WORLD PREMIERE OF “North Of Blue” BY INDIE ANIMATION QUEEN – JOANNA PRIESTLEY
Acclaimed Indie animation queen Joanna Priestley has jumped off the deep end of the image pool into a luscious, mind bending, abstract animated feature film that will premiere at the Hollywood Theatre (Portland, OR) on September 21, 2017 at 7 PM. North of Blue (60 min.) began in the mysterious winter landscape of the far north where Priestley was filmmaker-in-residence at the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture in Dawson City, Canada.Continue reading... “World Premiere Of North Of Blue By Indie Animation Queen – Joanna Priestley”
HouseSpecial took home the award for Best Picture at the We Like ‘Em Short Film Festival held on August 17-20, 2017 in Baker City, Oregon. Aaron Sorenson wrote and directed the winning stop-motion film, Jailbreak, which was shot in black and white. The story follows the daring escape of a desperate prisoner fleeing his nightmarish cell in pursuit of sweet punishment. The design is German Expressionist-inspired, but with a decidedly adult twist.
Netflix has given Oregonian, Matt Groening, a 20-episode order for a new animated comedy, “Disenchantment.” The adult fantasy comedy is about “life and death, love and sex, and how to keep laughing in a world full of suffering and idiots, despite what the elders and wizards and other jerks tell you,” Groening told Variety.
Design Lab Director Solomon Burbridge crafted two :15 second energetic, stop motion spots for the 2017 Keno “Bulls Eye” campaign in collaboration with the creative team from Pollinate.
Burbridge guided his team to blend visual influences from classic musical dance numbers of Busby Berkeley with contemporary motion art.
The first thing you notice is the energetic, playful feeling of the spot, syncopated to a driving club beat:
The recently-launched SmashTheHive Studio in SE Portland has just debuted its first production —the “My American Waistline” animated comedy series. This fearless, unapologetic and politically-incorrect collection of bite-size shorts leaves no muffin top unturned or moob unchafed in its unsparing quest to expose America’s fixation on over-eating, under-eating, ripped abs, apple bottoms and surgical enhancement.
Don’t miss out! Get an exclusive look at how animation gets made in Oregon, from the studios of Portland’s indie animators to the heavyweights in the stop-motion animation industry. “Oregon’s Animation Magic: An Oregon Art Beat Special” premieres tonight, April 27, at 8 p.m. on OPB TV and online at the same time at opb.org/animation.
Behind the scenes, the Oregon animation studio, LAIKA, is an amazing collection of animators, artists, cutting-edge tech, and good, old-fashioned story-telling, and this fall you will be able to explore LAIKA’s “creative process” from start to finish at the Portland Art Museum.
As Grimm fades to black, it’s hard not to get a little nostalgic considering the massive contribution to our local VFX scene. But this also signals a call to action and the need to pull together quickly, to keep as many of the dozens of Ex-Grimm artists here and gainfully employed as possible. Local studios, agencies, and other companies operating in the VFX/CG/Post/Game space are on baord.