Nom Nom Noms

The Oscar and BAFTA nominations for 2015 have now both been announced, which I've taken as a cue for a bit of reflection on some films of note.
Leading the charge are Dice and Robert of Tonko House, whose film The Dam Keeper is an astounding concept-art-come-to-life piece of work. If asked to put together a 'Top 10' list of the best films of the past year it'd easily be amongst them. Proof of which is viewable at Revue 24 Images, for which I (along with numerous other more accomplished critics and curators) was asked to put together a 'Top 10' list of the best films of the past year. See, I zigged when you thought I was gonna...well, zig probably.
If your clicking finger is broken then the other films I picked are:

Coda (Dir. Alan Holly)

The Missing Scarf (Dir. Eoin Duffy)

Poils (Dir. Delphine Hermans)

Lost Property (Dir. Åsa Lucander)

Timber (Dir. Nils Hedinger)

La Petite Casserole d'Anatole (Dir. Éric Montchaud)

Duet (Dir. Glen Keane)

The Planets (Dir. Andy Martin)

Wackatdoo (Dir. Benjamin Arcand)

The lists were compiled by Marco de Blois who, amongst other laudable animation-related activities, is the main programmer for Quebec's Sommets du Cinéma d’Animation. As this Cartoon Brew article makes clear, one thing I can't be accused of is going with the crowd. That being said, many of the other critics' favourites would easily make my top 20 (also some folks cheated a bit and picked films from the year before, but what am I, the list police?). In fact, for the sake of why-the-hell-not, here's my next ten favourites of last year:

Submarine Sandwich (Dir. PES - this one would've made the original list but was released just after)
Monkey Love Experiments (Dir. Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson)

Symphony No. 42, Réka Bucsi
Pilots on the Way Home (Dir. Priit Pärn, Olga Pärn)

Phantom Limb (Dir. Alex Grigg)

Me and My Moulton (Dir. Torill Kove)

Things Don't Fit (Dir. Tim Divall)
Montenegro (Dir. Luiz Stockler)

The Weatherman and The Shadowboxer (Dir. Randall Okita)

365 (Dir. Brothers McLeod)

Give those all some investigation, my lovelies. Anyway, our first Lightbox of 2015 is on the making of The Dam Keeper. Seriously, if you haven't come across this film yet at all, treat yourself to a peek here:

You can also hear more from Rob and Dice in episode 25 of the Skwigly Podcast.
Also in the running are Daisy Jacobs, Joris Oprins, Disney with Feast and, happily, Torill Kove of the NFB, who I interviewed during the production of the film.
Aside from the comparatively indie Song of the Sea, the feature film noms were all fairly predictable. Though I'm not so up-in-arms about The Lego Movie being ignored I would've loved to see Bill Plympton's Cheatin' and Signe Baumane's Rocks In My Pockets in with a shot. Que cera cera. Fortunately this arrived today so I can start my weekend off right:

Going back to the shorts, Alan Holly's Coda really stood out to me last year and I urge everyone to keep their eyes open for it:

That this film and Glen Keane's Duet (admittedly more successful as an interactive experience) didn't make the nominations is a massive shame - I've yet to see Plympton's Footprints but I'm sure I'd feel similarly - massive kudos to them at any rate for getting shortlisted.
Also worth mentioning that amongst the BAFTA noms was Will and Ainslie's Monkey Love Experiments, which has already won itself a Scottish BAFTA but one more wouldn't hurt.

Fantastic stuff from those two, though this one will probably remain my favourite for a good long while:

So...I guess the world didn't end...

After a particularly irresponsible holiday season (well, long weekend) it's taken this long for my feet and genital visibility to return, though it'd have probably been far longer if it weren't for an all-consuming commission that's rendered me a borderline hermit. I can't really give out any details but I'll say it's a pretty unique circumstance that could end all manner of different ways, so it's keeping me on my toes.

In what slivers of free time come my way I'm going through the usual motions of eating, sleeping, engaging in the bare minimum of human contact required to remain a functional adult and doing the ol' Skwigly thang. On that latter note, our latest podcast starts off the new year on an especially strong note, discussing the virtues of the various animated films in the running during the current awards season, with a guest appearance by Annie-award nominee Will Becher of Aardman.

Our main guest for the episode is one of my personal favourites Bill Plympton, my first Skwigly interviewee and someone who I'd hoped to get on the podcast since it began last March. This time around we chat about his latest film Cheatin', a dark love story/comedy of errors that looks to be his most ambitious film yet. Part two of our interview where we discuss the multitude of other projects he's embarked on in the year and a half since our first meeting will be included in our February podcast.
Our third guest Signe Baumane was something of a last-minute addition who I'm very happy to have gotten on board in time. Signe is a filmmaker I know from Avoid Eye Contact, a collective of NY-based independent animators including Bill Plympton, Nina Paley, Fran Krause and PES. As well as working with Bill she's made plenty of short films on her own and is wrapping up her first feature Rocks In My Pockets. In the past couple weeks I've become absolutely smitten (in the professional respect sense, of course) with her work and in particular her film's production blog, which is full of amazing stories detailing not just the film but the wealth of life experience that lays the groundwork for its story and message. Its logline is "A funny film about depression" which pricks my ears up some as that's a tricky one to pull off; More often than not 'funny' gets confused with 'maudlin', but when it's done right it's spectacular - Look at Adam Elliott or Todd Solondz.

Also as someone who recently put out what could arguably be considered "A funny book about cancer" I feel a strange, hard-to-articulate connection with the film. Certainly having now spoken with Signe for the podcast her and I seem to be cut from a pretty similar cloth. We ended up chatting for well over an hour and, regrettably, only 20 minutes of it could make it into the episode. But so enamoured am I of her insight and perspective I'm inclined to put up a longer version of the interview, if not on Skwigly then here on this blog. So be on the lookout for that sometime early February.
In the meantime you can download the latest podcast here or stream it below:

Skwigly Podcast 09 (23/01/2013) - Bill Plympton, Signe Baumane & Will Becher by Skwigly Animation Podcast

For more information on Bill Plympton's film Cheatin' check out
• CHEATIN' on Kickstarter
• Scribble Junkies
And for Signe Baumane's Rocks In My Pockets go to:
•ROCKS IN MY POCKETS on Kickstarter
•Production Blog

And here's Bill sketching out the female lead Ella from Cheatin' for me after our first interview, back in May 2011. I'm sure I've posted this before, but here's a fancy HD version:

Big Plympin'

While I blather constantly on this blog regarding my silly little films and my silly little life, there's a silly little voice in the back of my silly little brain that constantly screams: "Hey DUMBASS, who GIVES A SHIT?!"
To be honest, I write because I like writing, and for the most part all I have to comment on is the incremental, ponderously slow progression of my career. Keeping this up has been hugely beneficial for reference and updating contacts and SHUT UP BEN SHUT UP FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY IS YOUR OPINION OF HUMANITY SO LOW THAT YOU THINK ANYONE WOULD GAIN ANYTHING FROM READING YOUR DRECK?
See, there...that's what...yeah.I'd really like to channel the writing impulse in the direction of stuff other people might care more about, while generally staying within the world of animation. To that end I've been doing some freelance writing for the online animation magazine Skwigly, beginning with three articles on Bill Plympton, one of my more significant influences. Two of them are up now, the first a review of "Independently Animated" which, as I've said before, is a great goddamn book so check it out.The second is an actual interview I was able to get with him while we were both at ITFS last week. It was a pretty superb way to start the trip (well, for me) and he was very generous with his time, sharing a lot of insights into the industry, independent scene and the animation process.
Read "A Conversation with Bill Plympton" by Ben Mitchell at skwigly.com
Given that I was disheveled, all over the map (on the tape some of my questions come out like Yoda dialogue) and hadn't slept for thirty-six hours he was incredibly accommodating, even signing a bunch of merch and sketching me a character from his newest in-progress feature "Cheatin'" (see vid below).

The third article will be more focused on "Guard Dog Global Jam" and I'm presently working on getting some of the other collaborators to contribute to it. Before then I'd like to have some more book reviews, articles and interviews up on the site so if any of those get published I'll link to them here. In the meantime, please do me a massive favour and spread the word about Skwigly through their Twitter, Facebook et al. The more I'm writing about other people, the less I'm talking about my boring ass, so everybody wins.