Written by Rosie Felice and Laurent Rejto
Wikipedia states that: “Animated films share some film crew positions with regular live action films, such as director, producer, sound engineer, and editor, but differ radically in that for most of the history of animation, they did not need most of the crew positions seen on a physical set.”
They also share the use of actors for voice over, but essentially, a lot of animators have the ability to work in solitude, which makes their work somewhat unique in an industry that generally relies on large crews, and actors, to produce content.
For this post, we spoke to local animators Joy + Noelle, Lisa Thomas and Christine Pfister about how they have been able to work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
JOY + NOELLE
Joy Buran and Noelle Melody are twin sister animators whose work ranges from hand drawn illustrations for children’s books and greeting cards to creating animation for clients such as Amazon Studios and Nickelodeon.
The pair have been collaborating remotely from their respective locations over the past several months, with Joy based in Queens and Noelle based in Kingston. On their current work process, Noelle said, “We do miss being able to visit each other and work together in person, which is way more fun than Google Hangouts, but we make due. Every morning we have our coffee, discuss our goals for the day, and are able to send files back and forth on Dropbox as needed.”
During the pandemic, the sisters kept busy animating a short film directed by Robin Sindler. “‘This Just Speaks to Me,’ shows scenes of daily life with covid,” wrote Noelle about the project, “If you've done any rooftop yoga, drive-by birthdays, or social distant hangs, this will speak to you!” Click to watch.
Joy + Noelle also created a promotional social media animation for Jay Teske Leather Co., which beautifully depicts the Kingston Waterfront and the feel of a Hudson Valley winter.
“We created a little looping animation of the beautiful historic storefronts decked out for the holidays, snowflakes falling, lights twinkling, and pine trees tied up on car roofs as shoppers made their way up and down the street...you know, your basic dream project!” writes Noelle. “ It hopefully captured the magic of holiday shopping along the Kingston Waterfront and encouraged people to shop small and local this season.” Click to watch
For more, visit JOY + NOELLE
LISA THOMAS
Catskill based Lisa M. Thomas has deep roots in producing animation with credits including “Wonder Showzen,” “Ugly Americans,” and “The Shivering Truth.” Her newest half-hour animated series, “Teenage Euthanasia,” is a dystopic coming-of-all-ages, dark comedy about death, family and accidental resurrection, coming to Adult Swim in 2021, starring Maria Bamford, Jo Firestone, Tim Robinson and Bebe Neuwirth.
In order to get the green light on “Teenage Euthanasia,” the producers agreed with SAG and the network to record the entire cast of the series completely remotely sending audio kits directly into actors homes to adhere to all the new safety COVID guidelines. Over 15 audio kits were built and shipped around the country to accommodate the more than one-hundred recordings that were scheduled since October. The production is currently in its final week of recordings, which series audio engineer and mixer Paul Furedi called "nothing short of a miracle."
Lisa also recently directed and produced the music video “Candy Store” for the Dust Bowl Faeries. Based on a traditional Yiddish folk song, “Candy Store” is the first single released from New York-based cabaret-inspired indie rock band’s latest album, The Plague Garden. Filmed in August 2020 in Catskill, NY, the video features the historic Mayflower Confectionery candy store, restored to its original state by set designer Jesika Farkas. “We brought back all the former details of the one time candy shoppe down to the original candy cases, fixtures and lights," said director Lisa Thomas. "It was so authentic that the locals of Catskill kept stopping in to try to buy candy.”
CHRISTINE PFISTER
Christine Pfister is a stop-motion animator, art director and prop fabricator based in Craryville NY. Using methods of fabrication typically deemed women’s work, she strives to create fully hand-made films for her own practice. Usually very funny and horrifying by nature, her pieces reflect on human nature with a strong focus on sci-fi dreamscapes, hallucinations, womanhood, memory tricks and decay.
With intentions of full sustainability and through the use of upcycled and recycled materials (plastics, card stock, textiles, threads, garlic peels, clementine peels and clay) she finds most pleasure in giving a second life to materials, and mixing these mediums. The end result being a series of miniature sculptures with their own defined actions and movements; from moths with garlic peel wings and furry threaded bodies, to lab rats made of old wig clippings and lab coats of fabric samples.
COVID, though emotionally exhausting and taxing as it had been for us all, has not had too large an impact on her work- the tediousness and time required to build her animations forces her to be isolated and socially distant even without the mandates of quarantine.
Currently on window display at the Athens Cultural Society, as a part of the ‘A Winter’s Tale Show,’ which features a hand carved mountain made of styrofoam packaging and miniature houses made of recycled paper, the show also features “Ghoul Log,” a film directed, animated, and starring Christine that debuted as a part of Beck Underwood’s Advent Calendar and Creepy Christmas Film Festival.
In recent years she has made live action sets entirely out of cardboard for the Karate Tortoise series by Spooked Horse, made steamy animated sex dreams for feature film “MAD?” directed by Saskia Rifkin, and directed a music video for Eleanor Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces.
For more, please visit www.christinepfister.com
Stay tuned for more news about Mid- Hudson Valley filmmakers.
The Hudson Valley Film Commission is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization that helps productions secure local crew, cast, locations, vendors, post production facilities, and more! Since 2000, the film commission has supported and worked on over 500 productions, helping to create thousands of jobs and over $250 million in regional economic development. The Hudson Valley Film Commission is supported in part by Dutchess Tourism, Markertek, Putnam County and the Wood Dock Foundation.
Please support our efforts with a tax-deductible contribution @ hudsonvalleyfilmcommission.org/support