Daily drawing

I drew this one thinking about my dad doing his daily walk-up-the-stairs exercises, which he does to prepare for his annual week on the Appalachian Trail.

Daily drawing

Daily drawing

This was a music-based sketch I did for the possibility of hanging some art at Tree Sound Studios.

OAF flyer

I started this post by just putting that flyer up there that I made for OAF, and now I feel the urge to give some background!

OAF was a really important little group for some of us in college.

Maggie Ginestra, now living in St. Louis where she started a chapbook shop called Stirrup Pants, started OAF when we were in college at FSU and several OAFers are basically lifelong friends because of it.

The format was simple- each meeting started with a question (which was often off-the-wall or silly). Everyone had a title they could make up for themselves. Multiple titles were fine, too- Sean was like ten things. I was Animator then Historian/Archivist, and I think Cameron was Pilot. Then we shared art with one another- readings or drawings or music.

OAF is how I befriended Sean Jarrett, who did all the voices in my films "Chickenheads" and "Fluidtoons" and asked me to animate "Victory Remix" (see 'em at fluidtoons.com).

I also met William at OAF when I was transfixed when he read an excerpt from his "Scrap Cops" project. In William's reading he described a veteran cop (named "Big Hockey") showing a newbie cop a fully-assembled handgun in the bowl of a toliet in the men's room. "I ate that gun piece-by-piece and shat it out fully formed," Big Hockey told the newbie. The hilarity and bizarreness of that story has stuck with me since!! Was Big Hockey lying to the newbie to intimidate him, or was that kind of thing possible in the fictional William D. Tucker multiverse?

William lived in Atlanta for a little while and had a few gigs at Eyedrum, such as this one:



I also Graham Goodman through OAF! I already knew Bobby Z and Cameron from before OAF, but it was important for getting us closer.

Eventually we rented a house (Roberto found it), which had a shed in the backyard, and Bobby Z and Kevin and a few others cleared it out (it was totally full of stuff) and built benches and a stage. The Slusher St Theatre was born!



The plays we put on there were magical. There was "Prisoners of Gotham" (about Batman and the Joker), "Magnificent Forge", "Everybody Knows Time Machines are a Bad Idea", "Alcestis", Kate's musical... amazing.

We also had open houses, which were interesting- a mix of some amazing stuff and some regular stuff.

Eventually most of us left Tallahassee and turned the OAF house over to Tall Tom. Slusher St Theatre continued to be used, though no longer for poetry and plays but more for punk or rock shows.

One thing that I'm really proud of is Jean-Louis Costes performed his "Les Petits Oiseaux Chient" (Little Birds Shit) show at the OAF house in 2007! I caught it at Eyedrum in Atlanta and was blown away.





I drew on a wall in the bathroom- I'd intended to draw over all of the walls, but never did. Thankfully Diana sent me some pictures of it!

Here are a couple pictures I stole from the OAF house MySpace page:

Gram Goodman interviews Brett W. Thompson for The GRAMICLE.

Gram Goodman, a great buddy of mine from FSU and OAF (Organic Artists' Forum), has started a DIY publication called The GRAMICLE out in Texas where he's been working as a window washer, but he also makes incredible, energetic music (used to be available for free at grahamgoodman.com but it's been down for a while). He's also been doing some comics lately which I absolutely love. I might help him get some of his art back online in the future.

So Gram (sometimes known as Graham) interviewed me about ASIFA-Atlanta for The GRAMICLE; take a look, it was fun:

what is asifa-atlanta? tell us about the organization.

ASIFA-Atlanta is the local chapter of the worldwide animation society ASIFA, founded in Annecy, France in 1960. ASIFA's a French acronym: "association internationale du film d'animation".

Our particular chapter has been around for about ten years. We got started when a few female animators wanted to start a Women in Animation chapter. They approached Linda Simeksy (executive at Nick and Cartoon Network), whose reply was why not start a group for everyone first?

In 2005, the president of ASIFA-Atlanta, Lou Hertz, who had worked on Mr. Magoo, passed away, just months before I moved to Atlanta. Joe Peery, animation director at Turner Studios, heroically resurrected ASIFA-Atlanta, starting by picking up a cardboard box of ASIFA-related tapes and papers from Lou's.

Joe stepped down in Febuary 2008, though he still runs our weekly figure drawing class. I had already been running a few events at that point and been pretty involved, so I stepped up as president and have been doing it since then.

Now we have monthly screenings, weekly figure drawing, monthly workshops, and my favorite, monthly animation draws, where I bring light tables, stacks of paper, and markers to WonderRoot (community art center in Atlanta) and have people draw whatever they want, creating animation. It's on YouTube, actually- search for "ASIFA-Atlanta animation draw".

where are other hot spots for animation around the world?

ASIFA-Hollywood is our biggest chapter at the moment. They have an incredible thing there called the Animation Archive- they have a physical space, open to the public, in Burbank, where they have digitized over 5,000 films (most not available on DVD or VHS) and scanned over 50,000 animation-related drawings.

I was most excited about the long collection of thick binders that held all the storyboards for Ren & Stimpy, though. They welcome anyone to just stop by there and watch films and study drawings or storyboards. We're hoping to replicate the archive in Atlanta eventually but we need funding for it. They post samples at http://animationarchive.org/

They also do something called the Annie Awards, which is like the Oscars for animation, and actually influences the Oscars I think.

There are strong chapters all over the world, though, and most of us exchange films with one another for International Animation Day on October 28th. Israel, Brazil, Japan, Korea, France, and Greece have sent us really amazing, beautiful films. There was an animation from Bosnia- with a dragon rapping about drugs or something, totally not in English- that I particularly loved. We almost didn't put it in but I begged for it.

So Hollywood's the hot spot for commerical animation, but there's great independent animation coming from all over. New York City seems to have a higher-than-normal collection of extremely talented independent animators, though: Bill Plympton, Nina Paley, John Dilworth, Signe Baumane, Rauch Brothers, etc. NYC has a fantastic scene, and I was even going to try to move there because I wanted to work on Superjail! so badly with Christy Karacas and Aaron Augenblick.

how is asifa funded?

Great question!

I think most chapters stay alive via their membership dues. Our dues are pretty cheap and we don't have a ton of members, so we have to make money other ways- actually, tonight we have a big art opening / music show / party that should raise some funds. We do this every year and it's our biggest money-maker.

Last year we had our annual art show / party at Eyedrum and the parking lot was completely packed, which to me means it was a success. We're having it at WonderRoot this year, which is a lot smaller, so I hope it works out! WonderRoot has been tremendously helpful- I didn't have to do nearly as much work this year, which was a huge relief, because last year was a bit difficult to put together.

Sometimes we make a little bit of money from screenings, but it's almost just as likely that we'll lose money from a screening. I actually really like to put on free screenings- we don't charge for International Animation Day at the High Museum of Art, for instance, and I like that.

I'm working on getting us non-profit status, though, so we'll be eligible for government grants and tax-deductible donations. It's just taking forever.

I believe some of the other chapters get government grants; Europe in particular seems to be more supportive of the arts, which is lovely and makes me want to move there. Their festivals don't usually have submission fees and they'll give filmmakers grants to make films. It's amazing.

what are animation artists that you like?

I just discovered the work of Phil Mulloy thanks to my girlfriend Hannah. I think his "Cowboys" series is hilarious and brilliant. You can find some of it on YouTube I think.

I admire Nina Paley so much- her feature film, "Sita Sings the Blues", is free, as in, released under Creative Commons (www.sitasingstheblues.com). So anyone can show it and even charge for it. She's made about $50,000 in donations, merch, etc, which I think is incredible. It's actually amazing that she animated a feature film by herself in the first place, really.

I also admire Don Hertzfeldt for working on paper and for making a living doing independent animation without being accountable to a client or big corporation.

I really love Nick Cross' work too, he has a delightful old-cartoony look. He worked for John Kricfalusi years ago I believe.

where do you see the future of animation?

This year there were three stop-motion animated features released: Coraline, Mary & Max, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I'm not a huge fan of the perfection of CGI, so I'm hoping that animation that makes use of real stuff will continue to grow. Mary & Max in particular did almost everything in-camera. It's a beautiful film.

I'm also hoping that there will be more people like Nina Paley who will create independent films on their own. Big budget features can be great, especially for employing a lot of people, but I wonder what kind of film one of those guys who's just a cog in the pipeline might make on his own.

With Flash and YouTube, I think it's leveling the playing field a bit, so someone can make something like a funny gay unicorn cartoon and have it seen by tons of people. I think this is exciting- not only do you have gay unicorn cartoons, you also have films like MUTO by BLU, which is breathtaking- you might have seen it- crazy animation on walls, like on the side of a building at one point. Bobby Z called me up immediately when he saw it for the first time!

how has animation evolved in your lifetime?

Great question, Graham!!

When I was a kid, I didn't see a lot of independent animation, though I did see Jan Svankmajer's "Darkness Light Darkness" on PBS, taped it, and watched the shit out of it. Today I've recently gone to France, China, and Portugal for animation festivals where they show all kinds of stuff. When I was a kid, there was the TV, movie theater, or video store- I didn't even know about festivals, and there certainly wasn't YouTube or Vimeo or BitTorrent.

There was Liquid Television, though, and Spike & Mike, and there was a good video store in my neighborhood (Video 21). But now it's so much easier to see different animation, because of the Internet and because of my involvement with ASIFA.

The biggest change I've seen so far in my lifetime has been the rise of 3D CGI animation, and also the rise of cheap Adult Swim-style animation.

anything else?
You can see my work at www.fluidtoons.com. ASIFA-Atlanta has a website at www.asifa-atlanta.com.

Thanks so much for the interview, Graham!!

What's happening in this drawing?

Let me know what you think is happening in this drawing and perhaps someday I'll animate it!

What would you say is going on in this picture? Or any of the others, for that matter!

Daily Drawing

I'd like to start posting a drawing almost every day. Here's another:

More drawings

Drawings

I've been going through some old drawings- here are two samples:

Sample from today's Animation Draw

By Cameron and Catherine!

Random drawing

I'm going through some old photos and am coming across some work I forgot about. Here's one:

Uncle Paul's Story Time Part 1

Shitty Bedford, one of my favorite artists alive today, has recently begun posting on YouTube. I wasn't involved with this particular video- in fact it was shot by Sirius Bee- but I find it most amusing:

Hannah video from Xiamen

Cameron and Brett jam

Thanks to my lovely and amazing teacher Nirvana, I'm able to barely play some very basic viola.

Thanks to Bradley for having Cameron and myself over, we were able to jam, which felt wonderful. I loved playing music with my close friends so much!

Thanks to Catherine, there's a video of us jamming.

I felt so encouraged after this that I hauled my viola on my trip to Cinanima in Portugal, though I didn't actually practice at all (bad!).

Anyway, here is Cameron and me jamming:



My pinky is not proper (it should be bent, not stiff and straight) and my posture isn't so good either, but I love how Cameron and I sound together.

Xiamen 2009

As an ASIFA international board member, I was invited to the second annual Xiamen animation festival, where I gave a talk on early American animation.

Here's a photo:



I have some footage as well.



Lots more pictures from Xiamen

Thanks to Anni and Jonchill of ASIFA-China for inviting us!

International Animation Day 2009

International Animation Day

Wednesday, October 28th, 8pm, FREE

High Museum of Art Rich Auditorium

Click here to reserve a free ticket!

Also, thanks to Linda Dubler at the High Museum of Art and Jay Blodgett, our ever-reliable and amazing secretary of ASIFA-Atlanta, we have a lovely article about the event:

International Animation Day article

Animation Draw 5 (silent)

Once a month at WonderRoot, we bring light tables, paper, and markers and animate on paper- our monthly "Animation Draw" event!

Animation Draw 6 was today; here is Animation Draw 5, just shot and uploaded:



When it's ready, I'll post the version with the soundtrack.

Post by Harvey Deneroff about "Georgia Animation on My Mind"

Yay!! Harvey posted about "Georgia Animation on My Mind", which was a great event- a collaboration between ASIFA-Atlanta and Society for Animation Studies:

http://deneroff.com/blog/2009/09/25/georgia-animation-on-my-mind-qa/

Thanks Harvey!!

Atlanta Flood Pictures

I saw some of the flooding as I drove home from work- I truly wish I'd gotten some more pictures, but perhaps it was safer to avoid my compulsion to document. Anyway, here are the few I did snap while driving.

This was Moreland Ave:







I turned around when I saw this one:



But I drove through this one:



The wave from a car going the opposite direction hit my front bumper with a thump!

Many more pictures from other people at the Atlanta Flood 2009 Flickr Pool.

VAMMOPHONE FRANK SAX ONE

Beautiful video directed by Shitty Bedford, who also invented the VAMMOPHONE FRANK SAX ONE, available for only $200

Professor Spitwash played by yours truly, Brett W. Thompson

Society for Animation Studies / ASIFA-Atlanta "Georiga Animation on my Mind", Q&A part 1

Thanks to Ian Nathanson for filming!

ASIFA-Atlanta Animation Draw 4, with sound

Bowling!

I love bowling!

We went recently as a fun day for work, and Walter took this video:

ASIFA-Atlanta Animation Draw 4 (silent!)

Version with soundtrack coming soon!

Society for Animation Studies / ASIFA-Atlanta "Georiga Animation on my Mind", July 10th, 2009: Introduction

Ian Nathanson was kind enough to film my introduction to the Society for Animation Studies Conference 2009 / ASIFA-Atlanta screening "Georiga Animation on my Mind", which was at the High Museum of Art on July 10th, 2009.

Here it is; many thanks to Harvey Deneroff who asked me to curate this show!

Animation Draw lengths on a graph

I just finished shooting Animation Draw 4 (it just needs some music!), and I wondered how much longer it was in comparison to the previous ones.

So I put the lengths (in seconds) into Google Spreadsheets and made this little graph!

It'll be interesting to see how Animation Draw 5 goes, which is August 22nd at WonderRoot, 2pm-7pm (that's this Saturday).

Animation Attack! 2009

Animation Attack! 2009 schedule available now!

Article Mentioning "Sita Sings the Blues" in Montezuma

Last November, I helped out with the Montezuma International Film Festival. Montezuma, Costa Rica is incredibly beautiful and relaxing, although if you're running a festival you have to keep in mind where you are and take time to enjoy yourself- my tendency was to worry and work too much! I did fall asleep on the beach once, though, and had a blast hula-hooping...

Anyway, one way I contributed was getting ahold of Sita Sings the Blues for the festival, and it was quite popular! Consequently, we ended up showing it a few extra times. The lady who owns and runs a health-food restaurant there, Organico, particularly loved the film.

At the time, Nina Paley hadn't given the film away yet- she only had festival rights, so it was even more special to see. Explaining the copyright situation after one of the screenings, an older lady immediately offered to donate to Nina's cause!

A very sweet writer named Brit interviewed Eric and me and wrote this lovely article about "Sita Sings the Blues" and the Montezuma International Film Festival:

Montezuma Alights, Curtain Calls and All.

Brit said "see you next year!" as we parted, but I'm already using all my vacation time on animation festivals (Annecy and Xiamen), so I don't know if I'll make it...

But it was fun to unearth that article, I'd forgotten about it!

Mail Trends

This is my email volume over the years, generated by mail-trends.

ASIFA-Atlanta "Gather Atlanta" video

ASIFA-Atlanta "Roll Yer Own" 2009 Program

ASIFA-Atlanta Animation Draw 1

Next Animation Draw: June 20th, 2pm, at WonderRoot! No experience necessary- I'll bring paper and light tables, come and draw!

Late Night Chess at Majestic

I met some awesome dudes at Majestic who were playing chess- we got to talking and they pulled up fluidtoons.com on an iPhone. I snapped this picture which I love!

Chickenheads, by the way, is now on IMDB, also!

ASIFA-Atlanta "Roll Yer Own" awards and "Blowin' Smoke"

The latest mass-email to ASIFA-Atlanta folks:

Hello animation fan!

Thanks so much to everyone who came to Roll Yer Own!! Especially those who were generous enough to donate a buck or two, we truly appreciate it!!

ASIFA-Atlanta "Roll Yer Own" 2009 Awards:

The "Best of Show" award went to "Stubbe Peter" by Kristin Jarvis.

The "Audience Choice" award went to "Cornpopalypse" by Maurice VandenBergh II.

Winners receive a free year's membership to ASIFA-Atlanta.

This was the first year we did awards; here's how they were picked: the night before "Roll Yer Own" we held a pre-screening and debated about which film to give the "Best in Show" award to, and we picked Kristin's. For the "Audience Choice" award, we received 70 votes (thank you voters!); "Cornpopalypse" won with fourteen votes, and "Gypsy Crepes" came in second with nine votes. "As Seen on TV" was third with six votes.

Thanks to all filmmakers for submitting, and thanks to those who helped, particularly John Cason for the beautiful flyer, Karl Sigler for the DVD authoring, Cameron Stuart for everything, Takuro Masuda for working the door, and Bryan Fordney, Fatimah Abdullah, and Joel Rose for being on the award committee.

Our next big event is "Blowin' Smoke", showcase of locally-produced commercial animation, June 28th at 8pm at Five Spot, free:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brett_w_thompson/3573748383/

We are seeking volunteers to help with Gather Atlanta on June 6th. Please email me if you're interested.

Upcoming animation-related events (also on the calendar on our blog, asifa-atlanta.blogspot.com):

Gather Atlanta at Eyedrum on June 6th, 5pm
Art community gathering, www.gatheratlanta.com

Animation Workshop at Manuel's Tavern on Sunday, June 14th at 7pm
Monthly workshop; see http://atl-animators.org

Animation Draw at WonderRoot on June 20th, 2pm
Collaborative animation; paper and light-tables provided, no experience necessary, come and draw! Example resulting film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MShJo_RBF4I

Blowin' Smoke at Five Spot on June 28th, 8pm, free
Free showcase of commercial animation made by local studios!

Society for Animation Studies Screening at High Museum of Art on July 10th, 8pm, free
Free ASIFA-Atlanta showcase of local animation for the SAS conference; http://blog.scad.edu/sasc/schedule/

Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation at Plaza, June 26th to July 2nd

Figure Drawing every Thursday 8-10pm at Westwood College, $5

Thanks so much!

-Brett W. Thompson, President of ASIFA-Atlanta

I liked the bowling picture so much I think I may start to post more pictures.

The one above is typical hilarity at Bradley's. He gave me that jean vest to wear, which actually has Betty Boop on the back. Notice the ThoughtMarker shirt, too!

Thank you Jeremy Abernathy!

Oh my!!

I blushed so much when I read this! I'm overwhelmed:

http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/culturesurfing/2009/05/20/feminismanimation-mixer-on-thursday/

A billion thanks to Jeremey Abernathy of Ghostmap Microwave for the kind words!!! He was also one of the participating artists in ASIFA-Atlanta's first Animaiton Draw.

Also: don't forgot about ASIFA-Atlanta's "Roll Yer Own" showcase of independent animation at the Five Spot, May 31st, 8:30pm, free! We got a ton of great submissions to show!

Bowling

I hadn't gone bowling in forever; a few of us went recently, and it was a blast, haha! It's a ridiculous game isn't it? Cameron snapped this picture of me which I love:

ASIFA-Atlanta "Roll Yer Own" 2009

ASIFA-Atlanta Presents
"Roll Yer Own"
Independent Local Animation

May 31st 8:30pm
Five Spot
No Cover

Submit at www.asifa-atlanta.com

(beautiful flyer design by John Cason)

ASIFA-Atlanta Google Groups

Recently I moved two of the big ASIFA-Atlanta email lists over to Google Groups! Thanks to Jason Welte of Kintovision for suggesting we use Google Groups a while back! It's making things significantly easier (we have a bunch of email addresses).

Please subscribe if you're interested; this first list is our general ASIFA-Atlanta and animation-related news email list, which currently gets about one or two emails from me per month, mostly promoting our animation screenings and related events.


Subscribe to ASIFA-Atlanta Announcement Email List

Email:

The second list here is for the ASIFA-Atlanta figure drawing class, currently happening every Thursday night from 8pm-10pm at Westwood College. It's five bucks and is a great way to meet fellow artists and animators (I've made several good friends there over the years, e.g. Jert). It gets one or two emails per week. Joe Peery still runs the figure drawing class, yay!



Subscribe to ASIFA-Atlanta Figure Drawing Email List

Email:

ASIFA-Atlanta Animation Draw 1

Charles Judson from Atlanta Film Festival encouraged us to try this out, and we did- it was a blast!

We set up four light tables and piles of paper and makers at the Independent on April 18th as part of the Atlanta Film Festival.

Here's the result:



We're going to have another one on May 16th at WonderRoot at 3pm!! Come and draw!

Update: Cameron did a soundtrack for me! Updated the video! :)

International Pillow Fight Day

Photo by jack_babalon


Photo by Mike Germon

ASIFA-Atlanta Report of Activities

ASIFA-International puts together a magazine that goes to all our members all over the world. Each chapter usually sends a report of what they've been up to for each issue. Many thanks to Ray Kosarin for the editing!

Here's our latest update:

ASIFA-Atlanta continues to be very active, thanks to the dedication of our volunteers and board. Recently we've been working more with other organizations, such as Society for Animation Studies, whose conference will be held in July at Savannah College of Art and Design's Atlanta campus as well as at the High Museum of Art. Harvey Deneroff, professor at SCAD-Atlanta and one of the founders of SAS, asked us to present a program of excellent local animation, which we are working on now.

ASIFA-Atlanta is also working with the Center for Puppetry Arts--we helped spread the word about a night of stop-motion films, curated by Alan Louis, which included shorts such as Harvie Krumpet and was very well attended.. ASIFA-Atlanta members received a discount on admission, and ASIFA-Atlanta screening coordinator Karl Sigler compiled the DVD that was shown.

Our most recent event was a special fund-raising screening of the beautiful and increasingly famous film, Sita Sings the Blues. We were absolutely delighted to show this film, for which we booked the larger of two screens available in Atlanta's historic Plaza theater. ASIFA-Atlanta president Brett W. Thompson gave a short introduction, which was followed by the trailer for Monster Road, the documentary on Bruce Bickford scheduled for a subsequent screening at the Center for Puppetry Arts. The Center has arranged for director Brett Ingram to attend and do a Q&A afterward!

Following the trailer, we showed a special video introduction that Nina Paley very generously recorded for us! She explained some background about the film, including its copyright issues, and announced how it has been released under Creative Commons, which means anyone can copy, publish, show, or remix the film. She also gave shout-outs to ASIFA-Atlanta's volunteer projectionist Bryan Fordney, Karl Sigler, and president Brett W. Thompson, as well as the ASIFA-Atlanta Board and door volunteers. Many thanks to Nina Paley for all her help, and to the Plaza for being so accomodating!

Exactly a week after Sita Sings the Blues, "PSST! 3" showed at the Plaza, coordinated by participant and Atlanta local Calvin Florian. "PSST! 3" is a diverse, creative series of collaborative short films made by many participants over the last year, and AISFA-Atlanta promoted this excellent event.

ASIFA-Atlanta's plans for the rest of 2009 include "Roll Yer Own", our annual showcase of local independent animated film; "Blowin' Smoke", the commerical counterpart to "Roll Yer Own"; "Animation Attack!", part of the Atlanta Underground Film Festival; and of course International Animation Day, which we always love. We are also very proud to be participating in the SAS conference.

As usual, we are continuing our recurring events, which include Joe Peery's weekly figure drawing class at Westwood College and the monthly Animators' Workshop at Manuel's Tavern, run by Karl Sigler.

Brett W. Thompson

Animation tomorrow at Plaza: PSST! 3

Tomorrow night (Wednesday, March 18th), at 7:30pm, PSST! 3 will be showing at Plaza! (1049 Ponce De Leon Ave).

We have local participant Calvin Florian to thank for bringing it to Atlanta.

Check out the trailer to see what it's all about; the variety of styles is awesome:

http://vimeo.com/3021486

More info below; hope to see you there!

PSST!3 is a collaborative film project of 17 films made by 51 teams of Designers, Directors, Animators and Composers.

The mission of PSST is to produce original short films through the collaboration of Designers, Directors, and Animators. Each film is comprised of three sections produced by three different teams: the beginning, middle & end. This process is the whole idea behind PSST! – a technique derived from the Dadaist game of Exquisite Corpse and the children's game Telephone and applied to the arts of motion graphics, animation and film-making.

PSST! is curated and organized by Bran Dougherty-Johnson of Grow Design
Work. This event is being organized by participant and Atlanta local Calvin
Florian.

For more information on the event contact: Calvin Florian at
calvin.florian@turner.com or by phone 404.840.8438

Thanks,

-Brett W. Thompson, President of ASIFA-Atlanta

ASIFA-Atlanta's first mention in Creative Loafing

I've always wanted our events to be mentioned in Creative Loafing.

Thanks to Jeremy Abernathy of Ghostmap Microwave, my dream came true!

Creative Loafing Post about "Sita Sings the Blues"

Jeremy thoroughly researched the film- the post is very informative.

Last night's screening was awesome and probably one of our smoothest-running. I think we're getting the hang of things, having done this a few times now. The Plaza was tremendously helpful (please support them, they are really, really good guys there) and our volunteers did great (Alena, Bryan, Fatimah, and Sandee)!! Big huge thanks to everyone who came out!

I might write more about the experience in the future (possibly a five-minute guide to how to put on a film event?), but I was so excited about the Creative Loafing post I had to mention that immediately.

"Sita Sings the Blues" in Atlanta!

ASIFA-Atlanta presents "Sita Sings the Blues"

7:30 PM
March 11th, 2009
$8 for ASIFA-Atlanta members
$10 for everyone else

Plaza Theatre
1049 Ponce de Leon

www.asifa-atlanta.com for tickets

Lots of great animation to see in Atlanta!

Hi animation fan!

ASIFA-Atlanta is proud to announce that we've just booked the Plaza for March 11th, at 7:30pm, to show the award-winning animated feature, "Sita Sings the Blues"!

Please take a look at a clip here:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/brewtv/sita.html

We are still working out the details, but ASIFA-Atlanta members will receive a discount on tickets, and we'll need a couple volunteers. Please spread the word about this film if you can- the screening will be a fundraiser for Nina Paley, the filmmaker, who has gone into debt to make the film and battle copyright issues with it (see www.ninapaley.com for more).

Then, on March 28th at 8pm, the Center for Puppetry Arts will be showing "Monster Road", the fascinating documentary about famous animator Bruce Bickford! The director, Brett Ingram, will do a Q&A afterwards. Don't miss it!

Details here:

http://www.puppet.org/edu/monsterfilm.shtml

Tomorrow (Friday), "Coraline" opens in theaters nationwide! Based on a story by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas"), it's sure to be good.

Movie times for "Coraline":

http://www.google.com/movies?hl=en&near=30307&sort=3&date=1&mid=fca776a747bbba0

Award-winning "Waltz with Bashir" is currently playing at Midtown Art Cinema! It's an animated documentary (very unique!) about director Ari Folman's experience as an Israeli soldier; I'm really excited that it's playing in Atlanta because I've been dying to see it for a while. It should be showing at least until Febuary 12th.

Here is the film's official website:

http://waltzwithbashir.com/

And an article about it at AWN:

http://mag.awn.com/?article_no=3865

Also at Midtown Art Cinema, on Febuary 20th, the "Oscar-nomated Animated Shorts" will be shown! Films include Lavatory - Lovestory (Russia), Oktapodi (France), Le Maison en Petits Cubes (Pieces of Love, Vol. 1) (Japan), Smith & Foulkes' This Way Up (UK) and Pixar's Presto (USA), plus a bonus selection of highly acclaimed recent shorts.

This Sunday there is an Animators' Workshop at Manuel's Tavern, at 7pm, in the Eagle's Nest. See http://www.atl-animators.org to keep up with the workshop.

Also, as usual, we have our weekly figure-drawing class at Westwood College! It's every Thursday from 8-10pm and is $5.

Take care!

-Brett W. Thompson, President of ASIFA-Atlanta
brett@fluidtoons.com

"27 for CK"

ASIFA-Atlanta 2008 Report of Activities

I just sent the following to the ASIFA International board. Their plan is to post it on asifa.net.

We've had a busy year!!

ASIFA-Atlanta 2008 Report of Activities

ASIFA-Atlanta had a fantastic 2008, featuring animators from our local chapter and throughout the world, including those who participated in ASIFA's International Animation Day.

We started the year in February with our first-ever screening on film (16mm), "To Hell With Hitler", a selection of WWII-era American propaganda cartoons, curated by C. Martin Croker. The screening took place at Atlanta's historical Plaza cinema.

In April, ASIFA-Atlanta helped to promote Atlanta Film Festival's "Animation Extravaganza" night, and ASIFA-Atlanta President Brett W. Thompson did an introduction and Q&A.

In May, we held our annual "Roll Yer Own" event, which showcases locally-produced independent animation. This year featured a wide range of techniques--for instance Moviekiss: The Lite Brite Video, animated with a Lite Brite toy; Knight vs Knight, animated on a TI-86 graphing calculator; and Bee Bog, animated traditionally and composited with AfterEffects. The event was very well attended and successful; the filmmakers were invited on stage afterwards for a Q&A.

In July, for our annual event "Blowin' Smoke," Atlanta animation studios showcased their best commercial work and generously took time to talk to eager animators seeking advice and employment. Participating studios included Primal Screen, Radical Axis, Turner Studios, and 70/30.

"Animation Attack!", part of the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, was perhaps our biggest event and occurred in August. We showed an animated feature, John's Arm: Armageddon, and two blocks of world-class animated shorts at Atlanta's historic Plaza Theatre. Films included Aaron Augenblick's Golden Age, Mathieu Labaye's Orgesticulanismus, Max Margulies and Naoko Masuda's God of Tears, and Tim Rauch's film Germans in the Woods.

ASIFA-Atlanta was very proud to celebrate International Animation Day on October 28th at the High Museum of Art's Hill Auditorium. It is one of our favorite events and makes us grateful to be a part of the worldwide animation community- we were happy to be able to exchange films with ten countries. About 400 people came to the two showings, and the positive feedback we received from the audience was overwhelming and wonderful. Thanks to Juliette Crochu for coordinating IAD this year.

In November, ASIFA-Atlanta brought Don Hertzfeldt to Atlanta as part of his tour for his latest film, I am so proud of you. Our screening coordinator Karl Sigler introduced the program and did a great Q&A with Don.

Finally, to finish 2008, in December ASIFA-Atlanta put together an art show, the theme of which was the Golden Age of Comics/Cartoons. Thirty-seven artists created sixty-five pieces of art which were on display in the Eyedrum's gallery space for over a month. The opening night for the art show was very well attended (Eyedrum's parking lot filled up) and featured music from local bands Omelet, The Falcon Lords, The Back Pockets, and Floating Coats.

For 2009, ASIFA-Atlanta is proud to have partnered with Atlanta's Center for Puppetry Arts to help their new film series, curated by Alan Louis. The series will include an evening of stop motion films as well as a screening of "Monster Road", the documentary about Bruce Bickford.

ASIFA-Atlanta will continue to have exciting events in 2009, as well as continue our recurring events, which include a weekly figure drawing class (run by Joe Peery) and the monthly Animators' Workshop, run by our screening coordinator Karl Sigler.

-Brett W. Thompson, President of ASIFA-Atlanta

Obituary: Brett W. Thompson (not me)

I'm still very much alive :)

But somebody with my name remarkably similar to mine isn't, anymore, sadly:

http://archive.deseretnews.com/archive/1143883/Obituary-Brett-W-Thompson.html

Thank you Google Alerts!

Also: Saturday, January 17th, come to An Evening of Stop-Motion Animation at the Center for Puppetry Arts at 8pm!

ASIFA-Atlanta thanks you! Plus: animation-related news!

Below is a mass email I sent out about ASIFA-Atlanta's show and other animation news I've collected for the past couple weeks:

Hello animation fan!

Thanks so much to everyone who helped make our first annual art show / music show / party a big success- volunteers, artists, musicians, and those who came out to support us!

We filled up Eyedrum's parking lot, had awesome art and music, and raised some money for ASIFA-Atlanta so we can keep doing exciting things in 2009!

Jerry Fuchs (aka "Fooksie") wrote about his experience, complete with pictures:

http://www.fooksie.com/news.html

I've started a Flickr group for anyone to upload photos from the night; so far, we have pictures from Jerry Fuchs, myself, Savannah, and Bianca Butler; the pictures are a bit unsorted but there's a lot there to look at:

http://flickr.com/groups/929092@N24/

If the show had been a film, these would be the credits; thank you to:

- All our artists, without whom there wouldn't be a show at all
- All our performers and musicians: William Tucker, Floating Coats, The Back Pockets, Omelet, and Falcon Lords
- Alena Spragg for getting the whole thing started and printing posters, getting snacks, helping with dropoff, emails, Facebook, etc etc
- Jennifer Barclay, Aubrey Longley-Cook and Mikel, who did an amazing job hanging all the art (didn't it look nice?)
- Jennifer for the delicious pie and beautiful ASIFA-Atlanta flyers and for the sign for the show
- All our door volunteers, which is something I always greatly appreciate: Alena, Jillian Fratkin, Sandee Chamberlain, Robert Paraguassu, and Mollie Brock
- Our videographers: Bryan Fordney and Sean Jarrett
- Our photographer: Bianca Butler
- Jay Blodgett for the mass emails and for making artist submission form
- Jess Blankenship from Eyedrum for all the Eyedrum help and art show guidance
- Nathan Brown from Eyedrum who did a tremendous job with sound and setting up the projector

Our next scheduled event is An Evening of Stop-Motion Puppet Films at Center for Puppetry Arts (http://puppet.org/) on Saturday, Jan 17, 2009, 8pm. ASIFA-Atlanta is proud to be helping with this event!

Come enjoy the end result of countless hours of painstaking puppet manipulation captured on film one frame at a time as we celebrate an evening of stop-motion puppet animation. The evening includes Adam Elliot's Academy Award-winning Harvie Krumpet from Australia, Haunted Hogmanay from Ko-Lik Films of Scotland, as well as gems from Ray Harryhausen and Screen Novelties International, Barry Purves and Corky Quakenbush.
Location: Mainstage Theater
Cost: $7; $5 Center Members

Just a couple days later, the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (http://www.ajff.org/) will be showing Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist, at Lefont Sandy Springs, on Monday, Jan 19, 2009, 4:40pm. It's possible a representative from ASIFA-Atlanta will introduce the film and do a Q&A. This will be the Atlanta premiere of the film, which is a documentary on Will Eisner. Mark Mayerson writes about it here:

http://mayersononanimation.blogspot.com/2008/05/will-eisner-portrait-of-sequential.html

Speaking of premieres, Delgo was released to theatres on December 12th! This indepenent animated feature was created here in Atlanta by Fathom Studios. It screened at Annecy as well as the Red Stick Animation Festival in Baton Rogue. It also won Best Animated Feature at the Anima Mundi Film Festival in Brazil. I'd love to see more independent animated features produced with local talent!

Atlanta Film Festival is seeking entries, especially good animation. ASIFA-Atlanta will be involved with the festival's animation night; if you have a good film, please submit! The last deadline is January 9, 2009. Details here:

http://atlantafilmfestival.com/index.php/Submissions/2009-Call-For-Entries.html

Local teen Jabril Mack, 15, won the 2008 Nickelodeon Greater Creator Award for his entry "Chicken Herder", which competed with over a thousand other entries! Article here:

http://www.11alive.com/rss/rss_story.aspx?storyid=124424

And the film itself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90SnATFREPw

John Ryan, ASIFA-Atlanta board member and head of local studio Dagnabit! sent me their holiday card to share with everyone:

http://www.dagnabit.tv/2008Xmas/

We'll be having an ASIFA-Atlanta board meeting sometime soon to plan for 2009.

Here's what we have so far for 2009:

- Figure Drawing every Thursday at Westwood College
- Monthly Animation Workshop at Manuel's Tavern
- Monthly Boozer Doodle

- "An Evening of Stop-Motion" on Jan. 17th

- "Monster Road", documentary on Bruce Bickford, at Center for Puppetry Arts in March

- Atlanta Film Festival's "Animation Extravaganza" in April
- "Roll Yer Own" in May
- "Blowin' Smoke" in July
- "Animation Attack!" in August
- "International Animation Day" in October
- "Gallery Show" in December

More to come!

Take care and thanks for an amazing year!

-Brett W. Thompson, President of ASIFA-Atlanta

Collabamation with Em Kempf

"brettem"



I helped Em set up iStopMotion and her Canon ZR850, and we created this film together! She's much more experienced with this kind of animation than me, and is more spontaneous, but she's also inspiring! Music by The Back Pockets.

Thanks Em!

See her blog or her YouTube page for more of her work.

Blast from the Past: Review of "Fluidtoons" from 2006

Thanks to Google Alerts, I found an old review of "Fluidtoons" from when it screened at the 2006 Atlanta Film Festival!

Brandon liked it:

http://deeperintomovies.net/journal/archives/47

Makes me want to make more Fluidtoons and/or be in Atlanta Film Festival again. Thank you Brandon! :)

Fluidtoons are the easiest type of animation for me to do- around 2004, I figured out the very very basics of Flash and just started drawing and tracing, doing little straight-ahead animation exercises that eventually I assembled into "Fluidtoons" for the 2004 IFL screening at FSU, at the encouragement of my friend Cameron... I definitely wasn't going to submit anything, not having made any live action film, but Cameron said, "Why don't you put together some of these animations you've been doing?" It was at that screening it won the audience choice award! I had never experienced sitting in a theatre seeing people laugh at my animation before. It was quite a trip!

A couple years later, Joe Peery (my ASIFA-Atlanta predecessor and mentor) and Ward Jenkins saw it at the Animation Slam at the Earl in 2006, and liked it so much that it won somehow, and was entered into the Atlanta Film Festival. I met some important folks at that Slam: Joanna Davidovich and pretty much the entire Lillie B Ross Society, a member of whom (John Cason) now does beautiful graphic design for ASIFA-Atlanta flyers.

ASIFA-Atlanta Golden Age of Comics/Cartoons Show

Awesome press release written by Jay, ASIFA-Atlanta secretary! Flyer by John Cason!



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ASIFA-ATLANTA, IN ASSOCIATION WITH EYEDRUM PRESENTS
ART INSPIRED BY THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS/CARTOONS

OPENING, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6th, 8pm - 11pm
EYEDRUM GALLERY
290 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DRIVE SOUTH
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 30312
(404) 522-0655

ATLANTA, GA - ASIFA-Atlanta, in association with Eyedrum, is proud to present its first annual ASIFA-Atlanta Art Show. In keeping with the spirit of ASIFA, the collection of work by its members is inspired by the Golden Age of Comics and Cartoons. There promises to be an exceptional display of character driven and humorous pieces that is indicative of the work being produced by Atlanta's animation community. The collection will feature contributions from over three dozen artists. (A partial list of artists is attached below.) The majority of pieces displayed will also be available for sale.

The show will be on display at Eyedrum Gallery with the following schedule:

Opening, Saturday, December 6th, 8pm - 11pm; ($7 admission; Free for Eyedrum Members, ASIFA Members and Participating Artists)

Regular gallery hours are:
Fridays (3:00pm - 8:00pm)
Saturdays and Sundays (1:00pm - 6:00pm), through December 28th.

Additionally, the Opening Night of the Gallery Show will feature food, drinks and live music performances by Omelet, The Back Pockets, Floating Coats, and The Falcon Lords. (Music contacts and further info is attached below.)

Promotional art (original poster design by John Cason) is attached and is also available for download at:

http://flickr.com/photos/brett_w_thompson/2851664966/

Partial list of artists:

Paige Adair, Deirdre Aims, Alex App, Joel Ball, Jonathan Bass, Andrew Bellury, Ryan Bousquet, Bianca Butler, John Cason, Aubrey Longley-Cook, Almon Ray Crosby, Chris Diamond, Jason Desilva, eggtooth, Lindsey Elcessor, Thom Foolery, Jerry Fuchs, jert, Amanda Goodbread, Kat Hagan, Merill Hagan, Chris Hamer, Ambrose Hoilman, Em Kempf, Josh Latta, Laurence Laufer, April Leigh, Solomon Mars, Oscar D. Mejia, Savannah Murphy, Ted Murphy, Anthony Owsley, Robert Paraguassu, Joe Peery , Claire Reeve, Brandon Ross, John Ryan, Rebecca Salcedo, Rebecca Scott, San Smith, Allen Spetnagel, Alena Spragg, Jacqueline Stringham, Stephen Sweny, Brett W. Thompson, Rich Tommaso


Featured music on Opening Night:
Omelet
The Back Pockets
Floating Coats
Falcon Lords

ASIFA-Atlanta is quickly becoming the foremost animation community builder in the Southeast. "ASIFA" stands for Association Internationale du Film d'Animation and was founded in France in 1960 as a membership organization devoted to encouraging animation. Our goal is to bring together people who are interested in animation and to give them a forum to share ideas, experiences, knowledge and, most importantly, animation! For more information, please visit: www.asifa-atlanta.com

Established in 1998, Eyedrum is a non-profit organization developing an interdisciplinary approach to the arts by incorporating a wide range of contemporary art, music and new media in its gallery space.
http://www.eyedrum.org

Don Hertzfeldt, Xtacles, Costa Rica, WonderRoot show, Eyedrum show

Oh man. I'd like to write more but I have to pack!

- Don Hertzfeldt tonight was awesome!! Thanks to everyone who came and especially to those who helped make it happen (Karl Sigler especially, and Robert and Laurence for their handiwork, and Alena who updated an important spreadsheet). I could thank so many people! Kelly Duane, whose blog I was reading then clicked on her link to Don's to discover he was going on tour which led to tonight, deserves thanks too, even though she's in NYC!

- There's a brand new series on Adult Swim by 70/30! You might know their previous shows, "Sealab: 2021" and "Frisky Dingo". The new show's a spinoff of "Frisky Dingo" and is called "The Xtacles". If you watch closely, you can spot my face in the first episode; look for the bearded guy in the second half of the show:

The Xtacles Epsidode 1

I don't know how long that link'll work. Here's an article about the series.

- I'm leaving for Costa Rica at 7am to help with the Montezuma International Film Festival there. I have not packed yet.

- There's going to be an amazing music and art show November 22nd at WonderRoot. Three of my most favorite bands in the world (Omelet, The Back Pockets, and Eshniner Forest) will be playing, along with other bands I don't know about yet. More details to come soon, but rest assured it's going to be amazing because Em Kempf is running it- and any show with Omelet OR The Back Pockets is great, and this one has both!!

- The next ASIFA-Atlanta event is our big art and music show on December 6th. If you're an artist, dropoff is December 3rd at Eyedrum. We're still working out the details for art dropoff.

Tonight only: CARTUNE XPREZ at 7:30pm in SCAD-Atlanta's Hub

Thanks to everyone who came to and helped with International Animation Day! It was a big success! If I have time I'll write up a little follow-up. Many thanks to Karl Sigler and John Ryan in particular.

So I just found out that tonight CARTUNE XPREZ is at SCAD-Atlanta's hub:

http://www.scadconnector.com/?p=652

The show is scheduled to start at 7:30pm.

Check out their website:

http://www.cartunexprez.com/

More info:

"Cartune Xprez" Traveling Animation Party

October 26, 2008

The multimedia dance duo, Hooliganship, will be presenting the latest incarnation of "Cartune Xprez," an 80-minute program of short animated videos and performances that celebrates the wilderness of imagination through motion pictures. Featured artists include Bruce Bickford, Shana Moulton, Takeshi Murata, Paper Rad and more. In addition to the cartoon theater performance, they will perform their most recent piece, "Realer," in which audiences strap on a pair of 3-D glasses to bear witness to a televised parade gone awry. This one-night event, on Thursday Oct. 30 from 7:30 -9:30 p.m., has been in the works for two years. The program features collaborations with Frank Zappa and major exhibitions at the Whitney Biennial, the Museum of Modern Art, Sundance Film Festival and many other institutions throughout the world. Hooliganship's live multimedia performance is followed by an animation screening. For more information, visit the Web site www.cartuneexprez.com or contact Professor Avantika Bawa at abawa@scad.edu.


Hope to see you there!

-Brett W. Thompson, President of ASIFA-Atlanta

ASIFA-Atlanta IAD 2008 Press Release

Our ASIFA-Atlanta secretary, Jay, is awesome. He wrote the following press release for International Animation Day 2008; thanks Jay!!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ASIFA-ATLANTA, IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE HIGH MUSEUM OF ART, PRESENTS
INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION DAY
OCTOBER 28, 2008, 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM
AT THE HILL AUDITORIUM OF THE HIGH MUSEUM
1280 PEACHTREE STREET, N.E., ATLANTA, GA

ATLANTA, GA - In 2002, ASIFA, the International Animated Film Association, launched a global event to celebrate the art of animation. October 28th was proclaimed as International Animation Day, commemorating the first public performance of Emile Reynaud's Theatre Optique at the Grevin Museum in Paris, in 1892.

Each year, ASIFA groups around the world celebrate International Animation Day. In 2007, about 40 different countries in all the continents celebrated this day. The Atlanta Chapter of ASIFA is excited to invite the film and art loving community to its third year celebration, with a free screening of animated films submitted from around the world: Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, France, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Korea, Portugal,...

ASIFA-Atlanta is particularly excited to be presenting this year's International Animation Day at the High Museum's Hill Auditorium! This will be the second year there, and the auditorium itself is an exceptionally appropriate venue to showcase the work of these international artists. The program continues to be gathered as as work is being shipped, transmitted and downloaded around the world, nearly up to the screening. The collection is being curated by Karl Sigler, ASIFA-Atlanta's Screening Coordinator.

The show is free and reservations are HIGHLY recommended. Please reserve your FREE ticket at http://asifa-atlanta.com before all 225 seats fill up! There will be two showings, 7pm and 9pm. Hope to see you there!


Promotional art (original poster design by Michel Ocelot; text and logos adapted by John Cason) is attached and is also available for download at:

http://flickr.com/photos/brett_w_thompson/2866558716/

ASIFA-Atlanta is quickly becoming the foremost animation community builder in the Southeast. "ASIFA" stands for Association Internationale du Film d'Animation and was founded in France in 1960 as a membership organization devoted to encouraging animation. Our goal is to bring together people who are interested in animation and to give them a forum to share ideas, experiences, knowledge and, most importantly, animation! For more information, please visit: www.asifa-atlanta.com

ASIFA-Atlanta Update, September 2008

I wrote this for ASIFA's members-only magazine. I didn't realize how much we'd done!!

I'm also realizing that this blog is slowing morphing into almost entirely ASIFA-Atlanta-related content. I'd like to post more Brett-related art stuff in the future. I think posts like the one about munnybrella is a good direction. We'll see!

Okay, here's the article:

ASIFA-Atlanta continues to thrive, thanks to our dedicated volunteers and the inspiring animation community in Atlanta. Since our last update, we've had three big events, and we have three more planned, in addition to our regularly recurring events- a weekly figure drawing class (run by Joe Peery) and the monthly Animators' Workshop at Manuel's Tavern, run by our Screening Coordinator Karl Sigler.

On May 26th, ASIFA-Atlanta had its annual "Roll Yer Own" event, which showcases locally-produced independent animation. This year was particularly impressive, featuring a wide range of techniques. For instance, we showed "Moviekiss: The Lite Brite Video", animated with a lite brite, "Knight vs Knight", animated on a TI-86 graphic calculator, and "Bee Bog", animated traditionally and composited with AfterEffects.

More films for "Roll Yer Own" included the music video "Code Monkey" by ASIFA-Atlanta webmaster Jennifer Barclay, and a brief introduction by ASIFA-Atlanta President Brett W. Thompson. Recent graduate Amanda Goodbread premiered her thesis film, "Curtains", at this screening. Two first-time local animators, Emily Kempf and Gary Eddy, showed their films as well. Two of the longer pieces, "Hitler's Brain" by Count Lear Bunda, local Adult Swim employee, and "24 Frames" by Brad Patullo (submitted on his behalf by Lee Crowe), were years in the making.

"Roll Yer Own" was very well attended- the Five Spot, our venue, was completely packed! We actually scheduled a second showing as a result. Many thanks to John Cason for the beautiful flyer that helped promote the show, and to ASIFA-Atlanta Screening Coordinator Karl Sigler for compiling all the films onto a single DVD, which is no small feat. For the second showing of "Roll Yer Own", we added one film, "Busted", by Matt Maiellaro. Although best known for this popular and amusing work on Aqua Teen, Matt's film "Busted" differs in its approach, featuring no dialogue and fluid, kid-friendly animation. Also special to the second screening, Gary Eddy performed his film's soundtrack live, singing and playing ukelele.

On July 14th, we showed Atlanta-produced commerical animation for another annual event called "Blowin' Smoke". Local studios showcased their best work and generously took the time to talk to eager animators seeking advice and employment. Atlanta studios that participated included Primal Screen, Radical Axis, Turner Studios, and 70/30; all of their work was impressive and inspiring, and we were very grateful to have several of the studio big shots in attendance (Doug Grimmett of Primal Screen, Craig Hartin of Radical Axis, Joe Peery of Turner Studios, and Neal Holman of 70/30).

One of the best submissions, an opening title sequence for a pilot called "Kupser", was from local animator Joanna Davidovich, who's great at design. Recent transplant Chris Miller also showed excellent, hilarious work, and locals Mark Smith and Laurence Laufer also showed commerical animation as part of the screening.

"Animation Attack!", part of the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, was a big success. We showed an animated feature at Lenny's, "John's Arm: Armageddon", and two blocks of awesome animated shorts at Atlanta's historic Plaza Theatre. Several of the films came from animators who were working on Superjail at Augenblick Studios in Brooklyn at the time.

Although all the films were amazing, we chose several to receive awards, including Aaron Augenblick's "Golden Age", which was given the highest honor of Best Animated Short. We gave Mathieu Labaye's "Orgesticulanismus" Best Foreign Animated Short, and Max Margulies and Naoko Masuda, who were in attendance from Philidelphia, received Best Student Animated Short for "God of Tears". We showed ASIFA-East member Tim Rauch's film "Germans in the Woods" which got Best Dramatic Animated Short. "Marvelous, Keen, Loony Bin", by Lizzi Akana, was a distinct audience favorite, and "Muto" received the "Most Impressive Animation Technique" award. Em Kempf received the Best Local Animated Short for "Maniacal" and Amanda Goodbread received "Best Local Student Animated Short" for "Curtains".

"Animation Attack!" was very well received and attended- it was a joy and relief for staff to hear the audience laugh loudly at films like Chris Conforti's "Frog" and Edmond Hawkins' "Soccer Time". Max Margulies, Naoko Masuda, and Amanda Goodbread answered questions from the audience, moderated by Brett W. Thompson.

Upcoming ASIFA-Atlanta events are International Animation Day at the High Museum's Hill Auditorium on October 28th, Don Hertzfeldt at Midtown Art Cinema on November 11th, and to end the year, an art opening on December 6th at Eyedrum, featuring a plethora of Golden Era themed artwork by local cartoonists and wildly creative music by local bands Floating Coats, The Back Pockets, The Falcon Lords, and Omelet. Details for these and future events can be found at asifa-atlanta.com.

-Brett W. Thompson, President of ASIFA-Atlanta

ASIFA-Atlanta Membership Form

This is an experimental replacement for our paper form, as beautiful as it is!

ASIFA (Association Internationale du Film d'Animation) was formed in 1960 by an international group of animators to coordinate and increase worldwide visibility of animated film. ASIFA's membership includes animation professionals and fans from more than 50 countries

Benefits to being a member of ASIFA-Atlanta:
- Discounts to screenings, festivals, and events
- The right to show your work in our annual screenings of local animation, "Roll Yer Own" and "Blowin' Smoke" as well as possibly have your film sent around the world as part of "International Animation Day"
- You'll be a member of ASIFA-International as well, which means you will get a subscription to the ASIFA members-only magazine
- And best of all, it offers you a chance to meet and talk with professionals, students, and other fans of animation!

Be a part of the thriving animation community in Atlanta- join ASIFA-Atlanta!

Superjail premieres tonight!

I'm a huge fan of Superjail. Aaron Augenblick hired an unbelievably talented staff, and he and Christy Karacas are brilliant.

Several of the films in Animation Attack! came from Augenblick folks who worked on Superjail! We showed two of Christy's films last year, and this year Aaron's film "Golden Age" got Best Animated Short, for instance.

I also got to visit Augenblick Studios briefly when I visited NYC. What an awesome place!!

So, Superjail premieres tonight at 11:45pm on Adult Swim, woo hoo!

I just found some extras on adultswim.com:

- Pilot (with extras!! wow!!)
- First Episode (airing tonight I think?)

Thanks to Radio Diatribe blog for these links!

I love Superjail for many reasons. It's great to see full, beautiful, crazy animation like this, and it's inspiring and encouraging that it was all done by hand and not shipped anywhere. It's great to see the crazy gags (I'm a sucker for violence). And it's really great to see super talented animators working on something they love (it shows!).

I'm hoping Superjail will have a big impact and bring more appreciation for hand-drawn, creative animation like this. Yay!

Support Superjail!! I want to see a second season happen, even though I've only seen two episodes, haha!

Quote about Don Hertzfeldt's new film

I've mentioned this before but thanks to ASIFA-Atlanta's screening coordinator Karl Sigler, Don Hertzfeldt is coming to Atlanta to show his new film (and his old ones too) on November 11th, 9pm, at Midtown Art Cinema! It's going to be awesome!

We just got this quote about the film, "I Am So Proud of You":

"A fucking masterpiece. I can't even begin to articulate my thoughts about the
film but it just gave me shivers and I wasn't able to attend the party after
the screening. Just had to be alone. It had this effect on a number of other
people here too. Stunning, beautiful, tragic, absurd work."

-Chris Robinson
Director, Ottawa International Animation Festival

Wow.

munnybrella at MINT



There was an awesome munny show at MINT yesterday; my little guy is in the picture above! I've got some other pictures of him that I might post later.

I was thoroughly impressed with the high quality of the pieces. I could talk about all of them, but you should just see for yourself.

More info here:

http://fantasyburrito.com/

Thanks to Victoria Warren and Chris for putting together such a great show, and also to MINT of course!

ASIFA-Atlanta Art Show!



ASIFA-Atlanta is having an art opening/music show/party! It's at the Eyedrum on December 6th. Entry will be free for ASIFA-Atlanta members, Eyedrum members, and participating artists, and $7 for other folks.

This art show was the idea of ASIFA-Atlanta board member Alena Spragg. We want to give our members and the community a chance to show their talents. We also want to throw an event to end the year with a bang!

Most of ASIFA-Atlanta's events are film screenings, but this event will showcase a plethora of art inspired by Golden Age Comics and Cartoons, as well as the extremely creative music of Floating Coats, The Back Pockets, The Falcon Lords, and Omelet. All of these bands either have visual artists as members or are visually interesting themselves. It is certain to be captivating.

The purpose of the theme of Golden Age Comics and Cartoons is to serve as inspiration and also to encourage research and appreciation.

ASIFA-Atlanta is the local chapter of the worldwide animation society ASIFA ("Association International du Film d'Animation"), which was founded in 1960 in France. One need not be an animator to be an ASIFA-Atlanta member. ASIFA aims to promote the art and appreciation of animation.

ASIFA-Atlanta puts together animation screenings of films from all over the world ("International Animation Day"), local independent and commercial films ("Roll Yer Own" and "Blowin' Smoke"), and historical cartoons ("To Hell with Hitler", curated by Clay Croker last February), as well as offering a regular workshop at Manuel's Tavern (www.atl-animators.org) and a weekly figure drawing class (every Thursday night at Westwood College).

Artists participating in this show include veteran animation professionals (Joe Peery, Todd Redner, John Ryan), award-winning comics artists (Rich Tommaso, who recently won the Eisner) and many very talented locals, including several people from the Hand Job Live Art Crew (Thom Foolery, Andrew Bellury, Ted Murphy, Chris Hamer, Amanda Goodbread), and dedicated ASIFA-Atlanta volunteers (Aubrey Longley-Cook, Laurence Laufer, Jacqueline Stringham), as well as independent comics artists (Alex App, Joel Ball, Ambrose Hoilman).

The lovely flyer was designed by John Cason.

The following is the list of artists participating in the show (so far!):

Alena Spragg
Alex App
Allen Spetnagel
Amanda Goodbread
Ambrose Hoilman
Andrew Bellury
April Leigh
Aubrey Longley-Cook
Brandon Ross
Brett W. Thompson
Chris Hamer
Claire Reeve
eggtooth
Jacqueline Stringham
Joe Peery
Joel Ball
John Cason
John Ryan
Laurence Laufer
Rebecca Salcedo
Rich Tommaso
Ryan Bousquet
Savannah Murphy
Solomon Mars
Stephen Sweny
Ted Murphy
Thom Foolery
Todd Redner

ASIFA-Atlanta Art Show!



ASIFA-Atlanta is having an art opening/music show/party! It's at the Eyedrum on December 6th, and you are invited :)

Entry will be free for ASIFA-Atlanta members, Eyedrum members, and participating artists, and $7 for other folks.

We are still very much looking for artists. If you email us soon, we will be able to include your name on the flyer when we print it up! :)

Here are the submission details:

- Any art somehow inspired by Golden Age of Comics/Cartoons (we're stretching it from 1920's to 1970's)
- Artists who aren't members of ASIFA-Atlanta will have to pay a $5 entry free
- Artists will be able to sell their art for a price of their choosing (so the $5 will hopefully be easy to get back!)
- Drop off day is November 17th
- Pieces will hang in Eyedrum for about three weeks
- Artists can submit 1-3 pieces
- Please email brett.w.thompson@gmail.com or spragg.a7@gmail.com to be added to the artist list

The following mind-blowingly amazing bands will be playing:

Omelet

http://myspace.com/chalkrope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XLfSv9KHsg

The Falcon Lords

http://www.falconlords.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us99VNHWIao

The Back Pockets

http://myspace.com/thebackpockets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxuOzOq-fgU

Floating Coats

http//floatingcoats.com/


Thanks to John Cason for making the beautiful flyer!

Upcoming ASIFA-Atlanta Events:

- International Animation Day at the High Museum on October 28th, free! 7pm and 9pm.You'll be able to reserve seats at asifa-atlanta.com as the date gets closer.

- Don Hertzfeldt at Midtown Art Cinema on November 11th, 9pm, $8 for ASIFA-Atlanta members, $10 for regular folks

- First Annual ASIFA-Atlanta Gallery Show December 6th at Eyedrum; bands playing are Omelet, The Falcon Lords, The Back Pockets, and Floating Coats! Participating artists and ASIFA-Atlanta members will get in free.

We are still very much looking for artists to submit work for the show; work is due November 17th and can be anything inspired by Golden Era of Comics/Cartoons. Please email Brett at brett.w.thompson@gmail.com if you are interested in being added to the list of artists. You'll be able to put a price on and hopefully sell your work- it will hang in Eyedrum for about three weeks. If you're not an ASIFA-Atlanta member, there will be a $5 hanging fee (but as a participating artist you'll get in for free).