The Great Beyond

If you're in London this weekend, why not go ahead and check out the Swedenborg Short Film Festival? On Saturday 30th there'll be a matinee (1pm-4pm) screening of short films including "The Naughty List" and "House Guest", a film that - much like its titular mallard - can't stop coming back from the dead. The theme of the festival is heaven and hell, which weren't conscious motifs when making the films but in an analogous sense "House Guest" is definitely hell, and isn't Santa and xmas the kid version of God and heaven?
Work with me here, people...The festival is being held by/at the Swedenborg Society, a cultural archive mainly focusing on the works of an 18th century scientist/mystic, one of those career combinations that I guess kinda got phased out. It's all quite classy and intimidating, although one of their more recent screenings of theological cinema was "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey", arguably the best film ever made. I mean, the Fraggle Rock-looking aliens at the end were rubbish but generally it's a heady mix of everything wonderful life has to offer - namely George Carlin, robots, Bergman references and Primus/Faith No More cameos. So that takes the edge off a bit. More info and the full schedule is available on their site.I also got wind from a former employer that a CBBC Newsround special I was involved with last year has been unexpectedly nominated for a BAFTA, which is good news indeed. In all candour my involvement in the project itself didn't go much beyond a week of asset management and motion graphics, my main contribution was to the project pitch 'Mood Reel', which is what determines which production house is given the go-ahead for the project. At any rate it's nice to be connected to it and I'll be riding the coattails of its success like friggin' waterskis. Clips from the special are featured online.

Das Kurzfilmfest, niemals mehr gesehen...

After a successful trip to Cologne I've consumed enough twelve-inch coiled wurst to ne'er again feel insecure as a male, along with all manner of cakes, unending breakfasts, meals between snacks between meals and perhaps even the odd apéritif hither and thither. "The Naughty List" seemed to go down well at the festival, people laughed in all the right places despite it being in English. Now I've seen what BetaSP looks like on the big screen though, I think I'll be getting an HD transfer of the film done quite soonish. It may be a case of a filmmaker being overly-precious about his own crap, but hey, it's my crap and if I want it to be rich, colourful crap rather than washed out, faded crap then that should be my prerogative, nein?

From memory this is a loose rendition of the quality dip from the original video to the screened one. Serves me right for being cheap.

I also think I may have eaten my balls slightly when asked to talk about the film afterwards, though I only remember the roar of blood inside my head over my babbling. At some point I think I got a laugh, and bear in mind this was a crowd of Germans. GERMANS, fer cryin' out loud...*
At any rate it was a great evening and I'm hugely grateful for the opportunity and to my host/tour-guide/all-around Wundergal Veronika for putting me up. I've thrown cards and flyers and promo crap everywhere they'll stick to so knock wood there'll be more Germanic exposure to come for my Santa-in-undies film.Meanwhile it's getting two more outings, firstly on October 30th for the 3rd Thermaikos Film Festival. This is great news personally as the 1st edition was also the first festival a film of mine ever got into, so it's nice to 'return' so to speak.After that it'll be at Louisiana's Red Stick International Animation Festival in Baton Rouge. This has been on my wishlist for a while and I don't tend to get that many US screenings so I'm a happy camper indeed. The festival will be between November 10th-13th, specifics later.
On another note, congratulations to Alexio Anastasio for successfully raising enough funds to finish and promote "Adventures In Plymptoons", a documentary on one of my bigger influences Bill Plympton that's frankly long overdue. I got wind of the doc last month while working on another, not entirely unrelated project which I'll save for another entry. Here's a trailer to go out on:

*It's a JOKE, don't even start...

Army of One. If that.

I'm something of a lone wolf. Not in an appealing, alpha dog sense - more the limping, out of shape runt who can't keep up with the rest of the pack, whose 'lone' status is out of his hands. As such I'm fending for myself in a lot of respects, questioning of late the satisfaction of freelancing. A part of me is starting to itch for a regular studio gig lasting beyond a few weeks or months at a time. Of course, who's to say as soon as that happens I won't immediately start hankering for the comparative freedom of the way things are now. The grass is always greener on the other side. You like that? I made that up. True story. You can use it if you like.
What?In the meantime I'm prepping for my visit to Cologne where "The Naughty List" will be making its festival appearance at the Cologne Comedy Festival as well as its TV debut on WDR, a network I fondly associate with several pro-shot Faith No More concerts. I'm sure they have other valuable programming too. The film closes the Köln Comedy Kurzfilmfestival broadcast this Friday (15th), beginning at 10:40pm and repeated at 1:45am on Einsfestival.The trip is in the midst of my continuing effort to redefine my professional representation and I'm getting a bunch of materials ready to pimp my sweet self, like new business cards, promo DVDs, flyers etc. As I'm still debating several options for potential sales agents - and having no studio representation to speak of - promotion and marketing is on me. It's kind of what I'm comfortable with, but self-representation is kind of like onanism with a lot more self-hatred, depression and money spent on printer ink. When I describe myself as 'award-winning animator' or list accolades for any given project I cringe and bite my fist, but it's a necessary evil. After five years it would be fatuous to say that there isn't a direct correlation between the amount I big myself up and the frequency of work that comes in or festivals that pick up my films.To supplement the "Naughty..." bumph I've put up some new web teasers for "House Guest" and "Ground Running". In the case of the former it's to help promote the DVD, delayed from last year's planned release after the film got an unexpected second wind on the festival circuit. Have a gander:

In case you didn't see it when I put it up previously, I may as well throw in a snippet of "The Naughty List" for your viewing pleasūr:

On a closing, non-me note, my pal and former "House Guest" helper elf Joanna Hepworth has her latest film "Dinnersaurs" included in this year's Animated Encounters online selection. Give it a vote because it's cute and you'll glean some dating tips:

Debuting all over the place

If Tesco can get away with pulling the xmas crap this early on, then screw it, so can I! The holiday season starts this month with a trio of international screenings for "The Naughty List"!
As I already blathered about, it'll be part of the Cologne Comedy Festival but now I know that the specific screening is Friday 15th at 8pm, as part of Screens of Comedy. I will be there! I'm usually not as my films tend to get accepted by festivals far, far away, but this one's a special circumstance. It will also at some point be broadcast on WDR, which will be a nice first for me.Before then, though at a time I've yet to determine, I can now confirm that the film is indeed included as part of the animation strand for the IASI International Film Festival. Hurrah!But before any of that I'm pretty stoked to say that it will also be shown at this year's European Animated Film Festival Balkanima, which screened "House Guest" last year! Screening this Wednesday (the 6th) as part of the European Panorama at noon. The following day it will also be screening Sophie Klevenow's superb short "Noesis" which I did some sound work on, so there's two reasons to get your ass over to Belgrade. More info at their official site and Facebook group.

Wait - wuh'happened?

Received this in the post today along with a program for the Festival of Nations in Austria. On the surface it seems pretty cut and dry, apparently 'House Guest' was in a festival on June 19th that I didn't know about until now. It's happened from time to time, every couple months I self-google and find the odd screening I didn't know about.
Here's the bit that doesn't make sense - the film screenings ended on the 18th. And there's no mention of me or the film in the program or on their website. And there's no record of me ever sending anything to them in my emails or the ponderous Excel spreadsheet that has all my festival submission info.
I suppose I could get to the bottom of it but I'd rather not take the chance it didn't get in after all and not be able to add the festival to the list of ones it got into. Denial, my friends. It's a beautiful state of mind.On a somewhat similar note, this website is stating that 'The Naughty List' (the Santa-in-his-underwear film) will be part of the Iaşi International Film Festival this October, which would make its international debut Romanian and not German as originally thought. Again though, there's no mention of my film or any of the 2010 program on the Iaşi site yet. So I'll get back to you on that one as to whether it's actually happening or not.One thing I do know for sure is that I've finished the first of what will hopefully be several showreels tailored to different skill sets. Up until recently I'd only had enough experience to cobble together showreels that encompassed all my visual work - live action, animation, post-production, vfx blah de blah de blah. Turns out (as pretty much everyone I know in the industry had already told me) companies don't feel quite as at ease with freelancers who purport to be able to do a whole bunch of different things as they are with specialists. Ideally if I have different showreels and CVs for specific areas of animation/post-production/design and only refer to whichever one is appropriate when pitching for a job it'll cut through the treacle.
To that end, this is the first one that's just animation. The grand plan is to, further down the line, have separate showreels for different areas of animation such as digital, traditional, motion graphics etc but this is a start for now. You can watch it on Youtube (in HD if you can handle my sweet, sweet definition) and also Vimeo. Because that's a video website too. Yep.

Adieu, rotting duck thing.

I woke up this morning to the dramatic thump of something large and cumbersome being pushed through my letterbox. Turned out to be the bulky (and very pretty) program for Anima Mundi along with the return of the last 'House Guest' screening copy. Thus ends my zombie duck's reign of terrifyingly adorable shenanigans on the international festival circuit. As I have so vainly documented, it's had an astoundingly good run given that it was both my first film and a student film made for literally nothing. A little over two years since its completion I cannot really explain what a humbling experience it's been seeing it do the rounds alongside other films by friends, contemporaries and even some of my heroes in the industry. I know that on here I write like a self-aggrandising ass most of the time, and maybe some people who don't know me in real life might not pick up on the irony, but the truth of the matter is that we're living in pretty rough times where to keep afloat in the industry you have to drink the Kool-Aid for the most part. Sometimes it can be a lot of fun but generally speaking when you work for a company or someone else's project there are plenty of moments of second guessing and self-doubt. As 'House Guest' was always mine its completion and positive reception have kept me inspired to keep hammering out my own projects, hopefully with an equal balance of confidence and self-awareness. So thanks once again to everyone who selflessly helped with the film, all the festivals (big and small) that gave it a chance and everyone who contacted me personally to say nice things about it.

They also threw in a 'participation' certificate. Which is both a new one on me and pretty nice of them.

So moving on, first I want to mention the Babelgum Animation Film Festival which currently has a whole bunch of shorts online you can watch and vote on. Nothing of mine in there but some friends' films such as 'Wherever You Go There You Are' by Sara Barbas, 'Ami' by Dominique Bongers and 'Noesis' by Sophie Klevenow are all worth a look. I haven't had time to watch the others but some that I'm familiar with and enjoy include '8-Bit Waterslide in Real Life', 'Marcel the Shell With Shoes On' and 'Pigeon Impossible'.Finally, yesterday was the last day you were able to hear my new Struwwelpeter song 'Set You Free' as part of BBC Introducing. If you missed it, I of course recorded it myself and you can forever listen to it here.
If you want to hear the song without the intro and strange backhanded editorialising at the end it's part of 'Digital Stimulation', a download-only EP available now and completely free. It includes three songs from 2006's 'Agnosticaust' and three from the forthcoming album 'The Book of Women'. All the tracks are alternate mixes/edits to the ones that appear on the albums themselves and as such are completely exclusive to this release. So download it and spread it around like a delightful musical compote!Download 'Digital Stimulation' by Struwwelpeter
Alternatively you can stream the EP on SoundCloud.
Now for a weekend of showreel editing and updating. Try to contain your envy.

"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!

Compensation

After the low note last week ended on, I've had a bit of a turnaround in disposition being presented with a couple of reasons to cheer up.

Firstly I was very happy to see that, for the time being at least, one of the animated segments I produced for Channel 4's SuperMe project is the first thing you're presented with when visiting the production company Somethin Else's website.

That's right, I screengrabbed it. I'm that type of person.

Nice to have the extra exposure while I can get it.Next up is the very welcome and sooner-than-expected news that my third animated short 'The Naughty List' will be making its festival debut this October at Internationales Köln Comedy Festival, with a TV broadcast thrown in. Merry xmas!What makes this especially good news is it gives me an excuse to visit my Cologne-based friend and frequent collaborator Veronika Broscheid whose own film 'The Lonely Socks Club' makes a cameo in mine, playing on Santa's TV.

The film within the film.

She also helped out a lot with the film in cleanup/post and provided some last-minute German subtitles for the screening copy, so it's really fortuitous that it's first screening will be in her city.
Festival specifics to follow, as always. It's looking to be a good week.

Phlegmatic

As alluded to earlier, the main focus for the rest of the year as far as personal projects go is a new graphic novel I received an advance for after pitching it during my recent jaunt overseas. This one is pretty autobiographical save for changing names and likenesses (kind of the opposite of 'Mitchells In England', where all the characters were named after real people but the stories were completely fictional) while hopefully being sort of amusing.

The working title was 'Throatfukt' which has been shortened to 'Throat' as my first concession to its potential publishers, it's also a little less on the nose. The story is essentially an illustrated adaptation of thoughts I'd jotted down during a pretty significant and sobering health scare I went through earlier in the year, with dialogue added and a lot of the plodding, self-involved, morbid streams-of-consciousness shit edited out. Apart from this blog I generally don't keep journals - not being either a girl or, y'know, twelve, - but this was kind of done on impulse as a coping mechanism. It took a lot of the drama out of the situation and helped hugely when it came to moving on.

Concept/(possible) cover art for 'Throat'

The drawing style is kind of new territory for me. It came from a rather stressful period during a work commission where none of the concepts we were coming up with were quite hitting the mark, so I wound up just throwing out as much variety as possible, including this loose, thick-line style. In the end we went with something more conventional, but the style really appealed to me as it doesn't really look like anything I've done before. There's something Ralph Steadman/Dave McKean/John Callahan-ish about it that seems to complement the medium of graphic novels and the writing style rather well, so I decided to pull it out.
Here are some character designs, not coloured or properly textured at this point but they should more or less set the tone.

Before the devil knows you're dead

How's the world treating you these days? Everything good? Sun shining, birds singing, spring in your step?
LIAR.
Fuck that nizzoise. I'm sad and now you have to be too. Whaddaya think of them apples?I found out recently that one of my heroes John Callahan has died. It fucking stinks. He was probably one of the more significant influences on me as a kid, shaping me into the cuddly sociopath I am today.Thinking back almost as far as I have memories stored, I recall sneaking glances at his cartoon anthologies lying around the house. Words couldn't describe the glee I felt at seeing the distinctly adult subject matter married with childishly-scrawled cartoons. Obviously in today's post-Adult Swim era the concept is well-established, almost to the point of being hackneyed. But back then it stood out from anything else.While plenty of syndicated comic strips embraced the notion of catering to adults - the poignant philosophy in 'Calvin and Hobbes', the bitter disillusionment that riddled 'Life In Hell', the joyfully dark surrealism of 'The Far Side' - Callahan's nameless strips floated in a limbo outside convention, limiting his exposure no doubt but with the welcome absence of boundaries as a trade-off.At perhaps too young an age, his work introduced me to a world of adulthood I couldn't wait to be a part of. One particular short story he wrote was my first encounter with the concept of cunnilingus, something that never would've crossed my mind at that age (I think I was about seven), but man alive did it seem like a tremendous way to pass the time.What differentiated his crass and sexual humour from the likes of, say, 'Viz', was a level of legitimate wit and non-contrived cleverness that would rear its head. Occasionally the amateurish visuals would unintentionally imbue an otherwise average panel with an amusingly childlike silliness, and in instances where the drawings were almost unintelligible the writing could make it hysterical.
The quality of the drawing style was attributed to the very reason his gallows humour was so well-earned. In his early twenties he was permanently paralysed from a drunken car wreck. The frustrations and protracted anxiety of adapting to life without movement were candidly told in his autobiography "Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot", a genuinely inspiring read that I can't recommend enough.Along with a follow-up book, a couple of not-too-terrible animated shows and a laudable stab at music, his true legacy can be found in the anthologies of his work. If you can track them down, treat yourself.
RIP.