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Previous News
SEPTEMBER
2004
09.28.04
* Will Vinton .... where is
he? We have not heard much from the man who
cannot even use his own name for a studio! If you do not
remember, to put it somewhat crudely .... Will was fired
from his studio which was taken over by the owner of Nike.
You can use Stop Motion Works Search if you want to find out the history of
this. Anyway, check this out Vinton Joins Art Institute Speaking of Vinton Studios
.... we originally first broke the news  about
Henry Selick getting the green light to
go ahead with the Coraline project. You
should read Marc Spess' interesting comments at the Stop Motion
forum and you will see his sharp observations.
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Weekend
Edition - 09.18.04
* Dead as a heart attack ...no
Stop Motion related news. Where all yous
people out there?? You working on a Stop Mo
project for a studio? Send me something. Hmmmm..... what should I ramble
about? Oh here's one.... something that would
have been cool using Stop Motion but of course,
no way mainstream movie biz would do it ..... The
War of Worlds. If you do not know already ....it
is going to be re-made by guess who .... Stevey
Spielberg and with main star lead ....Tommy
Cruise. ILM of course will be doing all the
special effects for Spielberg. Also, we know Tom is going
to suck his mega-mega millions salary from that
gig. Cruise Gets % Profits All very obscene to me
....snot nosed spoiled and I never-ever want to hear movie stars
complain or whine how hard it is to work on a film.
To me, Cruise is average actor and nothing unique to him
that I see, but I know Studio Suits only
looking at their box office charts/demographics.
Studio's are stupid enough to pay it because they
maybe do not have faith or confidence in the movie alone.
Remember original Star Wars?
Mostly unknown actors or actors that
were not box office draw. Same with The Lord of
The Rings....the actors were not big
names but the strength of the characters
and story were the primary successful elements.
Guess what? There is a twist to this ....
read this link 1 There is already another War of The Worlds filmed which is being done as a
period piece done as a turn of the century story as HG
Wells intended. Steven Spielberg's
vision of WOTW, is set as a modern
updated version? I am not
so sure about that ..... sounds kind of boring ..... all
comtemporary and futuristic excess
via CGI excess and of course maybe
inclusion of some political correctness? That
sounds as bad, if King Kong were made as modern
version? Fortunately, Peter Jackson
smart enough to do KK as a period piece.
Addendum: Tommy wanted to do WOTW so
that is probably why studio suits are kissing
Tommy's butt ...."anything that Mr. Cruise
wants to do". Some supposed
pundit-prognosticator-reporter also playing
snotty-elitist link 2... saying the other WOTW
was done on smaller budget and will
not have wide distribution and also unknown
actors. He may be right but it shows you the
idiotic & myopic mentality of those in the biz. IMO,
any artistic or creative genius or originality
in mainstream movies sneaks through by accident
and not necessarily by intentional design from studio
suits (who do have influence on directors).One such
recent film that missed or bypassed the
Hollywood Formulaic self-imposed stupid rules, was the
unique Passion of the Christ backed by
good ol' Mel Gibson!
____________________
HOT
off
the Wire - 09.10.04
* Neil Gaiman's CORALINE is a
Go! Much talk in the past
about Henry Selick having interest in doing
film adaption of story but nothing until now.
Also, it was not certain if it was going to be live
action combined with animation but from what I read,
project will be All Stop Motion. Go here
first to ScFi.com to read, then go directly to Neil Gaiman's Website and scroll down to about the
middle of page where it says film news &
stuff. Now the question that pops in my mind
....Will Coraline be done here in the USA
or overseas in England?
____________________
09.09.04
* A little bit of focus here on King
Kong, not necessarily Peter Jackson's remake but
about.... Who owns or has the King Kong
"giant ape" concept copyrighted or
trademarked?? As best as I can figure, I've seen
Kong name associated with these three entities: Turner
Entertainment, Universal Pictures, and the Merian C.
Cooper Estate (director/creator of original Kong
story). I think, the original 1933 Kong
film is now owned by Turner? Then we got certain products
that say they are authorized or trademarked by the Marian
C. Cooper Estate: Joe DeVito's Kong: King of Skull Island upcoming Graphic Novel-Story, and
also this, Kong Art by Dave Stevens . Then there are Kong products
authorized under Universal name Kong Neckties and here, but then, the Kong Movie Posters , I always thought those posters
were licensed through Universal but they're categorized
as Merian C. Cooper products? Then to add to the
confusion .... at one time when Nintendo brought
out Donkey Kong & 2 (at link, scroll down) years ago, Universal
filed a lawsuit against them but the suit was
thrown out of court because, apparently, Kong
was in public domain for awhile because
Universal's copyright expired? One more ....Jackson's/Universal's
Kong remake is always hyped that it will be based
on Marian Cooper's & Edgar Wallace's original Kong
story? Sooo .... Who the friggin hell
own's King Kong name, copyright, trademark ???? I
got questions. You got answers? contact me, or maybe you might want to bring
it up at the SMA Message Board. Just some other random links
having products or services using King Kong name
with the gorilla image as icon/logo.... King Kong Climbing Walls & Gorilla King Kong Treestands. If I searched more, I am guessing
there might be many other products using Kong name.
Slightly switching topic ....Here is a new website Kong is King (from the die-hard Lord of the
Rings/Jackson fan base) about Peter Jackson's Kong Remake
.... it's new so some of it still under construction.
Then go here to John Michlig's Fully Articulated
site .... a documentary
called Eighth Wonder, is suppose to be
in production but no updates and only minimal information
about it. I think John posted at the SMA board awhile
ago.
____________________
Labor
Day Weekend Edition - 09.05.04
* Unrelated to Stop Motion, but only
in that this involves the use of animation
.... specifically 100% Cgi. This week, PBS
will be airing The Video Game Revolution. What? I did not know there was
one? Or maybe a perception being created
by this documentary (that is purpose of docs .... the
supposed truth but not always). Up to this point in my
life, I could never endure more than 15 minutes (at the
most) playing any kind of video games. Ad nauseam
repetitive and mind deadening to me. There is an article
by someone from MIT supposedly blowing the myths about video
gaming and
putting it in a positive light. I have no MA or
MS Degrees and I bet, through commonsense alone,
I can debate this "intellectual" and all his
references to so-called "studies". Video gaming
seems to be a hot industry .... all
about money-profits ....but at what
expense in the long term? Well ... I guess it does
provide some employment .... at least that is good.
Anything can be compulsive and our modern day culture
sure has all kinds of other mental issues....seems more
prevelant today where there is abundant leisure time and
many are mesmerized by their computer monitors. The old
truism .... everything in moderation
...but only a minority self-aware few can follow that
priniciple. For those in the USA, click here to see if this video gaming documentary
will be airing in your area. Hey ....Stop Motion related
news is really, really slow and I had to rant
about something!
____________________
09.01.04
* I have been a
little occupied and also, it has been slow news,
especially with Stop Motion specific buzz. If you got
any, contact me With news here and my commentary,
I sometimes go off topic on other areas of Film Special
Effects but sometimes try to relate it to animation. Here
is a new website, I think less than a year .... DarkStrider: Explorations in the
Art of Stop Motion Animation. That is a
mouthful and hell of a long link.... say that five times
as fast as you can! Behind the site is Mike Brent,
a long time positive force, participant-contributor at
the SMA forum. Mike is certainly
very good & skilled at researching and has been on
the Stop Motion journey of discovery & self-learning.
Mike is fascinated with the Euro style of puppet
animation in the more purer form
where characters are stylized-surreal (as puppets) and
are not represented as photo-real as in the Harryhausen
style. He has been doing some animation tests, building
sets, acquiring equipment, practicing puppet fabrication,
etc.. We are anxiously awaiting to see some results or
more refined-polished completed animation works from him!
You feel
the pressure Mike!?
Jumping on another item .....here are a few old
timer websites that's been around longer
than Stop Motion Works! (4 years).... The Art of Stop Motion Animation and Anthony Scott's website, have been on the
internet about 5 years. Both those sites provided me
motivation to start Stop Motion Works. Art of Stop Mo is
a general overview about the Ray Harryhausen style of
animation and has some good pics of some of the other
masters who worked in that form of animation. Some of the
resource links are dated & old but nevertheless, a
good introductory Stop Motion site in addition to other
sites on the internet about Stop Motion. I believe, site
owner lives in San Fran Bay Area and we emailed each
awhile ago about something but I forgot what we
discussed. Addendum:
Almost forgot to mention Marc Spess'
website, Animate Clay which has been around as long, or
I think even longer than my site.
* Here is the official The Life Aquatic website. It is a Flash site, so
dial-up users beware! Film will be distributed through
Disney's Touchstone division. Do not
expect it to have wall-to-wall Stop Motion. The animation
will be interspersed throughout movie with short &
sometimes quick Stop Motion scenes. A few months ago, I
actually got to see many of the unfinished, not yet
composited Stop Motion animation scenes, filmed against
bluescreen. There were primarily only two
animators, but very skilled & talented ....Tim Hittle
& Justin Kohn. The animation puppets
were fabricated here in the San Francisco area.
Very smooth and the silicone skins gives the puppets a
unique and I suppose photo-realistic quality. Some Stop
Motion scenes almost look CGI ..... I do not know if that
is good or bad. Just imagine if the film were given a
bigger budget for the Life Aquatic special effects .... more
Stop Motion! If it were CGI .... I am sure the studio
suits would have allowed a higher budget.
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