At the SVA Open Screening

I just got back from the Open Screening at the School of Visual Arts, in New York. There was just one entry rule: simply show up with a DVD and it plays. No red tape to cut through, just bring you work.

I was pleased to see some of the works that I've already seen on AnimationHut.TV and I was also pleased to meet some of the (few) people that have already signed up, actually, one person in particular, Andrew Kaiko. He showed a short that was different form the film he had posted on AnimationHUT.TV. His new short film is entitled Foxy Scrambler. I thought it was really cute and I hope we'll get to see it soon on our site. Andrew is a talented young animator and I hope there's a good career ahead of him, in our industry.

One thing that kind of sucks about me, sometimes, is that I have a memory of a goldfish. I think they've discovered that goldfish have a memory of a few seconds, so when they swim in circles, inside their fish bowl, they constantly discover "new" things they've never seen before. That may be good if you're a goldfish, but it's not good if you seek a career as a film critic. Well, I don;t care about being a film critic, so I am not too bothered by the fact that I've already forgotten what I was watching earlier tonight. Actually, I am not really trying to post a critique of the screening.

However, as short as my memory may be, I still remember seeing a few things that stuck to it. I am not even going to mention (at least not by title) the film (still in pencil test) that screened tonight, that I have been working on for the past two years. I am also not going to go into details about films of some of my friends, since I don't want to be biased. But I do want to mention a few works that stuck to mind (and hopefully we'll see them soon on AnimationHUT.TV).

There was short by a student from China, that portrayed herself through an animated character of a panda bear, that came to America and is now surrounded by North American species of bears (grizzlies, black bears, polar bears... etc). The film was really cute and I really look forward to seeing more stuff form her. I think her name was Vera Lui, but forgive me if I made a mistake (my memory, remember?).

The other film that I liked was a short about a lady whose cat dies, and then... well, you'll just have to see the film. The author was a student from Seoul, Korea. She said to call her, simply Q, because her name is complicated to remember. I actually do remember her name, but I respect her wish to call her Q. So, Q she is.

There was also a work in progress that I really liked. It was a film about people on vacation. The film was a good critique of the society we live in and the characters were well designed. I always like it when a film has a meaning beyond the obvious storyline. Well, this one is definitely one of them. I can't remember if I mentioned that I have a very short-term memory, but I just can't remember the name of the guy that is working on this film. It was nice of him to share his work in progress, though.

So, I printed out 90 mini fliers for AnimationHut.TV and handed out a whole bunch of them. I have exactly 52 left (come to think of it, I could make up a deck of paying cards...) so I must have handed out exactly 38 of them. I sure hope at least 38 people sign up in the next few days.