Bill Plympton's Three Rules for Making Short Films

Bill Plympton presented his three rules for making successful short films during PISAF. He calls it 'Plympton's Dogma'. Maybe it can be of use to an aspiring short film maker out there.

Make the film:

1. Short. Anything longer than 5 minutes is difficult to sell.
2. Cheap. He keeps a limit of $1,000 per minute. This way it's easy to make your money back. This is also why he sticks to hand drawn animation.
3. Funny. Funnier films are much more fun and easier to sell than serious ones.

I don't know the cost of the student films presented at PISAF, but the shortest and funniest films seemed to get the most positive reaction out of the audience. Many films were so long and gloomy.

By the way, the image is the back of a postcard that Plympton drew his short film's dog on for all the audience members after his presentation.

PISAF Recap

The 9th Puchon International Student Animation Festival comes to an end today. I was able to make it two of the days. In case you couldn't go, here is just a small fraction of what you missed.There were hours and hours of screenings of student films and animated films from all around the world. The student films were a good way to get a sneak peak at some of the future leaders in animation. Also, it's a good way to take notes on the audience reacting to several different films.There were International special guests such as Bill Plympton, a very successful independent animated filmmaker from the United States. He screened many of his short films, shared short stories, gave the audience some useful tips and some drawing lessons. Afterwards, he gave everybody a Bill Plympton drawing of his popular pug character.
Takayuki Matsutani, President of Tezuka Productions of Japan screened the openings to Atom (Astro Boy) throughout its various revivals as well as the short film The Legend of the Forest. All animators should watch The Legend of the Forest for a visual history lesson of animation techniques. He gave a humorous drawing lesson as well.
And the PISAF mascots were also on hand to make trouble. Which mascot do you prefer? This year's simple shaped creature or another year's wacky dog?

9th Puchon International Student Animation Festival (PISAF 2007)

The 9th Puchon International Student Animation Festival (PISAF) is just around the corner!

This looks worth checking out.
Scheduled are many screenings of animations by students and professionals from around the world. Even a screening of the original animated Transformers will be shown. I'm personally looking forward to the Tezuka Osamu Special which will show all the Atom (Astro Boy) openings and more.
In addition to the screenings, there are also workshops, sessions with industry insiders, and a book fair tailored specifically for animation people like you and me. Everybody will be there! If you are interested in learning more about animation in Korea, I think this festival will be a good chance to do just that.

Here's some more details:

When: November 2nd (Fri.) - 6th (Tue.), 2007
Where: Boksagol Cultural Center, Bucheon, Korea (Bucheon is accessible via the Seoul subway system.)
Promoter: PISAF Committee Office
Supervision: Korean Society of Cartoon and Animation Studies
Website: www.pisaf.or.kr

Telephone: +82-32-325-2061~2

If you don't go, you may end up feeling like this cat! This cat and other images were taken from the PISAF 2007 poster which can be downloaded from the PISAF website. It is a good place to learn much more.

I'm going to leave this post up today and over the weekend. Come back Monday for a new post. I have plenty more up my sleeve!