The celebration of all-things Gumby as well as stop-motion animation will take place on the grounds of Glendora City Hall and Public Library.
Glendora, California -- Academy Award-Winner Rick Baker Joins ‘Meet Gumby’s Gang’ Panel at Inaugural Gumby Fest in Glendora on June 14
Animators for ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas,’ ‘Robot Chicken’ ‘Coraline’ to share stories from the Gumby studios
Glendora, CA – Academy Award-winner Rick Baker will join the “Meet Gumby’s Gang” panel at the premier Gumby Fest to be held June 14 in Glendora, California.
Gumby, the world’s original clayboy and pop-culture legend who starred in more than 230 TV episodes and a movie, “grew up” in Glendora, where the iconic TV series was produced from 1960 to the late 1970s by Clokey Productions.
The celebration of all-things Gumby as well as stop-motion animation will take place on the grounds of Glendora City Hall and Public Library at the corner of Glendora Avenue and Foothill Boulevard.
“Meet Gumby’s Gang” will be held at 2 p.m. in the Bidwell Forum at Glendora Library, preceded by other discussion panels.
Rick Baker won the first ever Academy Award-winner for Best Make-up/Hair Styling for An American Werewolf in London; other credits include Disney’s upcoming Maleficent, Men in Black,, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, and many others.
Joining Baker on the “Meet Gumby’s Gang” panel will be stop motion and visual effects pioneers who got their start at Clokey Productions:
· Joe Clokey is president of Clokey Productions/Premavision Studios. Son of Art and Ruth Clokey, the pioneering creators of Gumby, Clokey was raised as Gumby’s little brother. In fact, Gumby’s adventures first came to life in bedtime stories that Art Clokey invented for his children. Today, Joe carries on his parents’ legacy, introducing Gumby to the next generation of fans, as the head of Gumby’s animation studio and business affairs.
· Harry Walton began his professional film career in 1968 with Clokey Productions specializing in character animation as well as other areas of visual effects such as optical compositing, matte painting and compositing, plate photography, lighting and setup, stop motion puppet fabrication, miniature construction, visual effects supervision and animation direction. He worked on such films as Nightmare Before Christmas, The Abyss, James and the Giant Peach, Who Framed Roger Rabbitand more.
· Doug Beswick has more than 40 years of visual effects achievements to his credit. His work can be seen in such mega hits as Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Terminator, Aliens, Evil Dead 2, Gremlins 2, Nightmare on Elm Street 3, and Beetlejuice. He began his career in special effects/animation in 1967 working at Clokey Productions, Doug worked on both the classic Gumbytelevision show and the endearing Davey and Goliath program, building props, and later applying his animation skills.
· Norman DeCarlo first worked for Art Clokey to help him create 99 episodes of the Gumby television series. He then worked with Henry Selick to produce nationally televised commercials, MTV interstitials and his own private projects that eventually led Selick to direct The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and Monkeybone.
· Richard Zimmerman (Rich Zim) – Gumby was Rich Zim's first professional animation job after graduating college back in 1987. Since then, he has animated on such projects as Pee Wee's Playhouse, The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Coraline. Birdhouse, a 7-minute animated short he directed, played at over 25 festivals including Cannes and Sundance, where it won an award. He currently works on Robot Chicken and other feature films.
· Carl Jabloski completed two 30-minute specials and four Davey & Goliath 15-minute television episodes and later participated on a health series called I Am Joe's Heart. After leaving Clokey Productions Jabloski’s career evolved into project/cost management for the theme park industry.
· Ron Dexter has been the head of production for Clokey Productions / Premavision since the early 2000s. His 30 years in the film industry has included directing and shooting TV commercials. He owned a studio in Hollywood for 20 years, and has shot films in 18 countries and 40 states. He has made numerous documentary films and worked on both feature films and TV shows. He made camera gyros for helicopter shots, steady cams (before they were developed commercially) and smooth track systems for dolly moves.
Other Gumby Fest presentations:
11 a.m. – Presentation by Chris Peterson, director of photography at LAIKA Studios, producers of ParaNorman and BoxTrolls (opening in September).
11:30 a.m. – Presentation by Stoopid Buddies Stoodio, producers of Robot Chicken on Adult Swim. Participants include Helder K. Sun,Robot Chicken Director of Photography; Tennessee Reid Norton, Head of Character Fabrication; Alex Kamer, Robot Chicken Animation Director; John Sumner, Production Designer; and Brandon Lake, Camera Assistant.
12 p.m. – State of the Art panel: Animators from Premavision, LAIKA Studios, Stoopid Buddies Stoodios and the Art Institute of San Francisco will discuss today’s stop motion animation. The panel will include Norman De Carlo, Bonita De Carlo, Chris Peterson of LAIKA, and others. Bonita DeCarlo is, by all accounts, one of stop motion animation’s leading ladies. Her pioneering work on Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas as their Supervisor of Puppet Fabrication was a first of its kind. Her techniques and methodologies have become common practice on all the many stop motion productions that followed her legendary work with Henry Selick.
1 p.m. – “Gumby Through the Years” presented by Joe Clokey, son of Gumby creator Art Clokey, and Joan Rock Clokey, Director of Creative and Brand Management at Premavision.
Among the family fun at Gumby Fest 2014:
· Gumby Museum with memorabilia provided by the Clokey family and Gumby producer Premavision, Inc.
· Screenings of Gumby cartoons, as well as stop-motion animation videos submitted to festival organizers.
· A Kids’ Stop motion Animation Studio conducted by animation artists from Stoopid Buddies Stoodios, home to Robot Chicken. Children will learn how to produce a stop motion video they can take home after the festival.
· Plenty of family activities, kids crafts, photo opportunities with Gumby, and more;
· A Gumby Store, booths of various vendors and community organizations, and several food trucks.
Gumby Fest is produced by the Glendora Chamber of Commerce, Glendora Community Services, Glendora Library, Glendora Rotary and Glendora Kiwanis.
Sponsors include A1 Rentals, The Glendora Library Friends Foundation, Southland Properties, NJ Croce, Undercovers, Crazy Dog Ladies, Alta Pacific Bank, and TAS Advertising Specialists.
For more information about Gumby Fest, call visit www.gumbyfest.net
Source: Gumby Fest
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
