Tom Hapgood

The Buffalo Flows Screenings

View The Buffalo Flows web site here
According to Writer/Producer Larry Foley in the Department of Journalism, the screening of The Buffalo Flows documentary was standing-room-only at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival recently. My contribution to the film, which was photographed by Trey Marley of the Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History and edited by Dale Carpenter in the Department of Journalism, is some animation and the packaging design, a piece of which is shown above. The image on the front of the packaging is by Tim Ernst, the famed Arkansas photographer.

The next screening of the film is at 7:00 p.m. on November 14th, in the JB Hunt building as part of the 2008 Northwest Arkansas Documentary Film Festival. Everyone is welcome to come and view (and even volunteer).

‘Elements of Animation’ course’s stop-motions posted

Take a look at the Elements of Animation course’s stop-motion projects, such as this one by Jacob Bain.

Is The Office real?

I’ve had two students in two days come in and, with some surprise and consternation, relate their new work situations to either Office Space or The Office. Apparently, there is some belief out there among the younger crowd that those shows (movie) are somehow fantasy. It’s fun to think back on all of my work experiences and the people with whom I’ve shared a cubicle farm as I confirm to the students that those shows are based completely on reality and the characters are all based on real people all around us. I have absolutely worked with an Angela, a nightmare secretary who refused to do anything to help me with my job and was outright witch-ish, with a Phyllis, a mad Pagan woman who insisted on saying “God Bless You!” every time I sneezed and thought that changing the file extension was the same as converting a file, with a Michael in the form of a boss who would follow me into the bathroom and stand behind me whilst at the urinal, and flat out reject my (good) ideas to save the business, and it goes on an on. If you get into talking about office romances or client stories, they’re just as nuts.

So to my students who are headed out into the workplace, remember: do not take these people seriously, have fun with them, get to know them and do things for them, don’t talk about them behind their backs, don’t get involved in the office gossip, and if the people are just inaccessible and you’re way too stressed out, find another job.

New Motion Design course

If you’re looking for my new Motion Design course for the Spring 2009 semester, you’ll need to look in ISIS for “ARTS 4663-001 Advanced Animation.” The paperwork for the name-change didn’t go through as quickly as I’d hoped. If you want to sign up, send me an E-mail and I’ll get you in (as long as you have the prerequisites).