Basketball With Animals

Making animations with Dave Quion is one of my most rewarding undertakings. The following has pretty much been our routine since we were Suite mates at CalArts and worked on our first short "Lobster Shmobster" together.

Day 1. 
He comes to me with some absurd script and we spend hours in my studio recording voice overs and Improvising around the theme, laughing at our own silliness.

2 Months later.  
I get the animatic and seeing the characters shape and form start to lump together a sonic landscape. 

8 Months Later. 
Receive Dave's meticulous one man hand drawn animations and starting cutting in sound effects.  The overall process and collaborative element of our projects together is truly one of the most rewarding working relationships I have.

The fruit of that love and labor has resulted in one of our most polished and sleek shorts to date. "Duckhammer and Beavkid Get Buckets",  Is the story of two roommates,  a slacker Duck, and an average Beaver.  In their Universe all problems are solved with Basketball.   In this first Episode Duckhammer Learns how to dunk and Beavkid coerces him into face off against Rhino and Iguana for a futon.

Dave's rendering of 2D into 3D camera moves is particularly of note.   We intend to continue this as a web series,  or get a deal with one of the networks.  If you like it, help spread it around.  We are all grassroots here, doing this Independently as a labor of love.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

   

Valentine - Blanton Ross

I'll share with you a sad sort of Valentine, off the album Gray.  The Visuals are blamed on T.S.Nestor as a front for LogicalCurl, but I could say its my very first attempt at frame by frame animation. 

Andres Salaff's "Lifeline" Maintains An Orderly Progression As A Wave Of Depolarization.

Lifeline is a beautiful animated short film about an aging scientist using a machine to allow him to search time and space for his deceased wife.   This winner of a Student Academy award, written and animated by Andres Salaff, details the lengths that love will drive a person too.  The CalArts Character animation short film has no dialogue and is accompanied by a haunting score by Blanton Ross.  The source material used to create the ambient soundscapes of Lifeline have been collected into an album called Dream Travel.

 For more information on festivals Screenings etc. please visit lifelinefilm.blogspot.com

Lifeline from Andres Salaff on Vimeo.

SPOILER ALERT: Alice in Wonderland

Expect more Disney channel than Tim Burton or better yet don't bother...it's inevitable that you will anyway,  and I cant blame you.  I had high hopes too,  A director I respect, excellent actors, a timeless amazing story to serve as inspiration.  How could it go wrong?

I keep telling myself that it was not a lack of vision that movie suffered from but an over bearing corporation shadowing that vision and reigning it in, nullifying what could have been really special about it.   Instead you get watered down Tim Burton fingerprints scattered about Wonderland: dark circle eye shadow, serpentine trees, asymmetrical jail cells, doors and so forth.   The movie achieved the stereotype yet lacked the soul.  I spent the whole 109 minutes in anticipation for the movie to be removed from its leash,  and instead was rewarded with fortunate buoys placed to save the audience from drowning on a  sinking ship.

So fair enough, the animation was well made, the acting and voice talent was on par,  though I would have liked to see more of it than the cameo like quick snippits borrowed from the heritage of  Lewis Carrol's original Tale.   Helena Bonham Carter executed her part as the pouting Red Queen perfectly,  and in the end turned out to be the redemption of the film.  Sorry Johnny... Even Elfman who is notorious for using ghost writers and continuously declining in his creativity as a composer seemed to be doing pretty well with the music,  something that I was expecting to be frustrated with.   Thus I was almost willing to except the work as at least entertaining,  and then...

WHAT THE FUCK is up with that shit song for the ugly ass end credits... it forever ruined everything... All the waiting, all the watching; right down the toilet. All the talent wasted by crap producers... For what?  So disney can masturbate all over your face and laugh at you for buying a ticket. I could not get out of the theater fast enough.

I hate the world now... Art is dead.   Are money people really that tasteless.  How is it possible to suck that much...  Do your self a favor and start leaving the theater as soon as Alice gets on a boat.  Trust me.

The Bastard

 

New Version of The Deadline in High Definition

To do it justice, Andres Salaff has released his CalArts animation "The Deadline" in high definition.  This is a excellent envisioning of a man coping with the difficulties of overbearing expectations. Ripping through time and taking a few twists and turns along the way. This film tackles tough issues like substance abuse and suicide. And Features a score by Blanton Ross

A Rap Tattoo...

Story of Chauncey By Dave Quion

Way back in the day, Deez Nutz made us cool...