Some sad and inevitable (but 100% understandable given the circumstances) news to kick off with - due to the COVID-19 crisis the Cardiff Animation Festival scheduled for April has been postponed for the foreseeable future. It's a pointedly unfair situation that puts a lot of hard working folks in a tight spot and it's a rotten feeling to not be able to do anything about it, but knock wood it will resume as normal next year.
It always bears repeating that the work Lauren and the CAF/CAN team have done over the years as far as keeping the Welsh (and beyond) animation community alive is absolutely staggering and this was set to be another belter of an event. I'm sure what the future holds will be bigger, brighter and better than ever. In the meantime much love to all the brilliant people working in events organisation who've been unfairly caught in the middle of this storm.
Along with a major festival scheduled for May at which I had hoped to participate on the International Competition Jury, as well as a couple of unexpected final screenings for Sunscapades, said storm includes a number of other upcoming events having to outright cancel that would have featured Speed, and to be honest any planned outings for the film over the Spring or Summer are looking increasingly unlikely.
This of course is a microscopic concern compared to the miasma of anxieties that we're currently facing and knock wood things will be on the up again before too long.
In the latest episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we have a go at taking things to a cheerier place under the circumstances by looking back at last week's British Animation Awards, which probably marks the last indoor industry gathering we'll be seeing in the UK for a little while. Having recently been taken over by Helen Brunsdon and Kieran Argo since Jayne Pilling retired, the 2020 event proved to be a success and Steve was able to grab some inebriated green room interviews with a handful of the winners:
Richard Phelan/Will Becher (Aardman's Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon, Best Long Form)
Giovanna Utichi (Blue Zoo's A Whale's Tale, Best Original Short Form)
Danny Capozzi (Aardman's New Mindset, Best Social Good)
Sarah Cox (Aardman's Shaun the Sheep, Best Series)
Peter Lord (Head of Aardman)
Roxi Linklater (Aardman rigger and winner of the first BAA Lamb Award)
You can stream the podcast below or direct download (you can also check out the full list of winners here):
Not much else to say really, I expect things will be a bit quiet here for a little while. Stay safe, folks.
In episode 92 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we look back at 30 years of Lip Synch, the game-changing series of short films from Aardman Animations. A short film ‘package’ produced by Aardman for Channel 4 in 1989, Lip Synch expanded on the techniques used for earlier shorts series Animated Conversations and Conversation Pieces, consisting of five early outings for now-established directors: War Story, Going Equipped (Dir. Peter Lord), Ident (Dir. Richard Starzak), Next (Dir. Barry Purves) and the Oscar-winning Creature Comforts (Dir. Nick Park, later of Wallace and Gromit fame).
Following on from our 25th anniversary coverage, to mark the occasion special guest host Alex Dudok de Wit brings us an exclusive chat with Peter Lord, Barry Purves, David Sproxton and Richard 'Golly' Starzak.
Also discussed in this episode: The enduring legacy of the animation great Richard Williams – known for such industry milestones as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Animator’s Survival Kit and The Thief and the Cobbler – who sadly passed away this month.
Stream above or download here.
This past Sunday marks the 40th anniversary of Aardman Animations, the Bristol-based industry powerhouse that gave the world Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Creature Comforts and Chicken Run, and that's just barely scratching the surface.
Our team at Skwigly have been paying tribute to the event by writing up some of their own perspectives and personal high-points. Laura-Beth rounds up the studio's own celebratory endeavours as well as picking her top ten shorts; Steve looks back at their various TV series; Wez Allard explores their back catalogue of inventive commercials; Rachel Crook recalls the construction of the Wallace and Gromit theme park ride and Marc Hendry gives some love to the studio's feature films.
For this week's podcast we obviously wanted to pay similar respects, so on top of some fond remembrances of Raymond Briggs (and some overdue Sausage Party bashing) Steve and I wax nostalgic about all things Aardman, digging out interviews with the three studio heads Peter Lord, David Sproxton and, making his Skwigly Animation Podcast debut, Wallace and Gromit creator himself Nick Park! Cracking stuff. Give it a stream or a download, whichever puts more cheese on your cracker.
Also up on the site, Laura-Beth has a nice write-up of the recent Animation Super Grill event whose line-up I was a part of. I also have an interview with Regular Show alum Sean Szeles whose own animated miniseries Long Live the Royals has been showing on Cartoon Network UK this week. Meanwhile I've been pinging all over the place and, midst my travels, got to catch an advance screening of LAIKA's jaw-dropping new film Kubo and the Two Strings as well as meet its director Travis Knight. You can have a watch of our chat in the newest episode of Lightbox below:
Travis previously appeared on Skwigly while promoting The Boxtrolls but this was my first time meeting him. A truly impressive bunch, that LAIKA lot, so I implore you all to see this one in cinemas, you'll be glad you did.
First off we have a SWANinterview with local director Paul Hill, whose most prominent film to date is Sun, on which he worked with animator Phil Parker. He's good people, give his stuff a watch.
If you're looking for a good animation read you could do a lot worse than Rowland B. Wilson's Trade Secrets, a collection of notes to strengthen your technical muscles a bit. Have a read of my full review here.
Also over on Lightbox we have another chat with Aardman's Peter Lord on the return of Morph, which is back on TV screens for the first time in a long time.
Speaking of family-friendly, cuddly characters, one of Dan Emmerson's Fleshy Friends makes an appearance in this month's Skwigly banner. This could be one of my favourites yet:
Last Skwigly Animation Podcast of 2014!
No holiday play this year but I'm sure some of your Christmasses won't be completely ruined as a consequence. What more than makes up for it are the fantastic guests we have, and this episode's line-up is very esteemed indeed. In fact I think we all got time with a personal hero: Katie Steed talks to Glen Keane about his pre-Duet Disney career with some fantastic insight into the artistic theory and skill applied to his iconic characters such as the Beast, Aladdin, Tarzan, Pocahontas and Ariel; Steve Henderson brings Aardman's Peter Lord back (he was, if you recall, our very first major guest which really gave us credibility right out of the gate) to discuss the modern revival of his own iconic creation Morph; and I talk to indie genius PES about his fantastic stop-mo/pixilation creations, from Roof Sex to Submarine Sandwich (his latest, concluding the 'Food Trilogy' after Western Spaghetti and Fresh Guacamole).
I say this about a lot of them but this episode was another massive pleasure to put together. Stringing it all together Steve and I discuss upcoming features, Oscar predictions, animation 'celebrities', the oh-so-obvious Morph/South Park connection and we learn about Steve's 'incident' with Simpsons creator Matt Groening. Download or stream over three hours of animation verbosity to stuff in your stocking! Don't say we don't spoil ya. For more goodness and to catch up on earlier episodes you can also of course subscribe on iTunes.
On a subject that could not be more unrelated if it tried, here's a clearer audio recording of one of Faith No More's new tracks, from a spontaneous live show they held at Amoeba Records on Record Store Day.
I am chomping at the goddamn bit to hear the studio version. Spontaneous Christmas EP, chaps?
What? You never know, they might be reading this.
We're in the last stretch of it now which, given that the 25th has already come and gone, may seem a bit confusing. Last year we had a lot of people getting in touch asking if they could get involved after all the slots had been filled, so we extended the idea of contributing illustrators to include the 12 days of Christmas. This year we've done more or less the same thing:
For the last one I helped out a bit on the animation (such as it is) front, using some basic After Effects whatchimajiggery. For the benefit of those who may not know, the guy leaping about in the picture is Aardman co-founder Peter Lord (who I interviewed a little while back when his film The Pirates! had just been released), which seemed appropriate. We kind of put it together spontaneously without mentioning it to him beforehand but I'm pleased to say he was sporting about it:
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:
So yesterday saw the launch of my latest endeavour for which I have no discernible background or education, that being my first ever podcast. Put together with fellow animation writer Steve Henderson as the most recent and logical extension of Skwigly, one hopes it'll kick things up a notch in terms of reader/listener participation. So far it seems to have gone down rather well, with over 300 listens in the first 24 hours, along with some really encouraging feedback.
Yes...YES! VALIDATE me!!
Of course the draw isn't my awful, lisping, transatlantic-accented rants but the caliber of guests on board, and obviously with "The Pirates!" opening this week having my aforementioned chat with Peter Lord is a huge boon, not to mention some insightful contributions from Aardman's Miles Bullough on last week's tax break announcement and Fraser MacLean on his recent book.
The next few podcasts have some fantastic guests lined up as well, so knock wood people will continue to tune in. For now it's a monthly thing but depending on interest it may wind up being a little more frequent. Until then, please do give the ol' 'play' button below a click and share the Lord-have-mercy living shite out of it.
If nothing else, you don't have to read a goddamn word. Gotta count for something, right?
This month's Skwigly feature is up, and it's a fairly monumental one. I was very privileged to get to meet with Peter Lord (one of the triumvirate which brought the world a little animation studio called Aardman, in the farcically unlikely scenario that anyone reading an animation-themed blog such as this wouldn't know that already). Obviously given the impending release of his new film "The Pirates!", getting time with him was a real coup, one owed to fellow Skwigly writer (and current editor) Steve whose interview it should've been but unfortunate circumstances dictated I step in. Not that I'm complaining. It was a great opportunity and yet another legend I've been able to sit down and natter with. Also the interview goes hand-in-hand with the latest Skwigly development - which will be revealed next week - that we're all quite excited about. In the meantime do get settled and give it a read, he's a very fascinating, candid fellow with some very interesting insights into the film and filmmaking in general: •A Conversation with Aardman's Peter Lord on "The Pirates!"
