Everybody Scream

In our last Skwigly Animation Podcast of 2018 we look back at the seminal stop-motion feature The Nightmare Before Christmas which this year celebrated its 25th anniversary – and I'm delighted to welcome the film’s screenwriter Caroline Thompson to discuss her career and contributions to the film. It was especially exciting as Caroline also wrote Edward Scissorhands and the 1991 Addams Family movie, both of which were also favourites of mine growing up although Nightmare is definitely at the top of that particular leaderboard. Her other projects include Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, Black Beauty, Corpse Bride and the recently-released Welcome to Marwen (out in the UK this January). Download here or listen below:
I want to give a special shout-out to my pal Isabel Peppard who helped put this in motion - I hadn't really planned out putting out a podcast this month for various reasons but thanks to her help this all managed to come together very quickly and sort of out of nowhere. I interviewed Isabel about her work for the site as well as our 2013 Annecy documentary and you can follow her amazing work on Instagram.
Don't have much else to offer on a Xmassey theme save for this looping animation I did the other day. I think it's pretty self-explanatory:

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A post shared by Ben Mitchell (@benlmitchell) on Dec 22, 2018 at 10:46am PST

And to all a good night!

Last Orders

In the fourth episode of Independent Animation, the companion podcast series to my book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films (still on sale, folks!) I explore the daunting world of taking on feature-length indie animation with several auteurs who’ve taken the plunge. Building on the book’s explorations of major case studies including well-established artists such as Bill Plympton, Signe Baumane and Nina Paley, in this podcast several relative newcomers in the animation world talk about the challenges they faced when both taking on and releasing such mammoth endeavours without a pre-existing fanbase or substantial crew. These include Joel Benjamin (Where It Floods), Nicholas De Fina (LeSeurdmin) and Dan Ekis (Grey Island), who had me on his own indie animation-themed podcast last year.
Also in this episode I speak with Natasha Price of Engine House, a Cornwall-based studio who are embarking on their own indie feature Back From The Dead Red thanks to the support of blockchain entertainment studio SingularDTV. If nothing else you all might enjoy listening with amusement as I attempt to fathom what blockchain even is like the out-of-touch fool I am. You can stream the episode above or direct download, whatever excites you more.

Just to shake out the last few drops of 2018 festival news before the year comes to a close, the Ploiesti International Film Festival's Dark Comedy screening featuring Sunscapades will be taking place this coming Tuesday, December 18th 9pm at the Filarmonica ”Paul Constantinescu” Ploiești.

Later in the week/month the film will supposedly screen at the In-Short Film Festival in Lagos, marking not only the film's African premiere but the first ever screening of any of my films in Nigeria. While they can't seem to decide if the event itself takes place on the 20th-22nd or the 27th-29th (and the comments on their Facebook page make for interesting reading) I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Unless anything else pops up in my inbox I believe that's it for 2018. While this film has proved a harder sell than I'd honestly anticipated, the last few months of screenings and audience responses have been a massive boost and I'm really glad it's been finding itself some little cracks to fill. Who knows, maybe there'll even be a Sunscapades 2: Still Sunscapadin' one day.

Unseasonable Warmth

I'll start as I intend to go on with this entry; radiating sunbeams of positivity that will warm your heart and carry you through the day. In that spirit I'd like to let you all know that Taylor and Francis/CRC Press have resumed their site-wide sale - that sees my book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films available at 20% off - through to the end of year. Plus you save even more if you grab it up with another CRC book - or why not just buy multiple copies of mine and stuff them in the stockings of your nearests and dearests this holiday season? You'll have to really ram them in there though, they're quite bulky.

It's a busy end of the year for Sunscapades, and I'm excited to be headed down to the London International Animation Festival this Saturday for its inclusion in the Late Night Bizarre programme (9pm at the Horse Hospital - be sure to come or all those horse ghosts will never find peace).
On December 13th the film returns to Brazil for the CRASH (formerly TRASH) International Fantastic Film Festival. This will be part of the 3pm International Shorts 1 screening at the Cine Cultura in Goiânia.
Kicking off shortly after that will be Romania's Ploiesti International Film Festival, an event that had the damn fine taste to screen Klementhro back in 2016. Reassuringly Sunscapades has also passed muster and will be playing in the festival's Dark Comedy section.
It will also be presented in Georgia at the Tbilisi International Film Festival 6pm tonight at the Cinema House as part of a special Best Of British Animation screening curated by the Anilab/Encounters Festival team and introduced by my pal Laura Tof.

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Tonight at 9pm on BBC FOUR UK viewers can tune into a brand new documentary “Secrets of British Animation” and keep an eye open for Steve and Ben nestled in amongst some real legends of British Animation! #animation #britishanimation

A post shared by Skwigly Animation (@skwiglyanimation) on Dec 2, 2018 at 11:06am PST

Speaking of UK Animation, as previously mentioned the BBC4 documentary Secrets of British Animation screened last night to much enthusiasm and will be available on the BBC iPlayer for the next month or so if you didn't catch it. Personal highlights include a wonderful segment on Joanna Quinn and a behind-the-scenes look at my 2017 summer fling Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires. At only an hour it could never have been a fully comprehensive overview of all of British animation's best and brightest, but the laundry list of conspicuous absences make a pretty good case for a follow-up doc or maybe something more like a series down the line. Fingers crossed someone over at the BBC feels the same way. At any rate be sure to get it watched while you can and massive kudos to director Seb Barfield, producer Sophie Taylor and the rest of the Academy 7 team for a fantastic job.