Portage Theatre Event

On June 15th, Chewbone Animation sponsored a private screening of Independent Chicago animation. This was quite an event - probably a few hundred folks showed up, which really showed that there is a strong interest for independent work. "Alien for Christmas" showed, along with 8 other great films. Check out Ben Chow's blog to see the great poster art done for the show.




Here's the marquee. The Portage is a vintage theater, restored recently to preserve it's grandeur.





Here's some of the poster art - B.J. Crawford's wonderful film - "A Time for All Seasonings" and my film.



There was some selling of Sketchbooks and art in the lobby - Here's a shot with Artist Bruno Werneck, Artist Sam Aquino, Artist Jasmin Segarra, and programmer Daren Ng.





A bunch of friends showed up too! Here's a random group in the audience, First Row: Animator Mike Feeney, Animator Kurt Kanellos, Animator Jeff Williams, Programmer Daren Ng, Second Row: Animator Marco Plantilla, Animator John Juarez, Animator Bob Rissetto and his sister Sam. Back Row: Animator John Griffin and friend munching on popcorn.



I really want to thank Joe Merideth, B.J. Crawford, and Lisa Barcy for their hard work putting this together and their consistent passion and support for independent animation. If you have time, check out Mike Owens' blog where he continues to put the Animation community in awe, and expresses the purpose behind Chewbone Animation.

Thanks

What a busy month! With the end in sight for AFC, I'd like to give thanks to the folks that contributed along the way. Below is a peek at the credits from the film.

First of all, without the creation of the brilliant song "I Want An Alien for Christmas", I never would have had these images running through my head. Thanks go out to "Fountains of Wayne" (Chris Collingwood, Adam Schlesinger, Jody Porter, and Brian Young) for creating such a catchy tune. Probably one of the only songs I can listen to hundreds of times without getting tired of it. Thanks to the management company QPrime for the permission to use the song.

Then there's the living Flash machine Bob Rissetto. Without this guy, who knows when I would have picked up using Flash as the end-all/be-all of animation production. Thanks for all the support along the way buddy!

"Teeny" Dan Segarra, I appreciate the help with animation on the opening scene. Nice subtle touches from a top notch animator.

Joe Merideth, thanks for the help and advice with the animatic when I needed an expert opinion.

And my wife Heather, I love you and thanks for continuing to be my biggest supporter :)

On the Post End, Ron Fleisher and Dennis Keeling have openly offered their help and services getting this project though the technical hurdles. My sincerest gratitude gentlemen.

Now all that's left is to master the HD images. I really look forward to seeing this in Hi-def one day.

Lastly, thanks to Chewbone Animation and B.J. Crawford for giving me the extra push to wrap things up!