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The
Nicktoons Film Festival
Announces
Screening:
3–Five Zany Pieces
The
Nicktoons Film Festival continues this Sunday with Screening:
3, a selection of five truly zany shorts. A co-production
of Frederator Studios and Animation Magazine for Nicktoons,
The Nicktoons Film Festival airs on the Nicktoons cable
channel Sunday nights at 10 p.m. (EST) and 7 p.m. (PST), with
a repeat at 1 a.m. (EST) and 10 p.m. (PST). The films featured
in Screening Number: 3–Five Zany Pieces are: The
9th Life of Sherman Phelps: Serenity Now by animators
Mark Thorton and Todd Kauffman for the Canadian-based studio,
Nelvana; Boing Boing by CalArts grad Rami Kim; Scout
Says from Blue’s Clues directors David B.
Levy and Dale Clowdis; Magnetism from award-winning
animator Nye Warburton; and Atomic Love from Michael
Dante DiMartino, a King of the Hill director and creator
of the new Nickelodeon series, Avatar: The Last Airbender.
The
Nicktoons Film Festival:
Screening Number: 3 – Five
Zany Pieces
Airdate
& Time: November 7, 2004, 10:00 p.m. (EST); 7:00 p.m.
(PST), Nicktoons
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Film
#1: The 9th Life of Sherman Phelps: Serenity Now
(Length: 5:00; Animated in Flash)– Here’s how animators
Mark Thornton and Todd Kauffman describe this wacky episode
of their series of shorts surrounding the extraordinary character,
Mr. Sherman Phelps: "The bliss of Mr. Titis' divine day
off is rudely interrupted by meatpackers Ronald and Sherman.
It seems the butcher shop downstairs is a little too close for
Mr. Titis's comfort. And if the noise of the butcher shop wasn't
enough, imagine the commotion when Ronald gets possessed and
tries to get Sherman to give up the ghost. There's more to this
episode than meats the eye." Thorton, who graduated from
Sheridan College’s Classical Animation program, works as
a character designer at Canada’s Nelvana. Kauffman is also
a Sheridan grad and sold two original concepts to Nelvana in
2003 that will both air on YTV in early 2005. Viewers Note:
Make sure you watch the credits on this unique short to see
a few of the detailed miniature sets used for backgrounds. (For
more info on these filmmakers please e-mail funpak@corusent.com.)
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Film
#2: Boing Boing (Length: 2:50; CG using Alias’
Maya software)–In his wonderfully character-driven short,
Boing Boing, filmmaker Rami Kim explores the nature of
both friendship and fun. A graduate of CalArts, who works at
Burbank-based July Films, Kim says, "My film is just a
funny little story about these two dudes who both want to use
the trampoline. I usually develop stories from the characters.
I know what kind of story is needed by just looking at the character
and, to do that, I just doodle a lot in my sketchbook and study
them. After that stage I develop a story, which usually makes
people laugh. I used Alias' Maya software for Boing Boing
and this is my first 3D film. I personally like working on 2D
films more because I really love to draw." (To learn more about
Kim’s work, visit www.ramiskim.com.)
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Film
#3: Scout Says (Length: 6:40; Traditional 2D with
digital color)–If you like a good cartoon-cartoon with
totally new characters that happen to have a lot of depth, then
Scout Says is for you. Filmmakers David B. Levy and Dale
Clowdis explain, "The idea for Scout Says started with
us thinking up an unlikely friendship between three young friends.
We thought it would be fun to put a cat, a bird and a worm together
and see what sparks might fly. The short was made to amuse ourselves.
Our notion was: let's pretend some network hired us to make
a short and then gave us total freedom. We're most proud that
we managed to make a funny and satisfying cartoon while not
particularly aping anything else out there. The characters have
an emotional range and you get to see multiple sides of them
in the span of sixminutes." Levy, an award-winning indie filmmaker
is an animation director on Nickelodeon’s hit preschool
show, Blue’s Clues. Dale Clowdis, who also works
as an animation director on Blue’s Clues, teaches
at Parsons School of Design.
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Film
#4: Magnetism (Length: 2:35; Animated in Alias’
Maya with Adobe PhotoShop and AfterEffects)–Remember playing
with magnets when you were a kid and the annoying lessons you
learned about magnetism and repulsion? Well, animator Nye Warburton’s
clever and award-winning short, Magnetism, will bring
back all those frustrations, but add a romantic and glee-filled
turn to entertain and surprise you. Warburton, an M.F.A. candidate
in Computer Arts at San Francisco Academy of Art University,
says, "The spark that ignited Magnetism was a mental
image of two like-polarity robots being flung apart. I figured
out the rest of the film by borrowing from some of my greatest
loves–physics, Woody Allen Movies and Tex Avery cartoons.
I think the biggest challenge in making the short was that it
was just me. Magnetism was made by me at a computer in
a small studio apartment and I was trying to figure out a lot
of stuff as I went. I was lucky to have a couple of great mentors
to help me out with critiques, but oftentimes I had to solve
problems on my own. It wasn't just technical problems but also
acting choices and animation issues. Funny thing is that people
who hate Magnetism always say that I didn't explore the
scientific magnetism idea more. They want to see them stuck
together and struggle more with the magnetism or follow the
science more accurately. The people who love it (including the
many children I have talked to) always pick up that Magnetism
is really a relationship in two minutes. (For more info on Nye
Warburton and his films visit www.nyeland.com.)
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Film
#5: Atomic Love (Length: 7:00; Traditional 2D
with 3D elements)–Michael Dante DiMartino scripted, storyboarded
and animated Atomic Love at night, on weekends and any
time he could carve out between working as a director on both
King of the Hill and Family Guy. A huge fan of
1950s’ toy robots, who also happens to identify with "the
teenage angst coloring John Hughes’ Pretty in Pink
and Sixteen Candles," DiMartino brings us a juicy
and wild romance about a guy (er…Robot) and a gal (named
Sally) on their first date. A graduate of Rhode Island School
of Design, DiMartino is co-creator and co-executive producer
of Avatar: The Last Airbender, an action-adventure series
set in a mythical past, airing on Nickelodeon.
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