Monday, September 22, 2008

"A Romance in Graphite"


This past April at Sheridan College saw the screening of the 4th Year films from a very talented group of students who would shortly be graduating from the BAA Animation program. I'd had this bunch just two years prior in my 2nd Year Character Design class, and now that they've graduated and moved on into their careers, I don't mind saying that I'm going to miss seeing all those crazy rascals. One of these students was Melissa Maduro, who always had a great knack for drawing very appealing cartoon designs with a lot of personality, and I always enjoyed seeing her work when I was grading assignments. Even though the gal seemed to have a peculiar fascination with comedic zombies.

After the screening on Sheridan's annual Industry Day, I felt that Mel's film, "A Romance in Graphite" was among the better ones and it got a very good reception from the studio reps in attendance that day. It was also admittedly one of my favourite films for its simple, yet charming story told with humour and elegance. As it happens, "A Romance in Graphite" was one of the films in competition this past week at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in the category of Most Promising Student Film, with a scholarship from Teletoon as the prize. Actually, there were a number of other Sheridan grads in the running, including Vlad Kooperman for his incredible film, "C Block". Regardless of who has won the scholarship (and I haven't yet heard the results) I believe that Sheridan had some very worthy contenders.

Mel had recently posted her film on her own blog and, though I can't embed it here, I'm going to provide this direct link to "A Romance in Graphite" so you can all see how charming it is. So here's to Melissa Maduro - Talented filmmaker, funny cartoonist, and a friend to zombies...

5 comments:

  1. A nice little film! Thanks for posting the link.

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  2. love your work!
    found it on cinemaretro and I'm loving it!
    I really like how you use the digital techniques.
    pat
    http://patart-pat.blogspot.com/

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  3. Hi Peter,

    C BLOCK won first prize for Most Promising Student. THE CELESTIAL OX won a people's choice award. COUSIN TONY won third place in the secondary school competition. A ROMANCE IN GRAPHITE and the beautiful film about the horses, won nothing. Go figure.

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  4. Thanks for the info on the winning entries, Nancy. I'm very happy for Vlad winning the award for "C BlocK". That was an astonishing looking student film - very professional in every way. Also, I'm glad that "The Celestial Ox" won an award, as I felt it was a particularly strong group film in terms of story and character animation, and very funny and entertaining to watch. My congrats to the winners! Still, Melissa's "Romance in Graphite" will remain a charming favourite for me.

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  5. Hi Peter,I'm Denise I like art.(Pardon for my english)This is going off topic, but I'd like to say I like your drawings.I saw them for the first time yesterday posted on the blog John K Stuff time ago:" Pete Emslie Wants To Know"...I was impressed how you synthesize with few lines the black dudes.They're nifty for toys.
    John K. thinks those drawings defeat the purpose of caricature,because they're sweeter,maybe his drawings are more crude,but I saw on his blog the rubber sculptures (not the drawings on the boxes) of the presidential cadidates been sweeter too and not least funny.What do you Think about?

    Greetings

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