That’s me in the middle, after my wife Vickie and I gave our paper at the SAS Conference at the Edinburgh College of Art, sitting between Binary Fable’s Helen Jackson (panel moderator on left) and fellow panelist Colleen Montgomery from the University of British Columbia. (This and other photos are by Van Norris, of the University of Portsmouth, who generously allowed me to download them from his Facebook page for use here.)

Early last month, my wife Vickie and I attended Animation Evolution, the 22nd Annual Society for Animation Studies conference, where we presented a paper, “Crossing Boundaries: Communities of Practice in Animation and Live-Action Filmmaking.” This was our first collaboration, something which came as a surprise to both of us, as after 23 years of marriage we belatedly discovered that our professional interests actually overlapped. Basically, we used social theory to take a look at the ways animation and live-action filmmakers  see themselves and each other, and how technology in the form of motion capture has affected things. (Vickie is pictured above along with fellow panelist Brian Fagence, of the University of Glamorgan.)

It was a somewhat strange and wonderful experience for me, as Vickie had witnessed the birth of SAS when I started it in 1987 and even brought our new-born daughter, Allegra, to the first conference at UCLA in 1989. Over the years, she helped me edit my writings, including my Animation Report newsletter. However, it was an offhand comment she made regarding my posting about Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox that led to our collaboration, which I hope we will be able to repeat more than once.

This year’s conference was probably the largest, at least in terms of papers presented and the quality certainly did not suffer because of that. If there was any trend evident it was in regards to the increasing use of motion capture (which included the paper Vickie and I gave). But I did not and could not properly sample the wide variety of presentations, so I can only provide some random thoughts, observations and photo captions.

Clare Kitson gave the opening keynote address. She is the author of Yuri Norstein and Tale of Tales: An Animator’s Journey and British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor; the latter deals with her stint at Channel 4 commissioning animated shorts and series which sparked a golden age of British animation; it was also the topic of her talk. One thing that struck me was her observation that she noticed a number of the experimental filmmakers she worked with have shown up with prominent credits on films from the likes of Pixar and DreamWorks; this only goes to show that if your ambition is to work for a major Hollywood studio, it doesn’t hurt to do your own thing.

One of most unusual papers was by Jessica Hemmings (seen here with Edinburgh College of Art colleague Jonathan Murray) whose talk on “Textile & Animation Theory: Who Needs It?” stirred an unusual amount of interest among conference goers.

Heather Holian, of the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, who talked about “Art, Animation and the Collaborative Process,” whose interest in the collaborative nature of studio animation is not unlike my interests regarding animation labor.

Pierre Floquet, of  Bordeaux University, gave one of a number of talks touching on the digital revolution that has affected both live-action and animation in recent years. Specifically, his paper, “Actors in Sin City’s Animated Fantasy: Avatars, Aliens, or Cinematic Dead-ends?, discussed what happens to actors in an animated environment.

With Vickie taking a quick side trip on Saturday, I went out to dinner with Tony Tarantini, of Sheridan College (left), and Van Norris (right). I previously blogged (here) about Tony’s comments about the motivations behind James Cameron’s assertion that motion capture is not animation.

Here’s conference organizer extraordinaire Nichola Dobson at the Saturday Conference party. Otto Alder is on the left. As someone who has helped organize several past SAS conferences, I cannot say enough about what a terrific job she did.

Prolific author Paul Wells, of Loughborough University, who gave the closing keynote speech, “Another Fine Messi: Animation, Sport and Theorising Fascination,” is seen here at the conference party. Paul is certainly one of the more charismatic personalities in animation studies and his closing address did nothing to dispel this myth.

Australia’s Alan Cholondenko speaking on “(The) Death (of) the Animator, or: The Felicity of Felix, Part III: Death and the Death of Death.”

Charles daCosta, my colleague from the Savannah campus of the Savannah College of Art and Design; his paper, “Who’s Out There: Halas, the Relevance of Oral Traditions and the Animated Documentary.” Charles not only ably assisted me in organizing the 2009 Atlanta conference, he took over my job when I had to go in for surgery, for which I cannot thank him enough.

Finally, many, many thanks to Nichola Dobson and the wonderful people at the Edinburgh College of Art for organizing and hosting a wonderful conference, and to Van Norris for allowing me to reprint his photos.

Animation Evolution, the 22nd Society for Animation Studies conference, which will hold forth between July 9-11, and is being hosted by the Edinburgh College of Art, is coming up shortly, and I will be there to present a paper I am writing with my wife, Vickie. As someone who has been involved with the Society from its beginnings, I must admit to being a bit prejudiced, but for animation scholars and some filmmakers, it seems like the place you want to be.

Animation Evolution maybe the busiest of all SAS conferences, at least in terms of papers being presented — I counted 78, which is almost twice that of the first SAS conference back in 1989, and even more than last year’s event which I organized.  There are papers on such topics as Guinea Coast Animation, Animated Gay Porn, Soviet Animation of Brezhnev Period, The Nintendo Wii, Motion Capture, Anij in Ghana , Music and Norman McLaren, as well as panels on Animated Documentaries, Animation in Iran and Theorising Animation and Death.

The paper Vickie and I will be giving, “Crossing Boundaries: Communities of Practise in Animation and Live-Action Filmmaking,” is scheduled for Friday, 15:45-17:00, as part of a panel on “Live Action and Digital Cinema” (we’re talking about how digital technologies have enabled live-action directors to do animation).

In addition to the paper sessions, the conference opens Friday with a roundtable session on “Norman McClaren’s Legacy,” which looks forward to “the centenary of Scotland’s most famous animator in 2014.” That evening there is a retrospective of Scottish Animation presented by the Scottish Animation Network at the Filmhouse.

The closing keynote address will be given by Paul Wells, Director of the Animation Academy at Loughborough University; Paul is easily one of the most prolific and influential writers on animation. His books include Understanding Animation (which I have used in teaching animation aesthetics), Animation: Genre & Authorship, and Drawing for Animation’ (with Joanna Quinn); in addition, he will be editing the forthcoming Animation Practice, Production & Process, a new “journal presenting, analysing and advancing how animation is created and shown” to be published by Intellect.

So, if you’re planning to be in the Edinburgh area early next month, by all means come.

“Animation Evolution,” the next SAS conference will be held at Scotland’s Edinburgh College of Art, July 9-11, 2010.  The conference blog is up and running, and is where you can find its Call for Papers. The conference is  being organized by Nichola Dobson, who is also editor of Animation Studies, the Society’s online journal.

Keynote speakers will be Clare Kitson,and Paul Wells. Kitson, whose work as the pioneering commissioner of animation for Britain’s Channel 4 created a mini-Golden Age of British animation is recounted in her latest book, British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor;  she is also the author of Yuri Norstein and Tale of Tales: an Animator’s Journey. Wells is the author of numerous books on animation, including such standard texts as Understanding Animation and Animation and America; his most recent books include Drawing for Animation, written with Joanna Quinn and Les Mills.

The Call for Papers notes:

Deadline for panel submissions: 8 January 2010. …

Membership in the Society for Animation Studies is required if your proposal is accepted for presentation at the conference. (For more information on the Society, go to its webpage at www.animationstudies.org.)

Financial aid for travel will be available on a limited basis; details will be forthcoming.

For further information, please contact Nichola Dobson at animationevolution@animationstudies.org . You can also follow the conference at on Twitter @anievolution.

On Friday night, July 10th, ASIFA-Atlanta put on a screening of locally-made animated films at the Woodruff Art Center’s Rich Auditorium. The event, which was made possible by the High Museum of Art, was put on as part of the 21st Annual Society for Animation Studies Conference being held that weekend at the Atlanta campus of the Society for Animation Studies. It was curated by ASIFA-Atlanta President Brett W. Thompson, who has now posted his introduction  to the screening (see above) as well as the question and answer period that followed with some of the artists who worked on the films (posted below).  Unfortunately, because of technical problems, there is a gap between parts 1 and 2, and the end of part 2 is missing.

The final program included the following films:

Animation Draw 1 — ASIFA-Atlanta; Happy and Strickly in “Fuzzy Business” — Robert Paraguassu / Bark Bark; Vice Versa — Jacques Khouri; White Cow — K.A. Callahan / Kristin Jarvis; Avery Matthews — Richard Ferguson-Hull / Steve Vitale, Turner Studios / Cartoon Network; Blossoming Flower, Smooch, Lick — Bradley Bailey; They Must Be Very Hungry — Bryan Fordney; Mouse and Cat — Joe Peery; As Seen on TV! — Lee Crowe; Traveler of the Horizon — Hamid Bahrami; Cornpopalypse — Graham Shirley; Death of a Matriarch — Takuro Masuda; Animation Draw 2 — ASIFA-Atlanta; A Day at the Beach — John Ryan; Fluidtoons — Brett W. Thompson; Stubbe Peter — Kristin Jarvis; Curtains — Amanda Goodbread; Juxtaposer — Joanna Davidovich; I Will Enjoy — Theodosia Burr (Em Kempf); Code Monkey — Jennifer Barclay; Animation Draw 3 — ASIFA-Atlanta; Get Got — Bryan Fordney; Busted — Matt Maiellaro.