Confetti Park

Tag: video

  • Animator Deborah A. Anderson discusses black hair, illustrations, and animations

    Animator Deborah A. Anderson discusses black hair, illustrations, and animations

    Deborah Anderson
    Deborah A. Anderson is a 3D animator and creator of the The Black Hair Alphabet

    In this episode of Confetti Park, we meet Deborah A. Anderson, New Orleans based animator and creator of The Black Hair Alphabet, a children’s book that explores different African-American hairstyles from A-Z.

    In this interview, Deborah discusses why and how she created the book, and shares insight into the interesting worlds of video game avatars, 3D illustration, and the animation industry.

    Says Deborah, “The idea behind the book came from a conversation with some colleagues in animation. We talked about the representation of black hair in video game avatars…. It was actually guys complaining… they were complaining about how if you want to represent your ethnicity, you’re picking between an afro or dreads. There’s really not a myriad of hairstyles to pick from.”

    Deborah decided to blog about a different black hair style for each day of the month during Black History Month, starting with a different letter of the alphabet, to explore the versatility of black hair. Each day during February 2017, she spent approximately three hours illustrating a different hairstyle inspired by a letter—A for Afro. B for Bantu Knot, C for Conk., etc. At the end of the month, she had the material for a book!

    Deborah, who is primarily an animator (she has created background scenes for Family Guy, the Cleveland Show, Batman, Scooby Doo) created her illustrations using a 3D animation software.

    “I would first choose a font I thought would kind of illustrate the hairstyle I was going to do on it,” explains Deborah. “I tried to figure out how to put hairstyle on the font, so, sometimes I would pick a font where I needed it to be a certain way. So, for ‘Geometric Cut’ for ‘G,’ I purposely chose a font with a square top so I could do that geometric cut.”

    She published The Black Hair Alphabet on Amazon. You can purchase it in print or for Kindle. Check out blkwmnanimator.com for more information about Deborah and her work!

    Thank you so much Deborah, for sharing your story with Confetti Park.

    Listen to Deborah narrate the entire book in this episode of Confetti Park Storytime!

  • Polly Wolly Wee, the animated music video!

    Polly Wolly Wee, the animated music video!

    One of my favorite songs performed by the Confetti Park Players is “Polly Wolly Wee,” a.k.a. “The Frog Song.” You can hear the song on our first album, and now, you can watch an adorable stop-motion animated music video created by the kids! This was made at the wonderful Mini Art Center in Algiers Point.

    I first heard this cute folk song on a Lead Belly recording. Lead Belly is an important musical influence in my life. I grew up in Shreveport where there is a statue of Huddie Ledbetter standing in front of the public library downtown on Texas Street. I’m part of a group of Louisiana musicians who gather around his grave every October to sing his songs.  This October 2017 will be the 25th year we hold our informal gathering!!! (I joined up around 2000.)

    Lead Belly started singing to children later in his career, so of course I have plumbed his recordings since I myself have become a children’s musician. I have listened to a lot of Lead Belly, but I think I love the Smithsonian Folkways compilation Lead Belly Sings for Children most. His version of “Polly Wolly Wee” has such a pleasant vibe to it. When Lead Belly sings it, he does not have call and response on it,  but that’s what the song creates…. I just can’t help but respond to him and I’ve had a good time re-creating it with the Confetti Park Players!!!

     

  • Watching Feufollet at the New Orleans Film Fest! #NOFF2016

    Watching Feufollet at the New Orleans Film Fest! #NOFF2016

    Feufollet at the New Orleans Film Fest
    Feufollet at the New Orleans Film Fest

    I was SO excited to watch my music video “Feufollet” on the Entergy Giant Screen! It was an official selection at the 2016 New Orleans Film Festival.  Look at this amazing company of Family Friendly Animated Shorts!

    The Boy Who Learned To Fly (Moonbot)
    Circles (Ma’agalim) (Uri Lotan)
    “Feufollet” (me!)
    Mosquito: The Bite of Passage (Teng Cheng, Brian Vincent Rhodes)
    Moom (Tonko House)
    Little Shimajiro (Isamu Hirabayashi)

    It was very cool to meet the other film makers, such as Limbert Fabian of Moonbot (The Boy Who Learned to Fly) and Brian Vincent Rhodes  (Mosquito: The Bite of Passage).  We took part in a Q&A after the film and fielded questions from a friendly, curious and supportive audience!

    How I wish I could have had the company of Santiago Germano and Gustavo Wenzel, the amazingly talented animators who created “Feufollet” (and Santiago illustrated The Little Mouse Santi). I hope I represented them well.

    I did have the marvelous company of some of the best friends and family in the world! Thanks to my husband Dave, son Louis, and to my brother Marc and sister-in-law Gina and to Annabel for coming to the fest with me!

    Family at the fest!
    All the way from Shreveport, my brother Marcus and sister-in law Gina. And my husband Dave, son Louis, and niece Annabel.

    And to my delight, just before the lights were lowered and the films began, some of my Confetti Park Players sprinted into the theatre…. It was a wonderful surprise!!!

    And here we are after the film showings.

    Some of the Confetti Park Players attend the New Orleans Film Festival.
    Some of the Confetti Park Players attend the New Orleans Film Festival.

    And now… for the film!

    “Feufollet” is an animated short produced by Confetti Park. This is the music video for the song featuring Katy Hobgood Ray & the Confetti Park Players, animated by Santiago Germano and Gustav Wenzel.

    “Feufollet” is performed by Katy Hobgood Ray & the Confetti Park Players, from the album “We’re Going to Confetti Park!” available on CD & digitally. It was recorded at Marigny Recording Studio by Matt Aguiluz and mastered by Bruce Barielle.

    Featuring: Rick G. Nelson, bass; Sarah Quintana, background vocals and fae giggles; Katy Ray, vocals; Tim Robertson, guitar; Dr. Sick, violin, musical saw, toy piano; Dylan Field Turner, broom and other percussion.

    [dt_sc_button type=”with-icon” link=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/were-going-to-confetti-park!/id1057427046″ size=”medium” target=”_blank”]Buy Track on iTunes[/dt_sc_button]

    [dt_sc_button type=”with-icon” link=”https://www.amazon.com/Were-Going-Confetti-Hobgood-Players/dp/B017X9VR70/ref=tmm_msc_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=” size=”medium” target=”_blank”]Buy Track on Amazon[/dt_sc_button]


    LYRICS:
    In a boat, in a swamp, in the darkness
    All around you is the night
    Creatures jumping, night birds calling
    When you see a flickering light

    You think it could be a lantern
    On some friendly neighbor’s trawl
    Or the porch light on a swamp house
    But it’s not friendly light at all

    Chorus:
    Don’t follow the Feufollet
    Don’t follow the Feufollet
    Lest you both should fade away

    Pawpaw gave a warning to me
    Don’t follow the Feufollet
    Don’t get tricked by those lights in the sky,
    They will lead you far astray

    The swamp has many dangers
    Use your wits, you’ll be OK
    Trust the rats, the snakes and the gators
    Before you trust the Feufollet

    How will I know it Pawpaw?
    What shall I do when I see?
    When those flickering lights start to call to you
    Do not follow, ma cherie.

    It’s a will o’ the wisp, a trickster
    Gives false comfort in the night
    Stay close to the course you know in your heart
    Or do not move ’til morning light.

  • Bumblebee, the animated music video!

    Bumblebee, the animated music video!

    The Confetti Park Players are a children’s chorus based here in New Orleans. One of our favorite things to do is to collaborate with other musicians who live in this amazing, creative city! We are SO lucky to be surrounded by and nurtured by so much talent.

    Our most recent collaboration  was with local folk-pop duo Ginger & the Bee (aka Sherri Montz and Scott Frilot). This duo perform around New Orleans and have other musical projects, including the beloved Vinyl Girls, Slack Adjustor, Skin & Bones, and the Tomatoes.

    Ginger & the Bee wrote a song specially for the Confetti Park Players—it’s called “Bumblebee.”

    Bumblebee, bumblebee, where is your honey? I want some honey for my honey!

    Bumblebee, bumblebee, where is your honey? I want some honey for me.

    Choir director Katy Ray taught the song to the kids over a few weeks, and one special Wednesday night, Ginger & the Bee came to our practice at Algiers United Methodist Church to record with the kids.

    After the recording was over, the kids went outside to play on the grass with Sherri to shoot some playful scenes with scarves.

    A few weeks later, the Confetti Park Players went to the Mini Art Center, a child-centric community arts center located in our very own Algiers Point, to do stop motion animation for the music video. We had such a great time creating this from drawings and recording footage. Molly and Prescott, who run the Mini Art Center, are great teachers.

    And, voila! Enjoy the final product!

    Confetti Park Players perform Ginger & the Bee from Mini Art Center on Vimeo.

     

  • Pirate Video Shoot

    Watch out for the pirates!
    Watch out for the pirates!

    Today the Confetti Park Players had an awesome time shooting a video for a feature song of our upcoming CD, We’re Going to Confetti Park. The song, called “Watch Out for the Pirates,” was written by Greg Schatz and Katy Ray. What better way to illustrate the song than with NEW ORLEANS PIRATES?

    This weekend was the kickoff for NOLA Pyrate Week, a festival celebrating the pirate heritage and culture of South Louisiana. Too Perfect! We owe a huge thank you to the wonderful pirates, Captain John Swallow and QM Seika Hellbound and their NOLA Pyrates crew for telling our kids stories, teaching us how to swashbuckle, and sharing with us important pirate history and lore.

    The hosts of the shoot were the wonderful owners and staff at Pirates Alley Cafe at 622 Pirates Alley behind St. Louis Cathedral. Thais, the kids loved their treasure!

    And thank you to ‘Ween Dream! The kids were outfitted in loaned pirate costumes by ‘Ween Dream, a costume donation 501(c)(3) nonprofit that recycles donated Halloween costumes and gives them to kids in need. http://www.weendream.org/

    The kids will be dressed as pirates again for our French Quarter Fest appearance, in the Kids Tent on Sunday, April 12 at 11 a.m.

     And another thank you to our sweet videographer, filmmaker Ava Santana-Cassano.

    Watch out for the Pirates!!!