ANIMATION STAND

After making several films, I no longer had access to the animation stand that I had been shooting on.  I was fortunate to be introduced to an amazing inventor/master machinist, Peter Lindenmuth, the proprietor of Nexus Machine Shop and Gallery.  We studied the Oxberry stand at Harvard, and Peter drew up blueprints. The idea was that we would create an animation stand out of steel that was both found and purchased, and make part of it in wood for under $1000 instead of $50K. It was a bit like building your own car. Peter taught me how to work the metal lathe, the bandsaw, and the drill press. Lenny Crafts, my carpenter Dad, presided over the building of the wooden elements. After six months, the dinosaur was ready to bring to my Cambridge apartment. Many films were shot on that stand - Glass Gardens, Sesame Street shorts, The Octopus's Exultation, Shout!, as well as films by Ken Brown and Karen Aqua. When I went digital, I gave it to filmmaker friend who was making analog animation at the time.  Last I heard, the stand was living in New Orleans.