Shannon Muir’s Take on the Animation World

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held tonight a lecture and showing of four shorts (three nominated and one winner) by Canadian female animators.  It was an incredible diverse evening, from work directly to cel to paint pushed under the camera to oils/rotoscoping to traditional 2D.  The four were THE TENDER TALE OF CINDERELLA PENGUIN (directed by Janet Perlman), THE STREET (Caroline Leaf), WHEN THE DAY BREAKS (Amanda Tilby and Amanda Forbis) and THE DANISH POET (Torrill Kove).  I think my favorite of the four was THE DANISH POET. 

If you haven’t seen this, do!  I admit foreign animation is relatively new to me (at least non-Japanese ones, the only other one I’ve seen is the TRIPLETS OF BELVILLE), but this is so amazing on so many levels.  Persepolis is good story and character, and even more powerful is that it is based on a autobiographical graphic novel from one of the two people behind the film.  It follows the true story of her growing up during the overthrow of the Shah in Iran and the times forward.  I saw it in its native French in subtitles as well (and I struggle with subtitles) yet I could follow everything about it.  I don’t want to give away more save that it is one of the most incredible animated films I’ve seen this year.

I’m now in a position where I can begin offering script and concept review services again, if there’s anyone out there that’s interested. More details at my website — http://www.shannon-muir.com

I’ve disappeared from all the Amazon lists now, because being out for 3 months one’s no longer a “new release”. But I’m been pleased with the response to date.
I’d love to hear from people who have read the book, and what they think.

I’ve been invited to be one of the guest speakers at Anime Los Angeles, happening January 4-6, 2008, in Burbank, California at the Burbank Marriott Hotel and Convention Center. There I’ll be talking about animation writing and production, the topics discussed in my book GARDNER’S GUIDE TO WRITING AND PRODUCING ANIMATION.
My bio on the site is here:
http://www.animelosangeles.org/ala/content/view/88/42/

I’ll let you know when the official program schedule is announced so you know where to find me and what all else is happening at this convention. I look forward to meeting those of you who can come!

In all the information that’s gone out about GARDNER’S GUIDE TO WRITING AND PRODUCING ANIMATION, one thing that hasn’t been emphasized enough is the Spotlight Interviews from professionals throughout the industry.  These people were gracious enough to give their time and expertise and I want to publicly thank each of them for their time.

 The full list of interviewees, in alphabetical order, is:

* Jack Angel, Voice Actor
* Monique Beatty, Line Producer
* Jerry Beck, Producer/Animation Historian
* Larry DiTillio, Story Editor/Writer
* Michael Donovan, Voice Director
* John Grusd, Director
* Marc Handler, ADR Story Editor/Writer
* Carl Johnson, Composer
* Bill Koepnik, co-owner of audio post house Advantage Audio
* Christy Marx, Story Editor/Writer
* Jan Nagel, Marketing Diva
* Josh Prikryl, Overseas Supervisor
* Sander Schwartz, Studio Executive
* Tad Stones, Producer
* Brooks Wachtel, Story Editor/Writer
* Greg Weisman, Producer/ Story Editor/Writer
* Robert Winthrop, Producer
* Tim Yoon, Production Manager

Again, thank you all for your contributions!

Just also brought to my attention that I am now in the Entertainment> Movies> Screenwriting section of Amazon’s Hot New Releases where I now rank at #10!  Wow…
http://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/books/4500

If you’ve wanted to know more about the book than Amazon offers, check out the publisher’s site where I’m now the front page feature (with the final cover shown, FYI, Amazon is wrong):

http://www.ggcinc.com/

If you click on the list of the featured books, you’ll have to scroll down to find the full writeup which includes reviews by several people of the book (also found on the back of the book). Check out what they have to say!

A lot of my time right now is focused on the AWN Media Center at media.awn.com.  I’m helping process new material, plus working with the technical team to make sure that viewers have the best possible experience.

As more things happen, I’ll keep you posted.

I may have slipped back under 500,000 and down the new release rankings and that’s ok.  To even be briefly where I was on Amazon in the US was stunning.

But this is too much.

Granted, I do NOT know how much Amazon stocks at a given time.  But it is not quite September and since the book came out the last week in JULY they are REORDERING FOR A SECOND TIME with “1 left in stock”.   That’s at best 30 days for what is arguably a niche book.

I am just flat out gratefully stunned.