After a long day of sketching in Epcot on the weekend, I settled down to sketch a crowd as they gathered to watch Illuminations. Illuminations was a light display that happened in the Epcot World Lagoon. A series of floating barges and mist were the backdrop for a flickering display set to patriotic music.
I had more fun sketching the crowd than watching the display. I found my way out out early through a cast exit to avoid the crush of the crowds when Illuminations ended.
The interns were invited over Frank Gladstone‘s house. Frank was our training manager. We had pizza and watched the worst movie ever made called Plan 9 from Outer Space by Ed Wood. The film is so bad that it has a major following. Disney has not yet made an animated film so terrifying and incomprehensible.
Back at the studio we had an improve session. The interns were coached by an improve comedy coach to act out scenes on the fly. I found this terrifying since I like to be behind the scenes rather than making a fool of myself for the sake of a laugh. Once we got onto the process however I relaxed a bit and had a great time. I knew a comedy improve actress in NYC and wished I could fly her in to pinch hit for me.
Disney Feature Animation Internship: Germany in Epcot
Work continued of getting a centaur to run. The scene was filled with glitches which I was working to patch.
Any time I wanted to see the drawings in motion I would have to take the stack of drawings to a camera, called the lion lamb, and shoot the drawings in sequence onto VHS tape. If a drawing was shot out of sequence the whole scene would need to be re-shot. Interns would try and mess with each other by talking to the person shooting so they might loose focus and forget which drawing had been shot.
I was working to add more twist in the torso of the centaur as he ran. With animation the work was never ending and the scene was never perfect. The challenge was to stay sane and put out an entertaining end result.
I took a trip to Germany when I worked at Disney Feature Animation. There I met all my relatives who share the Thorspecken name. I traveled with Herbert who was in the Luftwaffe a the same time that my father was pushing into the Ruhr pocket of Germany in the final days of the was. It was far more interesting seeing the real Germany compared to the homogenized vision of Germany on display at Epcot. I also traveled to Berlin recently to screen my short animated film COVID Dystopia. Germans seem to like my dark vision of the world. Americans tend to prefer an idealized view of the world.
Disney Feature Animation Internship: Epcot
I would sketch in the theme parks on days off to ground myself in an alternate realty through direct observation. As an intern I tended to work 10 hour or more each day. Any notion of work life balance is abandoned if you become an animator. Animation is all consuming and never feels quite finished.
The centaur run was driving me mad. How on earth do horses keep track of those four legs? In my scene the front legs were running faster that the hind legs causing the torso to stretch. I decided it wasn’t a mistake but a happy accident and I kept it.
COVID Dystopia is an Official Selection at the Charlotte Film Festival
COVID Dystopia is an official selection of the Charlotte Film Festival. The festival which runs September 24th to September 29, 2024.
I will likely drive up to the festival and spend some time exploring Charlotte, North Carolina with my sketchbook.
I am discovering that once I resign myself to repeat rejections, that is when I am surprised by an acceptance. Since my expectations are low, I can be infinitely delighted when the film finds an audience. I assume that few will accept a film that disrupts the new normal. The message that, “we might be done with COVID but COVID is not done with us”, is one that few want to hear. Yet there are some realizing that the pandemic is indeed far from over. I keep throwing it out there, in the hope that a few will pull their heads out of the sand.
The COVID Dystopia book is now 2/3 complete but it will not be done before the Charlotte Film Festival. September is going to be a crazy month of Film Festival hopping.
Disney Feature Animation Internship: Big Cats
The interns were invited to sketch a lion on that sound stage in the animation studio.If anything can go wrong it always does when I am sketching. My elegant thin pen ran out of ink half way through the sketch and I had to dig around for my much thicker pen to finish up.
Clearly I started on the left and half way through the pen gave out. The thick sketch on the right hints at some some frustration and annoyance.
The Lion King was still in production so that is why the big cat came in to model. The design of the characters had already been established so this was more of an exercise in keeping our sketching chops in shape. By the time I got to sketching the lion, most of the interns had started to leave. Life moves too fast when you are trying to catch it in a sketch.
The next day was to be a mid-term review. I would get to find out how the Board felt I was progressing as an animator. No pressure, just don’t suck.
Disney Feature Animation Internship: Chip in China
A Russian animator visited the studio and screened his film for us. The interns also had an opportunity to sketch lions and bears on a sound stage. There were once in a lifetime opportunities.
I managed to get my centaur to walk but getting him to transition into run was proving a major challenge.
I developed a cold which had my nose completely stuffed and I had to leave the studio to go back to the apartment and nurse myself back to health. That weekend all the interns were invited to go the the home of the training manager, Frank Gladstone. Frank was pivotal in keeping my head screwed on straight since I was feeling home sick for NYC. My wife was going to visit the studio the week of Halloween so that was something to look forward to.
COVID Dystopia: At Iowa Independent Film Festival
COVID Dystopia will be screening at the Iowa Independent Film Festival on September 6, 2024. The festival has been in existence for 17 years.
The primary reason I submitted to this festival was that one of the board members is names Chris P. Chicken.
Today I have to firm up travel plans. I already spent a night looking a lodging and found a great place. I just need to book the flight and lodging. I always travel to Film Festivals that showcase COVID Dystopia. It is a great excuse to travel places I never would have gone and meet other film makers.
The other films in the time slot my film is being shown in are: Masterpiece (3 minutes) and Masterpiece is actually shorter than my film which runs 4 minutes and 17 seconds) Knee High (1 hour 53 minutes) fills out the remainder of the film block.
Should you find yourself in Clear Lake Iowa on September 6, stop on by and say hello. There is a director’s question and answer session after the screening so it is a rare chance to hear why I felt this film needed to be made.
Disney Feature Animation Internship: Halloween Plans
This is a sketch of the waiting area outside Honey I Blew up the Kids. the attraction at Disney’s MGM Studios was a kids play area with the playground being made up of giant objects, like huge blades of grass, giant ants and a very large dogs nose.
Plans were under way for the Halloween festivities. Disney animators took Halloween very seriously. There was to be a costume parade and then a children’s costume parade. Well lets face it, animators are children. Then there were games and BBQ on the animation patio which was built on to the parking lot trailer.
I worked much of the day since it was raining outside. I was working on a “Singing in the Rain” walk sequence. It was broken but I spent the day re-timing some sections of the animation to get it to flow better. Working such long hours was starting to wear on me. I needed time away from the studio, but that would have to wait for another day.
Disney Feature Animation Internship: Popcorn Line
I went to see the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas directed by Tim Burton. Part of the reason I went is because there was one of the fanciful sets and some of the character puppets on display at Disney’s MGM Studios where I worked. The set was larger than I would have imagined and quite impressive.
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but what truly blew me out of my seat was the trailer for The Lion King which was in production in the studio I was working in. The trailer was simply the opening sequence of the movie and it was absolutely thrilling. Who knew that hand drawn images could pack such an emotional punch. I was hooked. I knew that I needed to be part of what this small army of artists was producing.
I am moved to tears any time I see the Lion King opening. The sequence is such an amazing celebration of life. Part of that emotional response must be because I always wonder if I ever will truly find my place in this miracle of life.
Disney Feature Animation Internship: Mickey’s Starland
For the next animation assignment I was researching bubbles, brooms and bathwater from The Sword and the Stone. Effects animation seemed incredibly challenging but I slogged my way through the animation.
Years later I would be applying some of the principles learned in my own animation.
There was some love life drama among the interns but I was above the fray since I was a newlywed. I was married in the month of October before being called down to Orlando Florida. Instead of building a new life in New York City I was of on my own finding out what life might be like in Orlando. After the internship I was the only intern to leave since I had to wrap up things inn NYC. I had a book that was being published and had to figure out what to do with the apartment. It is a shame the apartment could not be sublet since it would have been nice to return to NYC after a decade of helping make animated films for Disney. Now it would be an impossible dream to live in the NYC neighborhood we once lived in.