The Streak

The Streak (1975) Van Buren, AR
Ray Stevens' hit record seemed perfect for animation, and so when we obtained his permission to do the film we felt it would be something that our audiences would love.
The beauty of Ray's three minute recording was that essentially the same action occurred in three different locations: the gas station, the food market, and the Basketball Playoff.
This made it possible for us to take the same animation, and merely put it on different backgrounds. I knew the Streak might be controversial, so I carefully enlisted our Principal, who was also a Baptist deacon. It had to pass his inspection. There were times he raised his eyebrows, but let us complete the film with few changes. About 15 students worked on the three minute film for about eight weeks. It was the first time we made the film fit to an existing sound track. Lip movement and timing was calculated to 1/24 of a second. I was working on my Masters at NSU in Tahlequah, OK, and took the film up there for some to look at it. The media people were so excited they copied in onto tape and instructors showed it all over the college. Our most critical audience had always been the high school, but this they loved. The next day I took it to one elementary school where the kids loved it as well. The next morning the principal called me down to his office before school started and said, "You have been closed down. The superintendent and I have been getting calls all night from parents and ministers. Even the school board has been getting calls. Your film is rate "R" No more showings." I couldn't believe it, but we didn't show it again that year. None of those complaining had seen the film, but the kids loved it, and they went home talking about it. The funny thing was that very few people knew what we were doing in our art classes before the film, but after that everyone seemed to know everything we were doing.

See the introduction to these high school made cartoons here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWkyVjta5yg

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• The
• Streak
• animation
• van
• buren
• sallisaw
• art
• teacher
• Martin
• Greer
• cartoons
• Ray
• Steven
• high
• school

[drmartingreer]

this was the first film of the Streak ever made after Ray recorded it. While it was contriversial then, it was the the beginning of much better animation we were able to do after making it.Please share it with your friends.

[amkempenich]

A cute, clever cartoon. I really enjoyed this one!