Frames Per Second Animation Podcasts

Two years ago, Peruvian-born Jossie Malis produced a short animated film called Bendito Machine using Moho (now called Anime Studio). The style was silhouette animation, but not in the fantastic or whimsical vein of Lotte Reiniger or Michel Ocelet; Bendito Machine was instead a darkly funny meditation on power, corruption, greed and religion. Malis has since considered the short as the first part in a ten-part series, and I have no doubt that all seven deadly sins will be covered by the end. This interview is our first collaboration with Directors Notes, and here MarBelle interviews Malis about his quirky creation.

A strange, godlike machine is overthrown and replaced by another strange, godlike machine. This is quite possibly the most disturbing-looking silhouette-style film you've seen in some time.

At this year's Ottawa International Animation Festival, animator Yuichi Ito and his manager Hiroko Kamata sat down to talk about his series of short stop-motion films, Norabbit's Minutes. Created for Shochiku's 110th anniversary, Norabbits' Minutes features two young rabbit brothers who live together in the forest and have endearing adventures together... though not without some absurd twists. As a bonus, we are also presenting the first episode of Norabbits' Minutes in its entirety on the website.

My guests in this podcast are Betsy de Fries and Jerry Van de Beek, who form the San Francisco Bay Area studio Little Fluffy Clouds. (And yes, they're named after the Orb song.) Little Fluffy Clouds has been in business since 1996, when the pair left the (Colossal) Pictures studio during its last days. The studio's been busily creating ads for a wide variety of clients since then.

An animated Rorschach test is the backbone of one of three spots that Little Fluffy Clouds produced for Ogilvy's series of IBM commercials.

A stream, a fisherman, a dragonfly, a fish: In Little Fluffy Clouds' Au Petite Mort (2003), these elements come together to evoke the waning days of summer, the circle of life, and just a little cruel irony.

White's Dream is a music video based on the Tekkonkinkreet movie. Set to the Shinichi Osawa remix of Plaid's song from the soundtrack and directed by Michael Arias, the video encapsulates most of the movie from Shiro's (White's) perspective.

In April, the Tokyo-based company Digital Meme released the Japanese Anime Classic Collection, which contained almost 60 animated shorts from Japan's silent era. I recently spoke with Digital Meme CEO Larry Greenberg about the collection and his company.

This excerpt is from the 1931 short Oira no Yakyu (Our Baseball Match), directed by Yasuji Murata. Oira no Yakyu and many of Murata's other works are featured in the four-DVD set Japanese Anime Classic Collection, which was released earlier this year by Digital Meme.

In the summer of 2001, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski created an animatic—a rough animated presentation—as part of their proposal for Madame Tutli-Putli. These excerpts illustrate what's changed and what's remained through six years of producton.

Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski have been working together in animation and effects since 1997. But the pair have spent about half that time producing Madame Tulti-Pulti, a 17-minute short for the National Film Board of Canada.

Much of the artwork seen at the Once Upon a Time Walt Disney exhibit comes courtesy of the Disney Animation Research Library, which is under the direction of Lella Smith, who was present for the exhibit's opening at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art. Direct download: 070313fps_podcast.mp3 Photo credit: Emru Townsend

On March 8th, the exhibition Once Upon a Time Walt Disney opens at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Yesterday we did a tour of the exhibit, which presents the work of the Walt Disney Studio from 1928 (the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Plane Crazy) through to 1967 (The Jungle Book), in its artistic context. Hundreds of production drawings, concept sketches, background paintings, character studies and film clips are presented side by side with classical artwork and contemporary media to show how Walt Disney and his artists drew from the world around them to create animated movies that are still astonishing to this day. In this podcast I interview the exhibit's curator, Bruno Girveau. Links The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Shop Once Upon a Time Walt Disney (hardcover) Il était une fois Walt Disney (hardcover) Direct download: 070307fps_podcast.mp3

Much of the artwork seen at the Once Upon a Time Walt Disney exhibit comes courtesy of the Disney Animation Research Library, which is under the direction of Lella Smith, who was present for the exhibit's opening at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art.

Veteran Disney animator Andreas Deja was an unexpected guest at the press conference for the Once Upon a Time Walt Disney exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. I sat down with him and talked about how he was inspired to become an animator, and how he feels about anime, CGI, and people referencing his animation the way he used to reference his predecessors. Links Andreas Deja (Wikipedia) Direct download: 070312fps_podcast.mp3 Photo credit: Emru Townsend

Earlier this week Hellboy: Sword of Storms, the first in a series of original animated Hellboy movies, came out on DVD—just a little over four months after its debut on Cartoon Network. Last December, Emru Townsend spoke with Tad Stones, who wrote, directed and produced the movie. Links Hellboy Animated Shop Hellboy DVDs, books and more Direct download: 070210fps_podcast.mp3

On March 8th, the exhibition Once Upon a Time Walt Disney opens at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Yesterday we did a tour of the exhibit, which presents the work of the Walt Disney Studio from 1928 (the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Plane Crazy)...

One year ago today, we held our second Animation Innovator event, in which we invited Corpse Bride animation co-director Mike Johnson to come to Montreal to speak about his craft and his work on the movie. In this podcast we revisit that event, as well as present some new material. Film Clips Mike Johnson on HypaSpace (2:05, 20.2 MB, MPEG-4) Links Natasha Eloi Matt Forsythe Kevin Holden and Trudie Mason Mark Osborne AnimationTrip CJAD Space: The Imagination Station fps Links Mike Johnson interview Animation Innovator: Mike Johnson Photo Gallery Corpse Bride review Suggest an Animation Innovator Guest Shop Corpse Bride DVDs, CDs, books and more The Devil Came Down to Georgia (as part of the Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People compilation) Direct download: 061026fps_podcast.mp3 Credits: Photo © Warner Bros. Entertainment; podcast opening and closing audio from The Corpse Bride soundtrack

In our second podcast, I interview Canadian animator Chris Hinton, tracing the course of his animation career from the mid-1970s to the present, much of which has been through the National Film Board of Canada. Hinton's work has evolved considerably over the last thirty years, starting with the kind of cartoony style that most people identify with animation, and now leaning toward abstract explorations of music and sound. But in all cases, his work exhibits a twitchy vibrancy that's all his own. He's been nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film twice, for Blackfly (1991) and Nibbles (2003). Both films are very different in appearance and execution, but they're both distinctly Chris Hinton films. For the last 17 years, Hinton has also been teaching animation at Concordia University here in Montreal (and, in fact, I was among his first students). In the course of this interview, we also explored his observations about today's emerging animators. Animation Lingo In the podcast, we make references to fields and smears. A field guide is a reference for standardized frame sizes to accommodate both the film/TV viewing area and the animation camera. The higher the field number, the larger the frame. A smear is, literally, a smear of colour in a frame that indicates something moving quickly; essentially, hand-drawn motion blur. Film Clips Blackfly (1991; 0:25, 1.3 MB, MPEG-1) Watching TV (1994; 0:30, 1.5 MB, MPEG-1) Flux (2002; 0:25; 1.3 MB, MPEG-1) cNote (2004; 0:34, 1.7 MB, MPEG-1) Links Chris Hinton Dennis Tupicoff Blackfly Flux Cinémathèque québécoise National Film Board of Canada Direct download: 060828fps_podcast.mp3 Credits: Photo provided by the National Film Board of Canada; podcast opening and closing audio from cNote

Emru Townsend interviews British animator Phil Mulloy, who was recently in Montreal to host a retrospective of his work at the Cinémathèque québécoise. Phil Mulloy is a prolific animator who has created over twenty films in the last sixteen years, and in many of his works, the landscape and characters are stark and grotesque: rendered in black paint and ink, his characters are mostly in silhouette, with skeletal bodies, large, bony hands, and distended mouths with jutting teeth. Animation is accomplished by manipulating cutouts of his painted and drawn images. And while his plots have varied, they often feature themes of sex, persecution, violence, the body, and religion. Emru Townsend, Phil Mulloy, and Marco de Blois. Film Clips Cowboys: High Noon (1991; 0:43, 2.0 MB, MPEG-1) The Sex Life of a Chair (1998; 0:59, 2.7 MB, MPEG-1) Intolerance I (2000; 0:59, 2.7 MB, MPEG-1) Intolerance II (2001; 1:00, 2.7 MB, MPEG-1) The Christies: Mister Yakamoto (2006; 0:27, 2.0 MB, MPEG-1) Links Phil Mulloy Cinémathèque québécoise Lotte Reiniger David Anderson Direct download: 060324fps_podcast.mp3 Credits: Photo by Tamu Townsend; podcast introduction audio from Intolerance I