Gumby Fest Brings in the Biggest Names in Stop Motion

On June 14th 2014 the first ever Gumby Fest, a major film festal and celebration for Stop Motion animation will be taking place in Glendora, CA. Below is a reprint article from the press release from their blog announcing their world-class Stop Motion guests...

Academy Award-Winner Rick Baker Joins ‘Meet Gumby’s Gang’ Panel at Inaugural Gumby Fest in Glendora on June 14

Animators for ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas,’ ‘Robot Chicken’ ‘Coraline’ to share stories from the Gumby studios

Glendora, CA – Academy Award-winner Rick Baker will join the “Meet Gumby’s Gang” panel at the premier Gumby Fest to be held June 14 in Glendora, California.

Gumby, the world’s original clayboy and pop-culture legend who starred in more than 230 TV episodes and a movie, “grew up” in Glendora, where the iconic TV series was produced from 1960 to the late 1970s by Clokey Productions.

The celebration of all-things Gumby as well as stop-motion animation will take place on the grounds of Glendora City Hall and Public Library at the corner of Glendora Avenue and Foothill Boulevard.

“Meet Gumby’s Gang” will be held at 2 p.m. in the Bidwell Forum at Glendora Library, preceded by other discussion panels.

Rick Baker won the first ever Academy Award-winner for Best Make-up/Hair Styling for An American Werewolf in London; other credits include Disney’s upcoming Maleficent, Men in Black,, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, and many others.

Joining Baker on the “Meet Gumby’s Gang” panel will be stop motion and visual effects pioneers who got their start at Clokey Productions:

· Joe Clokey is president of Clokey Productions/Premavision Studios. Son of Art and Ruth Clokey, the pioneering creators of Gumby, Clokey was raised as Gumby’s little brother. In fact, Gumby’s adventures first came to life in bedtime stories that Art Clokey invented for his children. Today, Joe carries on his parents’ legacy, introducing Gumby to the next generation of fans, as the head of Gumby’s animation studio and business affairs.

· Harry Walton began his professional film career in 1968 with Clokey Productions specializing in character animation as well as other areas of visual effects such as optical compositing, matte painting and compositing, plate photography, lighting and setup, stop motion puppet fabrication, miniature construction, visual effects supervision and animation direction. He worked on such films as Nightmare Before Christmas, The Abyss, James and the Giant Peach, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and more.

· Doug Beswick has more than 40 years of visual effects achievements to his credit. His work can be seen in such mega hits as Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Terminator, Aliens, Evil Dead 2, Gremlins 2, Nightmare on Elm Street 3, and Beetlejuice. He began his career in special effects/animation in 1967 working at Clokey Productions, Doug worked on both the classic Gumby television show and the endearing Davey and Goliath program, building props, and later applying his animation skills.

· Norman DeCarlo first worked for Art Clokey to help him create 99 episodes of the Gumby television series. He then worked with Henry Selick to produce nationally televised commercials, MTV interstitials and his own private projects that eventually led Selick to direct The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and Monkeybone.

· Richard Zimmerman (Rich Zim) – Gumby was Rich Zim’s first professional animation job after graduating college back in 1987. Since then, he has animated on such projects as Pee Wee’s Playhouse, The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Coraline. Birdhouse, a 7-minute animated short he directed, played at over 25 festivals including Cannes and Sundance, where it won an award. He currently works on Robot Chicken and other feature films.

· Carl Jabloski completed two 30-minute specials and four Davey & Goliath 15-minute television episodes and later participated on a health series called I Am Joe’s Heart. After leaving Clokey Productions Jabloski’s career evolved into project/cost management for the theme park industry.

· Ron Dexter has been the head of production for Clokey Productions / Premavision since the early 2000s. His 30 years in the film industry has included directing and shooting TV commercials. He owned a studio in Hollywood for 20 years, and has shot films in 18 countries and 40 states. He has made numerous documentary films and worked on both feature films and TV shows. He made camera gyros for helicopter shots, steady cams (before they were developed commercially) and smooth track systems for dolly moves.

For the full schedule or more info visit: http://gumbyfest.net/festival-schedule

Gumby Fest

Comments

Interview with Joseph Wallace, Director and Animator of Psychedelic, Cut-out Stop Motion Music Video for Canadian Artist Parker Bossley's "Chemicals"

Parker Bossley as seen in Chemicals . Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace. “I think the thing I’ve always found wonderful about cut out animation is that it’s one of the most immediate forms of animation,” muses British stop motion animation director Joseph Wallace – currently based in Bristol, UK, where, in January of this year, he founded the stop motion studio Hangar Puppet Animation Studio – in discussion of the medium he employed in his most recent film – the surreal, psychedelic music video for Canadian artist Parker Bossley’s debut single, Chemicals , which has already won a Vimeo Staff Pick. Perhaps more than anything else – perfectly suiting the film’s subject matter –the style and medium allow to film to transcend to time itself, just as Wallace implies, undoubtedly allowing the film to become just that – immediate. Almost so much so one gets the feeling they’re clawing at air in search for a handle on reality as they fall…along with Bossley – also the film’s protagoni...

Read full article »

Interview with Samuel Lewis - Animator, Character Designer, and Sculptor on Stop Motion Short Film, "Lost & Found"

Knotjira, a clumsy dinosaur made of wool, as seen in Lost & Found . Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith. “If I had to pick a starting point for my career as a stop motion animator I would have to say it was my obsession as a six year old with a book called ‘Playing with Plasticine’ by Barbara Reid,” Samuel Lewis – a London-based stop motion and 2D animator and director, whose most recent labor of love can be seen in his contribution to the Australian stop motion short film, Lost & Found – tells Stop Motion Geek. Upon reflection, Lewis explains that his love for the medium of stop motion began very early in life, and has merely managed to burn ever brighter in his fervor to master the craft. “I would spend countless hours fixated on sculpting tiny snails, fruit bowls and dinosaurs to the point where I would stay inside on family holidays sculpting a surfer in a beach scene rather than going to the actual beach that was only a short walk away,” Lewis recalls wistfully. “...

Read full article »

Interview with Marie Lechevallier, Animator and Collage Artist on Psychedelic, Cut-out Stop Motion Music Video for Parker Bossley’s "Chemicals"

Cut-out Parker Bossley character standing atop a mountain in Chemicals . Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace. “With Chemicals being a fast-paced and spontaneous project I had to keep the creativity flowing and to be constantly open to new ideas,” Bristol-based stop motion animator Marie Lechevallier tells Stop Motion Geek about her latest contribution to the medium – the psychedelic music video for Canadian artist Parker Bossley’s debut single “Chemicals” made in the cut-out style of stop motion, on which she was the sole contributor next to animation director Joseph Wallace. “That’s also an advantage of cut-out animation and the use of magazines – you have to be inventive with what is in front of you,” Lechevallier proceeds. “I like that kind of project – it’s really fun.” Cut-out character of Bossley flying with wings in Chemicals . Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace. The character of Bossley metamorphosing into a fish in Chemicals . Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace. ...

Read full article »

Interview with Victor Haegelin, Director and Animator of Stop Motion Action Mini-Movie, "Captain 3D"

Captain 3D in Haegelin's Captain 3D . Source: Vimeo. Snatching a moment’s respite, a moment now drawing to a close, animation director Victor Haegelin—sporting wide-rimmed 3D glasses with big, red and blue lens—flips through the last few pages of a comic book boasting in big, red letters, “Captain 3D.” He reclines in a leather-backed computer chair, sitting at his desk, every inch of it crammed with something , though what exactly is anyone’s guess, stocked as it is with an animator’s lightbox, a glass jar filled to overflowing with colored pencils that lies an arm’s distance from of a litany of neatly stacked books and magazines—complete with a smattering with glossy comics coated in celluloid—the array finished off with every creator’s most essential companion: a sketch-pad and pen, the items lying closest at hand. Victor Haegelin in Captain 3D . Source: Vimeo. Victor Haegelin closing the cover on the "Captain 3D" comic in Captain 3D . Source: Vi...

Read full article »

Interview with Robert Shaw, Director, Writer, and Co-Animator of Stop Motion Short Film "The Machine"

Parables and allegories, amidst every other kind of story that can be told, have a unique and extraordinarily powerful quality that is all their own: They allow us – the audience – to learn lessons about and to see ourselves, others, and the world in which we live through a completely different lens – that of narrative. The best allegories and parables, in fact, have the unique ability to simultaneously act as conduits for important lessons and to also exist as literal stories, which gives them the unique ability to challenge beliefs and ideas held by the audience in a way that only art can do. Some of the most cherished stories ever composed, illustrated, and put on film are parables and allegories, and what makes them so exceptional are how powerful the lessons are that they teach. The Machine meets The Farmer in The Machine . Photo courtesy of Robert Shaw. Robert Shaw, in his haunting and beautiful stop motion short film The Machine – which he wrote, directed, and co-anim...

Read full article »

Interview with Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter, Directors of Oscar® Nominated Stop Motion Short Film, "Negative Space"

Sam walks to his car in Negative Space . Source: Vimeo. Across the Baltimore-based director-duo Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter’s Oscar® nominated short film Negative Space ’s 5 minute runtime, rooted in the profoundly emotional soil of the film’s essence , an extraordinary spectrum of deep themes are explored – death, grief, what one’s childhood means once one has “grown up” – yet perhaps none are as front-and-center than that which binds all of the film’s themes together: that of the relationship between father and son. Negative Space , a film inspired by a 150-word poem of the same by Ron Koertge , is, at its heart, the story of Sam, a young man, as he internally processes his relationship with his father throughout his life as well as the grief and emotion that come with the loss of his father as he travels to his recently-passed father’s funeral. Sam looks upon a toy taxicab in Negative Space . Source: Vimeo. Undoubtedly the primary visual motif as well as the crux of t...

Read full article »

Out of a Forest, The Maker & Fred!

The first wonderful film we have today is, Out of a Forest . Out of a Forest caught my eye because of were they shot the film, it appears and is evident that it was shot a night in an actual forest! - The video is about five

Read full article »

Aardman Senior Model-Maker Jay Smart Reveals Aardman's Puppet Materials and Plasticine Techniques for "Early Man" to Adam Savage of Tested

Adam Savage (right) holding "The Farmer" puppet from Shaun the Sheep and Jay Smart (right). Copyright Tested. Along with the usual humdrum of press ranging from critic reviews and interviews with voice actors regarding British animation powerhouse Aardman Animation’s latest feature film – Early Man , a “prehistoric underdog sports story,” in the words of the film’s director Nick Park – has come by the way of the YouTube channel Tested something really exceptional and especially meant for stop motion enthusiasts – a deep-dive into the materials and plasticine techniques Aardman uses for their puppets presented by television personality and special effects aficionado Adam Savage and Jay Smart, a senior modeler at Aardman. During Savage’s tour of the plasticine department, Smart gives Savage a demonstration of a system Aardman began developing for Chicken Run , their first plasticine-driven feature film, to methodize a system for mixing large batches of plasticine to p...

Read full article »

Interview with Lucy J. Hayes, Producer of Stop Motion Love Story, "Lost & Found"

Knitsune in Lost & Found . Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith. Ever since her childhood, Lucy J. Hayes – the producer of Lost & Found , an extraordinarily beautiful short film that make for a profound mediation on the impermanence and imperfection of life and beauty – she’s wanted to play some part in the creative industry, in some way, shape, or form. For Hayes, that dream went unquestioned. However, the challenge turned out to be figuring out quite where she belonged in the creative industry. “I dabbled in acting and directing, however, I was terrible!” Hayes tells Stop Motion Geek. It wasn’t until she began to put on plays with her friends in her adolescence and early adulthood that the answer to her search dawned upon her: All that Hayes found came innately to her – everything from her ardor for creative work to her love for working with creatives to bring an idea, the kernel of a story, to fruition – she found in the title of “producer.” Knotjira (left) and...

Read full article »

Interview with Norman Yeend – Director, Animator, and Co-Producer of Ident for "Aquaman" Director James Wan’s Production Company, Atomic Monster

Atomic Monster logo. Photo courtesy of Norman Yeend. “At the time he made contact, he was working as an assistant to James Wan on the film Aquaman ,” Norman Yeend—a thirty-year veteran in the stop motion industry as a director, animator, and model maker—tells Stop Motion Geek, describing a moment towards the end of 2017 when he got the call from his friend, coworker, and fellow Australian, Craig Sinclair, a producer, who pitched to Yeend what became his next labor of love—one which checked all the right boxes for him to stoke his passion for classic, practical-effects movie monsters and their delightfully fun flavor of mayhem. “James had mentioned to him that he was keen to re-create his company logo using primarily stop-motion and miniatures, and Craig figured he knew just the guy for the job.” For Yeend there isn’t a pivotal moment he can pinpoint when his passion for stop motion was first ignited, his love for the medium instead one which slowly grew from his youth, the ea...

Read full article »

Stop Motion Geek

Search This Blog