{"id":664,"date":"2012-12-16T05:13:35","date_gmt":"2012-12-16T05:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/?p=664"},"modified":"2013-07-06T21:48:05","modified_gmt":"2013-07-06T21:48:05","slug":"randy-wakerlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/?p=664","title":{"rendered":"I Am VFX\/PDX: Randy Wakerlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

The “I Am VFX\/PDX” series launches with Randy Wakerlin, a long time Portlander who’s as talented as they come. \u00a0And many talents at that – Director, Animator, Compositor, Supervisor, Teacher, and let’s not skip Dad and avid Biker. \u00a0I’m very excited to be catching up with Randy… \u00a0 and make no mistake, he is hard to catch! \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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VFX\/PDX:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 Where to start\u00a0— how about “the beginning?” \u00a0Some of us get bitten early, you know, maybe in high school there was some equipment to play with – or maybe before that? Maybe a certain toy under the Xmas tree? The Etch-a-sketch Animator? The Fisher Price Pixelvision? The Little Orphan Annie Jr stop motion kit? \u00a0Ha ha – you’ll animate your eye out, kid! <\/em><\/p>\n

For me it was a tablet and an Atari 800XL (64k RAM!) cartridge called “Atari Artist” that got it going. \u00a0I think I was 9. \u00a0How did you get bitten by the film & video bug? And more specifically, the experimental video\/animation bug?<\/em><\/p>\n

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Portrait of the artist as a young filmmaker\/astronaut<\/p><\/div>\n

Randy:<\/strong> <\/span>\u00a0Back in middle school I played around with my dad’s video camera shooting silly skits with friends. He also had a Super-8 camera that I coveted because it had an intervalometer and it could shoot single frame. When I was about 12 I started playing around with object and clay animation with an obsessive fervor that has yet to mellow.<\/p>\n

I can remember the first time a piece of experimental animation really grabbed me. It was my first year at Hampshire College and we watched “Allegretto” by Oskar Fischinger<\/a> (click to view).\u00a0 It was a beautiful film with colorful geometric shapes moving to fast paced jazz music. That film was a huge inspiration to me. His films reminded me of daydreams I had as a child while listening to music, I used to see colors and patterns choreographed to the music when I closed my eyes. The connection between music and experimental film has a long and rich history, and Fischinger turned me on to all forms of experimental film after that.<\/p>\n

VFX\/PDX: <\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/span>Ok, and knowing you’re a serious academic, I have to get this one out of the way. Talking all time here – who is your favorite visual artist?<\/em><\/p>\n

Norman McLaren<\/a> is my all time favorite. His films are a perfect balance of technical and poetic. I love how “Begone Dull Care” links jazz music and his direct animation techniques, simultaneously loose and precise, so amazing.<\/p>\n