Some general updates to keep you lovely bunch up to speed.
Firstly I'm really happy to see that mine and
Laura-Beth's
recent coverage of the stop-mo segments of
The Little Prince caught the attention of the film's director
Mark Osborne:
Even this many years in, it's still very validating to see people appreciate what it is we set out to do and I'm very proud to have been among the outlets for the team to discuss their process. If you didn't catch the episode you can
give it a download here!
Montrealites - don't forget that
Animaze kicks off today! Be sure to swing by the
Museum of Fine Arts (Maxwell Cummings Auditorium) for Friday's 3pm
Human Nature screening and catch
Klementhro alongside some smashing films, or check out the
full festival programme to see the other nifty stuff they have going on over the weekend.
From September on it's looking like a very busy few months for the film as far as international screenings go - between tours, festivals and special events my buddy Klementhro will be pestering audiences all over the globe through November. The furthest away looks to be Brazil's
Anima Mundi who today
announced their official selection and it looks like the adorable, paddle-dependent fool cut the mustard! This will be my third
Anima Mundi inclusion so much love to the programmers. The event is set to take place in Rio de Janeiro late October and São Paulo early November, will keep you all posted.
In the more-immediate future, following the
aforementioned Busho Festival in Hungary on September 3rd the film will get probably its quirkiest screening as part of the
Fantoche International Animation Film Festival's
Bagno Popolare 'spa film programme' on the 8th and 9th at 9pm. This will see a variety of water-themed films projected by a thermally heated outdoor pool - The Bäderquartier - where viewers/bathers can relax and unwind. Other great films include Julia Pott's
Belly, Tomek Ducki's
Baths and Thomas Stellmach/Maja Oschmann's exquisite
Virtuos Virtuell, one of the major case studies included in my new book
Independent Animation.
On that note, a few of you who pre-ordered it or ordered it when it first came out have been wondering when it will arrive - I'm still trying to determine that, but having made some enquiries the general consensus seems to be that the UK street date (good gracious, aren't I hip?) for the book is August 29th, for those who like to buy their books the traditional way. You can of course buy it online from all good retailers and the
CRC website itself. So the date retailers are listing may be an indicator of when copies are being dispatched but if I
learn any more concrete information I'll be sure to let you know.
Also just a reminder that I'll be speaking about the book and other related animationey outpourings at
Animation Super Grill at Cardiff's
KIN+ILK September 3rd. There's still time to
pick up tickets and I've gleaned that thanks to some recent sponsorship the early bird price has been frozen, so considering the variety of events on offer it's a steal! The following Monday (5th) I'll also be talking about the book at the monthly local meetup
Bring Your Own Animation Bristol. There's a lot of discussion points in the book so I'll be aiming to make each presentation unique for those of you who might be able to make both. The night will kick off at 7:30pm at
The Lazy Dog, it's a great excuse to show off new animation work for feedback and Jake Hobbs from
Wonky (who also helped out with the book) will be speaking as well. Check out their
event page for more info and hope to see some of you there!
On a completely separate subject I wanted to leave you all with an old live recording from about five years back where I growl my way through a stab at
Faith No More's deep track
'Why Do You Bother'. I've dug this out in honour of tomorrow's
re-release of the band's long-OOP debut album
We Care A Lot that the song appears on. Originally released 31 years ago before they were signed to a major label, this record often gets overlooked - I myself might not have gotten wind of it had its 10-year-delayed CD release not occurred pretty much exactly as I was getting into the band back in 1995. Even though it's always felt more like a collection of demos from a production standpoint, there are clearly moments of genius throughout, and this song has always been one of my all-time favourites of their entire back catalogue.
Even cooler is that this week they're doing a couple of celebratory shows with Chuck Mosley, the vocalist for their first two albums who's always been (unfairly) in eventual replacement Mike Patton's shadow - but then,
isn't everybody? So after you've heard my warbly attempt I'm sure they'll show you how it's really done. Check out the live stream tonight on their
Facebook page.
