Animation Un-LOC`d

A personal Blog for Larry Loc to rant and rave about all things animaiton.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

A Book Report on Peter Rabbit

Traditional board animation is very much alive. I am not a big Renee Zellweger fan. She may be a fine actor but her squinty eyes always gives me the creeps. That being said I am a giant Beatrix Potter fan so I had to finally break down and see the movie. And I am glad I did.






The in picture animations of Miss Potter interacting with her drawings on the page were masterful, beautiful and charming.

London based Passion Pictures http://www.passion-pictures.com did a magnificent job. Here is the listing of the animators that worked on the project. Good job, good job all.

Animation Department
Monica Brufton . . . lead animation assistant
Nelson Yokota de Paula Lima . . . lead animator
Megs White Dore . . . digital ink and paint artist
Jerry Forder . . . animator
Alyson Hamilton . . . animation director
Alan Henry . . . animation assistant
Phil Holder . . . digital ink and paint artist
Tim King . . . digital ink and paint artist
Brent Odell . . . animation assistant
Holly Stone . . . animation producer
Simon Swayles . . . spfx animator
Matt Westrup . . . digital artist

Friday, September 28, 2007

Shorts Update

My friend and sometimes editor, Eric Graf, sent this along about yesterday`s post. It is about what I thought. Good ideas without a track record. That would mean that you might have as much change on your own as going in with this group. Since it is pay for play you would not see anything unless they somehow got a deal. And since they don`t have a track record. Well, you get the idea.


Hey, Larry.

Just thought you should know, in regards to your blog post today, that there is no such thing as a broadcast quality DVD.

That does not *necessarily* mean that it`s a scam, but at the very least it indicates that they don`t exactly know what they`re doing.

At this point in time, DV would be considered the minimum standard for a broadcast program, as well as being much less of a PITA to edit. It seems like they would have requested that as their first choice.

Eric

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Shorts Wanted

Not sure about this one. At least they are not asking for all the copyright like a lot of people do when they are putting together something like this. Therefore I place it before my readers. Grain of salt.

Hi,

ATTN: Head of Animation Department

We produce live action and animation. Some of our clients include HBO, MTV, and A&E.

We are producing a show called World of Animated Shorts which we hope to sell to television. Do you have any shorts that you would like to submit: Any type of story, style or media (non erotic). The length can be 10 seconds to about 10 minutes. Email us a link to a specific short or shorts on line and if we like it we will ask for a broadcast quality DVD. If you don't have shorts on
line send us a DVD. Must be broadcast quality 640 x 480 or larger. We can also give you ftp information so you can upload it.

The show will be distributed worldwide. Payment for the clips will be based on revenue sharing for each sale the distributor makes. He gets 25%. off of the top which is standard and then the rest will be split 50/50. The producers (us) get 50% of the remainder and the other 50% is split up amongst the animators based on the length of the show and the length of the animators short. Each time a show is sold the revenue is split up based on the above formula.

If you are agreeable to this and we decide to use one of your shorts we will send you an agreement to sign.

If you want to discuss it further over the phone I can be reached at 203-544-8708 in Connecticut in the USA.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Trace Burroughs
Executive Producer
Little Men Entertainment
www.little-men.com
TEL: 203-544-8708
TEL: 212-479-8592

ADDRESS:
17 Highland Avenue
Reddin, CT 06896

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Report on Educators` 1st Meeting -updated



Monday night, the Pig N Whistle, 8 people from a number of different animation programs. A humble beginning but a beginning none the less, the first meeting of the Animation Educators` Forum.

We talked about a number of things of potential use to those of us who teach animation. I will do a quick run down from memory.

Core Skill Set:
Even the accreditation bodies that are judging animation programs do not have a list of skills that should be taught to animation students. Programs going through accreditation have to prove their case by matching skill sets from a mixture of other semi-related programs. It would be of great service to compile a list of what is being taught at all of the animation programs in the area and have that available to all.

Syllabus and Teaching Outcomes:
A data base with lists of student teaching outcome statements could serve as building blocks for writing syllabi.

Teacher Data Base:
It would be a great service to animation teachers and animation programs alike to have an online listing of animation teachers profiles.

Student Animation Film Festival:
Almost all programs demand that students create a short animation as a requirement for graduation. The timing is such that very few of the deadlines for established animation festivals match up. ASIFA has long talked about recognizing student films but have always been stopped by the cost of putting on such a festival. A student animation festival under the umbrella of ASIFA-Hollywood taking place on college campuses would give an affordable venue and could be the precursor to a possible Student Annie Award.

Rotating Training Seminar Program:
Set up a lecture series by the teachers for the teachers that would be held on different campuses throughout the year.

Rotating Lecture Series:
Every school already tries to get industry professionals to come to campus and speak about their career and show their work. If we could open up attendance between the programs we could increase the industry exposure for the students in all the different programs. At the same time we would be increasing the networking between students from the different programs. Since most jobs in animation are word of mouth we would be doing a service to all of the students in all of the participating programs.

Acting for Animators:
Lists of improv games and ways to apply them to creation animation performance. Lists of resources and contacts in the acting community to help with the development of this important animation program element.

Copyright and Trademark:
Resources for the training of this most important business knowledge base which is often overlooked in art programs.

Production:
The actuarial process of creating animation needs to be taught. Students are coming out of school without a clue as to how to create an animation. They need to be taught the nuts and bolts of the production process. Students need to know how to prepare a production schedule and a budget.

I think I have covered most of what was discussed at this first meeting of the Animation Educators` Forum. We are talking about having our next meeting at the beginning of November in a different part of town and on a Tuesday this time. We foresee six meeting a year (every other month) on rotating nights of the week. If you are teaching animation, or interested in teaching in this field, send me an email and I will add you to our email list.

larry@agni-animation.com SUBJECT LINE: Animation Teachers` Forum

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Blogger Blogged Down

I have been unable to post for the last 2 days. I am currently at the library on wireless and have finally managed to it 1 post up. I hope to get this one up and later talk about the Educators` Forum last night.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam . . .

CAN I TRUST YOU FOR THIS TRANSACTIO...; We cure any desease!; Aussie Lottery Rewads You!!!; Citizens Bank department MONEY MANAGER GPS ONLINE customers . . .

I have one email address that is 12 years old. I get up to 200 spams a day. Which is why I am always stressing SUBJECT LINE when I ask people to email me at that address. I pick out the stuff from real people and delete all the rest. Common wisdom would be to retire this account but it is the only line of communication many of my older students have to me.

Anyway, once in a while I find humor in my daily spam. Or even a little truth. The following is a real spam, straight form ye old email bag, without editing.


FROM: "Keith D."

Not for oversmart people

==This is MEDFEST==

All your favourite stuff Cures are finally on zale

BuyRightNow

From
Cures for Sure com

Friday, September 21, 2007

Timing Flys

I have spent the last couple of days track reading in reverse. Timing out the animation that is already finished from the animation jams as a guide for the post syncing session that we have going tomorrow at Woodbury.



I have also been going through the junk drawer with a script in one hand looking for the Foley tools to create the sounds needed.

Aki will be running the booth and auditioning people. The rest of us will be working on the scripts for the next 2 animation jams. Join us, it should be a good time.

10 AM to 5 PM
Saturday September 22nd
Design Center - Room D-2
Woodbury University
7500 Glenoaks Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91510

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

REMINDER



Animation Jam Recording Session

10 AM to 5 PM
Saturday September 22nd
Design Center - Room D-2

Woodbury University
7500 Glenoaks Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91510

Voice Actors, Sound Techs, Foley Artists and Script writers.

QUESTIONS: larry@agni-animation.com SUBJECT LINE: ANI JAM SOUND




ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Educators’ Forum

24th of September
6 PM to 9 PM

Pig N Whistle Restaurant
6714 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA.

Informal no host meeting of those who teach animation. Meet your peers. Share resources. Network. Have a good time.

Parking on the street or in a pay lot.

QUESTIONS: larry@agni-animation.com SUBJECT LINE: EDUCATORS FORUM


Sunday, September 16, 2007

Some Where Overlooked Rainbow

Voice talents of Liza Minnelli; Milton Berle; Mickey Rooney; Ethel Merman; Paul Lynde; Mel Blanc: Herschel Bernardi; Paul Ford; Danny Thomas; Margaret Hamilton; (opera star) Rise Stevens; Jack E. Leonard with songs by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen; Preston Blair designs, layouts and in some cases animation and directed by Hal Sutherland, Produced by Norm Prescott and Lou Scheimer, Written by Norm Prescott and Fred Ladd, how come I have never seen this fully animated feature before?



Yesterday I was in North Hollywood for a CFO screening of 2 Oz animations by invite of my friend Fred Ladd who worked on both features. The very rare Toho 1982 Wizard of Oz was okay but the 1972 Filmation Journey back to Oz was the film of the day.

You don`t often think of Disney style full animation and Filmation in the say breath. (Okay there are some in camera in cycle dissolves and other experimental optical tricks in the green elephant attacks that were a little hard on the eyes but mostly is was just a good solid fully animated feature)

The elephant designs were a cross between the pink elephants on parade of Dimbo and the Jungle Book elephant march. Also in the fun character design department was the Ethel Merman character of Mombi, The design was a dead ringer for the Evil Witch Democracy in the German school lesson in Disney`s Education For Death.

The 15-year-old Liza Minnelli sounds so much like her mother in the 1939 MGM film that it is eerie. There isn`t a standout hit song like Somewhere Over the Rainbow but then how could there be when the film is so unknown. Politics of the studio kind deprived it of a premiere and proper release. Sad.

A special edition DVD was released on October 24, 2006. This DVD features a feature-length audio commentary, interviews with creators Lou Scheimer, Hal Sutherland, and Fred Ladd, behind the scenes photo gallery, image galleries featuring poster art and animation cels, a sing-a-long feature, the Bill Cosby interstitials used in the TV version (presented separately from the original theatrical version contained on the disc), and the first draft script and storyboards.

Sadly missing is Norm Prescott who died in 2005 before the project. As Fred will tell you it was Norm`s project from the beginning. Available at Amazon

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Luck To Heaven

I have been revisiting my son`s childhood. Making the poor blighter pull out all of this old videogames and play them for me. Then I record the game play for my class. I don`t know what he is going to tell his analyst.



Fusajiyo Yamauchi establishes the Marufuku Company in 1889 to manufacture and distribute Hanafucla, Japanese playing cards. He made a fortune out of selling cards to Yakuza gambling houses. This was the beginning of Nintendo.

Most artists get screwed over, Yanauchi-san bought the Emperor`s summer palace and made it his family seat. The NES games are still fun all these years later.

In animation if you have a good story people will watch again and agian. In games it is gameplay. It is not really story so much as interactive role playing, becoming part of the story. Being given the chance to create the story through your own actions.

That is why I still pay the NES games. That is why my son still plays them even without me forcing him to for my class project. Leave luck to heaven.

BattleToads 1991



Friday, September 14, 2007

The History of Game the Game of History


LaGuardia Smashing Pinball Machines

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, the mid-wife to the infant computer industry.

Prepping my upcoming History of Videogames class is different than all my researches into the History of Animation because this has all happened within my lifetime. I was in the arcades playing the games.

Yesterday I saw my friend, Aki Umemoto, at the semester end judging at an animation school. It occurred to me that Aki was at Mattel through out the whole Intellivison debacle. A financial disaster that is still rippling through the company today. There is nothing like first hand information when it comes to history.




The strange thing is that most of the people making games in the 70s and 80s were not trained in animation. But then what you need is a programmer, right. What does animation have to do with videogames anyway?

Which reminds me, In 1950 Mauchly & Eckert, makers of UNIVAX and other early computers run out of money so they go to IBM for backing which they do not get. IBM sees no money in computers.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Era Ends



It saddens me to report that an era has ended. I was at the 99 cent Only store yesterday and they are no longer carrying the 99 cent public domain DVDs. The cartoon disks I have bought and reported on for years are gone. The only place to find them now is at the thrift stores where they are sold for $2.50 like all the other DVDs. The cycle is ended, the golden bowl is broken the silver cord is severed. A drudge for them the doubly dead in that they died so young.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Creativity To Blame



I have been working on my timeline for my new History of Videogames class. I am currently working on censorship. We that work in entertainment have to watch out because creativity is always attacked as the reason for teenage actions. Here is a very, very small list that does not even include the 1930s attacks on Betty Boop and other evil animation.

1933
German Student Association`s Main Office for Press and Propaganda proclaimed a nationwide Action against the Un-German Spirit, and burn un-German books

1934
New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia outlaws Pulp Magazines because they are violent and sexy and corrupters of youth.

1935
August 30th New York Times attacks Pulp Magazines and Pulp Magazine Cover Art.

President Herbert Hoover forms Committee on Resent Social Trends to study the affects of Pulp Magazines on Teen violence.

1941
NYC mayor Fiorello LaGuardia outlaws all pinball machines in NYC as part of his war on crime. He destroys pinball machines for press conference and new reels. 3,000 pin games destroyed in 3 weeks. 7,000 pound of scrap and 3,000 pounds of balls given to World War II scrap drive.

1954
Dr. Fredric Wertham, publishes Seduction of the Innocent blaming Comic Books for all teen violence. He sees Batman and Robin as homosexual lovers, Wonder Woman has a bondage subtext to him and because she is strong she is a lesbian, EC Comics were just plain evil with their ghosts and zombies and news vendors are forced to sell objectionable comic books by distributors.

Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency led by Estes Kefauver destroys Comic Book industry. Of the 125 Comic Book companies before the hearings only 6 remain in business. (my friends and teachers were hurt by this)

Comics Code Authority was voluntarily established by publishers to self-censor their Comic Book titles.

EC publisher William Gaines moves to a larger format that is not subject to the Comic Code and starts Mad Magazine.

1962
New York Bishop Burke forbids Catholic school students from dancing to The Twist. Burke considers R&B music, and its associated dances, to be lewd and un-Christian.

1967
Against his wishes, Frank Zappa`s record company removes eight bars of his song Let`s Make the Water Turn Black. This occurs when a well-intentioned executive from Verve Records hears the lyric, And I still remember mama with her apron and her pad, feeding all the boys at Ed`s cafe. The executive thinks the referred-to pad is a sanitary napkin.

1969
In January, New York police seize 30,000 copies of John Lennon and Yoko Ono`s Two Virgins album

1980
In October, Youth Minister Art Diaz organizes a group of local teenagers who conduct a record burning at the First Assembly Church of God in Des Moines, Iowa, including albums by the Beatles, Ravi Shankar, Peter Frampton, and the soundtrack to the movie Grease. A similar burning takes place a few months later in Keoku, Iowa, where a church group burns the work of The Carpenters, John Denver, and Perry Como.

1985
Frank Zappa VS the Mother of Prevention
Congressional Wives lead by Tipper Gore form Parents` Music Resource Center to censor the music industry that is corrupting the youth of American.

Frank Zappa makes a Statement To Congress on September 19, 1985 defending Freedom of Speach. He later releases an album making fun of Tipper Gore and PMRC.

1990
Missouri legislators introduce a bill in January that forbids the sale of records containing lyrics that are violent, sexually explicit or perverse. Similar measures are introduced in 20 other states

1993
Senators Joseph Lieberman (D. of Connecticut) and Herbert Kohl (D. of Wisconsin) launch a Senate hearings on video game violence.

1997
In June, Texas Governor George W. Bush signs into law a rider to a state appropriations bill. The rider requires state pension funds to divest any assets that are invested in record companies that produce obscene albums.

1999
After the Columbine High School Massacre Tuesday, April 20 violent movies and video games blamed by lawmakers for the attack on the high school.

2001
Harry Potter books burned around the country and world.

Some people always have to have an outside reason for why their teens act the way they do. It could never have anything to do with the way they raise their children. Never! It is your fault Mr. Entertainment Creator, you are evil!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

ASIFA-Hollywood Educators` Forum Questions

As we get closer to the first meeting of the Animation Educators` Forum I have been getting a few questions.

This get together is:
Monday September 24th
6 PM to 9 PM
Pig N Whistle Restaurant

6714 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA.

The 3 major questions I have gotten are:

I thought the Pig N Whistle was on Sunset Blvd? I had two people ask me this, which made me wonder. According to their website: http://www.pignwhistle.com/ the Pig N Whistle has been in the same spot since 1927.

The next question is:

What about parking? There is parking on the street or in a pay lot. It is at your own expense. Sorry, there is no validation.

The last question I have been getting is:

Is ASIFA picking up the tab? No we are not. This is a no host event. We are giving animation educators a chance to meet under the ASIFA umbrella in a social setting for networking and exchange of ideas. It is the educators that stand to gain from this. I, for one, think that should be enough.


PLEASE:
RSVP: larry@agni-animation.com
SUBJECT LINE: EDUCATORS FORUM


Monday, September 10, 2007

Change of plans



Change of plans. It seems that both Fred Ladd and I missed the fact that September 22nd is Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism. I should have know better. Sure I`m a Goyum but I did study Hebrew and live on a Kibbutz in the early 70s.

Aki Umemoto to the rescue, I just talked the 25 year veteran Mattel Creative Director, current Creative Director of Base Station Production House and up and coming actor into taking over the sound booth direction spot for the first Ani Jam recording session.

I know that we are going to run into another recording session and will be lucky to finish voicing the first of the 3 animation jams on the 22nd. So there should be two more or maybe three more recording session at least. Fred Ladd has promised, as a mitzvah, to return for a latter recording session and take over the booth.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Irony in 1s & 0s



Yesterday I spent my first tax deductible dollar on a video game. I found a copy of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, complete with instruction booklet, at a thrift store and bought it for one dollar. The original Wolfenstein was one of the first 1st person shooters if not the first (still researching).

The irony here is that my son was always wanting to install computer games on my PC and I was always trying to keep them off my system because I need the space for rendering Computer Animation files. Looks like he wins as I ask him to lend me some of his games to install on my computer.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Questions From the MailBag

I`ve had a few questions on the upcoming Ani Jam Recording session at Woodbury on the 22nd. I am going to answer Jim`s question and hopefully everybody else. Aslo Jim is looking for some people to work on a project. I will pass on emails with a subject line of: JIM PROJECT if anybody is interested. (larry@agni-animation.com)

>hey larry,
> Ive dabbled in voice work for some years, nothing too serious, but
>i`ve got a pretty good variety i can play with, lots of fun cartoon
>stuff, at least i keep the kids entertained.
>
>is there casting? is it random? will we have a visual sample of
>what they are looking for? scripts? is a demo needed?
>
>lots of questions i know but it sounds like fun and if im in town Id
>like to give it a go.
>
>Im also looking for someone to help out with an animated feature idea
>I have, a production designer and an animator that might be
>interested in making a short pitch.
>
>any thoughts?
>
>Jim
>
>Jim Matlosz
>Director of Photography


Jim, (and everybody else)

Here is what is happening or what I hope happens. Ww will pick voices and effects people to work from a visual script for the Comic Con 2006 Jam (the one Eric Goldberg worked on). http://www.asifa-hollywood.org/blog/anijam/soundjam.html

Then Fred Ladd will run the booth and I will run scripting sessions for the Stop Mo and Comic Con 2007 Jams.

Fred will grab the people he needs as he needs them and we will have a very good time even if it is a very basic school recording studio and only Fred knows what we are doing.

When Fred gets tired we will quit for the day or I will take over the booth and someone else will take over the writing session.

Larry

Friday, September 7, 2007

Ani Jam Recording Session Sept 22nd

Call for Voice Actors, Sound Techs, and Foley Artists. We will be holding a recording session at Woodbury University on Sept. 22nd from 10 AM to 5 PM to post sync voice, voice effects and Foley effects to the 3 ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Jams.

This first session will be run by legendary Post Sync Pioneer, Producer
and Director Fred Ladd.



RSVP: larry@agni-animation.com
SUBJECT LINE: ANI JAM SOUND

Saturday September 22nd
Design Center
Woodbury University
7500 Glenoaks Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91510

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Animation Educators Meeting:

The first meeting of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Educators` Forum will take place on Monday the 24th of September from 6 PM to 9 PM at the historic Pig N Whistle Restaurant, 6714 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA.



This is an informal meeting and anyone involved with animation training is invited. The goal is to get animation educators together to talk, network, have a good time and discuss the unique needs and challenges of animation education.

RSVP: larry@agni-animation.com SUBJECT LINE: EDUCATORS FORUM

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Tracking Game:



I have just spent the last couple of days creating the midterm project for the History of Videogaming class I will be teaching at Laguna College of Art & Design Fall 2008.

I like to have projects that are of some real world value so I have created a 3 page form for categorizing a videogame, writing as short synopsis of the game story and then graphing Character Strength vs. Game Difficulty across Game Play.

It is my hope that students will gain an understanding of the design of game story and the design of game play through the use of this assignment by the reverse engineering of the original game design process.

I also hope that students will plot Game Difficulty vs. Character Strength throughout their careers in the real world process of Game Development. The idea is to match the Game Difficulty vs. Character Strength curve of the games you love to the games you design.

Or that is what I said in my NOTES ON ASSIGNMENT DESIGN. If for some strange reason you would like to check out this assignment it is posted here:
http://www.agni-animation.com/lcad/gaming/midtermproject.pdf

It is a Acrobat PDF file so is will take a long time to load and you may think that it is not responding.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Re-Re-Clobbled Mark III




Garrett Gilchrist, the Richard Williams fanatic that brought us the Thief and the Cobbler Re-Cobbled is hard at work replacing footage with newly found higher quality 35 mm footage in his ongoing restoration project on the unfinished film. Today he sent me links to comparison frames between the old Re-Cobbled version and what he calls Mark III.

mark3comparison-1.jpg
mark3comparison-2.jpg
mark3comparison-3.jpg
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Monday, September 3, 2007

Labor Day:



I was going to talk about Labor Day today but Tom Sito does it so much better than I could.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Dangerous Trend



Normally I write only about matters animation in these pages. But today there is a subject that needs dealing with that is Internet in nature.

Viruses are a part of the Internet reality. Which means that Anti-Virus software is also a part of the Internet experience. I often wonder if some of the viruses aren`t written by programmers at anti-virus software companies as a form of job security? But that is neither here nor there.

For the last couple of years I have been using an anti-virus product from Micro Trend called PC-cillian. It is okay if used with Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy as a back up, both very good spyware detectors.

I hate paying the yearly subscription to any anti-virus company. It smacks too much of paying protection to the Mafia. So I put it off to the last minute.

Last Thursday I went out to the Micro Trend web site to renew my yearly subscription. So I am on their secure page filling out my credit card information when I come to a part of the form entitled Auto-Renew Policy but it is not an option, it is a requirement. In order to by their product over the Internet using a credit card I must, must, grant Micro Trend on-going open-ended invasive access to my bank account.

The arrogance of their new enforced Auto-Renew policy is staggering. The naked corporate greed behind their policy is transparent and a very dangerous business precedent to go unchallenged. Forcing a customer to re-buy your product year after year, as a condition of buying it once, borders on the legal definition of extortion if not crossing completely over the line.

The only reasons I went ahead with this transaction was that my computer would be venerable without virus protection and they promised an easy opt-out procedure. This opt-out procedure much be stated in the form of a request to their customer service department, a request! That is galling. But if the exact wording is required for their robot to remove my name from their to-be-stolen-from list, so be it.

In the past 4 day I have submitted my Opt-Out from to Micro Trend over 20 times and have never received the promised Opt-Out conformation email from them. That is more than enough time for a robot or even a human operator. I can only conclude that their Opt-Out process has proven anything but easy or is a complete fraud and they have no intention of taking me off their sucker`s list.

I have talked to my credit card company by phone, yesterday, and have been informed that once any merchant has credit card account information they can put charges on that credit card at any time they wish. But to do so without customer permission does constitute fraud.

Therefore I sent Micro Trend a letter yesterday revoking permission to access my credit card account. One of my reasons for posting this to my daily blog is to warn others of a dangerous Internet marketing trend. I am also publishing this to formally state that:


I here by revoke all permission granted to Micro Trend to remove funds from my account in the future. My August 30, 2007 credit card transaction with Micro Trend is the last transaction I will ever enter into with this company.

I will not, under any circumstances, be renewing my virus protect subscription with Micro Trend after my current subscription expires on August 28, 2008. Therefore any further removal of funds from my credit card account by Micro Trend will be considered fraud and treated as such to the full extent of the law.


Whether or not this Micro Trend`s forced Auto-Renew policy constitutes the actual crimes of extortion and fraud, permission was obtained from me under duress and maintained under false pretences.

This is a very dangerous business precedent that needs to be stopped now before every transaction on the Internet becomes an on-going life-long financial commitment!

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Former Student

Hi Larry -

Hope you are doing well.

I took your class at Orange County ROP, and I just wanted to say thank you for teaching me so much. I am still in the process of learning.

I am currently living in Texas, and still doing animation.

Remember that story with the gorilla with wings? I did something with that story. I would be grateful if you would view it and give me your thoughts.

Here are the links to view it. It is in three parts...so it would fit on the YouTube website.