[NOTE: Posted partially unedited due to health problems]
ASIFA-SF NEWSLETTER
Association International du Film d'Animation
(International Animated Film Association)
October 2012Highlights of this issue include details about the government's $11 billion fraud suit that includes a chain of art schools teaching animation, the overnight collapse of the Digital Domain studio and visual effects school in Florida, animated political election year cartoons on the Internet, information about the animation shown at the Telluride Film Festival, news about the invention of a color film process ca. 1902, Gene Deitch describing the early Technicolor process, and lot of other news and events including films at the Mill Valley Film Festival.
IS AN OBSCURE ART SCHOOL TEACHING ANIMATION IN SAN FRANCISCO TOO BIG TO FAIL?
by Karl Cohen
When the Art Institute of California in San Francisco laid off a few people this summer it wasn't mentioned by the media, but it should have been part of a major news story. Those job terminations were part of some 800 layoffs ordered by Education Management Corporation (EDMC on the NY Stock Exchange), a corporation in Pittsburgh, PA that is presently being sued by the US gove! rnment for about $11 billion. Our government believes EDMC obtained that sum from them through an allegedly fraudulent scheme. (Under the False Claims Act, if the suit is successful, the amount could triple.) EDMC stock was selling around $30 a share late last year, but since the suit was filed the stock's value has fallen to around $3.
And who is EDMC? The leadership does not come from the academic community. About 70% of the corporation is owned by three major Wall Street investment firms: Goldman-Sachs, Providence Equity Partners and Leeds Equity Partners. Goldman-Sachs owns about 40% of the stock. Several top executives of those three firms are on EDMC's board along with Todd S. Nelson and John R. McKernan Jr.
Nelson was EDMC's CEO from 2007 until August 2012 when he became the corporation's Chairman. Before joining EDMC, he was with the Apollo Group, the largest of the for-profit education corporations and he was their CEO when Apollo was sued for alleged recruitment fraud at their Phoenix University, a chain of 105 schools. Apollo settled the suit out of court for $78.5 million (with a non-disclosure clause).
John R. McKernan Jr. stepped down from being EDMC's Chairman of the Board of Directors in July 2012. He was a former governor of the State of Maine (1987-'95), had been on the EDMC board since 1999, and is married to Olympia Snowe, who just resigned from her seat as a US Senator from Maine. When she resigned she explained there was no place for her in the Senate as a moderate Republican as the Tea Party was taking over her party. The couple owns shares of EDMC stock once worth about $10 million.
From reading recent blog entries about the EDMC schools, the layoffs have disillusioned students and have resulted in excellent full-time teachers being dismissed. Some have been rehired as part-time employs at a much lower rate of pay. Students report key support people were also let go including computer techs and librarians. A newspaper in Pittsburgh reported administrative staff members were also dismissed.
The nation is learning about the way some for-profit schools are run
Discovering the way this highly lucrative for-profit education business is run at some schools has been the task of the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP). Their hearings led by Senator Tom Harkin (Dem. Iowa) were getting news coverage in 2009--10 as they uncovered proof that there was widespread fraud among several schools in the for-profit education sector. Recruiters indicated they were being paid bonuses for successful work, an illegal practice. The schools were alleged to regularly ignore the ban on incentive payments to recruiters for new recruits. Recruiters admitted lying to entice prospective students to sign expensive contracts and to take out government loans. Recruiters were instructed to make grossly exaggerated statements about the potential income the prospective students could expect to make after graduation and they sometimes did not inform students of the full cost of their education or explain that the loans could not be voided by a bankruptcy judge. Young people that lacked the aptitude or were otherwise not qualified to enter the desired course of study were signed up. The hearings showed some schools were even providing inadequate or out of date educations.
The hearings also uncovered the schools often exaggerated the success rate of their students in order for the school to continue to get the federal grant program income. Schools have had to claim a fairly high placement rate for their graduates, a difficult thing to do in the recent economy. In one case a graduate who studied computer animation was counted as success story, but he was actually selling electronic goods at a major chain store.
Since the Art Institute of America is part of the second largest for-profit education corporation in our nation, it was logical that the committee called upon several of their employees and former employees to give testimony. The hearings also included undercover videos that were made to back up the claims that recruiters were using dubious techniques to enroll unqualified students. A report said that all 15 schools investigated "made deceptive or otherwise questionable statements to GAO undercover applicants."
Horror stories told by former students were also entered into the public record. The committee was told many times about the deception experienced to get them to enroll, about inadequate teachers and then upon graduating finding there were either no jobs, unpaid internships or only low paying entry level jobs available. The high paying jobs the recruiters had talked about had somehow vanished. Many of the disillusioned had to end up taking whatever jobs they could find outside of their area of expertise in order to attempt to pay back their loans.
According to one report a two year program at EDMC'S Art Institute in Pittsburgh, PA leading to an associate degree in web design or media studies cost around $47,500 while a same degree can be obtained from a local community college for $6,800. A BA or BS degree from EDMC is double that.
As a rule the students attending for-profit schools will owe more on loans because their tuition is higher. A US Department of Education press release said in June 2011, "Students at for-profit institutions represent 12 percent of all higher education students, 26 percent of all student loans and 46 percent of all student loan dollars in default."
The first legal actions
In 2011 the Department of Justice lawyers and attorneys in four states (California, Florida, Illinois and Indiana) decided that EDMC was not qualified to receive the $11 billion it had received between July 2003 and June 2011 for the education of their students. The lawsuit declares that each year EDMC falsely certified that it was complying with the law, but they repeatedly violated federal laws forbidding them to pay recruiters based on how many students they enrolled.
The law stating the recruiters should be paid a fixed salary was designed to remove any incentive for them to accept unqualified students who probably would not be able to complete a degree program. Of course EDMC claims they adhere to existing rules and regulations, but if that is true why did 56.8% of their students drop out in less than a year in 2009 (from a 2012 HELP report) and why is the number of students who actually graduate much lower than graduation rates from state and private non-profit colleges?
The State of California's Cal Grants program adopted new rules for the 2012-'13 school year that are designed to eliminate schools with high loan default rates and/or low graduation rates. The new guidelines require that institutions have a student loan default rate of 15.5% or less and a graduation rate of 30% or higher. The graduation rate for students enrolled at the ten largest for-profit schools in the country hovers around 20 percent, remarkably lower than the national 55.5% average for all schools.
At present 154 schools are no longer eligible for the Cal Grants including three campuses in the Art Institutes of California chain. The Art Institute of Los Angeles had a graduation rate that was too low while the schools in Hollywood and Sunnyvale had default rates that were too high. Of the 154 colleges ineligible for Cal Grants, 137 are private for-profit schools and the rest are private, not-for-profit schools. (The five Art Institute campuses in CA that barely passed had default rates between 11.7% and 14.5% and none reported a graduat! ion rate above 38.4%.)
EDMC once had about 158,300 students enrolled at the same time. That number had dropped to about 124,000 as of June 30, 2012 which is the reason given for the recent layoffs (it was 139,800 in June, 2011). (EDMC runs campuses in 109 locations in the US and Canada under four universities names: Art Institute, Argosy University, Brown Mackie College and South University. They also run an online division.
The federal government gave EDMC $2.2 billion in 2010. That accounted for 89.3 percent of the school's income. By law the school has no responsibility to pay back the loan or to assist in the collection of that debt if the student defaults.
A newspaper in Pittsburgh, PA reports getting an email from EDMC saying that "we remain a vibrant organization. It is important that we continue to strive to be as healthy, efficient and streamlined as possible so that we can continue to invest in and support growth where we see the greatest need and demand."
Students trying to save the school note, "The reality of our country is that big investment corporations are running educational institutions. Fundamentally this seems backwards, especially when the CEO of EDMC was compensated with a total of $13,185,559 in 2011, yet they are laying employees off from campuses in droves because these are -difficult times in American higher education'."
The upcoming November election may affect the disposition of the case against EDMC. Mitt Romney has major financial backing from several big education corporations and he has praised for-profit schools in speeches, especially Full Sail in Florida. Goldman-Sachs is one of Romney's biggest financial backers. What do you think Mitt might do if he gets a chance to help his friends at Goldman-Sachs?
Note: There are other for-profit schools as well as some that are non-profit where making money is far more important than academic excellence. There are also for-profits that are respected for providing excellent educations.
If you know somebody planning an animation career, make sure they do as much research as needed to find out about the schools they are interested in attending. Some sites like Wikipedia and Yelp provide critical information when it is available (sometimes it is quite controversial). If there is an animation studio near where the would-be animator lives, somebody there who reviews portfolios/reels might be willing to offer an opinion about the quality of work they see coming from job seekers who went to the schools the young artist is interested in.
Going into major debt to study animation today is an enormous risk as the chances of being hired for a well paying animation job are not great. For one thing much of the production work is outsourced. Work that stays in the US does not always provide jobs with long term security. People with a lot of talent and experience often go from project to project and have to move from one city to another when work is available. People who come out of school with excellent show reels do find doors open for them, but for student! s that have goofed off or haven't distinguished themselves in some way there is a lot of competition for the relatively few entry level positions available. Some grads are successful starting their own studios and finding enough clients to keep the doors open, but going that route isn't easy.
If you love animation but are not driven to succeed as an animator, learn how to create it in college and make personal shorts for your own satisfaction, but consider another career that offers better employment and security. Do you really think you have what it takes to risk getting out of an expensive school owing thousands in a difficult job market?
IS IT POSSSIBLE TO GET OUT OF PAYING BACK A GOVERNMENT STUDENT LOAN?
With over 37 million borrowers owing over a trillion dollars to our government, Uncle Sam is now using collection agencies to recover delinquent monies owed them. On Aug. 31 the NY Times published a Kafkaesque story, "Degrees of Debt, Last Pleas on School Loans: Proving a Hopeless Future." It was the story of Doug Wallace Jr. a graduate from Eastern Kentucky University. He is 33 and owes $38,000. His diabetes has resulted in his needing kidney and pancreas transplants. By 2008 he had a prosthetic right eye and was deemed legally blind. He gets $811 in social security disability benefits each month. He lived with his father and listed expenses of $790 per month in his chapter 7 petition. A bankruptcy court ruled he is free from paying back thousands of dollars in medical bills as he is unemployable.
Federal bankruptcy law is another matter. He has to prove repaying the loan will cause "undue hardship." The hardship defense is rare and difficult to prove. While he worked in his first year after graduating he is reasonably certain that he will never be able to work again or repay the loan. The court still refuses to grant him his request to waive loan payments as "it remains to be seen- whether he will find work or remain unemployed." Recognizing that it was a harsh decision a rehearing was ordered, but meanwhile he has to pay $20 per mo! nth toward his loan obligations. So unless you have a case more tragic than Mr. Wallace, the chances are your student loan is not dischargeable.
SEE MARK FIORE'S ANIMATED POLITICAL CARTOONS ON THE INTERNET - AND VOTE NOV. 6
Mark isn't cute and neutral about politics like Jib Jab. His humor has real bite to it which help explains why he is a nationally syndicated Pulitzer Prize winning political animator. Needless to say he is doing a great job covering the upcoming election. Check his work out at www.markfiore.com. It will help motivate you to stop by your polling booth on Nov. 6.
Mark has pioneered this unusual form of animation and he has been doing it on a weekly basis for over a decade. He started his career working as a political cartoonist for the San Jose Mercury News, but quit when a change of management tried to censor his content. Flash was a relatively new tool then and Mark saw its potential. The Wall Street Journal calls him the undisputed guru of the form.
DISNEY CLAIMED A $50 MILLION LOSS FOR A FILM PROJECT THEY JUST TEREMINATED
They didn't bother to name the film project they killed in their recent accounting quarter, but it should be safe to assume it was Henry Selick's unnamed feature that was being made at Cinderbiter Studios here in SF. If you own Disney stock, don't worry. A $50 million write-off means you lost two cents on each share of Disney stock you own according to Jay Rasulo, Disney's Chief Financial Officer. He didn't bother to explain what the loss Jay Rasulo meant to the people laid off or how it will affect Henry's career. Rasulo also announced TV ad revenue was "disappointing," but he called Cars Land at their California Adventure park in Southern California "an absolute grand slam home run." Since the report was released Disney has laid off more than 50 employees in their Interactive Division.
THE ACADEMY OF ART IS SUING THE STATE TO REGAIN CAL GRANTS FOR THEIR STUDENTS
The school was declared ineligible for Cal Grants in the 2012-13 academic year as under a law passed last June, California colleges must have a graduation rate of 30 percent or higher for students to qualify for Cal Grants. The California Student Aid Commission based their decision on the last official, certified rate, which was 29.2%. That rate was for 2010. The Academy feels the commission should have used the unofficial preliminary 2011 rate of 34% that was posted on a U.S. Department of Education website. ! ; About 450 students had these grants (perhaps valued about $1.2 million). The school says that they will provide scholarships to make up for the loss if the school cannot recover the lost money in court.
In the lawsuit, filed Aug. 30 in San Francisco Superior Court, the school argues the Student Aid Commission erred in using the college's certified 2010 graduation rate to determine eligibility. The commission says they do not have the power to make official the preliminary 2011 rate. The university's lawyers asked for a stay, which would have prohibited the commission from enforcing the Cal Grant restrictions for this fall, but the request was denied. The first hearing is scheduled for Oct. 31. The Academy has over 1,000 undergraduate animation students and a hundred or more in graduate school.
PDI/DREAMWORKS WILL BE MAKING THREE FEATURES IN 2013 AND THEY HAVE ANNOUNCED THE NAMES OF THEIR NEXT 12 PRODUCTIONS
They now plan to release three films a year. The slate of films running into 2016 will be released by 20th Century Fox are: Rise of the Guardians (11/21/12), The Croods (3/22/13), Turbo (7/19/13), Mr. Peabody & Sherman (11/1/13), Me and My Shadow (3/14/14), How to Train Your Dragon 2 (6/20/14), Happy Smekday! (11/26/14), The Penguins of Madagascar (3/27/15), Trolls (working title, 5/5/15), B.O.O: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations, (11/6/15), Mumbai Musical (temp. title, 12/19/15), Kung Fu Panda 3 (3/18/16), How to Train Your Dragon 3 (6/18/16)
DreamWorks has been gearing up to release 3 productions a year for some time. With the opening of a new building in Redwood City they now have enough space to house a much larger staff (about 200 people needed). If you have the skills they need and are looking for work, send them your reel and resume.
JEFFERSON THOMAS EXPLAINS HOW HE CREATED "RATHLE" SPONTANEOUSLY
He wrote me, "Rathle happened spontaneously. My godson Nicholas was visiting us for the weekend. Nicholas had recently purchased a rubber snake. I was working on my computer in GarageBand with a new microphone and I started a -man on the street' interview with him. Nicholas was four at the time and is incredibly imaginative. I asked him normal questions and he gave me some brilliant four year old answers."
"The track was fun to listen to, but a challenge with background noise. I worked with a studio in Redding to clean up and edit the track. I designed and animated everything. Hand drawn animation was brought into Flash, then exported to AfterEffects."
Thomas' Rathle is a humorous interview about the life and eating habits of the imaginary rattlesnake. It is posted on the Internet at http://www.rathle.net/ At our ASIFA-SF Spring Festival it was recognized for its Excellence in Humor.
Thomas says, "I'm currently working on a new film called Birdland and building Shasta County's first animation studio, Stareyo Pictures."
IS THERE AN INTEREST IN AN ASIFA-SF PROGRAM WITH LAWYERS ABOUT COPYRIGHT, OBTAINING MUSIC RIGHTS AND OTHER LEGAL ISSUES?
Are you interested in finding out about copyright law, intellectual property rights, contracts and other legal issues? Let us know if there is an interest and what area of law you want experts to discuss. If enough people say they want such a program we can schedule one in 2013. Contact karlcohen@earthlink.net
SAN JOSE STATE'S ANIMATION PROGRAM NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT - PLEASE SIGN THEIR PETITION
They say the Animation/Illustration program has full enrollment, but the university slights them. "Right now we are at the very bottom of the University's priorities and struggling to survive. This is not an issue of a lack of resources, but an issue of whether the University will be allowed to continue to lavishly support studio art disciplines with low enrollment at the expense of animation/illustration students. If you care! about affordable public education for future animators, please take a minute to help us out. Please sign their petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/help-the-animation-illustration-program-become-a-department
Watch a video of their student demonstration to save animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtG1hNaFbAI
LOCAL EVENTS
WED. OCT. 10, SCREENING AND MAKING OF PIXAR'S "PARTYSAURUS REX"
with Director Mark Walsh at Adobe Systems, 601 Townsend St., SF, 6:30 - 7 pm, social time, 7 pm event, members free, $10 for non-members, $5 students.
http://san-francisco.siggraph.org
IN-PERSON, TWO REMARKABLE STARS OF THE NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA, THURSDAY, OCT. 11, 7PM IN SF WEDNESDAY, OCT. 10, 7 PM IN SAN JOSE RSVP, SEE FLYER FOR DETAILS
NOW THROUGH APRIL 28. 2013, BETWEEN FRAMES: THE MAGIC BEHIND STOP-MOTION ANIMATION
At the Walt Disney Family Museum. The exhibition explores the evolution of stop motion animation in the US in special effects, television, and film. Innovators include Willis O'Brien (King Kong), Tim Burton (The Nightmare Before Christmas), Art Clokey (Gumby), Ray Harryhausen (It Came From Beneath the Sea), Henry Selick (Coraline and James and the Giant Peach), Phil Tippett (Star Wars and Jurassic Park), and others.
PEANUTS FANS REJOICE
The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center has a redesigned website, www.schulzmuseum.org that gives a more in-depth view of Schulz's life and art. Highlights from the Museum's collection are showcased in an online digital gallery.
THE ART OF PEANUTS ANIMATION IS AT THE CHARLES M. SCHULZ MUSEUM
The exhibition (Oct. 3 - Feb. 3, 2013) showcases the museum's collection of animation cels and production drawings including art that was salvaged from a fire in Schulz's studio in 1966. It coincides with the launch of The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation, written by Charles Solomon (Chronicle Books).
A special lecture on the art and making of Peanuts animation will be held Sat. Dec. 1, 1 pm with Lee Mendelson, executive producer of a majority of the Peanuts animated specials, and author Charles Solomon (free with paid admission to the museum). The museum is located 50 minutes north of San Francisco by car on Highway 101 (2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa, CA. closed Tuesdays).
THE CARTOON ART MUSEUM IS SHOWING "SKETCHTRAVEL," ART BY ANIMATORS, ILLUSTRATORS AND CARTOONISTS
The project bringing together 71 talented artists from around the world including Bill Plympton, Glen Keane, Frederick Back and Hayao Miyazaki. The sketches were made in a book that was passed from one artist to another, "an artistic relay through 12 countries over the course of four years." Show ends February 3, 2013 http://www.sketchtravel.com/
ANIMATION IN THE 35TH MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL
Tickets: $13.50 adults, $12 seniors/students, $10 for children's festival
Sat. Oct. 6, 1 PM, TALE OF THE NIGHT by MICHEL OCELOT, is a wonderful a silhouette feature for ages 7+. These six magical tales in lands real or imagined are charming colorful fantasies with fantastic sets and great stories. See heroes, princesses, a werewolf, monsters, and lots of other unexpected things. If you love magical film experiences, don't miss this film. It was made for French TV and it has been subtitled for us. Rafael 3. Also Mon. Oct. 8 at 11:30 AM, Sequoia 2 and Sat. Oct. 13, 11 AM, Sequoia 1.
Sat. Oct. 6, 8:30 PM, US Premier THE MISSING PIECE: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MAN WHO STOLE THE MONA LISA A fascinating, delightful, exceptionally well researched documentary with humorous moments about the thief's 83 year old daughter wanting to know the truth about the 1911 heist and why her father stole it. I was told it has some fine CG cutout animation in it, which is true, but the main reason to see the film is that it is excellent storytelling. At Rafael 3, also shown Mon. Oct. 8, 11 AM, Sequoia 1 kc
Sun. Oct 7, 1:15 PM, LOTTE AND THE MOONSTONE SECRET by Janno Põldma and Heiki Ernits, Estonia, Sequoia 1 Also, Sun. Oct. 14, 11:45 AM, Rafael 3 A charming adventure for kids 4+ with lovely backgrounds, gr! eat use of color and unusual looking creatures, including three eared lunar rabbits, dancing cats, singing penguins wearing pants and lots of other cool dudes. The art work is charming and there are lots of wacky inventions in this magical world. It should delight kids and be an enjoyable film experience for their parents. In English kc
Mon. Oct. 8, 5 PM, CALDERA by Evan Viera, US, 12 min., a woman tries to break away from an oppressive Dystopian society; in the "Cr! osseyed and Painless" program.
Wed. Oct. 10, 7 PM, Premier RISE OF THE GUARDIANS from DreamWorks Animation, Century Cinema, Corte Madera followed by a conversation with Jeffrey Katzenberg and the film's director Peter Ramsey. "When the boogeyman emerges from the closet to turn children's dreams into nightmares, childhood's guardians: Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Jack Frost and the San! dman, must band together and draw on their strongest powers to combat his evil." $17 for this special event
Sat. Oct. 13 6:45 PM, GRANDMOTHERS a 9 min. short by Afarin Eghbal, UK, about grandmothers searching for "disappeared" loved ones from Argentina's Dirty War. With the doc feature Be Home Soon, Letters from My Grandfather, at the Rafael 2. Also, Sun. Oct. 1! 4, 2:30 PM, Rafael 3.
ASIFA-SF'S WEBSITE & BLOG NEEDS YOUR HELP!
We need writers to post news and upcoming events, as well as keep the site updated with fresh information and to get discussions going. Our website is an important means of attracting new members, facilitating membership renewal, and providing links to local resources for student and independent animators which are our core constituents. We're a volunteer run organization that depends on the contribution of members to keep thi! ngs running. You can help make a difference with an hour or two per month. Drop Joe a line at asifablog@gmail.com and let us know how you'd like to contribute! Joe Sikoryak
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS
GREAT NEWS - THE PLATFORM FESTIVAL LIVES! OCT. 26 - 28 IN LOS ANGELES
The new Platform Festival will be a scaled-down version of what they did in Portland in 2007. Irene Kotlarz, the festival's director says "it will have the same high programming standards. It will be in LA, at the CalArts REDCAT (inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in downtown LA). I'm working with a group of Cal Arts students who took a class I taught in curating animation. It will be an all-curated, non-competitive event." For more information www.platformfestival.com
The website says they will screen the Best of Annecy shorts, graduation films, MTV/Liquid TV shorts plus panel, archival work by Starevich and others, a PES show and more.
NEW YORK CELEBRATES "ADULTS IN THE DARK: AVANT GUARD ANIMATION AT MAD"
The Museum of Art and Design is running a film series on Fri. and Sat. nights, now till mid-Nov., honoring the works of James and John Whitney, Ralph Bakshi, The Hubleys, Sally Cruikshank, Martha Colburn, Jim Trainor and Robert Breer.
JOHN COATES, 1927-2012
John and George Dunning founded TVC in London in 1957, a company best know for their Yellow Submarine feature (1968). John also produced When the Wind Blows, a remarkable and quite powerful anti-Nuke feature; was co-producer of Heavy Metal, and producer of Joanna Quinn's Oscar nominated short Famous Fred. I had the pleasure of spending several days talking with him at a ! festival in Tel Aviv in 1997 which resulted and my writing several articles about Yellow Submarine and John Coates.
http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.4/3.4pages/3.4cohen.html http://www.awn.com/asifa-sf/0997/Yellow.html
HOLLYWOOD FEATURES GROSSED $4.28 BILLION THIS SUMMER, BUT IT WAS THE SMALLEST TURNOUT OF CUSTOMERS SINCE 1993
The estimated gross is for the period from the first full weekend in May through the Labor Day weekend. That total is down about 3% from last year's $4.4 billion. By raising ticket prices they hoped to offset any decline in the number of customers. About 533 million tickets were sold, down about 4% from last year and the worst turnout since 1993.
The big winner was Disney's The Avengers with a $1.5 billion take worldwide followed by The Dark Knight Rises doing $1.042 billion worth of business worldwide. Fox's animated Ice Age: Continental Drift produced by Blue Sky came in third, far behind the top two films. It earned over $840 million with most of that income coming from foreign ticket sales (i! t only grossed $156 million in the US and cost $95 million to make). Fox will be releasing Blue Sky's Epic (May 24, 2013), and Rio 2 (April 14, 2014) plus DreamWorks line of products in 2013.
Madagascar 3 took in $612 worldwide ($145 million budget and $215.3 domestic take). Brave took in $488 million worldwide ($185 million budget and $233.5 domestic take). Dr. Seuss' The Lorax took in $337 million worldwide ($70 million budget and $214 million domestic take). Pirates! Band of Misfits $120 million worldwid! e ($31 million in US, $55 million budget). After being out for one month Paranorman had taken in $75 million worldwide ($50 million in the US, budget not known). Chico and Rita grossed $2.2 million worldwide ($250,000 in US). 2012 Oscar Nominated Shorts $1.7 million and A Cat in Paris $310,000 in US.
JEFFERY KATZENBERG TO BE AWARDED THE JEAN HERSHOLT HUMANITARIAN AWARD
As a philanthropist Katzenberg has been instrumental in raising money for education, art and health-related causes, particularly those benefiting the motion picture industry. During more than two decades as chairman of the board for the Motion Picture and Television Fund, he helped to raise $200 million for the organization, created "The Night Before" event and worked to expand the MPTF campus. He also serves on the boards of such organizations as the California Institute of the Ar! ts, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, AIDS Project Los Angeles, the Geffen Playhouse, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the USC School of Cinematic Arts. The award will be presented at the Academy's 4th Annual Governors Awards dinner on Saturday, December 1, at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center.
CALL FOR ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD'S ANNIE AWARDS
The entry deadline for the 40th Annual Annie awards is Oct. 21. This highly competitive event is mainly for professional productions with just one category for short films (you may be competing against a Pixar short) and Best Student Film.
https://submissions.annieawards.org/files/40th-Annies-How-To-Submit-Doc.pdf.
A NEW APP FOR AFTER EFFECTS ANIMATORS
Nick Fox-Geig and Victoria Nece have created KinectToPin 1.0, a free open-source app that lets you import motion-capture skeleton data from the Kinect into After Effects. Features include an AE UI panel and audio playback.
http://kinecttopin.fox-gieg.com/2012/08/announcing-the-all-new-kinecttopin
ANIMATION MENTOR HAS INTERESTING NEW PROGRAMS ONLINE
including a "webinar" on how to improve your sample reel with four pros from ILM for $25.
http://www.animationmentor.com/campaign/stand-out/
JOANNA PRIESTLY'S CLAMBAKE HAS JUST BEEN RELEASED
It is a relaxing, amusing, animated interactive entertainment app for iPhone, iPad and iPod! It is easy to use. Clicking on a turquoise clam shell reveals a vividly colored animated treasure. Pulling on pointed wall objects and bouncing zoetropes will eventually complete this organic, abstract universe. Once everything has been opened, a lovely surprise emerges. www.primopix.com
SEE AN ANIMATED SHORT ABOUT AN UNUSUAL WAY A PUBLIC LIBRARY WAS SAVED IN TROY, NY
http://vimeo.com/47890552
A NEW DOC. ABOUT BILL PLYMPTON IS OUT
Adventures In Plymptoons! "Goes deep inside the method and madness" Amazon.com sells it. He also has posted a series of production blogs on line about the making of his next feature, Cheatin' http://vimeo.com/48813735 and you can buy autographed copies of Make Toons that Sell Without Selling Out (Focal Press, a how-to guide) www.plymptoonstore.com/ PS Mr. & Mrs. Bill Plympton proudly announce it's a boy!
THE "ANNOYING ORANGE" CREATOR HAS HIT GOLD
The NY Times says Dane Boedigheimer's oranges have been watched over 800 million times in two years, and that was in an old article. He has parlayed that success into a career doing work for corporate giants including Toys "R" Us, Sprint, Radio Shack, J. C. Penny and others.
TIM BURTON'S "FRANKENWEENIE" GETS A LACKLUSTER REVIEW IN "THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER"
Todd McCarthy feels it "lacks the old Burtonjuice" after calling it "ultimately tedious- extremely tiresome- toothless, not to mention secondhand, feeling of the entire enterprise," but he thinks Burton fans will flock to it.
MORE DISNEY PRODUCTS FOR KIDS MADE IN CHINA HAVE BEEN FOUND TO CONTAIN TOXIC MATERIAL
Change.org revealed that lunch boxes containing phthalates which have been linked to asthma, ADHD, diabetes and other unwelcomed conditions, are being sold in the US. The FDA has strong regulations about children's toys, but lunchboxes are not toys so the amount phthalates is unregulated. So those cute containers with Spiderman and cute princesses on them may contain "nearly 30 times the recommended limit of toxic phthalates" in toys.
VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR WEEKLY POSTINGS
WWW.ASIFA-SF.ORGANIMATED FILMS AT THE 2012 TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL
Since Chuck Jones was a great supporter of the Telluride Film Festival, they saluted his 100th birthday by showing short excerpts from various interviews with him before many features. They also presented a conversation, "Animation: Evoking Life?" featured Linda Jones Clough, Leonard Maltin and animators Sara Gunnars and Ethan Clarke in the Chuck Jones Cinema lounge. Festival pass holders were also given a complimentary copy of Peggy Sterns film Chuck Jones: Memories Of Childhood, courtesy of Turner Classic Movies. The town's theatre is named after Chuck Jones.
A lot of animation was shown at the 39th festival held over the Labor Day weekend. The 90 minute feature documentary The Gatekeepers includes animation. There were several programs of animated shorts and others were shown before features.
The Annecy Animation program was introduced by Annecy Artistic Director Serge Bromberg and Telluride Shorts Curator Barry Jenkins. It included a surprise preview of Paperman by John Kahrs for Disney, Edmund Was A Donkey by Franck Dion, France; Nightingales In December by Theodore Ushev, Canada; Tunnel by Maryam Kashkoolinia, Iran; Aalterate by Christobal de Oliveira, France-Netherlands; Here And The Great Elsewhere by Mich le Lemieux, Canada; Flood by Julia Gromskaya, Italy; Seven Minutes In Warsaw Ghetto by Johan Oettinger, Denmark; Tram by Miranda Nation, France-Czech Republic; and Una Furtiva Lagrima by Carlo Vogele, Luxemburg-US.
The student films shown were The Pirate Of Love by Sara Gunnarsd, US; Drifters by Ethan Clarke, US, and Lack Of Evidence by Hayoun Kwon, France.
The animated shorts by independent animators shown before features were: Barn Owl by Anna Spencer, Australia; The Great Rabbit by Atsushi Wada, Japan; Body Memory by Ulo Pikkov, Estonia; Una Furtiva Lagrima by Carlo Vogele, Luxemburg-US and Agnes De Ci De La Varda - Visit with Chris Marker by Agnes Varda, France.
Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films and the Annecy Festival presented another edition of his Retour de Flamme, a program of rare restored short films. It included several animated and special effects films: Hungry Hobos , a "lost" Walt Disney/Ub Iwerks Oswald cartoon from 1928; Duello Allo Shrapnell (1913); Petites Causes, Grands Effets by O'Gallop (4 cartoons to fight against tuberculosis and alcoholism); Ain't She Sweet (1933) by Dave and Max Fleischer; Angels In Dirty Places (1938, a staff Christmas party film from Leon Schlesinger's Termite Terrace) and Kingdom Of Fairies by George Melies (1903, hand colored). The Telluride Film Festival will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary August 29 to September 2, 2013. Film submissions for the 2013 Festival will start April 15, 2013. The artistic directors are Garry Meyer (until recently he ran the Balboa) and Tom Luddy. Both live in the Bay Area.
TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES IS HAVING AN ANIMATION MARATHON SUNDAY NIGHT OCTOBER 21
Jerry Beck (Cartoonbrew.com, author, etc.) will co-host the event. Marathon includes Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels and Mr. Bug, an hour of UPA shorts, an hour of rare New York Studio animation (from the collection of Tom Stathes) and The Adventures of Prince Achmed.
READ NANCY DENNEY-PHELPS REPORT ABOUT BEING ON THE JURY OF THE ANIBAR INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL IN PEJA, KOSOVO ON HER BLOG AT
http://sprockets.animationblogspot.com/
Peja is a great location for an unusual festival. While there isn't room in this issue for her discussion o! f the event, here is part of her discussion of this special part of the world.
"I had never thought of Peja, Kosovo as a holiday spot but when I was invited to be on the International Jury of Anibar International Festival, August 22 - 27, I discovered how wrong I was. Peja is a lovely town of 60,000 people with a lovely stream running through the center of town and it is surrounded by a beautiful mountain range known as the Balkan Alps.
A heritage museum is situated in an 18th Century house that contains examples of regional costumes, beautifully crafted jewellery, musical instruments and every day household objects from the past. The town still hosts a large open air market twice a week as well as the oldest mosque in Kosovo and a monastery in the mountains nearby is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
There are numerous cafes serving delicious freshly grilled meats and a local bean dish as well as an excellent locally brewed beer made from the water that flows from the surrounding mountains. Each evening the main square comes alive as people come out to promenade after the heat of the day and small children take to a fleet of electric cars that are for rent in the square.
Anibar has several screening venues. Films were shown in the Cinema during the day but in the warm evenings the action moved outdoors. The opening and closing presentations and two evening screenings were held at the downtown on an open air screen which was easily accessible to everyone.
The festival can also boast the most unique screening area I have ever seen. In a large wooded park at the edge of town a big screen was set up on the far side of a small lake and festival goers could watch the films from either two person rubber boats while paddling around the lake or from chairs set up on the shore. It was a beautiful setting to watch animation on warm summer evenings.
There was a festival bar/cafe that had live music after the two lakeside screenings and a camping area where festival goers could pitch tents. After the music and dancing there was a big bonfire in the adjacent camping area and still another screen was set up where a very late night screening of an International Competition could be watched from fireside. The night time screening/party area drew a lot of young people who came to have fun, dance and watch animation. It proved to be the perfect place to introduce non-commercial animation to the general public.
Each evening at the open area bar, festival guests and volunteers were treated to wonderful home cooked meals that were created by mothers of the festival staff. It was a treat to get to taste all of the delicious local foods that are created at home instead eating restaurant fare.
As the only animation festival in Kosovo, Anibar strives to educate as well as entertain their audience. The Animocracy program was exactly what the name implies, an international collection of animated films dealing with democracy. Topics ranged from the Arab Spring to the right of civilians to peacefully demonstrate and the loneliness of being different. The broad range of these films dealing with serious subjects showed the power of animation to deal with relevant topics in a way that is accessible to everyone....
To read Nancy's full report visit Nancy's Animated World at http://sprockets.animationblogspot.com/
DIGITAL DOMAIN CLOSES THEIR FLORIDA STUDIO. JOHN TEXTOR, THE CEO IS FIRED, AND THE DIGITAL DOMAIN INSTITUTE, TEXTOR'S CONTROVERSIAL SCHOOL, HAS CLOSED
In early Sept. the EFX studio defaulted on a $35 million loan causing it to lay off 252 of its 272 workers (the 20 that are left are staying on to pack up and close the shop). Then on Sept. 11 it was announced the studio is filing for chapter 11 protection. John Textor who took control of the studio just a few years ago resigned immediately (he recently made news by creating of the virtual Tupac rock star and he claimed he was going to create a virtual Elvis and Marilyn Monroe). On Sept. 24 it was announced China's Galloping Horse and India's! Reliance Media Works had bought the studio at auction for $30.2 million. Horse now owns 70 to 75% and Reliance the rest of the business. (Galloping Horse is a partner with China's Wanda in the recent $2.6 billion purchase of the AMC theaters in the US.) The studios in LA, the Bay Area and Vancouver are remaining open for business.
The school Textor was developing was to open on the 11th as it is owned by another of Textor's corporations, but on the 12th the West Palm Beach Post announced classes were suspended. A small part of the tragedy is the 17 students at the Digital Domain Institute may be out the $4,400 tuition paid in advance for the 10 week "essential skills" program. The visual effects class being taught at Florida State University campus in West Palm Beach to 27 students is still being held.
Another part of the disaster created by Textor and friends is a lot of good people moved to Florida with their families to work for Digital Domain. One family of five moved from New England to Port Lucie and the husband was going to start work the day the studio closed.
People who invest in stocks might want to know that shares in Digital Domain plunged from $9.20 in May to 55 cents on Sept. 10. The New York Stock Exchange halted trading Tuesday morning Sept. 11. The money from the sale of the company will go to pay off the major creditors first leaving little or nothing for the stock holders.
It appears Textor was a good salesman and convinced Florida State University, the state government, the state pension fund, and the cities of West Palm Beach and Port St. Lucie to provide millions, plus land to build the school on and tax credits for the studio and school. State officials praised his projects as a golden opportunity for the state to become a great film center until early Sept. when the enterprises collapsed. Now people, investors, and local and the state governments are going to try and salvage what they can.
There are many issues to resolve. Who will own the 2.4 acres of prime downtown land, valued at $9.5 to 10 million that Palm Beach gave Textor. He had failed to meet any performance thresholds toward building a high-rise on the site and he had taken out two mortgages against the property. The city had also given Digital Domain $2 million toward the FSU film school, the first installment of a promised $10 million.
The local newspaper has printed lots of letters to the editor from irate citizens about local government giving away tax dollars to Textor. The company has had a long history of red ink. The paper quoted somebody saying, "It's very unfortunate that the company really mismanaged their finances." No kidding.
A local writer called "Fire Ant" in the Broward County Palm Beach New Times had a long column Sept. 19 about Textor's internship program where students would pay tuition to work on commercial projects. He began by saying "Slaves, at least, got room and board. On John Textor's digital plantation, the labor was going to pay the boss for the privilege of making him rich." Fire Ant pointed out the government officials and university board didn't publically speak out about Textor's plan to allegedly exploit student labor.
The state's university's governing board is quite upset over being caught up in this multi-million dollar mess. The West Palm Beach paper reported on Sept. 16 that the deal for the local FSU campus to work with Textor was misrepresented to the board and with Textor out of the picture they question why the school should continue their digital arts program. They note that the nearby Florida Atlantic University has a School of Communications and Multimedia Studies that offers undergraduate programs in video production and computer animation and they see no need for two programs in the same area. There is even talk of cl! osing the W. Palm Beach campus.
A friend who has helped me research this report says, "John Textor is not an educator, he's an entrepreneur who capitalized on budget short-falls in the Florida university system. We are reading now about the millions of taxpayer dollars that will be lost in the DDI venture, which indicates that the money was running only in one direction - from the coffers of Florida State University and various Florida community treasure chests. The reason the money flowed in that direction is because Textor is a snake-oil salesman. He convinced them that this deal would generate income and prestige a win-win proposition."
ARE YOU IN A POSITION TO POSSIBLY HIRE FORMER DIGITAL DOMAIN WORKERS?
A website has been created for former employees where they can post their website, blog, Linkedin page, etc., in an effort to get the industry in touch with them about jobs. http://www.redforward.com/career
FILM HISTORIANS HAVE DISCOVERED THE INVENTOR OF AN IMPORTANT STEP IN CREATING THE FIRST COLOR MOVIES
The National Media Museum in Bradford, England has found in its collection the black and white color separation negatives inventor Edward Turner was working with in his attempt to create color movies when he died of a heart attack at age 29 in 1903. Although he wasn't successful in printing the images onto film (Technicolor was successful in perfecting the dye transfer part of the process years later) he did achieve the filming part of the RGB process (using red, green and blue filters, filming each filtered image separately onto film). Now, over 100 years later the museum has successfully combined the image so we can now see what Turn! er never saw, beautiful color film footage made from his negatives.
Turner had patented his process in 1899 and the test footage has been dated from 1901 or '02. The footage includes a goldfish in a bowl, Turner's three young children with sunflowers, Turner's heavily bonneted daughter on a swing, a scarlet macaw, a panning shot of Brighton beach and pier, soldiers marching in Hyde Park and what is thought to be the very first shot, traffic on London's Knightsbridge looking up to Hyde Park Corner. The test footage was shot on 28mm wide film at 48 frames per second and there were two round sprocket holes between each frame of film.
Turner got the idea for making color movies from working with the American color still photographer Frederic Eugene Ives and he had financial backing from entrepreneur Frederick Lee. The "lost" negatives came from the collection of Charles Urban, an American businessman who settled in London and who donated his archive to a science museum in 1937. The negatives were rediscovered when the collection was relocated from London to Bradford about three years ago. Several museums in the UK worked on creating the color composite-image from the negatives and it aired in the documentary The ! Race for Color (BBC, Sept.-12) See some of the footage at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9538882/Worlds-first-colour-film-unveiled.html
GENE DEITCH EXPLAINS THE TECHNICOLOR RGB PROCESS AND A CBS-TV RGB SYSTEM THAT WAS NEVER USED
When I was at Terrytoons, in the mid-1950s, we had a film laboratory right in the studio. We had a special relationship with Technicolor Lab. We shot all of our 20th Century-Fox cartoons on fine-grain black and white film. Our Oxberry cameras used a rotating 3-color-gel filter wheel. For each click of the camera button, three frames of the black & white film were shot, each through a red, green, or blue filter, so our negatives were three-times longer. The black & white negative was then processed at the Technicolor lab, applying the necessary dyes to the proper frames, and blending the three color records together along with the blacks.
The same technology was used on early Technicolor live-action movies. That's why the early Technicolor cameras were so huge; the magazines had to hold three times as much film. Early Technicolor films, such as Gone With The Wind, can always be restored to perfect color (if the equipment still exists), because black and white film doesn't fade, whereas Eastman Color film prints fade. Now we rely on computers to restore color to faded old color movies.
TV technology drastically changed when it went digital. When color TV was still in a battle between the CBS and NBC systems. I was at UPA in New York, and was invited to a screening set up by CBS to demonstrate their field-sequential system, which also used black and white images shot trough three-color filters. Their initial TVs were limited to a small screen and a large revolving three-color filter wheel in front of it. If CBS had won the battle, TV sets would have been huge apparatuses with small screens, though CBS claimed they were working on a TV picture tube that would be able to employ alternating filters.
The NBC dot-sequential system prevailed until the last decade. The first color TV set I had at home had a whole array of knobs on the side to adjust the three primary colors. Everyone's set had slightly different colors. Now, with the digital system, there seems to be no limit to screen size.
ASIFA-SF IS A VOLUNTEER RUN ASSOCIATION
Newsletter Editor: Karl Cohen
Contributors include Nancy Phelps, Gene Deitch and other friends of ASIFA-SF
Cover illustration by Ricci Carrasquillo
Proofreader: Sarah Chin Mailing Crew: Dot Janson, Shirley Smith, Dan Steves and Denise McEvoy
Webmaster Joe Sikoryak
Special thank to Ben Ridgway and San Francisco State for our September event. It was a remarkable program of wonderful new animated visions. Thanks also to The G Man who sends out our e-mail updates, to Nancy Denney-Phelps for representing our chapter on the interna! tional ASIFA board and to our treasurer Karen Lithgow.
ASIFA-SF is a chapter of: Association Internationale du Film d'Animation with almost 40 chapters around the world. Local membership is $25 a year.
Our website and blog is: www.asifa-sf.org
Mail can be sent to: karlcohen@earthlink.net or to PO Box 225263, SF CA 94122
OUR NEXT EVENT:
IN-PERSON: TWO REMARKABLE STARS OF THE NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA
REGINA PESSOA AND MICHÈLE LEMIEUX
Considered one of the most vibrant and creative hubs for auteur animation, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) invites you to attend a screening of its latest productions and meet some of its outstanding filmmakers.
World-renowned illustrator MICHÈLE LEMIEUX will show Here and the Great Elsewhere (2012) made on the Alexeieff-Parker pinscreen, a unique instrument invented around 1930 by Alexander Alexeieff, a Russian-born French engraver and filmmaker. After presenting her latest films, Lemieux will use an actual pinscreen for a hands-on demonstration of the technique! , explaining how it achieves its exquisite beauty.
`Grand Prix winner of the Annecy Cristal in 2006 for Tragic Story with! a Happy Ending and the 2012 Hiroshima Prize for Kali the Little Vampire, Portuguese filmmaker REGINA PESSOA has developed a singular style using animated engravings. This internationally known artist will present her three distinguished short films, all of them NFB international co-productions, and discuss her creative process.
JULIE ROY will screen additional new NFB films she produced, including French illustrator FRANCK DION's Edmond Was a Donkey, winner of this year's Special Jury Prize at Annecy and PATRICK BOUCHARD's striking stop-motion film, Bydlo.
THURSDAY, OCT. 11, 7PM AT THE WALT DISNEY FAMILY MUSEUM
YOU MUST BE AN ASIFA-SF MEMBER and RSVP by NOON, MONDAY, OCT .8
YOU CAN BRING ONE GUEST. RSVP to: karlcohen@earthlink.netWe will tell you if your RSVP is confirmed or if you are on the waiting list. After the deadline any available seats will be given to people on the waiting list. If you RSVP and can't come, please tell us, so someone on the waiting list can have your seat.
WEDNESDAY, 0CT. 10, 7 PM at SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY
ENGINEERING BUILDING AUDITORIUM, first floor
See campus map @ http://www.sjsu.edu/map/ for location of building
Staffs from animation studios and ASIFA members are welcome at this show with RSVP
YOU MUST RSVP by 6 PM, SUNDAY OCT. 7 to: Martin.McNamara@sjsu.edukarlcohen@earthlink.net
Finally I just got this note from Signe Baumane who is in post-production on her first feature:
"Rocks In My Pockets" is my first feature. I used to call it "a funny film about depression" but it is more complicated than that. If I had to put the description of the film in one sentence it would probably be very dark and dramatic: "A silent killer (depression) from my family's secret past is trying to get me. Will I survive this fight?"
We just finished a trailer for the work in progress and I wanted to share it with you:
https://vimeo.com/50619518
I was going to have a Kickstarter campaign in September but things didn't pan out as intended (too busy with making the film ), although we do need money for postproduction, now we have to postpone the the campaign till January 2013.
It would be great if you could click on 'donate' button on the film's website:
http://www.rocksinmypocketsmovie.com/
but if you can't it would be amazing if you could help to spread the word about the film, show the trailer to your friends, post it on forums, help us to connect with the mental health community, or share with us your experience/advise on how to run a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Or simply give us a feedback on the trailer -
1) does it intrigue you? does it make you want to see the film?
2) how does it flow? is it too long? too short?
3) do you have enough context to connect with the trailer/film's message?
4) do you understand who these creatures are - one in the water, the other in forest?
5) do you care for the 4 women?
We are going to make another trailer in January, for the finished film and we want to learn from your feedback. If you want to read about the making of it, here's a bit on my blog:
http://rocksinmypocketsthemovie.wordpress.com/2012/10/02/trailer/
I do hope you are not mad at me for sending you this long email. Better than if I called you, though, right?
: )
Thank you!
Yours Signe