscar Rules for Mocap a Power Grab?
July 10th, 2010 · No Comments · Animation technology, Awards, Feature films, Motion capture
I’m writing this from Edinburgh, Scotland, where my wife and I have been enjoying a really wonderful Society for Animation Studies conference. A full report will follow when I get back home, but I can’t help responding to the Motion Picture Academy’s new rules for defining what is animation (see press release here), which states [...]
Tags: Academy Awards·Avatar·Happy Feet·James Cameron·Monster House