The Visit is a short animated film I was working on about 5 years ago. I was unable to finish. However, the story is so captivating to me and my drive to finish projects so strong that I am gearing up to complete the thing sometime this year (2014). The story is my adaptation of an old Ukrainian folk tale about a little girl who is cast out of her home to live in the forest. It’s a pretty serious and tough little story. No laughs really.
Monthly Archives: June 2009
Mystery Contest Winner
The winner of our April 2009 Mystery Contest is Pippa, age 10!
Congratulations to the winner! Pippa has written an imaginative and interesting continuation of the story that is a pleasant surprise.
Riley’s Crypt
The trees of the forest bent over sideways in the howling wind. The white disk of the full moon shimmered behind the swaying branches. Southbay Forest was being battered by the storm. Rain began to pelt the ground. It was an altogether nasty evening.
Riley Hitchens made his way along the muddy path with dread. The lantern’s feeble light swung wildly back and forth across the narrow way as his fingers gripped its handle tightly.
It was just an old crypt. That’s all. Nothing but a pile of old stones with a rusty iron door. That door was clanging in the wind now. It had disturbed Riley’s sleep.
So now poor Riley staggered in his soaking nightclothes toward the crypt that was creating such a din.
A wolf howled.
Riley stopped in his soggy tracks and glanced behind him. A shape flashed between the trees. He lurched forward and bolted down the mud path toward the old stone crypt.
He burst through the half-open door and sucked the dank air into his lungs. His mud-caked slippers echoed in the stone chamber. The rain pounded the forest outside. Just ahead, Riley could make out the dim shape of the tunnel entrance.
He stopped and felt the cold sweat of terror at the back of his neck.
From far down the dark winding way of the tunnel, underneath the raging of the storm, came the delicate sound of… music.
The winner’s story continues from this point…
YouTube Offering Citizen Journalism
A fascinating development at YouTube: The Reporters’ Center, where you can get tips on effective journalism from prominent reporters. The new YouTube channel went live today and is already offering some interesting how-to videos like the one above by reporter Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times. He shows you how to be careful when trying to interview war lords with big guns, how to hide your money, and how to always be a little skeptical and double-check witness accounts and stories that sound too good. Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post has a video about the impact of citizen journalism best demonstrated by the recent uprising in Iran. During the past few weeks, the government of Iran tried to shut down the operations of journalists and restrict the use of internet and text messaging in order to suppress information about government violence against protesters. But they were not able to prevent people with cell phone cameras from making videos and sending them out of the country for the world to see. These people have also been reporting on the situation via Twitter to give real-time coverage of many events in Iran.
This movement toward citizen journalism is extremely interesting because it democratizes the press. Cameras in the hands of millions become a formidable tool for keeping an eye on government and limiting its ability to suppress information. The press has always functioned like a fourth branch of the U.S. government, preventing the administrative, legislative, and judiciary from thinking they operate out of sight. In fact, it probably wouldn’t hurt to constitutionally formalize the press as some kind of fourth branch!
We Make Stories: Oddly Deceptive Membership Site from Penguin Books
Penguin’s Puffin Books has a new membership site called We Make Stories, where kids can use an online tool to create stories. There are several types of story creation, including a remix tool to use on existing classic tales, a map maker, and a comic book style creator. It’s all drag and drop type stuff and is intended to teach creativity and encourage literacy.
While this is reasonably fun-looking, I cannot understand why a site would present itself for pay membership and not really give any useful demonstration versions of its tools. There is a single demo based on remixing old stories, but this is not sufficient to make me want to offer $9.99. That price, by the way, is very effectively hidden from view and presented in a rather disturbing manner. Here’s what I mean:
1. First create a user name and password and give us your parent’s email address.
2. Your parent will then get an email asking them to pay for the membership (£5.99/$9.99).
3. Once your parent has paid this, your membership will be activated and you can start to play all the games.
Those are the instruction on the sign-up page. So kids are expected to blunder forth and sign up without the benefit of an effective demonstration. Give away a parent’s email address without permission. Then the parent receives an email demanding money. No sir. Absolutely not. You put the price in big print on the front page and you don’t mislead children into presenting their parents with an unexpected request for money. Everything should be up-front and visible right at the beginning. I just can’t believe what I’m seeing online from a major publisher. Perhaps we have here an example of how the publishing industry intends to get money out of people – by tricking their children.
Animation: Red Rabbit
Egmont Mayer of Germany made this 3D animated film. A man lives with his secret rabbit and cuts his social interactions to nearly nothing as a result of his shame. I like the way animators are starting to revel in making their films look like they are rendered in 3D software rather than trying to defeat the software to make things look realistic.
‘Persepolis’ Author Marjane Satrapi Appeals for Iran Help
Marjane Satrapi is the author of the magnificent graphic novel, Persepolis. She also co-directed the movie adaptation of the book. Her story is about being a young girl growing into womanhood in Iran. She is now appealing for help from the United Nations to protect the people in Iran who are protesting against a brutal totalitarian religious regime for freedom. Here is her note:
Dear Friends
To all who believe in freedom and democracy
Please sign this petition to the United Nations to stop the violence,
arrests and torture in Iran.
The situation is really really bad.
Please forward it to whoever you know
Best and lots of love
Marjane Satrapi
Animation: Pushkin
Pushkin is a stop-motion animation by Trevor Hardy for his Fool Hardy Films studio. The film is full of very easy-going humor that starts as soon as the old woman first opens her mouth to ask if anyone has seen her missing cat. I think the way the character talks is just hilarious. This little studio is a one-man outfit that is producing totally marvelous work.
I found this via the fantastic no fat clips!!!
Isis
Listen to this. Why the mask? Well, a performer is never who you think he is. He is who he thinks he is.
Via the very interesting site, Daily Dose Of Dylan
Podcast Novel: A Princess of Mars (Chapter 9)
This is the first John Carter of Mars novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of the Tarzan books. It was his first novel, published in 1917 and it’s a work of rip-roaring science fiction that has inspired many of the great writers in the genre.
Chapter 9: John Carter learns to understand the Martian tongue. He listens to an interesting conversation among Sola and some other female Martians about the beautiful prisoner.
You’ll find regular podcasts of all the chapters over the next couple of months. Subscribe to our feed.
Duration: 00:08:39
Read by Alessandro Cima
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Podcast Novel: A Princess of Mars (Chapter 8)
This is the first John Carter of Mars novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of the Tarzan books. It was his first novel, published in 1917 and it’s a work of rip-roaring science fiction that has inspired many of the great writers in the genre.
Chapter 8: John Carter finds himself in the middle of a raging battle between his captors on the ground and enormous Martian airships. Then he becomes enthralled by an unusual prisoner.
You’ll find regular podcasts of all the chapters over the next couple of months. Subscribe to our feed.
Duration: 00:12:49
Read by Alessandro Cima
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Podcast Novel: Pirate Jack (Chapter 5)
This book contains pirate battles, violence and death. Please use your judgment before playing for very young children.
Here’s a free podcast of our fantastic pirate adventure novel written for young readers. It’s got hidden scrolls, time travel, ships, battles, navigation, gold, islands, jungles and helicopters in it.
You can purchase the paperback from Barnes & Noble (Price: $11.95)
You can also get it on Scribd.com as a download for just $1.99
Description:
Young Jack Spencer sees his father’s boat-building business destroyed by a powerful land developer. Then Jack unearths three ancient scrolls that propel him on a dangerous adventure through time in search of a pirate treasure.
When Jack finds himself aboard the pirate ship Revenge with Captain Jameson’s crew, he enters a life or death world of ship battles, jungle islands, prison escapes, gold, and treachery.
Set during the golden age of Caribbean piracy, Pirate Jack combines rollicking adventure with the moving story of a boy’s love for his father and a courageous effort to save a way of life.
You’ll find regular podcasts of all the chapters over the next couple of months. Subscribe to our feed.
This book is read by the author.
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Podcast Novel: Pirate Jack (Chapter 4)
This book contains pirate battles, violence and death. Please use your judgment before playing for very young children.
Here’s a free podcast of our fantastic pirate adventure novel written for young readers. It’s got hidden scrolls, time travel, ships, battles, navigation, gold, islands, jungles and helicopters in it.
Or you can purchase the paperback from Barnes & Noble (Price: $11.95)
Description:
Young Jack Spencer sees his father’s boat-building business destroyed by a powerful land developer. Then Jack unearths three ancient scrolls that propel him on a dangerous adventure through time in search of a pirate treasure.
When Jack finds himself aboard the pirate ship Revenge with Captain Jameson’s crew, he enters a life or death world of ship battles, jungle islands, prison escapes, gold, and treachery.
Set during the golden age of Caribbean piracy, Pirate Jack combines rollicking adventure with the moving story of a boy’s love for his father and a courageous effort to save a way of life.
You’ll find regular podcasts of all the chapters over the next couple of months. Subscribe to our feed.
This book is read by the author.
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Podcast Novel: Pirate Jack (Chapter 3)
This book contains pirate battles, violence and death. Please use your judgment before playing for very young children.
Here’s a free podcast of our fantastic pirate adventure novel written for young readers. It’s got hidden scrolls, time travel, ships, battles, navigation, gold, islands, jungles and helicopters in it.
Or you can purchase the paperback from Barnes & Noble (Price: $11.95)
Description:
Young Jack Spencer sees his father’s boat-building business destroyed by a powerful land developer. Then Jack unearths three ancient scrolls that propel him on a dangerous adventure through time in search of a pirate treasure.
When Jack finds himself aboard the pirate ship Revenge with Captain Jameson’s crew, he enters a life or death world of ship battles, jungle islands, prison escapes, gold, and treachery.
Set during the golden age of Caribbean piracy, Pirate Jack combines rollicking adventure with the moving story of a boy’s love for his father and a courageous effort to save a way of life.
You’ll find regular podcasts of all the chapters over the next couple of months. Subscribe to our feed.
This book is read by the author.
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Ground Zero 1945: Pictures by Atomic Bomb Survivors
UCLA pediatrician James Yamazaki has put together a very powerful and disturbing collection of artworks by survivors of the atom bomb explosion in Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.
Iran’s Religious Leaders Murder Young Woman On-Camera
In an act that has probably sealed their doom, the Islamic religious government of Iran brutally murdered a young woman by shooting her in the heart as she stood next to her father at a protest march. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran has threatened the protesters with violence and death. This weekend he delivered on his promise when one of his thugs murdered a woman in front of cell phone cameras. These cameras have enabled the world to watch the brutal horror that comes from a religious government. The girl is Neda Soltan, a 26-year-old philosophy student. She does not know it, but the blood that runs from her in the video is probably going to drown Iran’s government in relatively short order.