Richard Condie
Encyclopedia
Richard Condie, RCA
(born 1942) is a Canadian
animator
, film maker and musician
living and working in Winnipeg
, Manitoba
.
, British Columbia
, Canada
, Condie moved to Winnipeg at the age of four. There he attended Kelvin High School
, graduating in 1961. He received his Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of Manitoba
in 1967. Prior to entering the animation field, he worked periodic stints as a musician for the Manitoba Theatre Centre
and CBC TV
from 1964 to 1965. In 1967 Condie moved to Vancouver where he worked as a sociologist
at the University of British Columbia
. Two years later he returned to Winnipeg and tested out a number of occupations. In 1971 he was awarded the first of two grants from the Canada Council
, which he used to produce the animated short film Oh Sure. The film was later purchased by the National Film Board of Canada
, with whom Condie was to work extensively.
Condie's best known animated work is 1985's The Big Snit
, an offbeat parable about marriage, Scrabble
, sawing, and nuclear war. The Big Snit was nominated for an Oscar and won the Genie Award for Best Animated Short
, along with over a dozen international awards. The Big Snit was also voted as #25 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by animation professionals.
Condie co-produced fellow Winnipeg animator Cordell Barker
's acclaimed short The Cat Came Back. Condie was also the voice of the main character and sang on the soundtrack. He entered the field of computer animation with his 1996 short La Salla
. In 1998 he did some television script writing for Nelvana
, then created the television pilot The Ark for the company in 2002. Currently Condie is painting, creating music and working on a series of panel cartoons.
Condie's work, featuring the constantly moving - "boiling" - line animation style, has been characterized as "wacky, weird, [and] bizarre." Others have referred to his "raw visual style and insanely honest and humorous character portrayals." University of Manitoba film historian Gene Walz stated that Condie "is an auteur-animator, one with excellent antennae for sensing society's ridiculous foibles and painful vulnerabilities."
Condie is a founding member of the Winnipeg Film Group
, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
and the International Animated Film Association
.
in 1979. The film received awards at Krakow, Zagreb, Tampere (Finland), and was named best animated film at the Genie Awards. Pig Bird, released in 1981 also won five international awards, including recognition at Zagreb for best educational film. In all, The Big Snit garnered a total of 16 prizes including: The International Film Critics' Prize at the 15th Annecy International Animated Film Festival
; Best Short Film Award at the Montreal World Film Festival; the Hiroshima prize, Japan 1985; A Silver Plaque at the 21st Chicago International Film Festival; and the Best Animation Film at the XVI Tampere International Short Film Festival. It was also included in the Animation Show of Shows
. Following the enormous success of The Big Snit, Condie released The Apprentice/L'Apprenti in 1991. The film won awards in Chicago in 1992 and Winnipeg in 1993. Condie's last animation, La Salla, won nine awards, including ones from Winnipeg (1996), Vancouver (1996), Chicago (1997) and Jerusalem (1998). La Salla was also nominated for an Oscar. In total Condie has won over 40 international and Canadian awards for his films.
In addition to Condie's many awards, his films have been featured in over 100 exhibitions and major retrospectives all over the world. These have taken place in such widely diverse locations as Berkeley, California (1980), New Delhi, India (1981), London, England (1985), Krakow, Poland (1986), Espinho, Portugal (1991), and Brussels, Belgium (1998).
. Approximately 100 painted cels as well as two backgrounds created by Sharon Condie for the film The Big Snit were acquired by the University of Manitoba Libraries and deposited in the Archives in 2006.
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts is a Canadian arts-related institution founded in 1880, under the patronage of the Governor General of Canada, Sir John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, the Marquess of Lorne. Canadian landscape painter Homer Watson was a member and president of the Academy...
(born 1942) is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
, film maker and musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
living and working in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
.
Education and career
Born in VancouverVancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Condie moved to Winnipeg at the age of four. There he attended Kelvin High School
Kelvin High School
Kelvin High School is a public high school, located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.-History:Founded in 1912 as Kelvin Technical High School, the name was later shortened to Kelvin High School. The school is named after the mathematical physicist and engineer Sir William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin of...
, graduating in 1961. He received his Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
in 1967. Prior to entering the animation field, he worked periodic stints as a musician for the Manitoba Theatre Centre
Manitoba Theatre Centre
Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre is Canada's oldest English-language regional theatre. Next to the Stratford and Shaw Festivals, MTC has a higher annual attendance than any other theatre in the country...
and CBC TV
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
from 1964 to 1965. In 1967 Condie moved to Vancouver where he worked as a sociologist
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
at the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
. Two years later he returned to Winnipeg and tested out a number of occupations. In 1971 he was awarded the first of two grants from the Canada Council
Canada Council
The Canada Council for the Arts, commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown Corporation established in 1957 to act as an arts council of the government of Canada, created to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. It funds Canadian artists and...
, which he used to produce the animated short film Oh Sure. The film was later purchased by the National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
, with whom Condie was to work extensively.
Condie's best known animated work is 1985's The Big Snit
The Big Snit
The Big Snit is a 10-minute short-subject animated cartoon written and directed by Richard Condie and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. It was released in 1985.-Plot:...
, an offbeat parable about marriage, Scrabble
Scrabble
Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
, sawing, and nuclear war. The Big Snit was nominated for an Oscar and won the Genie Award for Best Animated Short
Genie Award for Best Animated Short
The Genie Award for Best Animated Short is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best Canadian animated short film.-7th Genie Awards:* Michael Scott, Richard Condie, The Big Snit* Ishu Patel, Paradise/Paradis...
, along with over a dozen international awards. The Big Snit was also voted as #25 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by animation professionals.
Condie co-produced fellow Winnipeg animator Cordell Barker
Cordell Barker
Cordell Barker is a Canadian animator based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He began animating in his late teens after taking on an apprenticeship at Kenn Perkins Animation. He has worked on commercial campaigns for entities such as Coca-Cola, Bell Canada, Lors, Nike, and the Government of Canada...
's acclaimed short The Cat Came Back. Condie was also the voice of the main character and sang on the soundtrack. He entered the field of computer animation with his 1996 short La Salla
La Salla
La Salla is a 1996 computer animated short by Richard Condie, produced in Winnipeg by the National Film Board of Canada.The film is a farcical comic opera, with a libretto written by Condie and translated into Italian, then recorded by Jay Brazeau....
. In 1998 he did some television script writing for Nelvana
Nelvana
Nelvana Limited is a Canadian entertainment company founded in 1971 known for its work in children's animation. It was named by founders Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith after a Canadian comic book superheroine created by Adrian Dingle in the 1940s...
, then created the television pilot The Ark for the company in 2002. Currently Condie is painting, creating music and working on a series of panel cartoons.
Condie's work, featuring the constantly moving - "boiling" - line animation style, has been characterized as "wacky, weird, [and] bizarre." Others have referred to his "raw visual style and insanely honest and humorous character portrayals." University of Manitoba film historian Gene Walz stated that Condie "is an auteur-animator, one with excellent antennae for sensing society's ridiculous foibles and painful vulnerabilities."
Condie is a founding member of the Winnipeg Film Group
Winnipeg Film Group
The Winnipeg Film Group is an artist-run film education, production, distribution and exhibition centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, committed to promoting the art of cinema...
, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts is a Canadian arts-related institution founded in 1880, under the patronage of the Governor General of Canada, Sir John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, the Marquess of Lorne. Canadian landscape painter Homer Watson was a member and president of the Academy...
and 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...
.
Collaborators
Throughout his career, Condie collaborated with a very small number of individuals to create his films. He worked closely with musician Patrick Godfrey. Another close collaborator was Condie's sister, Sharon Condie. John Law and the Mississippi Bubble was inspired by Sharon's research and she would go on to write the script, do some of the animation and paint backgrounds for the film. She also created the backgrounds for two other of Condie's films, Getting Started (1979) and The Big Snit (1985). Other collaborators included singer Jay Brazeau, and producers Michael Scott and Ches Yetman.Awards and exhibitions
Richard Condie won six international awards for Getting StartedGetting Started
Getting Started is a 1979 animated short by Richard Condie and produced in Winnipeg by the National Film Board of Canada.The film is comical look at procrastination, based partly on the filmmaker's own experiences, portraying the inability of a pianist to rehearse a Debussy composition.Awards for...
in 1979. The film received awards at Krakow, Zagreb, Tampere (Finland), and was named best animated film at the Genie Awards. Pig Bird, released in 1981 also won five international awards, including recognition at Zagreb for best educational film. In all, The Big Snit garnered a total of 16 prizes including: The International Film Critics' Prize at the 15th Annecy International Animated Film Festival
Annecy International Animated Film Festival
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of June in the town of Annecy, France. Initially occurring every two years, the festival became annual in 1998...
; Best Short Film Award at the Montreal World Film Festival; the Hiroshima prize, Japan 1985; A Silver Plaque at the 21st Chicago International Film Festival; and the Best Animation Film at the XVI Tampere International Short Film Festival. It was also included in the Animation Show of Shows
Animation show of shows
The Animation Show of Shows is a traveling selection of the year's best animated short films, curated and presented by Acme Filmworks founder, Ron Diamond. It began in 1998 with the aim of showing the most original, funny, intelligent short animated films from all over the world and presenting them...
. Following the enormous success of The Big Snit, Condie released The Apprentice/L'Apprenti in 1991. The film won awards in Chicago in 1992 and Winnipeg in 1993. Condie's last animation, La Salla, won nine awards, including ones from Winnipeg (1996), Vancouver (1996), Chicago (1997) and Jerusalem (1998). La Salla was also nominated for an Oscar. In total Condie has won over 40 international and Canadian awards for his films.
In addition to Condie's many awards, his films have been featured in over 100 exhibitions and major retrospectives all over the world. These have taken place in such widely diverse locations as Berkeley, California (1980), New Delhi, India (1981), London, England (1985), Krakow, Poland (1986), Espinho, Portugal (1991), and Brussels, Belgium (1998).
Legacy
In 2005 Condie donated drawings, animation cels, backgrounds, layouts, dope sheets, award notifications, exhibition programs, digitized photographs, as well as publication and periodical information related to a number of his films to the University of Manitoba Archives & Special CollectionsUniversity of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections
The University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, in Winnipeg, Canada, is the official repository of the permanently valuable historic records of the University of Manitoba as well as a collector of private records of individuals, families, organizations and businesses.-Mandate and...
. Approximately 100 painted cels as well as two backgrounds created by Sharon Condie for the film The Big Snit were acquired by the University of Manitoba Libraries and deposited in the Archives in 2006.
Selected filmography
- Sesame Street (1974–1975) (Director, Writer, TV)
- Oh Sure (1977)
- John Law and the Mississippi Bubble (1978)
- Getting StartedGetting StartedGetting Started is a 1979 animated short by Richard Condie and produced in Winnipeg by the National Film Board of Canada.The film is comical look at procrastination, based partly on the filmmaker's own experiences, portraying the inability of a pianist to rehearse a Debussy composition.Awards for...
(1979) - Pig Bird (1981)
- The Big Snit (1985)The Big SnitThe Big Snit is a 10-minute short-subject animated cartoon written and directed by Richard Condie and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. It was released in 1985.-Plot:...
- Heartland (1987) (IMAX)
- Another Government Movie, World Expo 88, Brisbane (1988) (Director)
- The Cat Came Back (1988) (Producer; sound)
- The Apprentice/L'ApprentiThe Apprentice/L'ApprentiThe Apprentice/L'Apprenti is a 1991 animated short by Richard Condie, produced in Winnipeg by Ches Yetman for the National Film Board of Canada....
(1991) - Another Government Movie, Seville Expo '92Seville Expo '92The Universal Exposition of Seville took place from Monday, April 20 to Monday, October 12, 1992 on La Isla de La Cartuja , Seville, Spain. The theme for the Expo was "The Age of Discovery" and over 100 countries were represented...
(1992) (Director) - La Salla (1996)
- The Ark series (2002) (Director, Animator, TV)
- Etudes and Impromptus (2003-4)
Music
- A House on the Prairie (1978)
- Day Dream (1979)
- The Top Few Inches (1978)
- Darts in the Dark: An Introduction to W.O. Mitchell (1980)
- W.O. Mitchell: Novelist in Hiding (1980)
- Henry Kelsey (1980)
- Everyone's Business (1982)
- Ocean of Wisdom from CBC's Man Alive (1989)
External links
- Richard Condie's Home Page
- Watch Richard Condie films at NFB.ca
- Canadian Film Encyclopedia A publication of The Film Reference Library/a division of the Toronto International Film Festival Group
- Bio of Condie
- "The Big Snit - Official Fanclub" on FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
- "Richard Condie fonds" A description of Richard Condie's archives held by the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections
- Richard Condie: Aarrgg!! An exhibition of works by Richard Condie at Gallery One One One at the University of Manitoba