“My Pal Geo” is awarded 2011 Excellence at the Canadian Intl Film Fest

My Pal Geo was honored with the Excellence Award for this year’s Canada International Film Festival

12 Days of Christmas on CNN

CNN will be doing a special 12 days of christmas video.  I was happy to participate and one of my animations…”3 French Hens” aired on CNN Thursday morning.  We’ll see what the final video actually looks like!

http://ireport.cnn.com/themes/custom/resources/cvplayer/ireport_embed.swf?player=embed&configPath=http://ireport.cnn.com&playlistId=523938&contentId=523938/0&

Great Article on Pixar’s process

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/process_pixar/all/1

courtesy of Wired Magazine

Appy Dreams wins award at Appalachian Film Fest

I was pleased to find that my film was a recipient of “Best Micro Film” at the 2010 Appalachian Film Fest in Huntington, WV.

Scott Simon’s how to tell a story (journalism)

Appalachian Dreams Film Screening

“Appalachian Dreams” is a celebration of upstate South Carolinian heritage and mountain culture. I received a grant from the South Carolina Film Commission to produce this film. Bill Nichols, the “founder” of contemporary clog dancing, is the star of the film. Bill has taught just about every contemporary clog instructor in the country. The film was shot on location at the Hagood Mill in Pickens, SC. The film is a combination of live action which was produced by the Fine Arts High School at Wade Hampton in Greenville, SC and 3D digital animation by Digital Production Arts grad students in Clemson University.

I wanted to combine the arts and crafts of southern Appalachian culture and merge it with the state of the art digital 3D animation technology to create an entertaining film that could spur interest in the art form of clogging and the cultural history of the Hagood mill. The music is an arrangement done by Ed Bolt the site manager of the mill who performs with a group of musicians an original form of of music called “Old Time Music” that predates Bluegrass. I hope to screen the film at festivals through out North America and the world and eventually on television like ETV and North Carolina Public TV and clogging festivals and workshops to generate interest and motivate kids to take up this wonderful dance. 

SYNOPSIS

An old clogger performs a traditional southern Appalachian clog dance to mountain music from a traditional bluegrass band. After a full evening of vigorous dance, the exhausted clogger returns to his cabin and removes his shoes before heading upstairs to bed. Once the old man retires upstairs, the clock ticks to a rhythm that is echoed with the wooden toy band on the mantel. The shoes starts to tap to the rhythm and soon the toy band breaks into a lively up beat tempo bluegrass jam. This causes the shoes to break into a lively jig that ultimately destroys the entire cabin awakening the old man and to his astonishment finds something else in those shoes!

Disney 2D/3D film

Not sure that I entirely believe this will work but it’s worth seeing…

http://www.geektyrant.com/2009/04/disney1/

Fish Heads

This music video established MTV as an innovative and radically new venue to showcase music. Heck, they even broadcast animation in the heyday including my stuff on cartoon sushi! Unfortunately, innovation cannot sustain itself and now MTV is just another vehicle for mainstream commercial music industry garbage. But thank god for youtube as you can find all the obscure videos to your hearts content.

Appalachian Dreams Film Project

This project was initially part of my Animated Appalachian Short Stories series.  I was fortunate enough to have the backing of Clemson and the South Carolina Film Commission.

http://fx.clemson.edu/appalachiandreams/2008/09/story-30.html

http://fineartscenter.net/AppDreamsFirstCut.mov

http://fx.clemson.edu/appalachiandreams/

http://www.blublu.org

http://www.blublu.org

Incredible animation done in a real world canvas!

Beloved Characters as Reimagined for the 21st Century

Interesting NY Times article

Sad state of affairs when Warner Bros. has to screw up classic characters to squeeze out every last penny.  Who cares about straw berrie short cake…but leave Bugs alone.  Can’t you just be happy with making $ from reruns?

New Tradition, Clip

This is just a clip of my latest animated film, “A New Tradition”.  And the youtube compression doesn’t do it much justice but it gives you a taste of the work.  The film is currently being submitted to festivals and recently played at the Buffalo Niagara Film Fest.

Donar Films on Animation World Network

Animation World Network has just started a new venue for short films, AWNTV. Please check out my films on this great site…

http://www.awntv.com/videos/nut

http://www.awntv.com/playlist/lol-lounge/espresso-depresso

Awn is one of the biggest sources for animation and news online. I feel it is a great place to showcase work and if you are lucky enough to have them review your work as they did for my film, Token Life.

festival04.mov