Friday, August 01, 2008
Advice: Bakshi On Surviving Tough Times
At this year's San Diego Comic-Con, I had the honor of hosting an interview with Ralph Bakshi. He had some important things to say to the animators in the crowd. Watch Ralph take my question and hit it out of the park...
Many thanks to the Bakshi family for their helpfulness and generosity, and to our fantastic videographer, JD Mata.
Feel free to embed the YouTube on your own website. Spread the word! Educators may download a higher resolution copy of this video to burn to DVD for viewing in their classroom.
Read the comments about this video at YouTube, Cartoon Brew, CGI Society Part One, CGI Society Part Two, Animation Nation and Weirdo's blog on Newgrounds.
UPDATE: I just spoke to Ralph on the phone. He says that he regularly checks the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive site, and was surprised to see his clip posted. He's reading your comments and he's happy that you find his message inspiring. He's promised to do more interviews with me for the Archive soon. Thanks, Ralph!
If you found this article interesting, see... Bakshi's Phone Doodles, Bakshi Speaks To CGI Animators Part One and Part Two, Louise Zingarelli's Cool World Storyboards, Bakshi Meltdown Comics Party Pictures
See also... Imitation vs. Inspiration: Chaplin's Shadow, The Application Of Inspiration, How To Properly Use Reference, Incorporating Natural Forms, (Visual) Literacy, Why Do We Need An Animation Archive?, Parody: Whack! Comics
UNFILTERED: The Complete Ralph Bakshi isn't one of those "art books" with postage stamp sized pictures floating in oceans of tasteful white space and huge text blocks of scholarly blather that crowds out the images. It's just pictures, pictures and more pictures... along with just enough text to put them in context. The book is organized to show Ralph's career from his earliest days at Terry-Toons, to his groundbreaking features, to his revolutionary TV work, to his most recent fine art paintings. Even if you think you know all there is to know about Bakshi, this book will grab you by the lapels and shake you and show you things you've never seen the likes of before. Click through the link to pick up the Bakshi book at Amazon.Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.
Labels: advice, bakshi, theory
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posted by Stephen Worth @ 8:09 PM
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14 Comments:
I'm glad to hear sage advice from the one guy I look up to the most!
Hey Stephen, would it be alright if I could embed this video on my Newgrounds blog page?
Pure gold. A real keeper to watch when times seem dark. Thanks for sharing this clip with those of us who missed seeing Ralph live.
Great speech from Mr. Ralph.
If only people will take it to heart .
I hope you'll post more of his Comic Con talk . This stuff needs to get out there and be seen and heard (especially by animation students).
Steve, I hope you're doing some extensive taped interviews with Ralph. There's stuff about the Fritz, Heavy Traffic, Coonskin era that is especially interesting and I'd love to hear more about how he made those pictures and the animators who worked on them. There's definitely a lot of clumsy , low-budget animation in those pictures, but occasionally a scene will flash on the screen that is brilliant , every bit as good as some legendary Frank Thomas or Milt Kahl scene that people drool over. And I think to myself : "Who animated that ? Was it Irv Spence ? Who ? " I'd like to know more about these pictures. As raw as they are and as rough around the edges they are an inspiration for what you can do on a low-budget .
I'm not an animator but his advance holds true for any commercial creative endeavor whether it be cartoons, comics, books or film. We have no excuse for setting on our collective butts and going out there and doing our best work and profiting directly from it.
Good news, Dave...
I spoke to Ralph after the Comic-Con panel and he invited me to visit him in New Mexico. He has invited me to digitize and videotape a series of discussions on his creative process. Essentially, we will be documenting his influences and how he applies inspiration he gets from them. Ralph and his family has been very generous with the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive. You'll be seeing more from Bakshi very soon.
See ya
Steve
That vid should be shown at every college and school in America.
It also should be shown before Congress as well.
It should be shown to schools around the world too. We need more people like Ralph in the "industry".
Those 12 frames of seated Bakshi poses at the top of the post are terrific.
Is the rest of this interview available? I'd love to see it. I'd buy it. I'm with Ralph. End the bullshit!
Ohh man!!!!! Great interview!!! the man's right!!! we just gotta get on with it!!! I've noticed that people now a days have a shitscared attitude to everything... so Yeah!!!
Just gotta do it!
Hey Stephen thanks for this blog it's amazing!!!
Thank-you Stephen for asking the question and thanks to Ralph for answering in the manner he did.
I agree with "greg b" it should be screened in colleges and schools, but not just the USA, everywhere, it is so relevant to what is going on around the world in the animation business.
The advice to get a computer and make your own film is what I'm doing now. I'm trying to find a few other people to make it move faster. But I love waking up in the morning to start animating.
Bakshi's advice is inspirational but it's not responsible. People would do well to listen carefully to the caveats he applies around his key poses.
You gotta get good first. That takes persistence and animating a lot.
Methinks those of us living the scratchy weave, hunger pang animation dream are already risk takers and not as full of fear as he may imply. But don't be foolhardy and gamble you'll be a millionaire next year just because you've got a computer, a story idea and a maybe a spouse who keeps bread on the table.
So he says that we all should get some guys and make a film and not work for others vision. Then, what about those guys that are animating for him? We all have to start somewhere and I think the idea of creating something that WE want to do is what always pushes the envelope in animation. But, I don't agree with him putting down the people who wants to work in an animation company to partake in a big budget feature film animation.
Not everyone is into this style of animation. Some are actors that find the medium of cg animation perfect to express their skills as animators.
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