misc
The Meth Minute 39
Nite Fite
Other Videos
Stuff
Online Cartoon panel at Ottawa Animation Festival
In all my recent posts about Ottawa, I completely forgot to mention the panel I sat on. On Thursday the 18th, AWN.com’s Dan Sarto skillfully moderated a panel called “LAUNCHING INTO ONLINE SPACE: INS AND OUTS OF WEB SERIES” in the opulent ballroom of the Chateau Laurier (above).
I shared the panel with Mark Bishop, Jason Chaney, and legendary director J.J. Sedelmaier. J.J. is perhaps best known for his years of hilarious Saturday Night Live cartoons and he brought a really articulate and honest point-of-view about how the Internet is changing the way he does business.
J.J. has been creating animation for TV for decades and is now adapting to the Internet. I, on the other hand, have only made cartoons for the Internet and I’m just now heading towards TV. Our reverse experiences are different, but we both agreed that the Internet is an extremely positive and powerful outlet for cartoons and any type of creative expression.
Later in the week, J.J. told me that I was a dead-ringer for Buster Keaton. “If the animation thing doesn’t pan out, you could get work as a lookalike. You won’t have to talk or smile or anything,” he quipped.
Here’s me doing my best stone-faced Buster impersonation. What do you think?:
Hmm… let’s see what Buster Keaton would like with my hair:
Oh my god.
Canadians
Here’s what I learned about Canadians this past week in Ottawa:
- Canadians are nice. (not a big surprise there)
- Canadians really do pronounce the word “about” as “a-boot”
- Canadians really do finish sentences with “ay?”
- Canadians almost never jaywalk.
- Canadians take for granted the fact that their government gives them money to make cartoons.
- Canadians has new immigrants from countries that America rarely does. (such as Slovenia, Finland, and Eritrea)
- Even Canadians don’t listen to Rush.
Some Ottawa People
At the Ottawa Animation Festival last week I hung out with tons of animation people and I wanted to remember them all. But I didn’t want to ask everyone if I could take a picture of them. I didn’t want to be THAT GUY. So instead, I just kept track of everyone I met by making a list. Here are some of those people, with each name linking to their individual site.
Saxton Moore
Azarin Sohrabkhami
Dan Sarto
JJ Sedelmaier
Christy Karacas
Lisa Furlong jones
Willy Hartland
Tammy Semen
Ward Jenkins
Emma Tripp
Derek Roczen
Skip Battaglia
Hobo Divine
Lizzi Akana
Zee Risek
Stephanie Yuhas
Fran Krause
Will Krause
Dave Levy
Chris Dainty
Dominic von Riedermann
Stu Wenschlag
Justin Simonich
David Wachtenheim
Natella Kataev
Henry Thurlow
Obi Onyejekwe
Katie Cropper
Tony Lamberty
Javan Ivey
Isam Prado
Alisa Stern
Jessica Plummer
Kevin Gamble
If we met and you weren’t on the list, it only means I must have lost you card at the parties!
Some Memorable Films from Ottawa
I saw so many films at the Ottawa Animation festival, that it’s hard to remember them all. But here’s just a couple of the ones that stuck in my mind (and that are also on youtube). Watching these blurry little web-compressed videos is obviously no substitute for seeing them projected in a theatre, but I wanted to share them with those folks who couldn’t make it.
“REVOLVER”: Swedish director Jonas Odell gave a lecture before blowing my mind with this short.
“Rocket Robin Hood”: Director Daniel Barrow played an episode of this 1960’s Canadian cartoon before he showed his own. It must have been an early influence for him. The below clip isn’t the episode he showed, but you’ll get the idea.
“Peace On Earth”: This 1939 anti-war cartoon was shown at a showcase of propaganda cartoons. Post-apocalyptic squirrels looking back on extinct humans. Effective.
I Like Ike”: Can you imagine McCain or Obama doing something like this? How times have changed.
“Kool-Aid Go Go”: Something about Bugs Bunny dancing with real kids is memorable.
“OKTAPODI”: A wonderful new CG film from Europe.
“SUPERJAIL”: I hadn’t seen a full episode of this Adult Swim show until Ottawa. My mind was, once again, blown away. I got to hang out with director Christy Karacas afterwards, and he’s as entertaining as his work.
“BUNJIES”: a great short from the Kids TV animation showcase.
“THE THEIF AND COBBLER”: The highlight for many of us was watching John Canemaker interview legendary director Richard Williams and seeing clips from this never-completed masterpiece.
So there you have it, just a few of the things we watched in Ottawa. I’m still trying to scotch-tape my mind back together.
Ottawa Animation Festival (part 1)
I’m back from the Ottawa Animation Festival, and I already feel like booking my flight for next year. It was so fun! I have the same elated feeling that I had returning from last year’s Platform Festival. There’s just something about being immersed in an environment of fellow animators and sharing hundreds of hours of the world’s greatest cartoons that makes you feel really positive and inspired.
Some general observations about animators.
- Animators are really nice and down to earth. They can only get so famous. Unlike Hollywood directors or rock stars, they rarely are arrogant jerks who won’t associate with up-and-comers. Even the most legendary icons of animation like Richard Williams were kicking back and exchanging business cards with students. I talked to some heroes of mine and within moments I realized that they are just regular dudes. The egos don’t get too big in animation, I guess.
- Animators love to dance. And they can tell you how many frames per second they are dancing on.
- Animators don’t get tired of watching cartoons. After 5 days straight, people were still filling up the theaters.
- Animators are everywhere. I met directors and saw films from every continent this past week.
- Animators almost always grow beards by their later years.
- Animators are child-like.
After this past week I’m very into the whole animation communty feeling, so I’ll be attending the ASIFA East screening tomorrow night. Hope to see you there!
More posts about Ottawa to come.
Rob and Corinne, the hosts of Threadbanger, asked me to play the role of Franc DeZank in their latest episode (it’s the first scene). It’s always fun portraying a jerk.
In the latest ep of Nite Fite I got to do some fake photo style stills. Adam created the characters in flash and I took them and airbrushed them in photoshop, putting them on a photo collage background and playing with colours to make it look dated.
Daisy, Adam, and Dagan always succeeded in bringing my vision to life. I told them I wanted to make it look like Penalty got married in 1979 and they nailed it. You guys were fantastic on this series!
While visiting CollegeHumor today, I insisted on re-enacting a typical scene from “Jake and Amir” with half the of the show’s stars.
fun fact: in real life Amir is still really funny, but not creepy and stalkerish!
Dan Meth Speaking on Panel at Ottawa Animation Festival.
I’ll be on a panel discussion entitled “Launching Into Online Space: Ins And Outs Of Web Series” at the annual Ottawa Animation Festival next week. If you’ll be there, reserve your seat today. It will be on Thursday, September 18th at 11am in the Château Laurier.
I’ll be there at the festival all week if anyone out there feels like going out for some Molson, poutine, or listening to Rush.
Somebody took the audio from my Meth Minute cartoon “Dog Video Dating” and re-edited it to footage from Don Bluth’s film “Balto”.
It really kind of shines a spotlight on how low-budget my cartoons look.
This is Penalty when he sees a bolo tie. But really, it’s Penalty when he sees alot of things. He’s got alot of irrational fear. Some other things he’s afraid of:
- Pennies, and other small metallic objects. Like earrings.
- Squirrels, stoic or otherwise
- Tap Water, and anything that might possibly be toxic.
- Black olives.
- Drunk people.
- Japanese ghosts
Daisy Edwards rendered up this drawing I made of Penalty. It looks gritty and awesome.
Dr. Seuss takes on the hot-button issues as only he can.
Before there were the Wang Warriors, there was the Wu Tang Clan. (see above photo)
Our Office is in “I AM LEGEND”
In the very first scene of “I Am Legend”, Will Smith chases a herd of deer from The Flatiron Building all the way up Park Avenue. And he drives right past the office building that houses Frederator and Next New Networks. I took this screenshot of it. 419 Park Ave South. Beware of zombies.
I’m impressed by the geographical accuracy of the chase scene. It’s the same route I walk from the subway every day so I know it well. It’s nice when a director strives for such truth in depicting a real environmental. The classic chase scene in Steve McQueen’s “Bullitt” defies any sort of logic in San Francisco space and time.
You can watch the video here. It’s 2:20 in.
No Photoshop used here. Richard Gere is just that monumental.
Park Ave South
