For the Francophones

Sunscapades is still nosing its way into the odd festival here and there, with its next screening taking place in Montreal, probably my favourite city. It will be part of Festival Courts d'un Soir which runs from April 3rd-6th, in the programme Les Très Courts on the 5th, 5pm at Cinéma Beaubien.

Later in the month, as an extension of its involvement in the Brussels Independent Short Film Festival: Courts Mais Trash back in January the film will also be screened during the Brussels International Fantasy, Fantastic, Thriller and Science Fiction Film Festival (BIFFF). Festivalgoers can catch it in the special programme Carte Blanche on April 20th at 10pm (not sure of the venue so I'd suggest checking the festival website closer to the time).

Back on iPlayer for another month or so: https://t.co/Ln7YaWfn3N https://t.co/Pvvykgk9jU

— Ben Mitchell (@benlmitchell) March 14, 2019

Not a whole heap else to report for now although it's worth flagging that Secrets of British Animation, the documentary I peripherally contributed to which originally aired in December, was repeated the other day and so will be on the BBC iPlayer for another few weeks if you missed it the first time around.

Unseasonable Warmth

I'll start as I intend to go on with this entry; radiating sunbeams of positivity that will warm your heart and carry you through the day. In that spirit I'd like to let you all know that Taylor and Francis/CRC Press have resumed their site-wide sale - that sees my book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films available at 20% off - through to the end of year. Plus you save even more if you grab it up with another CRC book - or why not just buy multiple copies of mine and stuff them in the stockings of your nearests and dearests this holiday season? You'll have to really ram them in there though, they're quite bulky.

It's a busy end of the year for Sunscapades, and I'm excited to be headed down to the London International Animation Festival this Saturday for its inclusion in the Late Night Bizarre programme (9pm at the Horse Hospital - be sure to come or all those horse ghosts will never find peace).
On December 13th the film returns to Brazil for the CRASH (formerly TRASH) International Fantastic Film Festival. This will be part of the 3pm International Shorts 1 screening at the Cine Cultura in Goiânia.
Kicking off shortly after that will be Romania's Ploiesti International Film Festival, an event that had the damn fine taste to screen Klementhro back in 2016. Reassuringly Sunscapades has also passed muster and will be playing in the festival's Dark Comedy section.
It will also be presented in Georgia at the Tbilisi International Film Festival 6pm tonight at the Cinema House as part of a special Best Of British Animation screening curated by the Anilab/Encounters Festival team and introduced by my pal Laura Tof.

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Tonight at 9pm on BBC FOUR UK viewers can tune into a brand new documentary “Secrets of British Animation” and keep an eye open for Steve and Ben nestled in amongst some real legends of British Animation! #animation #britishanimation

A post shared by Skwigly Animation (@skwiglyanimation) on Dec 2, 2018 at 11:06am PST

Speaking of UK Animation, as previously mentioned the BBC4 documentary Secrets of British Animation screened last night to much enthusiasm and will be available on the BBC iPlayer for the next month or so if you didn't catch it. Personal highlights include a wonderful segment on Joanna Quinn and a behind-the-scenes look at my 2017 summer fling Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires. At only an hour it could never have been a fully comprehensive overview of all of British animation's best and brightest, but the laundry list of conspicuous absences make a pretty good case for a follow-up doc or maybe something more like a series down the line. Fingers crossed someone over at the BBC feels the same way. At any rate be sure to get it watched while you can and massive kudos to director Seb Barfield, producer Sophie Taylor and the rest of the Academy 7 team for a fantastic job.

You had me at "I'd like to peel your skin off"

Today's reason to be rock-back-and-forth-giggling-and-crying happy comes in the form of Faith No More's latest album Sol Invictus being available to stream a week ahead of its physical release. I've been fighting the urge to listen to badly-compressed leaked versions of the album and as such it feels like I'm literally the only FNM fan in the world who hadn't heard it until today. But by Christ it was worth the wait. Every molecule of doubt that it wouldn't be up to their previous standard was jettisoned the moment I heard the first chorus of the opening title track. It'll need a few hundred listens for me to get a proper sense of it as right now listening to it is more of an emotional experience (I have emotions! Who knew?) than anything else, but in the meantime why not join me and treat yourselves?
It feels a bit limp and embarrassing to bring up my own music on the heels of such excellence, but in anticipation of the digital release of my latest Struwwelpeter album The Birdcage I've put up another new song, one that's fairly representative of the strangely upbeat, folksy/poppy feel of the LP as a whole. I imagine if I played this to myself as a teenager he'd screw his fat face up in confusion.

Also want to say thanks again to James of CineMe for having me on his show Short Cuts, talking animation, UWE, Bristol, Skwigly and my now-very-old short The Naughty List. The episode aired at the exact time last week's exit polls were causing the nation to collectively scream into a pillow so if you missed the broadcast you can watch it online here.

Addendum

Quickie update to amend the info in the last post, the episode of Short Cuts I'll be appearing on will now air this Thursday at 10pm, not tomorrow. All the channel info remains the same to the best of my knowledge. A few frames of The Naughty List also seems to have made it into the opening credits. Take a gander:

Upcomings & Outgoings

I've made the somewhat douchey decision to self-set the release date of The Birdcage, my first LP in a good while, as the week of May 18th. I say 'douchey' because this is also the week both Faith No More's new album Sol Invictus and Clive Barker's Hellraiser swansong The Scarlet Gospels - two projects I've been hotly anticipating to say the least - both come out. There's no real connection, it just generally helps to have a deadline to work to when I'm in the last stretch of anything, plus I reckon my album's pretty much cooked at this point. I have to say I like how it's turned out - it's the quiet, folksy death rattle of a would-be-rocker-turned-production-music-scribe giving in to a secret, guilty urge to be melodic and quaint rather than edgy or avant garde. I expect I'll release it digitally on Bandcamp to begin with and then see what new options there now are for a physical release in the 4.5 years since my last LP.

This will pave the way for another upcoming release, the final installment of my lingering graphic novel series Throat. I'm still finalising the bonus content but the proposed release date is August 3rd. As with Book 1 and Book 2 it should be available to buy in US retailers and on Amazon for the UK and elsewhere.

On the Skwigly pile this week, the Lightbox series I've been producing has resumed with a video interview from mine and Laura-Beth's encounter with the talented and dapper Luc Chamberland, whose OIAF-winning NFB documentary Seth's Dominion (an exploration of the life and work of Canadian comic artist Seth) is playing at Toronto's Hot Docs at the moment.

Also on the site I chat once again to auld acquaintances Seb and Joe from Rumpus, whose game The Adventures of Bertram Fiddle is now available on PC via Steam as well as it's original App Store release for iOS. This interview is the first in a series of Skwigly profiles on South West-based studios/artists in association with the South West Animation Network, an organisation put together by Becalelis Brodskis and Susannah Shaw. Keep an eye out for more Skwigly/SWANraderie and if you're a South Westerner yourself check them out at swanimationnetwork.co.uk

Bringing it back to my own ephemeral output, as is my egomaniacal wont, I'll be appearing on the TV show Short Cuts hosted by James Ewen of CineMe, who's been a much-appreciated supporter of my work in the past. I'm not sure what'll get included in the final edit but I expect the focus will be on my old seasonal short The Naughty List. It'll be broadcast on Made In Bristol (Freeview 8/Sky 117/Virgin Media 159) May 5th at 8:30pm, so tune in if your receivers are suitably receptive.

Naughty Listings

Quickie update regarding some upcoming screenings for my long-in-the-tooth Christmas short “The Naughty List”.

For those Spaniards amongst you who’ve yet to catch one of its TV airings on Canal+ Xtra, it’ll be on this Tuesday (27th) at 2:40pm. I suspect this will be one of its last TV showings – if not, the last – on that particular network, so do give it a pre-siesta watch if you’re so inclined. All told the channel’s been very good to me and my li’l film over the past year, screening it pretty regularly despite it being so season-specific, so gracias to the Canal+ folks for the exposure (and the extra chunk of change didn’t hurt none either).

Mere days before the film sees its third Christmas since completion - mother of God, time goes by fast – it will be screened on December 22nd at the West Side Cinema in support of “Rare Exports”, a Finnish Christmas film that passed me by but I’m tempted to check out as it seems to be quite highly regarded. Unfortunately I can’t make it to that one as it’s in Orkney which is pretty much as far away from me as possible without leaving the UK altogether.

Earlier in the month and closer to home, the film will be screened on December 6th at Bath Road Studios here in Bristol for CineMe Showcase 2012, a networking evening that will also include some of their previously screened films (“Naughty List” and a few others of mine were included at one of their events back in April). I’m aiming to be there to scope out the premises and hopefully not bomb. So if any of you readers decide that’s the night you want to start stalking me, I’m pretty much handing you my exact whereabouts on a platter. Spectacularly nearsighted of me, I’m sure I’ll come to realise.

Boo etc.

Happy day-of-heightened-spooky-confection-sales, everybody!
We’ve been hard at work over at Skwigly central (a place that doesn’t actually exist outside of this sentence) to spread some cartooney godlessness about the interwebs. We now have episode six of the Skwigly Podcast up and, fittingly, it’s rather Halloween-centric. Courtesy of Steve there are some fantastic interview gets, such as “ParaNorman” directors Sam Fell and Chris Butler as well as Peter Saunders, one half (guess which one) of MacKinnon & Saunders, the amazing puppet-making team behind “Corpse Bride” and, more recently, “Frankenweenie”. Steve also managed to chat with “Hotel Transylvania” director Genndy Tartakovsky, an animation TV legend whose legacy includes “Dexter’s Lab”, “Powerpuff Girls” and “Samurai Jack”, three shows that, though I didn’t discover them until I was in my later teens, were the shiznit. I think all told this is one of the best episodes we’ve done and I’m pretty excited with the direction things are going. Listen below and don’t forget the subscribe on iTunes!
Skwigly Podcast 06 (Halloween 2012) - Genndy Tartakovsky, Peter Saunders, Chris Butler & Sam Fell by Skwigly Animation Podcast

If you’re still in the Halloween mood but are also itching for some Christmas spirit, you might want to head on over to the Arnos Vale Cemetary in Bristol - 8pm November 2nd - where “The Naughty List” will be showing. It's part of a program put together by CineFeatures, a new initiative for screening indie films that will feature it as a cartoon before the main film “Electric Man”. Just like in the old days!

For the benefit of those of you who paint Spain a light shade of green on this blog’s stat map, “Naughty List” is back on TV again in the graveyard (keeping with the theme I suppose) slot of 3am this coming Monday (12th) on Canal+ Xtra. Better than a kick in the baubles.

Old Hat

I figured the expiry date on my first two films has been up for awhile and it’s a bit daft that I don’t have official full versions of them online. Especially as my third has been up for nearly a year. Granted, that was the only one that had any real demand I suppose, but I don’t want it to get lonely, resent me and not take care of me in my old age. That’s just too meta and weird.

Sooo anyway, you can now watch my first film “House Guest” (2008) in full HD (although the first-season-of-“Beavis-and-Butt-Head”-quality-linework is treated far kinder by these little SD blog windows):

House Guest (HD) from Ben Mitchell on Vimeo.
 

Strange to think that this blog started as part of the UWE MA the film was made for. Four years on I’m still inexplicably not heralded as the Winsor McCay of the 21^st century. Wuddup wi’dat, yo’s?

My second film was “Ground Running” (2009), most of the animation for which was done very shortly after “House Guest”, then it pottered around a couple fests in pencil-test format for a year or so before I added some bits and coloured it in the following year. I never really pushed this film because by the time it was finally done it didn’t really line-up with my artistic direction (if that’s what you can call it). Both these films are pretty rough for me to watch but there’s the odd moment here and there I’m quite proud of.

"Ground Running" from Ben Mitchell on Vimeo.  

And what the hell, just as a reminder here’s film #3, “The Naughty List” (2010):

The Naughty List (HD) from Ben Mitchell on Vimeo.  

Quick TV plug - if for some reason Vimeo is acting up in Spain and you simply can’t last a week without seeing it, the next broadcast by those lovely people at Canal+ Xtra HD will be this coming Sunday 7^th at 6am. So either get up extra early or stay up extra late.

Finally, while 2011 was pretty much work/“Throat”-centric, I did manage to whip up this mini-short out of my love for O&A. This one’s also been up for a while but at this point I may as well just make this entry a retrospective.

'Opie & Anthony' Animation - 'Chicken Chokes You' from Ben Mitchell on Vimeo.
 

All being well, 2012 will indeed be the year I finally finish production on “Bullies”. Then the whole torturous quest for validation may begin once more.
Ah, it's all good. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it so much.

JOY.

First, let’s get the self-appreciation horseshit out of the way: “The Naughty List” will be on TV again next week (12:15pm Wednesday, August 8^th) on Canal+ Xtra. I suspect the high degree of Catholicism in Spain may account for their showing of my Christmassy whimsy all the year round. I’m all for it.

Something for the whale'n'feline comradery enthusiasts out there...

I recently did a bit of moonlighting (read: coattail riding) for my lovely friend Jane, aka Upstart Thunder, who's been hard at work on an animated collaboration with comics writer/illustrator Jamie Smart. I didn't do anything visual for this one but I whipped up a musical soundalike to replace the temp track the animation was timed to. It was really nice to get a chance to do some music for animation as it's been a couple years since I last got the chance to. Anyhoo, it's called "Friendship" (featuring Jamie's character Looshkin) and can be watched online here:

"The Naughty List" meanwhile continues to live on via the tellybox, despite being fairly out of season thematically. Two upcoming Canal+ Xtra screenings will be at 4:30pm on July 5th, followed by a 1:25am broadcast on the 17th for the night owls amongst you. So brew some of that fine Spanish coffee and check it out, amigos!

Mumbleface

I recorded a video blog just before the MCM and then completely forgot about it. Which is pretty much exactly in line with the number of cylinders I've been firing on lately. Anyway, I remembered it yesterday and gave it an edit and a spruce up. Basically it's just about "Throat" and all it's various editions, I figured actually showing them would possibly convey things a little better than I've done on here so far. There's also some screening news as mentioned on here already and some podcast plugging for good measure. So, without further ado, here's my first - and possibly only - vlog!
As mentioned in the video, firstly "The Naughty List" will indeed be screened this (distinctly-non-Christmassy) month, on the 11th at 7:21pm in Spain on Canal+ Xtra. Full listings on the Canal+ page as always.
Secondly I have started a "Throat" Facebook page which will eventually feature news and exclusive material as the promotion of the book continues. Not a lot up there now but g'wan and give it a 'like' whydoncha?

Hobnobbing

Three of my films - "Ground Running", "The Naughty List" and "Norton & Friends" (my Opie & Anthony mini-short) are getting a rare local screening this coming Tuesday (20th, not the 27th as suggested by the flier below) at CineMe Shorts here in Bristol. It'll also be the first and possibly only time my O&A animation will be seen on a screen bigger than a computer monitor so I'm looking forward to that.It'll take place at the Tobacco Factory - a fine venue where I frequently go to, amongst other things, draw naked people - at 8pm and tickets are a fiver (more info here). So if you're a local come on down and berate me.As well as being shown Monday afternoon at 2:05pm, two more confirmed April broadcast slots for "La Lista Traviesa" (the Spanish incarnation of "The Naughty List") will be on Thursday 12th at 2:05am and Thursday 26th and 1:35am over on Canal+ Xtra. So if you overdid the ol' afternoon siesta and can't sleep, give it a watch.
On a completely separate musical note, I've started doing my first live shows of 2012. Nothing worth advertising, just little slots here and there to stay practiced and work out some new material. I've also started recording again and have put online my first studio recording since "The Book of Women". It's kinda different, sort of melancholy country-western-ish, which is something I'd never imagined coming out of me. Give it a listen and, if you like, a free-as-gratis download over at SoundCloud.
High Midnight by Struwwelpeter

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.

Fuera de estación

Very quick update to confirm a couple of February televsion broadcasts for "La Lista Traviesa". It will be shown this coming Sunday (5th) at 9pm and then again on the 18th at 4:30pm. Both broadcasts will be on Canal+ Xtra. Which is in Spain. Yep indeedy. Book your flights now.

Hermit Ben

Just before the holidays began, I made the conceivably misguided move of getting a whole mess of plates a-spinnin’ which will hopefully lead to some exciting stuff I can reveal come March. Until then I expect things on the blog front will get pretty quiet. Try not to drown in your tears.
The game plan is to shut myself away and barrel through as many ongoing commissions as I can so as to get started on what’s looking to be a ‘biggie’ with relatively few distractions. So if it seems like I’m not posting much on here, that’ll be why. I don’t anticipate many (if any) new festival screenings or film updates in that time, but if anything comes in I’ll put it up here while attempting to reign in my usual shitheaded editorialising.Before making myself disappear completely I may as well plug the first TV broadcast of 2012 for “The Naughty List”, which will be shown this Sunday 8th at 8:52pm on Canal+ Comedia in Spain. If you miss it, you can keep checking back on their channel page for upcoming broadcasts (there is, of course, the highly-defined online option available to y’all as well).Another piece of happy, non-animation news is that my most recent album “The Book of Women” is now available to buy through Amazon, either as a traditional CD (for us nostalgic old-timers) or as a digital download for the youthful hipsters out there. Check it out here, there are clips and everything! FANCY!

Struwwelpeter - "The Book of Women" on Amazon

Right, back to the cave and my faithful bogman companion. Little post-John K R&S reference there for ya.
Yup.

Seasonal Spaniards

Some very nice Christmassy news regarding "The Naughty List" - despite its somewhat sardonic take on the holiday season, I'm really happy to say that it'll be getting a bunch of TV broadcasts in Spain over the Canal+ network during December. Here are the dates/times/channels:

•Friday 9th December - 12:36pm - Canal+ Xtra
•Monday 12th December - 6:10am - Canal+2
•Friday 16th December - 4:50pm - Canal+2
•Sunday 18th December - 1:41pm - Canal+ Xtra
•Friday 23rd December - 4:35pm - Canal+1
•Friday 23rd December - 5:05pm - Canal+1 ...30
•Saturday 24th December - 5:36pm - Canal+ Xtra
•Thursday 29th December - 12:06pm - Canal+ Xtra

More info including a rather flattering description and the declaration "No recomendada para menores de siete años" (so that's the cutoff point - good to know) can be found on its Canal+ page.

"I guess they let any old crap on TV these days..."