Murray Words on the Street

This is one of the pieces I am most proud of from Sesame English. It was our take on the Murray Word on the Street segments. The live action footage was all shot in my neighborhood at the time, fortunately I lived right off of Sesame St. Behind the camera was Elliot Cowan, the shoot was organized and produced through Broderville Pictures with Dan Forgione doing most of the animation. It was the first piece that I got to act as DP on the shoot and an animation director for Sesame. Planning the shots out carefully so that the animation would blend with the live action seamlessly was a crucial part of the process.

Sesame Stories Zoe's Big Top

This is another sample of an interactive eBook that I worked on at Sesame Workshop. The final build was fully a interactive experience for Sesame English. Stephen Moverley handled much of the animation on this one. I served as Production Manager and Animation Supervisor on the project.

The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead & Roundhead screening

I was luck enough to attend the first proper public screening of The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead & Roundhead in NYC last night. Elliot Cowan's first feature film which he animated almost entirely himself. You can see a trailer for the film below and check out more about the film on his blog here: (http://sandwichbag.blogspot.com/)

Elmo and Mr. Mole Sesame Story

This is a sample of an interactive eBook that I worked on while at Sesame Workshop. These stories were done for our Sesame English project, and built around a pre-determined vocabulary list, in which we needed to incorporate random words into a linear story. The final build was fully a interactive experience used overseas.Stephen Mead handled much of the animation, as well as the programming.

ASIFA March postcard

Here is the latest postcard for ASIFA East. It is that time of the year again to go out and let your voice be heard and check a great bunch of films. No other animated festival that I know of has a 100% democratic voting process to determine the award winners for over 40 years.

Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley Animation Clip

At long last here is a clip from the Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley documentary that I worked on last year. It has been on HBO for the last few months and has gotten really great reviews. In this clip she is talking about the garbage strike going on in NYC.

Today's post is one of the many emoji I have been recently working on at Sesame. They have been so fun to animate. I can be as loose as I want to and really have fun with them. Enjoy.

Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley Airs

The Documentary that I had the pleasure to work on  is going to air on HBO tonight finally. The above is a still from the amination.

Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley air date: 11/18 at 9pm on HBO

http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/whoopi-goldberg-presents-moms-mabley

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.

I finally got my chance to star in a Sesame video "Share It Maybe," that went viral. To be fair, it also has Cookie Monster, as well as a bunch of other Sesame employees in it. My contribution can be seen from 1:15 to about 1:17, two whole seconds of the back of my head has been seen by 6 million people to date!

ASIFA Auction

It is the ASIFA Auction time again. This is the holiday card slash auction postcard for 2011.

Christmas card

Here is the Holiday card I did for Sesame English last year.

Jim Flora inspiration

I have gotten a lot of compliments on the postcard I designed for ASIFA last month. Volunteering once every month to put together the cards, I sometimes forget just how many people see those cards. Some months are more work than others, and I don’t do it alone, but it has been nice to receive so many compliments this past month. To give credit where credit is due I was inspired by the work of Jim Flora. He is probably best known for his 1940s-50s Columbia Records album covers. His album cover art and music-themed works were put together in a great book The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora.One of my favorite pieces was the album cover below.

As soon as I saw it I just had to pay homage to Jim by incorporating his 3 headed character into a design somehow. ASIFA-East’s postcard for March was that design. Thanks to everyone who enjoyed the card and thanks to Jim for inspiring me.

Jack Beers Story

Another of my recent favorite films is Holes in my Shoes, directed by David Wachs. The documentary tells the story of Jack Beers, a boy raised on the Lower East Side at the start of last century who led the life of 10 ordinary men. At a young age he was known as “New York City’s Strongest Boy,” he went on to help build Radio City Music Hall and erect the spire of the Empire State Building after teaching himself engineering by reading books on the subject at the NYC Public Library. He them moved south to work on a project for the US government during WW2. These accomplishments alone would have been enough for anyone else, but not for Jack. He started a new career in film and ended up acting in over 200 films, all while overcoming a terminal illness, raising championship dogs, and mowing the lawn. The only down side of this film is that watching it may make you feel as though you need to get off you butt and start doing something.

Young at Heart Documentary

Over the past year I have been voraciously watching as many documentaries as I can. I started filming my own documentary last year with my partner in crime Linda Beck, but more about that at a later time. This weekend I saw the documentary Young@Heart on PBS and it was FANTASTIC. It was everything a good documentary should be. It follows the final weeks of rehearsal for the Young@Heart Chorus in Northampton, MA, as they get ready for their world tour. The chorus’ average age is 81, and the film follows all the highs and lows associated with people of that age. One of the best parts of the chorus is their unexpected choice of music to perform such as The Clash, Coldplay, James Brown and Sonic Youth.
They are performing in Brooklyn this fall and I for one will be there to see them in person. Young@Heart in END OF THE ROAD opens in New York and runs April 21-May 2. Ticket information is available by phone 718 254 8779 and on line.

Moby 'One Time We Lived' Animated video

Here is the latest music video from Moby which I got to work on yet again. It's a great throwback to the 80's. It was directed by Robert Powers, animated by Chris Timmons, Ian Jones-Quartey and myself.

If you like the videos they can be found on a Deluxe edition of Moby's album Wait For Me. The Deluxe version is a three-disc set comprised of two audio discs and one DVD. Disc Three, the DVD, includes the animated EPK and interview with Moby, plus five videos for songs from Wait For Me, including David Lynch's animation for Shot in The Back of the Head. Also included on this DVD are 16 "blips" (30 second animations for each of the tracks on the original album).

Mr Burns for Mayor II

So upon further investigation the Burns for Mayor Campaign is not a stealth attack from challenger Bill Thompson's campaign but rather an art project from artist Boris Rasin, who is running the campaign and web site designer Kenny Komer as a part of the Art in Odd Places 2009 Festival. AIOP takes place on 14th St. and is a collection of artists who display their artwork in publicly accessible areas without obtaining permits. As described on their website, “Part of the project's goal is to explore the meaning of public space and how artists can create work within it, without requesting the permission of the city.”

I love the idea of this exhibit, especially The Concerned New Yorkers for Monty Burns Coalition effort and the campaign site burnsformayor.com. The embedded video above is from their website. I think Monty has a bunch of great ideas, such as:

The construction of the state-of-the-art Williamsburg Nuclear Power Plant With a 400 MWe capacity, the medium-sized reactor will be able to provide New York City with 90% of our energy needs, saving New Yorkers up to 30% on their energy bills.

The sale of Staten Island to NJ for over $10 billion to solve our current budget deficit.

Moving the transportation of bulk goods and livestock under our streets will give the MTA the fiscal boost it needs to maintain its rail network, provide better service, and slash the subway fares down to a nickel, where they should be.

Identifying hipsterism as a quality of life crime, the New York Police Department will finally have the means to protect ordinary New Yorkers from these undesirables. Only through a surge of force can we eradicate the poison of our society. The proposed state-of-the-art Williamsburg Nuclear Power Plant is strategically planned for the epicenter of the hipster infestation and promises to eject them from this neighborhood once thought abandoned forever.

Come Tuesday, November 3, 2009 I will be up bright and early, or at least by 2:30-3:00, to cast my ballot.

Mr Burns for Mayor

I came across this great poster last week while walking around the city. You can say so much with one simple image. I don't think this poster was officially endorsed by the Bill Thompson campaign however.

Moby, Mistake music video

Here is the latest music video from Moby which I had the pleasure of working on again. This one was directed by Robert Powers and animated by Chris Timmons and myself. Look for another one coming soon. Enjoy!