Animation Jam: Music

Animation Jam Update: (see below for project details)
I am deep in music discussions with Fletcher Beasley, the composer for the Comic Con 2006 Animation Jam Project.

I find myself talking about the reference to Beethoven’s 9th at the end of Mahler’s 1st Symphony in one breath and the eerie feeling Bernard Herrmann created in Psycho by following the fractured insane driving beat of the opening title music with a pastoral music of the first scene in the next breath.

I love music and have given a great deal of thought to how sounds enhance visual image. But I am unable to create true music on my own so I am in that place that so many people find themselves with visual artists; knowing what I want but not being able to convey it to the person who can create it.

Film without a score does not work. Have you ever heard a film without the music track? Nothing works. Even silent film needed somebody to create music to go along with it. How do you think Carl Stalling got started? When Walt Disney got the spotlight for early sound cartoons it was Stalling in the background making the sounds, making the skeletons dance.

So many students do their animations without thought to sound. Sure they will lay down a voice track for lip sync and maybe even some mojor Foley but they get the project done and then think of music. Grab something and tack it on. Far too many times without rights to music they are tacking.

But who am I to talk, tacking it on afterwards is what we are doing, out of necessity, with the animation jams. There is no way to create an animation jam to music. Okay, Eric Goldberg could most likely animate to a beat that could then be composed to but the students in the project wouldn`t have a chance. So I am hoping to do a much better job of retro fitting sound by working with a professional composer who can function as a music retrofitter.

Animation Jam Project Details:
On July 21st, 22nd, 23rd 2006 ASIFA-Hollwood held an Animation Jam at our booth at San Diego Comic Con International. 13 Animators took part in the Jam over the 23 hours that the convention doors were open to the public. These animators are:

• David Burgess


• Dan Weeks


• Francine Prestininzi


• Meredith Gran


• Pedro Santana


• Larry Loc


• Eliza Frye


• Alice Lin


• Jenny Bettis


• Eric Goldberg


• Federico Oropeza


• Tobias Loc


• Lou Scarburough Jr.

It is my hope to have at least the first Animation Jam finished by Comic Con 2008. If it is good enough and I can get the board`s approval I would like to submit it to at least the Comic Con Film Festival. We will see.