As a prelude to publicity for my up coming feature "Cheatin" I've started doing interviews.
Next Thursday, May 2nd, 9:30 pm, I'll make an appearance on "Employee of the Month" at the famous Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre on 307 W 26th st. in Chelsea.
The beautiful and gracious host Catie Lazarus has had some very famous guests in the past so I feel very honored to be among some of the funniest people in the business.
I'll be showing clips from my film plus talking about my new book "Make Toons That Sell Without Selling Out" from Focal Press. Also I may be doing a live drawing onstage.
Tickets are cheap- $5 and still available so order your tickets now! Reserve here: www.ucbtheater.com
If you can't get to the Theatre you can also hear the interview on a podcast on itunes, so please check out "Employee of the Month".
I can't believe I almost missed this one. Thanks Fran Krause! Bill Waterson's gotta be everyone's favorite cartoonist.. and master of retiring with style. He personifies the idea of not selling out. He's the man.. Enjoy this interview from Cleveland.com! There are so many nuggets of brilliance in this way too short interview, it's hard to cite anything in particular! But this quote may be my favorite.."It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now "grieving" for "Calvin and Hobbes" would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them".
I wanted to start off with a good post... I've written about "The Wall" several times on my old blog, and I don't feel as if I've exhausted the topic, so I wanted to re-post the words of Mike Stuart. I also wanted to use this as a transition into SCRIBBLE JUNKIES. I was fortunate enough to have the following exchange with master animator Mike Stuart, an animator who has influenced me immensely. This semester I'm going to screen "The Wall" as part of a lecture series at Tisch School of the Arts-Asia.. and I intend to include even more of the material I've gathered about Mike, and his role in "The Wall".
Mike was the directing animator on practically all of the sequences, and the more I researched, the more I realized that Mike was truly the MAN behind "The Wall". Here's bits of our exchange, Enjoy:
"THE WALL" gave me a lot of creative freedom and allowed me to move into direction as well as animation. The opportunity to 'forward animate' ie. to start with a drawing and draw from drawing to drawing instead of producing 'key' drawings and then have an assistant 'inbetween' them. The Flower Sequence is an example of 'forward animation'(psmith note: "straight ahead" to us americans). And I used it also in the 'Tumbling Leaf Man' sequence - which, incidentally, is the first bit of animation I did for Pink Floyd." -Mike Stuart
"THE WALL" was made in a very unconventional way. Very much 'on the hoof' as it were. Most of the animation for the live performances was 'recobbled' and used in the picture. The 'hammers' caused a big problem as they were initially designed for the circular screen - extra hammers had to be added on either end as, in the film, we used an 'anamorphic lens', It is really Roger's film (Roger Waters) in my opinion. Nick Mason (pink floyd drummer)occasionally came to rushes but it was Roger Waters that had the last word." -Mike Stuart
"I am working with a chap in the states who is writing a book on the making of the film. He has already produced a book on the making of the album." To quote G. Scarfe - "I don't understand why people like it so much" I think you'll find this comment on the DVD." -Mike Stuart
Above: Images depicting my obvious influence from "The Wall" from my music video "Moving Along"
"My last project was the 78 'KIPPER' series. It won a BAFTA and Annecy in 1998 plus something in Positano. I have just designed a float for the Viareggio carnival. I mainly spend my time painting and making jewelry". -Mike Stuart
I'll be returning to the subject of "The Wall" very frequently in this blog. Let me know what you think.- Patrick
