Update (nah, that isn't satisfying)

Hi there folks, it's been a minute. In fact I don't think I've ever gone over a month without finding some excuse to talk about myself on here. So, y'know, time to overcompensate. 

Over in Skwiglyville we have ourselves a new, (mostly) Annecy-focused episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast featuring animation royalty Joanna Quinn. Joanna's been one of our biggest supporters in every respect since the earliest days of Skwigly and we've been eagerly waiting for an excuse to bring her on the podcast (although she has appeared previously on a podcast minisode from back in the days of BAF) since before it even started, so what better than to discuss hers and Les Mills's long-gestating new Beryl film Affairs of the Art? On top of receiving the Special Jury Distinction for Direction at Annecy the film, co-produced by the NFB, has won awards at Clermont Ferrand, Animafest Zagreb and Kaboom among others and is easily one of the most technically stunning films doing the rounds this year. Download link here or stream it below:

Also discussed in this episode are Annecy shorts highlights, Mikey Please and Dan Ojari's upcoming Aardman/Netflix special Robin Robin, Erick Oh‘s immersive short Namoo, Marq Evans’s Will Vinton documentary ClayDream, Alberto Vázquez‘s Unicorn Wars, Jorge Gutierrez’s Maya and the Three, Netflix’s adult animation slate including the stop-motion anthology series The House and the announcement of Robert Morgan's feature film debut Stopmotion.

Our new interview series Animation One-To-Ones is coming along nicely with our latest episode welcoming back the uniquely wonderful Anna Ginsburg, who previously appeared on Intimate Animation to discuss her film Private Parts. Since then she has done some brilliant work including What Is Beauty? for CNN, A Love Hate Relationship for Breast Cancer Now (which recently screened as part of Annecy's Commissioned Films programme) and Typically for Bloody Good Period alongside fellow Intimate Animation alum Caitlin McCarthy. You can download the podcast here or watch below:

We have a whole bunch more of these planned for the foreseeable, so to be sure that you don't miss any you might want to go ahead and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

We also have the tenth and, for the time being, final episode of Visible in Visuals up on the site, in which organisers Tanya Scott and Hodan Abdi discuss what progress has been made and what still needs to be done with a panel of contributors - Bimpe Alliu, Mohamed Orekan and Paula Poveda-Urrutia - who were instrumental in getting the series off the ground. Download forevs or stream to your heart's content:

It's been a real privilege to have been able to give this series a podcast platform through Skwigly and if you've not yet listened I strongly urge you do so. Fingers crossed that it will continue in some form once they've had a regroup as there are many more discussions that I'm sure need to be had.

If you're in more of a readin' mood than a listenin' mood then prepare to be effervescent with excitement that my book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films is available at 20% off until August 1st as part of the Routledge/CRC mid-year sale. Another CRC book worth checking out is Andrijana Ružić's Michael Dudok de Wit: A Life in Animation, a thoroughly-researched overview of the director's filmography and working process that I enjoyed a great deal (you can read my full review here). There are also a couple of recent interviews you might want to check out, including my catch-ups with Claude Cloutier (Bad Seeds) and Michelle Kranot (The Hangman at Home/We Are at Home), who have both made stunning new work worth keeping your eyes open for.

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Since my last post I actually clocked that the end of April marked ten years of my involvement with Skwigly, beginning with my first book review of Bill Plympton's autobiography, followed shortly after by an interview with the man himself. I hadn't planned on doing more for the site (much less one day taking it over) and, given how crucial discovering his work had been to my switch of career direction from graphics to animation and films, meeting Bill felt at the time like everything coming full circle. But, as is often the case in life, it turned out to be the beginning of something far grander. The current team would eventually take it over a couple years later and I'm hugely proud of what we've grown it into and the wealth of relationships that have branched out from it. I posted up a bunch of memories that stood out over on my Instagram including crossing paths with other inspirational figures Joanna Quinn, Signe Baumane, Peter Lord, Billy West, Rosto, Richard Williams, Tomm Moore and some previously unseen footage of chats with Adam Elliot (another crucial artist who helped shape my career direction) and a then up-and-coming Rebecca Sugar, not to mention the ongoing relationships with organisations such as the NFB and Cardiff Animation Festival and some unexpected excuses to sit down with folks outside of the animation sphere like Kaada, Charlie Kaufman and Caroline Thompson.

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The fact of the matter is that's just the tip of the iceberg and there are a ton of other wonderful memories I didn't have time to post up, such as organising an interview and fan Q&A with legendary Jan Švankmajer; speaking with inspirational talents Bob Jaques, Stephen DeStefano and Jim Gomez for a Ren & Stimpy special; literally hundreds of chats with artists whose work I love (see the big ol' list under Skwigly Interviews on the right there); getting to bring on my amazing friends who've been smashing it like Jo, Jane, Lauren, David, Phil, Mary and Matt; driving folks nuts with Steve's MAF quizzes; interviews conducted in lightning storms; bringing my dad on the podcast to chat about his work on Yellow Submarine; curating programmes for Encounters, BAF, MAF, CAN and CineMe; working with other festivals including Animafest Zagreb, ITFS Stuttgart, DAFF and Anima; appearing on TV to talk about dirty cartoons with Steve; teaching the world to sing in Brussels; teaching the world to sing in Manchester; even being stranded in Geneva waiting for a bus to Annecy after my flight from Bristol was delayed by 4+ hours has, by virtue of the folks I met along the way, become a fond memory...just about.

It isn't all roses though and unfortunately doing this kind of work means you occasionally encounter the odd nutjob or angry little raging bellend. And sometimes someone you admire when you first meet/interview them turns out to be, well, not so admirable. While those stories do make for better anecdotes, I'll save them for me memoirs. What is clear is that those instances are completely eclipsed by the comparative wealth of joyful moments and that's an important thing to hold onto. 

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More important than anything else is that it was through running Skwigly that I met my favourite lady person Laura-Beth when she came on board as a contributor and eventually our main Features Writer. I'd never have suspected that indulging what started as a hobby for niche animation journalism would have brought somebody so wonderful into my life and she continues to surprise, impress and inspire me every day.

Fun fact: our marriage was such a legendary event within the animation world that acclaimed director Wes Anderson included a replica of our wedding venue in his stop-motion adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox...nine years previously.

Now go follow her Insta if you haven't yet because it's much more interesting than mine. 

Shoulder Rubbing

In episode 91 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we talk through some of the film highlights of this year’s Annecy festival award winners, including new work from Bruno Collet, Ludovic Houplain, Thomas Renoldner, Pedro Casavecchia and Daria Kashcheeva.
I'm also delighted to welcome special guest Regina Pessoa, whose latest film Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days picked up the special award for Best Original Music as well as the Jury Award for a Short Film following its debut earlier this month at Animafest Zagreb.
We also speak with Jérémy Clapin, another double-winner at this year’s edition whose new feature film I Lost My Body won the Audience Award and the Cristal for a Feature Film. Having also picked up the Nespresso Grand Prize after screening at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival’s International Critics’ Week the film has been picked up for distribution by Netflix.
Also discussed in this episode: Annecy’s swelling footfall, making Aladdin ‘hip’, when post-production works against animation and the plight of long-running Brazilian festival Anima Mundi, who are presently raising funds to ensure next month’s edition can go ahead.
Stream below or direct download:

Now let's never speak of She-Ra again

Another podcast for the podcastey pile. In episode 83 Steve brings us a chat with Trevor Jimenez, director of the short film Weekends that recently won the Jury Award and Audience Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival as well as ten other festival awards and counting. Presently playing in competition at Anima Mundi, upcoming screenings include Animation Block Party, Fantoche and Anibar.
Also discussed in this episode: The reaction to She-Ra’s redesign, Annecy and Society for Animation Studies conference highlights, Brad Bird vs. bloggers, the premiere of Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires and Vice’s bizarre Simpsons article. It's a fun'un, get it in your earholes now or download for later.

Power Couple

For the eighty-first episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast I'm thrilled to have been able to speak with Alison Snowden and David Fine of Snowden Fine Animation.
Having met at the NFTS, the pair went on to work with the NFB for their short George and Rosemary and the Oscar-winning Bob’s Birthday that later inspired the hit adult animated sitcom Bob and Margaret.
Alison and David have teamed up again with the NFB for their latest film Animal Behaviour, their first new short film in over twenty years that will be taking major festivals by storm in the coming weeks, with official selections at Animafest Zagreb, the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Anima Mundi.
Also discussed in this episode: Upcoming highlights from Annecy, the curious world of Disney’s early sequels, the misguided efforts of Circle 7 and the not-especially-destructive trailer for Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Direct download here or stream below:

Ben betwixt fests

As I froghop from Animafest in Zagreb to Annecy (in, y'know, Annecy), here are a couple of interviews worth sharing.

In episode 72 of the podcast we welcome Eva Cvijanović, director of the National Film Board of Canada/Bonobostudio short Hedgehog’s Home that, on top of playing in the Annecy competition this week (with Anima Mundi to follow in July), recently picked up the Animafest Audience award, understandably so as it was easily the most enthusiastically-received film that played at the fest).
A graduate of Concordia University, Eva’s independent film work includes 2010’s Once Upon a Many Time and 2013’s Seasick. Her work with the NFB began with her participation in the seventh edition of the Hothouse apprenticeship scheme, for which she made The Kiss (2011). Since then she has created the micro-short Survival of the Fittest (originally produced in 2014 and released this year as part of the NFB’s Naked Island series) with Hedgehog’s Home, a stop-motion adaptation of Branko Ćopić’s classic children’s book, being her most ambitious film project to date.
Also discussed in this episode: Annecy anticipation, the quasi-controversy of Red Shoes, Emoji Movie emoting and the gloriously dubious VFX of Twin Peaks. Stream above or direct download here.

I've also today put up a written interview with the film's co-producer Jelena Popović about her involvement in the films as well as some other recent projects including Chintis Lundgren's Manivald, Sheldon Cohen’s My Heart Attack, Theo Ushev’s Blood Manifesto and the recent NFB micro-shorts series Naked Island. She's a tremendous person doing tremendous things so please do take the time to check out the piece and look into some of what she's been up to, you'll be glad you did:
Producing Animation: Jelena Popović
Right, off to get in some lake time before press duties commence. Happy heatwave, everyone!

Small steps, giant leaps...

In the latest episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we’re joined by Skwigly contributor Wez Allard in discussion of the recent Annecy festival and its film/event highlights, in particular the presentation of Blue Sky’s latest offering Ice Age: Collision Course which is released this Friday in UK cinemas. Joining us are the film’s director Michael Thurmeier and producer Lori Forte who discuss the journey of the franchise, the evolution of its technological sophistication over the years and the process of working with the film’s voice cast among other topics. Give 'er a download or stream below:
Other discussion points of this episode include the value of staying practiced when it comes to animation fundamentals, the legacy of the recently-passed Camberwick Green and Trumpton creator Gordon Murray, hopes for Disney’s upcoming Wreck-It Ralph sequel and Laika’s latest offering Kubo and the Two Strings.

I also talk a little bit about the upcoming release of my book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films, which I'm very happy to say will be tied-in with Skwigly upon its release. In fact there's quite a lot in mind for the ways in which the site and the book will complement one another, and there's some real potential for the book to be the foundation of something quite exciting that I'll be building on in the months (possibly even years) after it comes out. On that note, don't forget the book will be released this September through CRC/Taylor & Francis, so swing by their site and give it a look!

Next Leg

Gute Nachrichten! My latest film Klementhro will be paddling its way across Germany throughout July as part of the touring programme Shorts Attack, put together by the fine folks at Interfilm. It will play alongside other films linked by the theme 'Travel Stories' by such excellent directors as Fluorescent Hill, Mark Lomond, Zsuzsanna Kreif, Borbála Zétényi and Jossie Malis among others. Things kick off this Saturday (July 2nd) 9pm at the UT Connewitz venue in Leipzig, followed by three simultaneous screenings on Wednesday July 6th at the Kinobar Prager Frühling (8:30pm, again in Leipzig), Berlin's Acud Kino (9pm) and the Medienhaus in Hannover (9pm).
Later in the week the programme will play in Hamburg at Filmraum (Saturday July 9th, 8pm) and the following night in München at the Werkstattkino. Check back here for more dates/venues later in the month!

I'm particularly pleased that the film is continuing what's been a long-running and very harmonious relationship between my work and European territories, especially given the recent outcome of the EU referendum that's left a lot of us shaken. In the latest episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast myself and Steve attempt to make some sense of it all and talk through the potential ramifications Brexit may have on the animation industry should it go forward. If nothing else this is one of the more cathartic episodes we've ever put out. In a sunnier second half we also welcome the talents behind the latest Disney/Pixar box-office smash Finding Dory as well as its accompanying short film Piper, both of which we were able to catch at this year's Annecy festival. Stream below or direct download (of course you can always subscribe and never miss an episode).

Reportage

"Look into the mirror, look into your soul!"

I'm back from my not-as-rainy-as-expected Annecy trip and feel like I've run a marathon. It was a whirlwind of catch-ups, meet-ups, write-ups, interviews, parties, rain-dodging, sun-spotting, networking and completely responsible drinking; all in all, we made massive pests of ourselves and had a blast doing so.

Following on from last week's pre-fest round-up, here's the first batch of coverage put out while we were over there (and check back later in the week as there's plenty more to come). Firstly, as promised, you can have a read of my interview with Franck Dion, whose film The Head Vanishes was one of my personal highlights of the festival that had the good manners to win the Short Film Cristal!
I also note with glee that another top pick, Theo Ushev's Blind Vaysha, received not only the Jury Prize but the Children's Jury Prize - you can have a read of my recent interview with him about that project here.

Another Cristal winner (also picking up an Audience Award) was the gorgeous feature film My Life as a Courgette by Claude Barras. While it initially lured a lot of festivalgoers in simply by looking pretty, when word got around about just how amazing it was on the whole the remaining screenings sold out pretty quickly. You can have a read of my attempt to put my own enthusiasm about it into words in my review, which went up today.

Also discussed previously, I was able to chat with Canadian filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming about her feature-length NFB production Window Horses, brought to life by an assortment of top Canadian animation talent such as Kevin Langdale and Janet Perlman. It's a lovely film and a tremendous showcase of different animation approaches and styles, so keep an eye out for it.

The latest episode of the podcast is our first to be recorded from the festival's gathering ground for inebriate tourists, Captain Pub. Give it a listen to hear about my travel woes, an interview with Chris Renaud (director of The Secret Life of Pets, which saw its premiere at Annecy on Thursday) plus Katie and Julia join us to discuss Annecy's good sportsmanship traditions. Download here, subscribe or stream below:

Later on in the week we did our first ever live vodcast via the Skwigly Facebook page, where myself, Steve and Katie discuss some of the highlights of the fest as well as the grim fate that befell our Marketing Director Aaron.

I also swung by the Toon Boom booth at MIFA to catch up and found myself being interviewed about Skwigly, the festival and my upcoming book Independent Animation. You can give it a watch below:

 

On our last day I met the world's biggest Klementhro fans, one of whom being acclaimed Lithuanian animator and caricaturist Ilja Bereznickas who was keen to immortalise me, throwing in some references to the film (cheers to Steve for documenting).

Will post again soon with more good stuff from the fest, in the meantime check out the full list of special prize recipients and award winners from this year's edition!

I hope I packed enough sunscreen

FFS

Happy Sunday everyone! Typin' atcha while bathed in the eerie, warming glow of Bristol Airport's flourescent lights at a time of morning I'm very rarely awake either by or until. Soon, however, I'll be Annecy-bound and it's sure to be a fun jaunt, if wet and exhausting. There'll be lots of Skwigly coverage, naturally, in fact some of it's already gone up. Steve has a round-up of the UK presence at the fest while I catch up with Patrick Osborne, he who directed the universally-beloved Oscar-winning Disney short Feast (that we spoke with him about previously). Since then he's been working away with the Google ATAP team on the VR film Pearl that festivalgoers can check out at the festival, where Patrick will also be part of a panel discussion on the possibilities and practicalities of VR filmmaking.

While most of what Annecy has on offer will be new to me, there are few personal recommendations for others who are attending that I have from my various travels and dealings in recent months. On the features side of things, look out for Ann Marie Fleming's NFB film Window Horses, which draws on the talents of some wonderful animators to tell a story of Iran's cultural landscape from the perspective of an out-of-water Westerner (I also have a director interview going up next week).
Also worth a watch is the fascinating Psychonauts: The Forgotten Children by Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero, a feature-length outing for the characters established in the short film Birdboy boasting much-improved design and animation and some unexpectedly bizarre humour that was right up my street. You can read my full review of the film for more on what I made of it.
I also have to give props to Penny Lane's Nuts! - it's a film that at first strikes the viewer as misguided and a little confused, being an adaptation of a clearly non-impartial biopic of medical and broadcast pioneer 'Doctor' John Brinkley. As it goes on, however, all confusions are evaporated, revealing a very astute and commendable character study. Ironically my only issue with it is the animation, but I'll expand on why when my review goes up later in the week.
As far as short films are concerned, again there's a lot I've not yet seen but of the ones I have here are some absolutely cracking pieces of work to watch out for:
How Long, Not Long (Michelle Kranot/Uri Kranot, Denmark)
Squame (Nicolas Brault, Canada)
Spoon (Marcus Kempken, Germany)
Stems (Ainslie Henderson, UK)
Blind Vaysha (Theo Ushev, Canada) 
Accidents, Blunders and Calamities (James Cunningham, New Zealand)
The Head Vanishes (Franck Dion, France) - interview going up on Skwigly tomorrow.

In non-Annecy Skwigly round-up news, on top of an interview with Ren & Stimpy APC veteran and Looney Tunes-redesigner Jessica Borutski about her new show Bunnicula, last week was largely devoted to shining a bit of a spotlight on some fresh-faced Canadians who have recently made their first professional animated films as part of the National Film Board of Canada's ongoing Hothouse apprenticeship scheme. We did a similar thing last year, this time around hearing from Hothouse alumnus and Mentoring Director Malcolm Sutherland, as well as the filmmakers themselves: Curtis Horsburgh, Duncan Major, Rhayne Vermette, Lorna Kirk, Catherine Dubeau and Pascaline Lefebvre. There's some really lovely work there and the films are all very short, so give 'em some love.
Righto, time to wrap up, I've got a plane to catch.
UPDATE: No I don't! Not for another five goddamn hours. Top notch work, EasyJet!

Where am I? And how can I leave?

Criminey, a month-plus of radio silence. Surely bliss for the blogosphere?
Well, here I am again. Reconcile yourself with that and tough it out, friends.
The end of this week should mark a return to a life where I have more time available in the day than the scant few minutes in which to graze or micturate the last couple of months have allowed. On top of animation work I've been dealing with all sorts of exciting Skwigly diddlywotsits, unnecessary Throat (the book, not my actual throat) concerns, organising some special music events and the most needlessly protracted flatmove imaginable - especially considering it's within the same building. On top of all this I've also been in the final stages of getting something I'll refer to as "Project Group-Hug" off the ground. Based on a meeting I had last week things are looking good and, if it happens, it'll be something pretty damned amazing, so think warm gooey thoughts and spray them in my general direction.
Going back to the Skwigly diddlywotsits, here's a round-up:

Meeting celebs

Myself and Laura-Beth went over to Annecy the other week for the Sunniest Animation Festival Ever (thank Christ it was by a lake or our UK-acclimated selves would've snapped before the week was through). Predictably it was superb and, while I was a little nonplussed with a good deal of the competition selection, the special events and industry gatherings were spectacular. Stay tuned for some in-depth coverage of new developments from Dreamworks, Disney, the NFB and Cartoon Network to name a few. In the meantime here's some festival coverage to sink your toothies into:

Bill Plympton's Cheatin' - Review

Annecy Special Events

Award Winners

Puppets on Parade

 

Latest podcast featuring: Greg MacLeod (of the Bros. MacLeod) on his and brother Myles's recent films 365, Isle of Spagg and the upcoming Marfa; Jackie Cockle, whose work as an animator and director spans some of the most prominent stop-motion TV productions in the UK, such as Pingu and Timmy Time. Also included is some of the panel discussion I recently participated in alongside Dani Abram, Jane Davies, Gareth Cavanagh and Kerry Dyer. Download, subscribe and/or stream!
The Lightbox series of mini-docs which started up back in May has been going strong. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do so here and catch up with what's gone up so far:

Joanna Quinn (Beryl Productions)

Theodore Ushev (National Film Board of Canada)

Torril Kove (National Film Board of Canada/Mikrofilm)

Westley Wood (Animation Toolkit/CITV)

Bill Plympton (Plymptoons)

Other new interviews of the written variety include Anita Kwiatkowska-Naqvi, whose pregnancy-themed film Ab Ovo is one of my absolute favourites from the festival circuit last year. Also as part of our Producing Animation series of articles I was able to chat with Annecy's current Artistic Director Marcel Jean on his prior career as an Animation Producer. Some really nice insights here, especially on transitioning from directing to producing.

It's nice to look at the above as some evidence that I have actually been being productive for the last little while. In truth I've been in a bit of a stress blur with the move, and my absence from this blog has been substituted with endless moaning at friends and family with each dull development and setback. What's given me tremendous perspective is just how good I have it as far as support from all directions when seas get choppy. Plus I've lost about 12lbs since I started flathunting, which I guess is a silver-lining. That and the new place is bloody lovely, so I have to concede it really was worth it.
Always darkest before the dawn, and July is also looking to be an exciting month ahead for fanboy reasons. You see, as a longtime David Lynch enthusiast, every two years or so I put myself through the strange dual pleasure/torture of watching a now-very-old show called Twin Peaks. Probably it doesn't need an introduction, it being such a staple of pop culture - it arguably did more for the landscape of television in the 90s than David Chase did with The Sopranos over a decade later. The difference being that, while I can think of *maybe* two episodes of Sopranos that didn't do it for me, at least a third of the episodes of Peaks are borderline unwatchable. It's one of the biggest and most well-known laments of the Lynch fan, that a show which starts off so brilliantly devolves so quickly (in all there are only thirty episodes, the first ten of which are pretty much faultless).

I suppose I'm really more a fan of Fire Walk With Me, the much-maligned movie prequel made after the show which resolves virtually none of the cliffhangers that remained when the series was canceled. Knowing nothing about the premise other than Mike Patton once covered the theme song and that it was a prequel, I figured it'd be a safe bet to start with it and then embark on the show if I liked what I saw. It was 2002 and my Lynch fandom was still in its early stages, you see. Of course, had I known then that the concept of time is treated very loosely in the otherworldly Black Lodge and that its being chronologically a prequel doesn't mean jack shit in terms of fully understanding what's going on - or, more crucially, that the show itself is a goddamned whodunit and so by watching the murder happen beforehand would undermine the whole mystery aspect of the show - I might have tracked down the series first. But then I wonder if I would have liked the film as much that way around, or if I would've even made it past the midway point of season two at all.

In truth, having not seen the show makes Fire Walk With Me a classic standalone David Lynch film, and easily my favourite. While a lot bears explaining, that's also the case with Lost Highway and Mulhulland Drive and, in the same respect, contributes to its appeal as a film to be dissected and pored over with all the time you thought you'd be spending having sex because, after all, it's your first year in college and you don't assume that the only intermittent play you'll get is from that one recent-divorcee townie wracked with Catholic guilt who you met at such-and-such's house party.
Ah, Gabrielle. I don't want to think too hard about how old she must be now. But I digress.

The genius of Fire Walk With Me is that, from a story perspective, it does actually flow perfectly into the events of the show. The pilot episode and first season, while more conventionally structured and far less intense, very much feel like they're carrying on the story, albeit with a sudden change of hairstyles all round. Knowing who the murderer is while everyone else is trying to work it out makes it a satisfying watch for entirely different reasons than it would've been when originally broadcast. A lot of confusing aspects of the film, mainly the backstories of characters we know nothing about having not seen the show are expanded on, though some aren't; A decade later I remain disappointed that Kiefer Sutherland, Chris Isaac, Harry Dean Stanton and David Bowie's characters, all created for FWWM, never show up in the series. It makes the more bafflingly lazy storylines introduced in the later episodes all the more frustrating. Also the frustrations a lot of the fans of the show must have felt when watching the movie can only be appreciated in hindsight; Looking back it must have been a bit jarring that a lot of the main characters - Ben and Audrey Horne, Sherriff Truman, Josie Packard, Pete Martell et al - don't show up at all. Plus one major character is completely redefined when, in FWWM, they commit a murder of their own, one which they're never held accountable for in the series.

Granted the show does pick up near the end. Were it not for needlessly hammy dialogue and a penchant for pantomimey theatrics, Windom Earle might have had potential as a villain. And the last episode is one of the most amazing things I've seen on television - though it's clearly of its time, nothing has quite matched what Lynch achieved with the Black Lodge sequence. Plus it isn't until the very end that the mythology on which most of FWWM is based is properly introduced. Basically if you threw the whole series into Final Cut, lanced out five or so hours of weak subplots and cheesey moments, you'd have an amazing overall story (surely some geek out there has done this already?).
One of the big white whales for Lynch geeks like me has been the promise that somewhere there exists literally hours of footage shot for FWWM that didn't make it into the final edit, chiefly vignettes involving characters from the series that otherwise don't make an appearance. Various versions of the film's script include these and, overall, it reads like a more cohesive Inland Empire, one bound within the Twin Peaks universe. Omitting the scenes made sense to keep the film about Laura Palmer's battle with the demonic BOB, but for devotees of the show like myself who realistically assumed it wouldn't return, these scenes have been something of a holy grail. Last month, over 11 years after I first became fascinated with the movie (and over twenty for those who were there at the time), this appeared:

I'd always hoped they'd see the light of day but assumed it would be in a dusty, found in a vault somewhere, low-resolution state that most deleted scenes from old movies show up as.
This shit looks fucking amazing.
It's like watching a trailer for an entirely new film in which the main cast have managed to sidestep twenty years of aging (and, in some sad instances, death). And we're being told they've put nearly 90 minutes of it together. I am a happy little cinephile, my friends.
If that weren't enough, something popped up on Twitter last month that got my attention:

What. The actual fuck. Does THAT mean? I asks ya...
If Faith No More start producing new music (a conclusion I don't want to set myself up for the disappointment of not being the case but that a lot of music news outlets have drawn) the same month that the deleted scenes from Fire Walk With Me are released...holy shit, we could just call it: 2014 wins. It'll be an amazing day regardless but when I see them on 4th there might very well be some indication of what exactly is going on. In the meantime I'm watching their Twitter feed like a fucking hawk.

Oy, with that white balance...

 

One of the lingering Skwigly projects I finally knocked on the head during my time away (mainly by scrapping the laboured first attempt and doing a simplified re-edit from scratch) is our first proper documentary covering the animation scene of 2013. Given it's a pretty mammoth event, the first doc is centered entirely on the Annecy International Animated Film Festival which myself and Steve visited last summer.

I'm pretty proud of the amount of coverage we managed to get done and it's one of the most longform video editing projects I've undertaken in a good long while. Given that it was shot using basic, high street HD camcorders I think it comes off as pretty watchable. While some higher-end technology might bolster the slickness of this type of video, really it's the talent of our interviewees who agreed to be involved that sells it. The line-up includes Marcel Jean, Eric Goldberg, Lauren MacMullan, Robert Morgan, Isabel Peppard, Ainslee Henderson, Will Anderson, Bill Plympton and Chris Landreth, with contributions from Corrie Francis Parks, Kris Genjin, Robbe Vervaeke, Jamie Badminton and Sarah Gomes Harris.

You can stream it online or direct download it, either way if you enjoy it please share it around as I'd love for this to be one of the strands of what we do that has the opportunity to evolve. If nothing else, it should make you appreciate the podcast all the more for not having to look at these two creeps:

Ee-yikes...