Filmmaker Celebrates 35th Anniversary of ‘Tom Waits For No One’ With Kickstarter Project to Help Restore the Video

Filmmaker John Lamb is currently raising funds through Kickstarter to restore his 1978 rotoscoped six-minute animated video entitled Tom Waits For No One (see previously) in celebration of the video’s 35th anniversary. The video was originally used as a test piece for the burgeoning animation technology and featured 5 cameras, two strippers and a then 28-year-old Tom Waits singing “The One That Got Away“.

A pioneering, mostly forgotten 35 year old American music video has been rediscovered. Help bring this rotoscoped classic back to life!…This November is the 35th anniversary of the film’s release, and all the original elements have been rediscovered. The Kickstarter campaign’s successful funding will result in restoration of Tom Waits For No One, as well as finance the rescue the live action footage of Tom Waits and cult-film star Donna Gordon from the original tapes, which are now stored in a dead, no longer used format. For you animation buffs, funding will also enable the recovery of the original pencil test, as well as restore and frame 36 of the original animation cels. If all this wasn’t enough, the original stage and set are being rebuilt. The framed animation cels, the Scrapbook, and the never-before-seen live action and pencil test footage will be projected throughout the gallery. But not just any gallery – the 35th Anniversary Celebration will take place at the original location where Tom Waits For No One was filmed in 1979 – the old La Brea Stage in Hollywood. Long since defunct as a sound stage, we’ll be re-christening the location with an intimate crowd of animation, music and music video lovers.

via Jonathan Mann