The Society for Animation Studies Newsletter

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Volume 22, Issue 1 Spring 2009 The Society for Animation Studies Newsletter

ISSN: 1930-191X

In this Issue: Letters from the Editors SAS Announcements: 1 _ President Report and Minutes Maureen Furniss Dear SAS members, 2 _ Membership Reminder 3 _Animation Studies We are pleased to present you with the first issue of Nichola Dobson the SAS Newsletter in 2009. We hope the 4 _ 2009 Conference Update newsletter finds you in cheerful spirits and that you enjoy reading the contributions from members all Conference News and Events over the world. 5 _ Sydney Animation News 2009 Katharine Buljan On behalf of the Society for Animation Studies, we 6 _ Goat Story: The Changing Face thank those who share their essays, news and of Czech Animation Lucie Joschko photos with us. We would also like to thank Amy Ratelle for her assistance with the newsletter and The Light and Shade of congratulate her on the birth of her daughter Laila! Postgraduate Research 7 _ Tea, biscuits and a trip down memory lane! Kerry Drumm Sincerely, 8 _ A Work Between Two Worlds: Caroline Ruddell and Lucie Joschko Starewicz’s Style and The Co-Editors Cameraman’s Revenge LeAnn McCaslin

World perspectives 9 _ African Animation By Mohamed Ghazala

Publications list 10 _ Recent publications

Membership Information SAS Board and Contacts

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 © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.1 President’s Report Maureen Furniss

The past few months have seen significant changes to the Society for Animation Studies, though they will be transparent to most of you. The biggest change is the result of work off and on over a number of years: our incorporation as a non-profit organization in California. Now you will see ‘501(c)(3)” by our name, indicating that we are considered a charitable organization that is not required to pay taxes on the dues we collect. In addition, we can also attract potential donors, as any donations we receive will be tax deductible. Although we are not actively soliciting donations, if something should become available, we’ll be ready.

The term ‘charitable organization’ means that we support the work of animation scholars, as well as people in the general community who can utilize what we produce—for example, students in need of research materials. We do this by organizing conferences, and providing travel and research grants, a free online journal, honors and recognition, and other types of support. We are required to document these activities to justify the SAS’s status, especially in the way we spend our money.

Our efforts in this area were led by three incorporating officers, which included Robert Musburger, Richard Leskosky, and me, as treasurer, secretary, and president. This is a typical simple model for incorporating directors, which take the organization through the process. Harvey Deneroff, founder of the SAS, was consulted and supported our efforts. I also received advice from various colleagues in the SAS and other organizations, such as Jan Nagel of Women in Animation and Antran Manoogian from ASIFA-Hollywood. After some work on our own, we decided to use the services of a lawyer, which took about a year, off and on, and cost about three thousand dollars. However, it turned out that the application process went very smoothly, and we received approvals from the (United States) federal and (California) state tax offices very quickly, as our paperwork presented no problems. Filing our tax returns to the government was very easy, accomplished through a simple form submitted online.

We had many options in designing our by-laws and articles of incorporation. One of our significant choices was to make no provision for supporting the board of directors financially, in terms of salary or support for travel. However, we kept in provisions to support a webmaster (with an honorarium) and some key positions, including editors of publications, through very small compensation in the form of free membership. Directors do benefit from another aspect of incorporation though, as they are no longer personally liable for any financial claims made against the organization (let’s hope that’s a benefit we never have to use!). Protection from personal liability is one of the main reasons we had to incorporate.

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.2 One of the most important decisions we made in designing our bylaws concerns the status of those people who join the SAS. While we typically refer to them as ‘members’, this name is no longer accurate according to the legal definition of the term. A member organization is one in which each person has an equal share—or ‘ownership’—in a way—particularly in terms of voting. Cindy Keefer gave me a useful example: a film organization distributes the films of its ‘members’, who get a say in the way in which it is run by voting on its course of action. These are long-term stakeholders in the organization. In the case of the SAS, we now have ‘associates’ who receive benefits of the SAS, such as use of its member-only website, the ability to attend and present at conferences, the potential of getting grants or other support, and hopefully other features in the future. However, our associates will not be voting for its leadership. Rather, our small group of active leaders (currently Robert, Richard and I) will continue to run the organization for the short term, determining a slate of officers to run it on a yearly basis. We carried out our first meeting in mid-April, via a Skype conference call.

Historically, the SAS has been a small, relatively close-knit group, run by various individuals for twenty years through sheer devotion. In practice, the leaders (mainly the president) have been making autonomous decisions in an effort to run the SAS in the best way possible. The annual voting process of a ‘member organization’ would add a great deal of complexity, time, and cost to leading the SAS. Our ‘non-member’ status will help us run seamlessly and will allow us to return more resources to the organization. However, all feedback from the associates will be warmly welcomed, and there are still plenty of ways to become involved with leading the SAS.

Aside from our incorporation, another significant change is in our banking. For a number of years we have had an account at a bank located in Illinois, near Richard Leskosky, who is now secretary but at one time was president. Although this bank served our basic needs, it required that we do our business by mail and it was not well equipped for international transactions. A couple of years ago we began using PayPal to facilitate our memberships; while it is not ideal, it did make joining and renewing easier, and we have seen a rise in member numbers as a result. However, the balance there started to build up, and we needed to find a bank where we could deposit our PayPal funds. While we awaited approval of our non-profit status, Robert researched a number of institutions and determined that Wells Fargo offered an account that would work well. Wells Fargo has branches across the United States, and it easily accommodates international money exchanges. It also provides free accounts to non-profits such as the SAS.

We opened an account at Wells Fargo in March, and transferred $10,000 of the money stored in PayPal into it (transfers to/from our official bank and PayPal are free). Robert closed the Busey account, and transferred its balance (about $1800) there, plus deposited a few recent checks for membership. As a result, our current balance at Wells Fargo is about $12,000. We plan to set up a money market (interest earning) account to store the $10,000 from PayPal and subsequent income, while keeping about $2000 in our checking account. The next step is to close the German account and wire the money into Wells Fargo. André has been anxious to do so as he assumes personal liability for the money there. Since it is free to electronically transfer money to and from Wells Fargo and PayPal, we can easily work with money in various currencies. There is

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.3 a fee for the conversion (as well as the transfer), but we can also keep PayPal money in those currencies, thus avoiding the fee (though not avoiding fluctuations in exchange rates). Currently we have small amounts in Euro, Canadian, UK, and Australian funds. Please write to me at [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns.

In closing, I would like to thank Harvey Deneroff and Charles daCosta for all the hard work they are putting into planning the 2009 conference. I’ve made my reservations—and I hope you have too! See you in Atlanta!

Budget for 2009 expenses

Conference General support 1000 Member travel funds 600 Website Website hosting 120 Timo 300 Communications – dues reimbursement Journal Editor 35 Newsletter Editor 35 Asst. Webmaster 35 Legal fees - incorporation Lawyer 800 Paperwork Advertising/Promotion Conference ads Member Development Grants Support of projects 400 Accounting Fees PayPal expenses 200 Contingency Fund Probably tax related fines - accountant Misc. office expenses 100 TOTAL 3625

Estimated income in dues for 2009 is $3500 - $4200 (we took in about $4200 last year). This is the last year we will have to pay the lawyer, so this significant expense will no longer be in our budget as of 2010.

President Maureen Furniss called the meeting to order at 6:20 p.m. She welcomed new members and noted that many had joined for this event to present research, but that there were also people who were attending as only audience members, not to present. This indicated that our conferences are growing in scope, as we usually have mainly presenters at our conferences.

Maureen reported on incorporation news. We are about to obtain non-profit status in California, a process that has been under way for a long time. The president thanked the Board, including treasurers Robert and Andre, as well as Richard Leskosky.

The treasurer’s report was delivered by Maureen Furniss. Pay Pal has become our main avenue for collecting dues. It allows us to retain funds in different currencies, which could be useful for future conferences. The treasurer’s report of income and expenses was presented.

Vice President Paul Wells took over. He thanked Maureen for her work on the incorporation process. He announced the Board’s decision to extend Maureen’s status as president until the organization’s legal status is stabilized, which meant that she would be in office without an election for another year. Mark Langer posed a question of procedure, asking if should it be made as a motion instead of simply as an announcement. It was concluded that it was not a procedure required by the by-laws, but a vote was taken anyway. The results were all yays, with no nays and no abstentions.

Nichola Dobson thanked Maureen Furniss and Paul Ward. She gave an overview of the Animation Studies online journal. She opened the call to include any animation conference papers, not just those from the SAS. Submission guidelines are on the web. She also invited members to join the editorial board.

Timo Linsenmaier reported on the website. Last year we had 30,000 unique visitors, 200,000 pages visited. The order of popularity was 1. Front page, 2. Journal, 3. Animation bibliography. He has been considering a systems upgrade with Ingo Linde, as well as future plans to move the discussion list from Yahoo to our own SAS site. He invited members to help with the web.

Caroline Ruddell reported on the SAS Newsletter, saying she’d like to start a section dealing with what post-docs are doing. She also made a call for submissions.

Harvey Deneroff discussed the site for 2009 Conference: SCAD’s Atlanta campus. Atlanta is home of Cartoon Network, among other animation- and puppetry-related institutions, such as a local ASIFA chapter, the Center for Puppetry Arts, and local art museums. There are two other universities in the area. He described SCAD’s programs

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.5 and facilities, and said it has experience with and budget for conferences. Atlanta’s airport is a massive hub, which should make transportation relatively easy. He checked with the Platform Festival, and thought possibly it might be on the weekend before Platform (July 4th), in the last weekend of June. Questions have to be answered about dorm space and lodgings.

Maureen Furniss asked for people to consider hosting for 2010. She also announced that Charles daCosta has been asked to serve as the official SAS Historian. Brian Wells had to step down as Awards and Outreach coordinator, which Tom Klein took over. Tom Klein also heads the subcommittee of Book and Essay awards, which has 8 members. The winner of the McLaren-Lambart Animation Award for Best Scholarly Essay was Paul Ward, for “Some Thoughts on Practice-Theory Relationships in Animation Studies,” from Animation: an Interdisciplinary Journal (vol. 1, no. 2). Carol MacGillivray was runner up for “How Psychophysical Perception of Motion and Image relates to Animation Practice,” from Computer Graphics, Imaging, and Visualization, 2007. Paul Ward accepted the award and said he was honored for the recognition.

Maureen thanked Paul Ward for his leadership in organizing the conference. Paul reported that were 126 delegates present.

Mark Langer gave general thanks to Board.

The meeting closed at 7:00 p.m.

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. Checks must be in US currency, drawn on a US bank.

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.

We now have 152 paid members.

Volume 3 closed at the end of last year with a vast range of papers, including some from last year’s Bournemouth conference, previous SAS conferences, and the 2008 PCA/ACA conference in San Francisco, which included animation panels for the very first time (and were well attended). We are opening the journal up to papers from other conferences as it provides members the opportunity to keep up with work presented outside our annual conference.

Volume 4 was launched at the start of 2009 with Alan Cholodenko’s passionate reply to some challenging discourse in the field of theory which many people were keen to engage with at Bournemouth. The paper is published here in its entirety and I think opens up some of the issues emergent in our rapidly expanding field and society.

We have other work in the pipeline and are building, gradually, towards the launch of the special Melbourne edition.

Thanks to those who responded to the recent CFP and again to the editorial board for all their hard work.

As always a new CFP will be launched after this year’s conference in Atlanta, but if anyone has institutional requirements of publication prior to the conference, please get in touch with me and we can organise an earlier review of your full paper.

Looking forward to seeing all of you in Atlanta in July.

Nichola

The schedule is subject to change

Thursday, July 9th Tentative: 7:30 Registration, Welcome Reception

Friday, July 10th Shuttle Bus: Departs Residence Inn for SCAD at 8:30 and 9:00 am

8:45 am – 9:45 am: Registration Gallery 4 See. Light breakfast.

9:45– 10:00 am: Welcome Address (Event Space 4C)

10:00 – 11:00 am Keynote Address: Andrew Darley, “The Persistence of Animation” Event Space 4C

11:15 am – 1:00 pm: Workshop I: Event Space 4C: Teaching Animation History in a Cinema Studies World Moderator: Harvey Deneroff, SCAD-Atlanta

1:00 – 2:15 pm: Lunch

2:15 – 4:00 pm: Panels 1. Event Space 4C: Musical Typographies • “Illustrated Songs and Song Car-Tunes: Cultural Practices and Sound Technology in Early Talkie Animated Films” (Mark Langer, Carleton University, Ottawa) • “Punctured Performances” (Richard Leskosky, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) • “Wars, Submarines, Walruses and Strawberries: A Critical and Historical Approach to Motion Design as Animation” (Alessandro Imperato, Savannah College of Art and Design) • “Musical Time with Moving Type” (Brian Evans, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa)

2. Room: TBA: Creating Animation • “Dynamic Visualisation and the Powers of Observation: Drawing for Animation in the Digital Age” (Rose Woodcock, Deakin University, Burwood, Australia) • “Watch and Listen! Animated Audiovisual Language Stimulation in Kindergarten” (Gunnar Strøm, Volda University College, Norway) • “Contexts for Caricaturing: the Spectrum of Expressing” (Phil Anderson, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minnesota)

4:15 – 6:00 pm – Panels 3. Event Space 4C: Aspects of Contemporary Animation • “From Renaissance to Azur: Visual Style and French Animation” (Richard Neupert, University of Georgia, Athens) • “It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. It’s Bob Parr? Narrative Discourse in The Incredibles” (Chris Jaynes, New York University) • “But is it (Fine) Art?: Thoughts on the Placement of (Pixar) Animation Within the History of Western Art” (Heather Holian, University of North Carolina, Greensboro)

4. Room: TBA: Anime Experiences • “The Presence of the Line” (Caroline Ruddell, chair, St. Mary’s University College, Twickenham, UK) • “Vertigo, Nausea, Menace and Grace” (Christian McCrea, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia) • “High Definition, Moderate Definitions and Low Level Analysis” (David Surman, University of Wales Newport,UK)

Shuttle Bus: Departs SCAD for Residence Inn at 6:15 pm

8:00 – 9:30 pm: Screening: High Museum of Art, Rich Auditorium Georgia Animation on Our Mind: A Retrospective of Peachtree State Animation This screening is being organized by ASIFA-Atlanta and presented in cooperation with the High Museum of Art.

Saturday, July 11th

Shuttle Bus: Departs Residence Inn for SCAD at 8:00 am and 8:30 am

8:00 – 9:00 am: Registration Gallery 4 See. Light breakfast.

9:00 – 10:45 am: Workshop and Panel Event Space 4C: Workshop II: Push/Pull: The Student, The Education and The Industry Moderator: Tom Knott, Portland, Oregon.

Panel: Room TBA: Animation Technologies I • “Animating, Ani-Morphing and Un-Ani-Morphing of the Evolutionary Process in Carl Sagan’s Cosmos” (Raz Greenberg, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel) • “Drawing Itself” (Dirk de Bruyn, Deakin University, Australia) • ““Softspace” and Hybrid Images: Animated World as Media Interface in Speed Racer” (Ji-hoon Kim, New York University)

11:00 am – 12:45 pm: Panels 5. Event Space 4C: Live Action/Performance and Animation • “Primitive Movers: Live Performance in Digital Animation” (Alla Gadassik, Northwestern University, Evanston/Chicago, Illinois) • “Animation Design and Discovery for Synchronous Objects, a Collaborative Project with Choreographer William Forsythe” (Maria Palazzi, The Ohio State University, Columbus) • “Double Take: Rotoscoping and the Processing of Performance” (Kim Louise Walden, University of Hertfordshire, UK)

6. Room: TBA: Animation History I • “Pens and Pencils: Baroque Poetics and Silent Animation” (Saige Walton, The University of Melbourne & The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Australia) • “Manuel Moreno: Animator/Director at Universal, 1929-1937” (Tom Klein, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles) • “Feminizing the Magic Pen: Excuse me…Gen. MacArthur… (Tze-yue G. Hu, University of Oklahoma, Edmond) • “Magoo and Mickey’s First Television Adventures: Transitional Advertising Forms and the Theatrical Cartoon Star” (Timothy Jones, University of Southern California, Los Angeles)

2:00 – 2:30 pm: Don Bluth Collection of Animation Art Presentation Deborah Rouse, Archives and Special Collections Librarian, Jen Library, SCAD Savannah, will introduce the exhibit.

2:45 – 4:30 pm: Panels 7. Event Space 4C: Memory Chair: Tracy P. Cox, SCAD-Savannah • “A Film of One’s Own: The Animated Self-Portraits of Young Contemporary Female Animators” (María Lorenzo Hernández, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain) • The Persistence of Memory: Recollecting Trauma in Waltz with Bashir (Paul Ward, Arts Institute at Bournemouth, UK) • “Autobiographical Elements in Animated Films of Czech Female Directors” (Eli_ka D_cká, Charles University of Prague, Czech Republic) • “Trauma and Memory: Animating the Inexpressible” (Bella Honess Roe, University of Southern California, Los Angeles)

8. Room: TBA: Approaches to Animation I • “Towards a Forensics Theory of Animation” (Dan Torre, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia) • “The Work of Animation in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (Corbett Miteff, Cardiff University, UK) • “Splash Pages and Freeze Rays: Stasis and Speed in Superhero Media” (Martyn Pedler, University of Melbourne, Australia) • “Balancing User Driven Pacing and Narrative Control in Animated Graphic Novels” (Andrew Buchanan, Abu Dhabi Women’s College, Abu Dhabi)

4:45 – 6:45 pm: Panels 11. Event Space 4C: Television Animation • “Portrayals of Class Mobility in The Simpsons” (Harrison Stark, Savannah College of Art and Design) • “Goliath’s Head Revisited” (Stephen Wilson, London, UK) • “Nostalgic Parody or Parodic Nostalgia? Sub-Genre on adult swim” (Nichola Dobson, Edinburgh UK) • “‘Vision On to Stay Tooned: Animated Pedagogy in British Children’s Broadcasting 1966-1996” (Paul Wells, Loughborough University, UK)

12. Room: TBA: Animation Technologies II • “Animation Domination: Making a Case for Animation as the Dominant Mode of Expression for the Post- Human Moving Picture Culture” (Tony Tarantini, Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Oakville, Ontario, Canada) • “Vocalising the Image. Sound, Animation, Semantics, Vox Pop, Dramaturgic, Speech Patterns, Voice Acting. Acousmatic, Listening” (Ross Winning, University of Wolverhampton, UK) • “The Spiritual-Functional Animation: A New Paradigm of Animation in the Digital Age”(Kenny K. N. Chow, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) • “Gertie Meets Gertie: From Animated Film to Entertainment Robot” (Angela Ndalianis, The University of Melbourne, Australia)

Shuttle Bus: Departs SCAD for Residence Inn at 7:00 pm

Evening: Open

Sunday, July 12th

Shuttle Bus: Departs Residence Inn for SCAD at 8:00 am and 8:30 am

9:00 – 10:45 am: Panels Event Space 4C: Approaches to Animation II • “Parallel Synchronised Randomness – Stopmotion Animation in Live Action Feature Films” (Jane Shadbolt, University of Newcastle, Enmore, Australia) • “Kinesic Constructions: An Aesthetic Analysis of Movement and Performance in 3D Animation” (Adam de Beer, University of Cape Town, South Africa) • “Performing Characters: An Audience-Centered Analysis” (Laura Ivins-Hulley, Indiana University, Bloomington) • “To Be or Not to Be: The Controversy in Japan over the Anime Label” (Gan Sheuo Hui, Kyoto University, Japan)

Room: TBA: Aspects of European and African Animation • “Where is Ananse – Issues in African [Cinema] Animation” (Charles daCosta, Savannah College of Art and Design) • “The Secret of Kells: Ireland’s European Identity in Feature Animation” (Thomas Walsh, Arts Institute at Bournemouth, UK) • “Fatigued and Dizzy: A Preliminary Consideration of Strategies of Subversion in the Animation of Eastern Europe” (Reza Yousefzadeh, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK) • “George Debels: Pioneer of Dutch Animation: The Influence of American Theatrical Cartoons on Early Dutch Commercials” (Mette Peters, Netherlands Institute for Animation Film, Tilburg)

11:00 – 12:45 pm: Panels Event Space 4C: At Death’s Insistence: Theorising Animation and Death Chair: Alan Cholodenko, The University of Sydney • “Bestowing Persistence: An Eclipsed Birth Meets An Eclipsed Death” (Janeann Dill, Institute for Interdisciplinary Art and Creative Intelligence/University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa) • “It’s Raining Coyotes: Death and/in the Chase” (Michael Dow, New York University and Northeastern University, Boston) • “The Lifeworld of Wall-E: A New Generation” (Freida Riggs, Sydney, Australia) • (The) Death (of) the Animator, or: The Felicity of Felix, Part III: The Death of Death (Alan Cholodenko, The University of Sydney)

Room: TBA: Animation History II • “From Toy to Foil: Tex Avery’s Female Characters” (Pierre Floquet, ENSEIRB, Bordeaux University, France) • “Animating Shifts in Consciousness: Live Action and Animation in Jan _vankmajer’s Faust and Alice” (Meg Rickards, University of Cape Town, South Africa) • “Simulational Animation and Re-mediated Observation: An Ontological Study of 3D Animation and the Stop-Motion Camera in Some Early Animated Shorts of the Aardman Studio” (Fatemeh Hosseini-Shakib, University for the Creative Arts at Farnham, UK) • “Revolutionary Cels: The Sydney Waterfront, Harry Reade and Cuban Animation” (Max Bannah, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia)

Shuttle Bus: Departs for Residence Inn and MARTA’s Arts Center Station 1:15 pm

1:00-3:00 SAS Membership Meeting Welcome Center.

Shuttle Bus: Departs for Residence Inn and MARTA’s Arts Center Station 3:15 pm

By Katharine Buljan

AIAF 2008 at the University of Technology, Sydney

In October 2008 the University of Technology, Sydney was host to the Australian International Animation Festival. There were over two thousand submissions from thirty countries.1 Of these around one hundred were selected for the festival.

The large attendance testified to the high level of interest the festival triggered amongst Sydney animation enthusiasts. The event was opened on 17 October with a Digital Panorama programme followed the next day by intensive animation screenings of three International Programs, Australian Panorama, Digital Panorama again, International Puppet Animation Panorama and Late Night Bizarre. The selected animations were of a high professional standard.

In Digital Panorama, Josie’s Lalaland, an animated film by Yibi Hu from the United Kingdom, was aesthetically appealing. Butterflies and fields of dandelions, both acted as a metaphor for the beauty as well as the fragility of human life itself. The story was dedicated to Josie who passed away from leukaemia. The work from Slovakia titled Flug by Peter Kisantal was a combination of a live action setting and characters that were made using a 3D digital technique. Its protagonists, bugs which resemble plants, continually multiply and slowly invade a city. They grow out from the most unexpected elements such as architectural objects and car tyres. The lighting was well executed in this work, avoiding the artificial look occasionally encountered in animation films which use a combination of live action and 3D digital technique. Blind Man’s Eye by Matthew Talbot-Kelly from Ireland was characterised by an engaging and intensive visual imagery, taking the audience on a journey through the mindscape of an old blind man. H. Canac and G. Brinkhuizen from France presented Derriere La Porte. Some of the background images in this work occasionally resembled visual arts works, in particular those belonging to Neo-Plasticism and Constructivism.

For the Australian Panorama programme, a number of Master of Animation graduates’ works from the UTS were selected. One of these was Lucinda Schreiber’s 2D award- winning work titled The Goat Who Ate Time. Another work, a puppet animation titled L’Animateur by Nick Hilligoss, told, in inventive way, the Biblical story of Adam and Eve in which L’Animateur turns into God.

1 AIAF, http://www.aiaf.com.au/2008/sydney.html Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.13 In the International Puppet Animation Panorama programme, the animated films took a creative approach to the design of the puppet characters. Park Bench People, an animated film by Denisa Grimmova from Czech Republic, featured three humorous unrelated episodes each with the same background setting – a bench in the park. Remi Durin from Belgium presented Sequence 01 – Plan 02. An interesting moment in this work was when the main character is seen observing and interacting with the actual elements of the animation process such as animator’s sketches and the various puppets’ parts. Amylase was an animated film by Henning Thomas and Bjorn Verloh from Germany made in black and white.

The Late Night Bizarre programme featured Eden an animated film by Hye-Won Kim from Korea which sharply contrasted the beauty of nature and the violence innate in human beings. Golden Age: Sketch Towers by Aaron Augenblick from the United States was a humorous story about an animator’s ideas and characters which have never been realized.

The works screened as part of the three International Programs used numerous animation techniques. The story in Running in Darkness by Alan Jennings from the United States was about people with Alzheimers disease. A work by Amy Collen and Andy Collen from the United States, titled For Annie visually depicted a poem of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe written in 1849. George Gershwin’s music piece Rhapsody in Blue was a source of inspiration for the animated film Blossom in Blue made by A. C. Vives, G. Arrighi and J. Lenoble from France. The Blue Shoe by Magnus Frederiksson from Sweden told the story about the distances created between the people by their differences in an inventive way.

Sydney’s Young and Promising Talent Graduate Design Show 2008 The University of Technology, Sydney

The School of Design at the University of Technology, Sydney held a Graduate Design Show December 3-9, 2008. On this occasion the students from five different courses displayed their final year projects. Amongst these were Master of Animation students. Each student had a space designated for his/her work where, on a poster, they showed parts of the animation process they had gone through, as well as stills from their final works. In addition these students had individual screens where visitors could see their showreels. In the exhibition space there was also a large screen continually showing students’ work. This attracted a large number of viewers.

A thorough pre-production process preceded the realisation of the students’ final works. It is important to mention that their projects were based on theoretical research that

These young artists/animators took audacious steps in developing their own visual language. What characterised this particular group was their inventiveness in terms of their work rather than succumbing to imitation; such independence produced great results.

“The choices we make, the fears we create… shape our world and determine our fate.”2, is how Cassandra Gaunson describes the idea behind her animated film Sleeping in Circles. Gaunson’s work contains a psychological element and it also displays a strong sense of detail and pictorial balance. It is interesting to note that Gaunson also made the soundtrack for her work. Such an approach may suggest an auteur tendency. For this particular work, she researched Sigmund Freud’s theory of the Uncanny giving it an engaging visual expression. Gaunson explains the story of Sleeping in Circles in the following way,

“A typical day in an ordinary city transforms into an abstract tale of reciprocity. The contrast between the attitudes of two characters is emphasised when the lines between reality and the imaginary become blurred. Their resolve is tested when the alienating urban landscape takes on a life of its own, reflecting the phenomena described by Freud in his theory of the Uncanny. Varying responses to the challenges they face set them on separate paths, leading to the climactic culmination of a series of strange events.”3

The work successfully manages to keep the viewer’s interest by constantly stimulating him/her to wonder what will happen next.

Sleeping in Circles by Cassandra Gaunson © Sleeping in Circles by Cassandra Gaunson © Still from film. Still from film. Image courtesy of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.

2 Cassanda Gaunson in email communication with the author, 19 March 2009. 3 Ibid. Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.15 Sleeping in Circles by Cassandra Gaunson © Sleeping in Circles by Cassandra Gaunson © Still from film. Still from film. Image courtesy of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.

In 2007, while doing his Master of Animation, Arthur Terzis was chosen to be an Australian representative of the Japanese Global Youth Exchange Program that was funded by the Japanese Government. His animated film Unfinished Business is the story of a violent encounter between Demon, a villain and his half human son Gabe. The dramatic aspect of the story is heightened by well-chosen lighting and a good soundtrack. Unfinished Business also demonstrates Terzis’ modelling skills, seen not only in the characters but also in the range of weapons and blades featured in his film.

Fei Zhou’s Dream Words is an animated film that draws on both the crime and romance genres. Interestingly, the characters in Zhou’s work bear a resemblance to those in manga and anime. His film expresses a sophisticated sense of design, particularly of architectural elements.

Unfinished Business by Arthur Terzis © Dream Words by Fei Zhou © Poster. Poster. Image courtesy of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.16 Apple of Iron by Rachel Walls has been recently selected for the prestigious Annecy 2009 as well as for AIAF and Australian Panorama at MIAF. The work will tour this year around Australia with AIAF. Walls’ approach was not conventional. Interestingly, she decided to create an animated film which would be a visual expression of a music piece. Her search for this piece led her to Defektro Noise Army and she chose their Apple of Iron composition. Walls’ work has an experimental quality and its style is bold and expressive.

Wei Ning’s animated film Waltz Brilliant conveys a lyrical mood. This is a film with an interesting aesthetic. Beautifully drawn, it takes the viewer on a journey through a city on a rainy day. Ning’s work also expresses a distinctive sense of rhythm.

Welcome To Biduwarra by Cameron Robertson is an interesting story about an old lady who tries to increase the population of the little town she lives in. In order to create the background for his animated film Robertson conducted research about Australian towns. The production process revealed his talent for illustration. Welcome To Biduwarra reflects Robertson’s good choice of, and control over, camera movements and angles.

Apple of Iron by Rachel Walls © Rachel Walls working on Apple of Iron © Still from film. Photo courtesy of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.

All of these young artists/animators have shown originality not only in the treatment of their stories but also their visual expression. Their individual dedication and talent stands as a guarantee of the long creative path ahead of them.

Dr Michael Hill is the founder of the Master of Animation course. From 2009 the new course director will be Associate Professor Markus Fischmann.

Waltz Brilliant by Wei Ning © Rachel Walls working on Apple of Iron © Still from film. Photo courtesy of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.

Welcome to Biduwarra by Cameron Robertson © Still from film. Image courtesy of the artist.

Animania Festival 2008

Australia’s largest event dedicated to Japanese animation and manga, the Animania Festival, took place in 2008 in Sydney in a new spacious venue – the Australian Technology Park. The event attracted approximately four thousand visitors. One very exciting event at the festival was a Cosplay, and in that year, beside the Animania Festival Cosplay Competition, the Preliminary Competition for the World Cosplay Summit also took place. The first finalists, with their winning Full Metal Alchemist costumes, will travel to Nagoya, Japan in July 2009 to represent Australia at the World

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.18 Cosplay Summit.4 At Animania it was interesting to see a large number of fans in beautiful costumes. It was as if one was in the middle of a living anime/manga world.

A new and important event at the festival was Animania Classroom - a series of seminars designed for parents, teachers and students who wanted to familiarise themselves more with anime and manga.

Animania Festival Sydney 2008 Animania Festival Sydney 2008 Photo courtesy of the Animania Festival © Photo courtesy of the Animania Festival ©

This year Animania Insight addressed a range of very interesting themes such as humour and comedy in anime and manga, followed by fantasy, myth and spirituality then gender and romance, as well as science fiction in anime and manga, to name just a few. Visitors looked excited while engaging in numerous other festival’s activities. Animania is an important event which, through its programs, facilitates deepening knowledge about Japanese culture as well as fandom in a global context.

4 Animania Festival 2008, http://animania.net.au/2008/sydney-august/features/cosplay Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.19 Animania Festival Sydney 2008 Animania Festival Sydney 2008 Photo courtesy of the Animania Festival © Photo courtesy of the Animania Festival ©

In 2009 the Animania Festival begins with a daylong program, first in Sydney on 28 March, then in Melbourne on 18 April and Brisbane on 9 May. The festival will conclude with a large weekend-long event at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney on 5 – 6 September. In Brisbane a daylong program will be held again on 19 September.

For more information on this exciting event visit the Animania Festival website at animania.net.au

Dr Katharine Buljan is a sessional academic in animation at the University of Technology, Sydney. Her main research area is Japanese animation.

By Lucie Joschko

Given my keen interest in Czech animation (along with my recent experience in goat keeping), I have the sense of duty and pleasure to report on the first 3D computer feature from the Czech Republic (and indeed the first one from Eastern Europe!). Goat Story (2008) was created by Art and Animation studio (AAA) located in Prague under the direction of the young animator, Jan Tomanek. Written with distinctive dark Czech humour, Goat Story is situated in medieval Prague and consists of a combination of famous old Prague legends.

The film premiered in Czech cinemas on October 16, 2008 and since then has received some mixed reviews. I do not intend to take sides in arguments about the animation quality or its storytelling ability. What I find far more intriguing is the transition of Czech animators from traditional to digital methods of production: one of the contributing factors in the changing craft of Czech animation.

Work on Goat Story began in 2003 when Tomanek applied for a grant from the EU- MEDIA program and received EUR 20000 to start this project. Interestingly, AAA studio has not received any public funding from the Czech government for the production of the film although government grants were still being allocated to puppet films. What is quite remarkable about the achievement of AAA studio is not only that they managed to attract private investors to fund this large scale project but that the visual part of the entire feature production was completed by a very small team, which was said to include only four animators. I visited AAA studio in Prague in February last year when I interviewed Tomanek as part of my data collection fieldwork. I considered the studio facilities quite modest although when measured by the number of 3D animation licenses for Maya, AAA is currently the biggest 3D computer studio in the Czech Republic.

I found Tomanek’s decision to employ 3D technology over more traditional methods interesting, knowing that his parents were traditional animators and that he grew up among puppet sets. His reasons appeared to be both stylistic as well as logistical. He explained that animating 250 puppets by hand would be a very difficult task – one similar to the direction of that many live actors in a live action film. It made me wonder how Trnka’s team, more than fifty years ago, managed to animate up to 100 puppets in battle scenes of Old Prague Legends (1953) with Goat Story, 2008 © Art And Animation Studio

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.21 such control and technical mastery well before the advent of digital aids. Trnka’s puppets also had highly expressive qualities, effectively portraying the psychological attitudes of his films’ main characters.

On the other hand, one may question why a country so rich in animation history and one that has been known for its experimental approach to animation, has been so slow in adopting 3D computer technology. Articles related to the production of Goat Story typically mention the lack of skilled Czech 3D animators whilst others claim that films animated by hand are usually more heartfelt. However, these responses tend to overlook more complex underlying issues such as: the decreasing cost of technology; the increasing cost of manual labour; the country’s long tradition of marionette art; the limited training opportunities in 3D animation as well as the existence of embargos on the importation of Western technology until the early 1990s.

In light of these circumstances, the release of the first Czech 3D computer feature undoubtedly represents a milestone in the transition from traditional to computer generated films by Czech studios. Understandably, the quality has not yet attained Western production standards. In fact, most of Czech 3D animation shorts are still frequently associated with amateur production and student films. But young Czech talents such as Michal Zabka and Jan Tomanek have demonstrated the potential to successfully pursue 3D animation. In addition, well established puppet artists such as Jiri Barta and Bretislav Pojar have also experimented with the capabilities of 3D computer software and Czech 3D shorts such as Svet (World, 2000); Zaby (The Frogs, 2002); Chlupaci (Fluffies, 2005); Frantisku, k vecer! (Frantisek, the dinner is ready, 2003) and Hrnecku Var! (Secret Porridge, 2007) signify the gradual acceptance of computer animation by Czech artists.

Over the past six decades, Czech animators amassed a rich portfolio of animation masterpieces and achieved a special repute in international animation culture. Puppet films, in particular, have been synonymous with Czech artists and to this day, the tradition of Czech animators remains deeply rooted in arts and crafts. The transition from traditional to digital methods of animation production therefore represents one of the main factors contributing to the gradually changing face of the Czech animation tradition and it seems inevitable that the long-established Czech animation craft is shifting towards a different set of skills. Let’s just hope that virtual 3D characters will not ultimately wipe out traditional Czech puppet animation!

Lucie Joschko is a sessional academic in animation and multimedia studies at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. She is currently completing her PhD dissertation on the post-communist changes in Czech animation.

Tea, biscuits and a trip down memory lane!

By Kerry Drumm

At the early stages of my PhD research I wanted to try and see if it would be possible to speak with anyone who may have worked on animated public information films during the Second World War. Vivien Halas, daughter of John Halas and Joy Batchelor forwarded a contact of Dick and Liz Horne who had both worked for the studio over a number of years. I sent a letter to Dick and Liz explaining why I would like to interview them and a week later received a phone call from Dick saying they were happy for me to visit them. We arranged a date and I asked if they would mind if I filmed the interview, which they agreed to.

A few weeks later I set off in my car with the camera kit, dictaphone beside me and the GPS set to Dick and Liz’s postcode. Not a huge fan of the GPS, I don’t 100% trust it, however as I was heading to London thought it might come in handy. I was excited to be interviewing Dick and Liz, especially Liz who started at the studio during the Second World War from Art College. Three hours later I arrived at the address given, even with GPS, on time!

The first thing I did before I set the camera up was to switch on the dictaphone. You never know what you may talk about during the time of saying hello and setting up. Dick and Liz had set up an area in their house for the interview and we all settled down. To begin with I explained why I wanted to interview them, how it could relate to my research and that we shouldn’t be more than an hour. Camera on record, dictaphone flashing and with my huge list of questions we set off. As the interview progressed I discovered that Liz had in-fact worked on the wartime information films. Dick started at the studio as they began working on the Charley series, which was towards post Second World War. When asked if they felt the information films they worked on would make a difference, Liz enthusiastically responded ‘Yes, we thought we were changing the world and making a huge difference’. I ask about the restrictions they faced working in a studio during the war. One such restriction was the rationing of paper, which results in a wonderful moment of the interview as Dick stands up to do an impression of John Halas discovering a sheet of paper in the bin. Dick in a Hungarian accent pretends to pick the paper from an imaginary bin and shouts ‘who put this paper in the bin’? Dick tells me of John Halas flattening the paper on the desk ‘do you know how much this piece of paper costs’? Dick explained that often the paper would be re-used so original artwork was erased to make way for new work. This would explain the lack of artwork remaining. Liz remembers that it could sometimes take up to 3 hours to get to work in the mornings after a night of air raids and how they worked Saturday mornings for free.

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.23 The first hour had passed quickly; I explained that I only had a couple of more questions and that I wouldn’t keep them for much longer. Dick said that it was absolutely fine, and they were quite enjoying themselves. My tape had run out, but I knew that my dictaphone was still recording, so I kept going. We talked about everything, and everyone connected to animation, from Yellow Submarine, to children’s television. It was a really fun interview and as I packed up my camera we had a cup of tea and a biscuit and chatted some more.

Checking the time I was aware that I was coming close to have being there for nearly 3 hours and reluctantly said it was time for me to go. I apologised for taking up so much of their afternoon, but they both assured me that they had thoroughly enjoyed a trip down memory lane and if I needed to talk to them further then they would be happy to. As I leave, wishing I had more time I hand over flowers and chocolates as a thank you. Car packed it was time for the long drive home, once the GPS found its way out of the cul- de-sac!

The interview with Dick and Liz as primary research for my PhD was invaluable and exciting. It placed me in a world that I had only been able to source from books and documentaries. Parts of the interview were able to confirm and support a number of theories that had been swimming around in my head. Just as important, the recording of the interview also contributes to the historical foot print of British animation which can be used for archival preservation for future researchers, which I am very committed to. Dick and Liz have a wealth of knowledge in the form of animation gossip, anecdotes, remembrance of changing times and changing technologies. I have to go back, I need to know more, and we need to know more!

Kerry Drumm left a post at Aardman Animation in 2007 to conduct a PhD with the Animation Academy Research Group at Loughborough University. Former Archive Manager for the Animation Research Centre at the University of Creative Arts, Kerry is also an advisor for Bradford Animation Festival and a member of the steering group to develop the British animation archive museum.

By LeAnn McCaslin

The early 20th century was a time of creativity, experimentation, and expansion in the history of cinema, a time when animation pioneers established their names. The likes of Émile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie (1908) and Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo (1910) or Gertie the Dinosaur (1913) explored the relatively uncharted waters of hand drawings set to motion, at times showcasing the creation process, and presenting the animator as an artistic ‘magic-worker’. Meanwhile, in Russia, an entomologist began to realize the potential of the medium after seeing that traditional, live-action filmmaking could not properly record his test subjects – the hot stage lights killed the beetles! Most likely because of his training with film at Khanzhonkov studio (Schneider 1), Starewicz approached his works from a unique angle, presenting the illusion of animation while removing the animator’s hand, and putting narrative in the full spotlight through three- dimensional stop-motion, as demonstrated in The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912). Perhaps because of these key differences, his films exhibit closer ties to live-action cinema than McCay’s works – or even Cohl’s, who also used stop-motion – utilizing the techniques of directors such as George Méliès and D.W. Griffith. This bridge can be shown by closely analyzing only a few minutes of his work, namely minutes 2:00 to 5:00 of The Cameraman’s Revenge.

Before looking at Starewicz’s work in more depth, however, it is necessary to first take a quick glance at one of these live-action directors who seemed to have influenced him. Less than two decades prior, the magician Méliès, after studying the films of the brothers Lumière, set to work making short narrative pictures in which he explored the possibilities of special effects and illusions. Trick shots aside, the works of Méliès all share a particular trait inherited from the Lumières: he never moved his camera, not once in over 500 films (Cook 16). Showman that he was, he thought in terms of the theater, and as David Cook, author of A History of Narrative Film, puts it, the point of view in these scenes was “that of a theater spectator sitting in the orchestra center aisle with an excellent eye-level view of the action … the actors move across the film frame from left to right and right to left as if it were the proscenium arch of a stage.”

The way in which Starewicz also positioned his actors, though they were insect bodies held in place with bits of wire, could not be summarized more concisely. This is where careful observation of the chosen shots in The Cameraman’s Revenge becomes useful for comparison. Directly on minute 2:00, the scene begins, set inside the merry nightclub The Gay Dragonfly. Mr. Beetle, there to see the headlining dancer, sips from a bottle at a table situated just to the left and beneath the center of the stage. As the protagonist of this tale, his centered position can be read as a way to convey his importance. Two other patrons – Grasshopper and another beetle – are situated at tables to the far right and far left of the frame, respectively. Though the audience soon learns that Grasshopper is the main antagonist, his presence contributes nothing to the narrative happenings for a while, and so he is banished to the sidelines – where,

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.25 frequently, characters in a theatrical play reside while considered invisible or below the main character’s attentions or interest. This principle is later used twice more to portray Grasshopper as unnoticeable while he cranks away on his camera and secretly records Mr. Beetle’s infidelities – Beetle and Dragonfly never give him a second glance, whether or not he is (rather visibly) standing right next to them with an unwieldy set-up of film equipment.

As with Méliès, this sort of actor positioning (or blocking) served more than one purpose. Centering conveyed not only the importance of a character in a particular moment, but also the importance of particular actions, though this principle occasionally forced characters to move a bit unnaturally to the middle of the frame to do things. Still, it helps to explain a good deal of Grasshopper’s later movements to the modern eye, including his tendency to walk over to the middle of the frame in order to make a gesture as mundane as pointing and laughing, or shaking his tiny insect fist, only to depart the way he came a few seconds later. Centering seems to be partially born from the fact that the frame’s middle-space could afford the audience the best possible view of the action.

It becomes more obvious through close analysis that Starewicz also understood how much his audience’s attention would be trained to the center space of the frame, and that he most likely used this principle to save himself some work. For example, the sidelined Grasshopper at the night club scarcely makes any movements from minute 2:00 until it is time for him to enter the main narrative at 2:35 – that’s hundreds of frames in which he did not have to be positioned, or just barely adjusted. This was perhaps an added bonus for Starewicz in choosing the techniques he did, but whether for saving time or enhancing narrative meaning, theatrical-style blocking is but one example of how he absorbed the vocabulary of the live-action cinema to appeal to audiences in that era. Nonetheless, Méliès’s defining work, Le voyage dans la Lune, hailed from 1902, nine years before The Cameraman’s Revenge was completed. In that time, there were certainly other filmmakers, and the influence of other live-action directors can also be observed in this stop-motion work.

Often considered to be one of the most influential directors of all time, D.W. Griffith was a contemporary of Starewicz, though one of his most defining films, The Birth of a Nation (1915), was released four years following The Cameraman’s Revenge. Nonetheless, Griffith directed a substantial amount of short films for the Biograph Company, starting in 1908, so it is not unreasonable to guess that Starewicz could have viewed a number of Griffith’s works – especially in light of the fact that they were screened frequently internationally. Upon thoughtful watching of The Cameraman’s Revenge, this guess becomes considerably more credible, as many of Griffith’s techniques consistently crop up, tools from the live-action cinema’s toolbox that Starewicz seems to have adopted as his own.

One of the signature tactics which Griffith employed to create nonverbal (or, since these were silent films, perhaps non-diegetic) narration was his use of color. The tinting process he utilized dyed the entire frame with a particular hue, allowing the color to evoke certain emotions in a viewer concerning the characters or surroundings.

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.26 Starewicz picked up on this rather enthusiastically. The interior of The Gay Dragonfly is yellow, traditionally a color of joy and high spirits. These are easily emotions that a cozy night club would wish to express – and considering a puppet crafted from a dead insect is unable to express joy by smiling, this is an innovative way to court an audience’s identification with the characters. Occasionally, though, the emotions of the surroundings take a backseat when compared to the emotions of the “actors.” Before entering The Gay Dragonfly, the setting outside of the building is blue, perhaps suggesting a cool, relaxing evening. But when the scene returns to the outside of the club, the tint has turned to red. This color is traditionally associated in the West with meanings such as warning, danger, and passion, and the music changes to a swaying, more dramatic tone. Why has it transformed? Well, now the audience is aware of Grasshopper lurking to the edge of the frame, revenge on his mind after being knocked away from Dragonfly’s affections after his tussle with Mr. Beetle. The red tone continues as he pursues the couple, though is abruptly changed back to a cozier yellow as Mr. Beetle and Dragonfly pull up to the hotel. Perhaps this is because the audience is quite aware at this point of Grasshopper’s frame of mind, and focus has been returned to the protagonist, Mr. Beetle – and his current contentment at the Hotel d’Amour.

It should be noted at this point that the device of color was not foreign to other animators in Starewicz’s time. In Little Nemo, Winsor McCay also hand tinted his frames, though he took great care to add the vibrant colors only to his characters. But, this arguably does not contribute to the narrative, or character identification, in the way that Starewicz’s colouring does.

Griffith’s techniques were not limited to color. One of his favored devices was to use masking to black out certain parts of a shot, pulling attention to particular actions and faces that may have otherwise been lost in the surrounding environment. Though not used liberally, Starewicz also employs masks, markedly in The Cameraman’s Revenge as Grasshopper peers through the keyhole, spying on Mr. Beetle and his mistress before setting up his camera anew. The edges of the frame have been masked to create this keyhole-shape effect. It can also be noted that showing Grasshopper looking at something, then showing what he is looking at, is an example of an eyeline match, another narrative technique Griffith often employed.

Just as notably, Griffith frequently departed from Méliès’s tradition of treating the camera lens as the eye of a seated theater-goer, generally opting for greater depth in his shots, or even showing glimpses of the landscape from a higher perspective point. Starewicz also (very briefly) does the same, though as has been observed, he otherwise adheres rigorously to Méliès’s style of camera placement. During this exception that lasts a little over ten seconds, a seemingly aerial perspective is provided of the ground below, showcasing the vehicle ferrying Mr. Beetle and Dragonfly to the hotel. This allowed Starewicz to demonstrate that the car was covering a decent amount of distance, a feat that photographing from his usual perspective would probably have made tedious.

Before summarizing, a disclaimer should be taken into account. Film history is a complex animal, and asserting who inspired who, especially among contemporaries, is

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.27 an extremely tricky matter. Given Starewicz’s training as a motion photographer, it is likely that he viewed the films of many directors, bringing inspirations from multiple other sources into his own projects. Also, admittedly, it is easy to closely scrutinize the films of figures such as Méliès or D.W. Griffith, as so many of their films have been preserved – in Griffith’s case, around 90%, while only 10% of films from Denmark from that period (which probably influenced Griffith) survived (Mottram 4). Starewicz could easily have been watching these studios’ releases as much as Biograph’s. Not only that, but the elephant among Griffith’s innovations is his use of parallel editing (though this does date back to Edwin Porter,) and The Cameraman’s Revenge does not truly demonstrate this technique at all.

Keeping this information in mind, the point of this paper is not to identify exactly which of Starewicz’s techniques were learned from whom, or what director they most closely emulate. Rather, the purpose is to uncover through example that many of his techniques sprang from somewhere in live-action cinema. Ladislaw Starewicz most likely realized that his brand of animation was whole heartedly different from its hand drawn counterpart on many levels, and pulled from his experiences in the film of three dimensions to suit his needs. Through close analysis, it becomes possible to dissect his work and determine the purpose that each of his narrative devices serves – and to learn a bit about the mind of one who has been called the grandfather of stop-motion animation.

References

Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film: Fourth Edition. New York: Norton, 2004. “D.W. Griffith.” IMDB. 9 Oct. 2008. < http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000428/>. Little Nemo. Dir. Winsor McCay. 1910. YouTube. Image, 2004. Mottram, Ron. “Influences between National Cinemas: Denmark and the United States.” Cinema Journal 14.2 (1975): 4. 10 Oct. 2008. . Path: Search. Nick, James. “75 Hidden Gems.” Sight & Sound. 17.8 (2007). 20 Sept. 2008. . Path: Search. Schneider, Eric. “Entomology and Animation: A Portrait of an Early Master Ladislaw Starewicz.” Animation World Magazine. 5.02 (2000). 19 Sept. 2008. . The Cameraman’s Revenge. Dir. Ladislaw Starevicz. 1912. YouTube. Image, 2005.

LeAnn McCaslin is a student pursuing a B.A. with the Film and Media Studies program at Arizona State University. Her particular area of interest is the medium of animation and its relationship with live action cinema, both as an art and as an industry.

African Animation

By Mohamed Ghazala

How can we define African Animation? Is it animation produced in Africa by Africans? Or produced with African budgets? Or produced for African audiences?

These are important questions to answer before speaking about African animation.

To be more clear, does speaking about animation in Africa include films produced by non-Africans in Africa? An example is The Artist's Dream by the American Harold Shaw which was created in 1916 and considered as the first animated film made in Africa. Other films include work by some non-African investors and producers like the Canadian Firdaus Kharas who directed Magic Cellar (2006) the first animated series to be based on African culture, which was acquired for broadcast in the United States. Kharas has his own organization which can fund any of his co-production works with other countries, like this series which is co-produced with South Africa.

On the other hand, perhaps African Animation should be considered as the work of African people or produced with African funding. For these reasons, historical research into African animation could be approached in different ways. For example, it could be considered that the first animated films produced by an African artist are animated shorts in the 1960s which were produced by Moustafa Alassane from Niger.

Considering the nationality of the producers becomes complex; Mish Mish Efendi films were made by Belarusian Frenkel brothers but produced and funded by the Egyptian government as propaganda films for mobilization of the Egyptian army during the World War II in late 1930s, these films of Mish Mish (1935) could be counted as the first ‘real’ African animated films.

Egyptian Animation

The first Egyptian animation studio was established by the Frenkel brothers in early 1935 and produced the first Egyptian and African Animation films under the title of the hero Mish Mish during the 1930s and 1940s, before the Frenkel brothers emigrated to France in 1951.

Some of the oldest studios were under supervision of artists like Ali Moheeb, Hasseb, and Abdel Aleem Zaki in the 1960s and 1970s. When Egyptian TV appeared in the 1960s there was an animation department for producing titles of films and ads. Some of the great artists worked in this department contributing to the revolution of animation in

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.29 Egypt with short films, such as Noshi Iskander, Redha Goubran, Ahmed Saad and in another generation there was Shwekar Khalifa. In the late 1980s Mona Abu Alnasr established her own studio after she came back from studying animation in the USA, and started her own projects with cooperation with Egyptian TV. And she continued to make series for TV for the coming years.

Right now in Egypt there are more than 50 animation studios which vary between big, medium and small size studios, there are round 10 big studios which provide more than 100 animated hours yearly, between series, episodes, ads and short films. The Al Sahar studio, one of the biggest studios in Egypt, established by the Saudi investor in the early 1990s, started to work on the first Egyptian feature animated film The Knight and the Princess in 1998 and is not yet finished due to lack of funds. Some of the studios really dominated the market, not only in Egypt, but also in Arab countries such as in Saudi Arabia and Emirates. Some of the studios monopolize the market of Egyptian TV completely and sometimes there is no way for small studios to enter the marketplace. But for some small studios, there are some chances through cooperating with the larger studios on their own projects or by getting funds from other Arabian countries to make Arabian series or ads. Therefore it could be considered that Egypt makes animation on behalf of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Libya, Yemen, and Kuwait.

The work primarily is 2d as well as clay animations in addition to new studios work with 3d and flash. Some studios specialize in 3D like Tarek Rashed which started in early 2000 making ads and then worked on co-productions with Arabian countries in local series. The studio Zamzam specializes in Islamic series in clay animation. And with the same technique there are projects under the supervision of Eid Abdel Latif which recently got an award from CHINH, the Indian childrens’ festival. There are medium sized studios which use the new techniques of flash like A+ Cartoon which uses and produces many works for the Egyptian TV.

In addition to the specialist studios, there are a lot of freelancers who work individually or part-time, or sometimes get their own projects, such as Hussain Nemr, Hazem Gooda, Ahmed Fathi and Mohamed Ghazala who produce many awarded works.

According to the educational level of artists, there are a lot of projects for Egyptian TV and Arab states; the 1990s and 2000s could be considered as the golden age of Egyptian animation. Many new studios opened and many graduate students became involved after training in academies which provide animation classes like the Cinema Institute, Helwan University and Minia University where I teach. Every year there is more than 200 new graduate students who have studied animation for at least 2 years, and at least 100 of them continue in working in animation as a career.

In Egypt, there are only 2 international festivals that have animation categories in their competitions; Cairo International Cinema Festival for Children and Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentary and Short films. But there are also some local festivals such as Al Sakia Animation festival.

In September 2008, the first chapter of its kind in Africa and the Arab world was approved by the international board of ASIFA (Association International du Film d'Animation). This became the connection between the international network of animators and the African and Arabian ones, and proved to be a powerful player in the animation field in the region by holding activities such as workshops, screenings, panels and festivals.

One of the first activities of ASIFA Egypt is celebrating IAD (The International Animation Day) which is held yearly on 28th of October, commemorating the first public performance of animation in 1892. The first Egyptian celebration of this event was held in Alexandria with collaboration with the Al Rasheed foundation for cultural development on 28th October 2008. The coming plans of ASIFA Egypt is to promote the art of animation, not only in Egypt, but also in the whole region by promoting networking activities and participating in international events.

What concerns the rest of Africa there is no real animation industry except for in Egypt and South Africa. In addition there is a young animation movement related to making ads in Morocco and Tunisia with French developers.

Glints of hope come from European countries and their cultural centers providing financial support to animators and their projects. For example the Africa Animated project in Kenya was initiated by UNESCO when its adviser in Nairobi Alonso Aznar established it in order to build on the unique case of African art. He invited professional academic animators to teach artists from Africa through participation in workshop projects. In the last three years three projects were held which gathered animators from more than ten African countries who brought with them their folk stories and tried to mix pure African arts with the techniques of modern animation. The three projects resulted in more than twenty short films and animators who, after returning home, had the chance to use their experience in their native countries, such as the south African Mike Scott, who was a trainee in the second project of Africa Animated and after it, he started his successful series of Jozi Zoo for South African TV.

Jozi Zoo is a playful short that uses humor to aptly depict some archetypal South African characters whilst being politically critical in a comic way. Jozi Zoo, alongside others, presents some fascinating facets of the concerns of these filmmakers. Whether conceived of as an educational animation or as an independent political piece, each animation uses the particularities of its form to illustrate modern concerns found in various contemporary African countries.

This ongoing project is good news for the industry. Despite an abundance of talent, African animation faces many challenges. Production studios, equipment and financing are in short supply and distribution is limited. I myself participated in the last project of Africa Animated in Nairobi (the previous one was in South Africa and the first one in Kenya and Tanzania). Though these films are very unique, they are made with the best

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.31 techniques and by the best professionals of animation in Africa. The current support is still not enough and does not provide fully for the needs of African animators. Almost all financial support for cultural purposes in Africa is intended for cinema or classical arts. But despite the obstacles, African directors continue to produce innovative animated films that are winning over international audiences.

The most positive signs are that there is a group of creative hands which come from Kenya, Ghana, Morocco, Algeria and Zimbabwe. These are in addition to Egyptian and South African artists who have their own creative abilities, and this perhaps shows that there is hope for future animation in Africa. Some of them got famous awards around the world like The Blackheart Gang from South Africa who got a positive reception in many international festivals, as well as the results of UNESCO’s workshops, Africa Animated, which produced many animated films.

Although Africa has a long history of developing its animation, it still has not reached the level of animation apparent in many other countries. We have a very small number of academies teaching animation and it is very hard to obtain necessary professional equipments, software and the trainers which would help us to educate generations of animators with their own tradition of animation, or an individual African style of animation, without being fully influenced by current Western and Japanese styles.

Mohamed Ghazala is an Animation lecturer in the Animation Department - Fine Arts Faculty at Minia University in Egypt. © Mohamed Ghazala

Cholodenko, Alan. 2008, 'The Animation of Cinema', The Semiotic Review of Books, vol. 18, no. 2. This essay is a reanimation of the name, reputation and achievements of Emile Reynaud for animation studies as well as film studies. If anyone wants a hard copy, it is $7.95USD, including shipping. One just needs to write to Gary Genosko, the editor of The Semiotic Review of Books, at: [email protected]

Cholodenko, A. 2009, ‘Jean Rouch’s Les Maîtres Fous: Documentary of Seduction, Seduction of Documentary’ in Three Documentary Filmmakers, William Rothman (ed.), SUNY Press, Albany, New York. The article theorises Rouch’s pioneering cinéma vérité documentary film practice in terms of Derrida, Baudrillard and animation.

Cholodenko, Alan. 2009, ‘Animation (Theory) as the Poematic: A Reply to the Cognitivists’, Animation Studies, vol. 4.

Cholodenko, Alan. 2008, ‘The Spectre in the Screen’, Animation Studies, vol. 3. This paper theorises Lacan and animation, including animation spectatorship, in terms of the spectre.

Dill, Janeann , MFA, Institute for Interdisciplinary Art and Creative Intelligence. "Thinking Experimental Animation Before William Kentridge: An Art Historical U-Turn." Abstracts 2009, College Art Association: New York, 2009, p.38. Available at: http://www.interdisciplinaryartinstitute.com/2009_CAA__Session_Chair.html

Dobson, Nichola. 2009, Historical Dictionary of Animation and Cartoons In the series: Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts, No. 34, Price of hardcover copy is $85, due out in October.

Genin, Bernard. Emile Cohl l'inventeur du dessin animé by Pierre courtet-Cohl et Bernard Génin, (Omniscience). It comes with 2 DVDs of the integrality of existing Cohl's films. (The DVDs play fine on regular computer DVD player.)

Marina Estela Graça, "Creative Animation Methodologies with Children: State of the Research", in Hana Repse (ed.), Zbornik Slon – The Elephant Anthology, Anthology on Education in Animation Film, Pedagogical Materials for Teachers and Parents III, Ljubljana (Slovenia): Two Reels - Association for the Reanimation of Storytelling/Javni zavod Kinodvor, pp. 22-29, 2008, ISBN 978-961-92264-3-8, http://www.animateka.si/2008/files/slon/Zbornik_Slon-web.pdf (in English)

Marina Estela Graça, "Pas de Deux (1968) e Canon de Norman McLaren (1964)", in Pierre-Marie Goulet, Teresa Garcia (eds.), O cinema à volta de cinco artes, cinco artes à volta do cinema cinematografia-coreografia. Lisboa (Portugal), Festival Temps d´Images/Cinemateca Portuguesa, Vol.3, pp.11-15, 2008, ISBN: 978-989-95647-1-8, http://w3.ualg.pt/~mgraca/TI_Cinemateca_MarinaEGraca.pdf (in Portuguese)

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.33 Marina Estela Graça, "Imagens animadas realizadas por crianças na sala de aula: motivação, literacia e criatividade", Convergências, Revista de Investigação e Ensino das Artes, n.2, 2008, ISBN: 1646-9054 http://convergencias.esart.ipcb.pt/artigo/36

Greenberg, Raz. Review of Digital Meme's DVD anthology of early Japanese animated films for ASIFA magazine. The review can be found at: http://asifa.net/magazine/Articles/Vol%2021%20Iss%201/Web%20PDF%20- %20pp%2042-43.pdf

Greenberg, Raz. Review of Frederik L. Schodt's book The Astro Boy Essays at the Animated Views website: http://animated-views.com/2008/book-review-the-astro-boy- essays/

Keefer, Cindy. "Cosmic Cinema and The Vortex Concerts." in Cosmos: The Search for the Origins, from Kupka to Kubrick. Arnauld Pierre (ed.) Madrid: El Umbral/Santa Cruz de Tenerife: TEA, 2008, (in Spanish and English) - for those unfamiliar, it is about Jordan Belson's work in the late 1950s - early 1960s. It also briefly covers other animation such as James Whitney's film Yantra. Joschko, L. (2008). Seeking the voice of insiders: Ethnographic exploration of the world of Czech animation. Animation Journal, Vol 16, pp. 68-83

Joschko, L., & Morgan, M. (2008). Learning from the Golden Age of Czechoslovak Animation: The Past as the Key to Unlocking Contemporary Issues. "Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal" 3(1): 66-84. Sage Publications, UK.

Marinchevska, Nadezhda. ‘Materiality and Metaphor in Three-dimensional Animation in Eastern Europe’, Kino i Vreme almanah/ Cinema and Time almanac, # 3(30) 2008, Sofia: Bulgarian National Film Archive, pp. 48-79, (available in English)

Marinchevska, Nadezhda. ‘Sofia Animated Films Studio – Development and International Prestige’. Problemi na izkustvoto / Art Studies Quarterly, ISSN 0032-9371, No. 4, 2008, pp. 46-50 (in Bulgarian)

Marinchevska, Nadezhda. ‘The Surreal World of Jan Svankmajer’ In Readings in Art Studies, Sofia: Institute of Art Studies, 2008, (in Bulgarian)

Marinchevska, Nadezhda. ‘Fragments from Annecy’, LIK, No.8, 2008.pp. 62-63 (in Bulgarian)

Marinchevska, Nadezhda. ‘Fear, Phobia and Animation’, http://www.fipresci.org/festivals/archive/2008/annecy/fear_phobia.htm

Marinchevska, Nadezhda. ‘Psychoanalysis and Animation’, Kultura/Culture, No. 25, 04.07.2008, p.8 (in Bulgarian)

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.34 Walls, Rachel. 'Edutainment in Disability Services' in CGAT 08' - the premiere run. The paper focuses on epidemiological considerations in design and animation of Edutainment for persons with an intellectual disability, using Autism as a model (available shortly).

Wells, Paul. Drawing for Animation (with Joanna Quinn & Les Mills) (AVA, 2008)

Wells, Paul. Re-Imagining Animation (with Johnny Hardstaff) (AVA 2008)

Wells, Paul. The Animated Bestiary (Rutgers University Press, 2009)

Wells, Paul. 'Fundamentals of Animation' (AVA) has now been published in Spanish, German, Polish, Taiwanese and Chinese.

Wells, Paul. 'American Thought and Culture in the 21st Century' M.Halliwell & C.Morley (eds) Animation and Digital Culture (Edinburgh University Press, 2008)

Paul Wells has also written and directed a documentary about John Coates, the founder of TVC, and producer of 'The Yellow Submarine', 'When the Wind Blows' and 'The Snowman' called 'Fab Four to Ethel & Ernest : A Tribute to John Coates and TVC' (2008)

Some members have included their publications in Animation Studies but there are many more available in the current and past issues of the journal. For full details please visit the website and go the Animation Studies Journal page.

Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.35 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. Lucie Joschko • Members-only discussion list. E: [email protected] • Discounts to festivals and other events with participating organizations. SAS Newsletter subscriptions are free with membership in the society.