Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Walter Lantz - The Cartoon Director

Here's a cool "behind the scenes" video I came across on a newsgroup, detailing the duties of the cartoon director.

12 comments:

Mark Mayerson said...

This is great, Kevin. Can we assume that the director is Paul Smith? I think that in the first shot of the crew, it's Homer Brightman talking to whoever the director is. Can you identify anybody else?

Thad said...

I love these segments.

And yes, those two are Paul Smith and Homer Brightman I believe.

And that's Don Patterson's animation at the very end.

Kevin Langley said...

I figured that was Paul Smith but other than him and Walter Lantz I had no idea who anyone else was. Thanks guys.

Danne8a said...

thanks for posting this, Kevin!
I love walter lantz cartoons and it's very interesting to see some of these segments!
BTW, I love your art and animation as well!
You seem very serious at creating golden age animation in this day and age and that is truely commendable!

Cheers!

Danny8a

Kevin Langley said...

Thanks for compliment Danny. BTW, "The Problem" is totally sick and hilarious. Nice job.

Gabriel said...

i loved that clip. I don't understand that timing sheet, though. What are those arcs the guy is drawing? Do they represent a specific number of frames, 24 maybe? Please explain it to me someone!

Kevin Langley said...

Hi Gabriel, I'm not exactly sure what he's notating there. Just by looking at it though I'm going to guess he's just marking how many measures a particular scene is going to last.

JohnK said...

It's Alex Lovy

I worked for him.

Kevin Langley said...

It's Alex Lovy
I worked for him.


Oh thanks, John. Really? I didn't know that. At what studio? Anything in particular that stuck with you about the time you worked for him?

Jono said...

hey thanks for the great video.
i love this stuff.
following john k's threads an particularily interested in the cartoonists as writers battle.
this was a nice demo of the artist being the initial driving force behind the story.

love the cheezy grin at the end...im going home to practice that.

Anonymous said...

I can confirm that the man in the first scene is my grandfather, Homer Brightman. He was responsible for around 100 Woody Woodpecker cartoons while he was working for Walter Lantz.

Harry said...

Hi Annonymous 6/15/2009. Thanks for identifying Homer Brightman. I've always been wondering what he looked like. For some reason my Aunt Mabelle had a "thing" for him. I don't know if they ever dated or what, but whenever his name was mentionted my uncle would get quite annoyed. They lived in Tucson/Phoenix/Williams, AZ area from about 1940 or so. Possibly went to same school together?? Anyway, for some reason his name has always rattled around in my head and know that knowing he was so involved in Walter Lantz stuff and I think also Donald Duck I'm quite impressed. Donald and I share the same birthday, although he is somewhat older than I. Harry - Kerrville, TX