June Shmune

A solid half-decade after it originally made its festival debut, I've finally put my fifth animated short Sunscapades online. It's a film I was initially quite proud of insofar as it came out exactly as I pictured it in my head, which is a rare thing indeed, but I grew a little conflicted about it for a few reasons I won't bore you with here. It had a nice chunky festival run either way, with stops including the BFI London Film Festival, LIAF, Encounters, LSFF, Just For Laughs, Sydney Film Festival, MIAF, Cardiff Animation Nights (twice! What a lovely bunch), Anima Brussels and a whole lot more. It was also an opportunity to work with the wonderful Weird Eye Collective talents Laura-Beth Cowley (producer and voice of Lily and Milly), Fiona Viani-Pericchi (voice of Billy) and Hannah Stevens (background paintings) and boasts some fantastic painterly contributions from Carwyn David, plus some spooky music courtesy of Phil Brookes. So give it a watch and let some sunshine into your lives:

Tomorrow night (June 22nd) I'm putting on another Bristol Animation Meetup (BAM) with my pals from Rumpus Animation and Sun & Moon Studios. This time we're congregating at the King Street Brew House from 7pm and I'll be shamelessly using the opportunity to have a quasi-launch of the new book.

You can have yourselves a merry little thumb-through and if you conclude it's a book you need in your life (as any rational person would) then I'm offering a special BAM-exclusive, mates-rates discount. As with every edition of BAM, all animation professionals, students, enthusiasts, fans and hobbyists from Bristol and the surrounding area – really anyone who fancies making the trek - are welcome.

Back to the book, check out the video above for a cheeky peek at what it looks like in hardback. Then spit coffee at your screen when you see how much the bloody thing costs. Ah well, some things just aren't in my control.

Things are busy as ever in the land o' Skwigly, so be sure to swing by and get caught up. On top of some great coverage from the team on indie hit Lackadaisy, Estonian masterpiece Old Man Cartoon Movie: Lactopalypse!, Star Wars Visions: Season 2, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and Genndy Tartakovsky's new project Fixed, in the lead-up to the summer I've put out a trifecta of National Film Board of Canada coverage, looking at new work from Thao Lam and Kjell Boersma (Boat People) and the welcome return of previous Skwigly interviewees Janet Perlman (The Girl with the Red Beret) and Janice Nadeau (Harvey). Some other fun stuff coming up, so keep 'em peeled and be sure to follow us on our Twitter, Insta, Facebook and YouTube so you have a better chance not letting that pesky algorithm hide our goodness from you.

Okay, that's enough. Now be off with you.

I've never looked better

I'd originally planned to release my new album My Head Is Too Small for My Body on the 19th, but as that's proved to be an unexpectedly contentious date I've rescheduled it...to right now. Surprise!

While I've been popping out a fair few EPs in the interim, this is the first full-length record of mine since The Birdcage in 2015. Part lockdown project, part therapy exercise, this one's a bit more thoughtful lyrically than my albums have been in the past and I got a lot of demons out of my system with it. I also got some help from brilliant musicians Ed Richardson, Phil Brookes and Leanne Brookes to make it sound extra swish.  

It's available on Bandcamp now for a mere bag of shells (and you can try before you buy), but if you just can't bear to part with your cash then it'll be rolled out on various streaming platforms over the next few weeks.

I actually snuck out one final EP for this one last week, featuring the unnecessarily rude On The Air plus two non-album tracks Burnout and Revolución that didn't quite make the final cut. Again that's on Bandcamp as well as various streamers plus I cobbled together a disconcerting little lyric video for it:

Stop saying 'Lund'

Bit o' Sunscapades news for ya today. It's going to be screening in the lunderful land of Lund later this month as part of the programme for the 25th anniversary edition of the Lund International Fantasy Film Festival. Lund!
The Lundtastic screening will be An Animated Cocktail that takes place on September 29th 1:30pm and marks the film's Swedish premiere.
Happily it also marks the latest of several pairings up with Anna Mantzaris's Good Intentions which also features music by Phil Brookes. Y'all should hire him, dude's clearly a good-luck charm.
Sadly I can't make it in person but it looks like a wonderful fest - they're even screening Hellraiser fer crissakes - so any Swedes in the area be sure to check it out.

Sunny Disposition

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A post shared by Ben Mitchell (@benlmitchell) on Oct 15, 2018 at 5:14am PDT

Getting to see Sunscapades in front of a proper festival audience for the first time at Encounters last month was pretty darn wonderful and a hard one to top. However the massive crowd at yesterday's BFI London Film Festival screening proved to be up to the task. I was also blessed to be among some fab film talent whose work was also screening - including recent Skwigly interviewee Anna Mantzaris - not to mention most of the Sunscapades crew Laura-Beth, Hannah, Fiona and Phil. I appreciate that when men who look like me get sentimental it just comes off as creepy so I'll be brief in once again voicing my love and gratitude to such a fabulous team as well as Elaine and the rest of the LFF gang for letting my creepy little film be part of such a great event. If you missed the Real Horrorshow screening yesterday then you can still check it out this Thursday 6:30pm at Rich Mix, if you act fast there are a handful of tickets still available here.

Having sadly missed the fourth birthday celebration evening for Cardiff Animation Nights I'm excited to be swinging by later in the month for their special pre-Halloween screening Cardiff Animation Frights, curated by the wonderful Dani and at which Sunscapades will again be playing. So let's all go ahead make scare ourselves shiteless at Chapter on the 27th (screening will kick off at 7pm, after which I'm sure there'll be a beverage or several to be had).

That same weekend the film will be getting its hotly-anticipated (in so far as nobody's explicitly informed me that it isn't) Serbian debut at Film Front, or Filmski Front as is more fun to say. These fine folks previously programmed my films Ground Running and The Naughty List back in 2010, nearly eight years ago; that's right, folks - I've mastered basic subtraction. Although they've announced the official selection I don't know exactly when the screening will be, but the festival takes place October 25th-28th at the Novi Sad Cultural Center.
Do sljedećeg puta!

Got a light?

The hometown premiere of Sunscapades at this year's Encounters festival went encouragingly well, especially considering the screenings were the first time I'd seen the film with a sizable festival audience. As with all films it's been educational as far as which bits get the strongest reactions but all things considered I couldn't be happier with how it went down. It was also very nice to be able to bring along almost all of the film's modest crew (Laura-Beth, Hannah, Phil and Carwyn) - not to mention me mam - and hopefully come October everyone involved will have gotten to see it on the big screen.

Until then the film will be popping up around the world at a few more lovely events. To cap off the week tomorrow night will see it among the launch programme for the Roselle Park Short Film Festival, a branch of the Roselle Park Arts Festival. In Roselle Park, believe it or not. If you're on that side of the pond you can check out the screening at the Climax Brewing Company's outdoor theatre at 5:30pm.

One final reminder that if there are any David Lynch/Twin Peaks fans out there who haven't yet made weekend plans, my previous film Klementhro is screening as part of the Lynch Inspired Short Films programme at The Official Twin Peaks UK Festival. According to their social media there are still a handful of tickets left if you fancy snapping them up. The screenings will take place 3:30pm Saturday 29th and 11:30am Sunday 30th - I'm pretty sure it's the same programme repeated each day but I may be mistaken. At any rate here's the full list of films and you check out the complete weekend schedule here. Drink full and descend!

Sunny Side Up

Some fantastic news I've been sitting on can finally be revealed today. On the heels of its first major festival selection next month Sunscapades will be screening in October as part of the BFI London Film Festival!
Not only that, it's in what looks to be one of the most exciting screenings - Real Horrorshow - alongside a mix of animated and live-action shorts that look absolutely fantastic, such as Anna Mantzaris's Good Intentions that, as with Sunscapades, also features music by the excellent Phil Brookes.
All told the film is in damn good company and, given that it's not an animation-focused festival, I'm incredibly honoured to be among the ones that made the grade, including recent work by Chris Shepherd, Evgenia Golubeva and Peter Millard to name a few.
The screening takes place at the Prince Charles Cinema (Downstairs Screen) on Sunday October 14th at 3:30pm, then repeated Thursday October 18th at the Rich Mix Cinema (Screen 1) and tickets go on sale September 13th. I'll definitely aim to be at the Sunday screening so hope to catch you there!

Rising Sun

Came home to some rather lovely news that Sunscapades just won itself the Best Animation award at the Fylde Film Festival! It's been a slow start for this one as far as getting it out there so this is a really encouraging start and hopefully I'll be able to share news about upcoming screenings in the near future.
This also marks the official world premiere of the film, the first time an animated short of mine has ever actually debuted in the UK, so it's very reassuring to hear it went down well. Once again many thanks to the brilliant talents who helped it get done - Laura-Beth, Hannah, Fiona, Phil and Carwyn in particular - and to the festival team for taking a punt on it. After a bit of a grumpy weekend y'all perked me up some.

The Brunch Bunch

It's been a week since the Cardiff Animation Festival wrapped and when all's said and done it was an absolutely brilliant first edition, with some of the best overall energy and enthusiasm among the attendees that I've encountered doing the ol' festival rounds. It was a real honour to have been as involved as I was and I have nothing but gratitude and massive respect for the team who pulled it off so well.
For those of you who weren't able to make it, once you've scrubbed the stink of shame off you Laura-Beth has a great write-up on her personal highlights you can check out, while Steve and I will be going through ours in the next podcast due out this week.

In the meantime I was also able to get recordings from the Filmmaker Brunch sessions in which festival guests whose films were playing in competition were able to chat a bit about their work. These included:

• Phil Brookes – Composer, Enough
• Roos Mattaar – Animator, Sparks: Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)
• Myles McLeod – Marfa
• Oscar Barany – Thirsty
• Christina S. Nerland – Leave A Print
• Dotty Kultys – The Hunchback and the Swan
• Thomas White – Cretin
• Yoni Salmon – Niggun
• Ilenia Cotardo – Lemon and Elderflower
• Evgenia Golubeva – I Want to Live in the Zoo
• Sophie Dutton – Lost
• Jake Harvey – Lost
• Anna Eijsbouts – Hate For Sale
  
• Somnath Pal – Death of a Father

What a haul! You can listen to the three-part podcast minisode series I've produced from these below:

End on a Song

The podcasts keep coming over in Skwiglyland, and I'm very pleased to bring you the end-of-year special Animation Composed, a celebration of the harmonious relationship between music and animation. This one's been brewing for a while as, being a musician myself, I've often found myself enamoured of the consideration that goes into animation music - quite frequently it's something that can make or break a film entirely. With the aid of Skwigly contributor and freelance composer Wez this episode's been put together as a sort of podcast 'pilot' that may very well have series potential depending on how well it goes down. The nice thing about it is that, on top of the regular interview segments the podcast series are known for, there's the inclusion of music itself which makes it a pretty different beast. So settle in for over two hours of standout animation music selections and exclusive interviews with special guests.
In this podcast we speak with Norwegian multi-instrumental composer/performer John Erik Kaada (AKA Kaada) whose discography includes the solo releases Thank You For Giving Me Your Valuable Time, Music For Moviebikers and Junkyard Nostalgias as well as the Kaada/Patton albums Romances and probably my favourite album of this year, Bacteria Cult. Kaada’s work as a composer for independent film scores recently extended into the world of animated shorts with The Absence of Eddy Table, directed by Rune Spaans.

We also meet Scot Stafford and Alexis Harte of Pollen Music Group, the songwriting organisation responsible for the music of the ongoing 360 VR filmmaking series Google Spotlight Stories, which includes the immersive film projects Duet, Windy Day, Buggy Night and Pearl.

Also included in this special is music by Phil Brookes, Shane Holly, Thee Wreckers, Happy Camper, Tim & Puma Mimi, François-Xavier Paquin and Skillbard.

Listen to the special below or over on Soundcloud (NB – this episode is streaming only):

Full playlist:

•Phil Brookes – Theme from But Milk is Important

•Shane Holly – Coda (Excerpt 1)

•Kaada – The Absence of Eddy Table (trailer snippet)

•Thee Wreckers – No Place Like Home

•Happy Camper – Winnie & Otto (Otto)

•Tim and Puma Mimi – Dupi Dough (Ivan’s Need)

•Pollen Music Group – No Wrong Way Home (Pearl)

•Pollen Music Group – Les Brises (Windy Day)

•Happy Camper – The Accident (Otto)

•François-Xavier Paquin – Crazy Dance (Wackatdooo)

•Shane Holly – Coda (Excerpt 2)

•Pollen Music Group – Buggy Night (Excerpt)

•Pollen Music Group – Breathless (Duet)

•Phil Brookes – Theme from Three’s A Crowd

•Phil Brookes – The Outsider (But Milk is Important)

•Skillbard – Lovestreams

•Thee Wreckers – Splintertime