Disney Feature Animation Internship: Epcot Center

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Roy Disney was visiting the Florida Feature Animation Studio. I spotted him near the animation camera.

I was feeling a bit like the walking dead since I had just spent a day reworking my final project animation idea. I had Baloo scratching his back against a tree and he spontaneously burst into flames. He was extinguished by an elephant squirting water on him. After all that work however I realized I had overlooked the basic premise of the scene which was to have Baloo pull on something. I had to go back to the drawing board and start over.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Halloween Party

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This sketch was done from the wooden porch in front of the Animation parking lot trailer. There was a Halloween parade by Animation staff. I didn’t position myself very well to sketch the parade itself, instead I caught the interns crowded on the porch to watch.

Following the parade and costume judging, there were games. One game was an egg toss. Folks had to line up facing one another and toss an egg back and forth. The trick was to catch the egg on your head in a cushioned basket. Things got messy as people had to back up after each toss. Few of the interns had costumes since we were in the thick of animating our final projects.

Work on the Lion King was in it’s final stages and the artists were thinking ahead to their next film, Pocahontas. One artist is wearing an early Pocahontas Tee shirt and clearly someone dresses as Pocahontas herself.

The feature animation tourist attraction is in the background of the sketch. There tourists could watch Disney Animation Artists at work from behind a sound proof glass wall. I would end up working in that building against the glass wall when I first started working on Pocahontas. I helped with the unit that worked on Powhatan, Pocahontas’s father. My supervisor was James Parris who approved my drawings and gave me endless tips. He went on to work not only in traditional animation but also CGI effects animation for Marvel movies and story boarding. He also went on to produce and direct his own shorts. He inspired me to pursue that route for myself.

Working with this Disney Animation family left me putting down roots in Orlando. Now those roots have been unearthed. I am searching for where I should set up my next studio.

 

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Epcot

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This is another sketch exploring the theme parks on the weekends. At this point I seldom looked up from the drawings on my animation desk. I was deep into the rough pass of the animation on my final project.

Interns animated all day and well into the night. Several slept under their desks. Being a bit older, I needed my beauty rest, so I went home early, about 11pm. Every other intern worked through the night. I decided this was a marathon, not a sprint, so I paced myself.

I met with Frank Gladstone, the training manager for a progress report. Frank reminded me of Jerry Lewis. He was always supportive and kept me on track, even if I had no clue what I was doing. Well the goal was to fake until you make it.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Hagar the Horrible

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Chris Brown the creator of Hagar the Horrible came to the Disney Feature Animation Studio to give a talk.I think I have a sketch of Hagar somewhere in my art archives. Chris could dash those drawing off every minute.

We also watched the movie Alive which I liked. I had also read the book, so I was excited to see it brought to life. It was a rather dark movie to be showing Disney cartoonists but I like dark. I wish more animation would push the limits of humanities inner demons.

I was toying with two ideas for the final project. In one Baloo interacted with a balloon. In the other a fire broke out and Baloo pulls an elephant’s trunk to squirt water on the fire. I went with the second idea. The final result would not be winning any Oscars. The important thing was to commit and get it done. I do think it was that commitment to even the silliest idea that they were truly looking for. Looking back I really should have had Baloo survive a plane crash in the Andes mountains by eating other cartoon characters. Had I gone that route, I would have likely not been hired.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: MGM

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Michael Eisner, the big cheese at Disney was going to visit the Florida Feature Animation studio in a weeks time. People were scrambling to get the place cleaned up.

For the interns the final project was about to begin. This project would involve animating a scene from start to finish. We were told to animate Baloo from The Jungle Book. Along with that, we were to continue doing production work on the Lion King. I was looking forward to more production work.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: First Scene

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This was the first scene that I worked on for The Lion King. It was a scene where the lionesses were cleaning their cubs. My lioness was lounging in the background not moving very much. On the first day of production I finished 6 drawings and they all were approved. I was responsible for 1/2 second of screen time.

The drawing of Simba leaping was unrelated to the scene I was working on. These are not the production drawings but just quick pen sketches. The production drawings were much more refined with pencil on paper. The next day I would work on another scene. I was now a cog in the machine of production.

Disney Feature Animation Intern at Work

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I did a simple layout rough.Somehow my heart wasn’t into a scene devoid of people.I considered doing a second layout over the weekend while the studio was quiet.

Production was about to begin for us on the Lion King as clean up inbetweeners.  My mentor sat down with me and gave me plenty f tips to help me understand how to accomplish inbetweening in production. I was excited to start but didn’t yet know which scene I would be working on. I was hoe sick but getting to work on actual production drawings lifted my spirits. We were about to start making magic in this parking lot trailer.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Mark Henn

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Disney animator Mark Henn is one of the best animators in the world. At the time I was an intern, he was animating young Simba for the Lion King. He animated Jasmin in Aladdin and I remember him saying he used one of his sisters signature laser beam looks for one of the scenes.

Anyway Mark was also an avid Civil War re-enactor and he came into the studio in his Union uniform to pose for one of the late night painting sessions. Mark was just recently made a Disney Legend.

In the morning Imagineering gave a presentation about their plans for a new theme park which will recreate a jungle safari. Tomorrow land in Walt Disney World was getting a complete face lift as well. One attraction int the works was called Alien Encounter and it involved  a transporter experiment that goes horribly wrong. a 10 foot alien is unleashed and scurries among the audience. The alien was to be part scorpion and part spider. Each audience member at some point would feel the alien breath n their neck. I do believe that after we finished Lilo and stitch many years later it would be Stitch who would cause havoc in the attraction.

COVID Dystopia: Reno Plans

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I update the laurels and re-post the poster each time COVID Dystopia is accepted into a new film festival.

I booked plane tickets and the hotel in Reno. The full cost of the hotel will be reimbursed by the festival but the airfare is on me. The hotel room has a king size bed which is such a waste. I couldn’t find a smaller room in the Silver Legacy casino hotel which is where all the film makers will be staying.

Booking decent round trip flights is a challenge I haven’t yet mastered. Only after the tickets were booked did I discover that I have a 3 hour layover in Minneapolis. Well if I go out or sketch in the airport that will take carer of two hours. I have a similar 3 hour layover in Salt Lake City on the way back but that one goes until 1am. I might be less enthusiastic about sketching Salt Lake City that late at night but we will see. Hopefully I have learned from my mistakes. Actually the layovers are intentional. Had I paid several hundred more dollars for the tickets I could have flown much faster. In Iowa I am driving 6 hours to avoid a similar layover. I would rather watch the road flow by than sit inside an airport. No matter how challenging, this is all an adventure and I need to embrace that.

COVID Dystopia heading to Reno

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COVID Dystopia is an official selection at the Cordillera International Film Festival, taking place in beautiful Reno-Tahoe, Nevada from Thursday, September 26 to Monday, September 30, 2024. COVID Dystopia will be screening in Short Films Program #6 – Music Video Party on Friday, September 27th after 5pm (Specific Time TBD) at the Aces Ballpark. The ball park has a seating capacity of 6,980. That is far more seats than in any movie theater. Since it is a Music video party I am hoping they make it a dance party and let people dance on the field. This will be my first time seeing the film on a jumbo-tron. I also like that the audience will be outside rather than in an enclosed space.

I have run into a film festival scheduling problem for the first time. The Charlotte Film Festival is running the same week. I don’t know exactly what day and time my film is scheduled to be shown in Charlotte so I am not sure if I can get there from Reno in time. If the film is screened on the exact same day I could not go.

The Cordillera Film Festival features state of the art venues, cash and in-kind production prizes, a popular PitchFest! competition, lodging for all Official Selections, a Filmmakers Lounge which serves 3 complimentary buffet-style meals daily, snacks and an open wine & beer bar, an iconic Grand Jury, industry networking events, red carpet premieres, awards ceremony, celebrity panels and parties every night. To say all that sounds exciting is an understatement.

Since I know my films Cordillera screening time slot I will probably book a flight today allowing for a day to settle in, the screening day, and then a day to fly out. The after parties in Reno looked amazing. I am already impressed with how organized this festival is.

The Charlotte Film Festival will possibly be screening the film with surround sound. My sound technician is in Georgia, so I will see if he is interested in going to represent the film. He hasn’t seen the film with the surround sound in a theater yet. He is considering a redesign of the whole soundtrack so this might inspire him.