Slide funding campaign on Hourglass24.com

Hey, gang, there's a lot to talk about this week - but that's because there's a lot going on!  We're almost finished with my new animated feature, "Slide" and it's just in time - the film was invited to the "Contrechamp" section of the Annecy International Animation Festival.  It's kind of like the Oscars of animation, one of the biggest and best animation festivals out there.

It's been a long road, finishing "Slide", thanks to COVID-19 our studio was shut down for a while, plus so were film festivals and theaters and comic-cons, so all that extended my work schedule.  But I must say that the film looks really great and I hope we'll have a finished film for the big French premiere.  

The style is sort of a synthesis of all of my illlustration styles - when I was a freelancer I loved pen and ink and then water-color on top.  The new animation style is very similar to that, except instead of water-color, it's colored pencil, which is a lot more controllable than water colors. 

You can see the trailer for "Slide" on my YouTube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYOpnjhQlJg

Speaking of "Slide", on Tuesday, May 16, I'll be hosting a live broadcast on Hourglass24.com - for 24 hours, I'll be holding conversations with my favorite artists - we'll be talking about animation (of course), tricks of the trade, how to make money and lots of anecdotes (both funny and tragic) but always educational. 

Some of the participants are: Pat Smith (animator of "Handshake", "Drink" and "Pour 24"), Mike Smith (rock star of "Tank Girl", "Futurama", and "The Boxtrolls"), John Payson (early MTV producer), and John Andrews (also MTV producer), Maureen McElheron (musical genius on "The Tune", "Your Face" and "Hair High"), Jerry Beck (animation guru), the great Signe Baumane (who just finished her second feature, "My Love Affair With Marriage") and others!

This is a very exciting event - for 24 hours I'll be talking with animators to help raise money to pay my post-production bills from "Slide".  Plus YOU can call in and talk to me or ask questions about "Slide" or my other work.  I hope I don't burn out during the broadcast, but it seems that I have endless energy while talking about animation.  

So, please, tune in to Hourglass24.com starting at 12:24 pm on Tuesday, May 16.  I think there's also a way you can follow the broadcast on Facebook, but as you probably know, I'm not great with all these technical computer things.  

https://hourglass24.com/

In other news, last week I was saddened to hear about the passing of the great cartoonist, Sam Gross.  He's the guy who was most famous as a cartoonist for The New Yorker and National Lampoon.  I met him at a cartoonist party while I was also creating gags for National Lampoon.  We became friends, and he even invited me to his beach house on Fire Island. 

If you've ever met him, you'd be aware of his over-the-top profanity.  It's too bad that very few magazines were able to print profane cartoons.  Sam was sort of in the same quandary as me when I'm trying to sell my adult animation.  There seems to be some national mental brain block about cartoons for adults being a profitable genre.

Sam's cartoons were wickedly sick and twisted - and that's why I liked them.  

Be sure and check out the 24 hours of Bill Plympton, Tuesday May 16 on hourglass24.com

watch the promo here:

https://www.facebook.com/Plymptoons/videos/1002466221163530

See you there, and be sure to call in and talk to me!

--Bill P.

"Slide" to premiere at Annecy Animation Festival 2023

Yes, believe it or not, I'm still alive.  I've been amazingly lost for the last few months.  Lost in the deep light box in my studio, trying to finish my latest production, called "Slide".  You may have heard of it, I've been in production on it for the last six years, maybe more!

So here's the update.  I'm so close to being finished.  The scanning, coloring, animation, voices, music and editing are essentially all completed - however, the bottleneck is the compositing.  That, I can not do, I'm a No. 1 klutz when it comes to computers.  And all the interns we hire (and I love interns) have left my studio because they need to finish their own thesis films.  And I have no more money to hire extra help.

I did do a test screening of the rough cut of the film, back in March, at the SVA Theatre, and even though the film was in terrible shape - no lip sync, half the film was uncolored and scenes were missing - to my surprise, it scored very well.  WHAT?!?  So I've now corrected the small weaknesses and I've started to send the rough cut to the festivals.  Lo and behold, it got accepted into one of the most prestigious festivals around, the Annecy Animation Festival, in their "ContreChamp" features competition!  Only one problem, can I finish the film in time?

So, I'm calling in all my friends, to pitch in and help me finish the damn film.  I must say, it looks really good now, I'm using a new technique that I developed that looks fantastic - also, I believe the story is very interesting and funny.  So, it should perform well.  

To learn more about the upcoming screening of "Slide" at Annecy, please visit the festival's web-site:

https://www.annecyfestival.com/the-festival/competition/2023:lmcc

We are still accepting donations to help with finishing funds and promotional costs for "Slide", I've partnered with Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization based in Boston - so if you can spare any amount for a donation, it will be tax-deductible!  Here's their web-site: 

https://filmmakerscollab.org/films/slide/

In April, I made a presentation at the acclaimed National Arts Club, located in Gramercy Park, here in NYC.  They wanted to screen my first animated feature, "The Tune", and have me then discuss the film with the audience after.  I was thrilled to see such a large crowd turn out for the event, and it was fun to see the old film I made 30 years ago and hear such enthusiastic laughter from the audience.  Someone suggested it should be a Broadway musical - yeah, why not?  

After I autographed a bunch of postcards for fans, we we put up some original cels from "The Tune" for sale and people raced to buy them!  The other reason I mention this event, besides the fact that it was a lot of fun, is because a company called Deaf Crocodile is going to re-release "The Tune" later this year, for its 30th Anniversary.  And then after screening the film in select theaters, they want to finally get the restored version of "The Tune" released on BluRay!  

It's another bit of good news that the film holds up very well after so long - people still laugh and sing along with Maureen McElheron's wonderful music.

So, watch for the re-release of "The Tune" some time this fall or winter - 

And here's the link to the trailer for "Slide" on my YouTube channel:

https://youtu.be/HYOpnjhQlJg

I think you'll like it!  Now that I've delivered my "child", "Slide" I believe I can devote more time to this Scribble Junkies blog and to my fans.

Thanks for your collective patience - 

Bill P.