John Korty

John Korty (b. 1936) is a film director and animator who contributed many animated inserts to Sesame Street during the 1970s and early 1980s, through his San Francisco studio Korty Films. His segments, which included the recurring series Thelma Thumb, were distinguished by his unique cut-out animation title, which Korty dubbed Lumage (short for Luminous Image).

For Lumage, Korty used a synthetic fabric known as Pellon, which was then snipped and sprayed. Dialogue for the segments was often improvised around the assigned educational theme. In addition to various improv actors, child performers were often used on the soundtracks, including the younger sister of future director David Fincher. In visualizing these tracks, individual elements of character parts were then assigned to animators to arrange and re-arrange, laid against pre-dressed backgrounds, and shot frame by frame, like stop-motion. The production crew included designer Harley Jessup, later to work at Pixar, and writer/cartoonist Brian Narelle, who occasionally wrote for other Sesame Street skits as well.

In 1984, Korty released a long-gestating feature-length showcase for the Lumage technique, Twice Upon a Time. Korty has also worked extensively in live-action, directing several independent features and the Emmy Award-winning TV movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman prior to Twice Upon a Time. Following the financial failure of that film, Korty moved into live-action directing exclusively, helming the Star Wars franchise spin-off The Ewok Adventure (due to Korty's friendship with George Lucas), and assorted other TV movies.