Closed Mondays

Will Vinton is an American director and producer of animated films. He was born in McMinnville, Oregon, near Portland. He has won an Oscar for his work, and several Emmy Awards and Clio Awards for the work of his studio. During the 1960s, Vinton studied physics, architecture and filmmaking at the... University of California, Berkeley, where he was influenced by the work of Antoni Gaudi. During this time, Vinton made a black-and-white feature-length documentary film about the California counter-culture movement titled Gone For a Better Deal, which toured college campuses in various film festivals of the time. Two more films about student protest followed, Berkeley Games and First Ten Days, as well a narrative short Reply, and his first animation, Culture Shock. Meeting clay animator Bob Gardiner in the Berkeley, California area in the early 1970s, Vinton brought him to Portland and the two commandeered Vinton's home basement to make a quick 1½-minute test film of clay animation called Wobbly Wino, completed in early 1973.
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James Robbins Gardiner was an animator who helped pioneer what would become known as Claymation. He was born in Torrance, California and died in Grass Valley, California. He received an Oscar in 1974 for his short film Closed Mondays, which he made in partnership with Will Vinton.