My trip to Prague! Part 1

Around June 2011, I got the chance to spend two weeks in Prague with a group of CalArts students. This was a joint mini exchange with FAMU (The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague). It was an amazing experience and the first time I was in a foreign country.

Before I went I looked up more information on the whereabouts of Jiri Trnka puppets at this wonderful blog. http://czechproperty.blogspot.com/2009/10/jiri-trnka-filmmaker.html
I never got a chance to see the Trade Fair Palace. (Another reason I need to visit Prague again :D) to make sure that they were there. I talked to Bretislav Pojar and he said most of his puppets and sets were in a private storage somewhere in an unknown place. It was quite disheartening to hear this, but I got to see Mr. Pojar's puppets up close to make up for it. 

Just a week after my school year ended, we headed to Prague. It took about 9 hours on the first flight to Amsterdam and then an hour to Prague. We stayed in FAMU's dormitory.

My FAMU dormitory

The gorgeous view from my window.

I really appreciated my stay there. It was about a 20 minute tram ride away from the main downtown of Prague. FAMU was in a nice historic building...mostly everything in the Czech Republic was in a beautiful building.

We had many lectures on Czech animation. It's amazing how much wonderful animation comes from this country. Here are a couple of animations that are available on youtube that really impressed me.

A Drop Too Much by Bretislav Pojar

Revolution in Toyland by Hermina Tyrlova

Duel by Pavel Koutsky

The Vanished World of Gloves by Jiri Barta  

We also had a chance to visit Jan Svankmajer's Studio Knoviz. Sadly, he wasn't there, but we got the chance to sneak around his studio. His studio kind of startled me because it was more like a mysterious attic with lost relics from his film. There were dark nooks and crannies that were illuminated by the natural light. If you watched his films before, his studio's look fits perfectly.

Studio Knoviz in the countryside.

Production notes for Surviving Life

Cut-out animation from Surviving Life

The flatbed where he edits his films.

I believe this is from his movie Faust.

The actual Little Otik!

I think these are mouth replacements for Little Otik. He's getting hungry.

His ceramic work

The two characters from Punch and Judy.

A plethora of film canisters!

2008 kick-start

Yes...that's a guinea pig buffet....

It's been pretty hectic the last couple of days, but I finally sent the portfolio to CalArts. Whoo hoo! The due date was Jan 4th (a paticularly bad time to ship things) but it made it there safe and sound.

All I have left to do is send image discs to Kansas City and USC. CalArts is the only brutal one that wants the real thing XD. I'll post my whole portfolio once the Feb 15th due date passes by. I'm a little unsure if anybody would steal anything from me. Although that would be flattering lol.

For USC, they need me to take the GRE for the MFA program. Nobody ever told me about this lol...kinda was a footnote to the whole process. Important note to anyone getting a Masters: you'll probably have to take this test even though it has math...which my degree only required one class. I'm digging up the old high school math.

Now the all important worry time about getting in. I may not get into CalArts, which is alright with me. I may not like animation...really have not had much practice with this. However, I do love to create comics. It's an unknown for what is in store for 2008.

What I do know is in 2008:

• I graduate :D
• I have my BFA thesis show...with cheese and crackers
• I have an independent study on animation. I have to make 15 sec of hand drawn goodness. The faculty will look at me in bewilderment because we have a computer animation program lol.

Things that should have happen:

• Getting my comic bookbound...I will get this done Rarrrr!

Everybody have a great 2008!