"Introduce Yourself (Right On)"

Some very cool non-animation news this time around. Tune in to BBC Radio Bristol this evening to hear the radio debut of my track 'Set You Free' from the new Struwwelpeter album 'The Book Of Women'! It will be playing as part of BBC Introducing which is broadcast 1am-3am, the peak time for all the happening youths to be at home listening to their radios. But if you can't catch it live then the show will be on-demand from saturday onward for about a week via BBC iPlayer.Happy weekend!

That's right, there's stuff that I actually like. Who'da thought?

It's Encounters week in Bristol, and as ever the festival has pulled together a bunch of disasters and triumphs in pretty much equal measure. The locality of this particular festival inevitably guarantees the inclusion of people I know, so there's usually a bit of a celebratory vibe in the air. Going back and forth between debilitating throat pain that sees me prone to screaming in old ladies' faces like that thing in 'Come To Daddy' and happy clappy co-analgesics that see me prone to drooling and giggling at cutlery, I've been mainly housebound and a little more selective in terms of which screenings I attend than in prior years. So far however there have been a few standout moments:

El empleo from Hayyam on Vimeo.

A few others of note produced by the Animation Workshop include 'Project: Alpha', 'Trainbombing' and Nicole Gallagher's 'Sheep'. Who doesn't like sheep? The main draw so far was a showing of the new Adam Elliot film 'Mary & Max', a feature-length endeavour with Philip Seymour Hoffman. I've previously banged on about the excellence of Elliot's 'Brother'/'Cousin'/'Uncle' trilogy, as well as the fabulous 'Harvie Krumpet'. What ties each piece together are memories, accounts and stories that are fundamentally about living with mental illness.My absolute favourite, 'Cousin', describes perfectly the frustrations, limitations and awkwardness of cerebral palsy without the merest hint of condescension, and it's apt that his first feature would deal with Asperger's, the psychological disorder du jour*.
Hoffman distinguishes himself from most screen actors who, when voicing a cartoon do little more than provide a name with pulling-power to a movie poster. As Max he's authentic, funny and, at times, disquieting, portraying a social recluse who, when eventually diagnosed as an 'aspie' sees no reason to change. By chance he is randomly contacted by a young Australian girl in search of a pen friend, a relationship that appeals to him by virtue of distance. Over time they become one another's repository and their correspondence is soon associated with all the major events of their lives.I have to confess that I personally tainted this film (almost) with unfairly high expectations and consequently found my mind nitpicking at its small handful of flaws. After a few days though, these issues are pretty inconsequential. Possibly the story could have had better pacing, or the odd voice actor swapped out, or they might have taken it easy with the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Any other issues were very quickly dwarfed by the strength of the dialogue, subject matter and affectionately crude visuals.
I don't see this film getting major distribution which, along with discovering the existence of a strange, two-headed creature named Jedward, is one of today's contributions to my list of Reasons To Welcome Death.If you can track it down it's very much worth the extra effort.

*I'm pretty certain a lot of successful animators I've met in the last couple years have some form of high-functioning autism - I suppose it goes hand in hand with all the time you need to spend alone in front of a lightbox, computer or set. Watching these creatures in social scenarios, one witnesses a bevy of awkward shuffling, one-word answers, avoidance of eye-contact and general ineptness that hangs in a room like a bad smell. Of course I behave that way a lot of the time too, but that's just 'cause I'm your run-of-the-mill dickhead.

That's what the world needs! Another overweight male writing a blog!

Man alive, what would you like to hear first? Some introspective poetry? Some not-quite-anecdotes about 'RL' as though it were some kind of background inconvenience? Maybe some rants about celebrities who rub me the wrong way? Theories about the points at which various television programs 'jumped the shark'?

All these hot topics and many more of similar ilk are, from what I have witnessed, covered extensively in, well, about 45 billion other weblogs. I have to concede that I don't have anything to add in that arena. The main purpose of this one is to keep a production journal for a film I'm working on that has just been given the go-ahead as part of a postgrad animation MA.

Here are some little introductory things about me which I'll make chiefly out of politeness - I don't plan on making this a blog about all the nuances of my life, chiefly as 90% of the entries would be along the lines of 'drank cup-a-soup, drank coffee, reluctantly ate some fruit, wept out of hunger'. Anyway:

My name is Ben Mitchell, I'm an indie musician (hey, it's the internet, we all are) and filmmaker currently trying to get me an MA in animation (studying at UWE in Bristol) and actually start a career a little more rewarding than some previous jobs. Not to say that being a doorman at a shitty club or a switchboard operator for a teen-angst hotline weren't without their rewards - for example, they both ended. As well as documenting the progress of my film 'House Guest', I hope to use this blog to keep a record of my research work through case studies. That sounds bloody interminable written down but they'll mainly be about cartoons, and who doesn't like cartoons? Apart from, y'know, grownups? As it's the internet and I can say whatever the gosh-darn-heck I please, I may even do an additional blog about some indie records I have been helping a lot of incredibly talented musicians produce - and of course my own cackhanded stabs at music-making, there'll be no avoiding that.

So why should you care? Well, to be honest, I'm a little shocked you read this far. Because you all lead highly-charged lives of sexual and sporting prowess (or at the very least like watching porn and football on TV) I'm sure you have better things to do with your time. But when you're taking a break from the nonstop shagging, fresh-air and exercise, feel free to get in touch with feedback about these projects, especially the film. It's early days and the concept is far from flawless so any thoughts are welcome. As this is the internet and you have the option of anonymity, I'm sure all responses will be cogent, articulate and, more than anything, constructive. That's usually the way it goes, right?

Okay that's enough for now. The cup-a-soup is calling...