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!

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...

One For The Road

The latest podcast is a little delayed and goes by a smidge quicker than usual, but I was quite keen to get it out there as otherwise there'd be no time on my plate to get it done before July. For its brevity it's chock-full of all that good animationey shiznit - Steve talks to Brian Cosgrove some more and new Skwigly contributor Laura-Beth chats with Marc Roels, co-director of the breakaway festival hit "Oh Willy...". We also talk about Disney Princess dolls and other equally manly subjects. Download here, subscribe here or stream below:

Or do all three. Or none of the above, if you can live with the image of my doe-eyed disappointment.
Can you? Eh? Can you live with yourself?!

Of course not, I'm too adorable.

Also up on Skwigly now is a written interview with Warwick Burton and Isabel Peppard, producer and director respectively of the stop-motion Australian horror fairytale "Butterflies". It's a wonderful parable of the tragedy of letting one's creativity die out, something I've witnessed a fair amount in friends I've worked and studied with in the past who, for whatever reason, didn't stick it out. Isabel has also worked on the brilliant Adam Elliot film "Mary & Max" and certainly knows her stuff. The film's doing really well and knock wood I'll be able to catch up with them both in person next week at Annecy. You can read the interview over on Skwigly now:
"Butterflies" - Q&A with Warwick Burton and Isabel Peppard