Fred Seibert's Blog

Marv Newland really gets around! Postalolio, the short that Marv produced with Frederator will be screening all over the world over the coming months. If you’re in any of these countries or states, make sure you come out to support this great film.

04 - 08 November 2009
Holland Animated Film Festival
Utrecht

11 - 15 November 2009
15th Cucalorus Film Festival
Wilmington, North Carolina

03 - 06 November 2009
Les Sommets Du Cinéma D’Animation
Montreal, Canada

25 - 29 November 2009
I Castelli Animati
Italy

01 - 04 April 2010
11th Dawson City International Short Film Festival
at the Klondike Institute of Art
Dawson City, Yukon, Canada

21 - 27 June 2010
Melbourne International Animation Festival
Australia

Congratulations to Marv on gaining entry to these prestigious festivals and best of luck!

Sing Beast Sing (excerpt) Directed by Marv Newland from fredseibert on Vimeo.

Regular readers aren’t at all surprised by the affection director Marv Newland inspires in animation fans. Like me. What most people don’t know is how much Marv loves blues and jazz. An affliction we share.It shouldn’t be surprise to close Marv watchers though. In addition to his award winning short Sing Beast Sing (excerpted above) featuring Willie Mabon (it’s actually where I first heard of Mabon), his film Tales from the Far Side (Gary Larson’s another huge jazz fan) is scored by guitarist Bill Frisell.And anyone who’s caught Marv’s Anijam (an early cartoon jam featuring 22 world famous animators) should know that he’s incorporated the lessons of improvisation are woven deeply into the core of his filmmaking ethos.

So, when I started thinking about producing a jazz documentary entirely in animation I immediately thought of Marv. He been incorporating the lessons of improvisation deeply into his filmmaking ethos from the very beginning (front and center in his film Anijam), and his generosity to other animators reminds deeply of the best jazz band leaders I’ve witnessed.

Here’s hoping I can figure out how to get this thing made.

McAllister Tug Film - Now In HD! from Jon Kane on Vimeo.

I’m always inspired by the work that artists do for themselves, especially when they’re filmmakers (as many of you have grown tired of my exhortations to please make your own films). And, then when it’s a friend of mine doing to work, I’m doubly moved.

Like Jon Kane. Jon’s done a bunch of work with us over the years, but his own films just keep getting better and better. His latest was just staff picked by the eagle eyes at Vimeo, which caused the New York Times to put in on their Videos Worth Watching column.

There’s a ton of Marv Newland news in the hopper.

Tomorrow night, Marv’s got a gallery opening of postcards in Serignan, France. If you can’t make it, you can check out some of the cards at his Marvcards site (and those who know Marv best can marvel at the fact that there’s a website!).

We’ve mentioned before that Frederator was producing a short film of Marv’s over the last couple of years, and, lo and behold, the subject matter is… postcards! Well, Postalolio is finished (complete credits are below the fold) and started it’s festival run. It started at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this past Saturday, and continues on to Brazil’s Anima Mundi Festival throughout July.

Postalolio (sample #1), by Marv Newland from fredseibert on Vimeo.

I wanted to give a taste of what you’re missing, and assure you I’ll let you know the rest of the worldwide screening schedules where you might see the film yourself in person.

Go Marv!

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We all fell in love with Kirsten Lepore’s work when she was the first “featured filmmaker” on Channel Frederator a few weeks ago.

It came at a great time; we need a new HD production tag for the posting of the first episodes of Fanboy & Chum Chum. I thought it would be fun to have Kirsten make us a claymation tag (don’t want to be biased toward 2D, flash, or CG, do we?). Here’s a few of the Fredbot sample stills she sent over.

The other day I was enjoying some of the interviews Eric and Bailee have been posting, which kicked me to reading some of Jeaux’s and Mike Milo’s and Floyd’s, and it got me wondering. I know we’ve run almost 400 films on Channel Frederator and that we’d interviewed a lot of under exposed filmmakers and artists… But, how many exactly?

One hundred and forty five. Right, 145. And they keep on coming.

There aren’t too many places that play such close attention to the people making animated films, unless they’re Walt Disney or John Lasseter (not that there’s anything wrong with that). And while we can’t begin ton compare our archive to some of the in depth work done by folks like Michael Barrier, Amid Amidi, Jerry Beck, and others, it’s a darn good start I think.

We’re going to keep it up. In addition to the weekly Channel Frederator animated filmmakers, I’ve always thought the dedicated folks who work day to day in our crews deserve a spotlight, and we’ve started that up with the Fanboy & Chum Chum crew. Adventure Time’s crew will be coming up, and we’re going to try and backtrack into our shows like The Fairly Oddparents and Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

And don’t be surprised when you start reading interviews with some of the (truly) misunderstood production crew and network executives that work on our shows. It takes a lot of people to make even one film, and I think we should try and get to know a little more about them all.

If you’re interested in getting in on the action, we’re always looking for new interviewers too, it’s a lot of work to keep this effort going. If you’re interested, just drop a note to our New York producer Carrie Miller, and she’ll try and get you going.