Monday, February 16, 2009

I'M SPEAKING AT WOODBURY!


Here's a few of the live action characters I've played on this site in the past year or so, starting with "The Smoker" (above).  Acting is fun, especially on the internet where you're your own boss and can do pretty much anything you want to do.
 


I'm on the subject of acting because I've been invited by the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive to talk about acting at Woodbury University this weekend. I won't be the only person on the bill, so you won't have to stare at my ugly face for the whole night. If you're in the Burbank area this Saturday Night, why not drop in?

BTW, that's "The Upstanding Swiss Mountain Boy" above.



Maybe the whole thing will be a disaster! I don't have time to prepare, so I'll have to speak off the cuff. I've delivered both my best and worst talks using that method, so whether I'll get lucky this time is anybody's guess. I'll just try to have fun doing it, so at least one person present will get something out of it.  



That's Captain Hook in the two pictures above. I did two photo stories about him, and I could easily have done four or five more.  I love that character! 



I stopped doing photo stories and movies for this site after I had an operation last September. Somehow people tinkering around in my innards had the effect of inhibiting my graphic sense. It even attacked my ability to draw for a while, but that's all over now. I'm working on all cylinders again, as if nothing ever happened.



But my photo sense...recovering that has taken months. I think I'm almost back to normal in that regard, and I'm nearly to try some more photo shoots. I'll give it just a few more weeks. 



Just to identify the pictures: The three above are The Card Sharp, The Old Lady and The Nerd.
 


At Woodbury I'll illustrate everything with pictures. 



I got these poses off the DVD that came with Ed Hooks' book on animation acting. I won't be talking about Ed's theories at Woodbury...like every egoist, I naturally prefer my own theories. 


I hope somebody puts excerpts of some of Hooks' video on YouTube. I no longer have access to the book and I'm dying to be reminded of what the other gestures were.
  


Here's the address and the time (below).  I've never been to Woodbury before, so I'll probably get lost, just like you will.  Maybe we'll meet each other wandering around in the dark. I met the Iranian filmmaker Marjane Satrapi that way after another ASIFA event. 


ANIMATION SALON: ACTING FOR ANIMATION
Saturday, Feb. 21st 8pm
Admission FREE to the animation community
Woodbury University
School of Business / Fletcher Jones Foundation Theater
7500 Glenoaks Blvd.
Burbank, CA  91510


For the campus map:

http://www.woodbury.edu/s/131/images/editor_documents/8.5.08CampusMap&Directions7.08.pdf



For the location of Woodbury University:

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ive been working on John K's lessons 5 hours a day and got a job doing promotion art for Lucasarts!

http://i44.tinypic.com/24c5tg9.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/oj35he.jpg

Mr. Trombley said...

Dear Sir,

I hate to concentrate on the least important part of your post, but I find the whole idea of there being 8 essential gestures. Even if we reduce these to merely being categories, this comes dangerously close to being a knobbed machine.

Have you ever read Hofstader's critique of Knuth's MetaFont? If not it will be a couple days before I can write you a summary.

Jennifer said...

Uncle Eddie,

BIG FAVOR TO ASK - Is it possible to get someone to video your presentation and publish it on YouTube for the readers who won't be able to make it due to geography issues? Please please please please please?

Congratulations to Anonymous for getting a job at Lucasarts!

For the theory corner readers who submitted work samples for my logo redesign job: I'm still reviewing the samples, and I should be making my decision by the end of the week. Stay tuned!

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Anon: Amazing! You used all of John's theories to make perfectly volumetric characters!

Jennifer: Thanks, but if I was recorded I'd be tongue-tied, playing to the video instead of to the audience.

Hans Flagon said...

Eddie, Your Ed Hook essay reminds me of Jules Feiffer. I have never noticed that in your storyboard work before.

Break a leg, Master Thespian.

William said...

Dear anyone attending:
Please secretly record it and post it on YouTube so that the world may intellectually profit.

Please.

Mike Smith said...

Tongue-tying aside, would you mind posting your notes/illustrations afterwards? The Laban drawings are gold.

Kali Fontecchio said...

Are you coming in disguise?

Anonymous said...

Hey, Eddie, weren't you a professor at Cal Arts a few years ago? This will be like a return to teaching college students, won't it?

By the way, I think some of the best stuff you've ever done was the off the cuff theories on that Ren & Stimpy Lost Episodes dvd. I've just recently begun slowing down on this Norm MacDonald binge/high I've been on for the past few months (I even made a love nerds video about Norm MacDonald and how he reminds me of John K) but in the process, I've rediscovered Clampett and John K and have been rewatching all my DVD's of them, and I'm struck by how good of a commentator you are on those DVD's.

Man, I'm gonna go listen to my Reg Hartt Clampett cds.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

William: For Pete's Sake, don't encourage people to do that! There's half a chance that I might bomb, and I don't want YouTubers to see how fat I've gotten in the last two months!

Kali: Disguised? Yes, I'm coming disguised as a thick, fat person.

Jorge: Thanks for the compliment! My latest two commentaries have been appalling, so its comforting to know that I did it right some other time.

Kali Fontecchio said...

Make sure to wear the pants with the hole in it!

Anonymous said...

Well said William and Jennifer!!!.Don't worry, Don't matter if you are fat Eddie,you are so interesting,brilliant as a person that solely this,overcome what you call fatness!!!

Vincent Waller said...

I am going to try very hard to be there.
Of course I will be in disguise as well.

Trevor Thompson said...

I'd go and I'd film it, but like Jennifer, I'm on the east coast and won't be in LA as a resident until April.

Poo.

- trevor.

Shawn Dickinson said...

I'd love to see that! I'll try to make it!

Hans Flagon said...

Uncle Eddie!

Playboy magazine is up for sale.

You know, in case you want to run a men's magazine.

You have 53 million in your couch cushions don't you?

Taber said...

CRUEL FATE! I have an animation class on Saturday night! I almost had the chance to see THE Uncle Eddie! Live and in person!

At least it's an animation class though.

Hans Flagon said...

I still love that shot of you as Chuck Jones Mama Bear.