Saturday, May 08, 2010

Ancient animation from an amoeba


My Mom sent me a vhs tape of a really bad film I made when I was 17. It was part Senior High school graduation project and college/scholarship portfolio. It was made with a JVC camcorder that could shoot on something close to 8 frames a second. It had to be shot in one take, and then the sound was re-recorded over the vhs. It is horrible, but it was so long ago and if I hadn't made it I wouldn't be getting to do what I get to do today. So thanks Mom for investing in the camcorder. Happy Early Mother's Day!
Song: "The Puppy Song", written by Harry Nilsson, sung by Victoria Williams


...and here's an old drawing from 2006 'cause I'm too tired to make something new and not secret this week.

17 comments:

damon said...

cute
i like the girl too

Lesley Vamos said...

You made that when you were 17??? Wow, thats seriously impressive!

Blake Himsl Hunter said...

awesomely sweet of your mom to keep it!

Valerie said...

Still a very adorable animation. Much better than anything I could do even now. ;P It was sweet that you mother kept it to so long. :D

Kali Fontecchio said...

That's amazing! I love when the cat sucks up the puppy haha. You've always been super talented!!

Unknown said...

That was bad, cute though. It was much better than TELEVISION.

Katie said...

That's really something...I didn't make anything anywhere near that cool or time consuming when I was 17! You've got animation in your blood, I guess! How cool...

PotatoFarmGirl said...

Katie- I bet you made lots of cool stuff! I may have had animation in my blood, but it wasn't reaching my brain yet at that point, obviously. :P

Anonymous said...

SUPER-ambitious & mighty good for a mere lass of 17! This was quite charming and I love that you continue to share old work that I can only imagine is a bit painful to revisit-so thanks!

There's certain shots/moments that remind me of Plympton... is/was that intentional and an influence at the time at all?

Valerie said...

haha, I love the really slow blurs (8 frames a second, hee) And that the bad kids were basically the ones from The Simpsons.(Don't kill me!) Love it. love everything about it. I remember you singing this song. That's insane that you had the gumption to do a whole film by yourself.

PotatoFarmGirl said...

Clarke- I was really into Plympton and alot of the Canadian animators like Frédéric Back, and Caroline Leaf. I went to a summer animation school called CSSSA in '96 and '97. My teachers were Christine Panushka, Corny Cole, Ruth Hayes, and Gary Shwartz. They would show us everything, their films, and alot of other experimental animators. I almost applied for experimental animation at Calarts, but Christine recommended I apply for character.
"Yippie" is a really bad film, but I think it's good for artists to look back on old work once in awhile. If you don't see mistakes in your work, you are not growing.

Val- Yeah, I think they may have been inspired by the Simpsons. :P Oh I wanted to be an animator, I don't think I realized back then seeing blurs was a bad thing. I was more excited about the fact it was moving at all.

Pedro Vargas said...

Wow, pretty impressive for 17! I don't think I ever could've have done something like that at 17. Really awesome stuff! Nice blue-haired girl too!!

Mitchel Kennedy said...

Are you kiddin'? That's awesome stuff! You should have seen the bogus stuff I was making at 17! Be proud of your self-earned heritage. :D

Ryan Green said...

I can't believe you were animating in high school. What kind of a mutant curriculum did you have? I thought high schools were supposed to tell you that no one can have a career as an artist and then slap more math booklets in front of them.

Zoran Taylor said...

Thanks for brightening up my day a bit with this cartoon! It saddens me to say that my very own Curly Fuzz Poodle, Lizzie, passed on this afternoon at roughly 4:35 by means of euthanasia. I recall quietly singing that tune to her some days ago.


And again, as other have said -dude, you were SEVENTEEN. Cut yerself some major slack, girl!

Zoran Taylor said...

BTW: My last word verification was BLYPO. I can only assume that refers to a process though which one removes excess fat from a dirigible......

Carrie said...

I love the "isn't good judgment" disclaimer... lol. And the "" Film.. yes... yes... it's a FILM. SO great... and at 17?!?!?! You ooze talent.

if we are counting word verifications... my last one was "natsi" and this one is "otrapp". There is a story in there.