Today was my last full day in San Francisco shooting the last few demos for my course. More hard work animating puppets under hot lights...quite tiring but lots of fun. Today I was visited by none other than the tech editor for my book, Lionel Ivan Orozco, armature-builder for Nightmare Before Christmas and countless other productions, and master stop-motion guru behind StopMotionWorks! We have corresponded by e-mail for years but had never met in person before today, so we had very animated conversations over lunch about stop-motion and I signed his copy of the book. Very nice guy, and we got some nice pictures with our puppet creations (his are the beautifully crafted ball-&-socket armatures.)
Having done my job and ready to relax, my original plan was to get over to see the Pacific Ocean, but was advised that it would be way too cold in the evening and would take a very long time to get there and back. I was a bit disappointed at first to change my plans but was happy to end up at Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf instead. After all my hard work I treated myself to a nice seafood dinner followed by just wandering around the shops and soaking in the scenery. The pictures speak for themselves...I really want to come back with my family here someday. That was the only good thing missing.
Today's shooting went well, despite some wrestling with the software I think it went OK. I was pretty exhausted afterwards; it's a lot of hard work teaching to a camera! So tonight I figured I would treat myself to my major destination for this trip...
The inside walls of the diner were covered with American Grafitti stills and George Lucas production photos...
...and classic ads & memorabilia.
Of course I had to stick with the classic 1950s All-American Mel-Burger, fries and a REAL Cherry Coke! Holy crap it was DAMN good...and I enjoyed it sitting right next to one of the little jukebox machines, continually popping in quarters for Sixteen Candles, Little Darlin, Green Onions and all my other favorite songs. I enjoyed myself thoroughly...this was the Shangri-La of all 50s diners!
Today was my first long day of shooting, focusing on making puppets. I'm not really sure what the legal issues are surrounding posting pictures of the school studio, so I'll keep it mostly a mystery and just show some of the puppets I built on camera and some pictures around town.
Left is the prototype I built today, which magically turned into the one on the right which was already ready before I came.
Greetings from San Francisco! I just flew in today and will be shooting videos for my online stop-motion animation course all this week. The past few days have been a whirlwind of building puppets and getting ready; thank God my lovely wife helped me pack or I never would have made it. Ariel was very sad to see me go...it broke my heart. She's become rather attached to my Kermit puppet, and unfortunately I ended packing it (in case I have time for an additional live-puppetry lecture), so we had to find the baby Kermit to tide her over.
So far I've only been here long enough to grab dinner. I'm staying in the same hotel from a couple months ago, but for some reason I didn't know this place was right around the corner: Lori's Diner. (I had been to a different Lori's on my last visit, which was much smaller.)
I have a small obsession with 50's diners, and this one at Powell Street is totally swell...
"Bub, don't you know about..."
I'm not sure how 80s arcade games (is there any other kind?) fit in to the whole 50s theme, but I was quite amazed to see this Popeye game I haven't seen in ages.
"There's no vocabulary for love within a family, love that's lived in but not looked at, love within the light of which all else is seen, the love within which all other love finds speech. This love is silent." ~T S Eliot
I'm very excited...yesterday I recorded an audio commentary for "The Peanut Vendor" which will be on the next upcoming Thunderbean Animation release of Cultoons Vol 3! The evil monkey is being unleashed on an unsuspecting public to steal your children!
Special thanks to Gerard for helping me with the recording.
I've been thinking about puppets a lot these days. This is nothing new, of course, but I think it's even more so through building my course, contemplating the connections between different art forms of animation and discovering rare Muppet gems online. Today between projects on a lazy afternoon to myself I uploaded some things...
This is a puppet show I did at VanArts with my colleague Stephen Pearce, as an interlude to my annual Halloween Cartoon Show for the animation students. The sheep, who sings the Rock-afire Explosion version of Sixteen Tons, was built by Janet and performed by myself. The goblin is also me, a puppet I built many years ago. The weasel puppet playing violin was built by Meeka Stuart and performed by Stephen, to the song Ghost of Stephen Foster by the Squirrel Nut Zippers.
Here is something I posted for stop-motion history fans looking for rare stuff. It's the "Shoemaker & the Elves" Puppetoon sequence from The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) produced by George Pal and animated by his son David, with puppets sculpted by Wah Chang. I like cute, weird stuff like this when it can be found.
And finally, this is not something I posted but something I've been waiting for among the clips that keep being added to Jim Henson's memorial: the eulogy by none other than the great Frank Oz. I took a short break the other night to listen to this long-anticipated speech, and it hit me very hard emotionally, particularly the very end. It really struck me as one of the most incredible examples of true love and friendship I have ever heard in my life. Watch this clip only if you are prepared to sit in silence for a few minutes afterward, like I had to.
As this time of year draws near, lots of emotions float around and the feeling in the air causes me to reflect on glimmerings of various spiritual awakenings I've had. Some ripples in the family circus the past few days, making good progress on my course, dealing with the daily adventures, and overall looking forward to lots of exciting travels and visits this year.
But amidst all of this, as I said before, I was inspired by seeing various movie images in my head while getting lost in my iPod-world, and just had to take advantage of my little 'mini-break' over Easter Weekend to get this creative impulse out of my system. It's been awhile since I've made one of these, so it's long overdue.
I present to you a music video I edited over the weekend, inspired by lyrics which I realized reflect the experience of the Hero's Journey and the spiritual thread that runs through so many epic movies. Soak in how the stories weave with the words and your own journey, and if you're stuck in something or "refusing the call"...I dare you to move. ;)
So lots of stuff going on these daze...and yes I mis-spelled that word on purpose, because I've been in a bit of one due to the time change. It always screws up my eek-wilib-rium. My evenings as of late have been spent starting to finally write content for my online stop-motion course. I have the first module now pretty much complete and have started on the second one. It's been fun looking through my stop-motion film collection seeking out clips that help illustrate my points. Tonight I was selecting moments from Clash of the Titans (specifically Medusa and Calibos' tail movements) to illustrate the wave principle in action. Fun eh?
"Calm down, spaz! I'm going to the Clash of the Titans con, dressed up as Calibos, remember?"
Anyway, while waiting for the magic bus to take me home, I've also been inspired anew by one of my favorite songs coming on to my ipod. I've repeated it over and over again, getting lost in it, visualizing things and writing down notes for using it on a secret project which shall remain a secret for now, because it's too awesome to leak. And since Jay has shown me how to embed songs into my blog, you get to be graced with it in the meantime. This song feeds my soul...hope it does something for you.
This evening, Ariel got to chat with her Grammy in Michigan over the magic webcam through MSN. I've been wanting to get this set up for a long time, so I was really thrilled to finally get it working.
As Mom/Grammy observed, Ariel got quite engrossed in creating some abstract art at my animation table. Once she had a few pages on top of each other, I showed her how to flip the drawings and she caught on right away. I am so proud of my little animator!
YouTube is like the best thing ever. I've been wanting to hear this song again for years...it's a favorite of mine & Jay's and we used to sing it all the time to her dog Lucas.
Also recently I've discovered somebody has been posting clips from Jim Henson's memorial service, which I have always wanted to see. There is footage with the Muppet performers singing Jim's favorite songs, and of Big Bird singing 'Bein Green' (Carroll Spinney fights hard to get the song out through his tears...he's so emotional he even gets some of the lyrics wrong.) Frank Oz is also visibly emotional...he keeps leaning his head back and smiling as if he is sucking in as many good memories of his best friend as he possibly can, just to keep from breaking down.
This one was just recently added much to my delight. It's one of my all-time favorite songs from the Muppet library (or favorite songs, period), 'When the River Meets the Sea' sung by the best singers to do it justice, Jerry Nelson and Louise Gold. (I want this song at my memorial too, as it means alot to me, and the lyrics are a beautiful reflection on the cycle & mystery of life and death).
To see the rest of the clips, check out this fellow's account here, and I challenge you not to shed a tear! I hope more material gets posted, as this is such a loving tribute during a time of sudden shock for the Henson family. I remember I was cleaning out my closet when my mom told me the news that Jim had died, and I think I just sat there for about an hour afterwards. I couldn't believe it. Jim Henson's work has always been such a huge part of my life, and he left us way too soon.
Finally saw Across the Universe this weekend and really enjoyed it (especially the incredible music and visuals), and posted my deep thoughts surrounding its significance on Hollywood Jesus...
Here's a short video of some footage behind the scenes of "Snot Living" and some early animation tests. I shot this film over the summer and fall of 1997. All of the live-action shots and most of the animation was shot in the apartment I was living in through the summer. Other animation was shot later in my dorm room or at my parents' house. It's always neat to look back at this, particularly 10 years ago now...it was so much fun to make.
I've also added the actual film to YouTube in two parts (since it's over the 10 minute limit), here and here.
I've had this particular video for several years...it's one of those circulated bootleg video parodies that was passed around among friends. I don't know the person who created this, but I got it from a high school friend who got it from someone else, who got it from...
Anyway, I'm surprised it has never shown up on YouTube by now, but now it has! Basically it's Star Wars edited with sound clips from Strange Brew and the Great White North album. A masterful mix of American and Canadian culture. Enjoy in two parts.
