The Garden Island Arts Council presents two days with award-winning animator Gary Schwartz. The first day will include a lecture free and open to the public on the topic of animation. Day Two will be a full-day workshop, open to
The Garden Island Arts Council presents two days with award-winning animator Gary Schwartz. The first day will include a lecture free and open to the public on the topic of animation.
Day Two will be a full-day workshop, open to people of all ages and levels of experience.
Schwartz will lecture and show examples of animation work and a technique called pixilation, on Thursday, July 22, at 6 p.m. in the GIAC activities center, Harbor Mall Suite 111, in Nawiliwili. He’ll focus on storytelling and creativity with animation in a grass-roots context.
The Thursday evening lecture is free and open to the public.
He will also conduct a workshop Friday, July 23, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Harbor Mall location. It is open to persons of all ages and all degrees of experience with animation.
There is a fee for the Friday workshop.
“Pixilation: Subject to erratic behavior or unpredictable change; somewhat unbalanced mentally; bemused; whimsical.
A stop-motion technique in which objects and people (meat puppets) are photographed frame by frame to create unusual effects,” organizers said.
Workshoppers will be animating to a pre-recorded soundtrack, following the audio frame-by-frame, utilizing exposure sheets. The results will be captured on LunchBox Sync Multireel equipment, from Animation Toolworks.
“This is your invitation to total insanity,” organizers said.
Schwartz is an award-winning animator, director, artist, filmmaker and educator. He has taught animation throughout the world at elementary, middle, and high schools; for college undergraduates and graduates, professionals, and at film festivals, hospitals, prisons, community centers, summer art camps, schools for the deaf and others. His students have gone on to receive major awards including a number of Oscars.
“The Garden Island Arts Council “has been getting more and more offers to share in the wonderful talents that come to the islands, which is lucky for us because we can never afford the mainland-to-Hawai‘i airfare, so when other groups such as Hawaii Craftsmen, Hawaii Film Institute, Bluegrass Hawaii, Tim Bostock Productions and other groups share their resources with us, we jump at the chance to bring the talent to Kaua‘i from other islands,” said Carol Yostuda, GIAC president, in an email message.
Taking a six-hour workshop like this at the Hawaii Filmmakers Initiative in Maui would cost $300 per person and more for Hawai‘i visitors, she added.
The GIAC is constantly seeking funds and trying to make the workshops more affordable for its members, Yostuda added.
Former GIAC members may renew memberships at this workshop to receive any discounted rates available. Through Schwartz’s company, Single Frame Films, he has produced, designed and directed animation for Disney, Sesame Street, MTV, Fox Television, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and others. He is an associate professor in the Animation & Digital Media Department of the College for Creative Studies.
Schwartz is also on the faculty of the California Institute of the Arts, the California State Summer School for the Arts and Film Arts Foundation. He also taught at the University of Southern California and the American Film Institute.
Schwartz is director of the animation program at the Encino Media Center for the Community Arts Partnership.
As an artist in residence he received three California Arts Council grants, the Bill Scott Award for “A Good Story Well Told,” and his work at Disney earned him an Emmy nomination for his direction in “Donald Duck–50th Birthday.” His work “Animus” is held in the permanent collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Division of Educational Services.
Schwartz is currently on the faculty of the California Institute of the Arts, the California State Summer School for the Arts and Film Arts Foundation.
He has also taught at the University of Southern California and the American Film Institute.
He is the director of the animation program at the Encino Media Center for the Community Arts Partnership, and conducts animation workshops throughout the country. This program is made possible through collaboration with the Hawaii Filmmakers Initiative based on Maui, where Schwartz and his partner Catherine Snygg are presently conducting a month-long workshop at Hui No Eau as part of the Digital Filmmaking and Animation summer program.
For details about the Thursday lecture and to register for the Friday animation workshop, email Carol Yotsuda at giac@hawaiilink.net or call 245-2733. Also on the Net: www.gardenislandarts.org, www.hawaiifilmmakers.org, www.singleframefilms.com
