Wild Rivers Film Festival: Chetco Theater

Posted on August 31, 2025August 26, 2025 by Thor

After the Wild Rivers Film Festival had wound down, I decided to go back and sketch the theater where COVID Dystopia had screened. Chetco Playhouse is a small community live theater. The last production had been Thumbalina according to the theater poster street side.

I had some very pleasant conversations with the Film Festival staff who had volunteered to work at this theater. When they found out I had animated COVID Dystopia, I was told that the film had sparked quite a bit of conversation. The daughter of one of the volunteers was working the projector and she loves to draw characters. I therefor shared my sketchbook to help encourage her to draw from life more often.

I entered this theater once while a feature film was being shown. The theater was so dark that I could not see enough to make my way down the aisle. I paused at the back f the theater waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dark. When a lighter scene was being projected, I made my was careful half way towards the front and felt for the seat backs to find an empty seat.

The film being shown was Ethan Bloom. An awkward teen boy was pushed into a pool by a spunky teen girl. I wasn’t in the mood for a teen romance, but this film found its way into my heart. Ethan Bloom had lost his mom when he was 10 years old which is how old I was when I lost my mom. Ethan was Jewish but he imagined that his mother looked like the Virgin Mary. Therefor he wanted to study Catholicism since he felt it might bring him closer to his mom. This premise ripped my heart wide open. Ethan would need his fathers permission to be baptized into the Catholic faith, so he decided he had to forge his fathers signature. Such a lie would not stand and his father found out. Ethan’s coming of age story featured forgiveness and people coming together regardless of their faith. It is a story very much needed in these divisive times.

Apple Store

Posted on August 15, 2025August 9, 2025 by Thor

In preparing to go to Oklahoma City for the 75th Infantry Reunion, and Oregon to screen my short animated film, COVID Dystopia, I felt I needed to replace the faulty chord on my iPad. Apple sells chords that are made to fall apart in a year’s time. The chord Apple included with the purchase of the iPad was only about a foot long and some hotels and motels don’t have outlets conveniently located. I needed a longer and more robust chord.

The Apple Store at the Millennia Mall was insanely crowded. Apparently everyone had faulty power chords. Tourists were coming in and buying chords using their foreign currency cards. I went up to the iBar and waited. Someone asked what I needed and pointed me towards a table covered with boxes of power chords. I wasn’t sure which plug s were needed. I should have brought my iPad, but I came in on a whim while shopping for clothes for my Europe trip.

The sales person was able to scan my iPhone to figure out exactly which chord I needed. I was impressed with his digital detective work. All my devices seem to communicate to one another and are shouting out when they need better power chords.

After I purchased my chord. I decided to stay and get a sketch of the digital chaos. Some people took more than an hour to buy a digital device wile others were in an out quickly. My purchases was pretty easy, but others must have been considering life altering purchases.

The lady in front of me was agonizing over her purchase of an Apple computer. She wore a Lady and the Tramp tee shirt. The Tramp would have made a decision quickly but Lady needed to weigh every option. She did make a decision before my sketch was complete.

COVID Dystopia is an official Selection at the Wild Rivers Film Festival

Posted on July 21, 2025July 21, 2025 by Thor

COVID Dystopia is an official selection at the Wild Rivers Film Festival on August 15th to 18th, 2025. The festival runs in four theaters, one of which is the Redwood Theater, 621 Chetco Ave, Bookings, Oregon. There are two other venues as well, The Chetco Live Theater and the Chetco Public Library. It would be just my luck for COVID Dystopia to screen in a library to disturb patrons who just want some peace and quiet.

Wild Rivers Film Festival is a competitive exhibition for domestic and international feature films, documentaries, shorts and screenplays. It is a film festival that had not crossed my radar, but I was asked to submit by the festival executive director, Daniel Springen. This is the second year that the festival has been running.

The Wild Rivers Film Festival is an immersive four-day experience that includes screenings in four venues, industry panels, and workshops that are all geared toward indie filmmakers and adventurous movie lovers.

The festival has nightly parties and a variety of professional activities which encourage important networking opportunities for all.

Brookings, Oregon is nestled right on the breathtaking Pacific coastline. The people are friendly, the seafood is fresh, and the film history is prolific. Bookings also was the only place in the contiguous United States to be bombed by air in WWII. Since I am deeply entrenched in researching WWII history right h=now, that fact fascinates me.

On September 9 and September 29, 1942, Imperial Japanese Navy pilot Nobuo Fujita, flying a float plane launched from the submarine I-25, and dropped incendiary bombs near Brookings with the goal of starting large forest fires. The forests were moist from a recent rain and the fires died out quickly on their own. The goal to create massive forest fires to draw U.S. military resources away from the Pacific Theater and demoralize the American public was a failure.

The festival culminates with an award ceremony featuring cash & prizes.

Pandemic Studio

Posted on November 27, 2024November 20, 2024 by Thor

I did this sketch of my pandemic studio for one of my online students. Today I find myself doing a similar sketch as I plan for a tight space.

The Disney Feature Animation desk is huge and heavy along with the flat files and a hand made bookcase.

Since I am doing a similar sketch today I will probably do it the same way by adding a bit of depth using one point perspective.

In July of 2020 about 8200 Americans were dying due to COVID-19 each week. Much larger waves of death would follow, and I sat in this studio documenting the vents each day through my surreal paintings. The COVID Dystopia animated short film is doing the rounds at Film Festivals ad the 200 page book with over 600 illustrations is nearing completion. The pandemic is not over and a new virus, H5N1 is spreading in California. That new virus has a mortality rate of 50% while COVID has a mortality rate of an estimated 1.4%. If H5N1 starts spreading from human to human the devastation will make COVID look like a walk in the park.

COVID Dystopia: Canada Truckers Protest

Posted on November 24, 2024November 16, 2024 by Thor

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.

COVID Dystopia: Racoon Dog Theory

Posted on November 22, 2024November 14, 2024 by Thor

Genetic material collected at the Wuhan Chinese Market where the first human cases of COVID-19 were identified, show raccoon dog DNA commingled with COVID-19. Some scientists believe COVID most likely jumped from animals to people, others believe the virus could have been leaked from one of the several Wuhan coronavirus research facilities. The genetic material collected does not prove that a racoon dog stated the pandemic. Human DNA was also found in the sample. A human may have infected the animal, or the animal may have never harbored the virus. People search for blame. The final answer as to how the pandemic began has yet to be definitively proven.

COVID Dystopia: Lions Genetically Entwined

Posted on November 21, 2024November 14, 2024 by Thor

A lion at a Zoo in South Bend, Indiana, tested positive for COVID after it started coughing and became breathless. Zoo workers who had cared for the lion later caught the infection. The lion that was infected with the coronavirus probably passed it on to two zoo employees.

COVID continues to spread not just human to human, but between species.

This scene involved animating the two lions walking around the virus. This was my second time animating lions so the mechanics were fresh in my mind. The lion balancing on the viral ball was subtly animated in After Effects using the puppet tool, and his tail was fully animated. So many of these shots involved keeping very subtle movement so that the painting was the primary focus.

The COVID Dystopia book is nearing completion. Today I just have to catch up on double checking the index and the editing is being done vary carefully 3 spreads a a time.

COVID Dystopia: In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lion

Posted on November 20, 2024November 14, 2024 by Thor

April was to be the cruelest month. Doctors and nurses hit the brink of exhaustion. All they could do was watch people gasp for breath and die. Ventilators were thought to help but they resulted in even more death.

In this scene I did subtle animation on the lions behind the nurse. I used puppet tools in Adobe After Effects to move a few lion heads. I used the same toll to have the nurse lean forward a bit.

Most of the hand drawn animation in this scene came in moving the lions pacing in a circle. I have not animated many quadrupeds so I looked at reference of peoples African safari videos to study the lion’s walk. It was a challenge but I am pleased with the result.

COVID Dystopia: No One Seemed to Mind

Posted on November 19, 2024November 14, 2024 by Thor

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 an Official Selection at the Pittsburgh Shorts and Script Competition

Posted on November 14, 2024November 14, 2024 by Thor

COVID Dystopia is an Official Selection at the Pittsburgh Shorts and Script Competition. The festival helps with travel expenses, so I decided to go for one day to attend the Awards Ceremony. This will the the Pennsylvania and West Virginia Premiere for the film.

My film is being screened online as part of the Chiller Theater 2 Virtual Block. I am actually pleased that COVID Dystopia will be screened virtual since it means the screening will not help spread the virus. I also suspect people could watch the film multiple times to catch all the detail. There are 8 films in the block and COVID Dystopia is the only animated film. Honestly the film works best when surrounded by edgy, hard hitting, live action films.

The Pittsburgh Shorts and Script Competition Closing Night Awards Program, is Sunday, November 24th from ⋅7:00pm to 9:00pm at the Harris Theater (809 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA). I have learned that it is worth going to the awards ceremonies, because miracles can happen, and some people are seeing truth in my warped world view.

My plan is to fly into Pittsburgh on the morning of the last day of the festival, Sunday November 24, 2024 to see a few films and attend the Awards Ceremony. I booked a room at the hotel that is hosting the filmmakers and then I fly out late the next day. That will give me a day to just hang out in downtown Pittsburgh and do a few sketches. I do hope it is not too cold. Otherwise I will have to figure out a few indoor venues to sketch.

After the festival, I get a rest since there are no other festivals set up yet. I have 6 festivals who are still judging the film. An I have to search for more festivals that seem like the right fit for COVID Dystopia. The film has an 87% rejection rate but when accepted it tends to garner awards. It is just a hard pill to swallow.