Posts Tagged ‘ david levy ’

In Memoriam: Vincent Cafarelli (1930-2011)

January 17, 2012
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In Memoriam: Vincent Cafarelli (1930-2011)

(Linda Beck) On December 1st, 2011, we lost animation veteran and ASIFA-East Founding Member, Vincent “Vinny” Cafarelli, who passed away peacefully in his sleep at age 81. Founding Member Vincent Cafarelli (left) with Dick Rauh (President 1969-1989) in 2009 (Photo by Linda Beck) Our long time ASIFA-East Board Member, Michael Sporn wrote the following in his December 4th SplogPost: “Vinnie” was a principal mainstay in the New York animation industry. He worked at Famous Studios on classic characters Popeye, Little Audrey and Baby Huey. Later he worked at Gifford Animation on such advertising campaigns as the Piels Brothers and TipTop Bread. Margaret Hamilton provided the voice for Emily Tipp! You can go here to see 3 examples of the TipTop Bread commercials produced in the 1950’s. Vince joined Stars and Stripes Forever, Inc, as their first employee upon his return from London, England where he worked with Pablo Ferro. Stars and Stripes was owned by producer Bob Staats and designer Len Glasser. They became the hottest boutique shop in the psychedelic 60’s creating such classics as: Chicken of the Sea “Mermaid”, Speakeasy, Sparklettes, and Ortho. While at Stars and Stripes Vince worked with designer, Hal Silvermintz and film editor,...

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Directing Animation panel event at MoCCA

November 8, 2010
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Directing Animation panel event at MoCCA

Article by David B. Levy. Despite the lingering drizzle outside, or maybe because of it, on the evening of November 4th, a full house of interested parties converged to hear a panel discussion on the topic of directing animation, held at the wonderful Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA). This was my first event to celebrate the release of my new book, “Directing Animation” (Allworth Press), and I was pleased to share the table with a wonderful panel: Dan Meth (web animation director), Dave Palmer (TV animation director), and Bill Plympton (indie animation director). Here’s some sound bites from the evening: 1- What is the most important stage of production for a director? Both Dave Palmer and Dan Meth answered, the voice record, because that’s where it all starts. As a director of self-penned comedic shorts, Meth added, “I leave room in the writing for actors to ad-lib because they might come up with a funnier line that what I’ve put on the page.”

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ASIFA-East Panel Discussion on the State of NY Animation Industry

April 24, 2009
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ASIFA-East Panel Discussion on the State of NY Animation Industry

Article written by Katie Cropper. On Wednesday April 22, ASIFA-East held a panel discussion about the current state of the New York Animation industry. Moderated by the lovely Linda Beck, the main contributors were Steven Conner, Howard Beckerman, David Levy, David Wachtenheim, and, via email, Linda Simensky. All of which are pretty heavy names in New York animation so going into this discussion I expected some deep and meaningful words of advice and perhaps some reassurance for the Big Apple. I wasn’t disappointed, though I can’t say that the main topics were surprising or new. Perhaps my own paranoia for my immediate job future has made this entire topic the forefront of too many of my own industry related conversations. I just wanted to sum up some main points covered Wednesday that should be kept in mind here. All four main panelists made it clear that the New York animation scene has been geared towards mostly preschool/young children’s television and commercial work. Even as we dip into what could be considered a “depression”, larger productions in New York will still be working in this demographic. Beckerman made it a point to remind the audience that it is “not as...

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