The Society for Animation Studies Newsletter

Volume 21, Issue 1 Spring 2008

ISSN: 1930-191X

In this Issue: Letters from the Editors SAS Announcements:

1 ● President Report Maureen Furniss Greetings! 2 ● Membership Reminder 3 ● 2008 Membership Card Welcome to the first SAS Newsletter of 2008. We 4 ● Animation Studies hope you will enjoy catching up on the news, events Nichola Dobson and updates in Volume 21 Issue 1. We are 5●2008 Conference Update delighted to be editing the newsletter, thank you for Paul Ward the opportunity and to all our contributors for sharing

their news with us, sending photos or reviewing Perspectives on Animation conferences, publications etc. Studies 6 ● “Why Animation, Alan?” We have also introduced a new section for Alan Cholodenko postgraduate students so that they can share with other members their challenges and achievements Conference News and Events of the research journey. We would like to further 7● British Animation Awards 2008 encourage their submissions for the October issue by Paul Wells of our newsletter. 8● Sydney animation events 2007–2008 Suggestions and contributions to this newsletter are Reviewed by Katharine Buljan always welcome! 9● Unfurling, 2006 Martha Gorzycki Many thanks also to Amy Ratelle for her assistance 10 ● The Incredible Mr Poe: An with editing the Newsletter. Exhibition 11● The Aesthetics of Trash Sincerely, A Conference Review by Gareth Lucie Joschko and Caroline Ruddell Howell Co-Editors 12●PCA/ACA 2008 Conference Photos

The Light and Shade of Postgraduate Research 13 ● Animated Politics: Very Brief Thoughts on Propaganda, Documentary and Activism Seymore Lavine

The articles in the SAS Newsletter are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Contributions are copyrighted by authors and remaining information is ©2006 Society for Animation Studies. Society for Animation Studies © 2008 SAS Newsletter, v21n1, p.1

14● A journey to the heart and soul of Czech Animation Lucie Joschko Publications and Reviews 15● Dream Worlds by Hans Bacher Reviewed by Pat Raine Webb 16● Stop Motion by Barry J C Purves Reviewed by Pat Raine Webb 17● Basics Animation: Scriptwriting by Paul Wells Reviewed by Victoria Meng 18● Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams Reviewed by Joakim Pedersen

Membership Information 19 ● SAS Board and Contacts

President’s Report Maureen Furniss

At the recent Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association conference in San Francisco, there were several well-attended panels touching on a broad range of animation related topics. Several of our members presented there, and we passed out quite a bit of information on the SAS for attendees. I’ve never been to such a successful animation studies event, outside of our own conferences. I had a number of cards printed to hand out, and we left a lot of information at the conference tables. Aside from presenting, it seemed like many of us had membership on our minds, and introducing the SAS to attendees who did not yet know of us.

It feels to me like the SAS is moving into a kind of middle ground, well behind our formative years, but far from where we will be several years down the road. We have a lot of our institutional supports in place, and a strong core group of leader and active members—some who have been with the organization since its inception in the late 1980s. It seems like the next few years probably will see an emphasis on the development of membership, which already is growing worldwide. Robert Musburger (our US treasurer) and I have been processing new memberships on a regular basis – every few days, and Robert expects it to continue growing until the conference in

summer. Lienors Torres has been in contact with me about continued plans to develop a sub-group in the Australasian region.

During the last few months, I have met with a lawyer here in California to establish our incorporation, which has been filed. The next step, once we receive notice that it has been granted, is to become recognized as a non-profit organization. This should be achieved by the end of the year. The benefits are several, including an ability to get funding from organizations and also legal and financial protection for SAS board members. By going through this process, we create by-laws that can be useful for others who wish to establish local groups, such as the one in Australia.

Paul Ward has been working hard on the conference in Bournemouth this summer. It sounds like he and his crew are organizing a wonderful array of events for us—as if walking on the beach and enjoying the seaside community wouldn’t be enough! Nichola Dobson will have her hands full with conference papers submitted to Animation Studies, our online journal, which has taken shape under her direction.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at the conference, where we will discuss writing awards, expansion of our membership, language and translation, and no doubt a topic recently debated in our discussion group—the parameters of our practice. Please submit any other topics to me, so we can incorporate them into our agenda. I’ll also be asking for proposals for hosting the 2009 conference—and for the names of individuals interested in joining the SAS board, including the office of president. I have been president for three years now, so it is time for an election, which will take place by the time of our 2009 conference.

Many thanks to Caroline Ruddell and Lucie Joschko for heading up the SAS Newsletter, with assistance from Amy Ratelle. They have taken over from our past Newsletter editor, Victoria Meng, who began teaching at Arizona State University. Thanks to Brian Wells for designing our new membership cards, and to Charles da Costa for his work as historian, taking photos at the PCA/ACA conference you see in this issue. Thanks also to Tom Klein for heading up the McLaren and Lambart Essay Awards—the winners have yet to be announced.

See you in Bournemouth!

Maureen

Membership Reminder Robert Musburger, André Eckardt

The best, fastest, and most secure way to renew your membership SAS is to use the Pay Pal button on the SAS website: http://www.animationstudies.org. You may send a check to the Treasurer, Robert Musburger at the following address: 2552 14th Ave. W. #402, Seattle, WA, 98119. USA.

Please include your mailing address, telephone number, and most importantly the email address that will be used to connect you to the website, SAS discussion list, and other secure SAS functions.

Or you may renew by sending euro to our German bank; for details, contact André at [email protected].

Membership Card

Society for Animation Studies Membership Card 2008

Member Name

Maureen Furniss, President

Animation Studies 2008 Nichola Dobson, Editor

The 2007 edition closed in January as promised with a great range of papers from our members. As I mentioned in the last newsletter we have altered the submission dates to twice a year (the first CFP deadline was 25th April) and we are opening up our submissions to animation related papers from other conferences outside of our annual conference.

Volume 3 is already on site with the first paper by Amy Ratelle, an interesting piece on the feature Balto. The paper was presented at the 2007 Portland conference and I recommend you check it out, as with all of our fine contributions.

The next call for papers will be just after the conference. We can also accept papers prior to July if members require it for institutional funding, in which case please contact me as early as possible.

Now in our third year we are really starting to build an archive of our conference presentations so I urge you all to keep submitting your work. Thanks again to all of those who have contributed so far and thanks to my editorial board for their hard work.

See you on the beach!

Nichola

2008 Conference Update Paul Ward, Conference Chair

SAS 2008 is fast approaching, and we are all looking forward to an exciting and vibrant event in Bournemouth. Please keep checking the website [http://www.aibep.co.uk/au2008/index.htm], as more content is added all the time. Details of the schedule, available hotels and much more can now be found at this site. If you are planning to attend it is very important that you book and register a place as soon as possible, especially if you are a presenting delegate. If you are still waiting on a funding decision please let Paul Ward know. Please also remember to book your hotels (see the site), you can contact Joe Barnes for more information on this or any other aspect of the conference. Conference enquiries can be sent to [email protected] Paul or Joe will be in touch about transport once they know where delegates are staying.

This promises to be a packed conference full of exciting events and papers, see you in Bournemouth!

Animation Unlimited The 20th Society for Animation Studies Annual Conference

18-20 July 2008

Provisional schedule

THURSDAY 17 JULY

Open campus and facilitated tours

5.30pm - public screening of Arts Institute at Bournemouth graduate films past and present

FRIDAY 18 JULY

8.30-9.30am Coffee and registration [Foyer of Phase IV]

9.30-10.00 Welcome and Introduction Professor Stuart Bartholomew (Principal, Arts Institute at Bournemouth, UK) and Dr Paul Ward (Conference Chair, SAS Board Member and Senior Lecturer, Arts Institute at Bournemouth)

10.00-11.00am Opening keynote address: J001 Professor Esther Leslie (Birkbeck College, University of London, UK): 'The Flux and Flurry of Animated Worlds - On Stillness and Hypermovement'

11.00-11.30 BREAK

11.30-13.00 Session 1 Please choose between one of the following panels, either:

Panel 1 [3 papers] TV/The Simpsons: J001 • "Quality, schmality! If I had a TV show, I'd run that sucker into the ground!" (Nichola Dobson, Independent Scholar, Edinburgh, UK) • Irony and humour as rhetorical strategies in The Simpsons and South Park (Yvonne Van Ulden, Utrecht School of the Arts, The Netherlands) • "Well, I Guess You Had to Be There": The Simpsons' Principal Skinner, and the Recurrent Trauma of Vietnam (Michael Dow, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU/Northwestern University, USA) or

Panel 2 [3 papers] Approaches to Japanese animation: L/RHCC • Selective Animation: Rethinking the Concept of Limited Animation and its Relation to Anime. (Gan Sheuo Hui, Kyoto University, Japan) • Investigating the Influence of Edo and Meiji Period Monster Imagery (Yôkai-ga) on Mizuki Shigeru's GeGeGe-no-Kitaro (Zilia Papp, Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan) • The transformation of the "Japanese family": The comparison of Sazae-san, Chibi-Maruko-chan, and Crayon Shin-chan (Yuri Obata, Clarke Center for Asian Law and Culture, Cornell University Law School, USA)

13.00-14.00 LUNCH

14.00-16.00 Session 2 Please choose between one of the following panels, either:

PANEL 3: [4 papers] Animation and Pedagogy • 'The feet, the groin and the calves are ideal places to hide triangles.' (Maya Techniques: Hyper-realistic creature creation. 2006, Alias Systems Corp.) (Lucy Childs, Bournemouth University, UK) • Canadian Studies 341: Challenges and Rewards (Lynne Perras, University of Calgary, Canada) • Philosophies and methodologies in animation research (Mark Chavez, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) • `Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated': the influence of digital technology on the animation artist (Tony Tarantini, Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Canada) or

PANEL 4 [4 papers] Histories • Woody Abstracted: Film Experiments in the Cartoons of Shamus Culhane, 1943-46. (Tom Klein, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, USA) • Floyd Norman's Story (Musa Brooker, CalArts, Valencia, USA) • The Movie Brat Generation and the Animation Renaissance (Harvey Deneroff, Savannah College of Art and Design, USA) • Animation as Advertising: The Fleischer Advertising Cartoons (Mark Langer, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada)

16.00-16.30 BREAK

16.30-18.00 Guest Speaker TBC – J001 Aardman Animation Ltd including screenings

18.00-19.00 Society of Animation Studies AGM – L/RHCC Open to all SAS members

19.00-21.00: Drinks reception plus poster presentations

SATURDAY 19 JULY

8.30-9.30am Coffee [Foyer of Phase IV]

9.30-10.30 Keynote address Professor Peter Parr (Arts Institute at Bournemouth, UK) 'Using sketchbooks in teaching animation' (title tbc

10.30-11.00 BREAK

11.00-13.00 Session 3 Please choose between one of the following panels, either:

PANEL 5: Thinking about 'Animated Documentary' [4 papers] • A Historical Perspective on the Convergence of Animation and Documentary (Bella Honess Roe, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, USA) • The Animated Portrait. Documentary or Fiction? (Gunnar Strøm, Volda University College, Norway) • Defining Documentary Representation in Animated Films (Annegret Richter, University of Leipzig, Germany) • The Aesthetic and the Critically Communicative: Concepts of Repetition in Animated Propaganda and Animated "Political" Documentary (Seymour Lavine, Loughborough University, UK) or

PANEL 6: Games/Animation [4 papers] • Reanimating HP Lovecraft: The Ludic Paradox of Call of Cthulhu:

Dark Corners of the Earth (Tanya Krzywinska, Brunel University , UK) • Zombies in the Zone: splatter physics and physical bits in horrific play (Emily Flynn-Jones, University of Wales, Newport, UK) • Clockwork Corpses: The Dance Macabre of Game Characters (Christian McCrea, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia) • Dark Waters: Representations of the Ocean Animus (David Surman, University of Wales, Newport, UK)

13.00-14.00 LUNCH

14.00-16.00 Session 4 Please choose between one of the following panels, either:

PANEL 7 [4 papers] Why (Animation) Theory? • Why Animation Historiography? Or: Why the Commissar Shouldn't Vanish (Timo Linsenmaier, Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Germany) • "Some You Win, Some Deleuze": The Theory/Practice Divide Re-Visited (Paul Wells, Loughborough University, UK) • Dancing with the Living Dead (Angela Ndalianis, University of Melbourne, Australia) • Animation Theory as Poiesis: A Reply to the Cognitivists (Alan Cholodenko, University of Sydney, Australia) or

PANEL 8 [4 papers] Form and Technology: Approaches to digital animation • Making faces: Hybridity, animation and the screen actor (Lisa Bode, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia) • Digital afx: affective layering and digital technologies (Aylish Wood, University of Kent, UK) • Digital Chinese Ink-wash Animation: Tradition versus Innovation in Themes and Techniques (Ann Leung, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong) • Title tbc [The digital imagination] (Rachel Kearney, University of East London, UK)

16.00-16.30 BREAK

16.30-18.00 Guest Speaker TBC (Hopefully) Mark Walsh (Pixar) (incl. screenings) – J001

20.00-onwards Conference party Relax and enjoy a drink and buffet with other delegates in the engaging Bournemouth seafront bar and restaurant - Aruba

SUNDAY 20 JULY

8.30-9.30am Coffee [Foyer of Phase IV]

9.30-11.00 Round table discussion: Drawing and Animation Chair: Professor Paul Wells (Loughborough University, UK). Participants: Professor Peter Parr (Arts Institute at Bournemouth, UK), Joanna Quinn (Beryl Productions), Michel Ocelot (director: Azur et Asmar), Andy Selby (Loughborough University, UK)

11.00-11.30 BREAK

11.30-13.30 Session 5 Please choose between one of the following panels, either:

PANEL 9 [4 papers] Animation, cultural identity and subaltern discourses • `Taking an appropriate line' – Assessing representations of disability within the popular (Van Norris, University of Portsmouth, UK) • Framing Invisibility: Selective Positioning of Blacks in the Aardman Studio's Work (Charles daCosta, Savannah College of Art and Design, USA) • Tailing the body of Hanuman: Indian Animation and the TransNational Imagination (Anitha Balachandran, Royal College of Art, London, UK) • Irish Animation and Postcolonialism (Tom Walsh, Arts Institute at Bournemouth, UK) or

PANEL 11 [4 papers] Interdisciplinary currents in Animation Studies • Nico Nico Douga: the Emergence of the Audience's Imagination on the Internet. (Madoka Takashiro, Johann Wolfgang Goethe – Universität, Frankfurt, Germany) • Animated Psychogeography: The City Inside Out (Suzanne Buchan, University College of the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK) • Animation: Limitation as a Source of Creativity Across Old and New Media (Karin Wehn, University of Leipzig, Germany) • Spaghetti, signature, guidance, evidence –medical, legal, and emotional uses of the animated line (Phil Anderson, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, USA)

13.30-14.30 LUNCH

14.30-16.30 Session 6 Please choose between one of the following panels, either:

PANEL 13 [4 papers] Animation and humour • The Profound Potential of Piss-takes on the Periphery: Animation, Humour and the Avant-Garde (Miriam Harris UNITEC, New Zealand) • Come with us now on a journey through time and space: animating space, time and character in The Mighty Boosh (Caroline Ruddell, St. Mary's University College, UK)

• Art Imitating Art (Michael Genz, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, USA) • "Obey Me!" Invader Zim and the Ideological State Apparatus (Amy Ratelle, York University and Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada) or

PANEL 12 [4 papers] Animated forms, technologies, aesthetics • Using chronophotography to replace Persistence of Vision as a theory for explaining how animation and cinema produce the illusion of continuous motion. (Paul St George, London Metropolitan University, UK) • Aural, Figural, and Metrical Microstructures in Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Analyzing Complementary Intra-Shot Forms in Animation and Other Frame-Based Motion Picture Media (Victoria Meng, University of California at Los Angeles, USA) • The Political-ethics of Media in Stan Vanderbeek's Poemfields (Mark Bartlett, Independent scholar, Oakland, California, USA) • The Ontology of Performance in Stop Animation: Kawamoto's House of Flame and Svankmajer's The Fall of the House of Usher (Laura Ivins-Hulley, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA)

16.30-17.00 BREAK

17.00-18.00 Keynote address Professor Sean Cubitt (University of Melbourne, Australia) 'Scale: Animation Between Immersion and Mobility' [title tbc]

18.00 Closing remarks and goodbyes

19.00 SAS Board Meeting Closed meeting for Board Members only – L/RHSCC

MONDAY 21 JULY

All events to be confirmed, but there should be some workshops concerning some of the themes and issues raised during the conference, linking to local students and schools.

Potential links with:

• The AIB Saturday Arts School • Bournemouth Screen Academy workshops • Skillset workshops

Perspectives on Animation Studies

“Why Animation, Alan?” Alan Cholodenko

People often ask me, “Alan, why did you get involved in animation?”

And, I’d add here, “Why did you stay involved?”

Well, it wasn’t just my child’s delight at so many wonderful cartoons at so many Saturday matinees at the Center and Royal movie theatres in Bloomfield, New Jersey, as a kid. Though that is a factor.

It wasn’t just my taking for granted as a student and teacher of film that animation is a form of film. Though that is a factor.

It wasn’t just the request of Madame Barbara Gré, who gave us the Mari Kuttna Bequest in Film in the Department of Art History and Theory at the University of Sydney, that I bring the Hungarian animator Sandor Reisenbüchler to Sydney because her daughter Mari loved animation most of all film forms and his work in animation most of all animators. Though that is a factor.

It was what I wrote in my 1991 introduction to The Illusion of Life: Essays on Animation, my realisation that not only is animation a form of film, film—all film, film “as such”—is a form of animation (a claim I made 10 years before Lev Manovich, I might add, but which, I must add in turn, others made before me, including Sergei Eisenstein).

What that means is that film has never not been animation. Such a radical proposition requires that film and film theory be (re)thought through and as animation and animation theory, which reanimation would have the most profound repercussions for film theory and Film Studies, which has neglected and marginalised animation, even considered animation as not a form of film at all, rather a graphic art. Put simply, animation is for us film, and as well media, studies’ “blind spot.”

And that blind spot has grown, even as animation has grown and transformed in film and media. And as film and media have grown and transformed as forms of animation.

Indeed, since The Illusion of Life was published, animation has increasingly come forward, presented itself, as the most compelling, indeed singular process of not only contemporary film and media, where its presence is obvious and overwhelming, but the contemporary world. We live in a world increasingly animated, at the same time acknowledging that the world was never not animated.

This means that the logics and processes of animation—of what I have called and elaborated in my writings as the animatic—of which film animation provides singular exemplification and performance, offer the best description of not only film animation but the contemporary world, and the subject herein. The implication is clear: we need animation film theory, film animation theory, animation theory “as such,” to understand film, the world and the subject. And we need television animation theory, video animation theory and especially computer animation theory as these media increasingly pervade and reanimate the mediascape of the world and the subject. Or rather immediascape, in which world and subject are immersed, even as it is immersed in them. These are an immediascape, world and subject increasingly hyperanimated, hyperanimatic—the pure and empty, virtual forms of animation and the animatic.

Yet, even while being so pervasive and marked all the time, even while being transfaculty, transdisciplinary, and transinstitutional, animation as “something” in its own right has largely remained unacknowledged and unaddressed by scholars, something it has been my work and that of the other authors of essays in The Illusion of Life and its sequel The Illusion of Life 2: More Essays on Animation to try to redress.

These are some of the key factors that animated and have continued to animate my thinking about animation!

For more, check out the Introduction to and essays in Alan Cholodenko’s recent book, The Illusion of Life II: More Essays on Animation, published by Power Publications in Sydney, Australia, and distributed in North and South America by the University of Illinois Press. Alan Cholodenko was a senior lecturer in the Department of Art History and Theory at the University of Sydney before he retired in 2001.

This blog first appeared at the end of January on the University of Illinois Press website: http://www.press.uillinois.edu/

Conference News and Events

British Animation Awards 2008 Paul Wells

The evening peaked too soon. A packed house witnessed a thing of beauty and a joy to behold. Cheers rang out, and shock set in. Professor Paul Wells, previously only notable to the animation community for his ability to damn perfectly good films with theoretical abstraction, began the event thanking the sponsors of the Awards with a soaring version of a modified ‘Mack the Knife’. Lyricist, Alan Gilbey, who partnered the balding but chubbily charismatic academic on stage, joined with the now ribald and awe-struck crowd in the full recognition that it was now ‘good-bye “Understanding Animation”, hello showbiz’ for Wells.

Oh, and the Awards followed.

Marshalled through by helium-voiced British comedian, Joe Pasquale, the event was its usual slick, efficient, and inspirational success. Produced by the extraordinary Jayne Pilling, writer, programmer, linguist, and champion of animated film worldwide, and her colleague, Gulsin Yadin, the British Animation Awards represent a bi-annual celebration of the major achievements in the British animation field. They are made especially distinctive by the fact that each of the awards is a unique, custom-made piece by established artists in the animation community based on the theme of sheep. (These are the BAAs, after all). Each winner gets an artwork by one of their peers in what is an act of mutual respect and recognition. Oscars are fine, but to get an original piece by Joanna Quinn, Bill Plympton, Tim Burton or Rosto, is surely much better.

The awards always reflect the diversity and innovation in British animation, and acknowledge the work emerging from Universities and Colleges, the Commercial and Television sectors, and independent production, now often finding distribution on the web and other ‘new’ media platforms. ‘t.o.m’ made by Tom Brown and Daniel Gray at the International Film School in Newport, Wales, won both the best student film and the audience award, which was shared with Joanna Quinn, whose film ‘Dreams and Desires : Family Ties’, has won more than forty awards at Festivals globally.

Aardman inevitably picked up some prizes : Best Children’s Series and the Children’s Choice Award for the comically inventive ‘Shaun the Sheep’, directed by Aardman’s unsung resident star, Richard ‘Golly’ Golezowski; Best Commissioned Animation for New Media for ‘The Peculiar Adventures of Hector’ by Sally Arthur and Sarah Cox; The Craft Award for Luis Cook’s mesmeric ‘The Pearce Sisters’, a macabre tale composed with graphic design reminiscent of outsider art; and ‘honorary’ Best Commercial Direction and Best Commercial Craft for ‘Sony Bravia Play Doh’, which though produced by Passion Pictures, features animation direction by Aardman stalwart,

Darren Walsh, taking 3D clay stop-motion work to another scale and level.

Oscar winner, Suzie Templeton, also scooped the Best TV Special Award here, for her outstanding stop-motion version of ‘Peter and the Wolf’, while Best Short Film went to ‘Yours Truly’ by Osbert Parker, though, for me, this was a little too derivative of Virgil Widrich’s ‘Fast Film’. Best Comedy went to Simon Tofield’s ‘Cat Man Do’, but biggest cheer of the evening went to the winner of Best Pre-School Series, ‘Charlie and Lola’, directed by Kitty Taylor, which features a maverick little girl and an adoring older brother, in brilliantly observed childhood adventures. Well, it may not have been the biggest cheer, but when you have a maverick little girl with an adoring older brother at home, who think ‘Charlie and Lola’ is a documentary about them, it is difficult not to be pleased. Indeed, the only thing which could have made the evening better, was more of the Wells boy in ‘a big finish’. Oh well. Witnessing the best of British Animation and enjoying the warmth and talent of the finest British animators will have to do.

Other winners:

Film/TV Graphics: Fun Facts directed and produced by Trunk Animation for Red Bee Media/Bibigon

Best Film at Cutting Edge: Magnetic Movie by Semi Conductor: Ruth Jarman & Joe Gerhardt An Animate Projects commission for Channel 4 in association with Arts Council England

Best Music Video: The Chemical Brothers: Salmon Dance by Dom & Nic for Virgin Records Ltd/EMI Music UK

Best Character Voice Performance: Robert Lindsay in The Technical Hitch by Jon Dunleavy. An independent Production.

Public Choice Music Video: OneEskimo: Hometime by Matt Latchford & Lucy Sullivan. Produced by Gravy Media for Little Polar Records

Public Choice Commercial: Protect the Human: Measles by Sweetworld TV/Lisle Turner. Produced by Amnesty International.

Sydney animation events 2007–2008 Katharine Buljan

First Wave: Celebrating the Outstanding Achievements of the Master of Animation First Generation of Graduates

The First Wave screening was held in October 2007 at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. It featured high-standard animation works by twenty-five Master of Animation graduates. They displayed the use of numerous animation techniques, ranging from traditional forms such as oil painting on glass, claymation to 3D computer animation. Works were not necessarily created using one animation technique, but they often combined a number of them. With Wind by Jingjing Ma, for instance, was based on a traditional hand-drawn Chinese brush painting and combined with computer animation. The training and knowledge that the graduates gained during this course, taught by staff with a high profile in the animation field, shone through in these works.

The works not only demonstrated the graduates’ strong grasp of animation techniques and production procedures, but also their creativity and skills in terms of the narrative construction. There were various genres and themes. Prema Bhakti Weir’s The Monkey’s Tale found its source of inspiration in the Sanskrit epic The Ramayana. The work featured refined and elaborate background design. Monkeynaut, a claymation by Susie Jones, was based on the story of Gordo – the monkey who was launched into space in 1958. Other graduates found inspiration in different issues. The focus of Brutal by Poramate Chotvararak was, for instance, concerned with the ‘anti-fur’ issue. Consumption, furthermore, was the theme of Gareth Chang’s One World. Nick Van Doninck’s Tattoo Love conveys, in an inventive way, the story of love. Geza’s Troubled Car, a comedy piece created by Andrew Suseno, is characterised by a brilliant modelling of the characters and backgrounds.

Numerous works featured at the First Wave have since gained success at various national as well as international animation festivals. Lucinda Schreiber’s stunning 2D short animated film The Goat that Ate Time has won numerous awards, amongst these the prestigious best Emerging Director Award at the 24th Annual Chicago International Children’s Film Festival in 2007. During the same year the work also won the People’s Choice Award at the 10th Golden Eye Award. Susie Jones’ Monkeynaut won the Best Animation Award at the 10th Golden Eye Award in 2007. Besides being screened at the Brisbane International Film Festival 2007 in Brisbane, Australia, Nabi by Hana Roh was also nominated for awards at the 13th Encounters Short Film Festival 2007 in Bristol, United Kingdom, and at the 10th Golden Eye Awards 2007 at the University of Technology, Sydney. Prema Bhakti Weir, furthermore, is a finalist in the category of Design for Communication that is part of the Design Now! National Graduate Exhibition 2008 to be held from 5 April until 15 June 2008 at Object Gallery in Sydney. The Second Wave screening is expected to be held at the end of 2008.

The Master of Animation is the first postgraduate course in Australia entirely dedicated to animation. While great attention is given to the practical component of animation, the theoretical side is also taught. Under the leadership of Dr Michael Hill, the course was introduced in 2005. Dr Hill is internationally established in the area of comic art, animation practice and theory. The course provides its students with access to state-of- the-art production facilities and computer labs especially designated for animation. The University of Technology, Sydney is situated about three kilometres from the Sydney Opera House.

Animania (Sydney)

Animania, a large anime and manga event, was held in Sydney’s Town Hall in September 2007. An exciting and vibrant atmosphere characterised this event. The visitors’ enjoyment was obvious as they engaged in a variety of activities including Cosplay, Karaoke, anime screenings and drawing competitions. A series of panel discussions were also held at this event. These focused on various interesting themes such as “Fan Community: Otaku-dom in Australia” and “When the West Was Spirited Away: Anime and Its Changing Status in Western Culture”. The guest panellists included Dr Mio Bryce, Head of Japanese Studies, Macquarie University, Sydney; Dr Catherine Driscoll, Chair of Gender Studies, University of Sydney, Sydney and Ben Hawkes, Mania Magazine writer.

Animania 2008 will be held in August at the Australia Technology Park in Sydney.

Dr. Katharine Buljan was awarded a PhD from the University of Sydney in 2007 where she also occasionally lectured on Art and Religion. She holds an MA (Hons) and is currently completing a Master of Animation at the University of Technology, Sydney. Katharine writes about animation and was an invited speaker at Sydney’s Animania in 2007. She guest lectured at the University of Technology, Sydney on Japanese animation. Her research interests include Japanese animation, animation genres, methodologies in animation theory and history of animation. In 1993 Katharine majored in painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome and has exhibited in Australia, Italy, Sweden and Hong Kong, winning numerous awards in the field of visual arts. Katharine was also Manager of the Blake Prize for Religious Art. Currently, she is writing a book on contemporary Australian artist Ken Unsworth in collaboration with Dr Chris Hartney from the University of Sydney.

Unfurling, 2006 by Martha Gorzycki Screening Event held in Melbourne, April 2008

The short digital work Unfurling, 2006 was screened in Melbourne, Australia on an outdoor billboard at Federation Square for one week beginning April 3, 2008.

Unfurling, 2006 was one of eleven short works in the program "These Four Walls." The title of the show was "Do Billboards Dream of Electric Screens" www.fedsquare.com or www.trampoline.org.uk

The curators were Miles Chalcraft and Anette Schäfer from Trampoline.org.uk, based in the UK, Midlands region and Berlin, GE. This show was also screened last fall at the Radiator Festival in Nottingham, a Biennial Festival for New Technology Art. It has also been screened on outdoor billboards in Derby, Leicester and Manchester.

Martha noted that media and new technologies are being reframed as forms of display in public spaces.

The Incredible Mr. Poe: Edgar Allan Poe in the Comics An Exhibition, Richmond, Virginia

In 1941, Russian immigrant Albert Lewis Kanter tried to introduce young people in the United States to fine literature by incorporating the classics into something they were already reading—comic books. In 1944, The Murders in the Rue Morgue appeared in Kanter’s Classic Comics series, and ever since adaptations of both Poe and his works have been regular features in comic books and graphic novels, many of which have been on display April 24 to October 31 at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond (www.poemuseum.org). Poe has even appeared as a comics hero himself alongside Batman and Scooby Doo.

M. Thomas Inge, Blackwell Professor of Humanities at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, and Poe Foundation trustee, has studied comic art for over forty years and published several books on the subject. His collection of comic books from childhood formed the core of the exhibition which was curated by Richmond artist Chris Semtner.

Also featured was the original artwork by such comic artists and illustrators as Rick Geary, Richard Corben, Gahan Wilson, Gris Grimly, Bill Griffith, and Patrick McDonnell, as well as proof sheets and original pages for some of the Classics Illustrated and other comic book versions loaned by collector Jim Vacca of Boulder, Colorado. An illustrated book and catalog was available for purchase from the Museum Gift Shop with proceeds going to the Museum.

This was the first exhibition ever devoted to the comic books and graphic narratives that have helped keep Poe’s name and works in the public eye for over sixty years.

The Edgar Allan Poe Museum is located at 1914 East Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23223, phone 804 648-5523. For more information contact Rebecca Jones at [email protected] or call toll free 888 21EAPOE.

The Aesthetics of Trash: Reassessing Animation and the Comic – Manchester Metropolitan University, 28th – 29th August 2007

A Review by Gareth Howell

The Aesthetics of Trash: Reassessing Animation and the Comic was a two-day conference hosted by MIRIAD, the Visual Culture Research Centre based at Manchester Metropolitan University. It was organised by joint chairs Dr David Huxley and Dr Joan Ormrod.

This conference examined issues surrounding the achievements, cultural status and thematic concerns of animation and comics, both of which have suffered critically in being regarded as ‘second-class’ media. The conference brought together researchers, writers and artists, including Paul Wells (Understanding Animation), Roger Sabin (Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art) and Paul Gravett (Cult Fiction: Art and Comics), as well as British comics artist/writer Bryan Talbot (Alice in Sunderland).

The word ‘trash’, to me at least, always brings to mind visions of Divine chewing on filth in John Waters movies, The New York Dolls, and bad tattoos worn by sneering greasers. It’s a kind of sleazy evil twin to kitsch, to be derided, pushed aside and ignored, or at best to be enjoyed as a guilty, irony-laced pleasure. That this conference aims to reassess the status of animation and comics as ‘trash’ suggests that, in the minds of the conference organisers, it is felt that animation and comics, despite thorough and enthusiastic examination in recent years, remains under the critical radar in terms of academic legitimacy and recognition.

The aim of the conference was to bring together elements of current research from both areas, and as such, the scope of papers presented was wide ranging and loosely bound together in themed sessions, covering ‘Form’, ‘Ideology and Conflict’, ‘Authorship and Industry’ and ‘Identities’.

The main body of papers over the two days were, perhaps surprisingly, comics heavy, exploring a wide range of ideas from historical perspectives through social perspectives to more theoretical examinations of comics texts. Perhaps this bias towards comics was a response to the increasing visibility of animation studies and a sense that, certainly in the UK, comics are still viewed in relation to ‘second-class’ media.

The conference was timely in that we are at a point where animation and comics are increasingly seen as legitimate areas of study and critical exploration, and points of convergence; the recent film adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis point to the mainstreaming and acceptance of ‘adult’ comics stories. In the UK, there has been a definite rise in the visibility and respectability of comics, from Chris Ware’s Guardian First Book Award in 2001 (the first time the award was won by a graphic novel), to the recent ‘Comics Britannia’ series produced by BBC4.

Although animation and comics were both represented within the conference papers, there was less focus on the points of homogeneity in the two areas than on issues within each. The points of convergence tended to be thematic ones; Brian Clarke’s paper examining the response of comics to 9/11, for example, sat neatly alongside David Huxley’s presentation of WWI propaganda animation.

Convergence between the two were more explicitly examined in Van Norris’ paper about Modern Toss, and in Paul Wells’ paper which made a direct link between Scott McCloud’s ideas of ‘closure’ (the techniques used to direct the reader between comics panels) and scene-to scene transitions in Osama Tezuka’s Jumping.

The closing plenary session focused on potential for future research in both areas, and highlighted an interesting tension between academic legitimacy and non-academic engagement and investment in them. The suggestion of possible publication and the potential of a journal raised questions of tone and register, and most importantly of inclusion. The major success of the conference was the range of registers, and it would be counter-productive to exclude, for example, the voices of comics artists and writers from future, more formalised research. The highlight of the conference was, for me, Bryan Talbot’s presentation of his own work Alice in Sunderland, which, probably more than any other paper, directly dispelled the notion of comics as ‘trash’ in its breadth, rigour and accessibility.

Whilst the term ‘trash’ has and will inevitably continue to dog animation and comics, in bringing together such a wide range of voices and ideas, the conference laid the foundation for important new discussion and development in both areas, and pointed to interesting areas of future collaboration, research and production.

More details about the conference, including abstracts and delegate information are available online at http://www.miriad.mmu.ac.uk/visualculture/inc/trash/

Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference March 2008, San Francisco Photo Scrapbook Jim Walker recently organized the first Animation panel strand at the PCA/ACA conference. Below are some photos documenting the events, courtesy of Charles daCosta.

Pierre Floquet, Bordeaux University [France], Daniel Manco, Pierre Floquet Bowling Green State University [US], Charles daCosta, Savannah College of Art and Design [US]

Cary Jones, Northwestern University [US], Thomas Walsh, Brenna Clarke Gray, University of New Brunswick [Canada] Thomas Walsh, Arts Institute at and Maria Lorenzo-Hernandez Bournemouth [UK]

Maria Lorenzo-Hernandez, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia [Spain]

Nichola Dobson, Caroline Ruddell, St. Mary’s College [UK] and Van Norris, Portsmouth University [UK]

Luke Baldwin Dubin [US] and Maria Lorenzo-Hernandez [Spain] John Lent in the middle in the background

Charles daCosta, Savannah College of Art and Design [US]

Melanie Häni, University of Sunderland [UK] and Nichola Dobson, Independent Scholar [Scotland, UK]

Left: Maureen Furniss, CalArts [US]

Pierre Floquet

Maria Lorenzo-Hernandez and Jim Walker James ‘Jim’ Walker, The University College for the Creative Arts [UK]

THE LIGHT AND SHADE OF POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH

Animated Politics: Very Brief Thoughts on Propaganda, Documentary and Activism

Author: Seymour Lavine

I recently acquired a DVD box set of Norman McLaren films (at a substantial discount, thank you strong pound sterling). As well as his finished and incomplete works, the set included several documentary films with interviews with McLaren. In one of the documentaries, he explains that he was strongly opposed to the increased public spending on the military and arms (prior to the Second World War), the reduction in spending on health and education, the effect on the taxpayer, and how the arms brokers and industry were reaping the profits (a point strongly made in his part-animation, part- live action documentary protest film Hell Unlimited (1936). He subsequently agreed, however, to make a series of public information and propaganda films supportive of the war (Keep Your Mouth Shut, 1944 et al). McLaren said that he later, and reluctantly, believed that the war was necessary, but that he had only supported it to a point (i.e. only as long as he decided to make those films).

It got me thinking about contemporary animated films from the UK that displayed documentary tendencies, or animated documentaries; specifically those films which documented and critiqued political issues. The animated work of the Leeds Animation Workshop, the animated shorts by Amber Films and works such as Daniel Florencio's A Brazilian Immigrant (2005) can be considered part of this “category”. Is it possible to assess their effectiveness in presenting information, forming an argument based on that information, persuading viewers of an argument and encouraging them to act? The last few minutes of Hell Unlimited called on viewers to write to their MP to protest increased arms spending, then to march onto the streets, and finally, if all else failed, to stop all work. Depending on the intentions of the filmmaker(s) is making a film enough to encourage aspects of activism?

Many audiences tend not to act on representations of social and political evidence shown to them in moving images alone. In order to encourage viewers to act, the film is often a starting point, or one aspect of a wider campaign. Certainly, the Leeds Animation Workshop have combined their animated film work as part of children's educational programmes, alongside other types of learning materials. With Daniel Florencio's film, a result of his own migration to the UK, he documented the successful and unsuccessful immigration stories of other Brazilians to the UK. Although he shows his films on YouTube, making it accessible to anyone with a computer, he has also screened it to immigration officers in several countries, alongside workshops intended to encourage change in the attitudes of immigration officials.

There are several aspects of films which can “activate” people. It seems that, so far in my research of contemporary “animated activism”, such films work with other aspects of education and political communication. Suffice it to say that there is much more I hope to discover about these issues over the next few years.

Seymour Lavine is a postgraduate research student at Loughborough University, UK. His research investigates political activism and education in animated documentary films, and the impact of "animated activism" on spectators and society. He is supervised by Prof. Paul Wells. Seymour is also the Archive Education Officer for the Animation Research Centre (ARC) at the University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham Campus, UK. His director is Prof. Suzanne Buchan. Seymour manages and develops the ARC Archive collection of British animated films. © Seymore Lavine 2008

A journey to the heart and soul of Czech Animation

Lucie Joschko

Stepping out of the airport terminal, I was greeted by a fresh winter breeze, very unlike the humid Australian summer I had left behind. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I was back in my home country, but this time on a serious research mission.

The main purpose of my trip to the Czech Republic was to meet up with animators and other key figures in the animation industry and interview them about various issues that have been affecting the production of animated films since the country’s political changeover in 1989. To use my four weeks of PhD fieldwork efficiently, I had also arranged to study some archival material at the National Film Archive in Prague and scheduled to meet with the animation historian at the NFA who has offered me their institutional support.

Little did I know how many golden nuggets I was about to stumble upon and how much this trip would affect my relationship with the chosen research topic. I thought I would share with you a couple of highlights from my research ‘expedition’ that has left a lasting impression.

My first week’s lesson was quite simple but profound. We read, write and theorize about the ‘animation industry’ and I am guilty of using the term quite frequently myself. What

the first couple of interviews taught me very quickly was to completely avoid the word ‘industry’ in relation to Czech animation. It only stirred up cynical remarks.

“What industry? We don’t have one!” people sneered at me.

So, in the following interviews, I have purposely reworded my questions to substitute industry with ‘production’. It didn’t help much either.

“What production? We don’t have one!” I felt like they were ganging up on me.

Here I should probably note that everyone was actually extremely friendly. People truly went out of their way to help out and the above instances simply reflect the wit and straightforwardness so characteristic to most Czechs.

By asking questions about the transition from State-owned studios, to the debris of private ownership (excuse my dramatic language) and the impact of privatization on their creative production, I recognized how sensitive this issue was to most of them and what bitter memories the older generation still carried. No existing literature could possibly offer me the same insight into the hearts of Czech animators and their recollections of the well famed Golden Era as this research trip. I was touched by their willingness to spend time with me discussing how the arrival of capitalist principles affected their career in animation. The younger generation on the other hand, the animation graduates of the past decade, embraced the market economy with no judgment of the past regime.

One of the most poignant moments was my visit to Barrandov, a large complex of film ateliers located in Prague suburb of the same name, and the home of the largest and oldest animation studios in the Czech Republic: The Trick Brothers (Bratri v Triku) and Studio of the Puppet Film (Studio Loutkoveho Filmu). I was privileged to not only interview a couple of the toughest ’survivors’ on the hill (as Czechs like to informally refer to Barrandov), but to also receive an unexpected tour by one of them.

The production company Kratky Film, which traditionally looked after Czech animators during its state ownership, now occupies a rather simple building in Barrandov. The labyrinth of empty, seemingly Kratky Film Praha (now a private entity). never-ending corridors stands Sad example of Communist architecture.

as a testament of what used to be a vibrant and busy network of ateliers with up to 300 animators employed at one time. I think I expected bullet proof padlocks on the doors to guard the treasures of Czech animation. To my surprise, most unoccupied rooms, ateliers and offices remain unlocked and I certainly did not hesitate to peek inside anywhere I could. I was in awe to see a storage room at the Trick Brothers Studios filled with stacks of storyboards and cels. Trust me, I was tempted, seeing the original cels of Zdenek Miller’s Little Mole! Then somewhere in the back, covered in dust, I noticed a familiar sign. The logo of Trick Brothers Studio (in Czech language, the name is a play on words, meaning both film trick and a t-shirt). This aged hand painted timber signboard made me wonder… Could it have been the very first sign designed by Zdenek Miller, for which Trnka awarded him three days off? I had to get a photo of this piece of history (shame it wouldn’t fit into my bag!).

As we progressed throughout the building, I suddenly recognized the smell of craftsmanship in the air: it was sawdust mixed with paint, the life of puppet animation. Various material and piles of ‘creative leftovers’ randomly stacked along the walls of the long bureaucratic hallways, hinted that some artist was alive around here.

Suddenly, like a ghost, Jiri Barta emerged out of nowhere in his dusty blue overalls.

Seeing him just a few meters Finding the old sign in a dusty storage room. away, I felt as if I were walking on holy ground. My friendly ‘tour guide’ Jiri called out Barta’s name (also Jiri) and, in what was a historical moment for me, I was able to enter the set of one of the legends of Czech animation. I did not plan to interview Barta, knowing he was in the midst of filming his 90min feature “Na Pude” (Eng.: In the Attic) so meeting him was really unexpected. It was an experience that humbled me. I thought I was not meant to be there, yet somehow I was standing next to Barta as he was showing me his puppet animation set. No, I did not take his photo and in fact I was not allowed to snap a picture of the set either but my otherwise picture taking obsession was trivial next to the way I felt and what this encounter meant to me. My heart connected so strongly to something I had not expected. Was it the smell in the air, the so called dying tradition of Czech artists or the glimpse of hope for its future that I recognized? I always liked Czech animation, I was raised watching it every night but I think I truly fell in love with it that day. As I was leaving the studios, bursting with excitement, I whispered to myself “Oh my God”, nothing could possibly compare to today’s adventure.

Well, the next day proved me wrong. It was a Valentine’s Day when I visited another puppet animation set on the outskirts of Prague, located in the attic of a family house. Little ironic given Barta’s new feature film name, isn’t it?

Mr. Vanek, a gentleman in his eighties was already standing outside his house in a winter jacket, waiting my arrival.

“There are three things you need to know, young lady”, he said as we shook hands. “I am deaf, I am stupid and I’m tired.” I smiled and accepted his sarcasm, which he still insisted was the exact opposite. We spent most of the day together. Beside his quirky sense of humour, there’s another fact that makes Mr. Vanek special - he is one of the very few living animators who worked with Jiri Trnka since 1949 until Trnka’s death (1969) and he shared with me some intriguing details about their professional relationship. Please pinch me - I can’t believe that I am now the proud owner of some of Trnka’s copied storyboards! I have no words to describe Mr Vanek’s generosity for the treasures that I will cherish forever.

Unfortunately, Vanek’s latest project, a beautiful puppet fairytale, stands still. The set is complete and so are the puppets with all their props. The typical problem why it can’t be shot is lack of funding. We discussed this sad situation while he was showing me around his set.

Vanek’s charisma and excitement despite the bleak prospects of finishing his film, reminded me a little bit of Dustin Hoffman’s role of Mr. Magorium – sweet, passionate and magical. Needless to say I too felt like I was standing in Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium or rather “Animation Emporium”! I only wish I was allowed to play there!

So here I was, once again, completely humbled by human goodness, by the kindness of someone’s heart who welcomed me, a stranger, with open arms.

I did not expect for my research trip to be this emotionally draining but I have collected some valuable data for my PhD thesis and formed priceless relationships with wonderful people. I have conducted interviews with award winning animators, studio managers, former chief financial officers of State production companies and University professors in charge of animation studies at FAMU (the film section of prestige Academy of Performing Arts in Prague).

Now back in Australia, I have a backlog of transcripts to analyze and only one year to finish. Most of us at some point in our research experience the tiresome pressures, frustrations and challenges of postgraduate studies. PhD can be an exhausting marathon. The more I feel grateful for the journey that I simply had to call ‘to the heart and soul of Czech animation’ because this trip has allowed me to experience the true purpose of my research and added a whole new dimension to its meaning. It grew from my personal aspiration to my love and passion and I can honestly say that it has changed me too.

Lucie Joschko is in her final year of PhD research under the supervision of Dr. Michael Morgan and Prof. Paul Wells. She is teaching animation and interactive narrative at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. © Lucie Joschko 2008

Publications and Reviews

Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation by Hans Bacher A Review by Pat Raine Webb

When it comes to knowledge about animation, Hans Bacher has probably done more research than anyone else on the planet. As a leading light at the Disney Studios, he is in an ideal position to focus on the inspirational art which is the subject of his book. In no way does Hans Bacher keep all the glory - he is full of admiration for the many artists he has worked with and whose art he reveals.

“Lavishly illustrated” is a phrase often used when describing a book on art or design but nowhere is it more appropriate than here. Bacher had access to the Disney archives and shows us many of the inspirational designs that are the basis of all the studio’s work. This is where it all begins - the visual style of the production is determined by what are truly works of art.

Bacher also reveals many of the intriguing steps that must be taken before the production begins. For example, Disney designers travel around the world to research scenery and local colour. They went to Africa to research The Lion King, to the Greek Islands for Hercules and to China for Mulan. This is the learning process - how places and things look, how to reproduce them as drawings and ultimately for the final production. Bacher writes about his own working methods and among the many hints he gives to would-be designers is to study scenes from the work of the great film directors like Hitchcock, Fellini and of course Eisenstein. It is all about telling a story visually. He also watches television and sketches characters and backgrounds for future reference.

Oddly enough, although Bacher has worked for Disney for many years, he is opposed to the idea of a ‘musical’ animated feature. His European background supports his stance on how a ‘fairy tale’ should be told, but he does admit that it sometimes works (in the Disney tradition) in films like The Lion King.

The book is full of stunningly beautiful designs, many of which were sadly never used in the final productions. But all this aside, Dream Worlds is a must have for its visuals alone - I can only describe them as gorgeous.

Hans Bacher, Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation (Focal Press, 2007). 216 pages, hard cover. ISBN 978-0-240-52093-3. US$39.95.

Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance by Barry J C Purves

A Review by Pat Raine Webb

There have been many volumes written about the art of animation but few, if any, sing the praises of stop motion as loudly as Barry Purves in this beautifully conceived book. This one comes straight from the heart - and a warm and generous heart it is! This is not just about Barry’s own work but covers the whole spectrum of stop motion art. Much of his research was done on a very personal level by sending out e-mail questionnaires to his many friends and colleagues around the world. And not only does he write about his own ideas and concepts but quotes verbatim from many of the answers he received. The book is divided into three main themes: Passion for the medium (something Barry has in abundance) which deals with inspiration from live theatre, ballet, dance and opera, and covers Barry’s own working methods and that of others. Process covers the construction and design of stop motion film from ideas and storytelling to narrative structure and includes examples from some of his own work such as Rigoletto, Achilles and Gilbert and Sullivan. There is a long section on different techniques - pixillation, cut- outs, sand and claymation, much of the text accompanied by quotes from other creators. There is a joyful reference to the work of Adam Elliot (particularly his Oscar winning Harvie Krumpet) that praises his economy of style and character. This part of the book also includes some technical details such as storyboarding, set design (from the simplicity of Achilles to the complex Japanese scenery in Screenplay), and the creation of the characters. Performance continues the technical aspect of stop motion - acting, scale and size, movement (walking and body language for example), directing and producing and more. This is a must-have book for anyone interested in the art of animation and I urge you to buy it and see for yourself what a feast for the eyes and the intellect it is.

Barry J.C. Purves, Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance (Focal Press, 2007). 372 pages, paperback. ISBN 978-0-240-52060-5. US$44.95.

Basics Animation: Scriptwriting by Paul Wells A Review by Victoria Meng

Basics Animation: Scriptwriting collects and organizes a lot of useful information for people who would like to learn about writing scripts for animation—especially scripts that explore the frontiers of both animation and screenwriting. As he did in his recent guide The Fundamentals of Animation, Paul Wells again accomplishes the difficult task of effectively communicating to multiple readerships without compromising the complexities of his subject. Both practitioners and scholars will find Basics Animation: Scriptwriting to be a useful reference.

The book is organized into six freestanding chapters. The first three chapters mostly consist of lists of ways to categorize animation and scripts. For example, Wells informs readers of models of “core plots” that other screenwriting guides offer: on two facing pages he cites Robert McKee’s “six deep structures” and Ronald Tobias’ “twenty master plots in films” (54-55). These models, as well as the four sets of guiding questions that Wells provides, can help readers to consider how they position specific existing or to- be-written works within the immense range of creative possibilities in the interdisciplinary and broadening field of animation storytelling.

However, the most stimulating sections of Basics Animation: Scriptwriting can be found in chapters four, five and six, which contain detailed case studies of animation scripts and storyboards. There is nothing more useful to neophytes in a craft than to be able to closely examine how mature works were conceived, composed and constructed. Moreover, Wells presents works that bear strong personal signatures and thereby provides a much-needed alternative to the plethora of animation guides that privilege large corporate productions. For example, Wells contrasts the original script and final narration of Shira Avni’s film, John and Michael (2004), which tells the story of two friends with Down’s Syndrome. One part of the script imagines how Michael reacted to John’s sudden death:

And I wonder If Michael sees him sometimes And if he still dances And laughs at the stars knowing John would never truly leave him Behind…(130)

Avni invited Brian, who also has Down’s Syndrome, to perform the script, and their collaboration produced a more textured narration that bears a thicker emotional resonance. The part of the narration that corresponds to the script excerpt above translates Avni’s “outsider” perspective into an “insider” voice:

He was on the bed thinking Thinking about him And see how do he feel. He was feeling about John…and… John came back and give him a hug ‘Cause that’s what he did. (131)

Basics Animation: Scriptwriting is thus hardly basic; by promoting examples of outstanding personal expression, Wells challenges its readers to produce the same kind of extraordinary storytelling. Indeed, Wells and animator Johnny Hardstaff exhort: “Be innovative and dangerous. Be political. Whatever people are currently doing, do the opposite. There is no simpler direction to original and innovative work than that.” (137) There is also perhaps no better characterization of Basics Animation: Scriptwriting than to say that in this book, Wells practices what he teaches.

The book’s layout and typesetting unfortunately compromise its approachability. Some paragraphs are printed entirely in bold and underlined capital letters, while most of the text uses a small font size. Some reproduced images, tables, captions, and other side features contain even smaller print, which seriously reduces their legibility and impact. It is not always clear whether Wells, a contributor, or a combination is responsible for a given piece of text, partly because the contents are placed very closely together. Nonetheless, for assiduous readers, Basics Animation: Scriptwriting can be a treasure trove of both practical and critical knowledge about animation, scriptwriting, and the mysteries of creativity.

Paul Wells, Basics Animation: Scriptwriting (Lausanne: AVA Publishing, 2007). 184 pages, color images. ISBN2-94037-316-7. US$29.95.

Robot Ghosts And Wired Dreams – Japanese Science Fiction From Origins To Anime. Edited by Christopher Bolton, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., and Takayuki Tatsumi.

A review by Joakim Pedersen

This collection of very diverse essays seeks, as the title indicates, to trace Japanese science fiction from its prose origins at the beginning of the 20th century, to its growing influence on global culture in the form of anime. In the western world, Japanese science fiction is primarily associated with early monster and disaster movies and, more recently, mecha or robot anime films and series in addition to consol games. As the editors point out in the book’s introduction, ‘this dominance of Japanese visual science fiction has eclipsed the fact that Japan also has a vibrant tradition of prose science fiction’. The book is divided into two parts. The first deals with Japanese prose science fiction, and the second with animation. The essays, written by both Western and Japanese scholars and critics, present a surprisingly wide approach to the topic, and most of them cross the division of media and touch upon and show relevance to both prose and anime. This coherent diversity is, in my opinion, one of the book’s strong points.

The first part introduces us to the origins of Japanese science fiction through essays like Miri Nakamura’s “Horror and Machines in Prewar Japan: The Mechanical Uncanny in Yumeno Kyusaku’s Dogura magura” about Kyusaku’s novel Dogura magura (1935) and the early Japanese science fiction prose. Thomas Schnällbacher’s “Has the Empire Sunk Yet? The Pacific in Japanese Science Fiction” investigates how the Pacific Ocean has been working as a science fiction topos in Japanese science fiction prose and film since 1945. It reveals how science fiction in Japan developed thematically and structurally in relation to its cultural origins, its relationship to Soviet and American science fiction, and as part of the global culture. In part two of the book, the thematic relationship between earlier science fiction and anime and how this relationship has developed, is discussed. Susan J. Napier’s “When the Machines Stop: Fantasy, Reality, and Terminal Identity in Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments: Lain” investigates the classic science fiction dichotomies human/machine and nature/technology, and how they have evolved to more complex forms in contemporary anime films and series.

Naoki Chiba and Hiroko Chiba’s essay “Words of Alienation, Words of Flight: Loanwords in Science Fiction”, exemplifies the diversity of the different approaches to science fiction found in this book. Chiba and Chiba present a linguistic study of how loanwords and foreign expressions are used in anime and how they are instrumental in constructing the complex worlds and our experiences of them. Another intriguing essay is “Otaku Sexuality” by Saito Tamaki, one of the leading Japanese scholars in the area

of fan culture studies. Saito lets us in to the domain of the hardcore otaku (male) and yaoi (female) fandom, and gives us a psychoanalytic and nuanced study of what is often perceived as a ‘perverse’ sexual relation to their objects of desire.

Books on anime have become plentiful the last decade but only a handful of them treat the subject matter academically. A book like Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams – as far as I know the first to focus solely on science fiction – is therefore more than welcome, as it is an important and meaningful piece contributing to fill this gap. However, a challenge when approaching a pop culture phenomenon in an academic way is the balance between treating the matter seriously and treating it too seriously. Most of the essays in this book manage the distribution of theoretic weight perfectly, like all the essays mentioned above. Livia Monnet’s “Invasion of the Woman Snatchers: The Problem of A-Life and the Uncanny in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” sticks out from the rest of the crop in this regard. Covering phenomenology, psychoanalysis, theories of artificial life, and neovitalistic, evolutionary biology, Monnet’s essay is stuffed with so many ideas and theoretical points, that it is in danger of obscuring its object of study. It all comes together nicely in the end though, constructing an argument as to why Final Fantasy is an unsuccessful movie.

Other essays touch upon the phenomenology of anime, subject position, gender, and science fiction and philosophy. Contributors except those already mentioned include William O. Gardner, Christopher Bolton, Sharalyn Orbaugh, Takayuki Tatsumi, Kotani Mari and Azuma Hiroki.

I mentioned the book’s wide range of approaches as a possible strength, but it can also be a potential weakness. I don’t think anyone will find all the essays equally interesting or relevant to their specific field of interest. But however different the essays are, they all have in common their intelligent and original, and in some cases even provocative, approach to their source material. I don’t see this book as an introduction to Japanese science fiction or anime, but rather as a book of reference for anyone with a certain interest of science fiction, be it Japanese or not, and/or anime. I guarantee that after reading this book, your horizon on Japanese science fiction, prose or animation, and the theories connected to it will be broadened – mine certainly was.

Bolton, C., Csicsery-Ronay Jr, I. and Tatsumi, T. (eds.) Robot Ghosts And Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction From Origins To Anime (University of Minnesota Press, 2007. 288 pages. ISBN 978-0816649747. US$20

Society for Animation Studies Board and Contact Information

Founded by Dr. Harvey Deneroff in 1987, Regular Membership: the Society for Animation Studies (SAS) is USD 35.00 / 35.00 Euro an international organization dedicated to Student Membership the study of animation history and theory. USD 20.00 / 20.00 Euro

SAS Board: Institutional Membership USD 60.00 / 60.00 Euro Maureen Furniss, President California Institute of the Arts Please visit the SAS website to learn how to become a member. Paul Wells, Vice President Loughborough University SAS Websites: Richard Leskosky, http://www.animationstudies.org Secretary/Parliamentarian http://www.sas-in-europe.com University of Illinois, Urbana http://universe.animationstudies.org/ André Eckardt, Treasurer German Institute for Animation Film Temporary SAS discussion group: Robert Musberger, Treasurer http://groups.yahoo.com/group/animationst Musburger Media Services udies/ Timo Linsenmaier, Webmaster University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe Publications Editors: Victoria Meng, Student Representative Animation Studies – Nichola Dobson University of California, Los Angeles SAS Newsletter – Caroline Ruddell and Lucie Joschko Paul Ward, Member at Large Brunel University Website Development: Linda Simensky, Member at Large Ingo Linde PBS Kids SAS-in-Europe Webmaster: SAS Membership Jeanpaul Goergen Benefits to members include: • Annual conferences. SAS Newsletter • Publication of peer-reviewed Submissions, suggestions, corrections, conference proceedings in the Society's address changes and all other Newsletter- online journal, Animation Studies. related correspondence should be • Listing in the 'SAS Animation Experts' addressed to: directory (forthcoming). Caroline Ruddell • The SAS Newsletter, an internal news E:[email protected] publication. or • Members-only discussion list. Lucie Joschko • Discounts to festivals and other events E: [email protected] with participating organizations. SAS Newsletter subscriptions are free with membership in the society.