Freakin' windy out today, ain't it?

As I mentioned last month, the Frenchtastic folks over at the Roanne Animation Festival have informed me that my film "The Naughty List" will be part of their pre-festival 'Best Of' screenings, having been part of last year's line-up. I just had a look on their website and it seems like said screenings will take place this week at the Jacques Perrin à Tarare cinema on the 13th and the Le Méliès à Saint-Etienne cinema on the 14th, both at 9pm. Très bon, innit?
This year's official selection includes many personal favourites such as Michaela Pavlátová, PES, Francesca Adams, Tim Reckart, Bill Plympton and Rumpus, so if you're one of the 7% of people reading this from France I'd say you'd be a goshdarned fool to not check it out. Pardon my harsh language, there.

I just finished reading/reviewing a superb book on the legendarily troubled production of "Ren & Stimpy", inarguably one of my earliest and strongest influences. Unlike many, I retained a sincere affection for the post-Spumco era of the show and was hoping this book would give the Games era and its crew of talents like Bob Camp, Bill Wray, Chris Reccardi and Lynne Naylor (amongst many others) a fair shake. It does, in spades and with a lot of insightful input from all sides. You can read my full review of "Sick Little Monkeys" by Thad Komorowski over at Skwigly.
There's a new episode of "Wobble Box" over on HuHa!, for which I put together the Dr. Jekyll skit animation (about 2'15" in). The turnaround and budget don't allow for much full animation though I had some fun with the transformation sequence:

As with "Assassin Babies", this is the perfect type of fun, daft project I relish working on, especially as it came on the heels of a particularly wretched and staggeringly unprofessional debacle of a commission which will never be spoken of on here. But hey, getting the odd duff gig is part and parcel of being a freelancer. At the end of the day it makes you appreciate the jobs that go well all the more.

Success Stories

Quick catchup post as I find that if I don't use the small slivers of time that present themselves to get stuff up on here I tend to just not bother - and none of you deserve that level of deprivation.
Firstly a massive congrats to Bill Plympton and Signe Baumane who we chatted to in the last podcast, both of whom were successful in their fundraising campaigns and knock wood will have their features out in the coming months. I'm certain they both would've made it without Skwigly's coverage as they're both hugely respected and well-known, but from the feedback we've gotten recently I get the impression we made a little bit of a difference which is still a nice feeling.

Tim Reckart, director of "Head Over Heels"

On the subject of Skwigly, back in December I was able to chat to a very talented NFTS graduate Tim Reckart, whose film "Head Over Heels" is a brilliant and deservedly lauded piece of stop-motion ingenuity. Since our conversation it's received an Annie award and Oscar nomination which is obviously huge. I'm not sure if we'll be able to incorporate the interview in a future podcast (though that would be ideal) as the Skype line was a little dodgy for some reason, but the written piece went up this week. I'd really recommend it as a read for his insight into the conception and process of the film. Also you can watch the whole film for a short period of time, so check that out while you can.

A Conversation With Tim Reckart

Lastly, I'm very happy to say that my short film "The Naughty List" will be getting another screening in France next month at Ciné-Court Animé in Roanne. It was part of their competition screenings during last year's edition and will be included this year in their 'Best Of' section which is mighty sweet of them. Not sure of the time/date specifics yet but as ever I'll post them when I get them.
Oh look, the sun just came out in reflection of my good mood. Pardon me while I go out and frolic!

Up North Down South

"Ah, crap. These guys again."

Just another quick remind-the-world-I'm-still-alive post with some news on the latest broadcast slots for "The Naughty List". This March Canal+ Xtra will be screening it on the 12th at 3:06am and then again at the notably more civilised time of 2:06pm on the 19th.It will also be shown as part of the Shire International Short Film Festival, one of a number of Cinewest festivals that have been giving it some much-appreciated exposure down-under (following on from its inclusion in the Auburn International Film Festival last year and Short Soup in January). The screening will be on March 28th and takes place in Sutherland, New South Wales. Which, for the geographically-impaired, is in Australia. Not Wales.
As previously mentioned, the upcoming Roanne Animation Short Film Festival will see the film participating in the International Competition 1 alongside such personal faves as 'Luminaris', 'Playing Ghost' and 'Morris Lessmore', a little film that just picked up an Oscar, so my expectations of winning anything myself are, as ever, not high. Just glad to be involved. The screening will be on Friday 23rd, 9pm at the Espace Renoir.
"Ground Running" will also be shown in the 'Best Comedies' section, which also includes Richard Phelan's 'Damned' and Joanna Quinn's 'Dreams & Desire - Family Ties' on the 25th at 6:30pm, same venue. The line-up on the whole looks great, other talents including Virgil Widrich, Luis Cook, Osman Cerforn, Louis Hudson, Philip Hunt, Jadwiga Kowalska, Mikey Please, Spike Jonze...to be honest, this could take a while, but the full programme is viewable online. Good stuff indeed.
G'night!

Running On

Another forthcoming screening for "Ground Running" has been confirmed, Serbia's Belgrade Documentary & Short Film Festival which takes place from March 30th to April 3rd, full programme to follow. The festival was kind enough to show my debut film "House Guest" for their 2010 edition so it's very nice to be included in their line-up again.As well as being broadcast tomorrow afternoon in Spain, "The Naughty List" is being shown as part of the TriMedia Festival (in which it participated last year) Fundraiser Series, beginning on March 17th at the Rialto Theatre in Loveland CO, USA.
The film will get another rare US outing later on that month, on Friday 30th, 7pm at the Clinton St. Theatre for Portland OR's Faux Film Festival, which looks to be a fun gathering of similarly auteur-stic filmage. Thank you, film festival people, the exposure is of course always much appreciated!
Righto, back into the rabbit hole I go.

Quickies

The screening time for "The Naughty List" at Children's Film Festival Bangladesh has been confirmed as this coming Thursday (26th) at 2pm at the British Council Auditorium in Dhaka. I'm very happy and humbled to see it's amongst some great pieces of work such as Victoria Mather's "Stanley Pickle", Sal Maldonado's "Night Island" and Richard Phelan's "Damned".Additionally I've learned that both "Naughty..." and "Ground Running" are to be screened at the upcoming Ciné-Court Animé in Roanne, France. This will be late March, so watch this space for deets.
Yes, I just used the word 'deets'. I'm not proud, nor am I ashamed.