ASIFA-Hollywood
Encyclopedia
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, USA, which is a branch member of the "Association Internationale du Film d'Animation" or "ASIFA" (the International Animated Film Association
International Animated Film Association
The International Animated Film Association or ASIFA is an international non-profit organization founded in 1960 in Annecy, France by the best known animation artists of the time such as the Canadian animator, Norman McLaren...
). Its purpose is to promote the art of film animation in a variety of ways, including its own archive and an annual awards presentation, the Annie Awards.
Background
ASIFA-Hollywood was founded in 1957, by Bill Scott, Stephen BosustowStephen Bosustow
Stephen Reginald Bosustow was a Canadian-born American film producer from 1943 until his retirement in 1979. He was one of the founders of United Productions of America and produced nearly 600 cartoon and live action shorts. He is chiefly remembered for producing a string of Mr...
, Ward Kimball
Ward Kimball
Ward Walrath Kimball was an animator for the Walt Disney Studios. He was one of Walt Disney's team of animators known as Disney's Nine Old Men.-Career:...
, William T. Hurtz, Les Goldman, June Foray
June Foray
June Foray is an American voice actress, best known as the voice of many animated characters...
, and Bill Littlejohn
Bill Littlejohn
William Charles Littlejohn was an American animator and union organizer. Littlejohn worked on both animated shorts and features from the 1930s through to the 1990s...
, and later chartered by UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
in 1960. Today, its Board of Directors includes Frank Gladstone (President), Jerry Beck (Vice President), Jeff Wike (Treasurer), Bill Turner (Secretary), Paul Husband (General Counsel), Jamie Kezlarian Bolio, David Derks, Jennifer Klein, Dori Littell-Herrick, Tom Sito, Mark Walton and Danny Young.
Many branches of ASIFA exist throughout the world; in the US there are chapters in San Francisco, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Atlanta, Seattle, Washington, the Detroit area, and others, while internationally, organizations exist in Annecy
Annecy
Annecy is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy , 35 kilometres south of Geneva.-Administration:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. ASIFA also sponsors several animation film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
s throughout the world, including the ASIFA-Hollywood Student Animation Festival. ASIFA-Hollywood has the largest membership internationally of all other chapters, largely because the most popular cartoons ever produced were by studios and animation professionals located in the city of Burbank, which is also the location of ASIFA-Hollywood’s headquarters.
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project
The organization has embarked on an ambitious project to expand the offerings of the current ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Center in Burbank to include a virtual archive, museum, library and research facility for the benefit of the animation community, students and general public with the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project. The first step in achieving the goals involves the establishment of a computer system capable of documenting, cataloging, and retrieving images and sounds related to the art of animation.There are many archives dedicated to documenting the history and preserving the artifacts of animation, but the ASIFA-Hollywood archive will be unique. First of all, the archive will be primarily dedicated to the use of students, artists, voice actors and other creative people working in the art form of animation. It will function as the ultimate artist's "clip file", gathering together hundreds of thousands of digital files. The focus of the archives will be to document the history of the artists who created classic animated cartoons. Even though these "actors with pencils" created animated stars known to just about everyone, the story of their own lives and careers have yet to be brought to the public. The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive will be dedicated to doing just that.
Access to the materials will be much quicker and easier than with most research facilities because this will be a digital archive, not a collection of hard copies. A central server will house hundreds of thousands of digital images, movies and sound files, all searchable by topic through a keyword database. This central
server will be connected to satellite work stations at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Center. All ASIFA-Hollywood members will have access to the system for their personal reference and research. Once the system is up and operating smoothly, the Animation Database will be brought online, so ASIFA-Hollywood members will have instant access to the Animation Database the world over.
ASIFA-Hollywood members will also have the opportunity to arrange to digitize important artwork and research material in their own personal collections for inclusion in the database. ASIFA-Hollywood is in a unique position to be able to quickly pull together a broad array of valuable information, and provide it to the animation community as a whole. In a short period of time, we are confident that the database will become the pre-eminent digital collection devoted to animation in the world.
The database will contain a wide range of material… illustration and print cartoons categorized by subject and artist; all kinds of animation art from character designs and model sheets to animation drawings and background paintings. Movies of pencil tests and key scenes by famous animators will be included, as will audio files documenting the work of major voice over artists. All of the digital files will be accessible by a simple keyword search. Artists will be able to quickly see different approaches to the design of a specific subject, research the work of artists who interest them, and gain inspiration from the rich history of animation.
The archive was the dream of the late voice actor Bill Scott.