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Previous News
11.27.05
* Kong
Armature to be Cloned .... With the onslaught of media hype about
upcoming Peter Jackon's 'Puterized Kong,
a plethoric cornucopia of Kong related stuff
& me rchandising happening.
Of course, you know about the new DVD's of
original Stop Motion King Kong, but now apparently, Side
Show Collectables will be offering limited edition replicas of the original
Kong armature. It was posted at the message
board and it seemed there was the implication that one of
the forum members might buy one? He was guessing it might
cost starting at $1000.? 
How naive, he is! Also, read the comments at Sideshow ... others
also think the Kong armature might be within
their budget. Yeah, sure. I have no idea
what the replica ape armature will go
for, but the insured value of original Kong armature
is about $100,000.. If it were auctioned at Sotheby's it might go for more. Some
already asked .... Will the Kong collectors
armature replica also have the missing fingers and toes?
* Fragility
of Stop Motion ....Even with the supposed moderate success
(good reviews) of Corpse Bride and Wallace
& Gromit, it may not be enough box
office $$$ for the bean counter suits to
jump on the Stop Motion bandwagon.
Henry Selick (hired by
Laika) in this interview, implies that the studio is
maybe, not sure now if Coraline will be partially Stop Motion
or all CGI. I can understand some of the
hesitation. With a major Stop Motion production,
it is also more involved with ramping
up for a production because the
Stop Mo support crew not as easy to assemble compared to
CGI. Unfortunately, he pressure
of hyper-rush productions. That might be a factor.
Another good article kind of related In a Losing race with the Zeitgeist. IMO, very good
observations & insight about the cultural and
business trend and how mainstream
hollywood suits seem to be ignoring the signs of
where it's going. I completely agree with author. The
movie biz is still adhering to the old model
of making & marketing films to
appeal to the masses (aka lowest common
denominator), whereas the new trend seems to be towards niche
markets and diversified methods of
distributing the products. You can also read my mini-rant about this.
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11.19.05
* 10 animated
feature films nominated for Oscar ..... Yeah ...it includes Corpse
Bride and Wallace & Gromit .....
Academy draws up list of toons. Hmmmm ..... I do not trust Tinsel
 Town. I would like to be positive
but I just don't know. Maybe a token nod
to Stop Motion. Of course, it would be
much better if a Stop Mo mainstream feature would
get the Oscar .... walking
the talk instead of "homages
& tributes" .... something
a little more substantial. Mainstream
media and Hollywood "Suits",
still slobbering
over the 'Puter synthetic stuff. Here
are some example of headlines ..... Computer Animation leads Oscar list .... Computer Animation well represented
on Oscar list ....
also ... Industrial Revolution (primarily covering ILM's history)
....not about the Oscar nomination, but looking
at CGI & technology
as the "manna from heaven"
panacea. After I read it, I said to myself .... "Geeez
.... something missing? What
about good story & characters and
especially, variety of visual aesthetics and
styles?" Now you
see why maybe CB and W&G
should not have been released at same
time? Premature Wad Shot. IMO, maybe a better chance if "one"
Stop Mo feature were Oscar sole
contender this year and another gets a
shot at the award next year ..... the spread
your wad
strategy. Edit 11.20
* Misha Klein
is back ....
aka Mish-Mash aka Twin-Turbohed. My
ponderings maybe not as profound or deep and another
voice from the
take-life-one-frame-at-time perspective is needed.
I present to you .... Notes from the Box
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11.18.05
* Art and
"Industry" .... Slow out
there, it seems. Through my online sources, I am getting
plethora of articles/reviews about the 1933
re-release of Kong DVD's. At this time, I don't
feel like writing about them. There is going to
be even more heavy media saturation when computerized Kong
is released next month. Back to topic .... someone posted
not too long ago asking about Stop Motion being an Industry and I responded with a
dissertation/speech. It wore me out ..... writing strains
my brains sometimes and not always easy for me. I rambled
on, that I mostly saw Stop Motion as ART.
 Sure, much of art is
commercialized, but Stop Motion, IMO, does not
easily lend itself to mass production homogenization,
and hence, why maybe mainstream and/or
"suits" have an anathema towards Stop Motion for
all these many years. You do Stop Motion because
you have a PASSION for it. It's not just Stop
Motion but that is the way it is with most all
Art. It is not for the money,
but for the LUV of producing your creative works,
FIRST! You have to be inventive, think out of
the box, in promoting yourself to sell your wares. It can
be a hard lifestyle especially if you rely on it to pay
your rent. So much unknown incredible talent "out
there" that the McDonaldized,
iPodized public are ignorant of. One example,
among the thousands of artists on this
earth .... look at this dude who is a hand
engraver - knife maker and has other eclectic
abilities .... Steve J. Lindsay. He has created a nice little niche
for himself and if you browse through his site
.... he seems to get paid well for commissioned work
which can command $4000 - $40,000. He is not even
accepting work right now! What a lucky bastard! Actually,
not luck, but his passion &
perserverance and it has paid off for him.
Anyway .... posted this off topic thing to maybe help keep
you going and inspired (and
perhaps, also help me!). Edit 11.19
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11.12.05
* Monster HD
... Uncle Ray Nov. 24 .... I never heard of Monster
HD until I read this article . I am not sure if it was a
struggling network or what. Anyway, Monster HD website looks retro cool
with the nostalgic ambiance of a Chillers from Science Fiction or Creatures Features where B movies flourished
on TV, instead of current endless &
mindless infomercials. Monster HD seems
to have  plenty of links where you can supposedly
view clips of many of the B movies. They are QT clips but
most of them do not work or server not making downloads
available. I even registered at site to see if clips
work, and they still don't. You may want to post at their
feedback link. Let me know if you can watch the clips on their site or
if you even get Monster HD show on your cable or
satellite. On Monster HD home page, a few of the
clips do work. You can go there but I have them here if
you want quick look .... make yourself some popcorn &
enjoy (QT format): Monster ID Promo, Monster Artist Basil Gogos, 7th Voyage of Sinbad trailer, Jason & Argonauts trailer, Clash of Titans trailer
* Robot
Chicken getting a Corpse
Bride $Budget$ ?
I got this word from my "sources" roaming the
streets of tinsel town .... "
The action
figures that were used the first season have been
significantly upgra ded. Now they have wire
armatures, tension-able ankles and tie-downs in the feet.
They are cast in 'Cold Foam' (not hot foam latex) for the
most part and then cast plastic arms and legs that were
molded from actual action figures. These more
'sophisticated puppets' (not really action figures
anymore) are used on about 50% of the shots. The rest are
still just action figures and toys." .... While you
are surfing & lurking, the second season is in
production now and the animators & crew bust'n
their juevos to give you some Stop Mo product
for upcoming new RC season. Here is Robot Chicken website .... which covers the 1st
season shows. I'll make it easier for you .... you can
watch some RC clips (Windows Media format) here ..... Midnight Snack, Badunkadunk, Junk in the Trunk, Toys meet Girls, S&M Presents, and The Deep End
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11.08.05
* November,
slow & quiet? .... Kind of depressing out there, the general
world news. So, have we shot-off our Stop
Mo Wad too
soon? As mainstream publicity of Corpse
Bride and Were-Rabbit recedes,
the next plethora of films emerge. I suppose, and
unfortunately, that is the way it  is in this 21st century
hyper-info-media-onslaught-on-our-senses age.
Nothing lasts. The masses ever
shortening attention span ... not "savoring"
anymore .... brainwashed to voraciously
"consume". Lots of media hype now
about Disney's computer animated Chicken Little.
When I saw trailers of it, I thought .... boring .... trying to be very pop culture
hip and cool .... so formulaic like TV sitcoms. The CG
look and style ... yawn. All these computer
animated products looks so similar. A couple
samples of the plethora of reviews here and here. Although Chicken Little initially
made $40 million, that is maybe because no other bigg'sh
new film in theaters yet, to compete with it.
* Do I sound
negative?
Don't mean to. Maybe mood I am in. I just have tendency
to be straight (at least when I write)
.... "The Sword of Truth & Reality"
.... how I see it. More positive? It
seems there are more postings at the message board, as it should
be. You should not rely on only a few of
the dedicated regulars to take all the message
board load. The board suppose to be a "community". Say something ...
anything! Even a former board regular, Roger
Evans aka MovieStuff, once in awhile comes back and says "Hi"
and he also lets us know that he sometimes lurks
 . You could do the same .... say
"Hi"! Edit 11.09
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11.03.05
* Mike
Johnson's Canada visit .... Co-director of Corpse Bride.
FPS Magazine was one of the sponsors of Mike's
guest appearance. Mi ke brought three of the CB
puppets with him. Amazing ....
these articulated pieces of metal, rubber, and other
materials attract people, like a magnet. Proof
.... as I have alluded to in past rants .... human's,
root evolutionary nature is the tactile-real
and hands on. CGI will not
satiate that sensory need. With CGI ....
no puppets or nothing exists .... it's all
etheral-virtual pixels behind the screen.
"Traditional special effects", especially the
behind the scenes about it, just much more interesting
than "mouse-clicking". Read the FPS synopsis of Mike's visit. Edit: 11.04
* H enry Selick
receives “Friz” Award ..... from the International
Family Film Festival. Some of Henry's work are,
“The Nightmare Before Christmas,” his own
“James and the Giant Peach,” and an
award-winning series of MTV station IDs. Selick joins
previous honorees Freleng (the first), Joseph Barbera,
Chuck Jones, Charles Schulz, Robert Wise, Arthur Hiller,
Roy O. Disney and the “Shrek” animation team at
DreamWorks Pictures. Read full article here Henry is the supervising producer
at Laika Studio.
* New Frame
grabber program ... AnimAide .... For Hi-Res-holics.
It is for Mac OS X 10.3 or later. It is
designed for capturing frames only
from digital still cameras th at have their own remote
capture program. Be aware:
Not all Digital Still Cams have remote capture. AnimAide has no
"video capture" feature, so you have
to use another frame grabber program for video preview. Good
to have a new animation program and especially for Macs
(not much out there). Unbelievable that this introductory
software is offered as free. They accept
donations though. Hey ... someone devoted their time and
effort to create this for you Mac people. You should be grateful.
There will be a commercial AnimAide
available with more features. If you have a digital still
cam that meets the requirements, go to AnimAide's
website and test
the program and give the software developer some feedback and they even have a forum
too. Edit:
11.04
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