Happy Easter, everyone!
As part of the spoils of my recently backing the wonderful Signe Baumane's Kickstarter campaign, to my delight I received two cels from her "Teat Beat of Sex" series yesterday. This one seemed appropriate for the season:
You can watch the animated segment this one is from on her Vimeo channel though she mentioned it may be taken down soon, so be quick. Alternatively I recommend you buy the DVD and get the whole batch.
I also got a lovely little animationey surprise from the brilliant Joanna Quinn the other day; While I don't think I can post it here I'm very appreciative. The women of animation are treating me very well this weekend. Which is nice as it's been a rough week and I needed the pick-me-up.
Chocolate Jesus time!
It's new Skwigly podcast day, folks - that wunnerfull time o' the month where myself and Steve bring you some insight from the animation world's notable practitioners, sort of held together with our meandering wafflage in between. Everyone listen or risk societal shunning!
Insight-wise I got to talk to Richard Starzak, formerly Richard Goleszowski, known to most as Golly. He's currently the creative director at Aardman and has headed up "Rex The Runt", "Robbie The Reindeer" and presently "Shaun The Sheep", all of which - despite the title similarities - are separate endeavours. He also directed the "Creature Comforts" TV series, developed from the famous Nick Park short of the same name, as well as his own film "Ident" which is probably my favourite 'classic' Aardman short alongside Barry Purves's "Next".
Later on Steve chats to Daniel Greaves of Tandem Films, whose work includes the Oscar-winning "Manipulation", an early-90s take on the "Duck Amuck" character-vs-creator concept, as well as "Flatworld", "Little Things" and the in-progress "Mr. Plastimime".
Wafflage-wise, we discuss recent developments with the VFX debate, merrily gambol down memory lane and I rant psychotically about a recent nightmare commission. Hopefully we can get some listener stories of their own horrendous experiences dealing with clueless clients. It's good to vent.
As I mentioned last month, the Frenchtastic folks over at the Roanne Animation Festival have informed me that my film "The Naughty List" will be part of their pre-festival 'Best Of' screenings, having been part of last year's line-up. I just had a look on their website and it seems like said screenings will take place this week at the Jacques Perrin à Tarare cinema on the 13th and the Le Méliès à Saint-Etienne cinema on the 14th, both at 9pm. Très bon, innit?
This year's official selection includes many personal favourites such as Michaela Pavlátová, PES, Francesca Adams, Tim Reckart, Bill Plympton and Rumpus, so if you're one of the 7% of people reading this from France I'd say you'd be a goshdarned fool to not check it out. Pardon my harsh language, there.
I just finished reading/reviewing a superb book on the legendarily troubled production of "Ren & Stimpy", inarguably one of my earliest and strongest influences. Unlike many, I retained a sincere affection for the post-Spumco era of the show and was hoping this book would give the Games era and its crew of talents like Bob Camp, Bill Wray, Chris Reccardi and Lynne Naylor (amongst many others) a fair shake. It does, in spades and with a lot of insightful input from all sides. You can read my full review of "Sick Little Monkeys" by Thad Komorowski over at Skwigly.
There's a new episode of "Wobble Box" over on HuHa!, for which I put together the Dr. Jekyll skit animation (about 2'15" in). The turnaround and budget don't allow for much full animation though I had some fun with the transformation sequence:
As with "Assassin Babies", this is the perfect type of fun, daft project I relish working on, especially as it came on the heels of a particularly wretched and staggeringly unprofessional debacle of a commission which will never be spoken of on here. But hey, getting the odd duff gig is part and parcel of being a freelancer. At the end of the day it makes you appreciate the jobs that go well all the more.
My aging - yet vexingly alluring - body has been ravaged by a series of ailments, each more pathetic and old-man-like than the last. Right now I've been embarrassingly felled by some kind of wrenched abdominal muscle. Thankfully it's not a hernia, as it turns out I'm just a little pissy-sissy fairy-mary girlie-girl (my GP's exact terminology there). The upside is the revelation that I actually possess abdominal muscles - I guess they've just been well hidden all these years.
In short, I'm staying pretty immobile and popping Solpadol like Skittles. Before my insides collapsed completely I was able to get in a life drawing session on Monday, the first in a while. I haven't had as many opportunities to make it over there much over that past few months but here are a few stabs at it since last October.
Pregnant gal is, shall we say, 'augmented' in the chest region which carries with it the slight danger of the breasts coming off unnaturally spherical when drawn. I found one I hadn't put up before of the same model pre-pregnancy which sort of shows what I mean a little clearer:
Blame saline, not adolescent misogyny
Here are the results of Monday's most recent session, three angles of the same pose:
I figured I'd be pretty rusty but these turned out better than I thought. This particular model, though a little fidgety, is one we've had a lot which may have helped.
The importance of life drawing is amongst the many things discussed with Bill Plympton in the second part of our interview which is now online. Following on from January's Skwigly Podcast where we mainly chatted about his latest film "Cheatin'", this time around we go into the wealth of additional projects he's taken on in the last couple years, including segments for "The Simpsons", new short films and his restoration of the Winsor McCay short "The Flying House". It's pretty inspirational listening for those with an indie-filmmaking bent, so if you fit into that category I'd recommend you bung it on in the background.
"A Liar's Autobiography" - Not a Monty Python film, though you'd be forgiven for thinking so based on this cover...
We also take a look at a particularly interesting UK contribution to the indie features scene, the multi-studio collaboration "A Liar's Autobiography". Essentially a posthumous, quasi-fictional biopic of Monty Python's Graham Chapman, it came together last year with the involvement of fourteen animation studios, each working on separate segments that were edited into a single feature. While the end result is somewhat patchy it has some solid gags and inspirational visual ideas throughout. I was able to get a few friends who worked on it together to chat about the experience for the podcast - Jane Davies (director of the "Looshkin" short I did the music for) and Leah-Ellen Heming of A For Animation as well as Matt Walker and George Sander-Jackson of Arthur Cox. Continuing the prevailing theme of recent Skwigly coverage, their segments predominantly deal rather joyously with cartoon sex, penis puppets and all. Here for your delectation is a snippet of A For Animation's bit:
Quick catchup post as I find that if I don't use the small slivers of time that present themselves to get stuff up on here I tend to just not bother - and none of you deserve that level of deprivation.
Firstly a massive congrats to Bill Plympton and Signe Baumane who we chatted to in the last podcast, both of whom were successful in their fundraising campaigns and knock wood will have their features out in the coming months. I'm certain they both would've made it without Skwigly's coverage as they're both hugely respected and well-known, but from the feedback we've gotten recently I get the impression we made a little bit of a difference which is still a nice feeling.
Tim Reckart, director of "Head Over Heels"
On the subject of Skwigly, back in December I was able to chat to a very talented NFTS graduate Tim Reckart, whose film "Head Over Heels" is a brilliant and deservedly lauded piece of stop-motion ingenuity. Since our conversation it's received an Annie award and Oscar nomination which is obviously huge. I'm not sure if we'll be able to incorporate the interview in a future podcast (though that would be ideal) as the Skype line was a little dodgy for some reason, but the written piece went up this week. I'd really recommend it as a read for his insight into the conception and process of the film. Also you can watch the whole film for a short period of time, so check that out while you can.
Lastly, I'm very happy to say that my short film "The Naughty List" will be getting another screening in France next month at Ciné-Court Animé in Roanne. It was part of their competition screenings during last year's edition and will be included this year in their 'Best Of' section which is mighty sweet of them. Not sure of the time/date specifics yet but as ever I'll post them when I get them.
Oh look, the sun just came out in reflection of my good mood. Pardon me while I go out and frolic!
As I mentioned when discussing our most recent Skwigly podcast a couple weeks back, I've recently become a huge admirer of the work of Latvian animator Signe Baumane, a woman whose staggering perseverance now sees her in the post-production stage of her first feature-length animation "Rocks In My Pockets", a mammoth undertaking considering the minimal funds and crew behind it. She's been raising funds the last month or so for the sound and music budget and there isn't a doubt in my mind that the Kickstarter goal will be met in time.
It's rare that one encounters a practitioner so immediately endearing, and it doesn't take much research to determine why Signe is held in such high regard by her peers. Her effervescent, quirky and oftentimes jet-black humour is perfect for the types of films she makes, and her candour as a storyteller is incredibly refreshing; Story is always put first, before appearances or concerns that the audience will be shocked. The raw honesty of some of her autobiographical reminiscences on the "Rocks..." production blog are alternately hilarious and gut-wrenching with her idiosyncrasies laid completely bare, but that impulse provides a real air of authenticity and assurance that what she's set out to achieve with her film comes from a very sincere place indeed.
I'll readily admit that my heightened receptiveness to a film such as "Rocks..." can doubtless be attributed to the relatively recent release of "Throat", which still carries with it a lot of anxiety as to how well it will be received in the long run. So to see someone else tell a personal story with raw, balls-out honesty is very comforting and, given it's been achieved as an entire film, greatly inspiring. As the interview we did for the last podcast was heavily edited to focus on "Rocks..." and her campaign. I felt there was a great deal of additional material worth sharing with the world that extends to her prior experience, particularly that surrounding one of her most successful projects to date, "Teat Beat of Sex", an episodic series of sexual reminiscences told from a female perspective. They fit perfectly into the pantheon of animated films by the likes of Joanna Quinn, Ruth Lingford and Michaela Pavlátová that celebrate female strength and sexuality, one of my favourite subjects since probably way too young an age, kicked into gear by fairy godmothers like Betty Dodson and Susie Bright. Lord knows how I came across them in my preadolescence, but they sure set me on a noble path.
As well as the humour, what gives "Teat Beat..." its strength is its sense of identity; Though Signe concedes in the interview the lead character is something of a composite, no misguided efforts are made to conform to any sociological ideologies, favouring honesty in much the same way "Rocks..." seems to. It gives the audience the opportunity to relate to it on their own terms; While I'm a staunch supporter of Signe's organic juice policy, for example, I'm less behind her squash-discrimination policy. There's also a sweetness and naïveté to its execution, with its simple design work, stream-of-consciousness metaphors and visual malapropisms. Other standout shorts of hers include "Dentist", "Love Story", "Five Fucking Fables" and "Birth", with several others I've yet to watch in their entirety.
I'd really recommend giving the extended interview a listen, even if you already heard the podcast segment. This is over twice the length and goes into numerous areas worth learning about, such as the role of social media in self-promotion, our mutual fondness for Ruth Lingford and the bizarre semantics of acceptable sexual content on an online platform. You can download the interview here or stream it below (brace yourself for my Mariella Frostrup-esque flu voice):
But most importantly please check out her blog and campaign and throw some sheckels its way while there's still time (pledges are being accepted until Valentine's day). I really, really want to see this film get funded, A) Because it's part of this whole game-change-in-progress for the future of indie animation, which I'm obviously hugely invested in, and B) Because I really want the DVDs I have coming to me once the target's reached. ¡Viva la Revolución!
I'm briefly emerging from the subterranean land of Worst-Flu-Ever-meets-Most-Stressful-Deadline-Ever to provide some quick cartoonery to ram into your adorable faceholes.
This was a fun little between-commissions commission for one of YouTube's original content channels FlipTV (they who host Carpool, David Mitchell's Soapbox, Simon's Cat and...possibly others) whose latest sub-channel HuHa! is being headed up by Jonti Picking and Sarah Darling of Weebl's Stuff. Basically it's a way to get out a bunch of animated webisodes and original content to that oh-so-cynical of crowds: The YouTube audience. But so far the response has been very strong. Weebl is already a pretty established name as far as online animation goes so them's some fine coattails to ride.
My first contribution is the mini-skit "Assassin Babies" for the debut episode of their sketch show "Wobble Box". It was written by Sarah Darling while I took on all the visual stuff - character designs, storyboards, animation etc. They also wound up using what I'd thought would be a placeholder audio track so the sound and voice is me too. What a little showoff I am.
You can watch episode 1 of "Wobble Box" right here. My bit's around 23 seconds in. Other bits I didn't do but am rather fond of include "Unrealistic Dog" and "Mr. Bubblehead".
Here's some development scribbles and whatnot:
First character concepts. I was very relieved they preferred the top batch.
Character sketches for layouts
Character sketches for keyframes
Background Design 1
Background Design 2
Knock wood when I get my evenings and weekends back I can do more for HuHa! I have a particular fondness for anything named after any inexplicable noise Al Pacino's been known to make.
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:
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:
Happy holidays, everyone! Here's hoping your tides are...yuley?
But more than anything I hope that you, like myself, are spending the season with the person who matters to you the most:
Here's a brief overview of how the next few weeks of my adorable li'l life are looking set to pan out:
WORK WORK WORK WORK bit of Christmas holiday WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK and so forth. Best case scenario is that the world may end on Friday and grant me some respite.
Needless to say things may be quiet on the blog front, so here's one last pre-season entry before I'm submerged in deadlines and yuletide alcoholism.
We have our last Skwigly Podcast of 2012 and, eschewing the variety of religious holidays that are active around this time of year, we've opted for the atheist favourite and made it a Christmas Special. Or Xmas Special, as I think I'm supposed to spell it.
Makes perfect listening for the long voyages home, hours of painstaking food preparation or to drown out unbearable acrimonious squabbling. Steve interviews Tim Searle from Baby Cow Animation who have two seasonal specials lined up, as well as Michael Rose of Magic Light Pictures whose not-especially-Christmassey-but-looks-pretty-good kids' short "Room on The Broom" will be shown on the 25th. There's also the second part of my interviews with the folks from Lupus Films following on from last episode, this time chatting with assistant director Robin Shaw and co-writer/director Hilary Audus about the hugely anticipated "The Snowman and The Snowdog", a follow-up to "The Snowman" which, along with Channel 4 itself, will see its thirtieth anniversary this year. All this and some needless trivia, cartooney Christmas nostalgia and I even wrote a little radio play. That's right, ya bestids. With sound effects and everything.
Stream it below, download it and/or subscribe on iTunes!
Elsewhere, the wonderful people over at Toon Boom (the Montreal-based animation software company) has picked my ol' Christmas toon "The Naughty List" for their showcase today. What lovely Quebecians they are! Granted, at the time the version of Toon Boom I used was incredibly basic and mainly just helped out with the clean-up, but I've since become rather enamoured of Toon Boom Animate. In fact, I'll probably be using it exclusively for the job I'm currently working on, so I may have become a full convert a few months from now. Now that I finally have a post-Intel Mac that can run it. Yep, I've been dragged kicking and screaming into the year 2006.
Lastly, today is most likely the last shopping day to get "Throat" in time for Christmas, so if you're still struggling to find the right gift for the indie graphic novel snob in your life - or if you just want to treat yourself - head on over to Amazon (US and now, for the convenience of my Brit compadres, UK) and grab one!
