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A Week In the Life of a Workshopper
What’s it like being a workshopper? We asked
Ewan Innes to record some of his thoughts
when he came to the studios in February.
Here’s his diary...
It all started on 23 January, when my Mum
received a telephone call from HTV saying
that they wanted me to appear on Rolf’s
Cartoon Club. At that moment I was at my
boarding school in Fleetwood. My Mum
promptly came up in the car and told me
about it.
A letter arrived at home containing all sorts of
details about where I'd be staying and when I'd
be working and what I should wear, but I didn’t
hear about it again until 19 February, the day
before I was due to go down to Bristol. The
next day we travelled down to Temple Meads
station in Bristol.
When we arrived at HTV I met Mary Crompton
the lady who was to look after us for the next
four days. I met Chris (one of the animation
tutors) and some of the other boys and girls in
the workshop.
The next day we were split into two groups.
One group worked on animation for prog-
ramme 20, while the other group worked on
animation for programme 22. I did an anima-
tion film called Wiz on a computer. I made up
my own character. The other boys and girls
used all different types of animation such as
plasticine models and pin-art.
The fire alarm went off and we were led
outside. Rolf came out with a two-stepped
ladder and said "If anybody‘s still inside l’lI
save them!"
The next day was filming day. ln the morning
the first group went to film while the other
group worked on some animation.
At 3.00 we swapped around. I went with my
group onto the set and set up. Then it started.
Rolf came round and talked to us individually
about what we were doing.
At 6.30 we all went for tea. Rolf came along
and we all got his autograph as well as Doug
Wilcox, the director of Rolf’s Cartoon Club
and Wendy Keay Bright, the runner of the
workshop and also Chris and Graham, the two
on hand professional animators.
We were to come in the next day to do the
sound effects.
We arrived at the studio and went straight in.
We spent the rest of the morning doing the
sound effects, until it was time to go.
It was a sad feeling to go after such a lovely
week - but life must go on!
You can see Ewan’s work on programme 22 on
May 30.
WARNER BROS. COMPETITION WINNER
In the last issue we asked you to calculate,
from a list of cartoons screened in Series
One, how many were produced by Warner
Bros.
The correct answer was 30 and the first
correct entry pulled out of RoIf’s hat was a
cork with the number 30 on it! However we
disqualified that and the next correct entry
came from:-
Mary Jane Opie (019188) from London. She
wins a fantastic Tasmanian Devil T-shirt!
You're the Best! - That’s Official!
HERE’S YOUR CHANCE TO PROVE IT BY
BECOMING A JUDGE AT THIS YEAR’S
BRITISH ANIMATION AWARDS
Six members of Rolf‘s Cartoon Club will be the
official judges for two top prizes at this year’s
British Animation Awards.
The two awards, both sponsored by The Obser-
ver, will be for the best single animated film for
children, and the best animated series for child-
ren, produced in Britain between September
1988 and August 1990.
At the special request of the British Animation
Awards Advisory Committee (all top profes-
sionals within the animation industry) Rolf‘s
Cartoon Club has been asked to provide from its
membership six young judges.
These lucky six will have an all expenses paid
weekend in Bristol to view and judge the nomin-
ated films. They will also receive invitations to
the Awards ceremony itself in Cardiff on Novem-
ber 29th, where we hope Rolf will be presenting
the awards.
This is thought to be the first time ever, at a
prestigious awards event that films made for
children have been nominated and judged by
children!
So, can you do it? We are looking for only six
judges - two aged 7, 8 or 9, two aged 10 or 11 and
two aged 12 or 13. The lucky winners will judge
examples of animation produced in Britain
over the last two years. That means we will not
be asking you what you think of anything that’s
made in America or anywhere else for that
matter other than in Britain. That’s why they’re
called the British Animation Awards, as a
celebration of the work of British animators.
Here’s what to do....
If you would like to be considered as a judge this
is what you should do:
WRITE A REVIEW OF AT LEAST 50 BUT NO
MORE THAN 100 WORDS of any animated film
or series that you have seen over the last two
years, on television or at the cinema or on video.
You can write about animation from anywhere,
since at this stage we want to see whether you
can describe what you’ve seen and explain your
likes and dislikes. You’ll probably find it easier to
write about something you really like, but don’t
be afraid to be critical and compare films if you
think it makes things clearer.
On the same piece of paper you should write,
clearly, your name, address, telephone number,
your age and your membership number.
Send it to: BAA Judges, RoIf’s Cartoon Club, PO
Box 60 BRISTOL BS99 7HN.
The initial entries will be judged by-Peter Curtis,
Associate Producer of RoIf’s Cartoon Club,
Martin Lamb, Newsletter Editor and Michelle
Miles, Cartoon Club Co-Ordinator. Then, from a
short list of 60, the Advisory Committee of the
British Animation Awards will select the six lucky
members to be official judges. THE CLOSING
DATE FOR ENTRIES IS FRIDAY 13TH JULY
1990.
The winners will be invited to Bristol on one
weekend in September to judge the films.
RARG, by Tony Collingwood.
Tony’s marvellous film won one of the children’s awards at
the last British Animation Awards. The film is now out on
video (Palace Video £7.99) and we hope that Tony can be
one of our guest animators on the next series which begins
in September.
The Cartoon Club Bookshelf
News of some recently received books on
animation and cartooning.
CHUCK AMUCK is the autobiography of one
of the all-time great animators, Chuck
Jones. As you might expect, it’s not a
conventional biography, more a collection
of memories and reminiscences with many
sections on how particular cartoons were
produced. You may have to find a bookshop
who will import the book from America for
you. The details are: published by Farrar
Straus Giroux, New York at $24.95 (which
means it may cost you around £20).
ANIMATION FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN is
by Shamus Culhane. The man who animated
the dwarves’ march in Snow White, Pluto and
many other characters has written a manual
on animation that will be hard to beat. The
joy is that he writes as well as he draws so
everything is clear and understandable. It’s
bound to become essential reading for
anyone seriously interested in studying
animation. Published by Columbus at £10.95
HOW TO DRAW CARTOONS FOR COMIC
STRIPS is an American book published by
Watson Guptil, New York but distributed
here by Phaidon, priced at £12.95. The
author, Christopher Hart studied art in the
Disney training programme at CaIArts and
his book has the great virtue of illustrating
everything that’s being described. It looks I
extremely simple but it’s a book brimming
over with good advice on the principles of
drawing cartoon characters.
CARTOON FUN by Frank Rodgers is from
Scholastic Publications, price £5.95. It’s a
colourful guide to creating your own cartoon
characters.
THE ART OF HANNA BARBERA, by Ted
Sennett is, surprisingly, the first book to be
published on one of the most successful
and creative teams in American animation
history. Here, with over 350 colour
illustrations, is the story behind the creators
of Tom & Jerry, Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear,
Top Cat and so many more. Ted Sennett’s
text explains the evolution and development
of all the great Hanna Barbera characters
and includes a useful chronolgy of all the
series and features. This is what you call a
coffee table book - if you screwed four legs
into it, it would make a solid table, it’s that
big! It’s published by Viking at £20.00, but
it’s worth it.
Finally, a word on Rolf’s latest publications.
For THE ADVENTURES OF MAURICE MINI
MINOR Rolf has provided all the
illustrations. The books are designed for
young readers and all the characters are
different makes of cars. There are four
books so far, they are published by Picture
Knight at £1.50 each. .
Rolf’s Cartoon Club Newsletter is designed and published by HTV West, Bath Road, Bristol, BS4 BHG