I Got Somethin' to Tell Ya Premier

The premier of "I Got Somethin' to Tell Ya" was last weekend at Tribeca.  I got to walk down the red carpet and meet everyone who worked on the film, including Whoopi.  No matter how many projects you work on for TV,  there is still nothing cooler than seeing your animation play on the big screen.  This picture (from www.zimbio.com) was taken at the premier party afterwords.

Back row: Justin Simonich-animator, Rudy Valdez-East Coast DP, Tom Leonardis-Producer, Whoopi Goldberg-Director, Billy Mitchell-Apollo Theater Historian, Nikon Kwantu-Animation Producer
Front row: Prue Arndt-Archival Producer, Geeta Gandbhir-Supervising Editor, Creative Producer

I hope to be able to post some designs and/or animation soon.

I got somethin' to tell ya

I recently had the opportunity to animate about 5 min of footage for a documentary on Moms Mabley, directed by Whoopi Goldberg. Moms was one of the most successful entertainers in the 20s and 30s on the Chitlin' circuit and only later became known as "Moms" in the 50s and 60s as she was a motherly figure to many comedians during those decades. I handled the animation directing, and design on this one too. On stage she dressed as a disheveled, toothless woman in a brightly patterned house dress with a floppy hat which gave me a lot to pull from. It was fun getting to animate a "real" person and draw from her mannerisms and quirks in order to instill that into her animated version.

The film premiers this Saturday at the Tribecca film festival. Catch it if you can and enjoy the animation.