Animation Show of Shows!

Its December and there are a lot of animated films to see over the holidays that should not be missed.

For 20 years, The ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS has been presenting new and innovative short films to appreciative audiences at animation studios, schools and, since 2015, theaters around the world. Over the years, 38 of the films showcased in The Animation Show of Shows went on to receive Academy Award nominations, with 11 films winning the Oscar. Every year, Ron Diamond visits a lot of film festivals to find the only the most interesting and amazing animated films from around the world.

Take a listen to Ron Diamond on the Ambassador Goodtime Ear Tango Radio Hour, starting Tuesday, Dec 4th @ 10pm and then everyday at 4pm and night at 10pm on WU Radio, Woodbury University. 

This interview can also be heard on the Animateducated YouTube channel. Subscribe today, don't delay!

Next Week: Watchcat Reviews, Spiderman and the Spiderverse...  

Like what you see, click on the ads to show your support, leave a comment, subscribe to Watchcat Films, don't be shy.

A Sad Watchcat Wednesday

Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of Spongebob Squarepants died on Monday after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 57. 

Hillenburg graduated from Humboldt State University in 1984 with a degree that emphasized marine resources, and taught he marine biology at the Orange Country Marine Institute in Dana Point, now known as the Ocean Institute. 

While working there, he created colorful teaching tools that showed off his love of all things oceanic, writing and illustrating stories that birthed the future residents of Bikini Bottom. He soon found himself pursuing a degree in experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, earning an MFA in 1992.

Hillenburg worked on Nickelodeon's "Rocko's Modern Life" as a writer and director before moving he pitched, produced and directed the animated series that would become "SpongeBob SquarePants." 

Hillenburg was honored at last year's 45th annual Annie Awards with the Windsor McCay award for his career contributions of the art of animation by long time friend and the voice of SpongeBob, Tom Keeny. 

Hillenburg helped opened doors to unknown animation artists and creators, showing that you didn't have to be a Wheeler Dealer type to make an animation series. You only needed a little oddball idea with a lot of heart and humor to make something bigger for everyone to enjoy. 

Stephen Hillenburg was someone we never met up close, but on that night, we saw him receive his award and we stood to honored him as an audience.

Watchcat Pre-Production

We reported last week that our Watchcat eye logo was used in another person's Youtube video without our permission.

Since we are not a corporation like Disney or Dreamworks, it seems Youtube really can't do anything about it. 

Hi WatchCat Films,

Thank you for your notification. It appears you have made a claim on behalf of a company, but your account is not associated with a corporate email address. Please understand that YouTube receives a large number of fraudulent copyright takedown requests, some of which involve impersonating the company that holds copyright to the material in question. In order to prevent this, we need to ask you for more information.
Please help us verify that you are affiliated with the corporate entity listed as the copyright owner in your notice. There are several ways you can do this:

1. If you have a corporate email address, please forward this message to that address and then respond to copyright@youtube.com from there, preserving the ticket number in the subject line. 
2.  If your company doesn't have a corporate email address, please provide a website or other publicly available listing where we can verify your company's existence and your affiliation with it.
3. If neither of these options is applicable to you, please provide an explanation.
4. If you do not actually represent a company, please let us know.

Please understand that the content will remain live on the site until we have received this verification.

- The YouTube Team

 

In the meantime, I am storyboarding 5 episodes of the next Watchcat series, you can see the first two as rough animatics if you click here. I'm concentrating on drawing up the storyboards frames to create a final version as an animatic. The animatics will all have final sound fxs and music. We hope to show them to see if we will be able to make a real animation series or just finish the animation the way we want it to look.

I really don't think I can devote all my time and effort animating these next episodes by myself. I discovered that the first two episodes, each about 3 minutes in length, took me a year to produce. And so, I am asking for an interested animators out there who know Toon Boom Harmony to email me at heyjimr@gmail.com. If you have time to produce a scene or two, perhaps you could use the final scenes in your animation portfolio. 

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NEXT WEEK: Meet a real crimefighting Watchcat!

And Thanks for Clicking! 

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Thank You!

KEDI

Here is a new documentary from a cat's perspective called "Kedi" by Ceyda Torum.

KEDI - Trailer 1 from Termite Films on Vimeo.

This is the  story of seven cats living in Istanbu and here is a letter from the director of the film...

A Letter to the Audience

For those of you who may not have visited Istanbul or know anyone from there, there are a few things you should know before watching our film.

Cats — tabbies, calicos, angoras, norwegian forest cats; ginger cats, grey cats, black  cats, white cats, black and white cats — all kinds of cats, roam the city, free, without a human master. Some fend for themselves, scavenging from dumpsters, living in abandoned buildings, others are cared for by communities of people, pampered with the best cat food and given shelter for the cold months. Cats have been a part of the city for thousands of years, and so, everyone who grows up in Istanbul or lives in Istanbul has a story about a cat. Stories that are memorable; sometimes scary, sometimes spiritual, but always very personal. Street cats are such a big part of the culture that when US president Barack Obama visited Istanbul, part of his tour included a stop at the Hagia Sophia to visit its famous cat. Cats are as integral to the identity of Istanbul as its monuments, the Bosporus, tea, raki and fish restaurants.

Kedi - Official U.S. Trailer - Oscilloscope Laboratories from Termite Films on Vimeo.

I grew up in Istanbul and I believe my childhood was infinitely less lonesome than it would have been if it werenʼt for cats - and I wouldnʼt be the person I am today. They were my friends and confidants and I missed their presence in all the other cities I ever lived in. This film is, in many ways, a love letter to those cats and the city, both of which are changing in ways that are unpredictable.

When we set out to make this film, I had many ideas about what it should be. I wanted to explore philosophical themes that would make an audience ponder about our relationship to cats, to nature, to each other... I hope the film succeeds in doing that but more importantly, I hope this film makes you feel like you have just had a cat snuggle up on your lap unexpectedly and purr endlessly for a good long time, while allowing you to stroke it gently along itʼs back, forcing you, by the sheer fact that you canʼt move without letting go of that softness and warmth, into thinking about things that you may not have given yourself time to think about in the busy life you lead.

Hopefully this film will be that cat for you, and that youʼll leave with a tingle in your hands.

This film is now playing at a theater near you, check screenings. Let us know if you have seen this film or plan on seeing it. This film has been Watchcat Approved!

Watchcat Episodes screening in Hollywood!

Watchcat episodes 1 and 2 will be shown as part of the Columbia College Alumni Filmmakers Screening held this Wednesday, March 22nd. We have been asked to help promote the event and so, if you are in the Los Angeles area, like to watch movies and love Mexican food,  please click on this link for more info.

If you sign up, please mention in the email that Watchcat sent you. Greg and I will be there, so please say hello and enjoy a lot of other filmmakers who went to our school in Chicago.

We will post about the event next Watchcat Wednesday.

Watchcat Animatics

Animatics are roughly animated storyboards used to work out any problems with picture editing, timing, sound and everything else before your final film is completed. 

With that in mind, here is the animatic for our Watchcat Holiday episode.

WC03_Animatic_sound from WatchCat Films on Vimeo.

You can see the final episode by clicking here.

And so, here's our first rough animatic for Watchcat Episode 4.

WC04_Rough animatic from WatchCat Films on Vimeo.

We are trying to keep our episode shorter in order to finish more than on a year. Any feedback is good feedback, so please let us know what you think, like, dislike, hate, don't understand, etc. Any comment is helpful. Thanks!  

Watchcat meets Bambi

While research continues on our next Watchcat episode, we thought you might be interested in seeing a few cat vs deer videos. I was amazed to see that there are a lot of cats out there having to deal with large deer entering their neighborhoods. 

Noir Wraps and Animation Cats

Over the weekend was a very successful one for writer & co-creator of Watchcat, Gregory J. Bradley, with the help of his producing & co-directing partner Lee Anthony Smith just completed principal photography on of their independent feature, "Noir."
 
We all did different jobs and roles to make this project happen. I was the special-effects make up artist as well as prop master and even filled in as an actor. But now, after two years of shooting, Noir has finally wrapped principle photography and is now headed for the editing room! Congrats everybody!

And with the new year, we at Watchcat Films are beginning to work on a brand new episode. I'm currently in the process of re-designing our animation workflow. I know its a very exciting thing to talk about, but I have been doing a some research into other films about cats.

There seems to be two types of Cat designs.  

1. Cartoony cat characters based on real cats, either on two legs or on four.
2. Stylistic cats in human form who wear human clothing and are bipeds.  

Beginning with a film from 2008 called "Second Wind", Ian Worrel from CalArt, features a very tall legged and stylized cat character who's owner is a tiny white bearded man.  

The cat has very large and expressive eyes with cat like mannerisms. Its a very unique and interesting story about the two characters discovering a windmill spirit character. Very Celtic in its style and presentation.

Another very interesting film is "The Cat Piano" from an Australia studio called the Peoples Republic of Animation. Based on a poem by Eddie White, the co-director of the film with character designs and animation by Ari Gibson and crew. This is a very dark film where I really like the cat designs with human characteristics and the look of night throughout the film. The cats are more human than real cats as if all the cats evolved to become bipeds on an island faaway from mankind.

The classic "Cats don't Dance" is set in more cartoony and upbeat world than "The Cat Piano", featuring the world of working biped animals in 1940s Hollywood.

It features very traditional animation using cartoony cats in period clothing of the era. The story isn't as good as the animation or the character designs, but there are some funny moments.

And then there is Felidae, a 1994 animated feature from Germany which is set in the modern day world. I had never heard of this film before researching this post and after watching it now I know why. This film has a lot of very graphic and adult themes within and I would not show it to kids under 16.  The cats are shown very realisticly in this Film Noir world where cats swear, kill each other and have sex just like real cats!

Spoiler Alert:
The main cat named Francis is the detective cat character who discovers several murdered cats in the neighborhood he's just moved into. Eventually, he meets a blind female cat named Felidae, who is introduced and soon winds up dead. There is way too much dialogue in this film and forget about any musical numbers or humor.

Not for little viewers...

This is film looks like it could have been animated by Don Bluth and could have been retitled, " All Cats go to Hell". After viewing it, I can now see what kind of cat story we need to avoid.   

Do you have a favorite animated film featuring a cat as a main character?  Please let me know in the comment section below.

 
New Year's Resolution
January 2017 = $26.83 from clicks on the ads on this blog. Help boost this amount by clicking on the ads and when its over $100, Google will send us a check which we will donate to a local animal shelter.

Watchcat 04 begins

Storyboard work has begun on our next Watchcat adventure and here is the first scenes from our next episode. 

We have uploaded our Watchcat Holiday episode and Watchcat 02 to ToonBoom's showcase site where we hope more people will see our work.

These are still rough storyboards, but we hope develop not only a new animation look, but also introduce you to a few new characters.

Welcome Watchcat Wednesday 2017

2017 begins and this is the time when New Year's resolutions are made and broken a week later. We hope not to break this one, which is to make more shorter Watchcat episodes this year than last year.

We begin the year, by thanking all our 2016 viewers, many who live in different countries around the world. The top ten countries are as follows:

United States     7964

Russia	686
France	417
Germany	295
United Kingdom	111
India	81
Mexico	67
China	62
Canada	57
Ukraine	50

And we are still amazed that "Famous Felines in Animation 2" got 1127 views, this post appeared 2 years ago when we started on Watchcat 2 and needed something to keep people viewing our blog while I worked on shots to talk about later. The first "Famous Felines in Animation", only received 100 views so far.  

Early Beat boards from Watchcat Episode 2

That was then, this is Now...


Now that we have a few Watchcat episodes under our collars. We want to streamline our productions into shorter episodes and set up scene files, so that other animators can work on them. Once in place, we hope to be able to send scenes to interested animators who they can animate and send back to us to be used in a future episodes. The participating animator would receive screen credit and they could use their finished animation scene in their demo reel.

We also want to take our Watchcat ideas to the big studios around town to see if making these shorts might lead to something bigger. We are continuing to find a bigger audience, really appreciate the growth of viewers over the past year and hope you will continue to support us in the coming year.

Thanks again and Happy New Year!
Greg and Jim





 

 

Last Watchcat Wednesday of 2016

Let's face it, 2016 sucked
 
When the year began with Jason Wingreen, the voice of Star Wars' Boba Fett dying at 95, most would chalk it up to old age. But when Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher died yesterday on my birthday, it was hard to celebrate it this year. 

But we did celebrate finishing Watchcat episode 2 by putting out episode 3 in the form of a "Holiday Special" which is up to 336 views. We also started the year with 15 subscribers and on the last Watchcat Wednesday of 2016 we are up to 81 Youtube subscribers. You can subscribe to our Watchcat Films Youtube channel too!

We are planning on making more Watchcats episodes in the new year, in the meantime, please share our episodes with your friends and family. Help us to make more of these little dreams to come.

Thank you for all your support and letting us know you are out there and interesting in we what we are doing. We started 2016 with about 4500 views to the Watchcat files blog and we end this Watchcat Wednesday with:
  

 11,000 all time views!!!

y

Happy NEW 2017!

We still want to hear from you and you can always click on the ads to generate a Google check over $100 to be donated to a local animal shelter. We are still at $25.39, so click those ads and we will post when the check arrives.
 

 

For Xmas 2016

Here's wishing you Happy Holidays from WatchCat Films.

Happy Holidays message from Apollo 8

And in case you missed it...

 

Happy Holidays Everybody!

If you learned something new, click on the ad to the right and the ad below this article, let us know you appreciate animation.

Thank You!

Watchcat Holiday Episode is here!

"Two episodes in 1 year, why it can't be done?!" They said it was impossible, but who listens to "They" anyway and as we say goodbye to 2016, here is our Watchcat Holiday episode as a present to you. Please share it with your friends, family and other Watchcat owners across the country and the rest of the world.

And a big "Thank You" goes out to two gentlemen who we worked with this year on both Watchcat projects. Alejandro Torres for composting the animation and kicking up the production value and Marcello De Francisci, for his sound recording and mixing expertise. Thanks Guys!

Have a safe and happy holiday season from Watchcat Films!

Stand by for Holiday Episode

We will soon post an animated Watchcat Holiday episode which you can send out to all your friends and family to enjoy this holiday season. So check back before Christmas eve! 

How will Santa get out of this one? Find out in this special Watchcat Holiday episode!

Enjoy it below... 

 

Rough Animation finishing up.

Things are going well as all the rough animation is finishing up. Its nice to have only 6 scenes to deal with instead of 45 or 50 as in the previous Watchcat episodes. My good friend, Alejandro Torres has created a nice wintery looking house which you will see more of at the end of the short. Here's a photo of the "house in progress".

Last week, we got a really nice email from Lindsey Villagomes, who we met at CTN Animation expo this year. We gave her our Watchcat Episode 2 postcard and she was kind enough to send us this feedback.

Hello!

I met you both at CTN this year and I just wanted to say that WatchCat is amazing! I absolutely love the atmosphere it sets up as well as the sense of humor. There was so many times that I would just burst out laughing from expressions on the character's faces to certain things character's would say. It's a great project and I can't wait to see more in the future! :D And I will for sure be spreading the word of WatchCat around!

Lindsey

This came at a time when I was considering saving the Holiday episode for next Christmas. After reading Lindsey's letter it let me know that at least someone took the time to let us know they liked what we are doing. It also helped me keep on track and get this Holiday episode done in time.

And so, here's our rough animation for Lindsey and other people who like what we are up to.

WC03 rough anim xmas2016 01 from WatchCat Films on Vimeo.

Chime in, let us know what you think of this post. Too shy to comment, then click on the ads to help us give money to a local animal shelter.

Making Christmas

We were just finishing Watchcat Episode 2, when Greg and I started thinking up shorter ideas for possible future Watchcat episodes. And so, we came up with our first mini motion picture to kick off the holiday season and end 2016 right.

I made a rough storyboard to figure out the story visually and we were able to book Marcello to help us record the dialogue and the world famous Jim Brothers to help record some of the sound effects. Jay and Jim are twins and are well known sound effect recording artists. Luckily, they could make the session to help record the sound effects for our project. Here they are in action...

We appreciate every new view and subscribers we get. And so, here is a special treat, the rough animatic to our next animated Holiday Greeting card. We hope to finish in time, so everyone can send the final version to their friends and family before Christmas.

WC03_Animatic_sound from WatchCat Films on Vimeo.

Let us know what you think of it and watch for the final color version coming soon!

 

 Like this post? Help us collect some money to donate to a local Animal Shelter, click on the ads to make it happen. We only got about .89 cents in clicks this month and we need more. We're at $ 24.54 and need over $100 for Google to take us seriously and write us a check. So click on the ads everytime you check this blog and we'll keep you posted!