A. Film L.A. test

The most interesting part of my posting on Traveling Mattes is the Comments section. I received a very interesting new comment that I would like to draw your attention toward. It's in the very bottom...

Here are a few images of my old mentor, the now 88 year young Børge Ring, whom I visited on New Year's Day, left photo. The clip in yesterday's posting was recorded with the band that can be seen on the center photo, with a close-up of Børge on the right. How do you pronounce Børge? Take the English word "bird," but do not pronounce the "d" and very little of the "r". Follow this with "wuh," in a way where it all melts into one word. Don't use your lips! What can I say... Hans Christian Andersen's parents were clever not giving their son any of the "special" Danish characters, Æ, Ø or Å... I want to remind my readers that I have made corrections to the last couple of postings, especially in the story of A/S Nordisk Tegnefilm (based on new info from Børge and indirectly from the late Arne Rønde via his son-in-law) and in the posting on the Ring & Rønde film Party in the Forest (as Børge sent me a list on who animate...

If you say the name Børge Ring in Denmark, you have a greater chance of finding that folks know him as 1940s jazz musician than as Academy Award®-winning filmmaker. Before devoting himself to the art of animation, Børge played guitar with the famous Danish band of Niels Foss (1916- ) in 1941 and Leo "The Lion" Mathisen (1906-1969) in 1941-42, and guitar and bass with the even more famous Svend Asmussen (1916- ) from ca. 1942 to ca. 1947. I fear I'm not to clear about those dates. (I'll see if I can find a picture tomorrow.) Here was a short clip of Børge playing rhythm guitar for Leo Mathisen. I did not think it did Børge justice, so I took it off. I will see if I can put up something soon that puts a brighter light on Børge's musical talent! Of course, Børge did not stop playing after going so wholeheartedly into animation - he played a lot, even, and you can hear him play guitar and bass in his own "Oh, My Darling" and "Anna & Bella." (Bo...

The last two days were all about A/S Nordisk Tegnefilm, mainly because their old premises are just outside my window. I also spoke of Ring & Rønde studios, which were situated first in Arne Rønde's apartment on Vesterbrogade 63 (where we also had our studio just before we started A. Film in 1988, it being the apartment of my business partner Karsten Kiilerich who's father-in-law was Arne Rønde), then finally at Fredensvej 3 in Vedbæk. I thought it would be nice to see an example of Ring & Rønde's production, so here is the 1950 commercial "Fest i Skoven" (Party in the Forest). Animation by my old mentor Børge Ring, Bjørn Frank Jensen and "grand old man of Danish animation" (sadly more old than grand) Jørgen Myller, who was asked to design the characters, set the colors and paint the backgrounds. Ring and Jensen later went to Toonder in Holland, remember? Here is the film, which I blatantly ripped from a 2007 Danish DVD that everyone shoul...

Nordisk Film's Ove Sevel (1922-2006) wrote his memoires in the book "Nordisk Film ...set indefra" ("...seen from within"). Sevel started at Nordisk in 1946 as assistant director, became head of Nordisk Film Junior, then CEO of Nordisk Film from 1971 to 1982, and was chairman of the holding company Nordisk Film Fund until 1990. His book is interesting, though maybe not always completely accurate. In any case it does have some items in it that are worth noting, the following image, on page 74, being one of these: We see Sevel with Walt during Walt's visit to Nordisk Film - for the date dilemma and a link to more images of Walt during this visit, see yesterday 's posting. What is Walt scrutinizing? It is a relief map of the Nordisk Film premises. It is still there, too, as witnessed by this picture I took today: If you want to "Be Like Walt" and scrutinize it for yourself, here it is, and next to it a version with A/S Nordisk Tegnefilm's locat...

Imagine my surprise when I found out that the photo I had taken of our new studio location as Christmas card, which you can see in my previous posting , was taken on the stairs leading to the personnel entrance of A/S Nordisk Tegnefilm (meaning Nordic Animation, Inc.), visited by Walt Disney in 1959! Here is that building photographed today: The concise history of A/S Nordisk Tegnefilm for the interested: Former Disney producer/director Dave Hand worked at the Ring, Frank & Rønde studio in Vedbæk in Denmark for a few months starting in January 1950, after the closure of the Rank animation studios at Cookham in England where he produced the Animaland series. He had sent a letter to Ring and the guys in which he wrote "If you want to know more, it must be now, as I leave England in three weeks." Producer Arne Rønde, who went to school with Børge Ring, suggested that Ring go and ask him to come to Denmark, which he did. The plan was to make a feature, directed by...