Still Alive

Jaysus, I blinked and the whole goddamn month got away from me.
Been one of those periods where there's barely been enough time to do all the things that need to be done, let alone write about them. Hopefully if you've been following either my personal or Skwigly Twitter feed you're more or less up to speed. If not here's a quickie roundup.

On the podcasts front there's been a bunch of new stuff up for your listening pleasure. After what proved to be a successful venture in the Animation Composed special it's been business as sort-of-usual for the main Skwigly podcast, with a second annual outtakes special kicking off proceedings as well as welcoming current Oscar nominee Patrick Osborne (he who done 2015 winner Feast with Disney and, more recently, Pearl with Google ATAP) to episode 66:
Since its release last year the film has gone on to receive multiple Annie Award nominations and be shortlisted for the 2017 Best Animated Short Oscar nominations, a first for a 360 VR film.
Also discussed in this episode are nominations for – and conspicuous absences from – the animation categories at the 2017 BAFTAs, anticipation of new Rick and Morty and how certain feature films set out to insult their audience’s intelligence.

In continuation of my enthusiasm for the Mike Patton-voiced Dave Cooper-conceived headf*ck that is The Absence of Eddy Table I managed to speak with director Rune Spaans (AKA Superrune) for episode 67. Give 'er a listen:
Hailing from Brønnøysund in Norway, as a self-taught visual artist Rune began working in video games in the 90s before moving on to advanced visual effects and animation work for films including André Øvredal's Troll Hunter. Eddy Table is currently in competition at Clermont-Ferrand with upcoming screenings planned for Festival Ciné Court Animé in March.

Laura-Beth and I have this week brought back Intimate Animation for a second season (or series, whatever melts your effin' butter), a little earlier than planned. As it turns out, the wonderful Signe Baumane has a new feature on the go, so what better time to catch up?
Anyone who's a regular listener - or who may have read my book - knows just how inspiring I find Signe and, based on the strength of her previous feature Rocks In My Pockets this new film is sure to be more than worthy of your attention. After you've checked out the episode you can learn more about the project and how you can contribute at kickstartmarriagefilm.com
Elsewhere the world continues to turn despite simultaneously crumbling. To distract myself from the onslaught of increasingly baffling news (people say it's like Nineteen Eighty-Four but to be honest I'm more put in mind of The Last King of Scotland) I've been deeply entrenched in the final weeks of the preschool series I've been working on since last June. As production on the first series (or season, Jesus guys chill out) is coming to an end, knock wood I'll be able to put up something from it soon. Another nugget of news worth mentioning is that Toon Boom have been assisting with resources for my next short film Sunscapades which is well underway. I've been playing about with the latest version of Harmony and put up a review on it if any of you are in the market for an upgrade and want to learn more.

On the subject of my weird little films, as far as our old friend Klementhro goes there had been a sort-of plan to release it online around now, although it turns out its festival run has a bit of life left in it yet. I can confirm it will be doing the rounds through til May which is rather splendid, will post up all info as it comes. In the meantime the next outing will be at Short Waves in Poznań, which runs from March 21st-26th. As the screening is called Friday Night Shorts I'm using my crack detective skills to conclude it will take place on the evening of the 24th. Exact specifics when I get 'em.
My revised plan is to put the film online in full at the point when it has gotten 100 public screenings. No particular reason, just something to work toward. We're well into the 90s now so hopefully it won't be too long.
That's me done for now. Hopefully I'll be back here before another month goes by.