Jeremy A. Galante

Festival Update: Keenan at Sea

jeremygalante — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 22:38:02 +0000

It’s been a banner year for “Keenan at Sea”, and after our New York screenings at the 360/365 Film Festival in Rochester and kidsfilmfest in Brooklyn, this fall looks like another exciting season for The Girls and their trusty/hungry canine companion. Here are some upcoming screenings to watch out for:

The Prince Edward Island International Film Festival

Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, Friday, September 9th

The Independents’ Film Festival

Tampa, FL, Saturday, September 17th

The Route 66 International Film Festival

Springfield, IL, Sunday, September 18th

The Ottawa International Animation Festival

Ottawa, ON, Canada, Saturday, September 24th

The Philadelphia Film and Animation Festival

Philadelphia, PA, September 29th- October 2nd

The Cincinnati Film Festival

Cincinnati, OH, September 29th-October 2nd

The Poppy Jasper Film Festival

Morgan Hill, CA, October 14th-16th

The SoDak Animation Festival

Brookings, SD, October 20th-22nd

The Rockport Film Festival

Rockport, TX, November 3rd-5th

And beginning next year, Keenan will be screening as part of the Worldkids Foundation “Lessons in the Dark” series in Mumbai, India.

(Baby) It’s You!

jeremygalante — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:17:56 +0000

Well, it’s finally finished! Check out the new epic short just released this July, directed by David Cowles, Brad Pattullo, and myself! Featuring music by Danny Shonerd and The Boys. Also including the puppet wardrobe by Victoria Rose Zalewski and additional help from Michael A. Genz and Rob Sassi! More details to come… but for now- check out the official blog:

(Baby) It’s a Blog!

The Girls- Winter Wonderland

jeremygalante — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:02:54 +0000

It may be the end of the holiday season, but the winter wonderland outside is far from over. In case you missed it, The Girls filmed their rendition of the holiday classic, placing themselves in the thick of it with the help of a trusty, well-lit green screen. I had the cool task of compositing the layers together. Here’s the finished piece, with a few step-by-step clips:

Keenan at Sea- Animatic and Behind the Scenes

jeremygalante — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:57:23 +0000

Kicking off production for “Keenan at Sea” took a considerable amount of time. We knew what we wanted, but we were too overwhelmed with the different types of approaches we could use, each with its own set of pros and cons. Should we shoot flat with cut paper? Should we build and green screen real puppets? Should we model puppets in 3D and try to make them look like we built real puppets? Far too many options, and by spring, enough time had already been spent figuring out the most efficient way to move on. We knew we wanted a cut-paper look and we were all drawn towards the variety of textures available to mimic something with depth… so at last we decided to go all-out-After-Effects, and finished production by November.

But in case you’re curious, here were some of those early crude tests with less-than-desirable results:

Introducing… “Keenan at Sea” by The Girls!

jeremygalante — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:11:31 +0000

“Keenan at Sea” is the latest music video by The Girls, Alison Cowles and Mikaela Davis, and directed by myself and David Cowles, with special thanks to Janis Dougherty. Dave and I began work on it back in the winter of 2009, and had pieced it together in our spare time over the course of 2010. We knew from the beginning that we wanted some sort of puppet look, but the shadow box atmosphere wasn’t completely settled until May, when Janis and I began to really explore the use of scanned textures, a style utilized in much of Dave’s work as well. From there, we were finally ready to hit the ground running. Watch and enjoy!

UPDATE: Check it out on CartoonBrew!

Shot 01, Dog At Door

jeremygalante — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 04:52:23 +0000

December 1st marked the submission deadline for shots in the Guard Dog Global Jam. The final collaboration has yet to be seen, but previews have so far demonstrated a tremendously diverse and talented display of styles from animators around the world. Now, I’m happy to present my own finalized shot, Shot 01- Dog At Door!

And special thanks to Ken Mora of Bella Fe Films, Plymptoons’ project producer Desiree Stavracos, and of course Bill himself for cooking up the whole plan.

Chagrin Falls Welcomes Home Toy Story 3 Director Lee Unkrich

jeremygalante — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 22:54:36 +0000

My alma mater, Chagrin Falls High School, welcomed home Pixar’s Lee Unkrich (class of ’85) over homecoming weekend, where he hosted an exclusive screening of his latest film, Toy Story 3. With an extensive background in editing, Unkrich has been with Pixar since the beginning, having had a hand in the production of nearly each of the studio’s films, as well as co-directing the modern animated classics Monsters Inc., Toy Story 2, and Finding Nemo. His accomplishments were recognized by an induction into the Chagrin Falls Schools’ Achievement Hall of Fame the previous evening.

Lee Unkrich at Trifles Bistro and Bar

The screening was followed by a Q and A, where he acknowledged the pressure of making a sequel to an already successful series. He stressed the importance of research and development for any scene and situation, and how to eventually arrive at the appropriate personalities for new characters and their interactions with familiar ones. Unkrich went on to describe his overall role and experience while working with the Pixar crew, and of course offered some critical advice to aspiring animators. Afterwards, Unkrich met for a reception at Ken Koprowski’s Trifles Bistro and Bar. He went on to discuss his role in the industry and shared his impression of the updated high school campus with moments of general hometown reminiscing. Special thanks to the CFHS Alumni Association and Brian McKenna for putting it all together!

Click below to have a look (but sorry… I still need to boost the audio)!

Digital Dogfood!

jeremygalante — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 23:46:34 +0000

Bill Plympton’s Guard Dog Global Jam is well underway, and I’ve been granted the tremendous privilege/pressure of animating the opening shot. The Global Jam is based off of Bill’s award winning short, “Guard Dog”, and is a collaborative effort to reanimate the film, shot by shot. All 70 shots have been divvied out to 70 animators from around the world. Everybody is free to re-animate the shot in any way they choose, maintaining the original soundtrack, resulting in a diverse mashup of styles. I viewed this as a great opportunity to try something new, considering we each have three months to animate just a few seconds. So rather than do my usual After Effects/Flash hybrid approach, I’m giving the Photoshop animation feature a shot and attempting to simulate a stop-motion animated mosaic of scanned bits of dog food. Here’s a still of what I have in mind. Should be interesting!

Shot #1, Guard Dog Global Jam

Cartoon Brew has some commentary on the project, or check it out directly to the Plymptoons source.

Here’s a clip of the original film, including the shot I’ve been assigned to.

“Cells” Selected to Screen at 2010 Ottawa Animation Fest

jeremygalante — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:45:00 +0000

As you can imagine, this is pretty awesome news! I typically head up to the great white north for the Ottawa International Animation Festival every year with my students to catch a retrospective of the latest animated films. And this year, I’m happy to say that “Cells” has been chosen to make it’s Canadian premiere in the “TV for Kids” category! It will be screening at 11:00 am Saturday, October 23, in the Museum of Civilization, just across the river in Quebec. Hope to seeya there!

Click here for a list of the other 2010 selections.

: OIAF 2010 Poster, designed by Andrea Stokes

Roma nel luglio!

jeremygalante — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 14:47:49 +0000

Here are some samples from my July summer art excursion to Rome. I’ll post more later. We stayed in an unbelievable 800 year old flat above a church, right off the Tiber river, for an entire month! Nothing short of amazing.

View from Basilica di San Bartolomeo all'Isola

Castel Sant'Angelo

Piazza Trilussa, Trastevere

Via del Gonfalone, Apartment Entrance