Dead Duck Ideas

Not about me for a change. Just kidding, I totally make it about me...

2012-02-13T10:13:00.000-08:00

This month's main Skwigly feature is now online, so why not give it a gander? It's a double interview with two of last year (a particular strong crop)'s NFTS grads Richard Phelan and Francesca Adams. Their films have the shared traits of being traditionally animated and having all-animal ensemble casts, though in every other respect they couldn't be further apart.

Phelan's "Damned" is a sweet-natured tale of a beaver with ambition whose grandiose plan to cover the forest into a giant dam goes awry, while Adams's "Bertie Crisp" is a brutally adult story of an emasculated bear whose vicious wife send him to steal the baby of their neighbour (who's already burdened with a quadriplegic, possibly vegetative husband). In their own vastly different ways they're both pissingly funny and are two of the more standout student films doing the rounds this year, so I was really glad to get a chance to chat to both filmmakers.

Animal Instinct - A Conversation with Richard Phelan and Francesca Adams

On that note it was fantastic to hear that Grant Orchard, who I'd interviewed last year, won the Short Animation BAFTA last night with "A Morning Stroll", which has been doing brilliantly and is also up for an Oscar. It really is a great piece of work and most inspiring of all is how it came together without funding, pretty much as a labour of love the studio crew contributed to in their spare time over a two year period. So mazel tov again to Studio AKA and kudos to their modus operandi!
If it's of interest you can read my interview with Grant here (I'm a coattail rider, I admit it unabashedly, but it's a darn fun ride) for some backstory on the film and his prior work to date.

A Conversation with Grant Orchard

Fuera de estación

2012-02-02T18:39:00.000-08:00

Very quick update to confirm a couple of February televsion broadcasts for "La Lista Traviesa". It will be shown this coming Sunday (5th) at 9pm and then again on the 18th at 4:30pm. Both broadcasts will be on Canal+ Xtra. Which is in Spain. Yep indeedy. Book your flights now.

Quickies

2012-01-22T19:27:00.000-08:00

The screening time for "The Naughty List" at Children's Film Festival Bangladesh has been confirmed as this coming Thursday (26th) at 2pm at the British Council Auditorium in Dhaka. I'm very happy and humbled to see it's amongst some great pieces of work such as Victoria Mather's "Stanley Pickle", Sal Maldonado's "Night Island" and Richard Phelan's "Damned".Additionally I've learned that both "Naughty..." and "Ground Running" are to be screened at the upcoming Ciné-Court Animé in Roanne, France. This will be late March, so watch this space for deets.
Yes, I just used the word 'deets'. I'm not proud, nor am I ashamed.

"Aardman erectile dysfunction"

2012-01-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

While I've pretty much retired the film from festival circulation at this point, "The Naughty List" still gets the odd request from time to time and I'm happy to say it will get its first 2012 showing later on in the month. The 5th International Children's Film Festival Bangladesh will take place from the 21st to the 27th, as ever I'll put up my screening time and venue here when I find out.
On the non-me front, my first Skwigly feature of the year is an interview with fellow Bristolian and indiemator Sam Morrison, who's probably best known for the short "Rocket Science" which was pretty heavily circulated a few years back. His latest film "Greetings" got one of the best responses at this past Encounters Festival (for the fairly obvious reason that it's very goshdern funny) and is worth checking out along with his other work at his website. You can give the interview a read here:

A Conversation With Sam Morrison

Aside from him being an all-around nice chap, a perk of putting together the feature was being probably the first person in existence to type "Aardman erectile dysfunction" into Google for research purposes. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Hermit Ben

2012-01-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

Just before the holidays began, I made the conceivably misguided move of getting a whole mess of plates a-spinnin’ which will hopefully lead to some exciting stuff I can reveal come March. Until then I expect things on the blog front will get pretty quiet. Try not to drown in your tears.
The game plan is to shut myself away and barrel through as many ongoing commissions as I can so as to get started on what’s looking to be a ‘biggie’ with relatively few distractions. So if it seems like I’m not posting much on here, that’ll be why. I don’t anticipate many (if any) new festival screenings or film updates in that time, but if anything comes in I’ll put it up here while attempting to reign in my usual shitheaded editorialising.Before making myself disappear completely I may as well plug the first TV broadcast of 2012 for “The Naughty List”, which will be shown this Sunday 8th at 8:52pm on Canal+ Comedia in Spain. If you miss it, you can keep checking back on their channel page for upcoming broadcasts (there is, of course, the highly-defined online option available to y’all as well).Another piece of happy, non-animation news is that my most recent album “The Book of Women” is now available to buy through Amazon, either as a traditional CD (for us nostalgic old-timers) or as a digital download for the youthful hipsters out there. Check it out here, there are clips and everything! FANCY!

Struwwelpeter - "The Book of Women" on Amazon

Right, back to the cave and my faithful bogman companion. Little post-John K R&S reference there for ya.
Yup.

Brrr...

2011-12-25T08:24:00.000-08:00

Have a highly-defined Christmas, everybody!

2011-12-22T10:18:00.000-08:00

While I imagine the expiry date on being allowed to pimp my seasonal animated short "The Naughty List" will be up by this time next year, I'm giving it one last gasp. From now on (either until the new year or possibly forever, depending on how well it goes down) the complete, unedited version of the film is available to watch in full 1080p HD. "Ooh" and, I'll hasten to add, "Aah".
Rather apt as the HD thing kind of plays a part in the story, also in consideration of my peers you can now see all the inconsistencies in the line work that SD went some way toward covering up.

Please watch it/share it/'like' it etc as you all see fit. Plus if you're a Vimeo member you can download the full-res file and keep it forever and ever! It's a not-entirely-selfless act of holiday benevolence on my part.
Goodwill to all!

"Hello again, Terminal 5..."

2011-12-15T16:20:00.000-08:00

As the hectic holiday season has officially engulfed us, I am falling behind in certain areas, like keeping this blog up to date, for one. Rest easy, readers of this newfangled internet, for come the new year I may well be back on form and taking forever to say absolutely nothing of value like I usually do. While I have some time waiting on a flight that'll propel me away from this island for the holidays, I’ll quickly knock out some Christmassy chunks of good news: Firstly, Canal+ have added another handful of broadcast slots for “The Naughty List” over the holiday season, you can head on over to the channel website for full listings.Secondly, said tale of seasonal disenchantment will be screening in Italy alongside “Ground Running” as part of the Skepto International Film Festival’s pre-fest event tomorrow at Cagliari's Hostel Marina (7:30pm for pantsless Santa, 9:30pm for pantsless baby…I’m starting to pick up on a recurring theme in my work).Lastly, “The Naughty List” will also be getting its first – and possibly only – screening of 2012 next month at the Short Soup International Short Film Festival in Sydney, Australia. As part of Movies By The Boulevard, a series of outdoor film screenings at Sydney Olympic Park that runs through January, my film's in Short Soup’s ‘Dessert’ section which begins at 10:25pm on Sunday 22nd. So, if you find yourselves feeling any post-holiday melancholia, head on over there and cheer yourselves up. Granted, for those of you who don’t actually live in Australia, the incurred travel expense may depress you further, in which case you may just want to pick up a batch of reduced-price mince pies instead.

Seasonal Spaniards

2011-12-01T02:30:00.000-08:00

Some very nice Christmassy news regarding "The Naughty List" - despite its somewhat sardonic take on the holiday season, I'm really happy to say that it'll be getting a bunch of TV broadcasts in Spain over the Canal+ network during December. Here are the dates/times/channels:

•Friday 9th December - 12:36pm - Canal+ Xtra
•Monday 12th December - 6:10am - Canal+2
•Friday 16th December - 4:50pm - Canal+2
•Sunday 18th December - 1:41pm - Canal+ Xtra
•Friday 23rd December - 4:35pm - Canal+1
•Friday 23rd December - 5:05pm - Canal+1 ...30
•Saturday 24th December - 5:36pm - Canal+ Xtra
•Thursday 29th December - 12:06pm - Canal+ Xtra

More info including a rather flattering description and the declaration "No recomendada para menores de siete años" (so that's the cutoff point - good to know) can be found on its Canal+ page.

"I guess they let any old crap on TV these days..."

Cartoons Are Fun

2011-11-20T09:24:00.000-08:00

Best souvenir ever...

My massive Encounters-athon has just come to a close and I'm shakily writing this in the interim between the final screening and a personal trainer session that's sure to finish me off. The festival's been great, if for no other reason that I drank until my eyes melted and got to meet some much-admired filmmaker types. Knock wood I didn't manage to completely alienate the greater percentage of them. "Ground Running"'s Saturday screening played to a slightly smaller crowd but the overall response to it seemed even better than on Thursday. Shame on all of you for laughing at that little naked baby's pain.
My own self-celebration aside, there were loads of amazing and inspiring shorts including some previous favourites "Damned", "The External World", "Bertie Crisp", "A Morning Stroll", "Greetings" and "The Eagleman Stag" along with a few seen for the first time:

All in all it was a great week and I'm especially grateful to Pete, Justine, Jo, Matt, Hans, Mel, Chris and Rachel for their support. Also I want to express my appreciation for the volunteers for all their help, including the frumpy one (who couldn't have been in a shittier mood if her knickers were lined with fibreglass) for not spitting directly in my face.
Well, it took three films and ninety festivals but I finally have this one crossed off the list. I finally feel at home in Bristol now.

Yes Sir, I like it

2011-11-18T09:06:00.000-08:00

Between work and making a point of being more of a regular attendee at this year's Encounters, I'm operating on approximately four hours of sleep a night, floating from event to event on Arnolfini gingerbread lattes (which I assume are about 950 calories a pop). As I have a brief sliver of downtime, I'll take this opportunity to document the latest addition to the hall of Greatest Things That Have Ever Happened To Me:There really are no words. Except for 'happy' and, upon further consideration, 'joy'.
I'll give a proper overview of the festival on Skwigly soon, but in the meantime I'm happy to say "Ground Running" got a far better response yesterday than I'd expected from a 10am audience. In fact it played to pretty much a full house, which was also unexpected and a great start to the day. There's another showing tomorrow at noon (so it has a second opportunity to bomb) which can be booked online at the Arnolfini website:Note their good taste in still selection...

Fifty is the new...uh...eh, who cares...

2011-11-16T12:46:00.000-08:00

Another groovy little milestone for "The Naughty List" has been reached with its fiftieth festival taking place later this month. This will be in Gdańsk, Poland for Euroshorts 2011, screening alongside some smashing films such as Iain Gardner's "The Tannery" and Grant Orchard's "A Morning Stroll". This will be on November 23rd at 6pm, more info on their site.Also, if you're around for Bristol Encounters (which starts today), don't forget that "Ground Running", the runt of the litter as far as my films go, will be playing twice during the Animated Encounters screening "The Human Condition", firstly at 10am tomorrow (17th) and then at noon on Saturday (19th). There's loads of other events and screenings worth checking out, including the great John K's signings and Q&A discussion that I'm mildly losing my shit over in anticipation. So if that grim scenario is something you're okay with witnessing firsthand, pop along.

Reprazentin'! (...sorry)

2011-11-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year when I take stock of where I am and where I'm going with this cartoon malarkey. This year was pretty strong, work-wise as well as for personal projects, but my hopes that this may have been indicative of an industry upswing have been dashed for their childlike foolishness by an increasingly bleak forecast. Work out there in 2012 seems sparse and if it weren't for "Bullies" keeping me occupied for the next couple months I'm not sure what I'd be doing with my time. Come January I could be up the proverbial creek, scrabbling about for the proverbial paddle.
So, in true 'keep calm and carry on' tradition of head-in-sand denial this nation is so famous for, I'll plod along and do all I can do. To that end I've revised my showreel:

There isn't a whole bunch of replacement footage as I want to keep what "Bullies" animation I've done under wraps until I start promoting it. I've also brought my animation CV up to date with various work commissions since the summer, as well as developments with my films and an additional screening history section.

Ben Mitchell - Animation CV (.pdf, 3.3mb)

To supplement all this is a mini-portfolio I'd put together not that long ago to showcase my graphic design, character design and illustration work in brief:

Ben Mitchell - Design/Illustration Portfolio (.pdf, 5.3mb)

So there you go. That's me and the brass tacks of what I've been up to. Help a fella out, folks.

Shady

2011-10-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

Here's another round-up of some recent life drawing I've been persisting with. Some strides have been made as far as shading is concerned, though as you can see I'm still hesitant when it comes to faces. I think if I'm going to make any progress at all I may have to spend a couple of future sessions just focusing on heads alone and try to identify what it is precisely that's putting me off. In the meantime, enjoy yourselves some spookily faceless naked folks:

Corking

2011-10-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

The Irish debut of "The Naughty List" will take place this November at the Corona Cork Film Festival, a fantastic looking event which goes from the 6th to the 13th. I don't quite get the connection between Corona and Irish filmmaking, especially as, to the best of my knowledge, it's a Mexican beer. But I'm not complaining, in face in appreciation of their kindness in throwing my film in I have laid out my lucky Corona boxers for the 'morrow. You probably don't need photographic proof of that, but here you go anyway:A special edit of the film is presently viewable online as part of ShortsNonstop, an initiative of the CFC in the form of a web-based film contest. If you have the time and inclination please give it a watch and a vote once it's done (li'l voting balls will appear on the right after the vid plays to the end). You don't need to register and there are a bunch of other nice short films up too, including some nifty and well-made animation like this one.I probably shouldn't have waited this long to mention it as I think the voting ends in the next couple days, but it's great the have some Canuck exposure all the same. It'll hopefully be in my corner when I finally up sticks and get my ass back over there.

High Society

2011-10-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

The first of what I hope will be several preview chapters from my forthcoming graphic novel "Throat" is now available to download. This is entirely gratis for not very selfless reasons, and sharing with everyone you know who likes this kind of thing is actively encouraged.It doesn't give away too much of the story, it more serves as a visual introduction to the style and tone of the book and the world it takes place in. You can download it by clicking the link below:

Launchy

2011-10-05T19:30:00.000-07:00

I was at the launch party for this year's Encounters programme last night and it has to be said that it's looking to be a very strong year. The small handful of animated films they showed were pretty sophisticated and to be honest I'm not sure how well my li'l auteur venture will measure up, but it's great to know it's amongst some good company. The two that grabbed me in particular were "Hurdy-Gurdy" (D. Seideneder), an elaborate and intricate time-lapse style stop motion piece, and "Luminaris" (Juan Pablo Zaramella), one of very few films I've seen to use pixilation comedically (as opposed to, y'know, creepily).
There's some great events lined up including a Studio AKA showcase which I caught at ITFS and is definitely worth checking out, as well as Cartoon Saloon and special programs for Irish and Brazilian animation. The truly SPECTACULAR news is that John Kricfalusi will be doing an in-person Q&A which I booked the nanosecond I found out about it. To put it in perspective - without John K there'd be no "Ren & Stimpy", without "Ren & Stimpy" there'd be no preadolescent impulse for li'l Ben to fuck around drawing cartoons and without that I'd probably be working in telesales about now.My film "Ground Running" will be shown as part of the Arnolfini animation screening "The Human Condition" which will be at 10am on Thursday November 17th and then repeated at noon on the 19th. Other animators featured as part of the festival include Grant Orchard, Julia Pott, Richard Phelan, Francesca Adams, Sam Morrison, David O'Reilly, Louis Hudson and Mikey Please.

Jammin'...in a couple of respects...

2011-10-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

It's been just over a year since Bill Plympton put out the call for animators all over the world to contribute to "Guard Dog Global Jam", and so in honour of the film's successful completion and subsequent glowing reception at a whole heap of international fests (recent inclusions being OIAF and LIAF) I did a feature on the project from the perspectives of Bill, Plymptoons producer Desiree Stavracos and a bunch of the film's very talented contributors. You can read it over at Skwigly now:

Guard Dog Global Jam - A look at Bill Plympton’s worldwide collaboration endeavour

One of the highlights of being personally involved with the film was learning about so many other great animation enthusiasts, professionals and independents out there. So a great deal of thanks go out to Fatima Yasrebi, John T. Quinn, James Sugrue, Ansar Sattar, Amy Sutton, Mike Schneider, Filip Grudziel, Rebecca Wallace, Jeremy Galante and Julius Liubertas for their feedback for the article, as well as Desiree and Mr. Plympton himself for putting the whole thing together in the first place.Occupying a completely separate position on the spectrum of my extracurricular activities, I have recently been going through a bunch of old music recordings of mine in anticipation of re-releasing all my CDs. This came from hearing the news that Lulu is rescinding their produce-to-demand service for music, alongside the realisation that Cafepress (my main alternative) had rather shittily done so already without mentioning it to anyone.
So, while I weigh up the remaining options, I'm remastering all my production work from 2003-2008 to bring it up to par with my most recent album, 2010's "The Book of Women". Some of the tracks I've been uploading to SoundCloud as they're done to serve as a free online sampler. Here are the first batch from this past week:

On A Limb by Struwwelpeter

Rabbit Hole by Struwwelpeter

Laughing At A Wall (Live) by Struwwelpeter

What I Predict (Amneurotic) by Struwwelpeter

Cold Turkey (Remix) by Struwwelpeter

More to come in the following weeks. In the meantime I may as well use the opportunity to remind y'all that the completely free EP "Digital Stimulation" is still available to stream or download in its entirety.So there ya go, free reading material and free music to distract you when you should be working. I spoil you all.

Oktoberfests

2011-10-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

This month is turning out to be a positively cray-cray one for film screenings, starting today at the aforementioned Goden Kuker-Sofia festival where “The Naughty List” is screening at the Arena West Cinema as part of the 1pm Films For Kids competition program “Through The Eyes of a Child”. It’s also part of the Ukrainian touring festival KROK which wraps up on Monday and the German touring festival Film Sharing, which has its final stop on the 21st in Mainz at the Capitol & Palatin, starting at 8:30pm.I can also confirm that, as well as Berne, it will be part of the Cologne, Cape Town and Vienna editions of the Shnit International Shortfilmfestival as part of "Shnit Animates 1", showing at the following times/places/venues:
•Cologne, Germany
Friday 7th, 9pm Alte Feuerwache 1
Sunday 9th, 2pm Kölner Filmhaus 1
•Cape Town, South Africa
Friday 7th, 4pm Labia 2 (I’ve never been to that particular venue but it sure sounds like a lovely place)
•Vienna, Austria
Thursday 6th, 6pm Burg Kino 2 At the 6th Vilnius Film Shorts, it goes under the mildly scary title “Nepaklusniųjų Sąrašas” in the "International Competition V" at 3:30pm on Friday 14th at the “Skalvijos” Kino Centras and 4pm on Saturday 15th at the Kino Pasaka.Also on the 15th it’ll be the closing film of the “Männer” section of Emmentaler Filmtage in Switzerland, showing at 2pm, 4:30pm and 9:30pm and the following day (16th, to condescendingly imply that you don’t know what fifteen plus one equals) at 12:30pm, 4pm and 6:45pm – full programme here.Then on Monday 17th it’s on in Romania at the Comedy Cluj International Film Festival during their 3:30pm Animation screening at the Cinema Florin Piersic, repeated 11am Friday 21st at the Cinema Arta.Following in the footsteps of “House Guest” back in ’09, it’s up for the Delta Film Award at Manchester’s Festival of Fantastic Films on Saturday 22nd.A particularly nice bit of news to round off the month is that it will screen alongside my previous film “Ground Running” at FLIP International Animation Festival in Wolverhampton on the morning of the 28th, which just happens to be my birthday. I know, you don’t have to say it: I’m adorable. FLIP was also the first festival (of, I’ll be honest, a lot) to turn down my work and help steel me against the concept of film rejection, so to have two shorts in at this point is quite validating in a cyclical sort of way.
Phew. Okay, that’s enough deplorable self-love for one post. All that’s left is for me to apologise for using the term ‘cray-cray’ in the first sentence: I’m sincerely, profusely sorry. It won’t happen again.

Baby Love

2011-09-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

Some more film news, starting with the latest outing for "The Naughty List" which will be at the 3D Wire International Animation Market in Segovia, Spain this October 13th-16th. I don't know if it's incorporated into any particular screening events but will update when I get info as my childlike grasp of Spanish isn't doing me any favours at the moment.I'm very happy to say that later on in November my previous film “Ground Running” will be playing at Animated Encounters, the animation strand of Bristol’s own Encounters International Film Festival. This is a fest I’ve been going to since I moved here back in 2006, and handily my apartment’s pretty much just around the corner from the venue. It’s the first time any of my work has been included though, so it’s nice to be able to cross another high-tier fest off the list (between this, ITFS Stuttgart and Clermont-Ferrand I just have Annecy and Ottawa as my main ‘get’s left). Hurrah!

Sour grapes. It's sad, really...

A Very Special Episode

2011-09-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I look at my blog posts or Twitter feed and wonder if I come off like a methodical, joyless ass motivated by self-promotion and cynicism. I rather hope I don't, because I'm actually a pretty easygoing, lovable scamp. As long as I'm getting enough sleep.
So today, apropos of pretty much nothing at all, I've decided to list ten random things off the top of my head I take tremendous joy in. I can't not be in a good mood as long as I have these in my life.

•This bit in "The Simpsons"

•"Ghostbusters 2" on the original GameBoyBecause it rules. You spend the whole game wandering around catching a shitload of ghosts; one button shoots them, the other traps them. It's literally the perfect GameBoy game.

•Sofia Vergara making chocolate milk on "Modern Family"

•The parts of "Over The Falls" by Primus where Les goes 'byowp byowp byowp byowp byowp byowp byowp byowp byowp...' with the upright bass.

From around 8 seconds in. And throughout. Darn good plucker, that Mr. Claypool.

•Roti Canai at the HK Diner on Park St.It's ricockulously delicious.

•My sister's roommate's adorable yet idiotic Boston Terrier/Gremlin thingJust look at her. She's the greatest creature in existence. She's also a fucking dunce and eats everything that'll stay down. For both those reasons I consider her a kindred spirit.

•That old episode of "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" with Cathy Dennis

For reasons not entirely dissimilar to the Sofia Vergara clip. Also because she's an adorable goddamn goofball and can write a catchy tune.

•The way you get the CD out of the packaging for Mike Patton's "Peeping Tom"
You pull the tab on the right and the CD slides out on the left. It's BRILLIANT. This album came out nearly six years ago and I'm still entertained by it. How can you not be?

•Any moment of any episode of that online show Maria Bamford did where she plays all the characters

•Any time they talk about Kubrick movies on "The Opie & Anthony Show"

I really don't think there's any explanation needed.

That's enough positivity for one day. Don't worry, I'll be whining about something I made up soon enough.
N'night!

Things that will happen (AKA “It’s the end of the week and I don’t have the energy for a clever title”)

2011-09-16T16:56:00.000-07:00

Just in time to hopefully not be too late for Christmas, December 5th is now marked as the official joint release date for my next two books. “My Pretties” is a non-narrative illustration book in the vein of last year’s “Brain Spillage”, this time a full-colour showcase of my character design work over recent years. Its focus is naturally on the projects I’ve taken on since starting out on my animation career, with some early toothcutting endeavours thrown in. “Throat”, which I’ve talked about previously, is my first graphic novel to not be an adaptation or anthology. It’s been a not-so-smooth ride, going on intuition and very little by way of guidance, but after a last minute rewrite I’m really happy with how it’s turned out. There’s the usual dark elements and weird, goofy shit I guess I’m associated with at this point, but it also goes to some places a little more personal and introspective. “Maus” it definitely ain’t, but I’m proud of it all the same.Film news, another upcoming October screening for “The Naughty List” will be at the “Golden Kuker – Sofia” International Animation Film Festival in Bulgaria, alongside some pretty fine films by the likes of Joost Lieuwma, Dmitry Geller, David O’Reilly, Brothers Quay, Grant Orchard, Martin Wallner and Stefan Leuchtenberg. There are lots more, of course, but those fellas in particular I’m a bit of a fan of, so worth a shout-out. The film’ll be shown as part of the Made For Kids competition screening on Saturday October 1st at the Arena West cinema, full programme here.Other confirmed “Naughty List” festival screening times: A week tomorrow (the 24th) it’s being played in the Pyrenees International Short Film Festival Sintetitza’s Animation section from 5pm at the Catalunya Cinema in Berga.
At the multi-regional Shnit International Shortfilmfestival it is in the “Shnit Animates 1” screening, showing at 9pm Friday October 7th and 5pm the following Sunday (9th). I’m not sure if this is the same schedule for all the countries but those are the official times for the Berne edition (Venue for both screenings is the Kino City II).Finally, my Animation MA coursemate Kate has put together an animation showcase that will be part of SAW’s Art Weeks ’11 visual arts festival in Somerset. My first film “House Guest” will be included as part of the daily programme (around 12:25pm) as well as work by such fellow UWE-ites as Laura Ratta, Lucia Morgan, Mark Simon Hewis, Dominique Bongers, and Mel Peck, along with some classic shorts from established directors. The Art Weeks make for a pretty giant event with lots of stuff on for the artistically inclined and goes from tomorrow up to October 2nd, so if you’re trotting about those parts drop in to The Old School and watch yourself some fine toonage. More info at the event website.

Lamentation

2011-09-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

This entry’s a little outside of the usual subject matter for this blog as it has pretty much nothing to do with animation. It is, however, something that has been on my mind from the perspective of storytelling and the ways in which intellectual properties, once out of their creator’s hands, can develop for better or worse.

I saw a rather disconcerting tweet the other week from my hero and good pal (in my head) Clive Barker – author/artist/creator of “Hellraiser” – which read thusly:

I was kinda surprised, as I’d figured they’d finally hung up the “Hellraiser” socks in 2005 with the unsurprisingly lacklustre eighth entry “Hellworld”. A ninth Hellraiser, or remake of the original perhaps, would at this point only be of value if from the mind of – or at least endorsed by – Clive Barker himself. The only straight-to-DVD sequel he allegedly had anything positive to say about was part 6, “Hellseeker” (2002), which is certainly not without its flaws. So the above Twitter condemnation, along with the whimper the series had supposedly died out on, did not see my expectations raised for this new entry. In truth, I expected it to be hacky trash. How would it be possible, then, to be disappointed by the trailer when, in my head, the bar was already so low? Well, kids, here’s how:

This. Is. Fucking. GARBAGE.
If the above footage somehow managed to make use of untapped computer technology and have YouTube literally urinate directly into my mouth, ears and eyes I’d be less affronted. I’m not even sure who to direct my anger at as there are too many reasons why it’s awful to even begin to count. The recycled dialogue, the dreadful acting, the disorientingly lazy sound mix or the fact that it appears to have been filmed on a flip-cam are all vying for the crown of this film’s shittiness.
Some YouTube comments, along with the film’s Wikipedia entry, have theorised that this is a move by the studio to retain the franchise rights as cheaply (an estimated $300,000) and, in turn, disrespectfully as possible. That explanation makes sense and the silver lining would be that maybe their long game is to put together a more considered reboot of the franchise. If that is indeed the case, then my impulse should be to ignore it completely and let it be the proverbial soundless tree falling in an unpopulated forest.
I guess that’s the real issue – I can’t. I’m genuinely bothered by it. On an intellectual level I can strip the process down and acknowledge it’s an economical solution to a long-term, intellectual property ownership issue. But on a deeper level, one that rationalising has no control over, it’s disrespectful and irresponsible and artistically barren.
“Sure, Ben. Now you’re gonna tell me that a low-budget 80s horror flick constitutes ‘art’?”
How about this - yes, it fucking does. Get them apples down ya.
Clive Barker is an artist, in absolutely no uncertain terms, and the value of art is just as crucially measured by its reception as by its intent. Sure, I’ll admit that a lot of the film adaptations of his books and short stories have been patchy, but the first “Hellraiser”, made in 1987, is a legitimate cultural achievement: An independent British horror film that became a mainstream, international success, while bearing none of the hallmarks or clichés of the genre, then or today.

In true Clive Barker form, the story at its heart is actually quite domestic and relatable. It’s a film about lust for life, human relationships, experience and the torturous nature of boredom; the most common misconception is that it’s about a guy with pins in his head going around massacring people (they saved that for part 3). In fact, it’s fundamentally a love triangle between an austere, bored housewife, her milquetoast husband and his swarthy, dangerous brother with whom she’d had a pre-marital shagathon. So bowled over by his abilities as a master-cocksman, when she meets him again as a skeletal escapee from hell she doesn’t bat an eyelid.

She’s also more than happy to let loose her repressed murderess side and kill a string of horny barflies that her reanimated lover can feed on to become a whole person again. What gives the film its uniqueness is its focus on realistic, human issues juxtaposed against the darker, surreal visuals and concepts. These two scenes are a nice little glimpse into that overall vibe:

That the ‘horror’ elements are so casually incorporated into the story gives them a lot more weight and even legitimacy. The villainess (or antiheroine) Julia isn’t a one-dimensional hacker-upper, her motives to self-servingly indulge the sociopath within aren’t so far-fetched when you consider the despicable behaviour of real-life nutjobs; next to the Tracey Connellys of the world she actually comes off as fairly tame.

Fleshing out the story further are elements good, bad and ‘meh’ – the reluctant, unlikely stepdaughter heroine (good), her completely ineffectual boyfriend (meh), the cenobites, a kind of underworld, S&M-inspired mafia/clergy, of which the then-unnamed Pinhead is don/high priest (superb) and...well, there’s this bit with a giant scorpion thing being wheeled down a hallway...yeah, I’m not too wild about that.
Another big gripe is that, presumably for reasons relating to marketing the film internationally, a lot of the British actors have their lines overdubbed with American accents. So, as with everything in life, it isn’t perfect, but there’s so much to it that works so well and, frankly, puts it on a higher plane than other genre movies of the era. This virtue is, ironically, what limits its audience somewhat – it’s just easier to sell a brainless slasher flick if you’re going under the horror label.

"For the most part, the reviews have been extremely kind. The audiences seem to have been having a good time with it, which is a major satisfaction. So I would have to say yes, I'm satisfied. I think it would be great if some of the images from the movie become images which recur in people's heads and stick with them. I would really like to see a Hellraiser series get going. I'd like Julia to be the first running character in a horror series who's a woman, like a female Freddy Kreuger.”
- Clive Barker (Fall 1987), justifiably ambitious and hopeful.

Naturally enough, the film’s unprecedented success spawned a more or less immediate sequel “Hellbound” (1988), which Barker was less involved with but was penned by his former theatre troupe co-founder Peter Atkins (who would also write parts 3 and 4).

As the film goes on, Atkins’s grand vision starts to work against it, the budget just not sufficient enough to accommodate the spectacle of hell he’d envisioned. The first act of the film is superb, though (aside from the bizarre presence of cornball US detectives further confusing the geography of the films), echoing Barker’s explorations of human obsession. The scenes that really stand out deal with the relationship between a psychiatric doctor and the reborn villainess Julia:

Another standout moment of all the films takes place toward the end of “Hellbound”, where the cenobites acknowledge their own origins and face-off against the doctor, himself now cenobitised and looking to oust them (just to let you know - MONUMENTAL spoilers in this clip, in case you plan on giving the films a proper watch):

“To catch the momentum and consciously carry on the mythological development was a challenge I found irresistibly exciting. Hellbound illuminates many of the concepts I was happy to leave as mysteries in Hellraiser while continuing on a spiral of weirdness I can develop even more in a third film.”
- Clive Barker (01/1988), excited enough about the sequel to already be aiming for a trilogy.

At this point the films had developed a pretty sizable audience who’d embraced Pinhead more than the human villains of the film (this essentially put the kibosh on Barker’s aforementioned vision of Julia, the housewife-turned-Queen-of-Hell from the first two movies, becoming the series’ main antagonist). An ambitious comic series was spawned (separate entry for that coming soon) and, after several variants on a storyline were developed, a third film was pushed out in 1992.

“Hell On Earth” takes a pretty gigantic turn as an unashamed slasher movie, wherein the former cenobite leader (he with the nails in the ol’ noggin) goes into the freelance business of pretty much slaughtering everyone in his path. As a viewer, it’s fun in the vein of shamefully wolfing down an entire box of chocolates, yet despite going against the M.O. of the first film by retreating to a more conventional type of horror flick, it’s still peppered by wonderfully incongruous moments of Atkins-scripted dialogue that are so well-written they almost seem as though they’re from a different film altogether. These mainly center on a series of ‘seduction’ monologues Pinhead (Doug Bradley) delivers, the clip below being, in all seriousness, probably one of my favourite scenes in a movie ever:

Also to Atkins’ credit is that the contradictory character Pinhead has in this movie does make perfect sense, story-wise. Having been stripped of his humanity in the previous film, he now exists purely as impulsive evil, hence a somewhat Krueger-ised persona. This concept I will happily admit to being my main inspiration for Erica, the villainess of “Mitchells In England” (in fact a whole heap of the story elements were more or less lifted directly from “Hell On Earth” in, y’know, loving homage). At this point in the series, though, Barker himself had been elbowed out, only really being brought on for reshoots to fix the somewhat anticlimactic ending.

"From the start it was clear the production company [Trans Atlantic Entertainment] wanted their stamp on it more than mine. While they had to pay me because the original ideas and characters were my creation, they already had the pivotal elements in place, so they didn't need me. As it didn't reflect my vision of the Hellraiser mythos, I had no desire to be associated with it in any way.”
-Clive Barker (03/1993) on the reality of the third movie.

The film is a cringefest, full of one-liners, gratuitous tit shots and questionable VFX – and I do indeed love it. While the first “Hellraiser” nourishes my craving for well-crafted, story-driven cinema, the third equally satisfies my guilty penchant for brainless cheese (with the second pretty much bang in the middle). As a trilogy these films are solid, thoughtful at times and joyfully macabre.
Imagine my delight, then, when I discovered that a fourth was coming out, pretty much exactly when I was getting into Barker and the “Hellraiser” series. Thus began the descent of the franchise into a succession of production nightmares. My fascination shifted from the stories of the films themselves to the real-life, behind-the-scenes woes that were being reported.

The heartbreaking thing is that “Hellraiser: Bloodline” (1996), in screenplay form, had the makings of being the best one of the lot, irrefutably concluding the largely unexplored mythology of the films by bringing it full circle to its origins in the 18th century. The evidence of Atkins’s work as a quality writer previously glimpsed in moments of parts 2 and 3 was this time laid on thick. Fortunately some of these scenes made it to the final version, albeit framed in a misrepresented context – the film as released is a confusing, detached patchwork with gaping continuity issues and inconsistencies. This one surviving exposition scene from an entirely excised subplot just about works in its own right, and more importantly shows the potential the film could have had:

It has to be said that, for the most part, only after reading the original screenplay do certain scenes or lines of dialogue make any sense whatsoever. This film was also my introduction to the concept of the Alan Smithee pseudonym, put to use after director Kevin Yagher had the film he was trying to realise wrenched away from him to be bombarded with script revisions and reshoots.

“When a filmmaker wants to make a movie based on my work, I can't say, "Well, I'm not going to become involved." Instead I keep my finger in the pie and try to create a better movie. However, as the series goes on, it becomes harder and harder to scare audiences with images that they've seen in the three previous films…Hollywood is built on pure profit and, provided there's a profit, the concept will continue - even if there isn't a brand spanking new story to tell."
- Clive Barker (02/1995), wearied industry veteran.

I have absolutely no qualms with admitting that, as far as I can tell, in the hall of fame of shitty horror movie sequels there have been far worse than “Bloodline”. Its main problem is simple – it isn’t finished. There are still a lot of strong moments and cool concepts buried beneath the mishmash plot.

The ending is irredeemable though, inexplicably sudden with no epilogue or explanation, the consequence I assume of a rushed rewrite so that the hero survives. Workprints of earlier versions of the film exist, some containing scenes from the screenplay that were filmed but left out of the released movie. One of these is an earlier version of the ending (in which the hero makes the far more poetic and justified move of sacrificing himself), which is not only better, it honestly gave me chills – no mean feat given how much harder an onscreen timecode and the absence of VFX, music and sound make suspension of disbelief. When I finally watched it a couple years ago I actually felt like I was at peace with the film; it’s how things should have ended.

"Hellraiser 4 has been released in the States. It's not very good. I think they are making another one. Oh God!"
- Clive Barker (07/1996), candid realist.

1-4: The more profitable, theatrical-run days...

So, in the wake of the clusterfuck that was the fourth “Hellraiser” (which made it into cinemas in the US but was the first straight-to-video entry in the UK), the series’ future on the home video market was pretty much set in stone. I made a point of keeping expectations low for the fifth (2000’s “Inferno”), which proved to be the right move as it was something of a poor man’s “Jacob’s Ladder” and the first to no longer involve Atkins. The aforementioned “Hellseeker” was similar, story-wise, but redeemed by its atmosphere and performances. Its main problem is a jarring and disconnected storytelling style, where events constantly jump forward and backward. The explanation at the end justifies this device well enough, but frankly it gets pretty irritating to sit through. All told, however, it’s the most commendable stab at a “Hellraiser” movie out of the final four.

5-8: Straight-to-DVD hell

The seventh (“Deader”, 2005) and eighth are uniquely fascinating – in their own rights they are inoffensive-yet-mediocre horror flicks. Here’s the thing, though – they aren’t “Hellraiser” movies. Curiously, and rather lazily, the studio made the move of optioning screenplays for films that were never intended to be part of the franchise, and it’s glaringly obvious that any “Hellraiser” story/mythology elements are awkwardly crowbarred in, conflicting with their intended plotlines. But I suppose if you’re an aspiring screenwriter and you’re desperate to get a film made, you’ll happily slap “Hellraiser” on the title and give Pinhead a cameo if not doing so is the deal-breaker. So, for that reason, I have no real issue with them, because they really don’t count. Also, Kari Wührer is in one of them and she’s hot.

“It's painful, because I loved making this movie; I loved making the second movie; I actually had a good time at the third one, and then it started to fall apart. The reason it falls apart is because of certain people who are not creative, who are pencil pushers, the people who went to business school, who went to law school, who have absolutely nothing to do with the creative process who think they know better than creators. And this town is full of them!”
- Clive Barker (08/2000), at this point really kinda bumming me out.

I think what is more aggravating with the new one about to be released is that it was commissioned as a “Hellraiser” movie from the outset, but with none of the time, money or respect such a film deserved. Thankfully Doug Bradley turned it down, but I’m staggered that they would make the horribly misjudged move of including a version of a character as iconic as his played by another actor. The timing is also atrocious, given that in a couple other respects the franchise on the whole is going through something of a resurgence. This year’s series of new “Hellraiser” comics have been flying off the shelves (at least they are here in Bristol) and, being co-written by Barker himself, are going to places far darker and ambitious than the generic fare we've been subjected to of late.Also my hopes are still high for the mythical Barker novel “Scarlet Gospels” which will reportedly close the door on the “Hellraiser” universe in his own way, one that he was unable to do via the films themselves.
What began as a venting session has, as it turns out, become something of an essay so I’ll try and make some kind of point out of my concerns. Nearly three years ago, my thesis film “House Guest” was picked up for development by a Canadian production company, one which has yet to set the world alight. The hope was to rework elements of the film, extending it into a twenty minute pilot that would be the basis for a thirteen-part miniseries, and go from there. What ensued was six months of the most disenchanting back and forth BS I’ve experienced, where every note from them kicked what I was trying to achieve square in the solar plexus of the balls (I appreciate that doesn’t quite pan out anatomically, but work with me here). At the point where they had redesigned the characters to look like an infant’s Chibi doodles I took the first window of opportunity and bailed the fuck out of it. And thankfully the film, untampered with, went on to perform well enough. I had virtually the same exact experience last year while attempting to develop a separate property with a fairly high-profile UK children’s book publisher. That ended on far better terms and with significantly more hope for a future working relationship, but still the issue remained that, over time, it morphed into something I barely had any association with. In all likelihood, this is gonna happen a lot over the next few years. And I’m not entirely sure how to feel about that.
So instead I’m going to ignore it for now, break out a certain DVD boxset, get a shitload of cheap Grigio down me and fall asleep listening to the commentary tracks. G’night.

Props to Phil & Sarah Stokes's official Barker site "Revelations", from which I pilfered the quotes. Also to Paul Kane's thorough and fascinating book "The Hellraiser Films & Their Legacy" which was pretty eye-opening.

September Screenage

2011-09-06T07:55:00.000-07:00

"The Naughty List" will be part of the ReAnimania International Animated Film Festival which starts on the 14th, a week tomorrow. It's one of four shorts in its category from the UK, the others being the lovely NFTS short "Kahānikār" (dir. Nandita Jain) and two Aardman films, the distinctly Chuck Jones-y "Fly" (dir. Alan Short) and "Blind Date" (dir. Nigel Davies), so I'm in pretty smashing company.
A couple other "Naughty List" September screenings I now have times for, starting with this Saturday (10th) at the TriMedia Film Festival, the film will be shown during the 5pm 'Short Film - Comedy Shorts' screening at the Lincoln Center Magnolia Theatre in Fort Collins CO, USA
On Wednesday 21st it'll be shown during the Shorts section (2pm-4pm) of Cinewest's Auburn International Film Festival at Reading Cinemas Auburn in Australia.
Other festivals to show the film this month include Anifest Rozafa, Sintetitza and the KROK Animation Festival, all of which I've yet to find out specifics on as far as dates, times and venues go.
That's all for now, my building currently has no water so I'm going to attempt to bathe using nothing but Andrex pre-moistened wipes. It may take some time.

Happy 40th!

2011-08-29T05:59:00.000-07:00

Another festival checkpoint has been reached as of this morning, with "The Naughty List" clocking up its fortieth screening! That's four fifths of my long game for the film achieved (my plan is to retire it once it hits fifty), so cold turkey leftovers for everyone! Vilnius Film Shorts will take place in Lithuania from October 13th-16th, and knock wood I may be able to grab a long weekend and head on over there. The only Lithuanian I know is a barista who I'm pretty sure spits in my coffee every morning, so maybe if I immerse myself more in her culture she'll instantly love me. I really do make grounded, logical plans.I may as well use this opportunity to make the somewhat overdue announcement that I have received a grant to part-fund my fourth film "Bullies", which is trundling along nicely. Assets are gradually being built, deadlines are in place and, most importantly, I'm making headway getting the animatic edited down before I start the animation proper. Right now it's down to eighteen minutes after its initial twenty-five. There's lots more whittlin' down to be done (ideally if I can get it down to ten then I'll be in much better shape) but all in all, things look good. I also figure that, as with "House Guest", the unused dialogue that doesn't necessarily work as a film could still be used as part of a graphic novel adaptation once it's done. Look at me with my planning ahead as opposed to my usual barreling blindly into calamity. It's like I'm becoming a grownup.

Clayographical

2011-08-23T14:42:00.000-07:00

The latest Skwigly piece of mine went up this week, and I can't sing the praises of its focus highly enough. It's a feature on/interview with the Oscar-winning Australian animator/writer/director Adam Elliot, a man whose work manages to be both retro (visually) and progressive (story-wise). His most recent project is "Mary & Max", the fantastic stop-motion feature which I brought up on here a couple years back.Even though I didn't become aware of his work until I began my MA back in 2006, I was instantly bowled over when I saw "Cousin" as part of a Pictoplasma DVD - somewhat incongruously as the bulk of the collection focused on digital character-based motion graphics.I think what grabbed me the most about his stuff was, at a time when people throw mental illness and tragedy into their films to disingenuously tug at audience heartstrings, Elliot takes the same subject matter and makes it fucking hilarious. Which, in turn, makes the somber elements all the more touching and honest. I won't go on about him too much here as it's a long-ass article and says everything I have to say far more coherently than these blog ramblings o' mine. But, if by some bizarre happenstance you're an animation fan and haven't encountered him, please give it a read and/or check out his work.

A Conversation With Adam Elliot

Not knowing shnit from shninola...

2011-08-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

Another festival update blog post for "The Naughty List", I know these are boring and self-congratulatory but it helps me keep track of them if I document the screenings on here. Oh yeah, and I'm a self-loving prick.First off is the Shnit International Short Film Festival, which has a pretty unique agenda of occurring simultaneously in four different regions - Bern in Switzerland, Cape Town in South Africa, Cologne in Germany and Wien in Austria. All four countries will host the festival from October 5th-9th, and at some point my jaunty li'l christmassy short will be part of Shnit Animates, I'll know when exactly once the program for this year's edition goes up.Before then it'll be screening in competition at the Sintetitza Pyrenees International Short Film Festival in Berga, Spain. Again I'm not 100% sure when but from what I gather the festival will be on from September 18th-25th.
Alright, I'm done. That wasn't so awful was it?

Cheese & Nipples

2011-08-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

The very green Land of Switzer, more precisely the town of Emmental, will be exposing Santa Claus's veiny thighs at the Emmentaler Filmtage this October. Said month is turning out to be a pretty busy one for "The Naughty List", with five fests and counting so far. It's certainly redeemed Emmental in my eyes, as frankly I have never been bowled over by the cheese which bears its name.As it turns out, my bi-monthly self-googling revealed that two other festivals in Italy (a country whose cheese is beyond compare - we get it, Ben, you're fat) snuck the film in earlier this year: Video Festival Imperia in April and the San Giò Verona Video Festival in July. It would've been nice to have been told before, but it kicks the festival count up to thirty-seven so far, which is pretty encouraging as the number I'm aiming for with this film is fifty by July next year.My figure drawing attempts have been plodding along, improving in some areas and plateauing in others. I'm finding that shading really does cover up a world of hurt, so I'm far less enamoured of the quicker warm-up sketches. Also the class I attend seems to have a tendency to favour slimmer, younger models, which are a lot trickier to replicate on paper as they have less focal points.
I'd make a great life model at the moment. My body is in this weird transitional phase where my limbs are toned while my torso is that of a middle-aged mother of ten. I'd get my kit off in a heartbeat for the cash but I don't trust that I'd be able to stay still for more than thirty seconds at a time. That and, y'know, li'l Ben can be unpredictable under pressure.
Here are some attempts with charcoal, to venture outside of my wheelhouse a bit:

And I've also been attempting some with my Cintiq. The issue, of course, being that I can't really bring it with me to a session, and my friends have all been selfishly unreceptive to coming over and getting naked for me in exchange for Asda deli pizza. So right now I'm working off freeze-frames of scenes from movies. Not ideal (and the ability to superimpose the stills over my drawings when I'm done and see just how horribly out of proportion they are is kinda depressing) but it's a start. Anyway, here's one. Guess the film and you win literally nothing:

Those little reminders that we're all hurtling towards death...

2011-08-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

Art from "Ren's Retirement", season 3

The alarming revelation that "The Ren & Stimpy Show", probably my most crucial influence, debuted twenty years ago to the day means one thing above all else: I'm officially an old piece of shit. So in honour of this, here's a drawing I did to test out my Cintiq the other month:
I'm generally not into fan art, mainly because of the sociopathic insistence people have on putting the characters into horribly unpleasant sexual scenarios (although in the case of Ren & Stimpy John K already did that with the Lost Episodes). The old man behind them is Wilbur Cobb, one of the lesser-appreciated, post-Spümcø characters that I always had a fondness for as he was a dead ringer for my own granddad, right down to the coughing fits, missing body parts and talking in non-sequiturs.
About five years ago I slapped together a presentation on the show during my Animation MA, and threw it online when I first started this blog. it's a little patchy and my voiceover for it is horrible (and as a man who loves the sound of his own voice that's a telling admission, my friends) but what the heck, this seems like an appropriate enough occasion to dust it off:

La Lista Traviesa!

2011-08-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

After last week's lamentation that "The Naughty List" hasn't gotten much of a response from kids' festivals, I just heard that it'll be part of Anifest Rozafa, another predominantly children-oriented festival in Albania this September. Which is nice of them. Forward thinking. I guess them Albanian young'uns have thicker skins. I've always liked that about them.The film's screenings later this month at Mexico's Monterrey International Film Festival I now know will be on Friday 19th (6:30pm), Sunday 21st (4pm) and Tuesday 23rd (9pm) at Cinépolis Las Américas. So if you want to be in Mexico in time you better make a move, sharpish.
Meanwhile, I'm continuing my VHS archival project, transferring any rarities or nostalgic vignettes ne'er released commercially that I come across. Midst amusement at recalling my adolescent impulse to record all manner of 'saucy' European films and Susie Bright documentaries, there have been some pretty good finds here and there. It'll take a while to transfer and upload them all, but here are a handful of snippets from an animation show called "Dope Sheet" back in 1997. I only taped part of one episode (I think because I knew John Kricfalusi was going to be on it and I wanted to see what the voice of Ren looked like) and from what I can see the show seems a little patchy and slow overall. This excerpt from a segment on animation in advertising is kind of interesting for the advice of Oscar Grillo to newcomers (IE don't bother) and a brief conversation with young up-and-comer Luis Cook (who has since both upped and come):

Another piece on cartoon wartime propaganda, similar to the previous doc I posted and notable for the contribution of a still-alive Chuck Jones:

And the aforementioned John K interview in which he extolls the virtues of Bob Clampett and Robert Mitchum:

Hope those entertain you all, because I'm out of things to write. Uh...bye.

"Did Bugs just say 'slant-eyes'?"

2011-07-25T05:17:00.000-07:00

The whimsical sleigh ride that is "The Naughty List"'s festival tour makes two further stops this coming September. The TriMedia Film Festival in Fort Collins CO, USA will be held between the 9th and the 11th, though they haven't yet posted the program so I'm not sure exactly when my film's playing.In Sydney it will be part of the Auburn International Film Festival for Children and Young Adults which tours the region from the 19th to the 23rd. It's nice to get some exposure at a festival aimed toward a younger audience, as this is my only 'family friendly' film to date I was sort of hoping it would get into more kids' festivals, which hasn't really turned out to be the case. Maybe if Santa had been wearing pants...On the subject of unsavoury animation, I've been transferring some old VHS tapes onto my hard drive and came across this pretty interesting documentary from 2000. It's called "Cartoons Kick Ass" and focuses on adult content in cartoons going all the way back to the dawn of animation, featuring contributions from Jerry Beck, Mike Judge, Paul Wells, John Kricfalusi and Ralph Bakshi to name a few. When it originally aired this was my introduction to stuff like the Censored Eleven, cartoons as a propaganda tool, antiquated racial stereotyping that modern society has 1984'd out of existence, submlinal/not-so-subliminal insertions of dirty jokes into animation and the alarmingly fatuous anti-animation agenda of conservative Christian groups. It aired on Channel 4 so it may get taken down but as it's A) really interesting, B) unavailable commercially to my knowledge, and C) impossible to find online (it isn't even on IMDB), do me a favour and don't be a fucking narc about it. Just enjoy it and pass it on.

Ending on a random note, I was playing American McGee's visually brilliant "Alice: Madness Returns" and spotted this piece of bizarrely coincidental set dressing which served as a pretty funny WTF moment. Not that it really warrants clarification, but mine's the one on the right :P

The continuing adventures of Papai Noel

2011-07-15T07:39:00.000-07:00

Anima Mundi starts this weekend, and it's a thrill to say that "The Naughty List" will receive a whopping TEN screenings from then until the end of the month. It's shown as part of their International Panorama 2 section that will be screened at the following dates/times/venues:

Rio de Janeiro
July 15th - 5:30pm - Teatro 2 CCBB
July 16th - 2pm - Teatro 2 CCBB
July 17th - 3:30pm - Teatro 2 CCBB
July 19th - 5pm - Cinema Odeon BR
July 21st - 1pm - Centro Cultural Correious, Praça Animada
July 24th - 4:30pm - Cinema 2 CCBB

São Paulo
July 27th - 3pm - Livraria Cultura 1
July 29th - 9:30pm - Fund. Memorial da América Latina, Sala 3
July 30th - 10pm - Livraria Cultura 2
July 31st - 12noon - Fund. Memorial da América Latina, Sala 3

Coupled with the inclusion of my first animationey venture "House Guest" last year, the festival is making great strides in remedying my terror toward the nation of Brazil that those "Elite Squad" movies instilled in me. For info on all the other events and screenings on offer check out the festival website.Next month the film will be screening in competition at the Monterrey International Film Festival in Mexico. As with Anima Mundi it's another event that had the good manners to show "House Guest" a couple years back, and as such is automatically in my good graces.There's another Skwigly piece of mine up today, this one a review of the recent Allen Ginsberg biopic - and graphic novel tie-in - "Howl". My interest in it is mainly as an admirer of Eric Drooker, who was the animation designer and did a pretty impressive job visualising Ginsberg's work. Drooker's major graphic novels "Flood" and "Blood Song" are two of my favourites, and his long-standing association with the late Ginsberg makes him an ideal choice for the film's animated portions. Plus the number of film reviews that dismissively referred to the film's 'cartoon parts' were starting to bug me, so I wanted show it some respect in that regard. You can read it here:
"Howl" Film & Graphic Novel Review by Ben Mitchell

Spiffing, Strolling and Skwiglying

2011-07-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

After a bit of a hiatus, Skwigly is up and running again with a batch of new features to read on their site. These include the piece I did on "Tales of the Spiffing", the Aardman collaborative graphic novel project I referred to awhile back, wherein a bunch of the book's contributors share their thoughts on how it came together, using sequential art as a storytelling medium and how their skills translate from working in animation. Some interesting insights from some very talented artists, so read, buy, share and repeat!
CARTOON NATION: A chat with the talents behind "TALES OF THE SPIFFING"

Another interview I did is with Grant Orchard, director at Studio AKA and known for his viral shorts such as "Park Foot Ball" and "Paintballing". AKA are probably best known at the moment for their massive Lloyds TSB campaign, the staccato-hummed music of which has been driving the nation mildly insane (they look very pretty though). Other projects include Philip Hunt's spectacularly successful adaptation of Oliver Jeffers's "Lost and Found".Grant's new film "A Morning Stroll" seems destined to fit in with their impressive body of work and is already kicking the festival circuit's ass; in less than a month out there it's picked up awards at nearly every festival it's been screened at. Nice feller too, so give it a read and check out the film when it plays near you:
Studio AKA's Grant Orchard on "A Morning Stroll"

As well as everyone who took the time to be interviewed, special thanks to Ashley Boddy and JP Vine for their help with the "Spiffing" piece, as well as Ren Pesci from Studio AKA who, as well as helping setup the interview, has the greatest name in existence.

Geeking Out

2011-07-10T06:19:00.001-07:00

The other day, in anticipation of my landlord's annual visit, I decided to tidy up the apartment and at one point found myself dusting my cenobites. That's not a euphemism for anything, rather a declaration of my utter geekdom. Observe:This is who I am - a man painfully close to 30 who not only keeps toys, but displays them and keeps them clean. A man who buys vinyl records just because they're great big versions of albums I already own and like. A man who has developed legitimate objectophilia toward his Wacom Cintiq. A man who, in the past fortnight, has watched every episode of "Dinosaurs" on DVD. And a man who, yesterday, went all the way to London to be photographed with some cult celebrities. In much the same way as an infant gets their picture taken with Santa Claus at the mall. The experience really makes me think more people should embrace the geek within, because oftentimes it can be a fucking blast.
The event in question was the London Film & Comic Con, which I visited as part of my 'research-into-marketing-my-own-books-but-really-just-an-excuse-to-geek-the-fuck-out' endeavours. Lots of people I'm into were there so it made for a pretty awesome trip.First off there was Doug Bradley, who I've actually met before but as I've shed 100+lbs since then I wanted to get a better pic. Doug is mainly known as Pinhead (the leader of those toys I was dusting up there) from the "Hellraiser" movies. I'm actually not a big horror fan but I always liked Pinhead - he just struck me as classy, kind of like the Frasier Crane of movie monsters.Then the face of my fondest childhood movie memories, Christopher Lloyd, which I think even the most adamant non-geek would struggle to turn down an opportunity to meet. Between Doc Brown, Professor Plum, Uncle Fester and Judge Doom he's already one of my favourite character actors in the world, plus "Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead" and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" are two of my favourite films as an adult, and he was fantastic in both of those.Also signing was Lea Thompson, Marty McFly's horny mom from "Back To The Future" and "Caroline In The City", a show I probably shouldn't admit to being familiar with. The beautiful older woman/redhead combo made it pretty tough to not ask her out; I was at the precipice of saying she was 'my density' but good sense (and a fear of being ejected by security personnel dressed as storm troopers) prevailed.The crème de la wotsit had to be, without a shadow of a doubt, author/artist/director Clive Barker, a man who I'm literally somewhat in love with. He's not a presence in animation as such (though he's been at the helm of some fantastic video games and graphic novels) - as a storyteller though he's 90% responsible for why I do what I do...far less competently than him, admittedly. But as a creative force he has been a tremendous influence and I probably would never have pursued the career I'm in now were it not for him. He's come up from time to time on this blog, but one day soon I'll write up a proper asskissey post.
As well as being incredibly gracious and funny, he spent the day signing autographs with an injured hand which was, frankly, above and beyond the call. They say you shouldn't meet your heroes to avoid being disappointed. Whoever 'they' are should have been a Clive Barker fan, because now I've met him in person I admire him twice as much.Ashley Laurence (also of "Hellraiser") was there too and as well as helping to fill in my DVD cover o' autographs she could be one of the nicest women alive. Granted, that's based on an accumulative five minutes of interaction but I'm a fantastic judge of character (as my adorable new pen-pal Casey Anthony would agree).
So I'm flying pretty high right now. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the amazing Negshin who was exhibiting and got me passed the queues so as not to miss my photo shoots. Without her the day would've been thrown completely out of whack and more or less ruined, so she's pretty much my favourite person in the world today. Go to her site and buy some prints, why don'cha? Or check out this film she co-wrote and give it some love:

Cruisin'

2011-07-07T14:12:00.000-07:00

More fest news, "The Naughty List" will be part of another touring (or rather, cruising) festival from September 24th to October 3rd. The KROK International Animated Films Festival takes place on the Princess Dnipra which will be traveling through the Ukraine, stopping off at Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Sevastopol and Odessa. So, if you fancy some swashbuckling adventure (I'm sure river cruisers give you the option to swashbuckle), check it out.
Speaking of Eastern Europe, I found out recently that the woman who sold me my Wacom Cintiq is an Estonia-based model and artist who, by insane coincidence, is the face of David Thorne's hysterical 27b/6 website/book. Well, it's a coincidence because I recently became a huge fan of the website. If you're not familiar with Thorne, he's an Australian designer who, either from boredom or a career that has beaten him down to breaking point, publishes his email correspondence with a succession of recipients whose grasp of reality and humour is alarmingly literal. He cultivates a consummate douchebag persona although you always find yourself rooting for him. Anyway, it's a great go-to site for when I'm feeling all procrastinatey. And 'Tabitha' is a pretty talented artworker as well, so give her work a look.
Okay, I haven't talked about me for several sentences and frankly it's making my skin start to itch.I have two mini-edits of my films "Ground Running" and "The Naughty List" online at Virgin Media Shorts, one of those online short film competition thingies. They aren't in the running or anything, right now they're just two of about three-thousand that are presently viewable online. I'm usually a little loathe to put entire films up but as these versions are exclusive edits to accommodate the unusual 2'20" cutoff time I'm less precious about it. In both cases the stories (such as they are) are still pretty much the same. Some of the humour/timing doesn't play as well but given the concession I think they still work overall. Anyways, if you like you can give them a watch or several hundred. And share them with everyone you know - it doesn't affect whether or not they get shortlisted so I can't really be accused of trying to skew the judging in my favour.

Fatherhood

2011-06-26T12:05:00.000-07:00

Today is a glorious day - for my life, my career and my emotional maturity as an adult. A couple weeks back I made the life-altering decision to adopt a li'l Estonian bundle o' joy. She was being neglected in her home country and, frankly, needed a more nurturing environment where she could be raised with the love and attention she deserved. Things didn't run as smoothly as hoped - multiple delays and red tape presented themselves, accompanied by much anxiety. For nearly an entire week she was being held by the British government before being released to me. It was a trying time for us both, I'm sure.
This weekend the bond of familial love won out and we're now together forever. Here's a pic - I've decided to call her Cindi:Sure milked that analogy dry, didn't I?
That's right, lovelies. Blessed art me, FOR I AM WITH CINTIQ! It had to be done, my desire to continue to produce traditional animation had been too long at odds with the back strain of...well, back strain. And endless hours spent cleaning, inking, scanning and re-cleaning each individual frame. Now I can do all that on the screen - the Cintiq essentially works like the world's most awesome Magna Doodle. Observe this classy product demonstration:

Predictably enough, the first thing I drew on it was my schwanz. What did you expect, a fucking sunset? This is me we're dealing with here.So, while I abandon all hope of finishing any of the eight billion projects I have on the go right now in favour of a lifetime of technologically wondrous doodling, my now pathetically antiquated film "The Naughty List" which I made with (sneer, scoff, derisively snort) pencils and paper has been snapped up for the 2011 edition of the Film Sharing Lo/No Budget Film Festival Tour, which will see it screened at various times/dates/locations throughout Germany from July to September. "Ground Running" was part of the 2009 tour so it's very cool to be involved again. I especially like the way my film is represented on the front of the program, flanked by a pair of bare boobies and a pair of gouged-out eyeballs respectively. Makes sense to me - tits, Christmas, gore - pretty natural grouping there.The usual info is up and online at their website if you want to see if the tour makes it anywhere near you. Assuming you're in Germany to begin with.

Lions and orgasms and validation, oh my!

2011-06-23T12:59:00.000-07:00

So it’s been roughly twelve months since I finished “The Naughty List”, and I’m happy to say that in its first year out there it’s managed to score a nice round thirty international screenings. This is a really happy feeling as it’s roughly the same amount of outings that “House Guest” took twice as long to accrue, plus I’m still at the helm of my own distribution and am getting this stuff out there and seen without any sales/studio representation. I’m sure plenty of auteur filmmakers and indie animators out there know what a dreary uphill struggle the process can be at times, so all the festivals and networks, big and small, who have seen value in what I’m trying to do mean a lot to me. Go go pantsless Santa!The thirtieth event in question is Cluj-Napoca’s Comedy Cluj International Film Festival, which makes for the second time the film has been shown in Romania. Maybe they get a kick out of the anti-consumerism angle. Well, maybe they would if there was one, it certainly isn’t a deliberate theme of the film. I’m the biggest consumer I know; The inside of my apartment looks like a Forbidden Planet tradeshow – toys, film posters, standees, no women in sight, you name it. Anyhoo, the festival goes from October 14th to 23rd.While I’m a-typin’, I may as well point y’all in the direction of a couple more pieces I did for Skwigly. One is an interview with established animation veteran Ruth Lingford, former RCA lecturer, two-time Animate Projects director and current Professor of the Practice of Animation at Harvard, which I’ve heard is kind of a big school. Her most recent film “Little Deaths” was produced as part of their Film Study Center fellowship. It’s something of a stream-of-consciousness visual affair, not ordinarily my thing except A) this one’s about orgasms and B) Daffy Duck’s in it. Kind of.Truthfully it’s a really interesting film with a lot to like, not least of which the soundtrack which interweaves conversational snippets wherein a variety of contributors attempt to describe sexual climax and its associations. It makes for alternately fascinating, amusing and unexpectedly poignant viewing.Another interview is with Alois Di Leo, one of the NFTS graduates from last year whose student film “The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Lion” is, frankly, a pretty masterful piece of work. Bucking a lot of the less positive trends among younger filmmakers today, it very deftly deals with a story (a deaf boy retreats into a fantasy state after developing an imagined affinity with lions) that could easily lend itself to hackneyed sentiment or audience pandering. Instead the narrative unfolds very matter-of-factly, so the moments of humour and emotion occur completely organically. As it progresses it sort of slaps you upside the head, but not in a contrived way.Both filmmakers had a lot of interesting things to say about the process and how they regard their craft, so I’d advise any of you with animation/filmmaking impulses to give them a read:
A Conversation with Ruth Lingford – “Little Deaths”
A Conversation with Alois Di Leo – “The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Lion”
There are more features/interviews/reviews a-comin’, some of which I’m pretty excited about. Insufferable braggart that I am, I’ll doubtless link to them here, so stick around folks.

The Brighter Side of Rejection

2011-06-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

I got a really pleasant surprise the other day by learning that “The Naughty List” was screened at Annecy Plus, a standalone event after the Annecy festival organised by Bill Plympton and Nancy Phelps. It’s essentially an annual showcase of films rejected by the main festival, and I have to say I’m stunned by the company I’m among. Films by Mark Nute, Joost Lieuwma, Kirsten Lepore and MoonBot are all festival standouts and crowd pleasers – comedically, visually, really in every respect - so to find that they didn’t make it in is a real head-scratcher. I’m really pleased that we got a showing at all though, and have yet another reason to be hugely grateful to both Plympton and Phelps.
For more info you can read an overview of the evening up at Skwigly by Steve Henderson. Many thanks to Sara Barbas for letting me know about the event and who was at Annecy pitching her new feature project which, knock wood, will be coming together shortly.By the way, “Naughty List” will be headed back to Germany for Filmfest Emden-Norderney in a couple days, showing twice as part of the program “New Pictures, New Worlds” (Friday June 17th 8pm and Monday June 20th at 9:15pm). ‘Cause I haven’t patted myself on the back enough with this post, apparently…
Yeah, I know. I suck.

Pencilled People Ponderings

2011-06-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

I’ve been keeping at the life drawing after my resolution to do so earlier in the year. Amazingly, when I resolve to be a better human being and eat more salads it never pans out, but staring at naked people I’ve really been able to stick with. Huh.
It’s a strange beast, sketching the non-cartoon universe. Some days I’m really happy with what comes out, others see me mortified with how childlike and amateurish my drawings seem. I still hit a brick wall with faces although I’d say my sense of proportion and perspective is gradually improving.As well as the figure drawing I’ve been dabbling with some landscape and environments as part of a sketching group that meets on the weekend. I’m a lot less happy about the quality of these than when I draw people, so they’re not going up here any time soon. I’ll crack on regardless, I guess knowing that you suck at something is the first step toward getting better at it.On a completely separate note, I realised last night that today is the two-year anniversary of the greatest day of my life, seeing the briefly reunited Faith No More headline at the Download Festival in 2009.I’ve honestly never been as euphoric as I was for those two hours, and it’s unfortunate that the only footage of the whole show that exists online was ripped from the SD, mono, muddy-sounding webcast. Recently however a snippet of the setlist did get broadcast in HD and stereo, so In Memoriam here they are.
Coincidentally I have also made some baby steps back into the music world. Two weeks ago I did my first set in four years at a Bath-based venue I’m not too prepared to disclose as I’ll be doing more shows there in the coming months and want to keep them on the QT (I’m adorably shy).Of course my obsession with the band insisted on me throwing in not one but two Faith No More covers. Here’s a rough, unmastered snippet for your enjoyment – assuming you enjoy derision. When I have time I’ll do a proper mix and chuck it online somewhere.
Struwwelpeter - ‘Midlife Crisis’ live cover snippet

Affected

2011-06-04T14:57:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been spent putting together a rough dialogue record for "Bullies", which has led to the crushing revelation that the film as it presently exists is TWENTY-FIVE minutes in length. Fucky-fuck-fuck. And, might I add, a fuckity-fuckeroo.
That's actually not so much a concern as far as the production goes - "House Guest" was originally eighteen minutes and took about six months to produce, including the trial and error of cutting my teeth on the software and a more laborious overall animation style. The issue is that longer animated shorts just don't do as well. Sales agents and the festival circuit tend to like their films short and punchy. The exceptions tend to be the types of films that break new ground or just massive studio productions. Mine ticks neither box, so unless Aardman want to pick up the rights (Hinty-McHint) I'm in a lickle quandary.

That aside, I'm really happy with the way the recording went. I may have to redo it more professionally down the line, but for the purposes of an animatic it came off quite well. Here you can see me step up to the plate as a mic stand on top of my directorial duties:

The guy playing Liam is my old school friend Chris Richardson, which is apt as it's a film about old school friends reuniting. Also Chris has pretty decent acting chops, which is kind of important when it comes to, well, acting. We first met at school where him and a couple other kids would record skits impersonating members of staff with eerie precision. They were calamitous, indecipherable at times and frequently abandoned at the midway point due to constant corpsing. But motherfuck, they were funny.

The Larry Soundtrack, for which I designed the cover. Trust me, it both made perfect sense and was incredibly witty back in 2000

I kept trying to insinuate myself into the process, encouraging them to do it professionally in a way that I could make marketable. Even at fifteen I was a fiscally conscious executive douchebag at heart. Fortunately they smelled my despicable agenda a mile away and wouldn't have any of it. But now the tables have a-turned!

In a slightly more professional environment (note the use of an actual pop shield in lieu of an unwashed sock - and they say Kubrick gave his performers shit) I recorded my dialogue separately, on my lonesome which made for a strangely schizophrenic experience:

So, with altogether too much material to work with, the film's preproduction is pretty much done. Sumbitch, I may just end up pulling this off. If I can decide which region of Ireland my character's meant to be from...

Bullyboarded

2011-05-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

Here are some more random storyboard excerpts from "Bullies", my current in-progress fillum. I'm purposefully dealing with very limited, Hanna-Barbera-esque animation this time around, so my range of expression is automatically restricted. Hopefully the dialogue and compositing will fill in the gaps and make it fun to watch.
I'm not putting these up in any kind of chronological order, so there won't be a lot of sense made from them. Ain't I the mischievously mysterious scamp?

Storyboard is pretty much done at this point, so the next stage is the dialogue record and animatic, both of which will be equally crucial in determining whether or not the film can be feasibly produced without funding. Otherwise I'll have to start puckering up to thems with the monies, yo...

Panelling

2011-05-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

Every time I visit my old home I try and get at least one attic rummage in to clear things out and, on occasion, unearth toys with ornamental value. So far I've found all my ghostbusters except Winston, which is pissing me off. Especially as I've found THREE Janines. Seriously. THREE. Why would I have even had ONE Janine?What I did unearth this most recent trip was an old "Ren & Stimpy" comic, apparently the last one ever, which makes sense as it was put out around the time the show itself would've been canceled. I'd forgotten about this completely but I wanted to show it some love here because it holds up surprisingly well. As passionate a "Ren & Stimpy" fan as I was, I never got that excited over the comics. Most of the artwork was by Mike Kazaleh who, in all fairness, was very good. It was very distinct stylistically though, and didn't really replicate the atmosphere of the show. The stories by and large were much lighter in tone, with far less by way of the violence and psychotic meanderings that gave the show its edge. You would get some lovely artwork from time to time, like this:Generally I wasn't a regular buyer and at present only have the first sixteen issues collected over four graphic novels. Rediscovering the final issue I'm kind of curious to look into what came between.The art is by Jeff Jarka and it's really fantastic - a lot of severe, extreme poses and an overall tone that echoes the faster pace of the unfairly maligned Games-era episodes when they were in their stride.I guess the reason I never really committed to subscribing at the time is the rather sad admission that, in all honesty, I'm just not into comics. Unless there's something really special about the draughtsmanship (eg. Doug TenNapel, Eric Drooker) or the story ("Maus" = no brainer) or if it's just really weird, creepy or funny. Otherwise I struggle to muster up much by way of excitement.
It's sort of bizarre, given my passion for art, animation and sequential storytelling, as well as the fact that I've produced several of my own graphic novels and comic anthologies (available at these LOW, LOW PRICES, kids!), with two more being worked on at present.The only series I ever followed with any fervour was "Clive Barker's Hellraiser", mainly motivated by my love for Barker himself and the first few "Hellraiser" movies, helped along by the comic's lack of mainstream popularity that made them fairly easy to grab up in bulk on eBay. Recently, and for reasons I'm unsure of, this series was revived after a twenty year hiatus. I've bought the first two issues and enjoyed them, but mainly I'm curious as to what Barker's long game is with the characters. If it's to gauge consumer interest, the outlook is good as both seemed to sell out the moment I got my copies.I'm personally hoping it will serve as a prelude to "The Scarlet Gospels", a forthcoming Barker book almost as mythical as the universes he creates in so much as he's been writing it FOR-FUCKING-EVER. I seriously cannot think of another book I've been more excited about seeing published. Supposedly it will serve as a magnum opus, concluding the story of his progenies Harry D'Amour and "Hellraiser"'s Pinhead in a presumably far more respectful manner than the relentless parade of stilted, straight-to-DVD sequels. But my "Hellraiser" geekery is a post for another time.
I was recently at a small press expo in Bristol where a few friends of mine were exhibiting. Wandering around it seems that there really is an impressive degree of talent in the independent scene as far as artistic ability goes, if not necessarily as much in terms of storytelling. Some standout stuff such as "100% Squishy" and "Babel" really grabbed me on a visual level, as well as this anthology put together by a bunch of artists at Aardman:I'm working on a feature on it for Skwigly, and so far the people involved I've discussed it with have some pretty interesting things to say about the process, so I'll let you all know once it's up. It's essentially a collection of short stories and standalone artwork that encapsulates the spirit of Great Britain, in an alternately patriotic and derogatory sense, but where it really shines are the visuals.
Meanwhile my two graphic novels "Throat" and "Erica" are continuing to take shape, and I'll leave you with the first full-colour layout from the latter. I've had to blur out certain bits to keep it family friendly.Reckon it'll be targeted toward something of a niche market. Ah well...

Bully For You

2011-05-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

The impulse with my latest short "Bullies" is to keep things all very hush-hush as it comes together. Why, however is beyond me; I'm not exactly making the next season of "Breaking Bad". Wikileaks doesn't have a special category labeled "Ben Mitchell's Cartooney Horseshit". I think it's more a reflection of my own over-cautiousness as it's a different type of film than I'm used to, story-wise as well as visually, and if I were honest I'd put up the whole warts'n'all process so the world (by which I mean the microscopically small percentage of its inhabitants who read this blog) can see me trip up at every hurdle.
But I'm not honest. No, I'm driven entirely by deceit and misrepresentation - not just on here, but in every facet of life. Don't judge me, it's society's inability to accept grown men who still watch "The Real Ghostbusters" on DVD and count Tangfastics as one of their five-a-day that has forced me into this corner.
The hell was I talking about?
The hell am I ever talking about?
Well, anyway, in a bid to get over my preciousness, here are the concept designs for the main characters, in full view for the first time. Meet Patrick and Liam:They're douchebags. Of the lovable variety, if I pull this little endeavour off right. And here they are in non-sequential storyboard form (my compromise is I'll keep the actual dialogue under wraps for now):

So there you go, the first gander at film #4, albeit a sketchy and smudgy one. I'm storyboarding the whole film as written (which is presently a tad overlong) and will put up some more excerpts in a few days. In the meantime, here's a man in his underwear:

The Running Ben

2011-05-22T09:07:00.001-07:00

Last week I ran the Bristol 10k, which goes against pretty much every gene I've inherited. I appreciate that to some out there 10 kilometres represents a recreational morning jog but with my history of borderline-hedonistic decadence and general fatass-itis, it's a pretty significant achievement for me. Although I was somewhat humbled the moment I crossed the finish line when my body succumbed for a split second to some kind of sob/dry-heave hybrid convulsion, but that dignity lapse aside the event was without incident. Huge props to my PT Hattie for making the extra effort to keep me motivated, given that I couldn't run more than 2k in one stretch back in February it's been a big boost to my health overall.

My followers and I...just like Forrest Gump...

Before the run I'd set up a JustGiving page which is still up if anyone has the inclination to donate. There are some goodies you get in return - naturally my self-made pap and some animation-related bits and bobs, so please do check it out.More good news (back in the comparatively sedentary world of animation) is that "The Naughty List" will be shown as part of Anima Mundi, the Brazil-based festival which takes place from July 15th-24th in Rio de Janeiro and the 27th-31st in São Paulo. The festival screened "House Guest" a bunch of times last summer and I'm incredibly happy to be involved a second year in a row.On the subject of festivals, I recently wrote an overview of my experience at the Stuttgart Animation Festival (ITFS) which is now up at Skwigly. Generally speaking it's pretty positive, kinda makes me wish I could go to more festivals, so hopefully the next film will be the one that gets me flown all over the globe. Until then you can read the article here:
The 18th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film – Overview

Big Plympin'

2011-05-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

While I blather constantly on this blog regarding my silly little films and my silly little life, there's a silly little voice in the back of my silly little brain that constantly screams: "Hey DUMBASS, who GIVES A SHIT?!"
To be honest, I write because I like writing, and for the most part all I have to comment on is the incremental, ponderously slow progression of my career. Keeping this up has been hugely beneficial for reference and updating contacts and SHUT UP BEN SHUT UP FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY IS YOUR OPINION OF HUMANITY SO LOW THAT YOU THINK ANYONE WOULD GAIN ANYTHING FROM READING YOUR DRECK?
See, there...that's what...yeah.I'd really like to channel the writing impulse in the direction of stuff other people might care more about, while generally staying within the world of animation. To that end I've been doing some freelance writing for the online animation magazine Skwigly, beginning with three articles on Bill Plympton, one of my more significant influences. Two of them are up now, the first a review of "Independently Animated" which, as I've said before, is a great goddamn book so check it out.The second is an actual interview I was able to get with him while we were both at ITFS last week. It was a pretty superb way to start the trip (well, for me) and he was very generous with his time, sharing a lot of insights into the industry, independent scene and the animation process.
Read "A Conversation with Bill Plympton" by Ben Mitchell at skwigly.com
Given that I was disheveled, all over the map (on the tape some of my questions come out like Yoda dialogue) and hadn't slept for thirty-six hours he was incredibly accommodating, even signing a bunch of merch and sketching me a character from his newest in-progress feature "Cheatin'" (see vid below).

The third article will be more focused on "Guard Dog Global Jam" and I'm presently working on getting some of the other collaborators to contribute to it. Before then I'd like to have some more book reviews, articles and interviews up on the site so if any of those get published I'll link to them here. In the meantime, please do me a massive favour and spread the word about Skwigly through their Twitter, Facebook et al. The more I'm writing about other people, the less I'm talking about my boring ass, so everybody wins.

Montag

2011-05-09T17:07:00.000-07:00

I'm headed back to the UK this evening after a spectacular weekend away. The festival really was a treat and my only regret is that I wasn't able to get to Stuttgart sooner. In all candour, a lot of festivals tend to throw in a hefty percentage of films that really are mediocre at best and leave you scratching your head. Stuttgart however seemed to really keep the quality level of the chosen films very consistent. I'm very inspired but also very humbled and a little intimidated. The bar is friggin' high these days.
Here are some more films that I got a kick out of (look at me with my hip turns of phrase, Christ almighty...):

Others I couldn't find clips for include Matray's "Babioles", Alexandra Hetmerova's "Swimming Pool", Ruth Lingford's "Little Deaths", Peter Baynton's "Save Our Bacon", Magnus Carlsson's "Hon & Han" and Joost Lieuwma's "Things You'd Better Not Mix Up" nearly gave me a hernia.

I also saw "Tangled", which made me feel old. The Disney princesses have now officially stopped infuriating me for being girly and irritating (as when I was a young'un) and instead now infuriate me for being sort of unattainably bangable.

Don't judge me, one of the main plot points is that she's eighteen...

To a certain extent I sort of wanted to have a crack at the guy too.

Damn lovable rogue with a heart o'gold he was...

But as always they threw in enough funny stuff to keep it watchable for a disenchanted old prick like me; the horse did kinda kick ass although he did seem a little borrowed from Ren & Stimpy's Mr. Horse at times.The awards ceremony was last night, I didn't understand a word of it as I don't speak more than seven words of German. Given that the rest of the festival seemed to be predominantly English that was a little odd. They said at one point that we'd all been offered headphones with translations piped through. I don't know if that was a joke or not, but we definitely weren't. Regardless, a lot of great films that deserved to win actually won, which again is kind of a rarity in the festival world. The list of winners can be found here.

Now to see how many bread and sausage-based foodstuffs I can cram into my suitcase without going over the baggage weight limit. Tschüss!

Trickfilm'd

2011-05-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

It's my third day at ITFS and, not surprisingly, it friggin' rules. I've already met some personal heroes, seen some spectacular films and remained staggeringly abstemious, food-wise. Which is a miracle, given that all they seem to serve in this country is cake and sausage.
As cool as it was to have "The Naughty List" shown, the really amazing part of the festival so far was actually the very first thing I got to do when I arrived and, given that I hadn't slept at all in the preceding thirty-six hours I'm not entirely sure it wasn't just a dream. If when I get home it turns out it was real then I'll be putting it up here before you can say 'Ben, you attention-hungry, uneven-bearded nobody'.Back to "The Naughty List", I just learned that its latest festival inclusion will be the Crank Cookie Short Film Festival, which could be the greatest one yet by name alone. It's also based in Passau which will make it the fifth German festival to show the film to date. These Germans, they sure do love that Santa Claus. And cake. And sausage.
Well, I should wrap up as I'm typing this entry on a tablet in the park with my legs crossed and as a consequence my genitals have fallen asleep. It's a fat guy thing. So as not to go out entirely on that disconcertingly-candid thought, here are some of my festival favourites so far:

Getting Packed

2011-05-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

My Stuttgart trip is drawing near and, predictably, the main thing on my mind is "How oh how can I best whore myself until I'm literally somewhat chafed?". Last week I officially gladhanded the last of many "Naughty List" promotional business cards to...I dunno, probably some Caffe Gusto barista I was trying to bang, that's where most of my cards end up. So I took the opportunity of a free evening to whip up some new "Bullies" cards in their stead. Hey, I bet that's where the word 'instead' comes from, right? I just taught myself something about my first language. Go me.

Technically it should read 'In lengthy, awkward, uncertain, self-doubt-plagued pre-production' but, y'know, font size...

Also, before I changed my mind and went with my "Naughty List" xmas card campaign, I'd designed a DVD showreel cover that went unused, so I've whipped up a quick DVD with my films and showreels to pass on to fellow Stuttgartgoers to go with it.This way all those empty cases won't be sitting around my apartment anymore, mocking my lack of follow-through. Well, I followed through, dammit! Five months later...
Some other festivals "The Naughty List" is scheduled to appear at after Stuttgart:Starting with Vienna Independent Shorts in Austria, which will show it on May 27th as part of their noon screening Très chic. Which is pretty très awesome of them, innit?
Next month it comes back to Germany for the International Filmfest Emden-Norderney, which runs from June 15th-22nd and will show the film twice, first as part of the main festival and then as part of a supplemental, family-friendly showcase. Exact times and venue information should be online early next month.I was also surprised to hear that in July my first film "House Guest" will be getting a screening at the Fest Anča International Animation Festival, an event that intrigues me given that its mascot appears to be a large, red, angry, toothed vagina. I generally consider the film to be retired from the festival circuit but it still pops up occasionally. Specifics closer to the time but that'll be sometime between July 1st-3rd.
Well, I should probably get my very small suitcase and attempt to jam at least one change of clothes in amongst all my self-promotion-ey crap. Toodles.

Timing

2011-04-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

I now have some specifics regarding a couple of previously mentioned screenings for "The Naughty List". It will be shown on Saturday 23rd at the Dawson City Film Festival's 'Beyond Aurora' section which begins 11:30pm. Also included in that selection is David O'Reilly's short "The External World" which is a pretty spectacular piece of work, so I'm very happy that my li'l toon is in good company.A couple months down the line it will close the 4pm short film screening at the Detmold Short Film Festival on June 9th.Also, just today I learned of its inclusion in Florida's Citrus Cel Animation Festival on April 10th...which was five days ago. Ah well, still nice that it's getting out there. Looked like a grand event overall, some really nice shorts included and it opened with Bill Plympton's "Idiots & Angels". I may have mentioned I'm a fan of his.
Speaking of which, I've spent the last few days inhaling his new autobiography "Independently Animated". I want to give it a proper review sometime soon but in short I'll say it's an essential read to any auteur animators out there, obviously for general fans of his as well. What I especially liked about it was learning about stuff he'd done I hadn't known about, such as this lovely piece on the cultural 'value' of abstract animation:

Well, much like Richard Gere in that army flick, 'I got nothin' else...'
Laters.

Globally Jammed

2011-04-03T04:44:00.000-07:00

I returned to my apartment after work a few days ago to see this a-waitin' for me:You can't not be in a good mood when one of your industry heroes personally sends you a package. The closest experience I've had so far was when Milla Jovovich issued that restraining order. In this case it was some amazing and unexpected original artwork from Bill Plympton in exchange for my contribution to "Guard Dog Global Jam" (more info here) which has, according to the man himself, 'been a big success, lots of festivals from around the world inviting it for exhibition'. I've been fortunate enough to see the finished film and it is truly excellent, inspiring and humbling all at once. Plus seeing my name and stupid grinning face in the credits of a Plymptoon = an instant animation boner.While I'm already up and a-bloggin', here are some more festival inclusions for "The Naughty List". At some point between the 9th and 13th June it'll be shown at the International Short Film Festival Detmold in Germany, marking its third festival in the great nation of wurst.
It also makes its third appearance in Canada later this month at the 3rd Annual 'Show Us Your Shorts' Festival of Short Film in Calgary on the 22nd.On the 30th it'll be screened at the Magma Short Film Festival in New Zealand. I fuggin' love New Zealand. I was only there once when I was twelve but it made a big impression and I'm officially envious of my own film. Stupid smug film, getting to see the world when all I see day in and day out is the same view from my studio window and sure sometimes the hot Russian girl in flat 21 walks in front of her window topless but you can only be enchanted by the same pair of nipples for so long which I suppose is why I'm so not into the concept of monogamy and will in all likelihood die cold and alone in my own arms.
So...that's...where I'm at...yep.
The cool thing is that the film has at this point been accepted into over twenty festivals in less than six months which, as it took significantly longer for "House Guest" to be as widely screened, I'm taking as a very positive indicator that the quality of my work is improving.
As I can't think of a way to wrap this one up, I'll just leave you with a random panel from a completely separate comic book project I'm working on:

Creature Discomforts

2011-03-25T05:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some more indeterminable creatures following on from last week's, using a significantly different colouring process. This relies heavily on public domain watercolour textures that I've been playing about with since slapping together the "Book of Women" album artwork. I don't really have any planned projects that involve them (their main purpose is to add more contemporary content to my portfolio) but I could see them as part of something targeted toward younger audiences. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out and how not-my-usual-style they seem so I might just sell the images as a series of prints.

Here's a sped-up vid that more or less shows the process, taking one of the uglier initial sketches and making it look sort of passable through textures and relief shadows. Actually kind of an effective cure for a hungover Sunday afternoon.Speaking of Christmas-themed animation, which I absolutely wasn't, the second edition of the Cagliari-based Skepto International Film Festival will be screening "The Naughty List" on April 9th. As with Salento Finibus Terrae, it's an Italian fest which also screened a short of mine the previous year ("Ground Running" in this instance) which fills me with fuzzy warm validation and seasonal cheer.

Hellbound

2011-03-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

It's becoming increasingly apparent that this planet has finally acknowledged that the human race is a disease, and its immune system is doing its damnedest to get rid of us. Beautiful in its way, when you take a step back and observe the Earth's biological cleansing as a miracle of nature our heads will never truly be able to wrap around. Of course, being in the thick of it, the general attitude is less one of quiet awe than a kind of screeching, repeated "HOLY SHIT WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE WE'RE ALL FUCKED IT'S ALL OVER WE'RE GONERS AND I NEVER FULFILLED MY LIFELONG AMBITION OF INVENTING TIME TRAVEL AND PERSUADING L7 CIRCA 1992 TO DEFILE ME!!!"
Or something to that effect.
Of course, it may all just simmer down...but I dunno...worldwide tragedy and devastation's stock is definitely on the up these days. Haiti, Brazil, New Zealand, Japan and now Rebecca Black. All of a sudden this 2012 shit is starting to seem more feasible.
My impulse whenever things get too real is to bury my head in the sand and focus on the inconsequential drivel of my cartooney nonsense. It's called 'being a grownup'. Or 'being alarmingly disconnected and childish', whatever melts your butter.To that end I'm putting some time into colouring in some random character designs I whipped up over the new year, mainly to balance out my in-development portfolio that's quite people-heavy and animals/creatures light.

This first batch are for an as-yet-undetermined project I'm referring to as 'Brimstone', which will take place in Hell (oddly appropriate given, y'know, it's the apocalypse right now) or possibly a similar, non-theological underworld-type setting.
While I like the line art quality of these characters, others I've designed I feel lend themselves to different colouring/texturing approaches. I'm still finalising how they'll be grouped (many thanks to Maria, Jo, Natalie and Nusha for the feedback in this respect) but here are some to give you an idea:

Springtime Santa

2011-03-18T04:03:00.000-07:00

As the Stuttgart Animation Festival draws incrementally closer and my excitement manifests itself as a series of unsettling girlish squeals, flights are booked, screening copies are delivered and I now know "The Naughty List" will be shown on Friday May 6th as part of the International Panorama at 11pm. Venue details to follow.Meanwhile the film is continuing to garner screenings and friendly feedback across the globe, with another US airing tomorrow (19th) afternoon as part of the Charleston Film Festival in South Carolina.Heading further North in April it'll be shown at Canada's Dawson City International Short Film Festival. Yukon ho! It is nice to get some Canuck exposure, here's hoping it'll contribute to me someday getting a screening in Montreal.Some particularly splendid news is that the film will be part of Salento Finibus Terrae in Apulia, Italy. This is the second consecutive year a film of mine has been part of the festival after "House Guest" was featured in their 2010 edition. This will happen sometime in the second half of July, as always the specifics will be posted when I know them.
May your weekend be grand and gluttonous!

My Pretties...

2011-03-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

I've had a few (as in literally three) emails from people who have noticed that, of late, my main website URL ben-mitchell.co.uk just links directly to this blog. The simple reason behind it is that the Great G5 Crash of 2010 took out all my website source files and assets. While the pages that were already uploaded survived, it's rendered the updating process a chore that'd take the same effort as redesigning the site from scratch which, to be honest, is the better idea. I liked the way last year's site came out and it was a valuable project in terms of getting acclimated to Actionscript 3.0, but it was pretty dense and I think a series of separate sites that cut through the treacle would serve me better professionally.
To that end I'm putting together a new design portfolio that will filter out a great deal of my earlier work and focus more on commissions of late. As my animation work has increased, there have been a fair few graphic/illustration offshoots including character design work. Digging through external hard drives and backup DVDs I've been piecing together the ones that stand out and, in my mind, go together well. Here's the first smattering, from my favourite project of 2010, Channel 4's 'SuperMe'. These were all partially inspired by the young Bristolian clubgoing contingent, glimpsed spilling out of pubs/clubs/taxis/clothing at 3am when their nights are just beginning and tired old men like me are headed home, judging them sanctimoniously while my memory glosses over the many years in which I behaved just as cretinously.

Of the twelve designs, the bottom two were the ones that ended up being used. The other short I animated for the project made use of all the proposed designs as it took place in a populated nightclub, though some are only glimpsed briefly or in the shadows.

These are twenty-one of nearly a hundred designs for people alone, so it's very possible that once I've amassed them all I'll need to do some filtering. If you have any thoughts about which characters are more expendable don't feel shy about letting me know. There are also less proliferate sections for 'Animals' and 'Things' which I'll have ready soon. Meanwhile I'll bow out with some adorable transvestism:

Such Is Life

2011-03-12T04:25:00.000-08:00

Cheltenham College, a lovely place knowing that I never have to set foot inside it.

Every once in a while my old secondary school sends out alumni newsletters and magazines, defying my seemingly logical assumption that Cheltenham College crumbled to dust after I left. Apparently it has soldiered on without me, the photogenic contingent of its pupils beaming with enthusiasm and joie de vivre, unaware of the nightmarish, painful, unfulfilling life to come.
I liked school. I was a 300lb potato that stayed very still and as such was somewhat invisible, save for the odd musical or theatrical endeavour. Scholastically I was mediocre at best, and for a long time I looked back on those years as being creatively stifling. To be honest they weren't at all, if it wasn't for the excruciating dullness of the regimented curriculum I wouldn't have felt as motivated to skive off and instead spend time doing comics and attempting to make and sell music online. The staff weren't exactly supportive but they weren't dicks about it either. I think on some level we all understood that if I was ever going to do well it would be from uni onward. Fortunately that turned out to be the case.
My only real gripe was with the head of the art department who insisted I shouldn't be allowed to take Art as a GCSE subject because I was bad at sculpting, which seemed like counterproductive logic; I was way worse at declining participles, but the bastards made me take Latin. I ended up taking Art History for A levels which I loved, I still sucked grades-wise but it cemented my affection for Bacon, Freud, Hockney et al. I wasn't too thrilled at having to stare directly into the anuses of Tracey Emin or Gilbert & George, but those are sacrifices every young schoolboy has made, I'm sure.
Now it seems like decades later (it's actually been about eight and a half years) and I'm still kind of playing catchup. When I approached "House Guest" it was from a background in design, motion graphics and recreational webcomics. There was a huge gap in terms of formative artistic education that it helped to fill, my subsequent films contributing likewise, but I'm sure there are tells to those who know their stuff that I'm winging it from time to time.
My main attempt to amend this is to do more life drawing, which I stupidly didn't do nearly enough of when at UWE. Fortunately, Bristol being the artsy town that it is, there are semi-regular sessions dotted about the place.

You can tell I have nil confidence in faces (yet I'm inexplicably attentive to detail when it comes to bottoms and boobs, odd that*) and anatomical perspective is a brutally uphill battle, but given it's early days I'm quite happy with how it's coming along.

*Chill out, it's not friggin' sacrosanct.

As the feathers settle

2011-03-08T02:08:00.000-08:00

A week after going up, "Chicken Chokes You" has amassed 1000+ views across YouTube and Vimeo. In the world of online video that's obviously a mere drop in the ocean but for me it represents a big leap forward. While it's admittedly riding the coattails of Yimmy and the b-b-boys, the feedback regarding the animation itself has been really encouraging. Many thanks again to everyone who passed it on, yellow treats for all!
To karmically balance out the universe following a week of vainglorious self-promotion, here are a bunch of other O&A animations from a while back that stand out to me. I'd say it's a safe bet that very few of these are safe for work:

There, that dirty feeling's starting to abate now...

Frrrrrrunkis!

2011-03-01T06:14:00.000-08:00

The completed Opie & Anthony short "Chicken Chokes You" is now online and downloadable at Vimeo. Yay pudding!

The Vimeo version has a couple bits edited out to keep it 'general audience' and not alienate potential employers and clients. But for the thick-skinned there is also an unedited Youtube version which has already garnered a bunch of views and kind words.
If you enjoy it please be a dear and Tweet/share/like/comment/endorse liberally.
So endeth the tale of my Li'l Yimmy cartoon. Coincidentally I learned today that he has a new standup album 'Despicable' coming out on the 8th, there's no way it won't be good so I'd advise you check it out:

Final Stretch

2011-02-27T01:36:00.000-08:00

Here's the last batch of stills from "Chicken Chokes You" before the finished film goes up (knock wood it'll be done in the next day or so). I'm in the last-stretch, sleep-as-little-as-possible stage of production, which will inevitably lead to a crippling anticlimax depression once I'm finished. Nature of the beast, but this has been a real blast the last few weeks.

Studio Time

2011-02-25T13:02:00.000-08:00

More stills from "Chicken Chokes You", the O&A animation I'm barreling through these days:

The action alternates between Jim Norton (with Opie and Anthony) in studio, and the story he's telling in which he, as a farmer, is thwarted by poultry. It's like a very condensed "Chicken Run". The main visual references for putting together the studio assets and backgrounds come from Opie's Youtube channel where he posts segments and appearances he films himself. This one, in which Jimmy presents his idol (and mine) Ozzy Osbourne with 18lbs worth of birthday gifts is possibly the greatest thing that's ever happened ever, in the history of ever. Enjoy!

Render Farm

2011-02-21T02:42:00.000-08:00

I'm aiming to have my O&A animation done by the beginning of March and things are looking good, schedule-wise. Unexpectedly, given that I started it as kind of a goof, looking at the finished shots as they come in I'm happy to say this has some of the best animation I've ever done. I know I'm still in the adolescence of my career but there are shots here and there that really seem to be a tremendous leap forward visually. It's a good sign for the feasibility of my next planned traditional animation short 'Everything Esther', which is a long way from even beginning production but this experience has rendered it considerably less daunting. Here are some stills:

Pitched Out

2011-02-18T12:32:00.000-08:00

It's been a mostly sleepless week living off cornflakes, yoghurt and instant coffee (my digestive tract is both anxious and befuddled) as I'm gathering pre-production materials for two short film pitches. Hoping to stick with my pattern of producing one short of my own per year, I'm leaning toward the more developed, easier-to-pull-off "Bullies". I have a script and a large chunk of the storyboard done, plus I can get on the asset building while I wait to hear back from potential backers. That way if I don't get any bites I'll have enough material in place to pursue other opportunities or possibly just take more time to knock it out myself.
I'm really excited about this one as it's shaping up to be a completely different visual experience than my previous films, relying more on the production processes of certain commissions and slightly more contemporary character design work. To that end I'm torn between showing off or keeping under my hat the proposed designs I have now. So here's my concession:Speaking of short films (which I guess is pretty much all I do on here) Sophie Klevenow's 2009 short "Noesis", for which I did the sound mix, just got accepted into the AG Kurzfilm German Shortfilm Catalogue, which is excellent and well-deserved news. It really is uniquely remarkable for a student film and has been very well-received with good reason. If you've yet to see it I'd recommend you check it out.Some screening news to end on - "Ground Running" will be getting another showing at this year's Skepto after its inclusion last year. It's part of a 'Best of 2010' pre-festival screening on the 25th which is pretty flattering.Elsewhere - Tamil Nadu, specifically - "The Naughty List" will be part of the 2011 International Short Film Festival of India which starts on the same day. Given the country's increasing relevance within the animation industry it's very encouraging to get a screening over there.
Now to prepare for a weekend of scanning and compositing, fueled by my 18th Müllerlight of the day...

Li'l Jimmy

2011-02-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

Everyone who's familiar with Jim Norton knows he's just adorable. He's the only person on Earth who can pick up trannies or engage in watersports and make said activities seem cute and endearing. He's also known for projecting a dysmorphic self-image that makes my own seem buff and masculine by comparison (which is no mean feat). So the Yimmy character design is more a visualisation of this grotesquerie than an actual caricature of the man himself. Anyway, here's the lovable scamp in action.
The last couple of shots are a nod to Chris Reccardi, one of the more visually daring post-John K "Ren & Stimpy" directors.
That's all you get for today. I'm sure you'll find the emotional resources to muddle through.

Chicken Licked (AKA how the hell did my scanner get so dirty?)

2011-02-13T14:23:00.000-08:00

Here are some line tests for "Norton & Friends", my O&A animation. As with my three prior shorts I'm going the longer route of pencils-on-paper rather than tablets. I just prefer the process and I don't have to compromise my style this way, plus I don't really have a deadline so fuggit.Here are a batch of atypical walk cycles. Right now it kinda looks like they're skating but it'll hopefully make sense in the final composited shot.Again, out of context this one's a little hard to fathom but it's strangely hypnotic.
Some quick cutaways:

The last one I'm really happy with, especially given that I have no idea how chickens move and I can't dance for shit. I rarely animate on 'ones' (25 frames-per-second as opposed to 12.5) but in this case I reckon the fluidity of movement suits the pacing of the short.
More, less chicken-ey, more Jimmy-ey tests next.

RAMONE!

2011-02-09T04:35:00.000-08:00

More on my radio show animation project, with the working title "Chicken Chokes You". The clip I'm animating is from "The Opie & Anthony Show", undoubtedly SiriusXM's best program in terms of relevance and unfiltered humour. Growing from borderline-unlistenable roots as a 'shock jock' double act, it's morphed into a uniquely authentic outlet for political debate, social satire and theoretical musings interspersed with molestation humour and ridiculing the less fortunate.The duo consist of former nice-guy-doormat-turned-embittered-sociopath Greg Hughes (Opie) along with former tin-knocker-turned-casually-racist-cradlesnatcher Anthony Cumia. Their third mic is standup comedian Jim Norton, with whom I'd been vaguely familiar through his collabs with Louis CK and Lewis Black when I first saw him perform at a charity benefit at Gotham in New York a few years back. I subsequently became a huge follower of his books, performances and O&A in general.I'd say the show's initial appeal was its ability to hit nerves with me that I'd assumed a quarter-century of bitter douchebaggery had eroded, but the more I listened the more I felt a legitimate affinity with what they were doing. It's the same fundamental comfort that I take from hearing performers like Doug Stanhope (as well as the aforementioned CK and Black) that beneath the unending bullshit we're fed by the media in all its forms there are a small handful of people who are scathingly honest. Or, more likely, their opinions and thought processes just happen to coincide with mine, which of course makes them geniuses. I think that's how it works.
Ironically the audio I picked to animate is Jim Norton's 'light' side at work, hilarious when juxtaposed against his usual brutal tirades and confessions of sexual deviancy. I'm not entirely sure how the short will play out of this context, but here's the original audio (thanks to kennethjohnali for uploading the clip):

The show has previously shown a lot of enthusiasm for fan-made animation, holding their own animation festival back in '08 and encouraging some really gifted creatives such as Allthingsmedia and the staggeringly prolific, Terry Gilliam-esque Cokelogic. So if I'm gonna follow through on this I really want to be proud of the result beyond just having some new showreel footage. Watch this space.

The Happy Wanderer

2011-02-08T03:48:00.000-08:00

The Victoria Film Festival is now a-happenin' until the 13th. "The Naughty List" is being shown on the 12th as part of the pretty unique, quasi-interactive program 'Converge', which begins at 2pm and is spread out among a number of different venues across the city. I can safely say it's the first time anything of mine has been screened at an undersea garden.
Here's the description from the program:"Everything is fair game as ConVergers take to the streets and unique spaces of Humboldt Valley to see how far the Festival can push the new technology. We've searched the world for wonderful short films. Then we found some terrific, unusual and sometimes odd places to show them. After that we got crazy with the technology. You'll watch films on a projector you can hold in your hand, we'll play with video walkmans, portable DVD players, and we'll even take you back to the past with hand cranked players. You can wander the streets and venture into unusual places and catch the ones that take your fancy. Locations will be as stimulating as the films and in many cases reveal a side of Victoria seldom open to the public. The Festival has created an afternoon of play just to demonstrate the explosion of changes in how, where and what we're watching. And so we ask you again: Where do you like to watch?

HOW TO CONVERGE
Starting Point: Go to a Box Office (Oyster Bar or Parkside Victoria Resort & Spa) after 1:30pm to turn in your ticket for a USB Flashdrive wristband that contains short films (yes, even you become a venue!). The wristband will identify you as a ConVerge patron and give you access to all the venues. Also pick up the ConVerge Program with map to all our venues and away you go. But remember to keep a sharp eye out because we've also got some surprises along the streets as you go between venues.

THE AFTER PARTY
Yes, for those who can never ConVerge enough, we've got a little thing called a party going on after ConVerge is over. Come to the Oyster Bar on Humboldt Street (Between Government and Gordon Streets) for 5 PM enjoy a complimentary beverage and some appetizers to build your strength up after all your wanderings. In addition, all the films will be playing so that you've got another chance to catch any shorts you missed."

That honestly sounds awesome and it's kinda rubbish that I can't be there to participate. But any British Columbians out there who have the time should definitely check it out.
Book online.

Chicken Scratch

2011-02-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

Thrown into the mix of day-to-day work, funding applications and self-promotion I'm working on a micro short that'll hopefully scratch my itch to keep on with the traditional 2D stuff. Given that my next short 'Bullies' will be far more contemporary (read: economical) and less in the vein of my usual style, I wanted to take something on that would keep me practiced and possibly give me an excuse to venture into looser, Kricfalusi/Clampett-esque animation. I'll elaborate further in the coming weeks but for now I'll just say it's set to audio from a radio show that I listen to a lot when I work so I figured it'd be logical to tie the two together.
Here are some rough sketches and layouts:

Cashin' In

2011-01-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

While I endeavour to tie all the creative loose ends in my scattershot life, my new album "The Book of Women" is gradually garnering some positive feedback. I have an outline for a marketing plan that will be put into action in April (four months after the release, which is traditionally not the way to go but I just don't have the time right now). This will consist of the usual batch of associated merchandise, a mini-site and exclusive tracks/remixes, plus I'd ideally like to release it as a digital download to keep up with the yoof. Until then all's I have are two new poster prints, both with the same album cover artwork (which I blathered about last month) that's cropped for the actual CD but lends itself rather well to portrait dimensions.
There's a large print (35" x 23") and a medium print (20" x 16") both available to buy online. Pick one up and cover that blank space on your wall/door/soul!
As I'm always keen to jump on any opportunity to showboat, there are also posters available for two prior Struwwelpeter albums, one for the somewhat-nightmarish "Rapeseed" (2004) and three for the pinkier, bunny-ier "Agnosticaust" (2006):

Quickies

2011-01-20T09:08:00.000-08:00

In my continued effort to keep the holiday season alive ('cause I just don't know when to let go) I'm happy to say there's another 2011 screening for "The Naughty List", this time at the 6th Athens Animfest. It's really nice to find this out as my second film "Ground Running" screened at the 4th edition back in '09. It's being shown as part of the Tributes 2011 Panorama section, haven't worked out the date/time just yet but check out their website and Facebook page for more info.
On another note I've finished the first of several supplemental showreels, these are spun off from my main showreel which kind of lumps all the animation stuff together. The idea being that I can submit tighter, more theme-specific reels when certain job applications call for it. Plan is to have one each for character animation, digital animation, motion graphics and VFX work, which will give me an excuse to create some new content in all those areas. In the meantime here's the first version of the character animation showreel (which features the first looks at some in-the-works projects such as Alpaca Gals and Erica):
Any thoughts always appreciated, especially if you can somehow use the opportunity to tell me how handsome and sympathetic a fella I am. Not sure how that would work exactly, but roll with it.

Woah. Happy new year to me...

2011-01-14T06:22:00.001-08:00

The latest festival to inform me it's screening "The Naughty List" is a biggie, and in all honesty I'm kind of out-of-my-mind ecstatic to be a part of it. It's the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, one of the more coveted animation festivals out there and definitely in the top five of my fest wishlist. It's kind of like asking out the hottest girl in school because you figure there's nothing to lose, and despite all odds she actually says 'yes' (particularly welcome news as a couple of her younger, less glamorous/popular sisters had recently told me to piss off...okay, I'm bad with analogies).Another major benefit is, unlike most of the other higher-end festivals that have been a little too far away to feasibly attend (or the timing didn't pan out) the comparative locality of Germany hopefully means I'll get to be there in person. One of these years I was always going to head over there to check it out whether anything of mine was screened or not, so you can appreciate why I'm doubly-stoked to have the excuse.
A billion thanks for the inclusion and another round of gratitude for everyone who helped me get the fillum done. This has been a pretty great start to what'll hopefully be a pretty great year.

Déjà Vu

2010-12-26T02:13:00.000-08:00

Falalala...eh, you get the idea.Admittedly it's pretty much the exact same image as last year's blog-card-thing, but sort of interesting to see how it developed from the original concept illustration. 'Interesting' being, as ever, a pretty subjective word.
Glad tidings. And all that. Innit?

Festive Frolics

2010-12-22T16:47:00.000-08:00

Some news that comes as something of a comfort given my concerns that "The Naughty List" might die on its arse once the holiday season is over - it will get its first (so far) screening of 2011 at Canada's Victoria Film Festival on February 6th. If memory serves, this is the first time any film of mine has been shown in the massive, sprawling land-mass that is Canada (outside of me forcing every friend and relative through it). As a Canadian myself I'd been hoping I'd get something shown there eventually, so grand news all around, eh?After my monthly self-googling I've also learned that the film received its tenth screening at Serbia's Film Front festival in Novi Sad last Saturday (18th). Even though I'm late to the party it's good news as I was keeping my fingers crossed that I'd get ten in by the end of the year. They also apparently screened "Ground Running" (the 'lost' Ben Mitchell film) on the 16th. Sweet, a twofer - they're good eggs, them Serbians.