Close-Up on the SXSW Theaters for 2006. For your pre-planning purposes, this is a reminder of our venues for the 2006 SXSW Film Festival: 1. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Downtown 2. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema S. Lamar (TWO SCREENS) 3. Arbor Great Hills 4. Austin Convention Center 5. Dobie Theater 6. Paramount Theater… (Matt Dentler’s Blog). [blogs.indieWIRE.com: Independent Film]
Animation celebrates its 100th birthday. Mark Frauenfelder:
The wonderful ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog is honoring James Stewart Blackton, the father of animation, on the 100th birthday of the artform.
James Stewart Blackton was a “Lightning Sketch Artist” in Vaudeville billed as “The Komikal Kartoonist”. Inspired by Thomas Edison’s recent invention of moving pictures, Blackton teamed with Albert E. Smith to form the first movie studio, Biograph Films.
Smith and Blackton created what were then called “Trick Films”… the camera was stopped for a moment while the scene was changed, making things magically appear and disappear; images dissolved from one to another; and shots were double exposed to create ghostly images. In 1900, Blackton experimented with putting his lightning sketch act on film in a movie called “The Enchanted Drawing”, but it was in March of 1906 when he made his most important breakthrough. In a trick film titled “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces” Blackton created what is regarded as the first American animated film.Link
RenderMan for Maya training released. Digital-Tutors today announced the availability of an interactive training solution for RenderMan for Maya, “Introduction to RenderMan for Maya,” the newest release in an expanding library of interactive video-based training for digital artists… [MacMinute]
