captain pancakes

Holy acme registration batman! NWFF is now the proud owner of a freakishly large animation stand. We (Stefan Gruber is to blame) have affectionately named it, “Captain Pancakes.” As best we can tell, the Cap’n is a product of the 1940s by the FAX company. The machine itself is unquestionably a thing of beauty. Such precise craftmanship! What beautiful alloys! It is testament to the age when mechanical devices were constructed with pride and were meant to last.

The table is a dream for animators because it allows you to perform very precise, measured movements in many different directions. That may sound lame to the philistines. But we are not philistines, we are WigglyWorld! Movement is what imbues inanimate objects with human qualities. Whether you work in two dimensions with drawings, cels, collage or three dimensions doing stop motion movement, the Cap’n will be your new pixie-powered magic wand for your cinematic magic.

Originally designed for use with 16mm, I’m working on tricking it out with DV or digital SLR cameras so the kids can practice and learn without the expense that film requires.

Big ups to the people who have brought Captain Pancakes to NWFF. Mostly to a Seattle treasure who sadly passed away recently, fantastic animator Jim Coffin. Jim’s animations made their way onto TV and elsewhere for the past several decades. We’re proud to honor him by making this animation table available to a new generation of animators. Also, muchas gracias to Web Crowell, Jon Nonnenmacher, Jack Bennett, and Peter Lucas for breaking their backs in the move and getting the stand upright and functional. Stay tuned to the website and calendar to find out when we’ll be offering classes on the Cap’n or drop me a line to find out more.

d

Game Over

Well, the ByDesign program has wrapped up. Thanks alot to all who participated and attended this past weekend! Having helmed this program for 7 years (count ‘em, 7!), its great to see this kind of work evolving, and great to see so many familiar faces at the shows.
Scott K. James, ndCv and Randy Jones (aka Caro) dazzled us with quad-sound, big-screen audio-visual performances at the opening night event, with a ton of good friends in the house (including previous ByDesign participants Andy Rohrman aka Scientific American, and Franklin Joyce on a rare visit from Bali!)
Director and Brooklyn gallery owner Marcin Ramocki was in town for special screenings of his new documentary 8 Bit. Thanks Marcin for enough blocks and bleeps to last a lifetime! (A few of you long-time NWFF folks may have noticed that the film features Paul Slocum, who performed here in 2002 using an Atari 2600 and two mic’ed dot matrix printers!)
The good folks at Superfad and Digital Kitchen showed work and let us in on their tricks of the trade (including tales of accidental subliminal Nazi propaganda- oops!)
And I’ve got to thank all of the great artists who participated in this year’s ‘Entropy’ program- Portland group Impactist, New York animator Pes (cupcake space invaders!), London visualist Max Hattler, Australian motion graphics wiz Jimmy I-Hsiu Yuan, the great Ben Stokes, Stewart Smith (rocking the Apple II!) and everyone who contributed work. Keep doing it!
I’m inspired by seeing all of this stuff and talking with folks at the programs. Hope you all were too. I’m already looking forward to next year.
-Peter

8-Bit Screening

Friday evening we had filmmaker Marcin Romocki from 8-Bit in town. He told Peter Lucas and I that Ed Halter recommended screening his work at NWFF, which we both were pleasantly surprised by. I found it encouraging that Halter not only knew about NWFF, but also that our reputation preceeds us. The screenings with Marcin were very well attended. It was amazing to listen in on the post film conversations in the lobby. Patrons were talking shop about Nintendo and Atari for nearly thirty minutes as Marcin was bombarded by others who wanted answers to questions not covered in the Q & A. I hope we have another NYC convert on our hands, who will also recommend the venue to New York’s finest indie filmmakers.