Filmography: Popeye in Li'l Swee Pea

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Work is progressing on the plans for the structure of our databases. There will be three interrelating databases... One will be the filmographic database, with info on cast and crew, release date, etc. Another will be the biographical database, with biographies of leading animators, interviews, and filmographies of cartoons they worked on. The third database will be the media database, with scans of animation drawings, model sheets, paintings and other types of artwork. All three of these will be linked together, sharing information back and forth to create one large archive of all of the information together.

Today we created thumbnail sized movie files of the cartoons in our collection. These small movies will be embedded into the filmographic database, so when you call up the title of a specific cartoon, along with the director, animators, release date, etc.- you can view the cartoon itself.

Here is a sample of one of the cartoons we processed. The file size is large... you won't want to click if you are on a dialup connection.


Popeye in "Li'l Swee Pea" (1936)
(Quicktime 7/16 mb)

Each film in the database receives a serial number, in this case MOV-AAA-039. The first three letters indicated that it is a movie file. If it was an image, the first three letters would be IMG; if it was a person, the letters would be BIO; if it was an audio file it would be AUD; etc. This will allow us to cross link the databases, so when you are reading about "Li'l Swee Pea" you can instantly access info on the director, Dave Fleischer by his BIO number; and search for artwork from the film in the media database by its IMG number.

"Li'l Swee Pea" includes some amazing three dimensional sets. The rig that produced these scenes consisted of a large turntable with the miniature sets built on it, and a horizontal camera stand in front of it. This was called the "Set Back Camera", and the device was invented by Fleischer cameraman, Johnny Burks. The Fleischer Popeye cartoons are among the best cartoons ever made, and we are proud to include them in our archive.

Altogether, a very productive day.

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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