Greetings from Animatus!
It’s been a busy month, between commercial work and two sessions of The Animation Workshop. We’ve spent spare moments preparing for the High Falls Film Festival, taking place in Rochester this October 17-21. Focusing on women in film, the festival is honoring animator Faith Hubley this year with a retrospective of her independent work. As an official sponsor, Animatus Studio will be hosting a workshop with Faith to highlight her working methods and exhibit storyboards for her next film. Also in attendance at the festival will be Sybil DelGaudio, director of a new documentary about Faith and her late husband, John. The film, entitled “Independent Spirits: Faith Hubley/John Hubley,” will be screened Thursday evening at the festival. For more information on the films and the screening schedule, visit http://www.animatusstudio.com/highfalls.
IN OTHER FESTIVAL NEWS…
One fine morning in mid-August, we received a certificate in the mail that read, “Si attesta che Fredrik Armstrong Producer ha partecipato alla 3a edizione del Festival.” Yes, it seems that the Dervio International Animation Festival in Italy accepted the three shorts we sent them. “Ridin’ This Train,” “The Scent of Valhalla,” and “The Quest for Happy Hour” were three of the six American participants in the festival. (That means 50% of the American entries were from Animatus, for those of you doing the math.) We are honored and befuddled by the acceptance of our Americanized Scandanavian hero in Italy.
Meanwhile, on the this side of the Atlantic, Derf conquered the Rockies at the Crested Butte Reel Fest, which ran August 8-12 in Crested Butte, Colorado. “The Quest For Happy Hour” showed as part of a selection of “Gripping Shorts.”
But wait, there’s more! Director Dave Puls’ short “Ridin’ This Train” screened at the Vancouver Island Independent Film, Video and New Media Festival the first weekend in August.
If that’s not enough, Derf the Viking in “The Quest for Happy Hour” is one of four animated shorts selected for competition at the “B-Movie Theater Film Fest” in Syracuse, New York. The festival will take place September 15-16. For more about the fest, check out the website at http://www.b-movie.com/hof/fest.html.
SHAMELESS PLUG
Kids love them! The cool thing for back to school this year is an Animatus T-Shirt. Buy yours for a very reasonable $12.00 (plus tax and shipping) at http://www.animatusstudio.com/store.
THE ANIMATUS REEL
When you need animation, think Animatus! We’ve put together two and a half minutes of our favorite studio work. The reel features examples of our work in such diverse fields as: traditional animation, 3D and 2D CGI, stop motion, rotoscoping, morphing, nonlinear editing, logos, characters, web design, and Flash animation. It’s available to view online in the QuickTime format at http://www.animatusstudio.com/html/video_clips.html.
