I thought that if you're going to make the effort to come on Saturday the least I could do is give you a map of where the SIFF Theater is and where you can park! The parking spots shown above are paid parking lots but it might be possible to find free street parking a little further away in Queen Anne - if you're lucky. (Don't count on that though!) If you want to avoid driving and parking entirely, why not take a bus to the Seattle Center or even the monorail too. Its a very short walk within the Seattle Center once you're there. :)
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Time marches on and you never know what strange traveling companions you'll meet on the way to our big event on Saturday! Some you will meet on the day of course - including this extraordinary film, "Parade" de Satie, is a film you just won't want to miss for its unique and very surreal charm! Check out the trailer... The film: A Parade for 3 managers & 4 performers. Mixing quotes from French composer Erik Satie’s essays with the music Parade, this is an animated re-creation of realist ballet images going beyond reality.
The filmmaker: Koji Yamamura, born on 1964 in Japan. He graduated from Tokyo Zokei University in 1987. In 1993, he founded Yamamura Animation, Inc. Mt. Head (02) was nominated for an OscarⓇ in 2003, and awarded the 6 Grand Prix include Annecy 03, Zagreb 04 and Hiroshima 04. Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor (07) awarded the Grand Prix at Ottawa. He is also an illustrator and several picture books are published. He is currently a sub-chairman of the Japan Animation Association (JAA) and a member of the board of directors of the Japanese branch of the International Animated Film Association (ASIFA). A visiting professor of Tokyo Zokei University and a professor of department of Animation, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts. Director's statement: 'Since my twenties, I haven been familiar with Satie’s work thanks to music CDs. Most notably, I was mesmerized by the Dutch jazz musician Willem Breuker’s interpretation of Parade. While hearing his version of the piece, I started to daydream about the ballet’s visual image, and that became the direct motivation for doing this film. Later, I got my hands on a catalogue of Satie’s exhibition in Japan in 2000, and from the design drawings, stills, documents, and sketches of the Parade printed there, my visualization became bigger and bigger. Again, thanks to that catalogue, I found out that in his final year’s, Satie didn’t allowed anyone to come inside his home and, unnoticed by all, spent days doing sketches of imaginary places and stores on thousands cards. Such lonely sunset years made me interested in his personality. At that point, I got the idea of mixing elements of his autobiography with the animated view of Parade. Satie’s art and behavior are ahead of Surrealism and Dadaism, I recognize him as pioneer from the transition stage between modern and contemporary art. His Parade emulates cinema, inserts jazz and popular songs, makes use of noise, and has a full contemporary essence. I hope that my animation triggers a review of the concept we have of contemporary art. With the combination of text and collage, made of flatten picture planes and fragmentary images, this animation is seeking to achieve a unique visual language.' ~ Koji Yamamura After our 'GOLDEN PENCIL AWARDS' presentations on Saturday we'll be showing an exclusive English screening of this fabulous movie, 'LONG WAY NORTH'! How are you spending your dry, mild Saturday night in Seattle? :) Tickets: CLICK HERE!
Its getting scarily close now folks, so here's another 3 very different films to get your animation juices going... 'ICKY', 'HEAD' and 'AETHER'.
The film: In the world of people with Rubik's cube head, there is a kid who is different from the others... The filmmaker: Parastoo Cardgar The film: A man decides to separate from his head. Unfortunately, his decision has dire consequences. The filmmaker: Stave Levi. This is Stav's graduate film in animation, from Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design. Stav is 26 and intends to remain 26. The film: A young artist, dissatisfied with her efforts to draw, opens a portal that absorbs her within the pages of her sketchbook. There, she journeys through her subconscious mind in order to find inspiration. She confronts inner demons, comes to terms with her fears, and celebrates the power hidden inside her. Told through a combination of 2d, stop-motion, and 3d animation, Aether is a love letter to those who have ever struggled with a creative block. The filmmaker: Sabrina Chaney is a multimedia artist from Spring, Texas. She graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in Animation. She enjoys combining different animation techniques to create experimental mixed media work. These projects may include stop-motion, 2D, CG, or all of the above using a variety of physical materials or software. She is also experienced in puppet fabrication, character design, and illustration. She considers herself a storyteller above all else, with a desire to communicate a message through visual media. We finally got the film order and screening session times down folks! Note that the first screening, 'SESSION A', now starts 5 minutes sooner at 12.25pm!
Three very different films we're delighted to be screening... 'Baby & Granny', 'Begone Dull Care' and 'Bella Dilemma TV Trailer'. You can see 'Baby & Granny' in 'Screening 2' and 'Begone Dull Care'/'Bella Dilemma TV Trailer' in 'Screening 3'.
The film: A 2D animated action-comedy about a baby and granny who share a common bond (Baby’s Mother is Granny’s Daughter) but who fight like crazy when left alone. The visuals are highly-influenced by the work of 60's Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein The filmmaker: ZHENG KANG is a Chinese-born professional designer, working in the animation industry. Based in Los Angeles, Zheng’s experience encompasses award-winning industrial, graphic and animation design direction. Zheng holds an MFA in Animation and Digital Arts from John C Hench Division of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, class of 2016. Zheng’s creative vision and highly-stylized commercial sensibilities can be seen throughout his personal and professional works, which are grounded in solid draftsmanship and peppered with his own humor and subjects of interest such as design, fashion, and Western and Japanese animation. His approach is diversely collaborative, forming the open-minded and optimistic essence of Zheng’s storytelling portfolio. The film: A re-imagining of 1949's "Begone Dull Care", this abstract animated short film features chiptune music and pixel-art, while maintaining the abstract spontenaity of the original. Created by 20-year animation industry veteran Paul Johnson between May and October of 2015 while on contract in Montreal."Begone Dull Care 2015" updates the 1949 NFB animated short film by providing a visual representation of 80's style chiptune music through a dance of tightly timed abstract paintings and pixel-art. Utilizing a musical structure and pacing similar to the original, the short becomes increasingly digitized and eventually devolves into one single video-game-like character devouring the final credit. The filmmaker: PAUL JOHNSON has been animating, supervising, and teaching traditional, 2d, and 3d animation since 1995. Paul has taught at Vancouver Film School, VanArts, VCAD, AI Vancouver, Cap University Harbin, Mars Era Beijing, and Think Tank Training Centre. His current independent short film is due in October of 2015, with "The 8-Bit Cup" being recently finished and online at vimeo.com/113990979. Credit list: Charming (Theatrical film) (2015); Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Seasons 1 and 2 (TV series) (2012,13,14,15); Fanboy and ChumChum: Season 2 (TV series) (2011) ; Planet Sheen (TV series) (2010) ; Neighbors from Hell (TV series) (2010); My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Season 1 (TV series) (2010); Kung Fu Magoo (Direct-to-video) (2009); The Adventures of Little Jake and Many Skies (TV interstitials) (2009); Pearlie (TV series) (2009); Edgar & Ellen (TV series) (2008); The Nutty Professor (Direct-to-video) (2007); Chaotic: Season 1 (TV Series) (2006); Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!: Seasons 1 and 2 (TV series) (2005,07); FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman: Season 2 (TV Series) (2005) Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law: Season 2 (TV series) (2004); The Buzz on Maggie (TV series) (2003); ¡Mucha Lucha!: Season 3 (TV series) (2002); Return to Never Land (DTV Feature) (2000); Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (DTV Feature) (1999); Winnie the Pooh: A Valentine for You (TV special) (1998); Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (TV special) (1998); Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (DTV Feature) (1997); Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (DTV Feature) (1996); Tales from the Far Side II (1-hour TV special) (1996); Kleo the Misfit Unicorn (TV pilot) (1995) The film: Logline: A Hollywood Movie Queen and a diminutive stunt-man in a monster costume, lost in an alternate dimension where every movie is its own reality. Animated TV Show Premise: Bella Dilemma WAS the “World’s Greatest Movie Star” until one evening, while she slept soundly in the comfort of her Beverly Hills home, a shadowy figure broke in and absconded with her Oscar, after which she woke to find herself on the sound-stage of a world gone mad, where no one had ever heard of “Bella Dilemma” and she was just another stand-in on a Hollywood movie-set. This alternate dimension is the “Cine-Verse”, where all the movies ever made are their own reality and the Oscar is a mysterious Genie-like figure rumored to have the power to make dreams come true. Together with her unlikely companion, Al Z., a diminutive stunt-man in a monster suit and a grizzled vet of many a back-lot, she travels from one movie scenario to another in search of the elusive Oscar, and the life she once had. The filmmaker: Geoff Grogan is a cartoonist and teacher; since 2013 he has produced the comic strip "Jetpack Jr." (formerly "Plastic Babyheads from Outer Space) 3 times per week for Universal Uclick( @ gocomics.com/jetpack-jr ) while also serving as Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Adelphi University in Garden City, NY. Prior to "Jetpack Jr." Grogan produced large format mixed-media comics, such as "Look Out! Monsters" for which he won a Xeric Grant in 2008, and "Fandancer", a "Notable Comic" in "America's Best Comics" of 2011. He was co-publisher/editor of the alternative comics broadsheet, "pood" in 2010-11 and prior to that published the graphic novel, "Nice Work" in 2006/7. He was also the cover illustrator for Professor Charles Hatfield's pioneering Eisner-winning study of the work of legendary cartoonist Jack Kirby, "Hand of Fire". Grogan has had a long and varied career in the arts; after studying film and animation as an undergrad at the Philadelphia College of Art, he began his career as a cartoonist, doing political cartoons for an independent newspaper in the 1980's. As a painter and collage artist he exhibited in a variety of venues throughout the United States, most notably at The Drawing Center in New York in 2004. Comics and animation have informed his work throughout his life, and with "Bella Dilemma" ( itself a spin-off from "Jetpack Jr.") he has come full-circle. An animated 'Scary Story' by Joey Paone - to be screened during 'Session 3' on Saturday!
The film: A little girl tells us her idea of a scary story. The filmmaker: All the way from Austin, Texas, Joseph Paone is an artist who is passionate about animation, character design, and making short films. When watching animation in a theater or on television many people are not aware of just how hard it is to do what they’re looking at. So perhaps it would be helpful to list out the process of animated filmmaking here. This is not to say that all the films you see at DRAWTASTICON (or elsewhere) are done in this precise way. But it does at list give a generic process that professionals tend to use, and which non-professionals might benefit from. It will also help our audiences understand just how insane animators are to create what they’re looking at in the first place! What follows is most applicable to a traditional, hand-drawn, 2D animated film. But the process will be almost identical for all other forms of animation production in general – with just slight modifications being made to accommodate the medium of animation being used... With any production there are three stages of creation, ‘PRE-PRODUCTION’, ‘PRODUCTION’ and ‘POST PRODUCTION’. We’ll deal with them a briefly as we can, in separate blogs. Today we’ll deal with ‘PRE-PRODUCTION’... |
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