Spooktacular

Just in time for Halloween, our spooky eighty-sixth episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast features directorial duo Dale Hayward and Sylvie Trouvé - whose National Film Board of Canada film Bone Mother has been released online this month - speaking with Laura-Beth. We also round-up some creepy animated short film highlights we've caught during our recent patronage of the BFI London Film Festival, Cardiff Animation Nights and the Encounters Late Lounge and get up to speed on the progress of Marimo, while Steve and I discuss the legacies of two dearly-missed animation stalwarts Roger Mainwood (Ethel and Ernest) and Claymation pioneer Will Vinton, whose work has and will doubtless continue to leave a lasting impression on animation history. As always you can either direct download or give it a stream, although if it's still the 31st when you're reading this I'd recommend the latter as there's a 50/50 chance you'll get to hear a secret (well, not so much now) 'haunted' version of the episode. 

Sticking with the theme, the next festival that will be featuring my own creepy short Sunscapades is Abertoir: The International Horror Festival of Wales that takes place at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre from November 13th-18th. I'm not sure when exactly the film will screen just yet but I'm assuming it'll be either Thursday 15th or Friday 16th in one of the shorts programmes. In the meantime treat yourself to a gander at the festival line-up, it looks like a pretty fantastic event, all things considered.
Right, back to my evening of waiting for trick-or-treaters to show up and watching their faces fall when I give them handfuls of loose Fisherman's Friends. You've got to keep active as the nights draw in, folks.

This Fine Social Scene

This week the fantastic Cardiff Animation Nights team will be celebrating its fourth birthday and I'm very honoured to say that Sunscapades will be among the short films screened on the night! These folks have been doing fantastic work over the years that recently culminated in their successful revival of the Cardiff Animation Festival on top of their regular meet-ups and soirées. Among the other films being shown will be Lucia Bulgheroni's Inanimate and Weekends by recent podcast guest Trevor Jimenez. If you haven't been to one of the events before you should definitely treat yourself as it's always a good time. This one will take place at Kongs from around 7:30pm this Thursday (11th).

Also it's worth mentioning that this is the final week of a pretty nifty crowdfunding campaign that should be of interest to anyone who'd be reading this. New animation magazine Marimo is putting together its second issue Phantasmagoria that will focus on the spooky side of animation. I can say with authority that it boasts some of the best and brightest that animation journalism has to offer - namely myself, because I'm an ass like that, but also Laura-Beth, who is in fact genuinely brilliant - and if this one turns out anywhere near as nice as their first issue you'd be a fool to not want a copy. You can back it here or, if you're light on cash at the mo, at the very least you enjoy the campaign video that the beautiful souls of Weird Eye Collective (who helped out crucially with Sunscapades) have put together: