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Previous News
03.25.06
* Chill out
.... got some clips for you ..... Nuke that cold leftover pizza in
the microwav e & grab some ice cold soda pop
or fresh tall glass of milk. Here goes .....
"The Harryhausen" of so-so exploitative
B-movies, Brett Piper (also here) and example here  of an upcoming one that has some
Stop Mo tease shots, Shock-O-Rama (latest Flash 8 needed). Next
..... Stop Mo Kong-like Excel Gum Ads (again, Flash format site, which I
don't like) and also includes Stop Mo
puppet heads comped/tracked onto live action bodies.
There are 3 Gorilla ads in this series (at site, click on
ape pic). Next ..... electronic
press kit for the original 1996 The Neverhood video game & brief making-of (QuickTime).
Various clips with & without dialogue. Intended for
distribution to news media, at the time. It's a loooong
15 minute clip and d on't fall asleep. Finally
.....some of you regulars may know, the very ocassional
message board member, Susanna Jerger (aka as the animator whose
pricey SLR digital still cam broke ). She has interesting vision and
really pursuing Stop Motion as an artistic,
individualistic, expressive and creative outlet. A sample
tease clip (Quicktime) from her in-progress work (no
sound yet). It is all indoor miniature sets & models,
but it has a feel of, it being shot outdoors in sunlight.
* Do not cry  or whine to me .... about Stop Motion's rough
& volatile existence in cinema history, and to
present day. Just deal with it, dude (or
dudette). This animation art/craft is only
for the strong and perserving
dedicated few. 'Puter mouse clickers,
need not apply. Stay with your sterile
CG synthetic product and do not invade
our territory with your attempts to "simulate"
Stop Motion. You Stop Motion fakery thieves. As I repeatedly tirade about the
plethoric cornucopia of other possible
outlets for Stop Motion. I easily found
a website, not about Stop Motion but covers the new
breed & phenomenon of independent-guerilla type films
in this high tech / internet age,
Micro Cinema Scene and this is their News page. Bookmark it.
* LIO ... the
Gandalf-like, Observator - Prognosticator .... was RIGHT! Remember, I
blogged about the "Suits" Stop Mo
prejudice in USA? There is
suppose to be another major Stop Motion
feature flick in the works, NOT in USA
but from CANADA .... Newton & Leo to be directed by Jesse Rosensweet. I do not know who he is but he is
suppose to have some notariety for a past Stop Motion
short in 2002. Pacific Circle Productions in
Vancouver, Canada is behind it, but I see that they do
not have any online/website presence. My other prediction
that came true (already) ..... DreamWorks just re-designed their website and has dumped
& removed most of the references to the
OSCAR® winning Wallace & Gromit
Stop Motion feature. I made my
keen insights in the 03-11-06 news/blog. Then
coincidentally, about a week later, the following PR
announcement at AWN, 03-23-06,
DreamWorks Animation Site Revamped
____________________
03.18.06
* I am NOT
Negative!
..... Obviously I let loose last
week, but do
not misinterpret or falsely spin what I said. I
am specifically tirading towards mainstream's
movie biz, discrimination against Stop Mo,
especially in USA . In Europe or other countries, there
is perhaps more of a historical puppetry tradition and
'maybe' Stop Motion might have more life over there but I
am not sure. "Time" will tell what DreamWorks
does with their relationship with Aardman.
Most likely, DreamWorks will just quietly drop
Stop Motion and no big news in media about it
and it will be a faded memory. Just remember though, you
heard it here first. We will now see how LAIKA Studio (Coraline) does with Stop Motion
as they seem to be the only big Stop Mo players in USA
and making some mainstream attempt at it. As I ranted
many times .... humongous of possible
OTHER outlets, venues and distribution for
Stop Motion. It will be the independent
market, educational, advertising, internet, music videos,
cable  TV and direct to DVD
movies. Examples: Phil Dale worked on a few OSCAR®
nominated animations. Phil is now undertaking an
independent Stop Motion Short project
and attempting creative ways to fund the project. Check
it out, Fund my Short; consider donating.
Maybe a possible OSCAR® candidate! Then
 this website I saw, a French studio (Flash site is in French &
difficult to nagivate) working on a Stop Motion feature, Max
& Co. or watch QT teaser clip of their work. Animation being supervised by Guionne
Leroy and some Corpse Bride alumni
talent working on it. This is a WEIRD
one which is a Direct to DVD, Trail of the Screaming Forehead .... some small
amounts of Stop Motion by Chiodo Bros. In this genre, especially the
Fangoria-Horror type . .. there are all kinds of B
movie productions for direct to DVD release.
Many are cheesey and so-so but perhaps good fun and an
escapism. Others are attempts at serious or dramatic
works within that genre. There are a PLETHORA
of direct to DVD features being made
each year, in all genre, subject &
categories. Also, in other countries, perhaps some Euro
"Suits" are more free thinking
& daring and willing to experiment
& explore Stop Motion. So, do not
buy into the false perception of:
"For Stop Motion to survive, that we need mainstream
Hollywood". That will not happen.
You got to be creative in trying to market and sell it. Do
not expect $big money$ or regular income from
it. You FIRST do it, because you are passionate
about Stop Motion.
____________________
03.11.06
* DreamWorks Terminating
Stop Motion
.... I am bold enough to say
it, where other's might keep quiet. Not
much mainstream news media publicity about it except for
some vague mention of it, online. I did not want
to post this at SMA message board because I know many are optimistic or
hopeful and believe that the OSCAR®
prize going to the Wallace & Gromit feature,
might generate more Stop Mo content movies. How
many times have you heard me tirade in so many different
ways? "Do not look to mainstream Hollywood
for Stop Motion's survival." It is very
"cold" how the non-creative "suits"
looks at this. They do not give a rat's
pink ass about any kind of artistic merit
or quality of
the films. It's all about the $bean counting$
numbers, i.e., only looking at the cash
to be generated i n a specific window of
time. Read the article yourself, Animation Studio Is Nipped by
'Rabbit' and 1 - 2 - 3. Finish reading? You think I am nuts with
all these past rants? I seem to be cursed
with clearly observing reality
in many aspects of life & world events, and man, am I
ever getting soooo cynical. I said it
before, a plethora number of times, "Stop
Motion will maybe have better survivalibity and a niche
in 'other' markets and venues but not,
theatrical mainstream feature releases".
I would LUV to
be proven WRONG!
We NEED directors,
non-suits, independents, and studios with 'chutzpah';
those creatives who can think
out-of-the-box and go against
the current Hollywood pervasive mentality with their LCD formulaic movie products.This is my conjecture
how the Suits are spinning it: They
are linking DreamWorks' poor financial woes, to
Wallace & Gromit and
indirectly, to
the Stop Motion technique; serving
as their convenient
'balance sheet' scapegoat.
If it were a CGI feature film that
did not do as good 'as expected', do you
think DreamWorks would trash
& throw-out CGI? Can you now see the
prejudice against Stop Motion? It has always
existed since the Willis O'Brien and Ray
Harryhausen days. So, it seems Dreamworks might be thinking of 'dumping'
Aardman & Stop Motion. Addendum:
Were-Rabbit cost
about $30 million and worldwide it made
about $183 million. W&G budget
seems to be "cheap" in
comparison to the plethora of other obscenely,
highly budgeted flicks. Movie Budgets Edit: 03.12.06
____________________
03.04.06
* Wreckless
Abandon Studio .... Abandoned? A start-up studio some years ago
with Stop Motion emphasis 1 - 2. They were located in state of Connecticut
(USA). They acheived a little more publicity with the Davey
& Goliath Mountain Dew Commercial parody in 2002. Their website www.wrecklessabandon.com, has vanished. You can only find
fragments of their site at archive.org. At a framegrabber company's
website, there are some very short small QT clips of
Abandon's work, 3 - 4 - 5 - 6. As for the quality or finesse of their
work.... I cannot really make any comment because I have
not seen much of it, other than those micro-small fuzzy
clips. I estimate that Abandon may have closed
down sometime between '04 to
'05 because that is the last time I posted in my
news/blog about them .... May '04 News Archive
* SMW Article
Page ..... I
never really finished Stop Motion Works. A medium such as
this, is never complete and always in flux,
if one wants to keep "returning online
visitors" . Two pages I never completed yet in the Library link; the Articles and Resources
page. As it is, this site can take up my personal time
and I do intend to work on those pages when my other
"life" permits it. As a matter of
fact, I finally did a very small start at the Articles page. Some of those links are
already located elsewhere at SMW. Also .... to newbies
(who probably don't read this news/blog anyway) do
not whine & cry if you cannot find things at
Stop Motion Works. It is not a big website and you have SMW
Search and SMW Site Map.
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