PeaceTime - Episode 3: A Whale

My meditation videos are now a trilogy.  Presenting my brand new short "A Whale".  It's an undersea guided meditation for guppies of all ages.  

 

The team from the first two shorts is back, with Jess Lakin's gentle voice leading the journey.  Jess actually sat in the Easy Pose yoga position while recording.   After a few slow, deep breaths,  she began extemporizing on the journey of a whale traveling through the sea.  There was no script.  I gave no direction.  She just went with the flow, pun intended.   

My job was then to provide visuals to the audio.  I designed it for simplicity, knowing I would be animating it completely on my own, and not wanting to spent ten years doing so.  It was all done in Adobe Animate.  I don't build rigs, just approach it like old school limited animation.  The biggest challenge for me was in design and color, which I don't get involved with too much in my studio work.  This was largely improvised as well.  

Composer Ian Rees squeezed me in between feature films he was scoring.   As with Jess, I let him surprise me.  The only rule we've had with these shorts was that sound effects must be done musically.  No foley.   He used instruments ranging from a cello to a Brazilian cuica drum.  He created a musical undersea world that completely elevated my visuals.  The results left me grinning ear to ear.

In nearly 42 years in animation, it's still a thrill when all the elements come together and a film becomes a thing of its own.  Like a cartoon Dr Frankenstein - it's alive!  IT'S ALIVE!!!

Enjoy and please share.  Namaste!  NAMASTE!!!

-Steve 

Animatic Theater presents "The Dutch Green"

 Wow, it's been a year since I posted something here.   So what have I been up to? 

Something I call "Animatic Theater".  

 

About 15 years ago, I had an idea for a series based on my life in South Jersey - an odd place full of quirky, blue collar Americans.  I put together a pitch, tweaking it in subsequent years when I had time.  A few years ago, I decided to make an animatic as a proof of concept piece.  It's a  simple set up: the main character, "Old Dude", goes into his favorite deli to order the usual, but now the place has become automated.  It's one more piece of his comfortable world leaving him behind and at the mercy of an apathetic young "Deli Gal", who would rather text her boyfriend than help some geezer.  

This was based on real events.

I wrote a script, redesigned the characters, then reached out to voice actress Sirena Irwin, whom I had met while working at Nickelodeon.  I didn't know her personally, and thought it was a long shot getting her to do it, as she is THE REAL DEAL.   But after a Zoom call, she agreed to play the part of the Deli Gal.  I would play the Old Dude (typecasting).

I booked time at Outloud Audio in Burbank, having the room set up so we could record our lines together.  I can't fully articulate how much fun it was working with Sirena.  After a couple of takes, she wandered off-script, improvising.  I followed her lead the best I could without cracking up (we both failed terribly at this, giggling like an SNL cast).   Her quick wit and whimsicality worked perfectly for this piece.   We would go down some crazy rabbit holes and somehow wind our way back to the script.  It was a wild ride and I had an absolute blast.  A lot of our banter made it into the final cut - the lines where we're talking over each other is the giveaway.  I love how natural it feels.  I credit Sirena for making that happen.  She's also a voice director, and guided me through some of my lines.

Now came the big task - story boarding it.  This happened in fits and starts, between gigs, over a period of about 18 months using Storyboard Pro software.   When I finished and cut it all together, I wanted a few music cues.  I was originally going with needle drops from the 1970 rock classic "Mississippi Queen" by the band Mountain.  But getting the rights was much more involved and much less gratifying than getting something original from my favorite composer Ian Rees.  I sent him the animatic on a Sunday.  On Tuesday, he returned it with something perfectly "Mountain-esque".   Seriously, he is a genius.  

I really wanted to animate the short, but after a computer disaster deleted the original SB Pro file, I was left with just an animatic.  Not wanting to start over, I leaned into the limitation and created "Animatic Theater", a place where I can present short ideas without spending five years or more making them.  And at age 62, time has become a factor.  There will be more animatic shorts to come!

I hope you enjoy "The Dutch Green".  There's some salty language in it, so not something to watch around the wee little ones.  HR might not approve either - you've been warned! 

-Steve

PeaceTime for the Ukraine

Over the past year, I have submitted my children's meditation short "PeaceTime: A Royal Frog" to dozens of film festivals all over the world.  In early April, a festival in Moscow accepted it, and wanted me to send a screening copy.   Given how things have gone out there in the last few months, I opted to blow it off.  

While doing yard work a short time later,  it struck me - "I should dub PeaceTime to Ukrainian."

Gardening came to a sudden stop. 

Yes.  

I must do this.  

How do I do this? 

I paced around a bit, as if to coax the details out of hiding.  How do I find a Ukrainian actress?   

I starting texting industry friends - most had no leads.  But good ol' Trace Konerko, who left the industry 15 years ago, connected me with her friend - casting agent Jon Beauregard.  We talked.  Jon loved PeaceTime, totally got what I was trying to do, and offered to put out a casting call - no charge! 

Diversion con Rinones!

In my last post, Fun with Kidneys!, you heard about the new informational short I produced for the non-profit Renal Support Network, featuring the animated Kidneys Neff and Nuff.   Pleased with the results, Lori Hartwell at RSN asked to have it dubbed into Spanish. 

Actor and comedian Sandra Valls was brought in to translate the script and to do the voice of Neff.  She, in turn, brought her friend - actor and one-time Mr. Colombia (no lie!) Andres Mejia to voice Nuff.  

I booked time at Outloud Audio in Burbank for last Thursday.  Because of COVID protocols, only one actor at a time was allowed inside.  The closest I could get was a bench in their parking lot, where I set up my laptop to Zoom into the session.  The Outloud folks were super helpful in getting me set up, even scrounging up a power cord when the session went overtime and my battery was running out. 

The session itself consisted of a line-by-line recording to picture with timecode.  Engineer Kyle provided a three beep lead-in cue to each line.  Through Zoom, I could see both the footage and the actor, and we could speak to each other.  Sometimes there was a bit of a delay in playback because of wi-fi connection, but it was never a major problem. 

Before the session, Sandra wanted to go over the scripts, because some of the lines ran much longer in Spanish.  She brainstormed with Andres about shorter translations.  It was fun watching them hash out the differences between his Colombian Spanish with her Mexican variety.  There was a comical chemistry between them, Sandra being quite hilarious.  For my part, I sat nodding my head, understanding none of it.   Needless to say, I could not have done this session without their collective input. 

Gratias Sandra and Andres!

-Steve

Fun with Kidneys!

How does one make the subject of kidney disease entertaining?  That was the challenge when Lori Hartwell approached me about making a short educational film for her non-profit Renal Support Network (RSN), an organization she founded in 1993 to help those with kidney disease manage their care. 

Lori wanted to make an animated version of their illustrated booklet "Share Your Spare", where two kidneys, Neff and Nuff,  explain how they function, etc.   Using the booklet and Suzette Maffi's main character designs as a springboard,  I altered the relationship between Neff and Nuff to be comically tempestuous, then added cutaway segments to illustrate some of the informational bits.  

The cutaway segments were influenced by a Bell and Howell educational film I saw in Mr. Carll's 6th grade science class when I was 12, called Hemo the Magnificent.  Produced by Frank Capra in 1957,  it features live action Richard Carlson (Creature from the Black Lagoon) and briefly,  Sterling Holloway (Winnie the Pooh!).  The animated segments, directed by Bill Hurtz and animated by Seamus Culhane, are a funny and charming precursor to Osmosis Jones and Inside Out.

For Ralph's Sake

Here's a brilliant short that is bound to make you question your choice of eye drops.  Produced by the Humane Society International, "Save Ralph" features the voice of Taika Waititi as Ralph, a laboratory rabbit who tries to be positive about his job while sporting visible scars of the torture he has endured in the name of product testing.   The resulting film is both darkly hilarious and heartbreaking.  

From the short's YouTube page, director Spencer Susser says, “It's so important that Ralph feels real because he represents countless real animals who suffer every day.”   By anthropomorphizing the rabbit, Susser invites us to relate to Ralph's predicament, driving home the horrible absurdity of animal testing.  Brilliantly, the short makes us want to help Ralph, and by extension lab animals.  

I seriously switched shampoos after watching this.  Check your products.  If they test on guys like Ralph, do him a favor and give them the heave ho. And join the cause by clicking here.

-Steve

Introducing....PeaceTime

After two years of working in fits and starts, I am very pleased to present "PeaceTime: A Royal Frog". 

I got this idea a while back (2017-ish?) as an answer to the loud and obnoxious programming that is fed to kids, ad nauseum, through 24-hour cable and streaming video - yes, the stuff that pays my mortgage.  I wrote the idea down in a sketchbook and let it ferment.   

At some point, I talked about it with my old friend Winter Reign, a far-out progressive gal with two small kids and no TV.  She loved it, somewhat surprised it came from such a Three Stooges loving, blue collar guy.  She invited me to a Kundalini yoga class deep in the heart of Topanga Canyon.  It seemed like a dare, and so I went. 

Animator Benn Garnish Introduces Retrofit!

Retrofit from Imagescope Productions on Vimeo.

Animators are film-makers, and it's not unusual to find animators who bridge the gap between animation and live action. Been Garnish, animator and friedn of FLiP, who is responsible for much memorable character and creature animation on films like "Harry Potter", has made a short video titled Retrofit. It's a science-fiction fantasy, set in the near future, "when death is just a new beginning - for those who can afford it."

Tom Sito Reviews Richard Williams' "Prologue"

A still image from "Prologue"

Animation director Richard Williams recently completed his long-anticipated short film Prologue, premiered at Annecy this past June and recently released in selected theatres in Los Angeles.  Tom Sito, Animator, Director, Historian and President Emeritus of the Animation Guild, wrote us a review of the film.  As a far as we can tell - this is the first review of "Prologue".

Richard Williams' "Prologue" to Screen in Los Angeles

A still image from Prologue

Animation guru Richard Williams, who directed The Thief and the Cobbler, and was animation director on Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, has released a first look at his new six-minute animated short Prologue.  The short film was first screened at Annecy in June of this year, and will be playing soon in selected theatres in Los Angeles. Williams is the author of The Animator's Survival Kit, now the essential textbook for all aspiring animators, as useful for 3D artists as it is for 2D practitioners.

Short of Expectations

Chief, Your Butt's on Fire from Steve Moore on Vimeo.

Two years ago, I finished a short film called, "Chief, Your Butt's on Fire".  I wrote about it in FLiP as my wife, Donna, submitted it to umpteen film festivals.  Thousands of dollars in entry fees later,  we had what can be only described as a flop.  Only two festivals picked it up.

Was the film that bad?

When I started working on this short, Disney still did hand drawn animated features.  By the time I finished, chipping away at it in my spare time over many years, the animation world had changed completely.   Festivals were not even accepting film anymore.

So maybe my little film was too old fashioned for today's scene.  Or maybe it just sucks.  At any rate, here it is, decide for yourself.

-Steve

Nassos Vakalis Talks about "Dinner For Few", and Reveals the Secrets of Entering and Winning Festivals

Dinner for Few

Nassos Vakalis' film “Dinner for Few” has been entering and winning festivals all over the world. We asked Nassos, who by day is a storyboard artist at DreamWorks, to explain the secrets of entering and winning film competitions. What does it make to make a success of a short film project?

DreamWorks' artist Nassos Vakalis introduces his latest short film: "Dinner for Few"

Nassos Vakalis is a story board artist, director and animator who has worked for many years at DreamWorks, storyboarding on just about every DreamWorks film you can think of over the last ten or fifteen years. He and I worked together on many projects, during the course of which I learned to respect his skill, versatility and speed. Nassos also writes and directs his own short films; his most recent short is the impressively designed and very ambitious Dinner for Few. FLIP asked him a few questions about how he managed to complete such a complex project.

Introducing Nano Films

Everyone needs an animated film, even if they don't know it yet. Ten years ago, no-one could have imagined that every plumber would need a website. I predict that, in ten years time, every business will want a short animated film that tells the story of what they do.

Maybe it will be an animated logo, a mini infomercial, something to play on a smart phone, or a short film on their website, something that makes their business unique and different, something that reaches audiences (especially younger ones) who don't want to read pages of dull text on a static site.

The only trouble is - the cost. Animation is time-consuming and expensive. But what if we could make animated films really cheaply, for a tiny budget? Then, surely, everyone could afford one, and businesses all over the world would queue up to commission small films.