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Previous News
10.29.05
* Under the
weather lately
(yeah me) At least, I have a reason for not being as
active on message board. What about you? I even dragged myself out
of bed to do this blog for you. I do not want to hear you
have kids or a real job ..... or you have nothing to post
..... yada, yada, yada. Remember, Stop Motion
..... always FIRST! Anyway, you should fill-in
and help out when the regulars are not
able to. You can do it, I know you can.
I will not always be around, you know.
* Robot
Chicken .....
Got word through my secret sources that they
have just started animatin g the second season shows. Actually,
my source was at Ethan Marak's Angry Puppet Film blog. He will be returning as a Robot
Chicken animator. Also, Ethan said, "There are also some fun
things coming soon ... the bones of other Angry Puppet
characters are taking shape!" He kind of
hinted at it in one of his past blogs (all you lurkers,
you find it .... earn your info). I really
cannot say much about his reference to the bones
* Ten nessee ...
what are you taking?  Let me buy some off you! He has been doing
some recent hella postings at his
blog site. T. Reid will also be one of the elite
Stop Mo animators on Robot Chicken's second
season. I was almost going to post some article links
earlier but felt like, just taking a break from too
frequent blogging. The Tennesse Meister beat me
to those articles but I'm glad he's taking up the slack; giving
his own time just for YOU, to
keep you Stop Mo informed. The articles
are from Animation World Network, about
the potential trends for animation. Go visit Tennessee's blog and you'll see the AWN article
links there. Also, his past blogs have
much info, technical, off topic, and fun stuff too. Come
on Stop Mo people! Don't just sit there reading and
sucking up info. Do something, participate ... get some Stop
Mo excitement
in your blood 
(like T.
Reid)
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10.22.05
* Kong Re-Animated
.... Not
talking about the Computerized Kong but the old
classic ape dude. The original Kong
armature & Bob Burns visited the Weta Studios in New Zealand. Very much a good
guy, Bob is! Many in  Movie Biz know him.
Whenever Bob tours with Kong, he
happily permits people to handle
the iconic Stop Motion armature. That is the
essence & soul of what Stop
Motion is about; hands-on, tactile,
real, touching, etc.. Bob has been around the movie biz and especially the fun genre film
fandom scene for many years. BTW, Bob will do a brief
cameo in P. Jackson's CGI Kong version.
Coolest surprise to me; an animator at Weta
did a very quick animation of the original Kong
armature. If you got dial-up connection; sorry.
Just be very patient for the download. See Bob,
watch the 73 year old Kong, momentarily resurrected!
Click Real Kong visits Weta. Just a side bar,
Kong CGI 2005 almost finished. *Sigh*  .
"They", the Suits could have provided
reasonable production money for a High Tech State
of the Art Stop Motion King Kong
.... BUT .... Noooooooooooo. "Ladies
and Gentlemen, I present to you
.... KONG! .....
The 8th Wonder of the World !" Edit 10.23 Warner Bros. Studios site
promoting the upcoming first time, DVD
releases of Original 1933 King Kong. Also, get your own King Kong Credit Card?
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10.20.05
* Being a
"Man" here and I'm holding it back  .....Our Stop Mo
Brother, Misha Klein, has
unfortunately decided to take down his Bad Bullets Blog which was primarily about his Stop Motion
project and the puppet character Fred. Elusive
and enigmatic Mish wa s. I could tell, through his brief
online revelations ....deep within his subconscious and
soul, much percolations & ponderings about all manner
of things. Perhaps, the Mish-Meister is
following the "Don't Blow your Wad too
soon"
philosophy (a new LIO'ism).
Hang in there Mish and try to stay true to Stop Motion.
We march to the beat of a different drummer. You
got a significant other to share the highs &
lows of "Life and Stop Motion". For me at this
time, and not of my choosing, it seems to be the path of
a loner  .
That seems to be the lifestyle for some of us that
passionately practice this unique, heavily hands-on
tactile art-craft-avocation that creates the Illusion
of Life. I feel some angst coming on (in addition to my existing
angst). Must ... briefly escape. Let me choose one of my
briar pipes, load it with fine baccy & fire it up;
grab my walking stick, borrow a Labrador dog ... then
trek into the woods ... to contemplate, cogitate,
ruminate, wonder, etc.. What does it all mean?
Hopefully, Mish will ocassionally resurface and also one
day, we will see Fred unleashed upon the
world. This is for you Mish (and for me
too) ..... My Way & Lyrics EDIT 10.20, 18:42
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10.15.05
* Corpse
Bride comments .... I never really did any kind of
so-called "review" and so here it is: Generally
... very
good !  The
artistic & creative craftsmanship (sets,
puppets, etc.), technically (photography,
lighting, etc.), and the Stop Motion execution
.... all of the highest caliber, slick, and most finessed
.... BUT .... some "buts"
here .... Corpse Bride "felt" to me, too
short a movie, and the ending kind of
abrupt. Not just from me or other reviewers but
I even heard a few of the regular theater crowd
....saying that CB kind of short.
I wonder .... the "Suits" edict & demanding "expectation" of
rushed CGI production deadlines for a "Stop
Motion" project; or the budget not enough?
Hence, CB ended up being just a One
hour, 14 minute movie? This bugs me
 .
Wallace & Gromit is 20
minutes longer than CB!
Perhaps, dreaming here .... I would really
dig a Corpse Bride DVD extended
special edition
version! However & unfortunately,
with Stop Motion and other
"traditional" animation, you shoot
exactly to the storyboard, and you usually do
not have extra scenes or out-takes ....
UNLESS! .... Tim Burton would be BOLD enough to shoot
more CB scenes for the DVD!?  IMO,
Corpse Bride's both piano playing scenes, the
first touching one (Victor alone in room), and then, the
other fun one (Victor & the Bride duet); the Mr.
BoneJangles beat thumping musical number; and the ending
fight scene (Victor & Barkis); could all have
been a little longer. Also, IMO, Corpse
Bride first musical number, not as potent
an opening grabber as Nightmare
Before Christmas' This is Halloween (midi sound file). I know, I
should not make comparisons. They are different
movies. Of course, musical composer Danny Elfman,
has to work with the story-script that was given to him.
Finally .... at the very end, how the
story dealt with The Bride, I just do not feel,
as satisfied with. Edit 10.16.05
* Slamdance
Animation Shorts deadline ....I received notice from
them that the original entry deadline was
Oct. 11th, however, if
you mention "Stop
Motion Works", the new postmark
deadline will be extended to October
19th. They are especially
looking for more Stop Motion entries. Slamdance
perhaps is not aware that reasonable quality Stop
Motion is not as plentiful as
other animation mediums and that we are  kind of the underground,
outsiders & mavericks. Maybe Slamdance
has had their appetites wetted by Corpse
Bride and Wallace & Gromit?
I know of some great Stop Motion talent
that could have some formidable, fresh &
original stuff, if they chose to enter, but they
are still in progress with
their works. I will mention a few .... Nick Hilligoss, Dan Anderson, Ethan Marak, Misha Klein, T. Reid Norton and other Stop Mo talent
emerging from their closets! Slamdance, you just
have to wait a little bit. Stop Motion
has been mostly ignored by mainstream biz
and we have existed in the darkest shadows.
We are trying to break out of that shell but it is not
easy to do with all those years of Stop Motion
discrimination behind us. Can
we start a Class Action Lawsuit for
that?  Anyway, if you have any finished Stop Motion
short and $25.00 (USD), you can give Slamdance a shot. Edit 10.16.05
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10.10.05
* The Curse
of the Aardman Studio .... I am not making light
of, but what a weird & strange turn
of events; already posted at forum Fire hits Aardman Studio. So far, news indicates that the
older puppets and sets from their past projects were lost
to the blaze. From what I read, this was a
storage building and is not their
primary studio. Sooo .... their camera and other
equipment not affected and all the
Were-Rabbit stuff seems to be okay. Still too early to
know extent of damage.
* Blowing our Stop Motion
"Wad" too soon?... You may think this is unusual
observation but here goes .... I kind of wished that Corpse
Bride and Wallace & Gromit
were not released soooo closely
together. Stop Motion usually gets zero or
minimal attention by mainstream biz. Now suddenly, in a
mere few months, the public is "Stop
Mo saturated". I cannot believe the blitz
of Stop Mo articles especially all over the net. About a
month ago, I was even approached to do a Podcast
show but I
suggested for better timing, they get back to me when
Stop Mo flicks are in theaters. They never got back to
me. Also, just this past Friday (10.07), WGN 720 Radio in Chicago, contacted Anthony
Scott & myself and they
wanted to interview us that same Friday on their late
night talk show. Unfortunately, it was too short notice
for me and also, I work at night. Anthony was out of
town, and so, he could not do the show. It was flattering,
though  . Anyway ... I think it
would have been much better in the bigger long
term Stop Mo picture, if these films premiered
about a year from each other so that we
could get more publicity mileage.
You know how it is in show biz, news & media
..... crazy plethoric saturation by them and they exploit
to the max. We'll see, we'll see .... I am kind of
skeptical about the "suits"
now being all Luvy-duvy about Stop
Motion.
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10.05.05
* Hand Made
& Low Tech .... BUT .... sooooo
visually cool & awesome. IMO, it would be difficult
doing it Digital-Schmigital CGI methods. What am
I talking about? A short animated film by German
filmmaker artist, Virgil Widrich. No
multi-million dollar budget, no
latest high techy fancy schmancy proprietary computer
software, no huge
film crew, and no excess
"front office suits" bureaucracy. First, check
out the tools used on this animated short which uses
frame by frame Stop
Motion,
employin g mostly animated Cut-Outs
& Still Photos. Now, go visit their website,
Fast Film.Website reveals behind-the-scenes. The only
high tech part was that it was shot
with Digital Still Cameras. This is
another example of animation being shot with DSCs (before
Corpse Bride). The other semi-techy tool they used was,
the Computer Printer.The Fast Film behind the scenes & teaser
clips posted at their website though, are a bit on the
small side (hard to see details), but supplemented with
other still photos, interviews, etc.. I dig this
stuff .... pure simplicity in how it was
done but TONS of creativity & resourcefulness
and feels & looks soooo original.
Kind of a Mike Jittlov approach. My same opinion in a
past blog about Rubber Johnny which is not animation but IMO, "original"
and no hi-tech excess. RJ .... not high resolution
(it's video res) and not necessary. Fast Film website only shows teasers and
looks like, the only way to order DVD is through an
overseas online store. Widrich's DVD has four of his works. I don't
know about the others, but Fast Film is so visually different,
unique, organic, and trippy .... I might just
get it!
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10.02.05
* Chiodo
Brothers did it
before Corpse Bride .... An article here promoting Apple's
products, Match made in Final Cut Pro Some behind the scenes info of CB
digital workflow. Author though, not fully aware of short
history of Digital Still Cams used in Stop Mo. He
writes...."(Corpse Bride) Shot with Canon
digital cameras and edited with Final Cut Pro on Power
Mac G5s at Three Mills Studios in London, the film marks
the first time
stop-motion  animation has been shot in
digital". Some other articles elsewhere also
making that wrong assumption. That is not
correct ..... Digital Still Cams used before Corpse Bride. An
example: I saw Chiodo Brothers Utlimate Action Figures (QT clip) promo spot at ImagineNation Expo '02 . Stop Motion was shot
using Digital Still Cams. So that must be almost
4 years ago? Also, take a look again at Chiodo's demo reel and their recent projects page. Fun to watch. Chiodos
very much eclectic ..... wide range of creative
abilities ..... mostly using good ol'
traditional special effects techniques
and in this era of CGI overabundance, Chiodo's work's still
visually creative, impressive, & energetic
*Anima tion
Innovator: Mike Johnson .... Co-Directer of Corpse Bride
will be visiting Canada courtesy of FPS Mag
& ACM SIGGRAPH Montreal. When:
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 Times: 10:00
a.m. (special matinee for schools); 6:30 p.m. Where:
Concordia University, Hall Alumni Auditorium, 1455 de
Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec Cost:
$15 ..... More details at FPS Mag website.
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