Good, Old-Fashioned & Computer Animated
Paul & Sandra Fierlinger
With Paul and Sandra Fierlinger’s feature-length (82 min.) animated adaptation of the 1956 J.R. Ackerley memoir My Dog Tulip due to be released on September 1 (at the Film Forum, New York City), there may be a bit more attention paid online and elsewhere to computer animation of the non-Toy Story variety. Not having the gargantuan financial backing of the Hollywood studio releases, small animated films ride on buzz that, unfortunately, waxes and wanes in lockstep with the pace of the independent film festival circuit.
The Fierlingers used TV Paint (TVP 9) software to paperlessly complete all drawing and painting of frames. My Dog Tulip was created at 1080p resolution, edited in Sony Vegas Pro 8 and transferred to 35 mm film. Production was completed on the film in 2008.
This type of work is also frequently managed with Adobe’s Flash software, as well as with various combinations of traditional and higher-tech tools.
Fingers crossed that, as a result of the relative ease and lower cost of producing films in this manner, we’ll see a future uptick in the development of animated theatrical, television and online content. Specifically, it would be a big plus if more idiosyncratic stories like that of the “confirmed bachelor” (filmmaker’s words) Ackerley’s “fluid-smeared” chronicle of rearing and breeding his dog Queenie – of whom he said “the fifteen years she lived with me were the happiest years of my life,” could make it to screen – any screen.
Ackerley at His Desk
Tulip in Kitchen
Ackerley & Tulip
My Dog Tulip website.
© Markus Horak, 2010
Trackbacks