Animating Apothecary - Perpetrations by Jim Middleton: 2023

Friday, September 22, 2023

Post 611 - Collage #1 - OIAF Experience

Student work here this go-around is astonishing. So is their promotion...

Sunday, September 17, 2023

Post 610 - Getting Noisy Around Here

Repurposing some 40 year old sketches - take #1

Friday, September 15, 2023

Post 609 - Random Thoughts for a Friday


Photo by Anne Middleton

The sunlit moon beckoned - to the purple door. The dogbit cat beckoned - to the purple door. The fence was the sole defense - to the purple door.

The skies grew dark, the purple remained. The breeze grew stark, the purple remained. The sound was 'round while the purple remained, but slowly opened.

The purple yielded only to the blackness until the gasp of the room exhaled into the night air. Smells of old potato chips and fortune cookies called to the weary, the curious, the hungry. A soft aroma - perfume? Aqua Velva? Aunt Bea? - surrounds all, comforts all, lures all to the darkness.

No need for flashlights, candles, unnatural illumination - just follow ahead to the green eyes at the end of the long, dark hall. Was that a lick to the back of the neck? A nip at the pant leg? A silent, massaging grasp to the arm? The purple door tells no tales, it just closes behind the latest visitor. Oh the purple door....the purple door...

Photo also by Anne Middleton

"My spine is a slinky. My paws are venom-tipped weapons of doom. I have lived nine times my nine lives and shall live another ninety-nine. You create a shelf, I shall claim it mine. You shall illuminate me from above as the god I am. I am Bastet. I am He Who Must Me Fed and Feed Me Only Shreds or Your Sheets Shall Be As Shreds. I am - oh, is that some yarn? Be right back..."

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Post 608 - Refreshing Depression - Pencil Test

Tick tock tick tock!

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Post 607 - Intro Countdown Pencil Test - Sfumato #2 - "Political Asylum"


(And Bored is the Intended Spelling)

Post 606 - Press Release for Animation Segment Documentary from "Buster Keaton: Home"

Opening Title

The Clear Vision Film production of “Home,” exploring the early life of famed comedian Buster Keaton in the Bluffton neighborhood of Muskegon, completed production in July and is making the national film festival circuits before entering broader distribution next year.

The documentary features interviews and recollections with Keaton’s grand-daughter, founders of the International Buster Keaton Society, authors of two recent biographies of the great comedian, and the graphic novelist who created a visual narrative of this pre-WWI neighborhood.

The project began in 2017, with initial filming interrupted by the pandemic until production could resume last year. Hours of interviews had to be distilled into the 90 minute film now in limited release. Internationally recognized animator Jim Middleton, now living in Edmore, was enlisted to provide additional visuals for the project as the pandemic began.

Teen Keaton Manipulates the "Clown Pole"

Comedy performer, producer, writer, and director Carl Reiner also lent his memories of Buster Keaton, as did James Karen, who appeared with Keaton on stage and in one of his last filmed performances. Their interviews were likely their own final public appearances; both passed away shortly after their segments were completed.

Jim Schaub, digital media specialist for GVSU, and Ron Pesch, whose research on Keaton’s summers in Bluffton helped motivate the film’s creation, were co-producers, with Schaub taking on the monumental task of directing and editing the hours of material into a coherent story. “Carl (Reiner) had the pull to have the street around his house cleared of vehicles and traffic for us,” related Schaub. “We showed up with our three little cars and equipment and felt like we should have brought a bigger boat.” He and Pesch were quite moved by how Reiner and Karen “were so generous with their time.”

In the years before air-conditioning, vaudeville performers took the summer months off to escape the heat, and among those were the “Three Keatons,” known for their incredible knock-about slapstick performances and, in particular, for their youngest performer, a dead-pan child named Buster. Patriarch Joe Keaton discovered Muskegon as a place where the family could get a few months rest before returning to a life lived on trains, in theaters, and out of trunks. Buster discovered the closest thing to a “home” that he would ever know.

From "Training Room" segment

Joe Keaton became a promoter for Bluffton as an “artist colony” and brokered real estate and rustic cabins for fellow vaudevillians, to the frequent delight of the local youth, who could encounter trained elephants, eccentric ball players, and elaborate practical jokes during their own summer vacation. The young Buster was able to “act like a normal kid” with them for the only time in his life.

The “Three Keatons” broke up just as Buster went on to start his film career, first with Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, and then on his own, moving from astonishing short films to stunning features that appeared throughout the 1920s.

Bluffton became a neighborhood of the expanding Muskegon, but the area still has many remnants of the Keaton family presence. Ron Pesch has been conducting tours through the region, especially in October, when the International Buster Keaton Society holds its annual meeting in Muskegon.

Keaton’s personal and professional life suffered several setbacks after the silent years, and his distanced relationship with his sons took many years to rebuild (his granddaughter confesses during her interview that she never saw his films until after he had died). Yet, whenever things were dark for him, he always found comfort in his memories of Bluffton.

Keaton reviews his trains

Many of the “talking heads” anecdotes lacked any visual reference, so Jim Middleton was enlisted to create animated segments to provide the fanciful, nostalgic, and sometimes surreal moments for the film as the “narrative arc” evolved. “It was a slight challenge to develop a storyboard without any real script for guidance,” he explained. “However, my life-long affection for Keaton’s work made finding reference material a relatively quick task. And having copies of all his surviving films in my archive helped quite a bit.”

Middleton created more material than was ultimately necessary, allowing the producers to edit where needed to fit the narration. “Once a work print was available,” he added, “I returned to my original drawings and made additional edits of my own, introducing the necessary sound effects. I just wanted to be sure there was enough material.” In fact, he created additional scenes after the principle edits were complete. “There were three main segments in the original plan, but these grew to nine, with over 3800 drawings ultimately needed. That made for about seven minutes of animation, not all of it being used.” He created a short film demonstrating his traditional hand-drawn animation process, adapted to the 4K world of 2023.

172 pencils were consumed in the making of this project. Some were used for sketching.

Middleton currently serves as secretary for ASIFA Central, a regional chapter of the international animation association founded in 1960, and has been working with film and animation since his high school days in Lakeview, Michigan. He has coordinated showings and curricula around the state for several decades and recently retired from teaching “and other distractions” to Edmore, where he continues to create films, incessantly blog, and orchestrate an annual animation celebration there each October.

More information about “Home” can be found at: http://www.busterkeatonhome.com
and Middleton's short film can be viewed on Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/796085457/16a55992f8

Coming soon to a festival near you!

Sunday, September 10, 2023

Post 605 - More Guilty Gelt Tests

Testing for pacing - it's everything everywhere all at once - so how fast should everything be? Oh the questions, the questions...


12 fps

24 fps

gold at 12fps, money at 24fps

Post 604 - Bio and Director's "Statement"

With OIAF and "Buster Keaton: Home"'s animation in the can, it's time for that festival circuit and the usual questions:

Animation Bio
From a time before AP art, when creativity was a ceramic ashtray, Jim taught himself animation at 14, learned a trade by 22, and has been integrating science, history, and animation in his work for most of his life. Once he was comfortable enough to share his knowledge, he began a parallel career as an educator, creating and enhancing programs in animation and the sciences. Now retired from jobs, he can focus on his work, living in the childhood backyards of Winsor McCay. He finds true delight with his involvement with ASIFA, serving as secretary for the ASIFA Central chapter in Michigan.

Director's Statement
Find the story within and express it in a universal truth. Raise as many questions as you answer. As you ascend a staircase, with each stumble you gain wisdom. Keep your coffee warm and your cookies within arm's reach. Create pithy platitudes. If you cannot be interesting, have your life serve as a lesson to others.

I should really take these things more seriously. But, then, I have to read them, too.