Month: May 2006

Jerry Beck has recently written an article for Variety where he lists Animation’s 10 Sharpest Turns to date. When doing a list of influence it is usually much less subjective than “best” and I think Beck being a cartoon historian justifies his picks quite well and seems to follow a pretty clearly chronological flow of time, also something that helps make influence a little more objective. I don’t really know enough about cartoons to say that the list is slated too much in any direction but when you are talking about influence you are most certainly not talking about best. I think in this list a big companies like Disney are mentioned because those are usually what hold the greatest sway in pushing a medium into popular success. Still I wonder if the cartoons that influenced and continue to influence todays animators are the “big ones”? Obviously this list is not really about what motivated some kid to start drawing in his basement but rather what allowed animation to gain mainstream popularity among many demographics and not just kids. I think that any other lists that tried to ennumerate which cartoons have had the greatest influence on animators would be as diverse as the animators working today.

So last year I was in the cinema production workshop class at Humboldt State University. Since I have graduate status (maybe someday they’ll reopen the film program so I can be a Master!) I was given the position of being a production manager (scheduler/organizer and general guy with clipboard on set) on the workshop film for that year. It is a satire in the style of The Daily Show taking on Religious Right Wing Corporate Fascism. Written by the class instructor Tracy Boyd the satire entitled: What Would Jesus Buy? also examines different “American” groups that may be affected by the cultural/economic upheaval that is occurring the film.
Aside from my logistical duties my other contributions to this film (God I hope this isn’t the extent of my 15 minutes by proxy) include the Jelly Bellies in Prescott’s office (a subtle reference to Reagan that no one seemed to get(“I’m an artist and no one understands me”)). I also served as one of the camera operators, shooting much of the 16 mm film footage of the old lady and various still life shots of her bric-a-brac.
Anywho I was just posting about this since one of the editors on the project recently told me that he had posted it on the net back in March (hence the nobody tells me anything). So have at it! But I don’t remember what satire has to do with public opinion?