Blame it on RIO (and Sao Paulo, too)

About 15 years ago, I was invited to the newly-organized Anima Mundi Animation Festival in Brazil.  It was exciting to see all of the enthusiasm and talent from the young attendees at the festival, and because my films are popular in Brazil, I was recently invited to do a career retrospective screening and Master Class in both Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, put together by Boulevard Filmes and sponsored by Caixa Cultural. 

By coincidence, the two-city tour came as Brazil was in a rush-rush hustle to finish all of the venues and install a new trolley system for the 2016 Summer Olympics.  And if that weren't enough, their president, Dilma Rousseff, was up for impeachment, and everywhere I went, there were protests and political controversy.

I started out in Sao Paulo, where they held the first massive screening, and then I did my Master Class, which apparently sold out in 24 hours - that was fun.

                                                          Signing for fans in Sao Paulo

                                           With Rosana Urbes, an animator from Sao Paulo

I then flew to Rio, where I stayed in the Copacabana area, so I was able to swim every morning, singing the song "The Girl From Ipanema".  Unfortunately, that was also the location of a massive demonstration on the night of the impeachment vote.  Everyone told me to stay inside, and for God's sake, don't wear anything red.  That's the color of the opposition, and there had been reports of citizens wearing red getting beaten up.  I sure didn't need that.  However, when I went out for my afternoon swim, the protestors were very friendly and didn't bother me a bit.

As you may have read, the Lower House easily voted for impeachment, and now it goes to Brazil's senate, where it may also pass.  Then the President has to plead her case to the government, and who knows what will happen then.

                                                            My Master Class in Rio

In any case, my screenings and Master Class in Rio were also well received.  So I had a great time in Brazil, and definitely check out Anima Mundi, it's a wonderful film festival.

However, there was one negative note in my visit to Rio - apparently, they've passed a law that outlawed topless sunbathing - which is really weird because here in NYC's Times Square, you can see topless women all the time.  What's the world coming to?

--Bill P.

Behind the scene at MAD Magazine

I remember my first issue of MAD magazine - it was given to me by my Aunt Hazel, I was about 7 or 8 years old.  And I loved the magazine, especially the cartoons by Jack Davis and Don Martin.  It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen (except for Tex Avery's "Red Hot Riding Hood" cartoon).  I wasn't a constant subscriber, but I've always enjoyed the magazine whenever I got a copy. 

I've known Sam Viviano, MAD's art director, for 30 years, since we were in a cartoonist rock band together, comprised of big-time NY illustrators like Mark Alan Stamaty, Lou Brooks and Elwood Smith, it was called Ben Day and the Zipatones.

Jim Lujan was in town from L.A. to work on the editing of "Revengeance", and he'd met Sam at San Diego Comic-Con, and Sam told him to come by for a tour, if he was ever in NYC.  And then I found out my office manager, John, has been reading MAD since he was a kid, too.  I guess maybe this explains a lot about how people who appreciate the magazine's twisted sense of humor at a young age end up working in the cartoon business in some way. 

In any case, Sam was kind enough to invite Jim Lujan and me to the NYC offices of MAD magazine, and John tagged along to take our photos.  We got to meet MAD's editor, John Ficcara, and together they gave us a first-class, deluxe tour of their offices.  Quite frankly, I was surprised by how organized and normal their offices were.  I expected a floor filled with crazy people doing crazy things. 

                                  Sam Viviano, hard at work at his desk.  I hated to wake him...

                                                 Me and Jim Lujan with Sam Viviano

                                                 With John Ficcara, MAD's editor-in-chief

                                       There were display cases full of MAD memorabilia -

                             And an board with sketches from some of MAD's great artists.
                                 

                          "Celebrity Snaps" - photos of famous people holding MAD magazines

                                           The "Alfred", MAD's spoof of the Oscar award

                                          We got free hats, and a copy of the latest issue!

In any case, I had a very great time and learned a lot about the great artists of MAD over the years - Don Martin, Sergio Aragones and their famous trips to Europe.  Plus, I got a free magazine and a lot of other cool stuff. 

Thank you, Sam! 

--Bill Plympton

Boston / Tampa / NYC - Crazy week!

In my constant search for funding for my new animated feature, and to do some advance publicity, I've been traveling all over and speaking a lot.  It just so happened that several engagements got bunched up in the last week of March.  I think when the weather first starts to get nice, there are a lot more film festivals and screenings, since my January and February schedules seemed pretty light.

The first event last week was a screening of "Cheatin'" at Emerson College in Boston, where it played as part of the celebrated "Bright Lights" series.  There was a great crowd and I had a wonderful day in Boston, meeting all my animation fans there.

                                         Signing for the fans at Emerson College in Boston

                                                  With Janet Benn at the Emerson event

I took the train back to NY and then jumped on a plane for Tampa, for a full day of animation events.  My wonderful host was David Andrade of Theory Studios, he drove me in his hot red Mustang to Ringling Art School in Sarasota, where I spoke before a packed house of young animators.

                                       Speaking to the animation students at Ringling School

                                           Signing postcards and art prints for the students

The Ringling School was founded in 1931, during the Depression, by John Ringling, one of the famous Ringling Brothers of circus fame.  Apparently he was a big art fan and wanted to create a mecca for artists in Sarasota.  I've seen a number of films made at the Ringling School, and I'm always impressed by the wit and professionalism of the students there.

We drove back to Tampa for my next event, at the Gasparilla Film Festival, which used to be held at the same time as the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, which is kind of like a local version of Mardi Gras or Carnival that takes place every January or February.  The film festival was a wonderful event, although my presentation wasn't very crowded.  Still, we had a good group of hardcore animation fans show up. 

                                            Some ice cream after a quick dip in the ocean

After a quick, refreshing swim in the beautiful ocean (avoiding stepping on the sting rays) I jetted back to NYC on Friday, where I met my "Revengeance" co-creator, Jim Lujan at the airport, his plane got in just an hour before mine. 

The next day, we set up our table at the wonderful MoCCA (Museum of Cartoon & Comic Art) Arts Festival, hosted by the great Society of Illustrators.  It's like a comic convention, but just for independent comic artists - so no DC or Marvel booths.  So that's one reason I love MoCCA, no corporate meddling. 

Jim and I hosted a panel on our new film, "Revengeance" - we had a packed house at the Ink Hotel (how appropriate!)   They seemed to love the excerpts we showed and our presentation about the film. 

Then we rushed to the South Street Seaport, for a show called "Out to See", hosted by Animation Nights New York (ANNY).  Yvonne Grzenkowicz hosted "An Evening With Bill Plympton" at the Howard Hughes Building.  Again, it was a packed house, and our presentation for "Revengeance" was the hit of the evening.

Sunday was the last day of the MoCCA Arts Fest, and the last day in my animation promotion marathon.  We saw a lot of artist friends at the festival and hung out with celebs like R.O. Blechman, Steve Brodner and Rick Meyerwitz.  Also, I sold some drawings and DVDs and made enough money to continue production on "Revengeance" - thanks to everyone who came to my booth!

                                         With Jim Lujan and Signe Baumane at MoCCA Fest

See you later - on the next promotional tour, maybe!

--Bill Plympton

Ca'Foscari Short Film Festival

There's a wonderful writer named Giannalberto Bendazzi - a number of years ago, he put out the definitive history of animation.  It's a comprehensive look at every country in the world, its animators and its films - to attempt something like that is crazy, but Mr. Bendazzi did it.  And now he has a new, revised edition of the book, all the chapters are updated, and it's now so big, it takes up three large volumes.

In any case, he felt so strongly about my films, he invited me to the 6th Annual Ca'Foscari Short Film Festival in Venice, Italy.  Now, this young festival doesn't have much money, but how could I say no to Venice and Mr. Bendazzi?

So, after landing in the Venice airport, I took one of those very cool water taxis (they look like those old 1930's Chris Craft runabouts) to my very old, very beautiful Hotel Palazzo Stern.  Everything was first class.  I had two students who were at my beck and call (whatever that means) to get me whatever I needed or escort me wherever I wanted to go. 

The festival is not strictly an animation festival, in fact, there were more live-action shorts than animated ones, and there were a lot of student films - so, needless to say, I spent a lot of time sightseeing.  My guides took me to the Lido, where 25 years ago I visited the Venice Film Festival.  I had a film screening there and amazingly, I don't remember a thing - was I drunk on Italian wine?  But I do remember the glorious beach.

I then visited the requisite tourist stop, San Marco (St. Mark's), which is very beautiful.  There is a wonderful difference between NYC's architecture and Venice's buildings - as I was riding in my water taxi along the Grand Canal, my eyes almost exploded because these Italian buildings had so many decorations, statues and faces.  Each building was a masterpiece of fantasy. 

If you walk down a NYC street, say, Fifth Avenue or Park Avenue, it's all boring glass and concrete.  Each building looks pretty much the same, and there's nothing to really catch your imagination.  If I were an architect, I'd put some fantastic designs, sculptures or large faces on those edifices.  Why not?  Money's no object for today's real-estate moguls, so why not build something that stands out and is actually fun to look at?

Everyone says that all of the people that live in Venice can't afford it, and are moving out, and soon the only industry there will be tourism.  In fact, it's becoming a sort of Italian Disney Land. 

The festival was put together by Maria Roberta Novielli. and she did a terrific job with very little money, but with a vibrant corps of volunteers from Venice's Ca'Foscari University. 

So if you have an animated short, or even a live-action one, please submit it to the Ca'Foscari Short Film Festival, and please try to go, it's a wonderful event!   I give the festival a B+.

--Bill Plympton

"The Brainwashing of My Dad"

I met Jennifer Senko in the early 70s at an art gallery opening at Pratt - and we've been friends and more since then.

It's interesting, because when I met her she was seriously into art and fashion, and I was heavily into politics - mostly because of my fear of being drafted into the Vietnam War. Over the years, we've retained our close relationship and we both moved into filmmaking, but while I concentrated on humor and entertainment, Jennifer went into politics.



The exciting news is that her latest film "The Brainwashing of my Dad" is opening up in the U.S. and it's a terrific film. In fact, long ago I met her dad and he was a great guy - then he started listening to talk radio, particularly Rush Limbaugh, and his politics swerved to a hard right wing position.




So Jen decided to make a documentary about her dad's drastic political transition, examining the huge influence Fox news and talk radios have had on the political direction of this country.

She interviews other people in the film who have had loved ones turn into political zombies - plus, there's a very educational examination on the history and the tricks used by right wing media to control the country.




I loved the film and I recommend that anyone who cares about America to talk to your friends and go see "The Brainwashing of My Dad", now in select theaters and available on Itunes.

Find out more here:
http://www.thebrainwashingofmydad.com/screenings

http://www.thebrainwashingofmydad.com/

Bill P.

Green Gravel Comedy Festival & Monstra Festival

I just got back from a round of traveling, only to find that March is half over already!  And I'm falling behind on blogging, while I'm trying to finish the animation for "Revengeance", so I think I'm going to have to double-up, and write about the last two festivals I went to.

In the first week of March, I flew out to Iowa City for the Green Gravel Comedy Festival, and Jim Lujan flew in from L.A. so we could present some footage from "Revengeance" together.  I arrived on Friday, March 4 and hosted a show of my own short films at the FilmScene Theater, and then on Saturday Jim and I talked about the new film at the University of Iowa. 

The crowds were great, people stood in line after to get signed sketches from me, meanwhile Jim got to go to a show hosted by Rachel Bloom!

As soon as I got back to New York, I had to fly to Lisbon, Portugal for the Monstra Animation Festival.  Now that Salma Hayek and Roger Allers' feature "The Prophet" is being released internationally, I've found that some festivals want me to come and introduce the film, and the Monstra Festival was one of those places.

But I felt that if I was going to take a long flight to Portugal, I should do more than just introduce a movie, so I suggested a couple of other events.  I offered to host a Master Class and then I wanted to show parts of "Revengeance" as a work-in-progress.  The festival organizers liked those ideas, and made some room on their schedule for those events.   So BAM!, I was on my way to the Iberian peninsula.

I had been to Monstra before, the director of the festival, Fernando Galrito, invited me about 7 years ago to present "Idiots & Angels" (if my memory is right) and I had a blast.  So, those wonderful memories brought me back.  And, truthfully, it's one of my favorite destinations - the beautiful baroque architecture and decorative tile buildings are such a joy to behold.  Also, I loved swimming on the beach and eating fresh cooked fish in the sun, then going back into the water.

But the coolest aspect of the Monstra Festival was the terrific audience. They're quite knowledgeable about animation and they love to laugh.  For those reasons, I give the Monstra Festival an "A" - be sure to send your film there! 

--Bill Plympton

Another "Revengeance" update

Hey, it's Wendy, Bill Plympton is away at a festival but he asked me to post an update on his new feature.  

The production team is working very hard to finish up the coloring for "Revengeance". Each scene in the film has a distinct mood, so the color design is crucial for communicating that.

We recently finished coloring a flashback sequence in the film, and Bill wanted an aged look to the visuals. So, as you can see, the colors here are quite different from the rest of the film. Where the rest of the film is very saturated and colorful, the flashback sequence is more nuanced and monochromatic.

Here are a few stills from the flashback sequence, where our main character Lana recounts her childhood with the Inland Emperors (the biker gang at the center of "Revengeance"):

Stay tuned for the film's release!

Ford - "The Importance of Paying Attention"

I've been buddies with J.J. Sedelmaier for a long time, he's been one of the stars of NYC animation for years.  Also, parenthetically, his father is the famous Joe Sedelmaier, who did some of the funniest and most famous commercials of the last 50 years.  (Remember those FedEx commercials with the guy who talked really fast?  And who can forget Wendy's "Where's the Beef" campaign?)

J.J. called me a few months ago to do a short spot for Ford Motor Company, it's a campaign to promote safe driving, how there should be no distractions while you drive.  In other words, our mission was to create the most wacky, far-fetched examples of drivers losing their concentration when behind the wheel.

The other two artists involved were Al Jaffee, the famous MAD magazine cartoonist, and the great M.K. Brown.  I've been a fan of M.K.'s cartoons since the old National Lampoon days, and she was also married to one of the great cartoonists of all time, B. Kliban.

My story was about a woman who, after discovering a mark on her teeth, proceeds to pull a dentist's drill out of her glove compartment and performs a delicate oral surgery operation on her teeth while she's driving at 80 mph.  You know, of course, that it's going to end badly - and it does.

However, even though they asked us to go crazy with our imagination, they forbid me to use a scream as her teeth fly out of her mouth when she hits a pothole - so I had to change the sound to something like "Ouch" or "Oh, dear!"  It doesn't have the same impact as a woman screaming - it's just not as funny, but I gess they were afraid of dentists calling in to complain about the gratuitous violence.

In any case, the three spots are very funny.  Please check them out on line here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL0I1P1VLMI&feature=youtu.be&list=PLCFM1h5Oz66gOeyMczRt-_-5E2UgiKbCh

Trip to L.A. and Santa Barbara

A couple of events were set to occur in L.A. and they seemed to coincide, so I decided to make the trip out to the West Coast and also catch up with some friends.  My office manager straightened out my frequent flyer accounts and came up with a bunch of miles, so he got me a free plane fare there and back. 

One event was the screening of "The Loneliest Stoplight" at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.  I've heard great things about this festival over the years - since it's essentially the last big festival before the Oscars, and close to L.A., a lot of Hollywood celebrities appear there to promote their projects.

They put me up in the luxurious Fess Parker hotel on the beach - I thought I'd take a nice swim in the ocean, just across the street from my hotel and as I was basking in the 90-degree sun, feeling the good California paradise vibe, for some reason a lunatic on a bike started swearing at me, then threatened me.  Whoa!  That was weird - did this guy follow me from NYC?  He seemed so out of place in such a mellow environment.  I had to run back to my room to escape from this psycho!

Tuesday night (Feb. 9) was the first screening of my film in the shorts program.  There was a packed audience, but what I hadn't realized was that Santa Barbara is basically a retirement village, like Palm Springs.  So my audience consisted mostly of older folks, definitely not my kind of crowd.  But since my newest short is probably the most innocent of all my movies, it got a good reaction. 

Earlier that afternoon, I had met with the "Simpsons" creative crew at Sony Studios to do a sound edit on my latest couch gag for the long-running animated series.  Of course, they were very professional and had the job done in one hour, leaving me plenty of time to drive to Santa Barbara.  I love that.

                                       Showing Jim Lujan the new "couch gag" for a certain
                                           FOX animated series.  OK, it's "The Simpsons". 

The new gag is about some hanky-panky between a couch and the TV - you can see it on FOX possibly as early as March 6 - so check it out! 

It was a bit of a weird trip, because I started in L.A. and then drove up to Santa Barbara, then back to L.A.  And the festival only covered one night of hotel, so I stayed in four different hotel rooms in four days, my office manager nearly went crazy setting all that up. 

                                            With Rick Farmiloe and Christi Haydon in L.A.

When I got back to L.A. I hung out with my buddies Rick Farmiloe, PES, Sarah Phelps, Biljana Labovic (my old producer) and then I had a session with the great Jim Lujan to go through a very rough cut of "Revengeance".  We're now in a fun part of the process - sound, music, voices, coloring and animation are all coming together, and we're starting to get a sense of how the film is going to look.  It's so exciting - and soon you'll be able to check it out.

                                           With Jim Lujan and Ken Mora in old-school B&W

                                                  With PES on the beach in Santa Monica

                                                   With Biljana Labovic and Sarah Phelps

--Bill Plympton