Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Today's Video Link

Time for another of those animated shorts produced for (and rerun incessantly) on Chicago kids' shows. This one is Hardrock, Coco and Joe, and it was done for Christmas of 1956 and for the Hill & Range Company, which I guess was marketing the song involved. The actual animation was done by a company called Centaur Productions, which was run by a gentleman named Wah Ming Chang, who specialized in sculpture, stop-motion animation and odd props. He did a lot of the props on the original Star Trek TV show, for instance (he built the communicators that predated cell phones, as well as the Tribbles) and some of Elizabeth Taylor's most notable headdresses and jewels in Cleopatra.

In animation, he did most of his work over the years in commercials and for George Pal's company — much of Tom Thumb, to name one thing — as well as a few things for Disney.

Here's Hardrock, Coco and Joe. If you're interested in obtaining a DVD of the shorts done for Chicago which I'm showcasing here, click on this link.

• Posted at 4:31 PM · LINK

Those Who Can't Do...

The University of Southern California has a superb College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and that college has something called the Master of Professional Writing Program which outputs some very fine soon-to-be-professional writers. Some of them take this course that the school offers...

Writing Humor: Literary and Dramatic

This course analyzes the specifics of humor — wit, irony, satire, parody, and farce. Work is read in class for discussion. Assignments are a six-page and 8-10 page essay or fictional work, a critique of a sitcom or film comedy, and a humorous radio commercial. The final dramatic comedy assignment is predicated on action/conflict and the probable inevitability of humor.

That sounds exciting until you find out that beginning with the Spring semester, the course will be taught by me. I've guest-lectured at classes like this before but this is the first time I've had a whole batch of wanna-be writers placed in my care. I mention this not to solicit students (the class is already full with a waitlist) but just to let you know what I'm up to. And who knows? Maybe, by the time the class is over and those who take it are prepared to venture out into the world of professional writing, the strike will be over.

• Posted at 4:28 PM · LINK

Go Read It!

I've been telling you for some time now (here, for example) that the old episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. — you remember that show — have been refilmed to make them look cheap and shoddy. When I catch one today, I can't believe I once thought that was a first-rate production. Ken Levine has just had the same revelation.

• Posted at 3:50 PM · LINK

Tuesday Afternoon

I have nothing to say about the strike today but I suggest you go read Patrick Goldstein. I think he has a good handle on the situation. We are now in the stage when the AMPTP is going to do everything it can to sow discord within the Guild and undermine confidence in its leadership.

• Posted at 1:18 PM · LINK