The First Take festival

First Take Shorts Series Q&A, photo by W.J. Hoffmann

On April 14, thirteen shorts by Philadelphia-area filmmakers were shown at The Ambler Theater. Afterwards, those responsible ascended from the darkness to answer questions.

From left to right in the photo above, that's:

• Festival programer and host, Brendan J.
• John M. White, director of 50 Year Timeless Architecture: Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Me, director of Terror Train
• Will Martinko, director of The Chain
• Chris Cush, director of Man of the Street

After those five, I'm not sure who's who. From my point of view, I could only see Will Martinko on my left and everyone else was concealed behind him.

At the far right are two of the actors from Max Kane's House of Brotherly Love. To their left is Maximillian Remmler, director of Professional Therapy and fifth from the right is Juli Wert, who showed her latest short, & They Broke Up The Next Day.

Rather than guess the remaining three, I'll just list the rest of the evening's contributors:

• Angel James, director of Moving Pictures
• Gerald Webb, director of $TACK$
• Jack Skyyler/John Russel Cring/Beth Konrad Brown, directors of Resistance
• Tatyana Yassukovich, director of Baby Grief
• Jerry Collom, director of The River (who is in that photo somewhere)
  
• Jenn Marinello, director of Altered

It was a great time and a lot of fun. You can see from the links above that the shorts ranged from thought-provoking to stunning, and a couple of them were downright hilarious.

Photo by W.J. Hoffmann

Terror Train was well-received. As the sole animator in the group, the questions I was asked got me talking about my animation process, which was very cool.

The experience inspired me to seek out more festivals. The moment I was back at my desk, I submitted Terror Train to another one. If it leads anywhere, I'll announce it here and turn up on another stage.

FilmFreeway

On April 14, one week from today, my animated short Terror Train will be shown at the Ambler Theater as part of the First Take Shorts Series festival.

Tickets are available from the Ambler Theater website over here. The festival's trailer is in this Facebook post and here on Instagram.

I'll be posting this trailer around. I've updated the text at the end.

To submit to the festival, I had to create an account on FilmFreeway, a site that makes submitting to festivals all over the world not only possible, but surprisingly easy.

The site requests a written summary of the short, an artist's statement, promotional images, and a poster. This is what I came up with for the poster:

Those are the 'official selection' laurels on the right. The festival programmer sent around the laurels image file for promotional use. I've added it everywhere Terror Train appears online.

Here's the latest news from Festival Programer Brendan J.:

The screening will include a short introduction, followed by the films which will run 1 hour and 42 minutes in length. After all the films have played, there will be a post-screening Q&A w/ any participating cast or crew in attendance.

The Ambler Theater does have Masking guidelines that we are still following. Masks are optional when seated in the theater auditorium, but must be worn in the lobby, restrooms or other common areas of the theater.

Terror Train at Ambler Theater – April 14, 7:30pm

My animated short Terror Train has been accepted into the First Take Shorts Series, an annual festival of shorts by local filmmakers that will happen at the Ambler Theater in Ambler, PA, one month from today.

Check out the festival's promotional trailer in this Facebook post or here on Instagram.

I'm looking forward to seeing my work on a very big screen. I even revisited the animation files for Terror Train and exported a 4K version for this event.

The festival will take place on Thursday, April 14 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available from the theater website over here.

This is the description on the Facebook events page:

Join us as we celebrate the work of local filmmakers with another installment of the First Take Shorts series. Our diverse lineup will feature some of the best independently produced works by local filmmakers, who range from students to seasoned professionals.

Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and awards ceremony. Ambler and County screenings will feature different shorts—catch them both.*

The Festival Programmer says this about the theater's Covid policy:

Currently the Ambler Theater has a mask policy in place, along with a 70% seating capacity limit. We are entering into a transitional period for our Health and Safety protocols and all mandates may be lifted at our theater before the April 14 screening.

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*Terror Train will be shown on the second night of the festival, April 14 in Ambler. The first night, April 13, will be at the County Theater in Doylestown.

The last stop

My animated short Terror Train has been airing on the PhillyCAM channel on Sunday mornings at 11:59.

And now the train is coming to the end of the line. If you haven't caught it on the station yet, this Sunday will be the last airing of it's long run.

PhillyCAM aired it every Sunday morning in November, December, January, February, March, April, May, and June. Wow, that's very cool. Thanks PhillyCAM!

Runaway train!

PhillyCAM continues to show my animated short Terror Train every Sunday morning at 11:59.

They aired it every Sunday in November, December, January, February and March, and they're about to show it every Sunday in April. Wow, that is very cool.

I've re-posted the Terror Train advertisement here on LinkedIn and the cropped cell phone version here on Instagram.

Meanwhile, I'm putting together an advertisement for the Creating Fashion with Laurel show with highlights from the previous six episodes. I've been watching cooking show adverts like this one for inspiration.

We'll be shooting a scene for it this weekend in which Laurel summarizes who she is and what the show is about.

I've also been editing Episode 7, due to PhillyCAM at the end of the month. Laurel has some great moments in this one. Never cut on the fold!

Train schedule

It's Sunday morning and Philly's public access channel, PhillyCAM, is about to show my animated short, Terror Train again. Their live stream page is over here.

I just checked their schedule and it's going to continue to air every Sunday morning at 11:59 through March! Wow, they've shown it every Sunday this year!

A couple of months ago, I was asked to give a short talk for my co-workers about the work I do outside of work – the sort of things I post to this site – as a fun distraction from the day job.

One of my co-workers watched Terror Train and raved about it because most of the audio was recorded on SEPTA, reminding her of the trains we used to ride to work every day. I wonder if that has something to do with it's return to PhillyCAM.

For that matter, they may just have a lot of shows that are two minutes short. Either way, thank you PhillyCAM!

Next on PhillyCAM

Wednesdays, 9:00 am
The new episode of Creating Fashion with Laurel will premiere on PhillyCAM February 3 and will continue to air every Wednesday until the end of March.

So far, we've done two episodes on fabric masks and two on zippers. This fifth episode is the first of two on patterns. I'm editing the second pattern episode now, which is due to PhillyCAM by the end of February and will air in April/May.

Sundays, 11:59 am
My animated short Terror Train continues to run every Sunday morning. I'm flattered and stunned. I guess I should do more animating.

It aired every Sunday in January, will be shown again tomorrow, and will continue to run through February, sharing the 11:30 slot with People Powered Struggle by PhillyCAM Youth.

PhillyCAM is Philadelphia's public access station, viewable on Xfinity (66/966), Fios (29/30), Roku, Apple TV, and on their live streaming page.

Neighbors

Very cool to see PhillyCAM has paired Terror Train with another spooky short.

Never Play by Stacey Furbeyre starts at 11:30 Sunday mornings in November and is a suspenseful ouija board thriller. It runs to 11:59, when Terror Train completes the half-hour.

Train trailer

It turns out PhillyCAM is going to show Terror Train every Sunday morning in November. I put together this preview to share the news.

Here's the cropped version on Instagram.
And Terror Train itself is on the Animation page.

Terror Train returns

This is a nice surprise. The PhillyCAM channel is going to show my animated short, Terror Train again. I found this in their program guide:

Sunday morning at 11:59. PhillyCAM is Philly's public access channel. If you live in the area, it's Xfinity channel 66/966HD/967 or Verizon 29/30. Or you could watch it like I do, on their live feed.

It took me about a month to make Terror Train, using up every second of my spare time. I performed the three main voices and recorded the train noises and commuter chatter on SEPTA trains during my commute to work. The animated short starts with a SEPTA train whistle.

More on Terror Train in these posts, written while I was working on it.

Terror Train news

My animated short, Terror Train is now on Vimeo, over here: https://vimeo.com/337264240 I'll be adding more of my works to Vimeo in the next few days.

My toons on TV

My animated shorts are going to be shown on the PhillyCAM channel throughout July! Starting July 7, Terror Train and Drawing the Figure will air every Saturday evening at 6:55pm.

Depending on where you live in the Philly area, PhillyCAM could be:
Comcast Xfinity 66, 966HD, or 967
Verizon FIOS 29 or 30
and it's on Roku.

The PhillyCAM channel also streams live on their Website.

Terror Train

Terror Train is now complete and online. It's also on my Vimeo channel and my Animation page with a short making-of blurb. I figure it took about a month's worth of spare time to complete and it's just under a minute and a half long.

Festival recap

The Philadelphia Independents 2018 animation festival was a blast. It was great to see the animators back at the club, cheered on by a large crowd of enthusiasts.

Terror Train went over well. I'm going to do some more work on it before I post it, just to tidy up the bits that were rushed to make the deadline. In the meantime, here are some highlights from Saturday.

Rusty Eveland showed his animated grocery carts and talked about animating in public places. Lynn Tomlinson discussed producing music for her films and her clay-painting technique.

Zoe Nowoslawski and Nichola Latzgo recalled the inspirations for their story ideas and Amy Hicks described her process of turning novels into movie flipbooks. Chris Ferrantello shared his animated collages and fellow club member Bob Moore was present to share his animated design work.

Karl Staven told us how he animated the shadows of a tree in his yard before it was removed. Oona Taper described her process of animating objects and rotoscoping. Samantha Gurry showed us animated trading cards for bowlers last year, and this year floppy disks.

There were music videos from Steve Meyer/Jack Kubizne and "art-rock" band Tulipomania. Sci-fi action was provided by Erik Van Horn.

Boxhead and Roundhead by Elliot Cowan were back with a new adventure. The pilot episode of Found Town was submitted from the other side of the world by Tokyo resident Ryan Gilchrist.

There was live-action with animated highlights by Chris McDonnell, kaleidoscopic footage of Philadelphia taken with a GoPro on a motorcycle by Lowell Boston, and a tale from Philadelphia's youth by John Serpentelli.

Curator and host Chris Magee has posted photos from the event. Many thanks are owed to Chris for making this festival possible and gathering the animators every year for the past five years. I'm glad to say I've attended all five and shown work in three. We now have a full year to animate something new for the next one.

Animation festival

It's official. My latest animated short, Terror Train will premiere at the Philadelphia Independents Animation Festival this Saturday evening at The Plastic Club.

From the press release:

The screening is Saturday, February 24, 2018, from 6:30 PM to 10 PM.
Reserve your free ticket, as space is limited.

The Plastic Club is pleased to present the fifth annual Philadelphia Independents Animation Festival. Curated in collaboration with Christopher Magee of Philadelphia's University of the Arts, this one-night screening showcases new and in-progress works of local and visiting animators.

Stick around after the show for a Q&A discussion with the artists!

The Plastic Club, located on historic Camac Street, was founded in 1897 to promote the "plastic" (or "changing") visual arts through workshops, exhibitions, and community programs.

The Plastic Club Art Gallery and Studio
247 S. Camac Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 545-9324

Animation

This is the most labor-intensive shot in Terror Train. There are two characters, both are speaking, and one is walking towards the camera. I worked on this segment all day Sunday and it only lasts seven seconds.

Each character was animated separately, meaning two passes. I did all the drawings for the conductor, then went back to the first frame and did all the drawings for the passenger.

Having someone walk towards the camera involves enlarging the character in proportion while keeping track of the movements of the legs and feet. I had to go back and re-draw at one point when her body started outgrowing her legs.

I'd been dreading this shot. Very glad it's done. Also glad I was wrong about the due date for submissions. It's actually Friday, not Thursday. I'm animating the ending now. When that's done, I'll put the whole thing together and add the background noises I recorded on SEPTA trains.

Animation update

I've set myself a couple of challenges for the Philadelphia Independent Animators Festival at the club this month. One: to start from nothing and have a completed short within a few weeks. And two: to do something a little closer to my figure drawing stuff than my cartoony stuff.

The result is Terror Train, which I have until Thursday to complete. There will be eight scenes total, with six of them done so far and two to go. That's scene six above. Scene one is in this recent post.

Progress on the other short, The Telekinetic Chef, slowed way down when I got tired of animating on a laptop. There was a whole lot of squinting going on. So, I've put the laptop aside, replaced my ancient desktop machine with more appropriate gear (Windows 10!) and am back in business.