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Bravoman, Disney Around the Bay by Karl Cohen
A philandering Bravoman is confronted by a woman friend. photo: Copernicus Studios
Bravoman Lives!
CAN YOU STRETCH YOUR LIMBS LIKE
Bravoman or write humorous lines like Jim Zub? Rob Pereyda, an ASIFA-SF (American Animation Association) member, tells us:
“Bravoman is based on the ‘Bravoman’ web comic, which is something we did to revive the classic game franchise from Japan. The voice cast is Rob Paulsen, Dee Bradley Baker, and Romi Dames.”
Jim Zub is the writer and Rob’s co-director and co-producer. See their trailer at YouTube.
Disney’s Lucasfilm Hints There Will Be A New Star Wars TV Series
Lucasfilm has announced a new direction in animated TV programming but they are giving no details. They say they will no longer supply new episodes of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” to Cartoon Network but they will continue on “new story arcs” that would appear as “bonus content.”
They are also exploring a whole new Star Wars series set in a time period previously untouched in Star Wars shows. Is that vague enough news for you?
Meanwhile, the NY Times suggests Lucasfilm might be planning to produce work for Disney XD, noting recently that “A cable channel that Disney aims at boys and contains a large amount of animated programming.” Lucasfilm also will delay Star Wars Detours, a planned animated comedy series.
Disney Stock Soars while Lucas Letterman Dives
While Disney's value reached over $60, incredible new highs, the company was also laying of LucasArts personnel at their flagship office in the Presidio, San Francisco to hemm in costs.
Indeed, in April, they retired about 150 people including many of their key 2-D animators as part of an ongoing effort to streamline operations. Other job losses were in home entertainment, distribution, and marketing. It sounds slightly innocent saying "home entertainment" rather than Disney's LucasArts game development department.
In fact, the newly acquired the video-game division will no longer develop their own products. Instead they will outsource them to developers who license the projects.
A news report was quite blunt in saying that Disney CEO Bob Iger ordered an internal audit and that audit resulted in layoffs as a way to cut costs. One paper of record noted, "The cost-saving measures come despite stellar financial performance as of late." As for the stock, in fiscal 2012 Disney shares rose 76 percent.
The future of 2-D animation at Disney certainly looks bleak as nine of the studios top 2D veterans were let go. Reports online varied as to who got the axe but apparently Eric Goldberg and Mark Henn will keep their jobs for the time being.
The Animation Guild said, "Other veterans are being called in to meetings to discuss pay cuts and/or buyouts." So much for rumors that John Lasseter was fighting to save hand-drawn animation. Guess, he lost the board room art war...
San Anselmo is putting up bronze statues of Yoda and Indiana Jones in a public park downtown. photo: Lucasfilms
Lucas to Share Wealth
Accepting George Lucas' offer to distribute funds to various communities, San Anselmo has accepted a contribute land, development money and bronze statues of Yoda and Indiana Jones for a public park covering a 8,700 sq. ft. lot in the downtown. Lucas will also pay for the demolition of an existing building but has already preserved a historic fresco that was in it.
The park will contain three "meandering" paths that will lead to a 15 ft. circular fountain. The fountain will contain the two bronze statues. Indiana Jones will be about 6 feet tall and Yoda about two feet. Similar Yoda fountains are located at the entrance to the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco and at George’s Big Rock Ranch, see here.
George has also proposed an extremely generous gift to the nation. He is offering to donate and endow the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum. It would house his large private collection of visual storytelling art.
It is one of 16 projects proposed for the Presidio’s former PX building (now rented by Sports Basement) and it would be an extension of Edutopia, his educational foundation, founded in 1991 to improve K-12 learning. The competition for the space includes a proposed technology center, a cultural center, the National New Deal Museum and 12 other worthy projects.
Who will get the space will be decided by the end of 2013. Lucas has a financial advantage as he will pay for the remodeling, construction, staffing etc. and donate a large endowment when it opens and bequest more upon his passing.
Biz Slows for Electronic Arts
After a slow couple of quarters at Electronic Arts, CEO John Riccitiello since 2007, has exited. Larry Probst who has been board chairman since 1994 and CEO from 1991 to 2007 will be acting CEO while they search for a new leader.
Riccitiello said he was leaving EA over “My accountability for the shortcomings in our financial results this year. It currently looks like we will come in at the low end of, or slightly below, the financial guidance we issued to the Street, and we have fallen short of the internal operating plan we set one year ago. And for that, I am 100 percent accountable."
EA is still a giant business, but their income is dropping due to competition with mobile devices and cheap or free online games. Their adjusted revenue of $1.18 billion for the last three months of 2012 was a 28 percent drop from the same period in 2011.
To add to their problems, in March 2013, they fumbled the launch of the new edition of SimCity. Many gamers were unable to log in to the online website promoting the game. That prompted some retailers to stop selling it.
Tippet Also Downsizes
A major VFX house in Berkeley, CA (“Starship Troopers,” “Ted,” “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn”), Tippett Studios announced they have laid-off 40% of their workforce on March 29th. The CEO says that if things remain the same there will be more layoffs. They had about 150 fulltime employees.
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The poster of 'From Up On Poppy Hill' a sophisticated anime that recently played the Embarcadero. photo: courtesy Studio Ghibli
From Up On Poppy Hill Opens
“From Up On Poppy Hill” by Studio Ghibli opened in early April at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema, San Francisco, and at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas, Berkeley.
The story is by Goro and Hayao Miyazaki and set in Yokohama in 1963, as Japan is recovering from the devastation of World War II and preparing to host the Olympics. The film tells the story of a high school couple’s innocent love and the secret surrounding their births.
The romance develops as they join forces to save their high school’s ramshackle clubhouse from demolition. It is the top-grossing Japanese film of 2011 and it won Japan’s Academy Award for Animation,
Animation Society Sponsors Careers In Animation
April 7th, ASIFA-SF presented ‘Careers In Animation’ for free at the Coppola Theater in the Fine Arts Building at San Francisco State University. It included classes from people with experience in stop-motion, 2D and 3D animation, games and in other areas.
The experts will include two staff members from Pixar, a veteran from the games and social networking industry, a stop-motion animator/director who has worked on all of Henry Selick’s features and an Emmy award winning freelance animator. They will answer as many questions as possible.
Animator Regina Pessoa with the poster from her film “Kali, the Little Vampire” at the SF International. photo: R. Pessoa
SF International Animation
Sunday April 28, 1 PM and Wednesday May 8, 9 PM, New People Cinema, “Shorts Program #3” Is A Selection Of Ten Animated Films For Adults The program includes two outstanding works that ASIFA-SF has shown that you will probably want to see again, “Tram” by Michaela Pavlatova and “Kali, the Little Vampire” by Regina Pessoa plus “Bite of the Tail” (Song E. Kim), “The Deep End” (Jake Fried), “The Event” (Julia Pott), “Eye on the Stars” (Mike and Tim Rauch), The Inn (Izu Troin), “Lumerence” (Miwa Matreyek), “Ruckus Juice” (Jennifer Deutrom) and “Social Satan” (Reuben Sutherland).
Sunday April 28, 12:30 PM and Wednesday, May 1 at 7 PM, Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the feature “Ernest And Celestine” From France, The Hollywood Reporter’s Cannes review was quite favorable. It said in part, “A delightfully old-fashioned kid’s flick with a meaningful message, “Ernest and Celestine” offers up yet another intriguing Euro alternative to your typical Hollywood 3D animated fare. Based on the popular children’s books by Gabrielle Vincent, this story of an improbable friendship between a deadbeat bear and a crafty mouse reps a solid sophomore effort from Belgian filmmakers Vincent Pater and Stephane Aubier (“A Town Called Panic”), who, along with co-director Benjamin Renner, have designed a clever and timeless tale that should reach select territories outside Francophonia… “Ernest and Celestine” gradually becomes a cautionary fable where friendship tries to stand the test of bigotry and intolerance.” There are 3 clips from it on YouTube.
Saturday May 4 at 6:45 PM, Monday May 6 at 8:45 PM (both at the Kabuki) and Thurs. May 9 at 3:30 PM (New People Cinema), “The Search For Emak Bakia,” This is a documentary about an experimental short by Man Ray considered, “far too personal and specific to entice the wider audience it deserves. This experimental documentary is a must for anyone who classes themselves as a cinephile. Rich in visually-alluring imagery and boasting an infectiously spirited approach, “The Search for Emak Bakia” is a surprisingly compelling love letter to an extraordinary director and his pioneering work.” The classic film and the documentary includes some stop-motion footage. From a review in CineVue.com A trailer is posted at http://vimeo.com/43305669.
Sunday May 6 at 10:30 AM (Kabuki) Shorts Program #6, Family Films. Includes “The Blue Umbrella,” a new Pixar short by Saschka Unseld. He will present a workshop for kids May 4.
Animation at ATA
Sat. April 27, 8:30 PM ANIMATION IN ACTION AT ATA with Jeremy Rourke on piano accompanying “3 extraordinary animations” including “Koko Goes Ghosting,” 1928; recent films by Martha Colburn, Nina Paley, Lewis Klahr and others directors, plus they will show a Thunderbird episode. 992 Valencia, $6
Animation at the Disney Museum
Saturday May 4, 10:00 AM, The Walt Disney Family Museum and the SF International Film Festival will present A Pixar Animation Workshop For Kids with Saschka Unseld. Includes a screening of “The Blue Umbrella,” a gallery visit and stop-motion activity.
Spectacular Light Show at New Exploratorium
The renoun "architectural animation" company Obscura Digital put on a spectacular light show on April 17 at the new Exploratorium museum on Pier 15. By invite only, it was spectaular and I'll write about the museum in the next ASIFA-SF Newsletter as I had a sneak peak at its amazing space full of wonderful exhibits.
"Almost all of our projection content for this event were analog! We made many physical facades of the front of the building and recorded 5k video of everything from melting wax and a cloud tank to live bugs worms and reptiles to time lapse of plants and crystals growing. And way more!" Josh from Obscura Digital told me.
Jewish Film in the Extreme
G-dcast is seeking animation students or recent grads for their paid six day Studio residency in SF in August. They are a small animation production company in SF and run a residency program for emerging Jewish animators currently enrolled as college or graduate students or who have graduated within three years of our program this August. They seek artists who work in any style (hand-drawn, digital 2D, stop motion, claymation), as long as you can bring your gear with you to San Francisco and can work quickly!
The six-day residency will focus on animated storytelling, filmmaking, and mobile app production. They are going to bring 10 student/alumni animators and storytellers, plus one coder and one illustrator, to our host site—the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco—to collaborate in making five animated shorts and one mobile app. These films and apps will be screened and used by their worldwide partners in classrooms, festivals and of course, online.
They expect to make 2D animations (most likely using Flash or After Effects) inspired by Jewish texts. Travel, room, and board are provided.
This residency will be an exciting opportunity to do collaborative, interpretive, rigorous animation work yielding a portfolio piece with high viewership. The residency will also provide an excellent opportunity for professional mentorship in the arts and an opportunity to participate in a highly innovative form of Jewish learning. Learn more here.
Their latest short, "The Mountain and the Cliff" was produced in 48 hours at the Jewish Funders Network conference in March, 2013. Several other shorts are on the studio website.
Karl Cohen is an expert on all forms of animation, the president of the San Francisco chapter of the international animation association (ASIFA), the author of the well-reviewed reference book, "Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators", a commercial and experimental filmmaker, a teacher and an author of 100s of articles, including some translated into a half-a-dozen languages. He can be reached .