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Previous News
OCTOBER
2004
Halloween
Edition
- 10-31-04
* In case you did not know, 'The
Nightmare Before Christmas' was not really a box
office blockbuster when originally released in 1993. Read
this Cult of the 'Nightmare' To me, it seemed like Disney
(under their Touchstone division) was
not that enthusiastic about it or perhaps they were just
conservative at the time with regards to other animation
styles and did not know how to deal with Stop Motion
which was possibly totally foreign to the Disney 'suits'.
* Toons in a Tussle & Brad Bird on... More frequently mentioned in
articles and commentary, which is good ..... sort of
paraphrasing and synthesizing here...."Does
not matter which animation technique is used and the
story & characters is what is most important"
Well, lets hope the mainstream studio suits
will practice that philosophy one day but I think they
are currently still stuck on the CGI Flavor
for awhile and will exhaust it until the market/audiences
become so saturated, conjested and eventually jaded.
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News Flash - 10.29.04
* A news item someone posted today at
SMA board . I had it ready to go for tomorrow's,
weekend news but I might as well post it now. The buzz is
that Wes Anderson who just finished
directing the soon to debut 'The Life Aquatic'
(will have some Stop Mo in it), may be participating in
another project called 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox'.
Talk is, that it may be done using Stop Motion animation.
Read details here The Fantastic Mr. Anderson I hope that is true about using
Stop Mo but you never know if they might change their
minds later. In the Suit's-Studio's quest in always
demanding a rush schedule, they may not
realize it may take a little more time to do Stop
Motion, however, if this project uses extensive
digital compositing & tweaking, perhaps that would
reduce production time to satsfy the impatient
corporate-studio hierarchy. Also another question ..... Where
will 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox' be done? Another
project to be outsourced overseas? I am only
speaking from the USA perspective. What was the last
mainstream Stop Mo project done here .... 'MonkeyBone'?
I was not familiar with Anderson or his past film work
only until I heard some time ago, about the early
pre-prodcution of 'Life Aquatic' . Also, I have no idea
what 'The Fanstastic Mr. Fox' is about. It seems that
Stop Motion in Mainstream movie biz is
definitely being type-casted into a niche of only
cartoon-stylized-very puppetty looking .... for
kids-family entertainment. Absolutely nothing
wrong with using Stop Mo for that style and I am not
complaining .... 'some' Stop Motion in Mainstream
is better than nothing!
* Marc Spess posted this informative article-link about Henry
Selick's collaberation with Vinton Studios Read
it here Reel Life For the first time we are getting some
detailed information what is going on at the New
Vinton Studios,
since the original founder, Will Vinton
was dismissed due to a clash with Phil Knight
(Nike owner) who now owns the Studio. Will is teaching at
the Art Institute of Portland and apparently is also starting up
a new studio, Freewill Entertainment Nothing on the website yet, as it
says .... 'Under Construction'.
____________________
10.27.04
* Stop Motion, I suppose will always
survive in some way and maybe would have died sooner if
it were not for the internet which seems
to have given it some kind of after-life
and also a plethora of other arcane or very niche
interests seem to have continued existence online. We can
probably thank the new generation who appreciate
the uniqueness of Stop Motion. Among a few, of
the many who are passionate about this
animation art/craft, are Eric Scott, Jason Gottlieb , Mike Brent and the Gandalf-Stop-Mo-wise
veteran from Down Under, Nick Hilligoss ....all of whom are behind a just
launched website serving as a venue-showcase
for anyone who would like to display their Stop Motion
animated works .... following certain guidelines
to inspire creativity & to put a flame under one's butt
 to produce animation works within a
certain time deadline (good discipline for
"Arteests"! ). Check it out StopMoShorts.com (Eric Scott, site webmaster). There are
those who have practiced Stop Motion in the past and have
drifted away, dropped-out, or others permanently left
Stop Mo to pursue CGI (understandable: maybe more work
opportunity). Then there are others who are just not very
vocal or pro-active publically about Stop Motion. I would
hope they are at least Lurking
the few Stop Motion sites and that they are
doing their own behind the scenes lobbying and advocacy
efforts for Stop Motion .... doing their own
projects or pitching to studio "suits",
producers, etc. Let's keep squeaking that wheel
in the hopes that Stop Motion will get a little token
bits of that grease (attention).
* Brett Piper is a long time Stop Motion
practioner but mostly known better as a producer-director
of B-movies. He does not seem to be
active in the micro-small Stop Motion community-circles
but in his own way, seems to promote Stop Motion by ocassionally
including Stop Mo in his projects. A recent one
is called Bug Bites. This not so smart Reviewer "assumed" that Brett used Cgi.
Geeeez .....the masses seem to be so Cgi-Brainwashed
now. You can see quickie film clips here Dial-up or High-speed connection. From what the teaser clips
shows, it looks like mostly stop mo animated
quick shots of spiders. You will also see that
the spiders seem to be sliding/moving on their
stomachs?? Hmmm ....I suppose a down & dirty
short-cut to avoid animating & tying down the
spider's puppet legs. Well .....not the highest or
detailed quality animation but as mentioned before, Brett
Piper's work including Bug Bites is presented as a very
"B-movie" with minimal production budgets to
try and present something entertaining-fun.
____________________
10.21.04
* Here is maybe an insightful little
article about the appeal of puppets And they call it Puppet Love She says it much nicer
than ol' ranter me, but maybe I overdo
it sometimes. I cannot help myself. Maybe I see or use
the Stop Motion dilema as an allegory about societal
issues & politics? Weird .... huh?
* For those in England
and in the animation biz, you might be more familiar with
this name, Ivor Wood. I do not know him
but apparently, he has had a long history of working in
animation
Brit Stop Mo Animator Gone
* Okay ..... this reveiwer Zeman's Jules Verne: DVD has some very positive comments
and seems to indicate that it has just been
released on Dvd, but he does not
say where one can acquire it. Amazon does not have it. A flaw
in his article and he should have included that very
basic information.
* Here is a cool general book about
animation Encyclopedia of Animation
Techniques.
Distribution in USA was halted for a number of years but
it was always available in Europe. Well, now it has been reprinted
as an affordable paperback edition. It
is not a step by step, how-to book, but
gives you a good overview of the
different techniques including cut-out.
Also, some chapters devoted to Stop Motion and other
chapters about general production/planning steps for
different animation methods. Get it for your reference library.
____________________
10.14.04
* Just to show you hyper realistic
Cgi/animation as practiced by the myopic mainstream is
not the "only" animation method that they
prefer to bombard and saturate the masses with, BUT that creativity
and good concept-story should be the foundation.
The "suits" may never
"get it". Read this about the Jib Jab Boys They had recent media notariety
with their Cut-Out animation style in a
recent political short they did Good
to be in DC I saw
some of it on TV. You can watch it at their site. Clip is
in Flash format.
* A three page ariticle Puppet Masters about the creators of the all
puppet movie Team America .... not
Stop Motion (as you may already know) but much of the TA
work done by the Stop Motion brothers known at the Chiodos
* Here is another article Model Makers: The Professionals by Susannah Shaw,
which is a condensed abbreviated version from some
chapters from her book Stop Motion: Craft Skills for Model
Animation I don't
know why she's giving the information away for free. The
book is information rich with basic stop motion
production how-to but at incredibly affordable price for
book. Everyone should have it in their library. Not a
criticism to Susannah ..... I "Luv her" for
taking the initiative and perserverance to publish a
much, much needed informational resource. Maybe to
generate more book sales or she has a good heart and
willing to share and spread the Stop Motion Word !!
* Brief news byte here Vinton hires Book Expert about the new Vinton
Studios and their
quest to find new projects which may not
necessarily be Stop Motion projects, as it seems the
studio's direction could be CGI. We can only wait and
see.
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Weekend
Edition - 10.09.04
* Yesterday, Friday night I happen to
be watching Dragonslayer, one among my list of film
favorites. You remember the cute
"Tomboy'sh" female character named Valerian?
When I first saw her in Dragonslayor
many years ago when the film made its original theatrical
release, to me she was attractive &
appealing. She was not modelesque and you might
consider her "regular looking", but IMO, she
had an inner glow or unique charisma
about her. Well, the actress who played Valerian
was Caitlin Clarke. After I saw Dragonslayer
last night, I did something strange .... I went online to
look her name up. To my disappointment
& sadness, I just now find out that Caitlin
Clarke died only last month of ovarian cancer.
She was 52 years old but she
still looked very attractive. So, when
Dragonslayer was made 23 years ago, Caitlin was 31 but
looked much younger, maybe 20 years old. Most of us only
know Caitlin as Valerian and I don't think I have seen
her playing other roles, but apparently, Caitlin
has an extensive biography and her name did get
many Google search hits. I might rent some movies to see
what other characters she has portrayed. At the site ....
Caitlin Clarke 1952-2004 click on her photo which will take
you to detailed links about Caitlin and at Gallery link,
many film captured photos if you want to see how she
looked in her later years playing other characters. I
guess, I am a little saddened that I did not follow her
career 
As I stated before, the "timing" is
kind of strange in that, she entered my
thoughts after just seeing Dragonslayor again,
and for the first time, I decided to
look her up only to discover the bad news of her just
passing away. Although according to the so-called film
critics-pundits, this film was initially a box office
failure but with the passage of time it slowly
became a classic. Many years before all the
current Lord of the Ring craze. Many positive comments at
Amazon
____________________
10.05.04
* Here is a pretty good website about
a Stop Motion animated short. Slick, well designed and
good marketing strategy for one's own personal film to
generate interest. The filmmaker is from Australia. Site
can be an inspiration and worth studying for promoting
your own projects. I have not seen this 15 minute Stop Mo
short, but now I want to just because of the site, Ward 13
* Here is an update brief article
about Drew Carey's upcoming Green Screen TV series.
* As you may already know, Cuppa
Coffee studio in Canada does a variety of
animation techniques and so far, they have yet not
abandoned Stop Motion. Among their other ongoing
Stop Motion projects, here is one for pre-schoolers they
are working on Captain Mack
* Ray Harryhausen has been making USA
tour this year and probably worldwide too. Here is an
article about his recent appearance in England. Although
some of the info you may have heard or read before, but
always fun to read about Uncle Ray always impressing his
audiences, Harryhausen in Manchester
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