Pittsburgh Shorts Q&A

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When I got to Pittsburgh I checked into the hotel and then got several sliced of pizza since I hadn’t eaten all morning. Then I slipped into the Harris Theater to pick up my lanyard. When I asked around one of the organizers asked, “Are you Thomas Thorspecken?” How on earth did she know that? This felt like my 30 seconds of fame. She explained however that I was the last filmmaker to pick up my lanyard. With shorts you can always slip into the theater since a new film will start up shortly. One film I really loved was Planet Walker. The film is about John Frances who began walking everywhere after an oil spill in San Francisco harbor. As an added sign of protest against the fossil fuel industry, he stopped speaking. If he had to communicate he used sign language.

At first John hiked around California but he eventually began waking east following the green areas on his map. He then decided to get a masters degree even though he didn’t speak. After the Exon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, He decided to get his doctorate by writing his thesis on how to prevent oil spills.

Paul Sloop helped curate the slate of short films. After each screening block, he would get on stage with the filmmakers in attendance and ask them a few questions. AS an animator it is amazing to me that many of these short only had a 3 day shooting schedule. For my film with it’s limited animation style, I had a year of animation to accomplish. I could still be animating if I made every character move in every scene. At some point I had to decided enough was enough.

I met the middle filmmaker in this sketch in the elevator on the way up to my room at the end of the day. I gave her my minute long elevator pitch about my film. I don’t know what is next for my film. I have about 6 submissions lined up for acceptance or rejection. I am convinced that COVID Dystopia is the most rejected film in America. No one wants to be reminded about a countries failed response to an ongoing pandemic.

Delta Layover

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COVID Dystopia was an official selection at the Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival. Festival sponsors helped with the hotel and plane flights. I decided to go for the last day of the festival to attend the awards ceremony. You never know.

There were no direct Delta flights to Pittsburgh. To fly out I had to fly to Atlanta first and catch a connecting flight to Pittsburgh. Getting up at 4am wasn’t good enough. When I got to the gate, I discovered I was the last person to board along with a couple in front of me. As I was getting my ticket scanned I heard my name echo out all through the airport. My seat was crammed between two other people, but knowing I was the last person to board, I went past that row and found my own row since the plane wasn’t very crowded.

In Atalanta I had to make my way to anther terminal for the connecting flight. It was a long walk. When I got to gate B33, Kevin the boarding agent was letting several people into the boardwalk. I sat down for a moment to hear what zone was being boarded. I was in zone 8, maybe I would have time to go to the bathroom before getting on board. The next time I looked up, Kevin was gone. I walked over and discovered the door to board the plane had been closed.

I rushed to another boarding area to ask what I should do. I was told I would have to walk to boarding zone B17 to get my ticket adjusted. When I was walking back, I saw Kevin had returned to his desk. Another woman had the same problem as me. As I waited, I saw my plane backing out of the terminal. Had I not sat down and relaxed for a second, I might have been on that flight. Kevin told me I could use my ticket to board another flight to Pittsburgh in another hour. No harm done, I just needed to be in Pittsburgh by 7pm for the awards ceremony.

Another flight had t board before the plane to Pittsburgh could roll in. That flight was experiencing delays. I asked Kevin how the delays might affect my plane to Pittsburgh, His abrupt response was, “I have no idea.” I don’t think Kevin likes his job. After I went back to sit down Kevin announced that my flight to Pittsburgh would leave from another gate.

I ultimately made it to my destination, but felt that the ticketing agents have no clue or don’t care what is going on. They are just going through the motions.

COVID Dystopia: Enough is Enough

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Tomorrow I am flying to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival. I will spend a day watching short films and then attend the awards ceremony in the evening. I know that I will be the only one masked on a plane full of mouth breathing zombies. Even a mild case of COVID, fuses and destroys brain neurons. No wonder zombies eat brains in movies, they are trying to get back what they have lost due to COVID.

The height of the 9th wave of COVID infections was in August of this year and Florida is now in the trough with cases just beginning to rise again. New Mexico is the one state that is on fire right now. Though I keep track of the rising and falling cases, I just keep the same simple precautions, I mask indoors. Masking isn’t perfect. I can’t be 100 percent sure the seal on my KN-95 mask is tight. Masking and HEPA filtration has kept me COVID free so far, even when the virus attacked a former roommate and her niece.

Repeat COVID infections destroy the immune system similar to the how HIV attacks the immune system. It is a vascular disease effecting every organ in the body. Once infected, people become vulnerable to every known pathogen. When out in public sketching there is always someone coughing up a lung.

Traveling to promote COVID Dystopia is probably the most dangerous thing I do each month, but it is my way to convince people that was and is dangerous. Politicians always downplay the effects of the virus because claiming victory is the only way to get elected. In Trumps first term over 200,000 Americans died from COVID. Over 700,000 Americans died under Biden’s time in office. It is hard to pick a side when both parties promote mass infection as a way out of an ongoing pandemic.

COVID Dystopia: An Earthquake Took Out Canada

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This scene had depth maps, a camera move and the animation consists of waving the flag.

I was starting to feel like we were free from these crazy times, but Donald J. Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on November 5, 2024. I honestly can not believe that Americans would elect a convicted criminal to become president. I am stunned and in mourning.

The first thing I did this morning after seeing the news was start looking for countries that are great places for expatriates to live. Spain has the highest number of Americans who have moved there. I was thinking of moving to New York State to set up a studio but New York would be target number one for the presidents “enemy of the people” campaign. New Zealand and Australia handled themselves well at the start of the pandemic.Australia would be as far as I could get from America.

H5N1, or Bird Flu, has killed millions of wild birds, and caused sporadic outbreaks among poultry and an ongoing multi-state outbreak among cows in the United States. While there has been no known person-to-person transmission of the virus, there have been 39 reported human cases in the U.S. in 2024. If H5N1 starts to spread from human to human, we will have the worst leader imaginable at the helm, downplaying the exponential spread. COVID had a mortality rate of about 1.4% which resulted in well over a million deaths in America. H5N1 has had a mortality rate of about 50% among mammals infected. I woke up dreading the next 4 years of life on Earth.

COVID Dystopia is available to be seen at the Virtual Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival happening now through November 24, 2024. COVID Dystopia can be seen in the Eventive – Chiller Theater Block 2 – Shorts online. It can be seen anywhere in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. After you start watching the films, you have 48 hours to complete watching them. Tickets are $18.

COVID Dystopia: Canada Truckers Protest

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I am pleased with how the plumes of fiery smoke turned out in this shot. I combined key frame animation that warped the painting and also procedural movement in After Effects. I applied this effect throughout the film to give the rising heat shimmer. Most viewers probably do not know the effect is there but they feel it.

I decided the protestor could be perfectly still. If someone wanted to read the protest sign, I wouldn’t want to be waving it about.

I did the fire animation twice. I still think it could use improved. That is the problem with having so many shots and so many effects. I might learn something on another shot and want to apply it to other shots. At some point I just had to let go. No one is going to be as critical of the shape of a flame as I might be.

Since COVID Dystopia is now screening at the Pittsburgh Shorts and Script Competition. I want to be sure to keep posting these in progress shots in case festival goers look up AADW online. I am also thinking I should probably edit together a making of video which could be included along with the film the back or the COVID Dystopia book which is now being edited. That last sentence just created a whole lot of work.

COVID Dystopia is available to be seen at the Virtual Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival happening now through November 24, 2024. COVID Dystopia can be seen in the Eventive – Chiller Theater Block 2 – Shorts online. It can be seen anywhere in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. After you start watching the films, you have 48 hours to complete watching them. Tickets are $18.

The Gleaning

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The Society of Saint Andrew organized a gleaning at Long and Scott Farms North of Lake Apopka, Florida. I had actually driven past the farm multiple times this past month.  Mark DeMaio let me know about the event.

Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops in the field after harvest. During harvest, there is food that is left or missed because it does not meet store standards for uniformity. The gleaned fruit is shared with nearby families who might otherwise go without fresh food.

Rebecca Brockman coordinated the event. This seemed like a home school field trip allowing the kids to pick unharvested cucumbers. Rebecca pointed out that all over the state of Florida, over 8.7 million pounds of food was collected for the hungry. The organization has served over 5 million  fresh food meals and they have been gleaning in Florida since 1995. We all had to wash our hands with germicidal soup to be sure we didn’t bring pathogens out into the fields. After Barbara’s introduction we headed out to the field. Barbara drove most of the kids in the pick up and I walked over with several others.

Everyone was given large yellow IKEA bags and then the harvesting began. I stated sketching immediately as they leaned over to pick cucumbers and slowly walked down the field away from me. Once the sketch was done, I walked to the truck and picked up an IKEA bag for myself. A mom and daughter were having plenty of luck finding cucumbers in the last two trenches in the filed. Since they were now harvesting experts I took their advice and stayed at the edge of the field.

Cucumbers are hard to see. There is a thick mat of foliage from the vines which is hard to see through. I started harvesting like a blind man feeling around for anything solid. I found a few hand grenade sized cucumbers and then I finally found a full sized foot long. I held it over my head and shouted in delight. I don’t think anyone noticed. It was a personal victory.

The mom had the idea that there might be plenty of unharvested cucumbers back where everyone began. I though that was a great idea so I back tracked to where I had been seated to sketch, and dedicated myself to harvesting down one or two rows. I found plenty of small cucumbers and the occasional thick and long prize. Part of me felt like I wasn’t harvesting like a pro. My IKEA bag was filling up with small fruit.

Regardless I turned in my IKEA bag. And everyone was thankful. In the pick up truck people were packaging the cucumbers in red mesh bags for distribution. I was told I could bring a bag home, but I felt I had only harvested enough to warrant taking one cucumber home. Back at the studio, I cut it up and put it in a salad. It was absolutely delicious. Whenever I am settled enough to start a garden, I plan to grow cucumbers.

COVID Dystopia: No One Seemed to Mind

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Stockholm Syndrome is a is a psychological response where a victim develops an emotional connection with their abuser or captor.

It seems so many Americans fell in love with the virus, they want to share it with friends and family. Mass infection for them is an act of kindness.

Unfortunately they are doing this with the assumption that repeat infections build immunity. The opposite it true however, COVID is weakening the immune response, not just to COVID but every other pathogen. An entire generation has been encouraged to live lives of constant repeat infections. At first the hope was that vaccines would stop the infections. Vaccines have helped reduce hospitalizations and death, but break though infections are common. Being infected also only offers some immunity for a few months to the variant of the moment. You can be infected by COVID any month of the year, every several months.

A parent who realizes that they have put their children in harms way will resort to the only psychological response that makes sense, which is denial. Denial has been the American marching order since the pandemic began, and the pandemic is not over.

COVID Dystopia is available to be seen at the Virtual Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival happening now through November 24, 2024. COVID Dystopia can be seen in the Eventive – Chiller Theater Block 2 – Shorts online. It can be seen anywhere in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. After you start watching the films, you have 48 hours to complete watching them. Tickets are $18.

Maker Faire Orlando Steals Illustrator’s Work

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I had a rare day off from teaching this Sunday and thought I would head over to the Maker Faire to do a sketch. I have sketched the Maker Faire quite a few times over the years.

I went to the website to see the hours and was shocked to see that one of my illustrations was being used to promote the event. No one had contacted me about using the image and I was certainly not paid for the use in their promotional materials. The image was cropped to remove my “Thor©” symbol.  Back in 2015 when I did this piece I wasn’t watermarking the work that way I do today. I went ahead and added the watermark, signature and AADW logo that I use every day today. I had to go back to the site and replace the image so others do not continue to steal the art. I am surprised that the Maker Faire does not understand the meaning of the copyright symbol. Using the image without the consent of the artist is theft.

Well after visiting the Maker Faire site, I decided I will never be sketching at that event again. Maker Faire does not promote the work of engineers, artists, scientists and crafters, it steals from them. Instead of going to the Florida Fairgrounds I had to spend the day going through old AADW posts to make sure watermarks were added to all Maker Faire posts before more work is stolen.

So I voted against going to the Maker Faire. Instead I decided to sketch at the Maitland Rotary Art Festival. The Oak Hill Drifters are going to be playing on the main stage and I love that group. I also noticed the art event goes late into the night so I might stick around and do several drawings. I should also be a good chance to catch up and see the work of fellow artists.

Tech Romance

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While on a long road trip my iPhone would not take a charge. I was using Google Maps to go to a location deep in the Florida back roads, an hour and a half from where I am renting a home.

The red warning blinked on, saying “low battery. I had no idea if my phone would have enough battery to get me to my destination before blinking out and becoming a useless brick. I had an iPad but it was useless since it needed a Wi-Fi connection to show the maps. If the phone died, I would have no maps, and would not be able to call my friend for directions. I have grown so dependent on the pleasant voice of my female navigator. I stopped in a Dollar General parking lot and quickly wrote out the remaining series of directions on the back of a sketch. Sure enough the phone shut down after driving a few more blocks. My pencil notes got me to where I needed to go.

I conducted a virtual art class from what felt like a peaceful country cabin on my iPad. The trip back would involve even more twists and turns but more pencil notes got me home. Actually before going home, I stopped at the Apple Store in Millennia Mall. The place was packed. Clearly everyone’s charging ports had failed at the same time. I sat at the Genius Bar and a tech quickly helped me out. He took the phone out back to find whatever had clogged the port. I had spent hours trying to clear the port myself the night before with a toothpick, but every attempt failed. I kept plugging the phone in, hoping it might miraculously decide to charge.

While I waited for the tech to come back out with my phone, I sketched. It felt good to have this low tech option to record the moment. Pencils never run out of charge and they never crash. The tech brought the iPhone back out and plugged it in. I kept sketching while the phone charged. Thankfully there was no cost for clearing the port.

Back out in the parking lot, I plugged the phone back into the car charger. I turned on Google Maps and set a course. The first thing the pleasant and familiar female voice said was, “Head North to Conroy Road.” Sigh… She understands my every navigation need. She had me at “head”.

COVID Dystopia is an official Selection of the Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival

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COVID Dystopia will be screened in the Virtual Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival between November 14 and November 24, 2024. It will be available to watch in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. It is one of the short films in the 40V – Chiller Theater Block 2 – VIRTUAL -Shorts24. A general admission ticket is $18.

I will be flying into Pittsburgh for the final day of the festival to attend the awards ceremony. You never know. It should be a fun black tie and black N-95 mask affair.

Hopefully I will have time to watch a few films that I haven’t seen at other festivals.