By the early afternoon on October 16, the Vermont Animation Festival was officially underway. Festivities included a Hand Drawn Film Workshop at 1 pm in Harvey 131, the gallery opening of Origins of the Moving Image in the Quimby Gallery at 6 pm, and the highlight of the evening: Animation Screenings in the Alexander Twilight Theatre at 7 pm. It was a full day of animation activities.
During the Hand Drawn Film Workshop, professor Robby Gilbert instructed a group on the basics of 16mm film projection, and cut each person a length of clear 16mm film. Participants then drew animations frame-by-frame on the film. A compilation of their film strips was shown for the first time at the Animation Screenings later the same night.
The gallery opening of Origins of the Moving Image primarily featured work by Northern Vermont University-Lyndon students and period pieces. The show focused on various devices used in the past to produce moving images, or the illusion of animation. This included a section of zoetropes, praxinoscopes, flip books, an area for silhouette puppet theater, and a looping movie projection. Viewers were invited to make their own zoetrope strips or act out their own puppet play.
In the theater, at 7 pm, the Animation Screenings began. Guest artist and speaker, Lynn Tomlinson presented and discussed her life as an animator and her animation techniques. Lynn primarily uses clay as her medium of choice and provided the audience with examples of her works-in-progress and her early work, before showing two of her more recent animations. The Ballad of Holland Island House, a first prize winner in the Greenpeace Postcards from Climate Change Student Academy Award finals, was also shown at the Vermont Animation Festival last year and is available for viewing online. Her featured piece, The Elephant Song, is currently playing in festivals across the world and was awarded best of festival at the Peekskill Film Festival this year.
When Tomlinson concluded her presentation, a student work screening began. This included work from both NVU-Lyndon students and students from other colleges in the northeast. Mediums of work included 3D, digital, puppet silhouette, paper cutouts, and live-action animation compilations, among others. The screening concluded with the first ever public appearance of NVU-Lyndon’s Animation/Illustration Workshop’s student film, The Transformation.
Origins of the Moving Image will be showing until October 26th in the Quimby Gallery (open 8 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday). Lynn Tomlinson’s work can be found at her website or viewed on Vimeo.
The Vermont Animation festival is a yearly event, held in October. More information about it and future festivals may be found at the following website.