Disney Feature Animation Internship: Intern Animating

Posted on by Thor

This is Michael Mattesi animating a buffalo walking. Mike went on to work on the Lion King and then as a storyboard artist for a movie called Duplex, which I haven’t seen yet.

He wrote a book called Force: Dynamic Life Drawing which is now in its tenth edition worldwide.

An animator pulled me aside in sketch class and told me how much he liked my drawings. That was reassuring, but I need to convert those skills into a better understanding of animation. We had a full day of critiques and lectures followed by an acting class. A story boarding assignment followed and I was flummoxed in searching for an idea. At this point I was just home sick for NYC and I should have channeled that into a story idea. Instead I started building a story around a carousel horse.

Disney Internship: The Stocks

Posted on by Thor

As a Disney Feature Animation intern, I enjoyed having free reign of the Disney Theme parks on the weekend to sketch.

On the week this was done, Barry Cook came to the Disney’s MGM Studios and pitched the idea for the next feature animated film which was called at the time China Doll, or FaMulan.

There was one section of the animation building which had a tall soundproof glass wall behind which tourists could watch the animation artists at work. Barry stood on a desk and told us the story of a daughter who joined the Chinese army as a man to save her father from conscription. Barry had a knack for storytelling and I was fully engrossed and hoped that one day I might work on the film which would later be called Mulan.

I also learned that as an intern I would have a chance to do some production drawings for the film the studio was now working on called The Lion King. The story of Lion King was built around the themes of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

The Spider Queen

Posted on by Thor

Pam and I went to see The Spider Queen at the new Fringe Art Space near Church Street Station in Downtown Orlando. This is now known as the Ophelia theater. We had picked up some post cards that promote my COVID film in Winter Park and we decided we would have enough time to try out a small Polish restaurant on Aloma. There were several tables outside so that is where we sat.

Unfortunately after a business call in the parking lot and very slow service we had to get pack the food in take out boxes and eat on the way to the theater. Pam drove to the theater like we were in a Mission Impossible chase scene. My car battery had to be jumped earlier in the day, because it has sat idle for so long while I was animating on the film. I tried to get the car clock set since we were racing the clock to get to the theater. There were hours and minuted which I set correctly but then there was a third button with tow zeros. I needed to change AM to PM and hoped that button would do the job. No, that button reset the clock which undid the settings. I abandoned the clock.

Pam stopped in front of the theater and let me out to run inside. My job was to find out if she could get into the theater after she parked the car, which would involve her walking an extra 10 minutes. At the Fringe International Theater Festival it is impossible to get into a show after it has started. Thankfully those rules are relaxed in the Fringe Art Space.

The fellow at the front desk was more than helpful. He went out of his way to be sure Pam got in and could find where I was seated. The volunteer scanned Pam’s ticket and then noted where I sat which was in the back row house right. I didn’t want my iPad screen glow to be noticed by anyone else in the audience. Pam did arrive about 10 minutes after the show started. When she entered she almost bumped into an actor who was in front of the stage. The volunteer pointed out my spot and I turned my ipPad screen towards Pam so she could clearly see me in the dark.

The show was about the Spiderman Musical that was an epic failure on Broadway. The Spider Queen opened with Glen Berger, an apologetic, shy writer who worked with director Julie Taymor, of Lion King fame. The overpriced musical they collaborated on faced an endless string of setbacks. The producer died of a stroke. The show then faced financing setbacks and a series of technical glitches and ultimately horrific injuries on set. A 29 year old Spiderman stuntman fell 30 feet. The tether holding the stunt double broke and he fell more than 30 feet to the pit below. The stunt double sued for 6 million dollars and the show on a whole cost over 75 million dollars to produce.

That same month, an  actress suffered a concussion, while two other actors were injured during a flying sequence, one breaking his wrist. A stagehand fell went into cardiac arrest. He was transferred to St. Luke’s Hospital where he later died. The show was plagued. In The Spider Queen the horrific accident was shown using plush Spiderman dolls swung around with fishing poles and string. The low tech puppetry missed the mark.

Festival of the Arts at Epcot Center.

Posted on by Thor

Crealde School of Art invited me to offer a one hour workshop at the Festival of the Arts at Epcot Center. My workshop proposal was titled “Sketchbook Savvy.” This was the first time I had been on Disney property since Orlando Disney Feature Animation closed its doors in 2004. I parked in the back stage blue lot which was set aside for instructors. There was a bread trail of signs leading to the place where the workshop would take place. Unfortunately, I lost track of the signs and ended up lost underneath the test track attraction. The cars on tracks rumbled by overhead. A cast member offered to guide me but he ran into a dead end because Disney landscapers had added a hedge blocking our route since the last time he passed that way.

Like a scene from Goodfelles, I walked through the kitchen and made my way to the hostess who guided me back stage. I was about half an hour early, and rather than wait back stage, I decided to sketch the Disney artist sketching a character for the audience. Based on his description, it sounded like he was drawing Donald Duck, but I can’t be sure. The workshop attendees followed along every step of the way. Actually, one of the attendees wearing the mouse ears contacted me and she might correct me if I am wrong.

I was set up with a mic as I sketched and then the tech crew told me to walk on stage as soon as the introduction music started. My goal was just to share a couple of sketchbooks and then talk about how carrying a sketchbook everywhere you go can become a lifestyle. I started off with the story of my first day at Disney in what the animators called “The Fishbowl.” A glass wall was set up to overlook the artists at work and as a new artist my animation desk was right next to the glass. Work on my first day became frustrating because people kept knocking on the glass and giving me a thumbs up. The guard who ushers people through was pointing down into my work space. Since the glass was thick, we couldn’t talk. I finally realized that he was pointing at the bottom ledge above my head that supported the glass wall. I found some tape there and peeled it up. It said, “Hi my name is Tom, if you like my work, please knock on the glass and give me a big thumbs up.” The animator next to me laughed. I was initiated. This story always gets a laugh and it warmed up the crowd.

I talked about my last 9 years sketching everyday here in Orlando and how this habit of remaining curious and sharing my experiences has changed my life. I introduced the idea of sketch crawls and the Orlando Urban Sketchers. Then I showed the audience the sketch I had done of the venue we were in. It was rough and incomplete but that is the definition of a sketch. Afterwords there was a line of about 10 people who wanted to share their sketches and shake my hand. A Disney intern asked my advice on how to prepare a portfolio to get into a movie studio. My Disney portfolio had been sketches much like the sketches I do everyday today. They liked what they saw and then asked me to prepare a portfolio of just sketches of animals. I went to the zoos around NYC every day for months and sketched. That portfolio got me into the studio to work on the Lion King. Of course today, everything is digital, so it is a Whole New World. I sang that song to myself as my plane flew through the clouds on my way down here to Orlando. I measure my success today by the fact that I remain artistically productive, not by an appraised value to every sketch I did over the years.