IATSE LOCAL 839 MAGAZINE SPRING 2019 ISSUE NO. 5 THE ANIMATION GUILD QUARTERLY MOMS IN ANIMATION / THE HIDDEN WORLD SPRING 2019 Art in Progress ISSUE 05 CONTENTS 40 12 AFTER HOURS 22 ART & CRAFT FRAME X FRAME From ranch to studio Nieves on art with a purpose 14 DIALOGUE 5 FROM THE Artists who do voices 46 TRIBUTE PRESIDENT FEATURES 16 SPACE 48 CALENDAR 7 EDITOR’S INVADERS NOTE Berden in focus 50 FINAL NOTE 24 MOMS IN ANIMATION The First Picket Line Juggling family and an animation 8 FRAME X FRAME 18 THE LOCAL career can be challenging—how do Breaking into Unionizing 101 you balance both? We spoke with 15 animation women in the industry who shared their experiences as working 20 SOCIAL HOUR mothers, reflecting on what they 10 ON THE JOB Members celebrate wished they had known and how Background artists a new year to effectively support industry parents in the future. 30 IF YOU DREAM IT 30 How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World marks the end of the trilogy—one that follows Hiccup as he ages from pre-teen to family man. Many of the artists involved worked on all three films. Here, they share how technology has evolved over the course of the creative process. + Brick By Brick – The LEGO Movie 2’s new frontier + Wild and Wonderful – Designing Wonder Park’s motley crew 40 WEB OF INNOVATION What do you do when your producers say, “Make something I’ve never seen before”? You electrify the superhero world by creating a dynamic comic book universe on the big screen with the help of creative technological solutions. Enter Into 36 the Spider-Verse. 38 SPRING 2019 3 FILM TITLE: ISLE OF DOGS DATE: January 30, 2019 11:41 AM PLACEMENT: KEYFRAME MAGAZINE COMP: 1 DESCRIPTION: FULL PAGE BLEED AD SIZE: FINAL TRIM: 8.5” W X 10.875” H FINAL BLEED: 8.75” W X 11.125” H LEGAL: LEGAL BUGS FROM THE PRESIDENT ON REPETITION & STARTING NEW CYCLES As animation artists and writers, we create life through our characters. The lion’s share allow us to derive inspiration from the voice actors’ performances. Our (not so) silent partners give us boatloads of lilts, falls, beats, and breaths to dig our pencils and styluses into. Capturing into all the nuances of reads requires attention to and repetition of the track. When we nail it—and we do, because Animation Guild members are the best in the world—the craft is felt, and our audience travels along the journey with us. Meanwhile, those phrases and lines spin around in our heads. For me, they tend to be from The Simpsons. There was a scene where Moe the bartender renovates the bar. He swings a sledgehammer at a here-to-fore never seen and there-to-fore never reappearing support pole in the middle of the tavern, accompanied by a lively “Hnn-dah!!” For weeks, my cubemate and I would declare, “Hnn-dah!!” at random moments. Ironically, the line never made it to air (ah, entertainment!), yet it remains in my brain a decade later. The line making the recent mental rounds is from “Springfield Splendor,“ where a deep male announcer’s voice thunders, “Bechdel Test FAIL!!!” while Lisa and Marge share a Comic-Con panel with Fun Home graphic novel artist Alison Bechdel. Although the test first appeared in 1985 in her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, crediting her friend Liz Wallace, it was new to me in 2017. For those likewise unfamiliar, the simple test measures the representation of women in a story using three questions: 1) Are there two female characters? 2) Do they have a conversation? 3) Is that ON THE COVER conversation about something other than a male character? (Spoiler: Marge fails the Bechdel Test.) Sketch of Hiccup drawn In 2004, actress Geena Davis asked an even more basic question: are there female by Dean DeBlois, Director characters? At an event in the early days of her organization See Jane (seejane.org), Davis of How to Train Your described watching animated programs with her daughter where she noticed a dearth of female characters, even in the crowds. She noted that with this invisibility, “we’re showing Dragon: The Hidden World. children at the youngest age that women and girls do not take up half the space and do Additional artwork courtesy not have the same value and importance as men and boys.” This reality hit an animator of DreamWorks Animation/ attendee who declared, “My gosh! That’s ME! I drew a crowd today! NBCUniversal. As the booming “Bechdel Test FAIL!!!” circled my thoughts, it prompted me to use that lens when watching programs and movies. It’s jarring how many stories don’t pass, including ones with some fantastic female characters. But then out of the ones that do pass, I was surprised to realize how many would fail a “Reverse” Bechdel Test. The solution to the tricky knot of equal representation in entertainment is not the extremes of either/or. We can have stories featuring one gender as well as those about the other, but what we’re missing is stories that feature us all together. The same goes for other underrepresented groups. Likewise, See Jane has expanded into researching many marginalized groups across media in their effort to “engage, educate, and influence content creators.” And guess what? We’re the content creators. Whether we’re running shows, writing scripts, or populating crowds, my gosh, that’s us. We create the characters and the dialogue. We’re the ones who choose their gender, their heritage, and their story. We have the chance, every day, in our glorious industry, to either repeat the cycle or start a new one. When we nail this—and we will, because Animation Guild members are the best in the world— the impact will be visible, and our audience, all of it, will travel along the journey with us. In Solidarity, KC “Hnn-dah!!” Johnson SPRING 2019 5 EDITOR’S NOTE Get Connected! If you’re not receiving important emails from The Animation Guild—job Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Drosu listings, events, invitations, classes, Art Director Jenn Logan/Studio Fuse, Inc. ART IN PROGRESS and more—it’s because you haven’t Photographers Tim Sullens, David Patrick Valera opted into our email system. Contributing Writers Jean Bentley, Karen Briner, Kim Fay EVOLUTION IS A CONTRIBUTORS Whitney Friedlander, Even Henerson COMMON WORD TO WHITNEY FRIEDLANDER Editorial Assistants Rusteen Honardoost, Marie Story You can fix that in under a minute: DESCRIBE ARTISTRY. (“If You Dream It”) is an Publishing Committee K.C. Johnson, Jeanette Moreno King, entertainment journalist Visit animationguild.org/email-list Jason MacLeod, Jason Mayer, Our work evolves, stories evolve, TV who lives in Los Angeles Paula Spence, Dave Thomas shows evolve. The word describes both with her husband, son Executive Board K.C. Johnson (PRESIDENT), Jason MacLeod change and growth and, by nature, it and infamously ornery cat. A former staff (BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVE), Jeanette Moreno King encourages people to take chances or writer at Los Angeles Times and Variety, she (VICE-PRESIDENT), Paula Spence (RECORDING risks. Sometimes work doesn’t come has also written for Esquire, Marie Claire SECRETARY), Robert St. Pierre (SERGEANT-AT-ARMS), together the way you hoped and you and The Washington Post. David Chlystek (TRUSTEE), J.J. Conway, Brandon Jarratt, Steve Kaplan (TRUSTEE), learn from those experiences. Other Spencer Knapp, Ray Leong, Ashley Long, times, taking chances leads to a new Freelance writer and Jason Mayer, Larry Smith, style that is celebrated widely. Have author KAREN BRINER Candice Stephenson, Dave Thomas (TRUSTEE) you seen Into the Spider-Verse? In our (“In Focus”) grew up in Director of Communications Brooke Keesling feature, “Web of Innovation” (p. 40), Cape Town, South Africa and Culture we explore the creative solutions that where her garden was home to wild chameleons. Her most recent Advertising IngleDodd Media helped electrify an omnipresent genre. (310) 207-4410 novel is Snowize & Snitch: Highly Effective [email protected] We also take a look at the evolution of beloved characters in the How to Train Defective Detectives. Your Dragon trilogy’s latest film, The Hidden World (p. 30); along with how The Editorial Offices 1105 N. Hollywood Way LEGO Movie team approached its long-awaited sequel. But growth and change EVAN HENERSON’S Burbank, CA 91505 (“Web of Innovation”) (818) 845-7500 don’t just apply to films, the words are synonymous with motherhood. Juggling both a career in animation and a family can be difficult. We met with more than career spans journalism a dozen women in animation and talked about their experiences balancing both and nonprofit @animationguild (p. 24). They share how their perspectives have changed over the years and how communication. His work the industry can support families more effectively in the future. has appeared in Orange Coast Magazine, TV Guide and Los Angeles Daily News where he We welcome editorial submissions; please contact us at [email protected] or Keyframe also continues to evolve as we enter the second year of publication, [email protected]. was a staff writer and critic. While earning and we will continue to work hard to celebrate artists, address issues affecting his Master’s Degree from USC, Evan walked SUBSCRIPTIONS: Annual non-member subscriptions for $32 available and single artists, provide answers to common questions, and raise the profile of the craft copies for $8. Please contact [email protected]. the entire length of Ventura Boulevard. and Guild within the entertainment community. KEYFRAME is published quarterly by The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839, at 1105 N.