Strangers in the (Late) Night

In the second episode of Independent Animation, the companion podcast series to my Skwigly tie-in book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films, I take a look at the work of “rotating collective” the Late Night Work Club, who last year followed up their 2013 anthology film Ghost Stories with another themed collection of animated shorts titled Strangers.

This podcast follows up on two of the artists who contributed invaluably to the original book:

Kirsten Lepore (Hi Stranger)

Since her promising beginnings with the viral hit Story From North America (co-directed with Garrett Michael Davis in 2007) and breakthrough student short Bottle (that to date has picked up 39 awards and counting) in 2010, Kirsten Lepore‘s animation career has flourished, notable jewels in the crown being her auteur short film Move Mountain (2013) and last year’s Adventure Time episode Bad Jubies. Her Strangers contribution Hi Stranger went crazily viral last month, even getting itself spoofed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. You can read a bit more from the interview in my recent feature Stranger Things: A Conversation with Kirsten Lepore.

Alex Grigg (Born in a Void)

Australian animation director and designer Alex Grigg has produced work for clients such as Super Deluxe, Netflix and Cartoon Network. Presently working at Mighty Nice in Sydney, Alex’s independent work includes the multi-award-winning Ghost Stories contribution Phantom Limb.

The podcast also features exclusive insight about the independent production approaches for the anthology from other participating talents:

Charles Huettner (Intro, outtro and interstitials animation)

Charles is a Pennsylvania-based freelance animator. As well as his involvement with the Late Night Work Club, he was recently involved with fellow LNWC founder Scott Benson‘s indie game project Night in the Woods.

Sean Buckelew (Lovestreams)

Having received an MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sean has since worked on projects including We Are Your Friends, Consuming Spirits and the Annie Award-winning animated sequences of He Named Me Malala. Alonside his independent films he has worked with clients including Disney Channel, MTV, Arctic Monkeys, VH1 and Adult Swim.

Jeanette Bonds (Departures)

Since receiving a BFA and MFA from CalArts for Experimental Animation, LA-based animator Jeanette has gone on to programme and participate in festivals including Slamdance, Platform, KLIK!, Fantoche and the Los Angeles Film Festival. In 2014 her student film Trusts & Estates was nominated for an Annie Award. On top of her independent film work Jeanette is also the Co-Founder, Director and Artistic Director of the GLAS Animation Festival.

Loup Blaster (Freedom)

Presently living and working in France as an illustrator, animator and VJ, Louise Philia Druelle (AKA Loup Blaster) grew up in Calais and studied animation at ESAAT and Volda University College.  In March 2012 she started BBBLASTER, an illustration, animation and music project.

Nicolas Ménard (Wednesday with Goddard)

Nicolas moved to the UK from Montreal to study at the Royal College of Art where he produced the popular student films Somewhere and Loop Ring Chop Drink. During his career he has worked with dozens of clients including Google, la Cinémathèque Québécoise, Universal and Time magazine. He also works as a director at Nexus.

Listen to the episode below or direct download:

Thanks muchly to all the brilliant interviewees for their time and insight, as well as composers Skillbard and David Kamp for the use of their music in the episode. Don't forget that the Independent Animation book itself is available to buy now from pretty much everywhere else that sells books - though at the time of writing you can get it direct from CRC Press with 20% off plus free shipping!

Hey WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT huh?

The various dedicated Faith No More blogs I keep track of have let me know that the band's second (though often presumed first) album Introduce Yourself is a sobering thirty years old today.
I have a special fondness for this one, primarily as it was the first full album of theirs I ever bought (roughly 21 years ago) but also because, despite predating the era of the band where they teetered on mainstream fame, it genuinely boasts some of the best songs they ever wrote, at times reaching the same musical heights as their magnum opus Angel Dust.
To mark the occasion here's me foolishly attempting to cover one of said tracks onstage a few years back in loving tribute:
I was blessed enough to meet singer Chuck Mosley when he played in a Bristol a few months ago and treated us to an acoustic medley of songs from Introduce Yourself (as well as a fantastically bizarre instance of him covering the Mike Patton-era Faith No More track 'Take This Bottle').

Cheers to my boy Lee for taking what will be one of my favourite photos probably until I die.

Not really much else to say other than enthuse that if you've never encountered it before why not go ahead and treat yourself to a listen?

More for the pile

Having quasi-premiered at the Manchester Animation Festival back in 2015, Klementhro will be paddling his way up North again for To The Screen: Animation Unlimited, a one-day festival event put together through Creative Industries Trafford. Even better news is it will be screening alongside Laura-Beth Cowley's new film (and relative newcomer to the festival circuit) Boris-Noris! So if you're able to make it to the Greater Manchester area this coming Wednesday (April 19th) the programme will kick off around 7pm at the Waterside Arts Centre. It's sure to be a fun'un!

As some may recall, last year Klementhro followed in the footsteps of its predecessors Ground Running and The Naughty List by getting itself screened at the Skepto International Film Festival. I've just been informed by the lovely folks over there that it will screen again on April 29th for a special pre-festival 'Best of 2016' event in Sassari, North Sardinia. Exact venue/time info a-comin' soon.
As a little bonus bit of good news, these recent additions to the upcoming screenings means that, come the film's appearance at the Cardiff Independent Film Festival in May, it will have cleared 100 public screenings, which was my self-set target to hit before putting the film online. So assuming nothing changes in the interim, the date it goes up will be Monday May 8th. Pencil it in, people - this time Klementhro's coming to you!

They're waiting...

News Clump

Some updates to brighten an actually-quite-sunny-already weekend.
Sunscapades is making slow but encouragingly steady progress. I've been blessed with having some absolutely fantastic background and close-ups painters who've really been helping to nail that 90s series vibe I'm going for with it. If you want to keep up with how it's coming together and get some sneaky peeks as they go up you can now follow me on Instagram. Here's a wee smattering of the goods you can come to expect:

Smears are fun. #animation #ToonBoom #Sunscapades

A post shared by Ben Mitchell (@benlmitchell) on Apr 3, 2017 at 8:16am PDT

Home-away-from-home studio

A post shared by Ben Mitchell (@benlmitchell) on Apr 1, 2017 at 10:12am PDT

Some slow-mo action #Sunscapades #animation #test #ToonBoom

A post shared by Ben Mitchell (@benlmitchell) on Apr 9, 2017 at 2:31am PDT

It's also worth reminding y'all that there's a Skwigly Instagram that's been set up for a while now so if you're in a followin' mood then why not get in on that too.

Speakin' o' Skwigly, the end of March officially marked five years of the Skwigly Animation Podcast. It's been quite a half-decade, with co-host Steve and myself amassing literally days' worth of exclusive interviews and insights from the best and brightest of the animation industry. So naturally to mark the occasion I've put together a selection of bits where it's just the two of us pissing about in between interviews. Traipse down memory lane in this compilation of conversational “highlights” including:

• Animation indoctrination
• The ballad of Crazy Frog
• Miyazaki’s confusing retirement
• Making it to Annecy
• Peppa Pig and the ****ing Gazelles
• Pastor vs. Frozen
• Too many coyotes
• The misadventures of Quoanna Jinn
• Pixar’s Lava: A fair and reasoned critique
• Alienating Matt Groening forever
• The nightmare commission
• Noisy dicks at festivals
• Annecy traditions (featuring Katie and Julia)
• Animals are crap in real life
• Awful films we sit through
• The dark side of animation
• The Skwigly anxiety dream
• Miyazaki’s wrath

The second season of mine and Laura-Beth Cowley's more recent Skwigly podcast series Intimate Animation is continuing on also, with Kim Noce of Mew Lab joining us for episode 2. Since graduating from the NFTS with her 2005 animated documentary short After, Kim has gone on to direct eight independent shorts, seven commissioned films for the BBC, C4 and the BFI among others, as well as ten animation installations, including The Evening Her Mind Jumped Out of Her Head for Watford Borough Council. Recently Kim was among several directors commissioned to direct Love in Idleness for the Shakespeare400 Still Shakespeare series. The films took inspiration from original research by Sally Barnden and were produced in partnership with London Shakespeare Centre, Film Club at Th1ng and Sherbet.
Also discussed in this episode is Kirsten Lepore's curious new film Hi Stranger, made for the second Late Night Work Club anthology Strangers. Her contribution went viral in a big way a few weeks back and you can learn more about how it came together in my interview with her:
Stranger Things: A Conversation with Kirsten Lepore
You can hear a longer version of the interview as well as more from the other Strangers contributors in a podcast special that will be going up soon (I'd originally planned to time it with a public screening event I'm involved in but as that's been pushed back until later in the year I'm aiming to get it up sooner) so watch this space.

In the meantime there's a new episode of my video interview series Lightbox in which I meet Kyle Carrozza, a nice fella whose frenetic contribution to the Cartoon Network series line-up Mighty Magiswords just made it to the UK this weekend. Have a watch and learn more about how it came together, it's quite interesting how its path to becoming a full series was a somewhat atypical one.

I know at this point you're all literally screaming "But what's happening with Klementhro?!" until your voice boxes are raw and bloody, so I'll put you out of your misery. I'm happy to report the film's getting a surprise screening in competition at Cortoons Festival Gandia. The festival takes place in Valencia, Spain and while I'm not 100% clear on the exact time and venue info just yet I can tell you it's held from April 27th to 30th and that my film will be part of the 1-4 minutes screening category. More when there's more.

Don't forget that shortly afterward it will screen on May 6th at 5:15pm as part of Cardiff Animation Nights' competition strand at the Cardiff Independent Film Festival at Chapter. Immediately afterwards at 7pm Steve and I will be hosting one of our inimitable Skwigly Animation Quizzes that are always good fun, so be sure to check that out also.

That morning Laura-Beth's new film Boris-Noris (on which I helped out hither and thither) will also be playing at CIFF as part of the Animated Family Shorts screenings put together by Cloth Cat. Keep your eyes on the online program in the coming weeks for more specifics and ticket info. The film has had a great start so far, already having screened in the States and the UK with other upcoming screenings including 7 Petits Cailloux (Tinqueux, France) and Zlín Film Festival (Kudlov, Czech Republic).
Eef, that was a big one. Okay folks, go back to enjoying your Sunday.