September Shmeptember

Following the overwhelmingly positive response to our Summer edition of BAM, Skwigly Online Animation Magazine, Rumpus Animation and Sun & Moon Animation will be returning to the King Street Brew House for our next Bristol Animation Meetup on September 28th.

This time around things will be a little different, as eventgoers can schedule in one-to-one chats with local animation professionals spanning a variety of industry roles, who will be on hand to offer any advice, feedback, guidance or just have a friendly natter.

10 minute slots are available between 7pm and 8:30pm on a first-come, first-served basis and can be requested via email: bristol.animation.meetup@gmail.com

Otherwise it’s business as usual, so come on over to catch up with friends new and old, clink glasses, mend rifts and spin yarns. BAM welcomes all members of the Bristol animation community, professionals, students, hobbyists and enthusiasts alike.

See you on the 28th!

INDUSTRY GUESTS

LOUIS JONES

Creative Director, Sun & Moon Studios

Louis Jones is the Co-founder/Creative Director of Sun & Moon Animation, an award-winning and creative-led, full-service animation studio, that has been producing animation with character since 2008. Louis has worked in animation for over 20 years, starting out as 2D generalist for the likes of Aardman and A Productions. Louis oversees all of the younger audience content at the studio and helps guide the studio strategically and showcase the company at industry events and markets.

During his career, he has directed hours of animated content for BBC Bitesize, Saturday Night TV spots for BBC One, Global TV adverts for Clarks Shoes and bumpers for Fisher Price on Channel 5’s Milkshake. In 2018 he directed the 2D animation for 52 x 5” episodes of CBeebies’ Kit & Pup. Louis also directed the 2D animation across four lost episodes of Dr Who: The Macra Terror and helped to gain the studio a 2020 Best Animation RTS Award.

Louis wrote and co-directed a series of tips and advice animations for BBC Tiny Happy People. In 2022 he directed a series of 15 animations to help teach Phonics to EYFS school children for BBC Bitesize, writing several episodes, including two songs.

Louis has been a professional voice actor since 2005 and has supplied the voice of many characters across TV, short films, games and educational content, most notably as the lead character of Timmy the Lamb from CBeebies/Aardman’s Timmy Time. Louis was on the panel of judges for 'Best Voice Performance' at the 2022 British Animation Awards.

Key discussion areas:

• Portfolio/reel feedback
• Voice reels

JANE DAVIES

Director, Aardman Animations

Jane Davies is a freelance animator and director who has been working in the animation industry for over 27 years.

Jane has worked on long-form and short-form projects for Aardman Animations, A Productions, Sun & Moon Studios, Rumpus Animation, BBC, BBC Worldwide, Reflective Films, TedED, World of Arthur Cox, Disney, The Brothers McLeod, Wonky Films and Daily Madness to name a few.

Her work has included The Tweenies, Robbie the Reindeer Hooves of Fire, Frankenstein's Cat, A Liar's Autobiography, Dr Who - Shada, and a music video for Anna Meridith.

More recently she has worked at Aardman as the Co-Director and Voice Director for Lloyd of the Flies, Aardman's new CG and 2D hybrid series that is playing on ITVX and around the world.

Jane has just completed a short series for Aardman as the Director that is due to premiere on YouTube in October.

Key discussion areas:

• 2D animator, editor, storyboard artist, animation director, director, and voice director as well as budgeting and scheduling long-form and short-form projects.
• Jane has also hired crew for many projects so can also help with any questions about the best ways to market yourself to companies.

BEN MITCHELL

Editor in Chief, Skwigly Online Animation Magazine/Animation Freelancer 

Ben Mitchell (hey, that's me! Who'da thunk it) is a multi-disciplinary animation freelancer, independent filmmaker and industry writer. Alongside 15+ years of freelance experience in character animation, motion graphics and post-production (for CBeebies, Channel 4, WildBrain Spark, A Productions, Rumpus Animation, Shy Guys Studios, Slurpy Studios, Plymptoons, Animortal and Wonky Films among others), as an independent director he has made six multi-award-winning short animated films that have been screened at 200+ festivals and touring programmes across the world.

As an animation industry writer and researcher, Ben is the Editor in Chief of the UK’s largest animation industry resource Skwigly and author of the book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films (Taylor & Francis/CRC Press), whose Second Edition was published this year. Ben has also worked with and alongside many international industry events (including the British Animation Awards, Encounters, ITFS Stuttgart, Animafest Zagreb, Manchester Animation Festival, Cardiff Animation Festival and Fredrikstad Animation Festival) in a variety of capacities spanning preselection, jury participation, panel hosting and programming.

Key discussion areas:

• Skwigly is always on the look out for established and aspiring writers; Ben is happy to discuss the workings of the magazine and opportunities available to those interested in getting involved.
• Being self-employed in the animation industry
• Independent film production and distribution
• Navigating the contemporary animation festival landscape

JOANNA HEPWORTH

Director, A Productions

Joanna Hepworth has worked in the animation industry for 16 years, initially as a freelance 2D animator for studios including Aardman Animations, Sun & Moon Studios, World of Arthur Cox, Wildseed, Calling the Shots and Wonky Films. 

For the past several years she has worked as a Director at A Productions in Bristol, with recent projects including the half-hour television specials Furry Friends Forever: Elmo Gets A Puppy and the 2023 Best Animation RTS Award-winning Sesame Street's the Nutcracker Starring Elmo & Tango as well as two series for Sesame Street with Sesame Workshop for HBO Max. 

Working as a director, Jo is involved in all aspects of the pipeline, from scripts to music and everything in-between. Her daily roles see her working closely with all departments to guide the team and keep everyone on track creatively. 

Key discussion areas: 

• Jo is happy to discuss any aspects of working in the industry regarding animating or directing, for those who are just starting out or interested in specific insight into various roles within animation. 
• Jo is also available to discuss/look at showreels and portfolios.

STEF BOWSKILL

Producer, Rumpus Animation 

Stef Bowskill began her animation career in Bristol at Aardman Animations in 2005. Working across stop-motion broadcast, commercial and feature productions, she has worked in feature development, model making and art departments. From Runner to Production Assistant and Coordinator, her credits include Creature Comforts USA, Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death and Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists. 

In 2012 she joined the Art Department and VFX team producing the long running pre-school series Chuggington. Production was an international operation with teams in Shanghai, New York and Bristol.

After project managing a creative arts incubation programme at Falmouth University, Stef joined Rumpus Animation as Creative Producer in 2019. She manages client communications, proposals, budgets and schedules across a range of sectors. Her most recent work includes animation for Greenpeace International, Disney’s Illusion Island and Cbeebies YolanDa’s Band Jam. 

Key discussion areas: 

• Routes into production. 
• What you can bring to different roles. 
• CV review and interview preparation.

Nothin' But Love

I'm extremely happy to say that the latest Official Selection for Speed will be at the Cardiff Animation Festival, which returns for its second edition this April. The first edition was absolutely tremendous and immediately cemented it as an absolute favourite so it's fantastic to see it continue and even more so to be involved. The film is in grand company too as they've also selected some absolute crackers including Laura-Beth's new film The Gift, to which I contributed some bits and bobs. Although I don't yet know the exact dates/times, The Gift will be part of Shorts 2: Body with Speed in Shorts 3: Heart. Check out their website for updates as they come and hopefully see some of you there!

In the latest episode of our podcast Intimate Animation we meet UK-based director/animator Elizabeth Hobbs, whose 2018 short film I’m OK, produced with the National Film Board of Canada and Animate Projects, explores the passionate and tempestuous love affair between Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka and his lover Alma Mahler.
On top of a BAFTA nomination in 2019, the film has screened at such major festivals as Clermont Ferrand, Annecy, OIAF, LIAF and EIFF and is presently in contention for the British Animation Awards Public Choice alongside her more recent work The Flounder, created for The Happiness Machine project.
Also discussed in this episode: Alternative approaches to animation education, Oscar contenders and love-themed films to look out for during both the British Animation Awards Public Choice screenings and the upcoming Anima Festival in Brussels. Stream above or direct download here.

On the subject of interviews with fantastic animation wimmins, you might want to check out a Q&A with Joanna Hepworth, who's been working up the road from me this past year or so as one of the main Animation Directors on Love Monster, a new series for CBeebies adapted from the books series by Rachel Bright. Give it a read for some insight into the unique production approach (the animation is being simultaneously produced in London at Karrot and Bristol's A Productions), working in CelAction and how the show aims to engage its audience. Having known Jo since I started in animation way back when, it's been a uniquely wonderful and inspiring thing watching her work go from strength to strength over the years and I'm certain even bigger things are yet to come. Be sure to check out the show on BBC iPlayer.

Body Talk

My aging - yet vexingly alluring - body has been ravaged by a series of ailments, each more pathetic and old-man-like than the last. Right now I've been embarrassingly felled by some kind of wrenched abdominal muscle. Thankfully it's not a hernia, as it turns out I'm just a little pissy-sissy fairy-mary girlie-girl (my GP's exact terminology there). The upside is the revelation that I actually possess abdominal muscles - I guess they've just been well hidden all these years. In short, I'm staying pretty immobile and popping Solpadol like Skittles. Before my insides collapsed completely I was able to get in a life drawing session on Monday, the first in a while. I haven't had as many opportunities to make it over there much over that past few months but here are a few stabs at it since last October.

Pregnant gal is, shall we say, 'augmented' in the chest region which carries with it the slight danger of the breasts coming off unnaturally spherical when drawn. I found one I hadn't put up before of the same model pre-pregnancy which sort of shows what I mean a little clearer:

Blame saline, not adolescent misogyny

Here are the results of Monday's most recent session, three angles of the same pose:

I figured I'd be pretty rusty but these turned out better than I thought. This particular model, though a little fidgety, is one we've had a lot which may have helped.

The importance of life drawing is amongst the many things discussed with Bill Plympton in the second part of our interview which is now online. Following on from January's Skwigly Podcast where we mainly chatted about his latest film "Cheatin'", this time around we go into the wealth of additional projects he's taken on in the last couple years, including segments for "The Simpsons", new short films and his restoration of the Winsor McCay short "The Flying House". It's pretty inspirational listening for those with an indie-filmmaking bent, so if you fit into that category I'd recommend you bung it on in the background.

"A Liar's Autobiography" - Not a Monty Python film, though you'd be forgiven for thinking so based on this cover...

We also take a look at a particularly interesting UK contribution to the indie features scene, the multi-studio collaboration "A Liar's Autobiography". Essentially a posthumous, quasi-fictional biopic of Monty Python's Graham Chapman, it came together last year with the involvement of fourteen animation studios, each working on separate segments that were edited into a single feature. While the end result is somewhat patchy it has some solid gags and inspirational visual ideas throughout. I was able to get a few friends who worked on it together to chat about the experience for the podcast - Jane Davies (director of the "Looshkin" short I did the music for) and Leah-Ellen Heming of A For Animation as well as Matt Walker and George Sander-Jackson of Arthur Cox. Continuing the prevailing theme of recent Skwigly coverage, their segments predominantly deal rather joyously with cartoon sex, penis puppets and all. Here for your delectation is a snippet of A For Animation's bit:

Assuming that's whetted your appetite (amongst anything else of yours that requires whetting) you can download the podcast now, subscribe on iTunes or stream it below:

Ben just doesn't stop talking...

The zen approach to dealing with BT's ungodly customer service...

Just a heads-up to any Bristolians who might find themselves in my neck of the woods: Keep your eyes peeled for any BT Homehubs that might fall from the sky and brain you, for I’m alarmingly close to chucking mine off my fourth-floor balcony with a previously-undisplayed athletic strength only made possible through being driven to the absolute edge.
After a 36 hour Mexican standoff wherein the crafty plastic s***head would choose to drop my broadband signal only at moments when I absolutely needed it, we seem to have come to some sort of understanding and it’s now being good. But any more shenanigans and the little bastard gets its first and only flying lesson while I use my free hand to call up Sky and switch services.

All this is a rather long-winded and excuse-laden lead-up to announcing that our latest Skwigly podcast special on Bristol’s Animated Encounters is now finally up. While nobody seems too miffed about the delays, a recent surge in audience numbers (hooray!) has put an added pressure on the future of said podcast, and we’re currently working out a way to make the process more consistent and audience friendly; Ideally we’d do two one-hour episodes a month rather than one massive two-hour chunk that leaves people hanging for 4-6 weeks at a time. There’s fine-tuning to be done, but we’re getting there slowly.
In the meantime you should probably get comfortable ‘cause this one comes in at over two-and-a-quarter hours. Granted there’s a lot of ground to cover, my enthusiasm for the festival and the many talents associated with it seeing me amass a lot of material. Not least of which is my own warbling self waxing-asskissey about all the festival highlights. As it turns out I enjoy talking about stuff I like more than stuff I hate. I know, right? I’m as surprised as anyone.

I also got to interview my lovely friends Paul and Jane of A Productions on producing the animated visual branding for the festival each year, as well as animation programmer Kieran Argo and this edition’s special guest Paul Bush, a man who, despite firmly residing on the artistic end of the animation spectrum (while I, as is obvious by now, am still at the coyotes-falling-off-cliffs end) was very down-to-Earth and a sincere pleasure to chat to.
With fortuitous timing playing a big hand I also got to interview David Sproxton, chairman of the festival and Aardman producer/co-founder (along with Nick Park and Peter Lord, who I also got to talk to back in March for episode one). While the podcast edit of the interview focuses on Mr. Sproxton’s involvement with Encounters itself, there’s an upcoming written piece that I expect will be a little broader and Aardman-ey, so stay tuned for that one. Good stuff indeed.
As usual you can stream it below or download it for later. Of course, if you want to subscribe on iTunes and possibly even give us a rating/review that’d be golden delicious of you!
Skwigly Podcast Special 02 - Animated Encounters (11/10/2012) by Skwigly Animation Podcast

On a final note, this has nothing to do with anything, it just made me very happy tonight: