From 7/22 (thurs) to 29 (thurs) we had an exhibition for “Something Left, Something Taken” at Kokoro Studio in San Francisco.
Keiko, the owner of Kokoro Studio was extremely generous to offer her space for 1 week to exhibit sets, props, puppets and stills from the movie. We also had a screening & workshop of the film.
We had about 1 full day to put the show together. Max ran around the city trying to get various supplies while Keiko and I put everything up neatly.
What an experience to display miniature San Francisco sets in San Francisco!
I always make these sets and props to be in a film, not to be displayed and looked by people.
So I was overwhelmed with happiness that people were looking closely at the sets & props.
This is when the gallery opened… people were already waiting outside. By the time we screened our movie, it was PACKED! We were all sweating in the gallery when the weather outside was freezing.
Thank you so much for everybody who came to the opening.
Last day of our exhibit, we held a workshop. We talked through our process step by step and the audience was enthusiastic to ask us questions. Again, thank you so much for coming to the workshop!
Thank you Keiko & Ray for a wonderful hospitality. San Francisco is filled with generous and strange people. <3
Exciting news!
We did a book cover for Museyon Guides, “Art + Travel (Europe).”
They just sent us the book and it is amazing. Printed beautifully and so inspiring.
Luckily we are off to Holland in 2 weeks that I will definitely use this guide book to immerse myself with art while I’m there. If you’re planning to travel to Europe, this is a really nice guide book to pick up.
They have other series like “Film + Travel” and “Music + Travel”. These books make you want to travel all the time.
Tiny Inventions is presenting at the January meeting for After Effects New York.
We will mainly show “Electric Car” and its making of.
-Actual puppets and sets
-How to put crafted objects in an environment
-How to rig characters using puppet pins
Plus some scenes from our up-coming independent film, “Something Left, Something Taken”.
First year of submitting my film to festivals, it was a combination of VHS and DVD. (Mostly VHS)
Second year of submitting my film to festivals, it was mostly DVD. But still made over a dozen VHS tapes.
My school had Beta SP transfer set up so making tapes and submitting was rather cheap.
In 2008, when Max and I were preparing to submit “Davy Crockett in Outer Space” to festivals, the beta decks were no longer at Parsons. But festivals still wanted Beta tapes. We had to call a few video transfer places in NYC. The price had gone up so much compare to 3 years ago.
This year, we had to prepare Beta tapes for “Electric Car” and called more places wishing that there is a better place.
We found RAINBOW VIDEO!
So far the best pricing. We saved about over $200 than other places.
Plus, incredibly helpful and flexible. They even let me check the beta tapes after they were done transferring. Best price and best service. Highly recommend it.
There are many situations that remind me of how much I love to be part of the animation industry world-wide. Film festivals are awesome because you can make animation friends from other countries and share the passion for animation. Of course it’s sad to know that you won’t get to see them for awhile, but at the same time, as long as we all keep making animations, we’ll encounter each other in a few years.
It’s also encouraging to know that there are people who are going through the same emotions as you on the other side of the world.
I had a wonderful early Christmas gift last year. Dai Sato, a famous Japanime script writer, whom I worked with over the summer came to NYC again to do a research for his new film that he is writing for.
Along came Producer Emi Matsumoto from Robot (Academy-Award winning director Kato belongs to this production company)andMasaaki Yuasa (Director of Mind Game and Kaiba)! They wanted to come to my apt/ studio to check out the lives of New Yorkers.
I don’t think I have a normal living situation, being surrounded by miniature sets and absolutely no decoration. But Max and I spent an entire day to make it look somewhat “normal” and welcomed them.
It was so encouraging and inspiring to have such established people from Japanese animation industry to give us advise. What a wonderful Christmas gift that was…
P.S We also received a wonderful Christmas gift from Estonia. Lots of Estonian animations from our dear friend Janno Poldma!
Tiny Inventions has been working on Jakks Pacific’s new toy line, “Lucky Bee Bee” for over a year now. We are very excited that we can finally release some of the illustrations we’ve done.
There is not many opportunities where I can be shamelessly girly and bubbly with design and it was fun putting lots of hearts, stars and sparkles on all illustrations.
Commercials were not done by us but we were still excited to see our illustrations turned into 3D toys!
I finally brought myself to Toys”R”us in Times Square a few days ago.
The happiness that filled me up when I saw Lucky Bee Bee in the shelf was overwhelming.
I just went there to purchase a few charms and I ended up buying almost the entire shelf!
Do you know Akihabara?
It’s an electronic town in Tokyo, Japan. It’s really famous for maid cafe and comic stuff, but since I was little, it was known for electronics.
So Max and I decided to look for headphones!
What do you say? They’re huge, like earmuffs. They really keep our ears warm, too.
Very comfortable and loving them!
Info:
Max-Sony MDR-2600
Ru-Sony MDR xb-700
