Women in Camera and Lighting Panel

BAWIFM and SF State University's Cinema Collective co-hosted a panel on Thursday April 26th with female directors, directors of photography and cinematography spoke about the industry. An excellent panel with excellent guests.

From Left to Right: Moderator Laura Valladao, Director of Photography Sophia Constantinou, Cinematographer Jessica Fisher, Director of Photography Kate Lin Ariz Mendi

From Left to Right: Kate Lin Ariz Mendi, (Excellent Panelist's who's card I forgot to grab) and Photographer and Director Van Nguyen-Stone

Left to Right: Excellent Panelist and Laura Valladao

From Left to Right: Jessica Fisher, Kate Lin Ariz Mendi,

San Francisco Zoo

Went to the San Francisco Zoo on Saturday April 28th with my friend Ching-Yu from Figurative Concepts class and had a grand time drawing the animals.

My personal favorites are the anteaters. Found out that the zoo owns three - a momma, a poppa and a baby almost the size of the momma.

Momma taking a stroll.

I saw the momma anteater bathe - something I had never seen before in all the years that I have visited zoos. Didn't even know they liked the water. She brushed her tail with her snout like a comb.

Poppa pacing around in his own enclosure. The area the Momma and Baby have is much nicer. It's too bad he does not have an enclosure that is as nice. His is all concrete.

Pixar Animator Mike Makarewicz's Excellent Lecture Notes

Academy of Art alum, 8 year Pixar animator and all around swell guy Mike Makarewicz (MUH-KARE-UH-VITCH) gave a great talk at the 79 Montgomery theater on Saturday April 21st on the most important of the 12 animation principles to him: timing. It was an excellent talk. He spoke extensively on the subject, provided great film clip and musical examples, reviewed animation club member Brandon's reel, and even gave a demo on how to animate Sully from "Monster's, Inc." Animation gold, I tell you. Here are my illustrated notes. You can also read some non-illustrated and equally helpful notes over at the Animation Club blog.

Clothed Figure Drawing - Figurative Concepts

For last week's homework assignment our teacher asked us to choose photos from sports magazines and the internet and to draw the compression and stretch folds in people's clothing. Here's what I have:

Sketchy BART People

Interesting people on the BART.

Animation Club Sketches

Always fun to draw the people in Animation Club.

Frank and Anthony

Brandon and a guy who's name I do not know yet.

The Lord of the Ocean Animatic - Version 3

Here is the third version of my animatic, The Lord of the Ocean. I feel like I'm getting much better at storytelling working on this project. Already have version 4 in the works.

Eel In A Box Animation

Here is my final animation for Eel In A Box. An Eel discovers a box - the perfect place to hid out. But will he be able to get the box open?

San Francisco International Women's Film Festival

Tonight marked the final evening of the San Francisco International Women's Film Festival. I volunteered in the office every week, working with executive director Scarlett Shepard. I had the opportunity to see "That's What She Said" written by Kellie Overbey ("The Good Wife," "Law and Order: SVU") and directed by Carrie Preston (Arlene on "True Blood"). Friendly, lovely ladies and funny film. Check out the link here - it's an official selection at Sundance and it will be released in theaters this fall.

Here are some sketches from the Q&A:

And here I am with Kellie and Carrie:

Links of Note: Toon In!...to the World of Animation...

Links of Note is a weekly post in which I offer a description of the links posted on the right side of this blog. Today I will be discussing Toon In!...to the World of Animation.
 

Toon In!...to the World of Animation is fabulous. Created by Tee Bosustow, son of Stephen Bosustow, Executive Producer for many of United Productions of America's most beloved animated shorts, Mr. Bosustow interviewed many of the former and current heavyweights in the animation industry during the podcast's 2006 to 2008 run, including voice acting maven June Foray, DreamWorks director Steve Hickner, Pixar/live action director Brad Bird, animator and author Tom Sito and even the late great Jules Engel. Along with several other industry professionals, he also helped coordinate the UPA Legacy Project, a feature documentary about the legendary studio, and was instrumental in the recent DVD release Jolly Frolics from Turner Classic Movies. 

Mr. Bosustow insists during his interviews that he knows little about animation, however his unbridled enthusiasm, easy-going manner and excellent Q&A sessions with his guests reveals a professionalism that all animators should aspire to. 

No word yet if this podcast will resume, but thanks to the internet the hard work and dedication of those involved with the site can be appreciated by students and fans of all aspects of animation. 

Image from  Toon In!...to the World of Animation