julia butterfly hill poem

Where Have All The Humans Gone? is a poem written by Julia when she lived at the top of a redwood tree named Luna. She stayed in the tree for two years and protected it from being harvested for lumber. She also came up with a way to repair the damage from a deep and vengeful cut in the tree. A cut probably intended to kill it. See picture at bottom. Click on the book to see the video of the poem. Julia asked if there was interest in helping produce and direct the animation. 

click on image to go to video - background by Jenn Ely

Luna asked for Butterfly Bandages, super strength of course.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

May you smile like a Pickle Puppy.

HAUNTED TIKI RIDE UNEARTHED

Please find concept storyboards for a Tivoli Gardens Haunted Tiki Ride circa 1995. It was to be a Disneyland style boat ride at an amusement park that Disney used as an inspiration in the first place. In the end a more Scandinavian themed and pre-made ride was installed. The ride cars were going to be giant pots as in panel 15.

LAST MINUTE CESKY KRUMLOV

Participants in the 2021 Anomalia Feature Film Story Lab. Santiago, Jiri, David, Eva, Anna, (me), Pavel, Honza, Zuzana, Michal, Vojtech. Five teams with five feature film projects. Location is at the UNESCO Heritage site called Cesky Krumlov. At the top right of the photo, there is a moat where two bears now live. Traveled to the Czech Republic at a last-minute request and mentored the lab with two days’ notice!

Thanks Shelly Hoffman for helping organize a table read of Jiri’s script. Some of the series writers stayed late to help out.

MONSTERS OR ROBOTS

So fun to be interviewed by, Zoe Tiller, the daughter of a CALARTS class-mate of mine, Bill Tiller. She is attending our Alma Matter and wanted to do an interview about how the movie CORALINE was made.

ROAD TRIP TO CALIFORNIA 2021

Went to visit Mom and my son in CA. Felt a little self-indulgent. An amazing time to travel with fewer people on the road. Campgrounds were just opening and not full at all.

SHHHMOKE

Portland has had over 100 days of continual(nightly) rioting and clashes. On top of that we now have the worst air quality report of any city in the world. Thick smoke from recent fires hangs over the city - windless - ominous. 

Fortunately my family and I live in a quiet sector of the city miles away from any urban violence. Which happens mostly in concentrated areas around federal buildings or major police stations. However no-one escapes the invasive smog from the wildfires. It is definitely noticeable in the lungs even inside the house. If only we had the clichéd Northwest dampness right now! So we’re staying inside and anxiously watching fire monitoring sites. Our neighborhood is nowhere close to the devastation but the thought of so much suffering and loss elsewhere is mind-boggling. Over the weekend I found myself double checking our earth-quake bug out bags. Not to tempt fate but things can always get worse! 

COVID-19 2020

Mike Mitchell narrative drawings of extraordinary event during the Covid-19 lock-down

CORPSE BRIDE

A project about the corpse of a dead bride, killed in a genocide, wanting to keep the romance alive!

Nightmare Before Christmas

Produced in San Francisco this stop-motion film was based on an idea Tim Burton had while working at Disney Animation early in his career. He granted Henry Selick the director’s spot and a quirky holiday mash-up became an animation classic.

Here is an interview that has more in-depth info - Storyboarding Nightmare Before Christmas