Month: November 2003

  • It’s almost Christmas

    … So we ended up at Canter’s Deli on Thursday night for their “all-year-round” Thanksgiving turkey dinner. It’s odd to think that almost exactly a month later, Americans are all eating turkey again. That’s a lot of turkey being eaten.

    If turkeys had brains, this would be their time of year to stage a rebellion; go on strike; fight back.

    Eddie and I have decided to save our pennies and stay in the USA this holiday season. No flying off to an exotic island (yeah, trashy Waikiki counts too). We’re going to put our savings towards a European vacation in 2004, and maybe drive to Las Vegas instead this month (Note: It’s not the gambling… We’re looking forward to the swimming-pools, the nightlife, that sense of being somewhere totally different and festive.)

    Secret Santa is a website with a nice thought… but it’s tough enough deciding what to buy for people we know. I am browsing through Amazon, Wishlist, Red balloon days, Flight001, Video Beat for ideas. It’s fun buying gifts for friends, but families are tough…


    Lots to read this week:

     
    Floating Retreat 1997.
    Virtual concept design for a tow-away private island with inflatable beach
    Client: Wallpager magazine
    From this website

  • Triplettes de Belleville

    This film gets OUR vote for the Oscars! Actually we don’t understand how you can pit this masterpiece against ‘Finding Nemo’ (another animated masterpiece, true.) Both films are technically brilliant but they each come from completely different worlds and have completely opposite objectives.

    In the aesthetically-inspiring Triplettes de Belleville, this is where Animation really feels like an ART form. There is no dialogue; each character has an eye-catching (highly caricaturized) design and unique style of movement; the BGs are incredibly detailed and magnificent; CGI objects and vehicles work beautifully (seamlessly) with the hand-drawn animation; the music is awesome AND it’s refreshing to see a film that is so European in its sensibility – something that you know could NEVER EVER successfully be pitched or made in a country like the USA, the place that most of us acknowledge as the global hub of animation. You really feel like you’ve been transported to another world…

    In fact, as inspiring as this film was (I want to pick up a pencil again! I want to draw better! I want to animate!) it also left me feeling sad. I am reminded of how creatively restricted we are, working in this industry.

    Can you imagine trying to pitch the Triplettes de Belleville feature premise in Hollywood? No wisecrackin’ sidekicks, no spunky male leads, no celebrity voices. (No animated Sinbads with lines like ” Pretty cool, huh?”) How would you make a distinctly individualistic animated film in the USA, with extreme caricatures of different nationalities? There’s just no way…

    Imagine the response from execs: “The heroes are three OLD WOMEN?? What do you mean the male lead doesn’t speak? We’ve lost our Boys 6-11 demographic there…”

    As the director, Sylvain Chomet says (from the AWN interview):

    I’m very involved with the whole “line test” thing. For me, when you’ve worked all day on an animation and that moment when you see the drawings move, that’s a really magic moment, and there is no sound to it. I also think that an animation without the constraints of spoken words is stronger. If you have to fit everything to the words, all the gestural movement revolves around the mouth. Without it, you are much freer to create true animation, to talk through animation itself.

    Favourite characters: The waiter, and Bruno the fat dog who barks at trains.

     

     More–>  Gallery of Stills

    Links:

    An Interview with the Filmmakers - the writer/director, 3D supervisor, composer, & production designer.

    Les Triplettes de Belleville – by Sylvain Chomet (official French website)- synopsis and trailers

    BBC UK- Interview with the director

    Animation Nation discussion thread (mixed reviews) 

    I think you can buy it on DVD here

  • Happy Thanksgiving

    It’s another holiday which we (Australians) don’t celebrate but who’s complainin’ ? - at WBA, everyone gets Thursday AND Friday off work. Eddie and I might take a drive out of L.A. to Joshua Tree or in a northern direction… Or maybe we’ll stay home instead: ’work’ on some Fwak! stuff (brainstorm story ideas, update website, burn AOTM CDs…). There is always a lot to do.

    There was farewell crew lunch for Pringle today. Pringle is one of the head Flash animators on ML- he is leaving us and starting a new job as ‘Flash Director’ over at Cartoon Network. We wish him well. It’s good to see more money invested in Flash broadcast cartoons….ALL good.

    The rest of this long weekend:

    • Tomorrow night: Respect at the Larchmont. 
    • We still need stuff for the apartment -  an office chair for the drawing desk; some extra lighting; power adapters… I’ve also bought a cool rug and chair on eBay plus there are a couple of furniture stores in our neighbourhood which we want to check out…
    • Mask versus Mask match at Frank & Sons on Saturday.

    Recently…

    Image from Ningyoushi.com

  • The Week in Review:

    We were going to go to a birthday party tonight but I think we’re staying home instead. Eddie feels he’s coming down with the flu and I’m exhausted.  I don’t suppose two chi-chis at the Tiki-Ti last night and today’s trek from Hollywood to LAX (to pick up our packages from Sydney), to Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood and Burbank helped. Tomorrow’s a big drive-around day too – we continue with our “homemaking” chores, buying furniture and trying to get some sort of ‘work space’ set up in our apartment. That’s if Eddie feels up to it… We are both taking lots of vitamin C and echinacea tablets….

    OK. The cool stuff this week -

    We are now proud owners of a sensational limited-edition print by the talented Miles Thompson. Personally autographed at the Tiki-Ti last night. (hey we’re locals now!) We had the pleasure of meeting his friend, Andrew who is also a remarkably prolific artist.

    Also check out Miles’ tribute to Tiki-Ti!

    Bob’s Big Boy Burgers & Classic Car Show is very LA and we love it. We’d been told that every Friday from 6-10pm, the parking lot of Bob’s is packed with all manner of classic cars and hot rods so we had to go and see…To be honest, I don’t know a thing about cars let alone old cars… Can’t even draw them. But seeing that Eddie is currently writing a ‘hot rod’ cartoon, we thought this was a good opportunity for visual inspiration and research by osmosis. You gotta be there and see these things up close, you know….

    Oh and the burgers were good too!

     

    There was a Mucha Lucha focus-testing session on Monday… Very interesting and an eye-opening experience. If the thirteen nine-year old boys in that room were an accurate representation of their demographic, you could conclude that all boys are interested in are action and fighting. Sure, they are smart enough to discern good jokes from bad jokes, and imaginative enough to make sense of illogical wacky plot twists… but  at the end of the day they want more action and fighting. And they can’t get enough of this….

     

    Left: Three episodes of ML were screened. Each kid has a dial – which he turns up when he sees something he likes and turns down when he is bored or disapproves…

    Right: In the other room, behind the one-way mirror, the producers have their eyes glued to a “graph” on a monitor running the same episodes. Ironically, the results of the graph did not correspond at all with the verbal feedback offered by the boys after the viewing…

    Links:

    I’m reading “Vroom With a View” by Peter Moore, an Australian travel writer who rode from Milan to Rome on a ’61 Vespa. The book is fun but the photos from his trip on his website are awesome!

       
    Vespa Museum; Vernazzo port
    (from Peter Moore’s photo slideshow)

    Flash MX 2004? Ibis Fernandez reviews this new version  Just as we thought – the “improvements” are of no relevance to Flash animators(only web designers/developers)

    Zazzle.com is similar to Cafepress. (They now call themselves “Cafeshops”). Zazzle.com has a much smaller product range but I couldn’t help noticing that they stock COLORED t-shirts for customization…

    Some other stuff to do this weekend:

    • Email interview for AWN (Animation World Network) magazine
    • Interview with Mr. Unknown of FPU magazine
    • Watch Santitos – We just bought this on DVD. The movie is based on the novel “Esperanza’s Box of Saints” in which the main character has a romance with a masked luchador
    • Start updating website . I can’t bear to look at the current site anymore…
    • Watch ML – Direct to Video animatic.

  • We flew out of Sydney on Friday afternoon and arrived in L.A. on Friday morning. Two days later we are still feeling the effects of jetlag from not having slept on the plane. It’s like we’ve lost an entire night’s sleep and our body clocks have gone crazy.

    We were only in Sydney for one week, but really enjoyed being back in the familiarity of our own studio. …Been working some more on our new Endsville mini-bible. I’ve been reading Confessions of a Ratfink (autobiography of Ed Roth) as research and inspiration while Eddie has been designing some awesome-looking RODS!


    Ramrod’s Bitumen Bandito (from Endsville)
    ©
    2003 FWAK! Animation

    I have a Palm Tungsten E! Now I no longer have to carry with me everywhere I go my three little notebooks full of memos, phone numbers, addresses, passwords, driving directions, random crap… Everything is organized in one handy-dandy little pocket-size device. At the same time, a whole new world of handheld gadgets has opened up for me…
    Cool Links: Gizmodo, OQO


    Online communities
    Art of the Mix & Tribe.net

    Since our KKK2 mix had been selected as Mix of the Week (at the Art of the Mix website) we’ve been receiving emails from people wanting to hear this CD or to know how to receive a copy.

    Here’s a brief explanation of how Art of the Mix works:

    • AOTM is an online community. The site is all about mixes (= playlists ). Technically it’s not a music trading site. No uploads/downloads of music files. Only playlists – each one lovingly compiled by someone out there who has put together their own compilation CDs or cassettes for whatever purpose.
    • AOTM-ers submit their mixes/playlists to share with other AOTM-ers. Each mix is categorized by Title, Genre, Format.
    • To register with AOTM (to post comments, contact other members etc.), you have to submit at least ONE mix.
    • Comments are posted, emails are exchanged… and the CD-swapping thing takes place offline between consenting parties.
    • In the past year, Eddie and I have sent out 50+ copies of our mixes and received in exchange, 50+ compilation CDs from around the world. I can’t tell you what a buzz it is to get a bunch of CDs in your mailbox. It’s a cool way to expand one’s musical horizons and to *meet* new people.

    So if you would like to “trade” for any of our AOTM mixes, show us what you got! Or just let us know which mixes you’d like to listen to. We’ll make you a copy when we have a spare moment


    Tribe.net , as an online networking service, kicks Friendster‘s ass. (no offence to the people in my Friendster network whom I know. I do value our Friendstership) ANYONE can join and/or create ANY tribe. I like it that you are not restricted by who you know (or how many people there are in your network) to enjoy the Tribe.net experience. The site is MORE about networking via common interests and sharing information than about the acquisition of friends/dates. 99% of the forums and listings are “public” i.e., accessible by ANY registered member. Yes, you can engage in lively discussions and use the listings service even if you have no *friends*.

    In two days of browsing Tribe.net, I have discovered some useful music and travel-related websites, cool places to eat in L.A., and learnt about a garage sale in my neighbourhood next week. I guess it’s like a Friendster-meets-Yahoo Groups-meets-CraigsList.

    PS. You first have to register with Tribe.net to access the links above.

    And speaking of Friendster, check out Buttafly’s Guide to Interpreting Friendster Photos.


    AWS Lucha Show

    We actually flew back on Friday so we could go to this AWS Lucha show at Frank ‘n Sons on Saturday. Keith was there; Rafael was there (doing some life drawing); even Peter Hastings (Mucha Lucha Season 2 story editor) was there. Thanks for coming along, Peter!

    The highlights:


    image of Solar, Ultraman & Super Astro
     from Lucha Mascarada book

    • The Main Event was awesome beyond belief. Super Astro, Ultraman, Solar & Piloto Suicida Jr (tecnicos) versus Shamu, Acero Dorado, Mysterioso & Pentagon. (rudos). Super Astro was technically-brilliant (he must be in his forties now?) The tecnico superstars stayed behind after the match to sign autographs and get their pictures taken with fans. I had my photo taken with the luchadores  Eduardo will write the full review below…
    • After the match, kids were jumping into the empty ring and doing elaborate lucha wrestling holds on each other. They were pretty good!I wished Broadcast Standards and Practices were there to witness this. I maintain the belief that kids will imitate wrestling anyway, if they are already exposed to the sport and know the moves.
    • Learning that Superboy‘s kids are fans of ML! (He told this to us in person)
    • Then Raf took us to Friscos (City of Industry)- a diner where the waitresses rollerskate! Too tacky and cute!

    Eddie’s review:

    Like the recent Santo Vs Super Parka match we saw in Tijuana, this was another one of those occasions when the main match was really what everyone came for.  And it didn’t disappoint.  Super Astro was amazing!  For a semi-retired luchador, he didn’t miss a beat.  It was awesome seeing Astro, Ultraman and Solar come to the ring in full lucha regalia – capes and all!  I heard Sr Navarro comment that they “looked like Gods”. He was right – shiny, interplanetary Gods at that. Peter’s 4 year old asked: “Are they superheroes?” The match itself was awesome – highspots, rudo beatdowns, foreign objects, chairshots, and a fantastic eight man pile up which saw the tecnicos win the match.  Probably the most underated guy in the match was Acero Dorado, who worked his rudo ass off to put his tecnico opponents over.

    This was as good as Lucha Libre gets, and is one of those timely reminders why I love this sport.  After the match, Super Astro, Ultraman and Solar posed for photographs.  Suddenly Astro motioned to Lili to come over, who then had her photo taken with the three luchadores!


    with Super Astro, Ultraman and Solar!

    They we’re also all selling autographed ring masks.  The masks were $150 each, and I felt the need to give something back to these guys after working their asses off in the ring.  So yes, Miss Chin and I are the proud owners of an autographed, authentic Super Astro hood! 

    Overall, another great afternoon spent at an independant wrestling show.  And it was great to hang out with Peter (and familia!), Keith, Rafael and Raquel – a RevPro mainstay and fellow Lucha diehard!

  • 2 days to go

    … before we head back to L.A. Unfortunately, I am ill with a virus (I have been ill since we got on the plane) so this puts a damper on any plans to get out and about. The doctors say it’s “stress-related” and my immune system is down. There is still a lot to do – pack and ship stuff, organize accounts, mailing, ML catch-ups and designs, talk to our families, meet up with friends.

    But young Eddie here has had a sudden burst of creative inspiration these past 2 days and I’ve been helping him ink and color these designs. 

      CLICK HERE  to see the character line-up for Endsville!
    (This is a Work-in-progress)


    Hellcat in the ‘Bad Kitty’!
    by Eddie, © 2003 Fwak! Animation

  • Cosmic Baby Screening #1

    Sydney, Monday 8pm: We had our very first Cosmic Baby video screening at the studio, for everyone who worked on this half-hour pilot. Of course Eddie and I were paying keen attention to each person’s reactions, keeping in mind that no one (and especially the Voice Actors- Troy and Jo Jo) had seen the finished product in its complete form. Last time the crew was here, the show was still in bite-sized Flash chunks with no sound effects, no music…


    Ep. 1: Cosmic Baby Eats the Capsule


    Ep. 2: Cosmic Baby Cleans Up The Galaxy

    Eddie: Trying to view objectively, something that you’ve laboured over or the past eight months, is always going to be hard.  It was great to see the 3 episodes with the rest of the crew and the voice actors – who at least had some distance between themselves and the final product.

    I think we’re all pretty happy with the result; let’s face it, we’re never EVER gonna be 100% happy with anything we do – there ‘s always something that you can improve on.  Overall though, I think we’ve got something that is a little different, a little edgy, and definitely a little more spontaneous than what we might have produced with a more restrictive animation network looking over our shoulders.

    Thank You Michael Dunn, Evan Newby, Gavin Christensen, Jonathan Snow, Jo Jo Yee, and the man of many voices, Troy Planet. Thank you Marc Buhaj and Orion Ross at Cartoon Network Asia-Pacific

    …can’t wait to see what the next step is!


    Ep. 3: Cosmic Baby’s Giant Leap

    Lili: OK, I have to say that this cartoon is definitely out of this world. It’s quirky with leftfield humour. Communist-Chinese-SpacePop? Post-Cultural-Revolution for kids?

    I liked Troy’s succint summary after watching the three episodes: “… It’s about Cosmic Baby getting everyone together as a team to make the world a better place”.

    P.S. We’ll have a CB screening/housewarming party in our L.A. apartment when we get a video player and some chairs!

    ********************************************

    Here you go, guys! Because you asked for it –
    Your photo on the blog



    Jonathan Snow missing in action again!

    ********************************************

    The Cosmonaut Kubrick Set! Thanks, Evan. Now you know I’ll have to get this to add Laika to my Bawbrick collection!


    Best Soundtrack Award!

    The Fuzz has just won “Best Soundtrack” award at the Festival Internazionale Cinema d’ Animazione e Fumetto 2003!! (International Cartoons and Comics Festival in Italy)

    LINK to festival winners 

    The Fuzz is a Fwak! and Australian Film Commission co-production, completed last August.

    Most of the music was composed/sampled/remixed by Eddie Mort – also the Music Director for this 11 minute short film. “Send The Broad Home Happy” was written by Eddie; composed by Brett Browning and performed by Troy Planet. The soundtrack also includes one of my alltime favourite tracks - “Wind Up Toy” – by the Beaver himself, Gerry Mathers.

    For your listening pleasure: (please right-click to download MP3s)

  • Congratulations!

    … to Peter and Georgia, who were married yesterday in the Hunter Valley. Thank you for inviting us to this very fun and fabulous occasion! We wish you everlasting happiness and hope you two have a rollicking adventure (trekking up mountains?) on your New Zealand honeymoon. We’ll be thinking of you guys …

     Photos HERE (from the wedding)

    Peter Hansen is the third Director here at Fwak! Animation. He takes care of our finances, accounts, payroll, business affairs…. and is manning the fort while we’re in LA. So now that you’re in NZ, Peter, what are we gonna do?  

    Eddie: The picture sums up the whole occasion, perfectly – Peter had the above expression on his face all day!  A truly happy event!

  • It’s Saturday, 10.30am Sydney time. We’ll be leaving for the countryside in approx. 2 hours, but before we go, check out -

     
    covers by Lili © 2003 Fwak!

    Eddie’s NEW Spy Mix

    The Kinky Kasperovich Konundrum – Volume 2! 
    More sexy spy tunes with a Cuban-Soviet theme.

    We’ve also been compiling CDs for the car. Will upload these playlists to AOTM when we’re back in LA. Open for trading very soon we promise.


    Byoi in Hong Kong! is a blog with pictures that make us want to visit HK again (check out the photo albums)

    Link-fu Contest Winners“the most obscure and bizzare links on the web”.  (linked from boingboing.net).

    Made In Japan is a (new?) internet radio channel for Shibuya-kei/J-pop enthusiasts. Well, goodbye free online music! There’s a monthly fee to download their special player…

    Outre Gallery (Melbourne) has a new book out: Beatsvillepad.

  • Back in Sydney

    We arrived back safe and sound at the Fwak! studio around midnight.

    After an extended Departure Lounge experience, our flight was, in the end, rescheduled for the NEXT AFTERNOON (15 hrs later!) so United Airlines stuck everyone in a LAX hotel for the night. By this time, it was 2.30am. And the entire next day was spent in the air… A whole day lost, but better safe than sorry I guess.

    Another annoyance is that the boxes of Eddie’s music equipment and animation disks etc.that we had Fed-Exed to L.A. three long weeks ago, had not cleared US customs and they’re being shipped back to Australia next week. Simply because we could not provide manufacturer’s info and contact details for each and every single piece of equipment… I mean, what’s the national security threat here? Where’s the risk? We don’t get it. Now we gotta figure out how else to bring the stuff over…

    Today, we’re running around buying last minute wearables for the wedding, catching up with friends, getting haricuts etc. Driving out to Wandin Valley tomorrow morning…


    Mr Unknown has written a review of the “lucha” episode in Angel (the WB). We haven’t seen it, but sounds like it may be worth checking out.


    Links & Trivia…

    The Dabadaba Revival Project - Download some MP3s ! Groovy stuff.

    JeanSnow.net is a very cool blog with news and pictures about Tokyo urban life and pop culture. Also check out Hunkabutta.com – another Tokyo blog with lotsa photos.

     
    images from hunkabuttacom (cool car!)
    and jeansnow.net (Painting from an exhibition at Mori Art Museum)

    Bleeding Edge Goth Dolls… I know some people who would love these.

    Having had so much time to kill on the plane (even after watching three highly predictable & trashy movies: Uptown Girls, Terminator 3, Alex and Emmadon’t bother), I was getting right into the Skymall magazine  from the front seat pocket. 

    Much more fun than browsing through an Ikea catalogue!  From luggage and perfumes to fake fireplaces, gargoyle drainpipes, office gadgets and folding Vegas tables for the home… The quantity and VARIETY of stuff in here is mind-boggling. I’ve collected some gems for this blog - most of which made me go “What the…?”  I didn’t even know that this stuff existed.

    • The Shoe Stretcher. Can you believe this? A device to stretch shoes that are too small. I could use this.
    • Child’s ATM. Replacement for the piggy-bank? Apparently this accepts and dispenses banknotes just like a real ATM. It even comes with your own special ATM card. They say the machine (or is it a toy?) teaches children “money-management” skills… ??
    • The Cyclone Washmate. It looks like a regular bucket with a lid, but it’s actually a portable washing machine! On one hand, this seems like a neat idea for travellers, but is it really worth seventy bucks? Wouldn’t it be easier to HAND-wash a small load? Similarly, the $599 Deluxe Shoe Shine Station makes me wonder who would actually buy this. Is it so hard to bend down and hand-polish your own shoes?
    • The Buttkicker Lifeshaker. Attach this to your couch and it enhances your home-entertainment experience….
    • The Aquabells dumbells are kinda cool and makes perfect sense for travellers who don’t want to lug around real weights. Add water to add weight.
    • The Martini Atomizer. …?? An exotic sell for a cheap spray bottle? 
    • The Feline drinking fountain is a water-filter for cats and it seems overindulgent but… on second thoughts, cats might love this. Notice how they get obsessed with running/dripping taps (faucets) and showers?
    • The Optical wallet light is a credit-card sized magnifying glass and pocket light combo. Useful for reading wall menus when you’ve forgotten to bring your reading glasses. Again, another seemingly stupid-looking gizmo, but why do I feel I could use one?
    • The EVAC-U8 Smokehood. You’re supposed to put this on in smokey emergency situations… Would make a good Halloween mask no?

    Another wacky American product that has caught my eye is the Round Towel - first spotted in LA Weekly. How cool is this? A beach towel that folds into a beach bag with detachable plastic pocket. My only gripe - Why does it have to be round? A sure way to stick out like a sore thumb at the beach…

    Tribe.net – the new Friendster?

    Puzzleblog – for daily Scrabble fun.

    Have been reading Shocked and Amazed Vol. 6- this is an awesome collection of carny/sideshow stories and interviews…

    This issue has freaky doctors, a professional lunatic, Coney Island babies, a man who could not be hung, a huge head tumor with a face on it, a floating prison, a big dead frozen whale and more, more, more. - Atomic Books


    More American vs Australian words:

    Thongs —— G-strings
    Flip-flops —— Thongs

    Sweater —— Jumper
    Trash —– Rubbish
    Pound key (#) —— Hash key
    Beat (tired) —— Buggered
    Forest —— Bush

    Damn! —– Bugger!