"Jazzed" by Anton Setola

[Peter Wassink]

A film by Anton Setola made entirely in TVP.

here a clip that can be found on Antons excellent blog:


It played at the Annecy Festival.

[Paul Fierlinger]

His drawings are wonderful... such bravura and obviously done with ease and successful pursuit of originality. I only regret that I can't see more animated clips... the only one I managed to open or find was the tiny Jazzed sample and one older one with an alien. I was of course also curious to find out how he makes a living -- obviously touring animation festivals can't do it, but there was no mention of that in his blog that I could spot. I'd like to order his booklet with the DVD but couldn't see where to go... Does he make appearances on these forums?

[Peter Wassink]

Does he make appearances on these forums?

yes, he goes by the forum name of A1

[A1]

Yes, i do lurk on these pages!
Thank you, Peter, for posting this. I intended to do this for a while now, but somehow i never got around to it.
And thank you for the kind words Paul. I saw your film 'My dog Tulip' at the Annecy festival, and i was completely emerged in it.
To me it was one of the highlights of the festival. I didn't make it to your presentation, unfortunately.

The little promo book/dvd is not really for sale, but if you pm with your adres, i'll be more than happy to send you a copy by mail!

oh, and and don't really make much of a living for now, but i might have a job soon as a 3d animator/storyboarder (Fingers crossed);
Close to home, so i don't lose a lot of time and can still work on ideas and drawings of my own.

Thanks again for the post!

[Paul Fierlinger]

I'm really sorry now that we never met at Annecy and thanks for what you say about Tulip. I'm still not sure about how well Tulip might do once in distribution; I have no experience with the business of distribution and even have doubts about the predictions of those who claim they know everything; and then piracy is on the lips of all of them. This is why I am interested in your little booklet.

It seems to me that we animators are in possession of something to combat piracy in a small way that live action producers are not, which is the combined sale of an art book as a delivery container of the DVD. I think I have convinced my producers about the merits of publishing a coffee-table book and they are beginning to warm up to the idea. Maybe if they see a book which they can leaf through they might become even thrilled with the idea.

I plan our Tulip book to be loaded primarily with drawings and paintings and some photographs but also to cover a lot of information not just about the film but the background of the Tulip book's writer, about owning dogs in general, drawing movies at home, Sandra's thoughts on mixing and combining colors, where the word "cartoon" comes from.. lots of trivia in between -- a book that a person who owns one will want to talk about with friends -- and of course will have an eye on the next one...

I see your PM button and will send you my address -- thanks and if you send me yours I'll send you a couple of our DVDs.

[Peter Wassink]

Ah there you are Anton,

I didn't go to Annecy this year and i had no idea that your film was ready let alone play there!
Last week some students of mine told me enthusiasticly about a beautiful film they saw and that to their surprise stated on the endtitles that it was made completely in TVP.
when they mentioned the title i recalled what you showed us way back at the Niaf and concluded it was your film they saw.

I would actually also very much like a dvd of your film, for myself because i really like what i see in the clip and love to see te whole film, and also to show it to students as an example of what can be achieved in TVP.
I'd be happy to buy a copy from you.

Maybe you would like to post some artwork here? it would be great for the TVP gallery to have your work in it.

[A1]

It seems to me that we animators are in possession of something to combat piracy in a small way that live action producers are not, which is the combined sale of an art book as a delivery container of the DVD.

Very true! Although a shortfilm has so little screening possibilities aside from festivals, i almost wish it would be pirated. I could offcourse place it in its entirety on youtube or something similar, but that would get in the way of tv-sales and best of dvd's from what i understand.
My producer actually proposed printing the book, primarely because by some miracle, there was money left from production. Now she is concidering doing this for all her shorts. I hope your producers will see the value of it as well!

Hi Peter,
Yes, finally finished
Very nice to hear some of your students liked the film!
( I've send you a pm )<--- that almost sounds dirty.

Maybe you would like to post some artwork here? it would be great for the TVP gallery to have your work in it.

good idea! I'll do that as soon as i find some time!

[Sewie]

Well you could use a print on demand service and do something like this...
Offer your book through their service and then send the purchaser a DVD after they've ordered the book. Just an idea.

Or maybe there are print-on-demand services who can offer to combine the book with the DVD themselves.


(Edit: On their forum I found this discussion by someone with the same question about a book and audio cd combination.)

[Paul Fierlinger]

Interesting -- this is the Internet as a market venue in creation. It's fun and interesting to watch the New York Times on line evolve into the spearhead of a city paper refusing to go out of business with all it's multimedia, interactive media sprinkled throughout its stories.

About distributing films as books; it can work only if the book will be very attractive and I don't know if that can be done on a consumer color printer only as the orders trickle in. One of my producer partners has a long history in the book publishing industry, being the former president of Random House books, so this is something we want to (and can do) right.

[Sewie]

I have ordered one of their books (by a friend) and the quality is amazing ! They don't use consumer color printers but professional ones.
I believe the way it works is that they print every book after it's ordered. Don't ask me how exactly, though...

[Paul Fierlinger]

A1 wrote: Now she is considering doing this for all her shorts. I hope your producers will see the value of it as well!

I've been told by them that the distributor (who they haven't picked yet and won't until after Toronto) will want all the DVD rights together with the theatrical distribution rights when buying into a film. But there can be a clause where the producers will retain the right to produce and distribute independently exclusive publishings of the DVD aimed at a small and erudite clientèle. If this works, I can see many of us here going the same route and publishing Book DVDs on our own and selling over the Internet. This can be done with a collection of shorts or with two 1/2 hour special or a feature film. The only requirement would be that the books carry something within themselves that the buyer needs -- it has to be useful, serve a practical purpose.

I can imagine putting two such books out on my own: One with tiny shorts emulating the way dogs behave and how they attempt to train us -- something every dog-lover identifies with; and I could see putting out a similar book for sailing people. They would copy the little animated gags and send them around to friends with notes saying such things as 'you should see what he's done with his drawings inside the book!' Anton's website already has the look of attractive pages. So the idea is to make each cartoon skit in such a way that it would want the viewer to buy the book.

I can see cook books, computer instruction books, gardening books, music instrument playing books and any of those eternally popular books published with intelligent, witty and elitists pleasing art and gags. Monsters and Aliens and farts ain't going to cut it. This is territory that can exist only far away from today's animation festival masses.

It has to be made in Solitary Heaven where anything goes and will, but only if it's funny and attractive and useful to the people who still buy books and they are all 45 and older and don't sneeze at that group -- every year there are more old people around than the previous year and they have more disposable income too. I read that old people have a much greater likelihood of surviving the Swine Flu than youngsters. It's because they've been around the block enough times to develop immunity to many strains and there's another book-DVD to be made right there.

[Sewie]

I just like a proper making-off book with a good film.
But I'm no 40 (yet).

[A1]

it has to be useful, serve a practial purpose.

The way i handled the content was to arrange artwork made to establish the visual style of the film in the form of a 'treatment' or 'walkthrough'.
It gives some insight into the development of the film, and it stays on topic as you can also (somewhat) read it as a picturebook.
I do believe many books are attractive to potential buyers just for the original artwork displayed in it.

However, i think this approach wouldn't work if my book didn't contain the dvd, because the 'story' is to thin to carry the book as an interesting read.
It really just supports the film. Still, it does make it 'a thing to have' providing they love the drawings.

As for my dog Tulip, i agree there are many interesting ways to handle the content, not only because it's a feature and the length of it warrants expanding on the topics of the film, without being indulgent - something that's maybe not so easily avoided with a short - but indeed also to give practical information in a fun way about the things they love, in this case dogs.
Keep us posted, i'm very interested to see where you will take this!

[Paul Fierlinger]

I just like a proper making-off book with a good film.
But I'm no 40 (yet).

It's not so much that you are under-aged but you are interested in film making -- too small a segment of the population to depend on for an income. Now if you made a smart collection of films about what it's like to be under forty...

In the forties (and I can remember this) one of the best sellers became a book called "Life Starts at Forty". My father bought it and I thought, "Ugh, he's old and looking for excuses".

[A1]

Or what about this :http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eat ... ndle-rival

Imagine sending a digital copy over the internet with some kind of ''one time only key device something or other'' and the purchaser can go print it in a local bookstore themself. I kind of like that idea, it cuts out all costs and leaves you only with the profit.
Just like software and it's called the Espresso Book Machine.

I see your PM button and will send you my address -- thanks and if you send me yours I'll send you a couple of our DVDs.

That would be absolutely great Paul!!