5 for 5

wow.

shel here:

big night. GLD won it's 4th and 5th awards at two different fests tonight. International Family Film Fest in Hollywood, and Beverly Hills Short Film Fest. Good friend Robert Litton (composer extrodinaire) and Aedie came along to make it even more cool.

wow.
at IFFF we won the award for BEST ANIMATED SHORT for the COMPUTER ANIMATION CATAGORY ?? (interestingly, a lovely looking CG film "The Girl Who Cried Tears" won the best CLASSICAL ANIMATION category.......). The awards ceremony here was very fancy (that's a telepromter in front of justin's face there--though our part wasn't scripted!), not our fav scene, but we were truly grateful for the recognition (and embarrassed, but not completely sorry that we had to leave early to make it to the next ceremony across town).
at BEV HILLS FEST, which, ironically, was not at all fancy, but casual, friendly, and (because it was more our jeans and t-shirt style) very comfy; we won the juried BEST ANIMATED SHORT category. this one really floored me because the quality of the films we were up against was admireably high. after watching the Animation Block on friday night i just felt proud to be included with the other films (notably this time the films ANIMATED AMERICAN, HAMMERFISTS OF FURY and TOUMAI). when they called our name i actually teared up a bit.....i just wasn't expecting it (and 5 out of 5 is just too much to believe....right?)
animated americanhammerfists of furytoumai

okay, and not only that but, Saturday night we got to see the premiere of MYTHIC JOURNEYS the film that Michael Granberry animated and hooked justin up to do a few shots for as well. Filmakers Steve and Whitney Boe are another husband/wife team, who FOLLOWED THEIR DREAM, took big risks and made a feature documentary film (with a very cool short animated film within it!) about myths and their importance in our world today. this film is spouting the kind of ideas that taken to heart will make the world a better place. BIG IMPORTANT INSPIRING STUFF! (that's michael's awesome tree girl puppet there--my favorite part of the animation in Mythic Journeys).

and SPEAKING OF INSPIRING! last week mark caballero and seamus walsh over at SCREEN NOVELTIES gave me a tour of their amazing stop motion creation factory. i felt like charlie in the chocolate factory! everyone was so generous with info, and suggestions, and advice from foaming to armatures, sets and props.......i went in not even knowing what questions to start with for how i was going to go about building two spaceships and a sand planet set........ and i came out with a millions ideas about not only that but more......i feel like i could burst from inspiration and just wish there were more hours in each day.

meanwhile, justin is busting out exciting storyboards, more panels everynight, and i'm painting our army of happy flea pilots.......
whew!!!

and most important of all this weekend, the people......we got to see Michael Granberry(animator), Dick Kaneshiro (moco machine maveric), and Leo Gotlibowski (prop/set magician) and his truly lovely wife Hannie and adorable son Noah, at the Mythic Journeys screening. and hanging out with Robert Litton is always a kick.....and we met some fine animators at the screening and the Bev Hills fest.....the biggest blessing of all is the cool friendships we've made throughout this whole process....
it's almost too much cool to digest.