CALLING FOR `MORE'; ACADEMY CITES CALARTS GRADUATE.Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer A CalArts grad used donated camera equipment and film stock to create an animated movie that won a prize at the recent Sundance Film Festival and, on Tuesday, an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short. Who could ask for anything ``More''? Mark Osborne Mark Anatole Osborne (born August 13, 1961 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian ice hockey player, playing in the NHL as a checking winger between 1982 and 1995. Osborne played in 919 games, tallying 212 goals and 531 points. was jittery with anticipation of the 5:30 a.m. announcement, anxious to learn whether his six-minute creation, ``More,'' would be worthy of attention from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. ``I went to bed at 2 a.m. and I got up at 4, so I was pretty restless. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep,'' said Osborne, who teaches experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts California Institute of the Arts known as CalArts U.S. private institution of higher learning in Valencia. Created in 1961 through the merger of two other art institutes, it was the first in the U.S. . ``My wife and my baby got up with me. We all kind of paced.'' Eight minutes later, while scanning the Oscars' official Web site, Osborne saw his name posted among the nominees. ``More'' is the tale of a workplace drone who yearns for something better. He creates magical goggles goggles, n the protective eyewear worn by dental personnel and patients during dental procedures. goggles see periocular leukotrichia. that transport him - at least figuratively - to a lovely, colorful place, thus enabling him ``to exist in his otherwise depressing world,'' the filmmaker said. ``He works in this factory in this really gray, depressing cityscape (company) CityScape - A re-seller of Internet connections to the PIPEX backbone. E-Mail: <sales@cityscape.co.uk>. Address: CityScape Internet Services, 59 Wycliffe Rd., Cambridge, CB1 3JE, England. Telephone: +44 (1223) 566 950. , but he goes home at night and literally has this fire in his belly,'' Osborne said. ``It's about me kind of being tired of having to work for `the man.' '' The 1992 CalArts graduate shot ``More'' in the giant-screen format of 70mm film, the same size used in IMAX IMAX Noun a film projection process that produces an image ten times larger than standard movies. It is the first stop-motion film created for the 70mm format. Instead of hand-drawn images used in cartoons, stop-motion animation The original technique used to create an animated sequence. Each frame is created and photographed (or digitized) independently. Contrast with computer animation. See claymation. frequently involves puppets, clay figures or other poseable subjects, and is shot one frame at a time. Osborne created the movie's sets and characters - the latter fashioned from latex, clay and wire - at his studio in Eagle Rock, and then shot the film at CalArts. ``I used a clay head so I could create facial expressions,'' he explained. There is no dialogue in ``More,'' which instead is set to a 1985 instrumental song, ``Elegia,'' by the British band Chief Black Hawk's Band of 1832, commonly referred to as the "British Band", was a group of Native Americans which fought the Illinois State and Michigan Territory militias during the 1832 Black Hawk War. New Order. A native of Woodstock, Vt., Osborne began art school at the Pratt Institute Pratt Institute, at Brooklyn, N.Y.; coeducational; chartered and opened 1887. Founded by Charles Pratt as a school for practical training, it now offers general and professional studies, including programs in fine arts, art education, art history, library and in Brooklyn, N.Y. and then transferred to CalArts for his final two years. He began work on the film last April, and it was complete in November - just in time to enter it into the Sundance Film Festival and for it to qualify for Academy Award consideration. Osborne said he was able to keep production costs down because so much of the labor and services were donated, including the film. ``More'' was screened with the IMAX film ``Everest,'' and the company that made that film will now distribute Osborne's movie so that it can be viewed between now and March 21, when the envelopes are opened at the 71st annual Academy Awards. That night, Osborne and fellow nominee Steve Kalafer, a long-time family friend who produced and helped finance ``More,'' will don their tuxedos for the ceremony at the Los Angeles Music Center The Music Center (officially named the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County) is one of the three largest performing arts centers in the nation. Located in downtown Los Angeles, the Music Center is home to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper . On Jan. 30, he was honored at Sundance - the celebration of independent filmmaking film·mak·ing n. The making of movies. held each January in Utah - with the jury award for special recognition for short filmmaking. ``They had 1,770 short films and they accepted 60. I think 48 of those were competing for the prize,'' Osborne said. ``I'm always going to make shorts, no matter what I'm doing. I just think it's a great way to tell a story,'' Osborne said. ``I like the idea of something that's economic and concise. It's great to see Sundance supporting it and the Academy supporting it as a valid form of filmmaking.'' CAPTION(S): 2 Photos PHOTO (1--Color) Filmmaker Mark Osborne eyeballs The number of users. "There are 110 eyeballs" means there are 110 users currently online. See eyeball hang time. Thurman, a clay-figure character from Osborne's Oscar-nominated animated short ``More.'' (2) Mark Osborne, a 1992 graduate of CalArts, poses with a factory set from his short film ``More.'' John Lazar/Daily News |
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