Well, since I don't want to give away my real life identity on a forum like this, I won't say the title, but it was basicly a children's story about a cat who travels to the North Pole.
Your story sounds entirely charming! I'm terribly fond of feline protagonists (as in
Puss in Boots)! Also, the North Pole setting offers the sort of exotic, dramatic possibilities animation was made for!
It was a 6-7 minute animated short film, shot on 16mm film with a Crass rostrum camera.
I graduated with this project in 2005, and at that point the equipment was already 25 years old, and had been repaired makeshift-wise many times over the years. Lighting was provided by two 800watt hallogen lamps. (who emitted a tropical heat as well). Since I had backdrops consisting of numerous layers, I had to build a makeshift multi-plan as well, with glass panels for most layers. Some effects like waves in water had to be done on a seperate layer with oil paint (repainted for each new frame).
And there were some crazy sequences that involved a whole series of cross-disolves in double exposure...
...I attached two photo's to illustrate just how terribly primitive the circumstances were (in 2005!) in which I had to do my animation...
Primative the equipment may have been and doubtless a challenge to use, but it sure sounds and looks impressive to me! Multiplaning! That's something I've always wanted to try! The technique can supply an incredible sense of depth and movement! I can only imagine the rigor of your operation, with so many layers of complexity to look after! And if you needed to
repaint scene elements as well... lord, individual setups must have taken hours!
I myself was never such a good animator, and I had a much greater interest in the graphical side of animation.
I'll bet you excelled at character sheets! Personality and dynamic action come so naturally to you!
Wasn't he the one who made that animated feature about "1001 nights" or "Sinbad" ? I remember seeing that as a little kid (must have been 6 years old or so) and it totally creeped me out at that time :laughing:
Karl Zeman isn't totally unknown in the US, but is far less recognizable than I feel he deserves. A handful of his movies made their way to the American market throughout the '60s and 70's, often through pretty obscure channels.
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (I have no idea what the original Czech title translated into; I could look it up, I guess, but I'm too lazy at present! XD) is probably his best known release. I saw it in a drive-in, which is no testament to its quality... a lot of high profile movies found their way into drive-ins. Its art direction is most unusual, shot in such a way as to simulate the look of wood-cut illustration. Fabulous it certainly is, filled with 1800s-era submarine action, giant octopii, and volcano hideouts!
The Fabulous Baron Munchausen played only on TV, to my knowledge (that's the only place I ever saw it, anyway). It's tone is rather dreamy and it features much model and paper animation.
Journey to the Beginning of Time also played on early '60s TV, but in a weird serialized form. It deals with a bunch of kids who take a rowboat ride backward through prehistory, and shows signs of heavy US editing (the distributor evidently wanted the film start in New York).
On the Comet is an entertaining adaptation of Jules Verne's novel
Hector Servadac... I've only ever seen it on VHS tape. The only untranslated Zeman film I've attended is
War of the Fools, which I caught at a revival theater in Berkley. Of the five films, it's the only non-fantasy (it's a 18th century war farce... sort of similar in tone to Falstaff's scenes in
Henry IV, part 1), although fanciful animation depicting anthropomorphic storm clouds sure make it seem like one. I'd like to hope that this important filmmaker will someday receive his due with freshly restored prints of these and his more obscure titles on DVD. I don't expect it to happen in my lifetime, though.
Once again I am behind to a terrible degree. I am glad, however, that my ugly mug has left the stage free for scavenger to tell all! Fascinating stuff you two have done, I must say. It is amazing to me, at least, to look at old films like Clash and then realize that not one but two members have done similar work!
Old! Clash of the Titans is an
old film! Omygod! I'm crumbling into dust! Save me! What a world!... what a world....
Of course,
Clash of the Titans really is an old film... released way back in the early '80s... but it's never seemed that way to me. I was nearly 30 at the time and my memories of the era are still pretty distinct, not much less so than those from last year. Small wonder my time sense gets scrambled!
Journey to the Center of the Earth (the first film I remember seeing in a theater)... now
that's an old film!
I can see all the time you must have spent hunched over that apparatus, scavenger! I assume that the varying layers of glass are the different layers of the shot itself, foreground to background. I know so little of how the animated (drawn or otherwise) motion pictures I see come into being and to see the machinery behind it all is most interesting! I thank you for sharing your former workbench with us. :happy:
Seconded!
I do agree; if the LBH's old reels ever do see digitization I too would greatly enjoy seeing them. The ultimate in home movies!
I'd love to be able to do it! I've always planned to, and only sloth prevents me. It's the only way
anyone's ever going to see these films again. Running 'em through a projector just isn't in the cards: I don't own a working one anymore and I'd be leery trusting my prints to someone else's rig (on the unlikely chance that anyone still owns such antique equipment). Please rest assured that I fully intend to share if I ever get them converted!
Now, the script I missed ... a small inkling, I had, that the byclops would return to fight again. No match for scales and fangs, although he saved the heroes despite himself.
That's sort of the way things play out in
7th Voyage, although it's a different giant taking on the dragon. And the fight fulfills pretty much the same function (causing a distraction so the good guys can get away).
Very First Voyage isn't a completely slavishly lock-step copy of
7th Voyage, but it's still way too close for it's own good!
How Ravana was so frightened by a spear to the chest (what fear a skeletal man?) I do not know, nor do I know how he managed to become a mate upon the golden vessel. I guess even the undead would flee a collapsing stronghold; perhaps, being likely a summoned creation, he requires a master to survive, although not so willing is he here. Ah, the magic of tying together loose ends in a sentence or two!
Yeah, in retrospect the spearing scene really bugs me, too. The idea was supposed to be that the Dead One was over-reacting to a thrust that would have done in a living opponent... upon rereading for presentation here, the conceit seems awfully lame. Neither am I sure how he "survived" the cavern collapse, though this detail disturbs me less (when inconvenient logic threatens, simply ignore it!) I must say, I like your reasoning about Ravana's need to serve (HDS to the rescue!), and am fully prepared to accept this gift! Listen for it if the question ever crops up again!
