Chicago Animators- New Online Community!!!

There's a new online Chicago animators' community! Patrick Cheng graciously created it. Below is his email-


Hello, this is Patrick.

After some preparation, a few others and I have created a new online forum for Chicago Animators known as ChicagoAnimators.com.

We wanted to create a comfortable, online hub for Chicago animators, be they professionals, students and/or hobbyists of any form to be able to speak with each other, and ultimately, to create a tighter knit of an Animation community here in Chicago.

We hope you can join us to help mold a community in Chicago for animators, so please come visit:

ChicagoAnimators.com

Please don't forget to tell others about it!

Attached to this email is a banner sized image of our logo. If you would like, please feel free to put it on your blog or site to help spread the word of this new community.

Thanks!

Sincerely,

Patrick Cheng

July Sketch Crawl

The next sketch crawl will be July 12th at 2pm at Lincoln Park Zoo. We will meet inside the ape house. See you then! :)

Sketch Crawl June 14th

I'm reposting the sketchcrawl info because it's buried below so many other posts:

Mark your calenders for Sat, June 14th at 1:00 will be the first sketchcrawl of the year. We're meeting at Millennium Park on the lawn of the Jay P. Pavilion. (the big band shell) The first 15 minutes will be our official meeting. So, please come with any ideas as to what you want WIA to do this year. We are working on scheduling guest speakers, but if there's anything else you are interested in doing, please let us know at the meeting. Thanks. See you then!

Women's Portrayl in Film and TV

There's an interesting article on AWN about the portrayal of women in tv and movies. Gender In Media: Females Don’t Rule Please take the time and read it. If not, at least read the quotes below-

"Historically, there are multiple reasons why female lead characters are less abundant than males in the television, film, and animation industries. Male writers and/or creative talent were the predominant architects in the building of the animation industry; and, as many writers do, they wrote from the perspective they knew, observes Helppie...."

"'And as more female executives came to the forefront with the power to greenlight productions or oversee creative storylines, stronger female identities and less stereotypic portrayals were encouraged. The networks and children's broadcasters also pushed to have more engaging, leadership-driven, and less stereotypic, female roles in their programming.'"

After giving sad figures on the lack of women in the industry, Dr. Smith adds, "Maybe the answer is that for change to occur even more women are needed in the creative process where key decision-making occurs at the pitch and story development level...."

author- Jane Nagel

The Animation Show

The Animation Show is in Chicago this weekend (at the Music Box) and Bill Plympton will be there tonight.

"THE ANIMATION SHOW is back with an all new collection of incredible independent animation! This year MIKE JUDGE has gathered together over two dozen of his favorite funny short films from around the world. It's a ground breaking program of eye-popping adult animation from tomorrow's next great animators. Friday, May 23rd marks the all new ANIMATION SHOW 4 kick's off at the Music Box Theatre with special guest BILL PLYMPTON in attendance! The Animation Show crew will be on-hand for preshow fun with give-aways and VJ set by animator Run Wrake. After the show Plympton will discuss his new short "Hot Dog.'"

http://musicboxtheatre.com/animationshow.html

Memorial Day Figure Drawing Marathon!

Memorial Day Model Marathon
Monday, May 26th, 2008
7 am – 7 pm

12 hours of models in multiple studios for quick sketch drawing. Lunch and refreshments are included. $20 for members, $25 for non-members. No need to pre-register.

"Identify the famous artists in the link below, and move to the front of the line at the BBQ grill."

http://paletteandchisel.org/~files/marathon-masters.jpg

The Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts
1012 N. Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 642-4149

Women Animator at the Cannes Film Festival

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to let you all know that I am at the Cannes Film Festival! I have been talking up "the 3 artists" and I even meet some people from WIA-LA. I hope you all have a wonderful summer, I will be at Nickelodeon! But I will keep in touch through the blog! See you all soon, hopefully! Also if we are not friends on facebook, please friend me, I will be keeping in touch through there also. Good luck to all of you! -Jennifer Nelson