Fine Arts Films
Encyclopedia
Fine Arts Films is a production studio based in Northern England
and Hollywood. It was founded in 1955 by animator
John David Wilson
as a means to preserve the notion of animation
as an art form.
Award, and the Edinburgh Film Festival Award. The next production was the groundbreaking animated music special Petroushka (based on Stravinsky's ballet) for NBC
's "Sol Hurok
Music Hour". It was noted for being one of the first animated shows ever aired on television and for being what could be called the first music video
. Stravinsky himself conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic
.
Fine Arts Films sought to raise the bar on children's entertainment by creating educational and illuminating shorts, many of which aired all of the country in schools during class. These shorts also aired as part of NBC
's show "Exploring" and went on to win the Peabody Award
. Wilson additionally has seven Golden Eagle Awards for this work.
Wilson was given the chance by Australia
n television to set up shop in Melbourne
. He later returned home to the United States to work on his only feature film, Shinbone Alley
, based on the hit Broadway
musical
of the 1950’s. Shinbone incorporated the talents of some of the original cast, including Eddie Bracken
as Archie the cockroach
, Carol Channing
as mehitabel, and John Carradine
as Tyrone T. Tattersol. The film was honored with the Grand Prize Golden Phoenix Award at the 1970 Atlanta Film Festival
, besting 900 films, including live action features, for the top spot.
One of the studio's more notable achievements was for the 1960 Seattle World's Fair. The film, Journey to the Stars, used cutting-edge technology, and was seen by over seven million people. It was the first 70mm Fulldome
presentation, a precursor to IMAX
.
Other noteworthy credits include opening titles and many music videos for "The Sonny and Cher Show", the animated opening sequence for Grease
, an animated trailer for Billy Wilder
’s Irma La Douce
, and the ABC
-TV half hour animated special, Stanley, the Ugly Duckling. He directed “The Seventh Brother” for Family Films, Fox Network-TV’s “Peter Pan and the Pirates
”, “Fraggle Rock
”, “Muppet Babies
”, “Jem
”, and “The Specialists
” for MTV
.
It includes over 15 animation shorts by John Wilson that were produced for NBC TV in the US.
The video is over 100mins in length. The animation works included were Casey at the Bat - Gulliver's Travels - The Salty Sea - The Early Birds - The Tinder Box - Voyage to the Moon amongst many other notable sorts based on famous children stories and folklore.
songs "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Both Sides Now". Another short form animated music video features a Sonny and Cher cover of Bad, Bad Leroy Brown and "Higher Ground". All 16 animated music videos were produced and created under John Wilson's Fine Arts Films.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Hollywood. It was founded in 1955 by animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
John David Wilson
John David Wilson
John David Wilson is an English artist, animator and producer. He owns his own production studio, Fine Arts Films.-Early years:...
as a means to preserve the notion of animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
as an art form.
History
The company's first production was Tara, the Stonecutter, which won high praise and many awards including the New York Golden Eagle, the London Film FestivalLondon Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival, , currently in its 54th year, is run every year in the second half of October under the umbrella of the British Film Institute...
Award, and the Edinburgh Film Festival Award. The next production was the groundbreaking animated music special Petroushka (based on Stravinsky's ballet) for NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's "Sol Hurok
Sol Hurok
Sol Hurok was a world-famous 20th century American impresario.-Biography:...
Music Hour". It was noted for being one of the first animated shows ever aired on television and for being what could be called the first music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
. Stravinsky himself conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
.
Fine Arts Films sought to raise the bar on children's entertainment by creating educational and illuminating shorts, many of which aired all of the country in schools during class. These shorts also aired as part of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's show "Exploring" and went on to win the Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
. Wilson additionally has seven Golden Eagle Awards for this work.
Wilson was given the chance by Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n television to set up shop in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. He later returned home to the United States to work on his only feature film, Shinbone Alley
Shinbone Alley
Shinbone Alley is a musical with a book by Joe Darion and Mel Brooks, lyrics by Darion, and music by George Kleinsinger. Based on archy and mehitabel, a series of New York Tribune columns by Don Marquis, it focuses on poetic cockroach Archy, alley cat Mehitabel, and her relationships with...
, based on the hit Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
of the 1950’s. Shinbone incorporated the talents of some of the original cast, including Eddie Bracken
Eddie Bracken
Edward Vincent "Eddie" Bracken was an American actor.-Life and career:Bracken was born in Astoria, New York, the son of Catherine and Joseph L. Bracken. Bracken performed in vaudeville at the age of nine and gained fame with the Broadway musical Too Many Girls in a role he reprised for the 1940...
as Archie the cockroach
Cockroach
Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattaria or Blattodea, of which about 30 species out of 4,500 total are associated with human habitations...
, Carol Channing
Carol Channing
Carol Elaine Channing is an American singer, actress, and comedienne. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards , a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination...
as mehitabel, and John Carradine
John Carradine
John Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
as Tyrone T. Tattersol. The film was honored with the Grand Prize Golden Phoenix Award at the 1970 Atlanta Film Festival
Atlanta Film Festival
The Atlanta Film Festival is an Academy Award qualifying, international film festival held in Atlanta, Georgia. Started in 1976 and occurring every April, the festival shows a diverse range of independent films, including genre films such as horror and sci-fi...
, besting 900 films, including live action features, for the top spot.
One of the studio's more notable achievements was for the 1960 Seattle World's Fair. The film, Journey to the Stars, used cutting-edge technology, and was seen by over seven million people. It was the first 70mm Fulldome
Fulldome
Fulldome refers to immersive dome-based video projection environments. The dome, horizontal or tilted, is filled with real-time or pre-rendered computer animations, live capture images, or composited environments....
presentation, a precursor to IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
.
Other noteworthy credits include opening titles and many music videos for "The Sonny and Cher Show", the animated opening sequence for Grease
Grease (film)
Grease is a 1978 American musical film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Warren Casey's and Jim Jacobs's 1971 musical of the same name about two lovers in a 1950s high school. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway...
, an animated trailer for Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
’s Irma La Douce
Irma la Douce
Irma la Douce/Irma la Dolce is a 1963 romantic comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, directed by Billy Wilder.It is based on the 1956 French musical Irma La Douce by Marguerite Monnot and Alexandre Breffort.-Plot:...
, and the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
-TV half hour animated special, Stanley, the Ugly Duckling. He directed “The Seventh Brother” for Family Films, Fox Network-TV’s “Peter Pan and the Pirates
Peter Pan and the Pirates
Peter Pan & the Pirates is an American animated television series based on J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan that originally aired on Fox Broadcasting Company from September 8, 1990 to September 10, 1991. Repeats continued to air until September 11, 1992. A repeat of the series' Christmas episode was aired...
”, “Fraggle Rock
Fraggle Rock
Fraggle Rock is a children's live action puppet television program series created by Jim Henson. The central characters were a set of "Muppet" creatures called Fraggles. The show ran from January 10, 1983, to March 30, 1987, on CBC Television in Canada, ITV in the UK, HBO in the United States,...
”, “Muppet Babies
Muppet Babies
Jim Henson's Muppet Babies is an American animated television series that aired from September 15, 1984 to November 2, 1991 on CBS. The show portrayed childhood versions of the Muppets living together in a large nursery in the care of a human woman called Nanny...
”, “Jem
Jem (TV series)
Jem, also known as Jem and the Holograms, is an American animated television series that ran from 1985 to 1988 in U.S. first-run syndication...
”, and “The Specialists
The Specialists
The Specialists is a multiplayer modification for the first-person shooter computer game Half-Life. The final version of the mod is 3.0.-History:...
” for MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
.
Film Highlights
- Journey to the Stars (film) (shown at The 1962 "Seattle World's Fair") (1952)
- Shinbone AlleyShinbone AlleyShinbone Alley is a musical with a book by Joe Darion and Mel Brooks, lyrics by Darion, and music by George Kleinsinger. Based on archy and mehitabel, a series of New York Tribune columns by Don Marquis, it focuses on poetic cockroach Archy, alley cat Mehitabel, and her relationships with...
(film) (1970) - GreaseGrease (film)Grease is a 1978 American musical film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Warren Casey's and Jim Jacobs's 1971 musical of the same name about two lovers in a 1950s high school. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway...
(film) (1977)
Television Highlights
- Petrushka (ballet) (segment on Sol Hurok Music Hour) (1956)
- The Sonny and Cher Show (TV series) (1970-73)
- The Carol Burnett ShowThe Carol Burnett ShowThe Carol Burnett Show is a variety / sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33...
(TV series) (1972-76) - COS w/Bill Cosby (TV series) (1974)
- Stanley, the Ugly Duckling (TV show) (1982)
- The Specialists / MTV (TV show) (1992)
- MadelineMadelineMadeline is a children's book series written by Ludwig Bemelmans, an Austrian author. The books have been adapted into numerous formats, spawning telefilms, television series and a live action feature film...
(TV show) (1994)
Film
- Shinbone AlleyShinbone AlleyShinbone Alley is a musical with a book by Joe Darion and Mel Brooks, lyrics by Darion, and music by George Kleinsinger. Based on archy and mehitabel, a series of New York Tribune columns by Don Marquis, it focuses on poetic cockroach Archy, alley cat Mehitabel, and her relationships with...
(Golden Phoenix) - Tara, the Stonecutter (New York Golden Eagle, London Film Festival Award, Edinburgh Film Festival Award)"
Home Video & Commercial Video Release
- Video Gems a home video company released at least two anthologies of short-form animation films by John Wilson. These include: John Wilson's Mini Musicals also known as The Fantastic All-Electric Music Movie. The second known release on home video was titled John Wilson's Animation Wonderland.
- Animation Wonderland was released on VHS in the early 1980s under the Video Gems label.
It includes over 15 animation shorts by John Wilson that were produced for NBC TV in the US.
The video is over 100mins in length. The animation works included were Casey at the Bat - Gulliver's Travels - The Salty Sea - The Early Birds - The Tinder Box - Voyage to the Moon amongst many other notable sorts based on famous children stories and folklore.
- John Wilson's Mini Musicals or
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
songs "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Both Sides Now". Another short form animated music video features a Sonny and Cher cover of Bad, Bad Leroy Brown and "Higher Ground". All 16 animated music videos were produced and created under John Wilson's Fine Arts Films.