Andreas Deja...

Andreas Deja now has a blog

Paranorman!

The first piece of concept art for Laika's next film Paranorman has been released. Check out the Press Release.

Synopsis:

"A misunderstood boy who can speak with the dead takes on ghosts, zombies and, worst of all, moronic grown-ups, in order to save his town from a centuries-old curse.

Norman Babcock is an outcast in his small New England town. When a horde of zombies is unleashed on the populace, Norman learns he must use his paranormal powers to make things right again. That’s not an easy task when you’re only eleven. And you’ve just been grounded."

Submitting your Student Film Online vs. Festivals

I want to start off this post by saying that I love animation festivals. They are great places to discover new films and to meet other animated filmmakers.

Year after year, however, I found that a great many films simply fell off the radar after the festival run... That is.. I never got a chance to see them again.

Fast forward to today, where there is a very clear and very real assumption that by submitting your film to festivals is the most important and/or only viable means of distribution for films available to a filmmaker. This perception is especially true among students.

While I think this is extremely untrue, the other side of the coin is that many filmmakers, especially students, feel that they cannot submit their films online before submitting to festivals - that festivals will not allow films if they are not debuting at the festivals themselves. I have also found this to be patently untrue. Looking at the major festivals terms of service, I have yet to find a festival that explicitly states that you cannot have a film screened at their festival if the film is submitted online.

Ottawa's rules and regulations are here.

Annecy's is here.

There wasn't a full regulation page for Zagreb, just this.

Spike and Mike's relevant page is here.

Animation Block Party's is here.

Anima Mundi's is here.

Siggraph's is here.

This is by no means exhaustive, but the common thread is there is a limit to when the film was created, that it must be able to pass for animation, etc. This seems to be the only major requirement that is not file format based. From Ottawa's regulations (seemingly in its entirety):

Any frame by frame or computer-assisted animated film or video made for cinema, television or internet may be entered. Only works completed after June 15, 2009 will be accepted.

I've never seen this mystery clause about that your film cannot get into festivals if they go up online. These are the larger animation festivals who I would assume have harder restrictions on submission. There may be smaller ones that do explicitly state the "no online" restriction but I haven't found one yet. The only thing that comes even close is Anima Mundi, that states it will:

Give preference to works that have not yet been on general
release or exhibited in other festivals in Brazil.

However, this would mean that you would have to hold off showing at any festival until anima mundi if it was your sole intent to insure your film screened there.

Which brings me to another important point. If your goal as a student filmmaker is to get your work out there, the Internet is a vastly more accessible medium. Your film can easily be seen by millions of people online rather than thousands at a festival. Granted, your audiences will be very different, but the exposure will be much larger. Animation festivals are a great way to get accolades from within the industry... but the internet is by far more powerful for getting your film in front of audiences.

Case in point with Alex Hirsch's student film "Off the Wall", which has more than 800,000 views on youtube, and probably much more adding up all the video sharing sites and duplicate versions of the video that pop up.



The only reputable distinction that I can think of that you might miss out on by submitting your film online is the academy awards. But their restrictions force you to show your film for three consecutive days in a theater accessible by academy members. I don't know of any student who has done that. I also assume that most students aren't holding out their films because they expect academy awards.

As a student, your film is a great calling card to help you get a job. If you make it difficult for people to see your film you are essentially eliminating a huge potential for job opportunities, especially ones that you yourself don't anticipate.

My last note: for those who do want to exclusively have a festival run of your film, please post it online eventually. This way you can have exposure from both. A huge number of fantastic student films never see the light of day online.

If I'm seeing this completely wrong please sound off in the comments. Again, I have no issue with festivals - in fact, I love them. But I like seeing filmmakers and their films reach their intended audience that much more.

Inside Pixar's Leadership - Ed Catmull

A great article on creative management.

Nicolas Marlet Sketchbook...

Order online here as long as they last.

Gerry Zeldin...

I've made a post about the wonderful Gerry Zeldin before, but this one's definitely in a more serious light. I've just recently found out that Gerry is suffering from terminal cancer.

My friend and former teacher Angelo Libutti has set up a Facebook Profile on Gerry's behalf for those of you who'd like a message be passed on to him. If you're not a facebook user, Angelo can be reached at angelolibutti at hotmail.com with the subject "Gerry Zeldin student". Angelo is trying to gather video journals as well.. if you post yours up please make sure they make their way to this facebook profile and/or Angelo.

My best wishes to Gerry and his family. Suffice to say that Gerry has touched the lives of many at his time at Sheridan, and it's great to see everyone giving back and remembering all that he's given us.

Here are a few:





Also check back at the blog Angelo has set up for more videos as they go up.

The Illusionist

New stills from Sylvain Chomet's newest feature.

Via [Victor Ens]

Raiders of the Lost Ark Story Discussions...

Click here to see a 125-page transcript of story discussions between Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, and Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan as they were creating Indiana Jones.

Need I really say more?

After Effects Customer Survey...

If you use after effects on a regular basis I suggest you take this survey and let Adobe know what you think.

Also, apologies to anonymous commenters... I had to disable anonymous comments because of a flood of spam. Hopefully this won't force me to turn on word verification too (I despise that)!

How To Animate Bloo...

Some tricks on animating vectors in flash. (Warning: PDF Link)

Partly Cloudy..

A concept piece from Pixar's Partly Cloudy.

10 things I've learned in making a short film...

Not sure if you guys caught this little series of posts by Pixar artist Jim Capobianco. It's a 10 part series so check out the links below.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,
Part 4, Part 5, Part 6,
Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, and Part 10

Please don't mind the mess...

I'm updating the layout of my blog today. Please be patient!

The site has been updated with a new layout! I hope you guys like it! It certainly makes things easier on me so I hope you don't mind the change.

Princess and the Frog...

[Via ComingSoon.net - Thanks to Chris Macdonald]

First image from Sony's "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs"

2 Fast 2 Furious?

Kachow?

Coraline...

Check out this amazing gallery of shots from the production of Laika's 'Coraline'.

I can't wait for this film!

Animation Treasures by Hans Bacher...

Hans Bacher is back with his amazing blog reconstructing backgrounds from various animated film.

Let's hope it's here to stay!

Collideascope....

I just got word that Halifax-based Collideascope is closing its doors. The company employed 120 people. Check out this story in the Nova Scotia Business Journal for more.

Teletoon Animation Scholarship

Buncha my buds are up for consideration in this year's Teletoon Animation Scholarship. There's a viewer's choice award so please go and check it out and vote!

This is particularly awesome because it's the first time a lot of these films can be viewed online.