Forecast

Latest festival updates for Klementhro, the little paddlin' ginger that could (even though nobody asked him to). First off in April you can catch the film in Paris at this year's edition of Le Court Nous Tient. Our man Klementhro will be poking his head out during the Competition 2 screening at 4pm April 11th. In keeping with the quasi-nautical theme of the film the event takes place on La Baleine Blanche. Très bon!

Also an update on the film's participation in the Cardiff Animation Nights competition strand of CIFF in May. In anticipation of the announcement of the full schedule soon, it's looking like Klementhro will play in the Animation 2 screening that will take place on Saturday May 6th around 5:15pm (TBC) at Chapter Arts Centre. Will keep you posted with more events when the time comes, but all told it's shaping up to be another fun weekend.
With Klementhro soon to be old news, here's the YouTube version of the Sunscapades clip I put up over the weekend. This is an ever-so-slightly longer excerpt, see if you can spot a line that I've ultimately jettisoned from the final film:

Sunshine Days

An evening dedicated to making a child scream in terror is surely an evening well spent

With an optimistic, self-set completion deadline for the end of May, my latest film Sunscapades is starting to come together. Conisdering the last couple of my films have been pretty quiet affairs, I wanted to pay tribute to the faster-paced, economically-produced cartoons of my youth, something more in the vein of the Wobble Box series I worked on, or my old Jim Norton animation.

What a ham

This film came from some random scribblings I did around the same time as Klementhro and is one of three shorts I've outlined that largely revolve around the antics of mischievous triplets Milly, Lily and Billy. For now I don't think the story needs to be elaborated on, but here's a first little glimpse:

What rotten thing could they have done?
I'd like to express much gratitude to three wonderful ladies of animation - who make up Weird Eye Collective - Laura-Beth and Fiona (who contributed some superb voice work) as well as Hannah who's working on the backgrounds. Seeing this first sequence more-or-less done I have a particularly good feeling about how the film is turning out and I'm really looking forward to putting it out in the world when it's done. As always keep checking back here for updates and whatnot.

That Gaston really was a dreamboat

In episode 69 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we welcome back Graham Annable, Oscar-nominated co-director of LAIKA's 2014 feature The Boxtrolls. As well as his involvement with LAIKA Studios, Graham is also the creator of the comic/animation series Grickle, sustained through Patreon. His prior work includes stints at Telltale Games, LucasArts, Nickelodeon and Disney.
Also discussed in this episode: Oscar wins, Beauty and the Beast quasi-controversy, the pleasantly surprising look of the Duck Tales reboot, shows best left forgotten, the cancellation of Tim Minchin’s Larrikins and LAIKA CEO Travis Knight’s surprising new career direction.
Listen to it, gosh darn you:
You may remember a couple years back we interviewed Luc Chamberland about a rather spiffing NFB documentary he made about Canadian cartoon artist Seth. You don't? FFS. Fine, here it is again then:

Anyhoo, it's now out on DVD with some extra bells and whistles. It's a great package, have a read of my full review here and keep your eyes open for it.
If that's put you in the consuming mood here's a spiffy deal to brighten up your impending weekend - from now until the end of March you can nab a copy of my book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films with a big chunky 20% knocked off the list price!

Just order direct from CRC Press and enter coupon code CWR04 at checkout. Free shipping to boot!
'Cause I loves ya so much, thass'why.

My Crowd

Another March screening for Klementhro has snuck its way into the schedules. The kind folks at Bilbao's Animakom Fest have chosen to include it in their screening Krazykom, a "screening of crazy short films" that will take place after the main award ceremony. If any Animakom-goers fancy checking it out it will be at 11pm March 18th at the BBF Dock. Gracias!
Now to steer the discussion towards a couple of other films I tainted with my involvement. Firstly the never-not-wonderful Jo Hepworth has released her short film The Urban Fox (that may very well feature a couple of tracks from The Birdcage playing in the background) online:

This one wasn't pushed much at festivals, though some of you may have seen it at KLIK! last year or my MAF screening back in 2015. Either way, you can see it now in all its glory. I chatted with Jo a bit about making the film as part of my series of KLIK! podcast minisodes last year, have a listen below: Another film worth keeping your eyes open for is Laura-Beth Cowley's thesis film Boris-Noris that I did some post-production work on. It was just finished this past January but there are a few festival appearances already lined up, the first of which will be at Allentown, Pennsylvania's Alternative Gallery for the Open World Animation Festival. Here's a trailer to whet your whettables:

The festival kicks off on March 23rd and runs until the 26th. I'll post up upcoming, closer-to-home screenings as they come along but in the meantime (or for those of you who may be on that side of the pond already) you can learn more at the fest's event page.

Springtime for Klementhro

Poking my adorable furry head out from the avalanche of work and wedding plans with a couple updates regarding Klementhro's latter days on the festival circuit. Coming up first are some more details on the film's screening as part of Friday Night Shorts at Short Waves Festival in Pozan, Poland. The venue will be the Kino Rialto and the programme will kick off 10pm March 24th. Check it out, my Polish pretties!

I'm also happy to confirm that the film will still be out and about come May of this year, as part of the official selection of this year's Cardiff Independent Film Festival. It's in the company of some grand films by animation pals including Anete Melece, Chris Shepherd and Sara Barbas among others. This is the second year that the festival has teamed up with the fabulous folks at Cardiff Animation Nights for their animation strand - last year's was tremendous so I'm really looking forward to heading back.

Elsewhere I'm hearing murmurings that the sequel to The Adventures of Bertram Fiddle (the animated point-and-click game from Rumpus to which I contributed some character voices) is coming together spiffingly. Adding to those murmurings are my own murmurings, which you can check out below. Fulchmuckle rides again!