Joseph Wallace

Bearded Man

2012-02-22T16:19:00.000Z

The bearded man felt slightly lost,

as his feet crunched on the frost,

his face was long, his beard was red,

'Where are my gloves?' he softly said...

Afraid of Falling

2012-02-11T18:51:00.002Z

February is a busy month; as well as beginning development a large scale show at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre with their Young Company, I am travelling around the UK visiting various festivals with my graduation film The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling. Last night the film won 2nd Prize Royal Television Society Student Animation Award at Ffresh Student Moving Image Festival, Wales. Read more here.

You can find out more about how the film is doing on it's very own blog: www.themanwhowasafraidoffalling.com

Top Five Bristol Christmas Shows

2012-02-11T18:18:00.000Z

This Christmas marked a very busy time for Bristol's stages with what seemed to be a record number of shows in various venues across the city. I saw some brilliant work over the festive period and it left me feeling proud to be part of such a vibrant and thriving scene. The following are my top five Christmas shows from 2011.

5. Coram Boy (Bristol Old Vic and Colston Hall)
Dir. Melly Still
4. Home Alonely (The Wardrobe Theatre)
Dir. Chris Collier
3. Good Clown Bad Clown (Bristol Old Vic)
Dir. John Retallack
2. The Morpeth Carol (Sleepdogs, Bristol Old Vic)
Dir. Tanuja Amarasuriya
1. Cinderella (Travelling Light and Tobacco Factory)
Dir. Sally Cookson

Ella and the Prince. Image: Farrows Creative

Cinderella: A Fairytale was a truly magic production; a brilliantly subverted, playful version of a classic tale told by a wonderful cast and penned by my old friend and collaborator Adam Peck. Other productions I didn't manage to see included Bath Time by Toby Hulse, Peter Pan at the Hippodrome starring David Hasselhoff (...), Scrooge at the city farm by Dark Stuff and Knock Twice for Yes by Angelhair Productions. As well as my own humble offering in the form of the two-part Christmas Special of Closer Each Day an improvised Soap Opera at the Wardrobe Theatre.

First Ones Here on Motionographer

2012-01-08T22:46:00.001Z

I'm very proud to say that the film I made with some very talented animators at Newport Film School has been featured on the prestigious Motionographer website. The site is a showcase for innovative animation, visual effects and motion graphic work. Here's how they describe themselves:

Motionographer seeks to be a source of inspiration for filmmakers, animators and designers by sharing:outstanding work from studios, freelancers and studentsfeature stories that give readers a closer look at influential studios and individualscommentary that sparks discussion or introspection about the creative processmiscellaneous items that Motionographer contributors find interesting.

Click the image to visit the post where you can also view the film on vimeo. The film was also featured on the following collections on vimeo; Kailash Media's Meeting on the Mountain, Tim McCourt's Peg Bar and Grill, Aziz Kocanaogullari's Everything Animated, Animated Review, Mia Font's Stop4motion, Design Collector's TV and Pristina as well as a host of other blogs and websites.

Winter Coats for Cloth Magazine

2011-12-15T13:58:00.000Z

I have recently finished another live-action short for the wonderful folks at Cloth Magazine. I made this short promo film with Chris Collier as part of the viral campaign for the winter issue. We followed the events during a day of shoots at different locations and documented the garments from glamourous collars to warm winter coats. The film was shot at one of the Creative Editor's flats and the Wardrobe Theatre where I'm working as an associate artist at the moment facilitating Closer Each Day (an improvised Soap opera).

It was great working with the team at Cloth and Real Design and Media again. Music by my brother.

Website update

2011-12-09T01:58:00.001Z

Quite simply, I have updated my website.. Check out some more image-friendly menus and watch some new work here:

www.joseph-wallace.co.uk

Also, my graduation film The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling has been picked up by the BBC to show on their big screens across the UK. Read more here.

Animations in BBC film

2011-11-27T23:24:00.001Z

Earlier in the summer I created animated sequences for a short film called Love Struck. This was a live-action film for the BBC directed by Leyla Pope who saw my work in Wales and asked me to get involved. I usually work in puppet animation but for this project I created 2D drawn animations which in the film are used to represent a small boy's imagination. You can read more about my process and the film on the Love Struck website.

My set-up in the studio whilst animating

The film premiered in Wales at the beginning of November to a warm reception, was broadcast on the BBC last week, and you can now see the film on BBC iPlayer until Tuesday 20th December 2011 here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b017hf5h

Composer Jack Westmore, me, and Director Leyla Pope

at the Love Struck premiere

Patakiskola

2011-11-21T12:19:00.001Z

My good friend Péter Vácz from Hungary who I trained with on the Animation Sans Frontières course (09-10) has posted his beautiful graduation film Patakiskola online. The film was developed on the ASF course along with my graduation film, The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling along with a bunch of other projects. We both gave each other a lot of support and input into each other's projects and I helped Peter with the English translation of the original Hungarian poem.

The film is made using a mixture of stop-motion and cut-out computer animation using scanned textures. You can read about Peter's process on his blog here and see more of his work on his vimeo page. He is currently working on his post-graduate film at MOME in Budapest at the moment, keep your eyes peeled!

About Péter Vácz

I'm kind of an animation filmmaker, storyteller and illustrator.I have done my Bachelor degree in Animation in 2010 and still doing the Master on MOME Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. I took part of the ASF Animation Sans Frontières - The Animation Production Workshop in 2009 which was one of my greatest experience in animation. I attended the 15-week 3D Professional Character Animation course at The Animation Workshop in Viborg in 2011.I studied Graphic design in Secondary School of Visual Arts in Hungary from 2003 to 2007. Acting makes me happy. I play the cello since I was 8 and it also makes me happy. I play in a symphonic orchestra and had 2 solo concerts.

petervacz.daportfolio.com
vaczpeter.blogspot.com

Une Vie De Chat

2011-11-13T17:30:00.001Z

I have just come from the Watershed in Bristol having watched Une Vie De Chat, or A Cat in Paris as the English release is titled. This is a film from the French company Folimage, creators of Boniface and Bisclavret and I am really blown away. I'd been excited about this film for a while after seeing the trailer as I'm a big admirer of the directors Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Feliciolli and love their previous short films. I was hoping to catch Une Vie De Chat somewhere on the festival circuit but luckily it happened to have a one-off screening at the Watershed as part of their Fresh Flicks film festival for young people. The film is being distributed in the US by GKIDS but as of yet has not found a distributor for the UK which is all too often the case with some brilliant European films.

Une Vie De Chat (2010) Dirs. Alain Gagnol & Jean-Loup Feliciolli © Folimage, Palace Films

The film tells the story of Zoe, a quiet police commissioner's daughter, and her cat, who by day is a sleepy pet and by night is a thief's accomplice. Whilst her mother searches for the criminal who killed her husband, the same crooks kidnap her daughter and it's up to Nico, a renegade jewellery thief to save Zoe from the gangsters. The duality of the cat's life gives the audience a unique perspective on the story and the social layers in Paris and the film moves from apartments to the Notre Dame across the beautifully realised rooftops of Paris. The film is visually breath-taking. Every frame is richly rendered with oil-pastel backgrounds and the characters have a raw graphic energy to them; imagine a Picasso painting animated. The use of light, shade and colour is stunning and the films feels incredibly tactile and three-dimensional whilst having a wonderfully illustrated look to it and almost the feel of a graphic novel. This is an animated representation of Paris that will go down in animation history along with the likes of Pixar's Ratatouille and Sylvain Chomet's La vieille dame et les Pigeons.

Une Vie De Chat (2010) Dirs. Alain Gagnol & Jean-Loup Feliciolli © Folimage, Palace Films

I don't usually do films reviews as such but I think this film is a really important example of animation being exploited for its inherent qualities in a brilliant way. Whilst the film might adopt many codes and conventions of live-action cinema (filmic language, music etc) this could not have been made as a live-action film. The quality of movement, the striking aesthetic, the expressionistic presentation of Paris, the illustrational feel and use of light is exclusive to animation and this is one of the most interesting looking 2D features I have seen in a long time. See the trailer below.

Encounters Festival 2011

2011-11-11T17:20:00.001Z

I will be at Encounters International Film Festival next week with my graduation film The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling which is in competition. This is a great festival I've attended a few times before. In 2007 my short animation Showdown at Yohoko Valley was shortlisted for the DepicT 90 second film competition and screened at Encounters. This year I'm looking forward to: UK/Europe Animation Schools Discussion (particularly interested as I've been fortunate enough to study at both, inc. briefly Gobelins), John Kricfalusi (creator of Ren & Stimpy), Future of Short Film Talk (how do we get them made? Who can fund them?), NFTS Cinematography masterclass (great speakers) and... Studio AKA talk with Philip Hunt (can't wait).

The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling (2011) © Joseph Wallace

My grad film will be screening at the Arnolfini on Weds 16th at 6pm (£7) and Fri 18th at 12pm (£5). For more details on the screenings click here. I'll be knocking around the fest for most of the week with RCA pin-up Peter Millard who's new film Hogan is also screening. If you're around, come find us, we'll be the ones drinking free champagne in the corner.

Hogan (2011) Dir. Peter Millard © Peter Millard/RCA

One last thing, I am also now 'tweeting'. Trying to get my head around all this #@linkylinky business but you can follow me on it here: twitter.com/#!/josephwallaceuk

Abergavenny Food Festival

2011-11-08T15:30:00.000Z

Abergavenny Food Festival 2011. Photo: Jenny Hardy, Fork Magazine

I recently made a film for Fork Magazine about the Abergavenny Food Festival. Chris Collier (my partner in filmic crime) and I spent the weekend in September running around with Publishing Director Cathy McKinnon filming talks, tastings, stalls, interviews, demos, discussions and parties. Joanna Blythman of Observer Food Monthly said of the festival, “Abergavenny is to food what Cannes is to film...”, it was certainly a great festival with many great speakers and lots of fantastic food!

The film will now be used to promote both the festival and Fork mag, both virally and through screenings. Thanks to the festival for their help in making the film and letting us get up close and personal with our cameras!

The team with friends & family of Fork Magazine. Photo: Jenny Hardy

Curiouser and Curiouser article

2011-11-07T18:31:00.001Z

Creative editor of Fussed Magazine Maxine Harris has written a really lovely piece about Curiouser and Curiouser my film of 2007 (which feels worryingly old now...). Fussed is an online mag put together by students of Winchester School of art and is really nicely put together with some great articles.
Check out the Curiouser and Curiouser article here

Curiouser and Curiouser (2007) Dir. Joseph Wallace © Joseph Wallace

Flip Festival 2011

2011-10-31T18:31:00.000Z

I went to Flip Animation Festival in Wolverhampton which was small but fun. The festival organisers were a cracking bunch including Drew Roper who programmed the esteemed guests from US 2d animator Bill Plympton to UK old-timers Cosgrove Hall. My graduation film The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling was screening at the festival and I was reunited with my trusted companion Emma-Rose Dade. It screened in the competition shorts along with Hogan by Peter Millard and John & Betty by Alex Hancocks and Luke George, all Newport Film School grads.

Esteemed animator Barry Purves shows off his Tchaikovsky puppet to a captive audience

Highlights included the Bill Plympton masterclass, Cosgrove Hall talk, the Brothers McLeod's entertaining talk through the making of their new film Isle of Spagg produced by the brilliant Helen Brunsdon. Plus, catching up with Barry Purves and seeing his new film Plume which is amazing. This is Purves' first personal short film after a thirteen year gap due to an unfortunate lack of funding during which Barry has made countless theatre productions, written books, directed children's animation and taught animation at nearly every school imaginable across the world. Plume was the next film in the programme after The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling and to be shown in the same screening as Barry's work was a real honour. Having followed the development of the film through Barry I was excited to finally see it up on the big screen. And it looked simply fantastic.

Plume (2011) Dir. Barry Purves © ARTE France & Dark Prince

This is a short that demonstrates brilliantly Barry's incredible grasp of visual storytelling and the beauty of puppets. It felt fresh, it was striking, the characters pierced through the screen and demanded attention. This is a poetic and lyrical film, a film that invites the audience to not only take pleasure in, but read the imagery on screen and it does things which I strive to do in my own work. The film carries Barry's unique style of animating, a brilliant gestural, stylistic and instinctive quality of movement which is fundamentally theatrical but is placed within a very cinematic and beautifully shot film. Controversially, Barry also used computer animation in the piece and pulled it off wonderfully without breaking the illusion of the film and I was left trembling in my seat. This is one of Purves' most successful films to date. To hear Barry articulating the process of Plume and to see extracts, watch the making of video below (although be warned, it does contain spoiler clips).

Most of the festival was spent catching screenings, drinking the free beer and getting cheesy photos with the guest speakers. See below...

Spot the joker: Peter Millard, Alex Hancocks, Bill Plympton, Joseph Wallace, Luke George

Creators of Danger Mouse, BFG, Wind in the Willows: Cosgrove Hall

Joseph Wallace, Brian Cosgrove, Mark Hall, Emma-Rose Dade

Cloth Magazine

2011-08-27T15:17:00.009+01:00

Since graduating from Newport Film School (I got a first class honours degree, thanks for asking) I have been working on a few very different projects. I'm still busy finishing one of them but I'll post about the others. The two behind the scenes fashion films I made with Chris Collier for Cloth Magazine are now live. Check out the videos below which are part of the viral campaign for the Autumn issue.

Thanks to all involved, it was great fun. Music by my wee brother. Cloth is published by Real Design and Media who I look forward to working with again very soon. More info on the Cloth site.

Brunel

2011-07-22T18:45:00.003+01:00

I've been gradually archiving all my work onto vimeo and The Life and Death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel was recently featured on a really great blog called kuriositas run by R J Evans. Check out the Brunel post here

Skillset Showcase

2011-07-15T17:47:00.002+01:00

I've just got back from London where I was selected to exhibit work at the Skillset Soho Showcase. This was a day of talks, meetings and presentations aimed at bringing together industry with new talent. Various schools had stands with work on display and it was a great opportunity to try and break into the London network. I met a few really useful people and the calibre of guests was great although there was a large emphasis on CG / compositing / VFX work so not many relevant companies for the kind of work I make.

Greg Boardman of Three Stones Media talking about the making of Rastamouse

There were a few good talks including Greg Boardman talking about producing Rastamouse, a very home-grown children's show made in the UK and one of the only stop-motion series being produced at the moment. The animation was done by Dynamo in Cardiff and a few friends of mine worked on the project. Interestingly one of the main creatives on the show was Derek Mogford who trained with the great Ivor Wood and was animator on Charlie Chalk, Bertha and Gran and he bought a charming nostalgic feel to the show.

Christian De Vita, lead storyboard artist on Fantastic Mr Fox talked through the process of boarding the film with Wes Andersen. He's just finished pre-production on Tim Burton's Frankenweenie and is about to head to Paris in September to direct a children's series for Nickelodeon.

One of Christian's sketches for Tim Burton's Frankenweenie

Nag Vladermersky of the London International Animation Festival did a presentation about the festival, its history and development and the kind of work they champion. He screened three films which demonstrated the variation of the films they show including A Morning Stroll, Studio AKA's recent bizarrely brilliant short. He then went on to chat with Chris Shepherd director of the now dormant Slinky Pics about a career in which he's balanced commercial and artistic work which was very entertaining.

Who I am & What I Want (2005) Dir(s) Chris Shepherd and David Shrigley
© Slinky Pictures

After the talks and seminars (and a nice lunch) there was a speed-networking session which was a chance for students to share their work with industry, make connections and talk about the next step.

Me with producer Mick Foley discussing career options...

Lots of the London animation network came along to look around the exhibits and talk to students. Much chatting and exchanging of business cards all helped along by the bar, sponsored by Adobe! Check out skillset's write up of the day here

Guests and graduates have a drink at the Vinyl Factory in Soho, London

All images of the event from the Skillset Flickr album here

Show Me The Animation

2011-07-15T17:13:00.001+01:00

My graduation film The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling was screened at Show Me The Animation: New Talent Showcase on Tuesday in Bristol. It was a night of selected films from Newport, Falmouth, Bournemouth, UWE and the NFTS. I've been to a few of the Show Me The Animation Screenings over the past few years which are run by Vicky Brophy (of Wonky) and producer Helen Brunsdon and they're a really great chance to unite the Bristol animation scene.

The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling (2011) © Joseph Wallace

At this particular screening I met Derek Hayes who is a big figure in the UK animation scene. He directed The Miracle Maker, a touching and brilliantly animated feature about the story of Christ told through the eyes of a young girl. I wrote about the film in my dissertation The Performativity of Dolls: Puppets in Animation and Theatre in regard to the naturalistic style and the way the puppets were very much actors. The puppet animation in the film was done by the brilliant Christmas Films in Moscow, Russia, a company with a very theatrical feel to their work which includes Shakespeare the Animated Tales as well as animated operas. It was fascinating talking to Derek about his route in the animation business and about the working relationship with Christmas Films.

The Miracle Maker (2000) Dir. Derek Hayes © Icon Entertainment International

Ffresh Talent

2011-07-07T15:50:00.000+01:00

I've just answered some questions for Ffresh Festival - the student moving image festival of Wales. We won the Best Animation award at Ffresh last year for We Weren't The First Ones Here and they recently did a lovely write up of the Animation Newport 2011 graduation show here.

I wrote a bit about my work and the animation course at Newport for a profile on their Ffresh Talent page. Check out the profile here.

Švankmajer at the Barbican

2011-06-29T17:36:00.032+01:00

I went, very briefly, to London last week to see a veritable hero of mine, Czech film legend Jan Švankmajer. The Barbican held a screening of Švankmajer's first, and perhaps most widely known, feature film Alice followed by a detailed question and answer session hosted by writer Peter Hames. The digitally restored version of Alice was a joy to see on the big screen and was all the more enjoyable when surrounded by an audience of obvious fans of the director.

Alice (1988) Dir. Jan Švankmajer. © First Run Features

Alice has always been a film close to my heart for various reasons. I saw the film at a fairly early age and I remember it having a profound effect on me. I had never seen anything like it, either visually or aurally or as a total filmic experience. On first viewing as a youngster I'm not sure I particularly liked the brutal, visceral world presented, or understood the subtleties of Švankmajer's vision, nonetheless I never forgot the images or the experience of watching the film. One thing I did take away was a seed of motivation; this notion of 'I could do that'; not in an arrogant sense but in the same way that Quentin Blake's lively illustrations are not intimidating to children as they have a familiar purposeful and excited approach. Alice was filmmaking on a more suggestive and non-literal level, a hand-made feel, rough around the edges and yet full of spirit and energy. On watching the film again recently after countless other viewings it struck me just how humorous it is; from the abrupt close-up dialogue of the main character to the movement and physicality of the supporting puppets, the whole film has a real whimsy to it.

The man himself on stage with Peter Hames and translator

Seeing Švankmajer talk in person was brilliant. He was everything you could have wanted him to be; understated, reserved yet animated when talking passionately about his themes and ideals, respectfully casting aside any intellectual allusions often read into his work. He spoke about the restrictions of making films in Czechoslovakia in the eighties, about how the claustrophobic visual style of Alice came about through circumstances and constraints as opposed to any major artistic vision. When he made Alice the Czech authorities ran all of the film studios in the country and none of them were interested in making this film with him. The money to get the project made came from all over; Switzerland, Germany and the UK in the form of Channel 4. The whole thing was made on the sly, behind closed doors in Švankmajer's studio which was an old bake house in Prague.

I was particularly interested to hear about his motivations as a filmmaker and what kept him still making work, what he felt his films were about and why he had a desire to tell these stories and make these statements. He talked about how freedom was the only issue worth still making art about and I remembered a statement I'd read recently in an interview with Peter Greenaway, another director I really admire, in this interview for the Guardian. He spoke about how sex and death were the only things left for him to make work about; the very beginning and the very end. I find it fascinating to hear what continues to motivate filmmakers who have been making work over several decades. Švankmajer made a poignant statement when asked why his work still focuses on the regimes that dominated Czechoslovakia during his time. He said communism and fascism were abscesses on human society and the atrocities committed up until the Velvet Revolution were so terrible that he had to continue making work about these subjects.

A bit of a fuss driving through rush hour traffic in London but worthwhile for an inspiring evening. Check out the other events in the season on the barbican site.

Drawings

2011-06-05T20:52:00.000+01:00

Words and Pictures

...and a comic

Exhibition and US screening

2011-05-13T18:41:00.002+01:00

Transformation and Revelation Exhibition- Bute Theatre.
Photo: Kirsten McTernan via T&R page

A couple of weeks ago I went to Cardiff to see a massive theatre design exhibition called Transformation & Revelation. Held at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff, the show was a huge amalgamation of work from theatre designers all over the country. On display were costume drawings, set designs, models and artefacts and it proved to be a very inspiring afternoon as I was modelmaking for my graduation film at the time. My good friend Chris Gylee had work on display in the exhibition, here's a picture of his design process as a storyboard. Fun stuff.

Chris Gylee explains his design process through design

Two of my films are being screened at the brand-new NW Animation Festival in Portland, Oregon, USA. The festival is run by animator Sven Bonnichsen and takes place at 5th Avenue Cinema in early June. Sven had come across my work at Stop Motion Montreal festival in Canada and had contacted me to tell me about NW. This is an exciting festival to be a part of as it's in a really great place. Coraline creators Laika are based here and it's up the road from California where other great American animators like Jamie Caliri are working. The films I have showing are The Scientist and The Omnipotence of Dream (2008) and We Weren't The First Ones Here (2010). If you are American, or indeed live in the states, you might consider going along!

Also, Fairground, a theatre company in Bristol I have done a lot of work with have a lovely new website. Check it out here.

Flowers

2011-04-03T19:48:00.002+01:00

Don't forget the mothers!

Twins

2011-03-15T18:32:00.003Z

The siamese twins of the Green Meadows Circuis, Ohio, USA

Tim Allen visit

2011-03-08T19:53:00.003Z

The prolific animator Tim Allen recently visited Newport to do film surgery sessions and a talk. Tim's credits are as varied as they are extensive, from Disney's The Lion King to Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. He works predominantly in stop-motion and has worked on all sorts from commercials to series and features, most recently as a character animator on Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox.

Tim Allen inspecting a puppet with 3rd year stop-motion students at Newport

Tim joined us for a morning seminar where he went talked through our graduation films and gave excellent feedback on character performance, timing and readability of the images which was really useful at this stage. He had a great approach and genuinely seemed to care about the work and gave a really effective commentary on the films.

Tim discussing LAV (live-action video) with Tim and Merlin Crossingham on screen acting out goats for 'Creature Comforts USA' by Aardman

Later in the day he did a talk to a packed-out auditorium in the new city centre campus in Newport which included talking through various projects in detail; the practicalities of animating, the differences between shorts and features, problem solving, acting and performance. A really inspiring day with a brilliant animator and all round nice guy!

For information and visuals on my graduation film, see the blog here...
www.themanwhowasafraidoffalling.com

Newport Art Gallery Exhibition

2011-03-02T13:00:00.008Z

We Weren't The First Ones Here was selected to be screened in a 7 week long exhibition of Newport Animation at the Newport Art Gallery. This exhibition marks the arrival of the new city centre campus and the return of the Film School to central Newport. The article below talks about our involvement in the exhibition and our Ffresh win.

Article and photo: South Wales Argus, Wednesday 2nd March 2011

Read the article online here

Buildings

2011-02-16T23:21:00.006Z

Architecture of the mind: drawings made whilst in a department meeting

Biro, Newport, Feb 2011

Feeling Ffresh

2011-02-12T14:27:00.008Z

At the closing ceremony for Ffresh Festival in Wales, we won the award for best animation with our collaborative film We Weren't The First Ones Here. The film was made in eight weeks during a project in our second year at Newport Film School. To our surprise we beat graduation film competition but luckily no one lost out; my friend Luiz Lafayette Stockler won the best animation Royal Television Society award and my other friend Ben Cady won best film of the festival.
Big thanks to everyone involved in making the film, the composer Jack Vaughan, the actors Catherine McKinnon, Adam Peck, Edith Woolley and thanks to Ffresh as well as Tom Brown and Dan Gray from Holbrooks who judged the award.
We Weren't The First One's Here can now be viewed on my website here.

Ffresh Animation Winners (from left): Helen Dallat, Kate Braodhurst, Emma-Rose Dade, Joseph Wallace, Ben Cady and Luiz Lafayette Stockler

We Weren't The First Ones Here

2011-01-18T13:36:00.002Z

An old house holds memories and stories of its past inhabitants

A film I made last year with a great team at Newport Film School has been nominated for an award at Ffresh Festival in Wales. The team were: Kate Broadhurst, Emma-Rose Dade, Helen Dallat and Daisy Gould with music by Mr Jack Vaughan. Vocal talents: Catherine McKinnon, Adam Peck, Edith Woolley.

The film is being screened in the same programme as a couple of friends of mine, Ben Cady and Luiz Lafayette Stockler. For screening details go here.

A Great Big Picture of You

2011-01-13T23:00:00.003Z

Back in November five illustrators, including myself, took part in a project called A Great Big Picture of You. The piece was devised by a long-term collaborator of mine Chris Gylee, along with Kate Yedigaroff from Bristol Ferment, and was conceived for Bristol Jam festival of improvisation at the Bristol Old Vic theatre.

Illustration projects Chris and I have worked on in the past have followed rule-based systems to allow for peculiar creative occurrences and this project elaborated on similar concerns.

The Process: Twenty-five disposable cameras were given out to various people all around the city of Bristol and they were encouraged to fill the camera with whatever they wanted. The photos were developed and displayed ready for us illustrators who came in on the last day of the festival having not seen the photos until then. Armed with a photocopier and two colours of paint, our aim was to make an 8ft by 12ft collaborative illustration piece in response to the photographs and we had from dusk till dawn. The results can be seen below.

The piece in progress

Joseph Wallace, Chris Gylee and Philippa Thomas at work

Private View

The final piece

detail

For more info on the project click here.

Illustrators: Chris Gylee, Joseph Roberts, Laurie Stansfield, Philippa Thomas, Joseph Wallace.

Filmmaker Benjie Croce made a time-lapse film of the process.

Time-lapse film © Benjie Croce 2010

Knock knock

2010-11-01T22:43:00.003Z

News of the past few months coming soon. In the mean time, a postman!

Masterclass with Richard Haynes

2010-07-09T00:17:00.001+01:00

A good friend of mine came down to Wales to do a three day stop-motion masterclass with students at International Film School Wales at the end of May. Richard Haynes is an animator and director who spent a great deal of time at Cosgrove Hall up in Manchester and is now at Aardman on the feature Pirates after having worked as an animator on the Shaun the Sheep series. I met Richard at Annecy festival a few years back and it was nice to catch up as he took us through an intensive character performance course.

Due to time constraints and resources we didn't have 3d puppets but were instead working with paper cut-outs and clay, focusing on movement, gesture and timing. The crash course included acting and performance workshops, timing exercises, walks and even pixillation so was a nice well-rounded opportunity to brush up on skills. There was a small group of us from BA and MA and I think everyone got a lot out of it. Richard was a helpful mix of both critical and enthusiastic and the masterclass was a nice end to the second year at the film school.

Jason and Medea

2010-05-29T19:11:00.005+01:00

A quick piece of pro-mo visualisation I did for Jason and Medea (working title) a new show from Bristol Old Vic Young Company, directed by Tid. The piece will be a large ensemble production and is currently in development. The treatment transposes the greek myth to the crooked underbelly of 1960s London.

Pencil and digital collage.

Metropolis

2010-05-15T23:34:00.014+01:00

After much anticipation, Kino International has announced the release of The Complete Metropolis. Fritz Lang's sci-fi masterpiece is in my opinion one of the most important films ever made; it broke new ground and took cinematic storytelling to a new level. The film was made in Germany in a fruitful period in-between the wars; around the same time as other classics such as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. The film pioneered some incredibly complex special effects calling upon photography tricks, mirrors, miniatures and stop-motion animation. At the time, all of the arts in Germany were richly connected and very much fed-off of each other and Metropolis drew heavily upon the aesthetics of abstract expressionism. The production values are simply stunning for the time and the influence of Metropolis reaches out across contemporary cinema from Tim Burton’s Batman to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and a more obvious homage in the recent La Antena by Argentinean director Esteban Sapir.

Above: the crew casually prod toy cars along the false-perspective roads for a stop-motion scene.

Fritz Lang’s wrote Metropolis with his wife Thea Von Harbou and the films epic production techniques were inspired by American working methods he was exposed to on a press tour for his previous film Die Niebelungen. Lang was fully aware of the films colossal ambition from the beginning, in fact it was his intention to create the biggest film to be made in Europe. It was shot outside Berlin on a huge lot belonging to UFA (Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft) and featured an incredible 36,000 extras. The story of Metropolis is a tale of two worlds, of class and rank and of a man and a woman whose love bridges the gap in society. It also features an underground factory, a mad inventor, a bitter father and a huge flood. I’m hesitant to talk too much about the plot, just watch it, it’s brilliant!

The film has changed shape and form continually throughout its lifetime. Metropolis premiered in Berlin in 1927 after which the film was re-edited by German and American studio execs in a hope to make it more commercial. Despite the tampering, and Lang disregarding the new cut, it went down in cinema history. Strangely after this initial release it disappeared for several years. Next, in 1984, it was re-discovered, re-mastered, re-coloured and re-scored with disgusting bright colour-washes and a cringe-worthy 80s score. Finally in 2001, with help from film archives all over the world, Martin Koerber supervised a restoration which was thought would be the final, most comprehensive version. Missing footage was replaced with explanatory title-cards and the film was reunited with its original stirring score by Gottfried Huppertz.

However in 2008, the Museo Del Cine, in Buenos Aires, found a negative copy of Fritz Lang’s original vision containing the missing 25 minutes of footage. The new scenes, which make sense of the film’s staggered plot, were carefully restored and added to the 2001 renovation by the Murnau Foundation who deal with all Lang’s works. This new 2010 restoration took about a year to complete and we now have a print which is a definitive version of Lang's original film, an ultimate director’s cut if you like.

The Complete Metropolis, Lang’s comprehensive, fantastical epic, is now enjoying a tour of theatrical screenings before heading to DVD, the film’s final resting place in its full form for all to admire.

All images © 2010 Kino International

Fact

2010-05-08T22:41:00.003+01:00

New Things

2010-05-02T19:00:00.001+01:00

Here are my newly pressed and printed showreel DVDs, just in time for FMX festival in Stuttgart, Germany this week.

Plus I have a couple of new showreels on Youtube.
My Animated Film Showreel can be found here,
and my Character Performance Showreel can be found here.

Czech Adventure and Jan Pinkava

2010-04-24T17:07:00.020+01:00

I recently stumbled across the blog of Zoe Brooks, a community regeneration professional, who divides her time between the UK and Czech Republic. She writes about life in both countries, the culture etc. Inevitably she had touched on puppet animation and the cinematic traditions. But it was a post about an old castle that reminded me of something that happened to me a while ago…

I was in the Czech Republic a few years back and was keen to see if there were any museums or exhibitions displaying remnants of the rich puppet animation scene. This is a part of animation history that has long fascinated me and the works of Karel Zeman, Jiri Trnka, Břetislav Pojar, Jan Švankmajer and more recently Aurel Klimt, have proved a huge influence on my work.

After some lengthy research in internet cafés and the lobby of my hostel in Prague, I found out about the Museum of Czech Animated Films at Kratochvile Chateau or 'Pastime Castle' as it roughly translates. This was a permanent exhibition of works including a screening room, artwork, designs, puppets and sets from the past to the present. It sounded incredible and I got highly excited about what was going to be the singularly most inspiring trip of that year. The only problem was that this castle was quite far away… and by far away I mean it was outside a small village called Netolice literally in the middle of nowhere.

Slightly lost

The train journey, or rather three train journeys were set to take 6 hours to get there from Prague central station. Unfortunately I missed a connection and it took 9 hours. Never mind, I was too eager to care. I arrived at Netolice after having taken a train where I was the only passenger and had some difficulty explaining to the driver what an Inter-Rail ticket was as he spoke no English.

The chateau

I looked to the back of my hand where I’d drawn a map from Google… After a trek through a field in slightly the wrong direction I spotted the Italian-looking chateau down in the valley. I arrived at the entrance and the gentleman at the desk looked blank at my Czech greetings and presented a girl who spoke English. The conversation went a bit like this:
“Hello! How much is does it cost to go to the Museum of Animation?”
“Oh, that closed down a few years ago”.
*Stunned Silence.*

Apparently it had gone to a private collector and was now in storage. Very disappointing and unfortunate but it was still a beautiful guided tour around the castle. You can see a write up of the exhibition when it actually existed over on Animation World Network.

In other vaguely Czech animated news, Jan Pinkava is working on a feature film with Laika (presumably stop-motion as they shut down their CG department). Pinkava has had a very interesting career and is a truly international artist. He was born in Prague in 1963, a time when Švankmajer was making his first films, and the Czech film industry was active and fruitful with artists like Frantisek Vlacil and Milos Forman leading the way. Pinkava’s family moved to the UK in the late 60s and it was here that he was educated and started to play with animation.

He won an award for a short film of his on the BBC show Screen Test which brought him a lot of attention. Interested by the potentials of new technologies, he then went over to Wales to study computer science in Aberystwyth and stayed until he got a PhD. After a brief stint in London he was picked-up by Pixar in 1993 and made some award-winning commercials as well as working on their features. Geri’s Game, Pinkava first short at Pixar won the Oscar, as well as numerous other awards and really established him as a director. This gave him the impetus to begin developing a story of his into feature film. The story was about a rat on the streets of Paris who dreamed of being a chef…

Ratatouille (2007) © Disney / Pixar

This would of course later become the brilliant Ratatouille, but not without some turbulence. It’s unclear what really happened, and the Ratatouille DVD Extras provide little answers, but Pinkava was replaced as Director by Brad Bird, hot off the success of The Incredibles. Jan stayed briefly, demoted and then quit Pixar. Brad Bird is currently working on a live-action adaptation of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco called …1906. The exciting news regarding Jan Pinkava is that we should soon see more work from this skilled craftsman with the Laika film. I’m not sure if this is anything to do with the new features that Henry Selick is directing as I understood he had left Laika and was now working with Disney/Pixar and John Lasseter on creating at least three new stop-motion feature films. Many British animators over here are already packing their bags getting ready to go to the states for something. Time will tell.

Henry Selick with Coraline. Image. © Syfy 2010

Illustrations

2010-04-21T12:43:00.006+01:00

I've just done a few quick, little portraits of some of the Animation Sans Frontières participants for the new brochure. This is a course in Animation Production that I have recently completed. These illustrations were done over night and the others will be by Péter Vácz.

Animation Sans Frontières participants 2009-2010

Below is a bit of character design for a piece of puppet theatre for children I'm working on with Bristol-based artist of many talents Christopher Collier.

As you can see it's about Pirates and is currently in development.

Animation Lesson at Calon

2010-04-21T01:11:00.006+01:00

A few weeks back I went to Calon’s stop-motion studio for the day to do some animating under the brilliant supervision of my mentor, the animator and director Ben Halliwell. Ben has animated all over the country on all sorts from The Wombles and Fireman Sam to Koala Brothers and Fantastic Mr Fox. We were doing some character performance exercises and it was time well spent. It was actually the first time I’d animated with a ball and socket puppet which was heaven. Ben watched the results and picked up on little things in my animation that I might miss and shared some of his wealth of experience. A valuable day, Ben’s very generous and a real genuine bloke.

Some images from the day (click the image to see in more detail).

Here’s a picture of Ben on the set of Calon's Igam Ogam which he directed.

Ben Halliwell. Photo.

Character Performance

2010-01-16T18:00:00.002Z

I had wanted my puppet to walk into the space, falling under a spotlight, and notice the camera but unfortunately it turned out the armature was not strong enough to hold the clay I had covered it with. I guess you always have to use ball and socket when working with plasticine. Change of plan. I quickly built a box and made a pint glass for him to hold. He would now be propped up against a bar and would talk from there. I still managed to get movement out of the upper body to convey his character. Turned out ok and there were some nice bits but a few things still not quite right. Will post on YouTube soon.

Workshop with Barry Purves

2010-01-16T17:38:00.006Z

Barry was really one of the first people I met in the industry and it couldn’t have been a more encouraging experience. I’d read his brilliant book Stop Motion:Passion, Process and Performance and was so inspired by the book I was compelled to email him. Now I didn’t necessarily expect an answer, I was just expressing what I got out of the book and sending my thanks and congratulations but reply he did. We first met at Annecy a few years back and made a connection over our interest in the relationship between stop-motion and theatre; Barry started off in theatre and still directs and designs now. Since meeting he’s been a source of inspiration and advice. I’m still amazed at how much of his time he gives to students and young filmmakers. He’s completely generous and really thoughtful.

He came down to Newport to do a workshop which I attended for a day before having to go and work on my film. We made some really simple black silhouette paper puppets with which to practice, accurate detailed walk cycles. I think everyone got a lot out of it and it was good discipline. Barry is very strict!

The exercises were similar to those he’d done at the Italian National School of Cinema in Turin a couple of years back when I’d gone with him to help out with a course he was teaching. I’ve posted the photos as they’ve never really seen the light of day. Very nostalgic looking back, I met some really great students there who I’m still in touch with now.

Barry’s new book Stop-Motion as part of AVA's 'Basics Animation' series comes out soon.

Basics Animation: Stop-motion, Ava Publishing

Lip Sync

2010-01-16T16:07:00.002Z

I created a simple face at a reasonable size so I could get some detail for a lip sync exercise. Plasticine covering a bit of hard foam I had lying around in the studio. The mouths are clay sausages. I mounted the head on a bit of wire for the shoot so it was kind of looming in the darkness (the dialogue I was animating to is quite intimidating). I wanted to get a bit of movement into the head so it wasn’t too static. I did a few exercises with a little car playing with movement speed, follow-though etc.

It worked ok but the brow fluctuated a bit. When I do the character performance I need to be more disciplined with the brow movements.

Studio AKA and Royal College of Art

2010-01-15T23:27:00.003Z

As soon as I got back from Budapest it was time for something else. I’d met a load of the guys from Studio AKA at Annecy 09 and had been invited to go and see the studio and hear about what they do which was a real pleasure having admired their work for so long. I’d organised a visit through the wonderful Ren Pesci and was lucky enough to be able to take a bunch of peers from the film school, notably the Annecy gang who are now all busy working on their graduation films.

We talked through the Studio’s history, their set-up and processes and saw a really interesting making of The Big Win commercial by the brilliant Marc Craste. We also got some inside info from the guy who made the sea in Philip Hunt’s epic and touching Lost and Found. We’d all seen the short in Annecy and sat through a lot of really bad work in the screening of children’s content before Lost and Found which is just beautiful, unpatronising, cinematic and heart-warming. Based on the book by a favourite children’s illustrator of mine Oliver Jeffers. The blog, featuring lots of lovely concept art and designs can be found here.

After AKA we went to have a look at Royal College of Art as Pete’s looking into places to do a masters. It seemed pretty buzzing, relaxed, ambitious, flexible. I’ve been thinking about post-grads recently, but I don’t want to do one yet and I don’t want to stay in the UK…

Animation Sans Frontieres Part Two: MOME. Budapest, Hungary

2010-01-14T13:18:00.011Z

I travelled down to Hungary with Marie-Louise Højer Jensen who was just finishing a stint at Aardman working on Shaun the Sheep. She showed me some books by German illustrator Anke Feuchtenberger whose website can be found here. There were a lot of qualities in here work that I liked; the use of colour, the expression of line and the play of light, light as definition, as sculpture.

Anke Feuchtenberger

We arrived in Budapest in the evening, supposedly to be met at the airport by a chauffeur holding a sign on which our names would be printed. As it happened he was nowhere to be seen and it was only sometime later that we saw him from behind somewhat spoiling the illusion. We drove from the airport through the illuminated city to the North West where are hotel was situated. And what a hotel; complete with epic breakfast, pool, sauna, hot tub, and views of the mountains. Our rooms were more like apartments with kitchens, lounge etc. So there was no question of space like there was in Ludwigsburg although ironically we spent far little time in the hotel as there was far more going on in Budapest.

After a tour around Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design we had the first of a series of lectures about animation in Eastern Europe. These were particularly interesting for me because I’ve always had a love for the films from this part of the world and the rich culture they evolved from and were a part of. In Hungary we looked at some early experiments mixing animation and live action and the all important George Pal who later moved to Hollywood with his Puppetoons – a technique he developed involving replacements. The lecturer Ferenc Fischer kindly copied me some of Pal’s shorts and commercials which is useful as they, like much work from this area are incredibly difficult to come by.

Michael Carrington from the Zlin animation school just outside Prague gave us a talk about the history of Czech animation which was particularly interesting because he really focused on some favourite filmmakers of mine. Out of all the films to come out of Easter Europe in the communist era some of my personal favourites are from former Czechoslovakia. Carrington talked about Hermína Týrlová, Karel Zamen and Yiří Trnka, bypassing the more obvious Švankmajer and Barta. He showed some really old works and talked about how the style developed, the specifics of the puppet animation, the hand-crafted quality and the desire to solve problems in camera. What was also brilliant was that he came right up to present day practice and talked about a director I really admire; Aurel Klimt and the fabulous Fimfarum series of films. There are two Fimfarum films and the third, we were told by Carrington, is in the process of being made. Based on the stories by Jan Lenika, they are feature film format but are made up of about 3 or 4 shorts. Brilliant for research and fascinating to get some in depth information about the development of a scene and a place I’m so passionate about.

FIMFARUM2. Image: Maurfilm

Sessions on the Eastern European market helped us to understand how and where things are being made and with what money. Chello Media of Central Europe talked about acquisition and programming and producer András Erkel took us through the production of animation in Hungary and beyond and how this has been affected politically over the years.

One of the brilliant things about the MOME module was that we were introduced to a bunch of new softwares just out of development. Tools to change the way you present information, pitch and think through ideas, to programs like SourceBinder, a tool for ‘prototyping and real-time tuning of flash based visual applications’. It doesn’t mean I’m going to suddenly start making films in a new way but to be exposed to these methods, ways of working and perhaps more importantly, ways of thinking is really valuable for my practice.

Arguably the most valuable of all these software-related discoveries was from Flavio Perez, another ASF participant. Flavio invited me to use GoogleWave, a new application from everyone’s favourite inventors the Google team. GoogleWave, still in a slightly fragile Beta stage is like a cross between Sykpe, email, and a flow chart. It can be used to map out projects, collaborate in real time, post and share anything from videos to sounds, draw attention to certain items, re-edit posts and texts and boasts a playback mode where you can watch the project grow and develop and see exactly where and when items and posts have been added. I promise I’m not secretly working for Google, I’m just excited about it. I’ve started appropriating it straight away with Chris Gylee and Adam Peck as a platform to further develop The Cutting Room from wherever we might be.

There was an emphasis in Budapest on style and technique. Many of the student films they screened from the film were really unique in their approach and aesthetic. Rastko Ciric, a professor from Serbia shared some slightly dubious work from his school and discussed individual style and the voice of a director in animated filmmaking. Tamás Waliczky, veritable pioneer of CG animation gave a riveting lecture about the development of the form, its possibilities and the balance between art and technology.

A special screening of Panique au Village held for us in an art cinema thanks to

Falvai Györgyi from MOME who also works for the company who distributed this movie.

We had a couple of ideas development sessions with script editor and dramaturge Rita Domonyi who took us through a bunch of writing exercises, drawing on inspiration from photographs and text for adaptation. There were several pitches involved in this workshop which was really useful, I’m finding I’m getting a lot more confident with presenting in this format and also being able to discuss protect and stand up for the projects pitched. Should come in handy soon…

Pitching time. Photo: Laetitia Grandjean

Case studies by filmmakers gave us an insight into the minds of creators from places such as Poland, Switzerland and Russia. Tomasz Bagiński of Platige Image, Poland talked through his successes as a filmmaker and talked about the process he adopts when making films from getting the design right to finalizing an edit.

The first of the two highlights of the MOME module has to be Jonas Raeber of SWAMP in Switzerland. Jonas’s talk was entitled: ‘Relations and Dependencies: Conceptual Aspects of Animation’ and covered everything from what makes a successful film and the consideration of audiences to ‘budgeting made easy’ and a breakdown of production. The second highlight was Russian born Alexei Alexeev, creator of the well-known Log Jam. He came to discuss his experiences creating the first short KJFG No5 and the development of an idea from start to finish. Alexeev now works for Studio Baestarts in Budapest, strangely directed the Mr Bean cartoon and is as funny and as entertaining as his films. Studio Visits
Cinemon work mostly in traditional hand drawn animation as well as digital cut out for some of their work for children. They produce various content from series to feature films. The driving force behind the studio is producer Réka Temple whose working philosophy was sound and inspiring. The studio was based in an old house with a wooden conservatory used as a meeting room and was situated within a large, sprawling garden. Temple spoke to us about her experiences of working with directors, getting projects off the ground and co-productions in Europe.

The second studio was Lichthof Productions, based in a very cool ‘up-and-coming’ part of the city surrounded by fashionable eateries and bars where instead of a roaring fire, central heating and a carefully placed plasma TV displaying a roaring fire are slightly more chic. Lichthof is the home of Hungary’s no1 animator Áron Gauder who directed the gritty urban animated feature The District for those who caught that on the festival circuit a couple of years back. He’s now hard at work on his new feature Egil: The Last Pagan, a vicious tale of Viking warfare. Gauder usually works in digital cut out and CG but the part I found interesting about this project came from a connection with the Polish company Se-ma-for.

The biggest studio in Poland, Se-ma-for were responsible for, under Suzie Templeton’s inspired vision, creating the 2006 hit Peter and the Wolf. After a lack of work for the stop motion animators Gauder invited them to Budapest to animate armatures which had tiny motion capture rigs attached to them, feeding directly into a computer. The movements that the animators gave the puppets then created a skeleton movement which a CG character could then be laid over. This technique apparently saves time on a lengthy rigging process and also gives the CG a certain stop-mo quality, to which I have to quote Mette Ilene Holmriis from the animation workshop, who called it so elegantly “staccato”.

You can read more about the technique and watch a video of the process on their website here.

We joined the illuminati of the Hungarian animation industry (mostly made up of our lecturers) at the opening ceremony of Anilogue, an annual animated film festival for a screening of Adam Elliot’s masterful Mary and Max. There was much excitement for those who hadn’t seen it. It was my second viewing and it astounded me once again. It's not just a brilliant animation but it's a genuinely brilliant film. The use of stop motion makes the whole thing seem completely living and grounded; the light the textures, the economy of the movement. Elliot has a real talent for making us engage and empathize with lumps of plasticine. Simply genius cinematic storytelling.

Mary and Max (2009) Dir. Adam Elliot. © Melodrama Pictures

The last puppet making session

2009-11-11T23:39:00.001Z

Ian Matthews showed us a sting for E4 that his mate from Calon had made. It’s a very nice ident – incredibly stylish, trendy and has a charm only stop motion could evoke. He brought in one of the puppets on loan from the owner for us to have a look at. The design was relatively simple compared to what we have been making. They were a great example of purpose-built puppets; the models were built to execute a specific performance, the characters only needed to be seen from the waist up - so that's the only section they made, they only wave their arms and bounce a bit, so make them economically so they perform well without the extra effort of building a whole, complete, articulate puppet.

Click on the image to watch the sting on the E4 site

My armature is nearing completion. I managed to catch up quite quickly having been away after spending a day in the workshop. A little more soldering and gluing to go and then I should have a working armature. Ian very kindly gave us a comprehensive guide to building a stop motion puppet – a summing up of his teachings over the last month or so. I think he’s really inspired the group to become more serious about stop motion and get out there and try making some more models. I’m now anticipating the animation section of the training which starts this week.

Whilst on the subject of stop motion and its qualities I also wanted to share the work of Alison Schulnik. A graduate of CalArts, her work really plays on the materiality and performativity of clay in all its richness and tangibility. She has a very identifiable painterly style throughout her plastic arts and motion picture work. Check out her website here.

Jiří Trnka and Jiří Barta

2009-11-11T21:07:00.003Z

When I returned from Germany a book had arrived for me in the post. Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales, translated by Paul Hamlyn, but more importantly illustrated by Jiří Trnka. The book first came out in the late fifties and the version I managed to get hold of from the net was published 68. The book contains some really brilliant illustrations, from what I can tell they’re mostly made from coloured pencils and watercolour, which Trnka used a lot of designing his characters. There’s so little material on Trnka available I was lucky to snatch this whilst I found it; it’s great to have some hard copies of some of the wonderful work he made. Now all I need is for a comprehensive collection of his films on DVD to be released…

Click on images to enlarge them

I have just discovered that Jiri Barta, master Czech animator who created brilliant stop motion pieces such as Krysař (The Pied Piper of Hamelin, 1985) completed a stop motion puppet feature film in March of this year. The film is entitled Na půdě aneb Kdo má dneska narozeniny? Or In the Attic or Who Has a Birthday Today? in English.
His last film was a rhythmic CG piece which I wasn’t too sure what to make of but from the look of this trailer his latest film looks quite brilliant. There are a few different techniques in there and some really nice puppet animation. I hadn’t heard anything about this at any of the festivals this year but perhaps it will get around a bit next year. I hope so; I would love to see it.

Trnka illustrations from ‘Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales’ published by the Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd

German Doorways

2009-11-11T01:12:00.002Z

Studio visits and the end of part one

2009-11-11T00:53:00.003Z

The last day of ASF part 1 we spent visiting two big German studios. The first was the relatively young but extremely talented award winning Studio Soi. This company was founded in 2002 by graduates from the Filmakademie and they work across a range of disciplines although most of their output consists of 3d CG films. These are beautifully crafted, earnest, poetic films with real heart. They hark back to a more nuanced way of filmmaking where the shots are longer, the editing more precise and the imagery symbolic, whilst at the same time feeling very fresh and contemporary.
The studio was a large, mostly open plan space with drawing boards, computers and displays scattered everywhere. Amazing imagery covered the walls, the studios design is fantastic and for the most part is done by one guy – Jakob Schuh. Their latest project, an adaptation of classic children’s book The Gruffalo, is commissioned by the BBC, stars a host of British stars as the voice talent and look absolutely beautiful. They used a mixture of stop motion sets with CG characters which look very tactile and clay-like. From the preview we got to see (straight from the cutting room floor so to speak) this blend of the two forms is seamless and the storytelling came across as economic yet epic.

Studio Soi’s Carsten Bunte, Jakob Schuh and Torben Meier

The second studio we visited was Film Bilder in Sttutgart. This company has been around for a while and has a reputation for producing a wide range of work from the animated sequences in Tom Twkyers brilliant Run Lola Run to Andreas Hykade’s sexually charged Ring of Fire. The studio is situated on the top floor of a very tall building in the centre of Stuttgart with stunning views of the city. We were guided around by Thomas Meyer-Hermann, the studio head, who gave an insight into the philosophy of the studio and how it has lasted so long, making both experimental short films and more commercial work. The presentation of work he gave was varied and vibrant. He introduced us to ‘Tom’ which is a quite hilarious children’s series they do.

Despite a night of joyous celebration, a large meal with the staff and some dancing, we all left the Filmakademie with heavy hearts, not wanting to leave this company of people. But we won’t be apart for long, we all fly out to Budapest on Sunday for the next part of Animation Sans Frontieres – The Animation Production Workshop.

Torvald und der Tannenbaum © Studio Soi 2005
TOM © Film Bilder 2003

Newspaper Article

2009-11-05T18:42:00.001Z

An article from Bristol Evening Post.

Unfortunately not entirely accurate but publicity nonetheless.

Pre-production, post-its and pitching

2009-11-05T18:15:00.001Z

One of the highlights of the past few days was an improvisation workshop with Dörthe Eickelberg. We looked at theatrical improvisation, creating characters, walks, physicalities and how these can be used for storytellers. I spent a lot of my theatrical trainging doing this kind of work so it was great to go back to it and relate it to filmmaking and creating characters and stories for animation. It's a very free, creative way of working and also really helped the group to bond. I think these techniques are also useful for bringing together a team, a group of people working on a film, discovering a common language and perhaps, more importantly establishing a sense of humour.

We had a really interesting session with Kim Bjørnqvist who's background lies in the cut-throat world of advertising and he had lots of entertaining stories to tell us. We had him for two days and the time was really spent looking at models for effectively developing and realising ideas aswell as pitching and presentation. We looked at structures from Disney and other companies and various methods of thinking, target audiences and research before consuming plenty of post it notes for huge ideas generation sessions.

Another interesting presentation was about stereoscopic 3d, existing and emergent technologies, what this means for cinema and how it can be harnessed and used effectively within animation. This session was taken by François Garnier, a leader in this field who joined us after a shoot with Wim Wenders in another part of Germany. He talked a lot about the science and technicalities of how stereoscopy works and it's interesting history. It turns out that the basic 3d image has been around since photography began and that filmmakers such as Méliès, Eisenstein and Hitchcock all made stereoscopic films.

He gave us insight into how 3d work is being used in theme parks and the kind of complicated experiences that are being created, the results are stunning and we watched several stereoscopic films as part of the presentation, some made by his students, some visualization from theme park rides as well as 3d animated films.

He had a lot of interesting ideas on the future of the technology saying "3d is sometimes not the best way to tell a story but rather to experience the story". He did not seem to think that 3d is the way forward for all cinema. He said that the craze we are currently experiencing is transitory and that the technique will find its place more in augmented reality, instalation and other forms as well as cinema. The day really got me thinking about the various uses for this technology and he actually gave us a relatively simple demonstration of how to make a stereoscopic film using the old red and blue glasses method as opposed to the new polarized 3d which he also took us through. Note to self: DIY stereoscopic stop motion student film?

The last workshop was with Alex Mayhew who interestingly was a researcher at the International Film School Wales and made some work there. He was talking to us about media strategies and ways of thinking about content travelling across various platforms and how these inform each other. We had a workshop in the afternoon where we generated ideas on these grounds and then pitched them as projects. All this pitching practice is great and I really feel like I'm getting a lot from what I'm learning.

Image: Aardman Animations

In other news Wallace and Gromit are celebrating their twentieth aniversary, and as part of the celebrations The Culture Show in UK will be broadcasting a special episode live from Aardman's studios in Bristol. Further information here.

Finding stories from life and borrowing from theatre

2009-10-29T18:39:00.001Z

Today's session was led by Jörg Bochow who is head dramaturg at Staatstheater Stuttgart. His background is in collaborative theatre and literature also having taught in Germany and Canada and published books on German and Russian theatre. So today was of particular interest to me as someone who's own practice is informed by and often involves live performance. Bochow took us through a process he had recently used to create a piece of theatre where he used interviews with real people to translate into a fictional piece of performance. He took us on a rapid tour of the history of theatre from Aristotle to Stanislavsky - taking us through various approaches to performance and storytelling and highlighted the way these methods have been appropriated in film and animation.

He explained techniques of interviewing and ways to deal with, and be sensitive to the interviewee, whilst at the same time asking questions that should get the desired response. Towards the end of the day the conversation turned to politics and the role of the artist in relation to their political context and how the artist is not dissimiliar to, or rather, is arguably in danger of becoming a politician, or a dictator. The ideas raised were useful to think about for motion picture artists and certainly reaffirmed my belief of the blurring of approaches to different mediums.

I spoke to him briefly about my theories regarding theatre and animation, more specifically puppet animation and we exchanged contact details as he is definitely someone I'd like to question about this relationship between animation and theatre for some of my writings.

He gave me a book which they made for the show which shows some transcriptions of the interviews made and also acts as a sort of socio-political scrapbook.

All of us participants made a big meal last night and today we had to interview each other as one of the tasks so the group are inevitably bonding - it's a really great group of people and a pleasure to be spending time with such enthused, creative filmmakers.

Photos

2009-10-28T18:34:00.001Z

The following are a series of photographs visually documenting my trip to Germany for the first part of Animation Sans Frontieres 09-10 so far...

Leaving grotty, grey Newport

The Filmakademie in sunny Ludwigsburg

German fashion in 2009...

On the street - amazing junk

A type tray which will be returning to UK with me. Found it on the street. Priceless

As if we don't talk about animation enough,
here we are talking illustration and design in a bar

Early morning sunlight - walk to filmschool

Mike Dicks of Bleedinedge

and...

For people in Bristol or surrounding area thought I'd plug a few events at this years Encounters International Short Film Festival. Find the animation programme here, two things not to be missed:

A screening of the absolutely brilliant Mary and Max by Australia's master animator and storyteller Adam Elliot. I caught this film in Annecy this year and it is not just a great piece of animation, it is a truly great film - a wonderful piece of cinema that is so emotive and funny that most people I've spoken to who have watched it have been moved to tears. It won the joint prize (along with Coraline) for best feature at Annecy. I got a chance to speak to Adam at Annecy and I can safely say he is as lovely, friendly and enthusiastic as you could hope, for a man who makes such touching and brilliant work.
and the second event... another masterclass from legendary animator Richard Williams, with a preview of the new animators survival kit expanded! Check out the full programme for more events. If you're around don't miss out.

Multi-platforms, multi-culture, multi-food...

2009-10-28T18:01:00.005Z

We're eating a lot of food here. We have a large buffet breakfast in the mornings, then a paid-for lunch which is a big cooked meal, then snacks throughout the day in the lecture room and evening meals... animators obviously need nurishing, in more way than one.

To elaborate slightly on our time with Harrison Ellenshaw... a lot of what he dealt with involved more traditionalist ways of thinking, grounded approaches & techniques and ways of storytelling which have transcended the 'golden age' of Hollywood. He talked about various practitioners from Powell and Pressburger to George Lucas - it was interesting revisiting the early Star Wars films, on which Ellenshaw did effects work, these are pieces of cinema that I really grew up with, they taught me filmmaking, they made me want to make films and take audiences on amazing journeys to amazing places. I don't have time to now, but I'd love, at some point, to write a list of films which I think are critical to my ambitions now as a filmmaker and how they affected the way I think and work in the way I do.

So if Ellenshaw was looking to the past to inspire us, today's session, taken by the charismatic Mike Dicks, looked to the future. Check out Mike's linkedIn profile for info on his career - he's really on the cutting edge of developing formats and ideas within 'new media'. He talked content, multi-platform storytelling and usages, viewsers (a neat new media term for video users) and more. It really opened my eyes to ways of working I'd never considered before and he went into a lot of interesting detail about the internet, how it works and ways of harnessing it for good use.

All food for thought and I started getting excited about things like digital interactivity which isn't a thought I'd normally relish but I guess part of the point of this course is that we open ourselves up to new ways of thinking.

Flavio Perez, one of the animation producers on ASF has created a blog for us all to share photos, thoughts, comentaries, work etc made on and around ASF 09-10. Do subscribe and take a look around if you're interested in seeing who we all are and what we're up to.

Me, Nicole Gallagher and Laetitia Grandjean. Image: Flavio Perez

Free things are always nice. I won a competition on the wonderful Imagine Animation network to get a signed copy of the new updated, extended, brilliant Animators Survival Kit by Mr Richard Williams. Thanks to the lovely people at Imagine for doing these competitions.

Puppetmaking and more

2009-10-26T17:32:00.001Z

I had my last puppet making session on Friday. It was pretty productive and I managed to get quite a bit of the body structure glued and the hands made. I'll have to catch up on the rest when I'm back in the country but I'm possitive it won't be an issue to have it completed quickly. It's been great making these, using the workshops, all being together in the studio, talking, discussing, helping each other out - a sense of community which I've felt has been previously absent. It feels like people are really finding their niche now and really engaging with what they're making. It was also a real pleasure to have Ian Matthews in from Calon who was both inspiring and helpful.

The finished business cards printed up...

Front

Reverse

We have just finished the first day of Animation Sans Frontieres 09-10 at the Filmakademie in Ludwigsburg. We had a tour around the film school which is truly impressive, lunch in the student canteen complete with waiters, sun loungers and a delicious lunch (some kind of peppered burger with baby carrots and white whine sauce). In the afternoon, our first lecture which was by Harrison Ellenshaw - amazing guy, check out his credits on the link... Photos to follow!

Animation Sans Frontieres

2009-10-21T20:32:00.005+01:00

I leave for Germany on Sunday for the first part of my training in Europe. Whilst in Annecy I was very fortunate to have been put forward by my tutor Caroline Parsons and selected to participate in this scheme which encourages European co-productions, links between animation schools and introduces students and graduates to real-world animated filmmaking.

This advert was scanned from the Annecy 2009 festival guide

The course is made up of 18 students from various institutions from across Europe and takes place at four prominent animation schools in Germany, Hungary, Denmark and France. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has made my attending possible including the Screen Academy Wales and the International Film School Wales. The training will be invaluable. I’m feeling very privileged but also somewhat nervous being the only English person on the course. There’s a certain pressure to perform but I’m ‘rising to the challenge’.
The course website and an article about my attendance from the Screen Academy.
In preparation I’ve been updating my CV and business card and making a better showreel dvd with my shorts on as we have to do a presentation on our work and our careers.

Business card front

DVD menu and contact page

I wanted to keep everything relatively simple, graphic and economic and there’s a visual continuity between all of these items.

I was also very excited to find out the other day that two of my films will be showing at the Montreal Stop Motion Film Festival in Canada. This is the first big screening for The Scientist and the Omnipotence of Dream and the sixth or so outing for Curiouser and Curiouser.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

2009-10-21T13:53:00.001+01:00

Threre are moments of this film that are amazing, breathtaking, hilarious, touching. But, despite being a huge fan of Gilliam's work, and despite it's richness, I left feeling slightly hungry.

The future of home cinema

2009-10-19T01:04:00.001+01:00

I have just watched the first fifteen minutes of Coraline, in 3d on my computer. I was sceptical but I have to say it does actually work, to a point. They’ve reverted to the old-style red and green 3d glasses for the dvd release, which takes a little while to get used to (they forewarn 5 minutes on the dvd) but once you’ve settled the red and green start to fade and you can begin to enjoy the physicality of the world through stereoscopic 3d in the comfort of your own home. It’s not as good as the polarized 3d they used in the cinema but I supposed the technology is in its infancy and just hasn’t been developed enough for home viewing. So the colours are distorted, and the depth of field isn’t quite as impressive but I still think it’s exciting stuff.

There are about thirty five minutes of extras on the dvd which go into some detail about the process covering nearly all aspects of stop-motion production. It really makes you realise how groundbreaking this film is in terms of the techniques used and how many artists from such varied backgrounds came together to work on the project. There’s a particularly interesting section on the sets with art director Matt Sanders guiding us through the flower garden. I was lucky enough to meet Matt when Barry Purves introduced me to him at an event in Bristol. I had a long chat with him about Fantastic Mr Fox, which was then in production and his experiences on Coraline. Also, on the extras they go through and explain, in basic terms, how the stereoscopic 3d works. It’s all to do with scale and perspective of the world you’re shooting, eye distances and camera distances. There is a lot of information on the dvd which is not covered in the richly illustrated accompanying book and vice versa so they complement each other nicely.

As for the film itself, I thought it would be worth posting a review I wrote of it when it first came out…

Coraline is pretty astonishing. Selick seems to have taken stop motion performance to a whole new level; there are some epic sequences in this film. It's a work of art; from the intricate sets and costumes to the carefully observed performance of the title character. The music was rich and atmospheric, the story compelling and the characters engaging. Any worries about it being a little too 'cg-looking' were soon dispelled by fabulous textures from tiny knitted jumpers to clay earth crumbling off a well cover.

The voice talent is spot on and French and Saunders take a particularly hilarious turn as two old theatre lovies. The puppet designs are marvellous and the characters look fantastic - almost like they just wouldn't translate to puppet animation, with huge heads and tiny feet, but somehow the animators perform them with grace and so much expression.

The 3d business is a little odd to begin with but actually, rather than being a distraction, it goes some way to a more vital viewing of the physicality of the sets and the puppets. With this movie, as he did with 'Nightmare', let's hope Selick convinces a whole new wave of children to pursue stop motion.

I for one can't wait to see it again.

Beyond the Reservoir

2009-10-19T00:27:00.001+01:00

Puppet Making II

2009-10-19T00:22:00.002+01:00

Images from the second session. I’ve made the hips and the shoulders, all the k&s and wire has been cut to size…cracking on.

More tools and books

2009-10-19T00:17:00.001+01:00

Another book arrived in the post. A collection of film essays by film critic Jonathan Romney (The Guardian, Sight & Sound, Time Out, currently with The Independent ). I predominantly bought the book for a six-page essay on ‘Institute Benjamenta’ by the Brothers Quay as any writing on their work is hard to come by, however there are some interesting pieces on other works such as La Haine by Matthew Kassovitz (a film I couldn’t get enough of when I was heavily into French cinema), Dick Tracy and the aesthetics of prosthetics, Sally Potter’s Orlando, Les Nuits Fauves, Le Roman de Renard (Starewicz), The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (Bolex Brothers), Priit Pärn and The Lion King to mention a few.

Soldering iron, table vice and multi-tool. Sorted.

Trnka

2009-10-13T18:39:00.001+01:00

I have just posted an article which is a transcript of a presentation I gave on Jiri Trnka's 'The Hand' over on Tumblr as part of a communal blog for a Soundscape project at uni.
http://thesoundscapeproject.tumblr.com/post/212104526/exploring-the-unorthodox-through-jiri-trnkas-the-hand

Red Nose Studio

2009-10-13T17:56:00.005+01:00

Having mentioned the genius of Red Nose Studio earlier I thought I would example Sickels creative process when making his work. There is a huge amount of information and insight into the way he works on his blog but I wanted to illustrate it here with a specific example. This is a cover for a magazine called Angie’s List.

From sketch to final image…(click to enlarge)
And here is a stop-motion-esque video documenting the set-up of the shot; adding all the possessions, creating the lighting, and adding details to the set.

I see the way Sickels works as being utterly relevant to the practice of a stop motion animator, I think videos like this one demonstrate really well what I call the ‘alchemy’ of what it is to create and shoot little worlds. There’s a time in the studio which is a constant play between, puppet, props, light, composition, shadow, staging and proxemics before filming takes place.
All material © Red Nose Studio.

New Kit

2009-10-13T16:19:00.002+01:00

Spent yesterday morning wondering round Wickes and Wilkos collecting together some new kit and updating some old tools for puppet-making.

The veritable tools of a stop motion puppet maker

Also a book I ordered arrived in the post this morning; Me and My Mammoth by the prolific, talented children’s illustrator and author Joel Stewart. I suppose people making animation are influenced by various formats from comic books, to games, to novels. For me the picture book is a key inspiration for my filmmaking; the economy of the visually-led storytelling, the unpatronising nature (in some) books as they’re aimed at a young audience and most importantly their layered use of meaning and cumulative metaphor. Stewart’s stories are endearing and whimsical and his illustrations are lyrical and wonderfully textured in an age of flat computer design.
On the same subject, a very precious book of mine is The Look Book by Chris Sickels, the mastermind behind Red Nose Studio. Sickels is a 3d illustrator from the states and has been a consistent inspiration since I first came across his work three or so years ago. He creates artwork for promotion, books, editorial, packaging etc. Look book is his first book and it’s a real masterpiece, full of wordplay, stunning delicate imagery, tactile vignettes and epic landscapes. He creates these intricate worlds that completely draw you in.
The puppet I mentioned I’d worked on at the Aardman workshop wasn’t completed due to lack of time in the session so I finished that off over the weekend except for the feet which still need ‘tie downs’ installing. So hopefully by the end of the next five weeks I should have two decent fabricated puppets ready to bring to life.

Puppet making

2009-10-11T00:58:00.002+01:00

What I find interesting is the little differences between different studios approaches to model making. We had our first session with Ian Matthews, a model maker from Calon, who will be taking us through building a basic armature. We’re talking k&s, tie-offs, aluminium wire and lots of filing.
It’s great to be doing some really hands on work in the workshops and learning craft skills from someone in the industry. It’s refreshing to have someone new come in with a different dynamic and I’m eagerly anticipating what comes out of these workshops.
A month or so ago I did a model making workshop with Aardman as part of the new Bristol Festival of Puppetry. The workshop was application only and a great chance to quiz the makers from Aard about their technique. We made a similar armature to the ones we’re making with Ian but it’s the subtle differences (of which I’m probably not at liberty to disclose) that really fascinate me. To my surprise Ian said that all of Calon’s series work use ball and socket armatures whereas at Aardman a lot of the series work is done with these wire builds.
Here are some image from the first session with Ian (where we’ve just about got all our k&s cut and wire twisted) and from the workshop and talk with Aardman.

Introduction

2009-10-08T23:46:00.002+01:00

I have been busy recently what with Cutting Room and making the move back over to Wales. Thought this card sent from my parents was particularly pertinent…

The Cutting Room scratch performance on Sunday went well and it was nice to see so many friendly faces in the audience. For further info on the project see our specific blog here
It’s been a pretty intense summer with a number of projects. Traces, a live-action dance film made in collaboration with Miranda Cromwell and Twisted Theatre is currently in post production – editing. This is a quick pro-mo poster I made to get people interested.

Had a great lecture today by David Surman, really interesting break down of semiotics on a level which I think most people came out understanding which is quite an achievement.