"Did Bugs just say 'slant-eyes'?"

The whimsical sleigh ride that is "The Naughty List"'s festival tour makes two further stops this coming September. The TriMedia Film Festival in Fort Collins CO, USA will be held between the 9th and the 11th, though they haven't yet posted the program so I'm not sure exactly when my film's playing.In Sydney it will be part of the Auburn International Film Festival for Children and Young Adults which tours the region from the 19th to the 23rd. It's nice to get some exposure at a festival aimed toward a younger audience, as this is my only 'family friendly' film to date I was sort of hoping it would get into more kids' festivals, which hasn't really turned out to be the case. Maybe if Santa had been wearing pants...On the subject of unsavoury animation, I've been transferring some old VHS tapes onto my hard drive and came across this pretty interesting documentary from 2000. It's called "Cartoons Kick Ass" and focuses on adult content in cartoons going all the way back to the dawn of animation, featuring contributions from Jerry Beck, Mike Judge, Paul Wells, John Kricfalusi and Ralph Bakshi to name a few. When it originally aired this was my introduction to stuff like the Censored Eleven, cartoons as a propaganda tool, antiquated racial stereotyping that modern society has 1984'd out of existence, submlinal/not-so-subliminal insertions of dirty jokes into animation and the alarmingly fatuous anti-animation agenda of conservative Christian groups. It aired on Channel 4 so it may get taken down but as it's A) really interesting, B) unavailable commercially to my knowledge, and C) impossible to find online (it isn't even on IMDB), do me a favour and don't be a fucking narc about it. Just enjoy it and pass it on.




Ending on a random note, I was playing American McGee's visually brilliant "Alice: Madness Returns" and spotted this piece of bizarrely coincidental set dressing which served as a pretty funny WTF moment. Not that it really warrants clarification, but mine's the one on the right :P

The continuing adventures of Papai Noel

Anima Mundi starts this weekend, and it's a thrill to say that "The Naughty List" will receive a whopping TEN screenings from then until the end of the month. It's shown as part of their International Panorama 2 section that will be screened at the following dates/times/venues:

Rio de Janeiro
July 15th - 5:30pm - Teatro 2 CCBB
July 16th - 2pm - Teatro 2 CCBB
July 17th - 3:30pm - Teatro 2 CCBB
July 19th - 5pm - Cinema Odeon BR
July 21st - 1pm - Centro Cultural Correious, Praça Animada
July 24th - 4:30pm - Cinema 2 CCBB

São Paulo
July 27th - 3pm - Livraria Cultura 1
July 29th - 9:30pm - Fund. Memorial da América Latina, Sala 3
July 30th - 10pm - Livraria Cultura 2
July 31st - 12noon - Fund. Memorial da América Latina, Sala 3

Coupled with the inclusion of my first animationey venture "House Guest" last year, the festival is making great strides in remedying my terror toward the nation of Brazil that those "Elite Squad" movies instilled in me. For info on all the other events and screenings on offer check out the festival website.Next month the film will be screening in competition at the Monterrey International Film Festival in Mexico. As with Anima Mundi it's another event that had the good manners to show "House Guest" a couple years back, and as such is automatically in my good graces.There's another Skwigly piece of mine up today, this one a review of the recent Allen Ginsberg biopic - and graphic novel tie-in - "Howl". My interest in it is mainly as an admirer of Eric Drooker, who was the animation designer and did a pretty impressive job visualising Ginsberg's work. Drooker's major graphic novels "Flood" and "Blood Song" are two of my favourites, and his long-standing association with the late Ginsberg makes him an ideal choice for the film's animated portions. Plus the number of film reviews that dismissively referred to the film's 'cartoon parts' were starting to bug me, so I wanted show it some respect in that regard. You can read it here:
"Howl" Film & Graphic Novel Review by Ben Mitchell

Spiffing, Strolling and Skwiglying

After a bit of a hiatus, Skwigly is up and running again with a batch of new features to read on their site. These include the piece I did on "Tales of the Spiffing", the Aardman collaborative graphic novel project I referred to awhile back, wherein a bunch of the book's contributors share their thoughts on how it came together, using sequential art as a storytelling medium and how their skills translate from working in animation. Some interesting insights from some very talented artists, so read, buy, share and repeat!
CARTOON NATION: A chat with the talents behind "TALES OF THE SPIFFING"

Another interview I did is with Grant Orchard, director at Studio AKA and known for his viral shorts such as "Park Foot Ball" and "Paintballing". AKA are probably best known at the moment for their massive Lloyds TSB campaign, the staccato-hummed music of which has been driving the nation mildly insane (they look very pretty though). Other projects include Philip Hunt's spectacularly successful adaptation of Oliver Jeffers's "Lost and Found".Grant's new film "A Morning Stroll" seems destined to fit in with their impressive body of work and is already kicking the festival circuit's ass; in less than a month out there it's picked up awards at nearly every festival it's been screened at. Nice feller too, so give it a read and check out the film when it plays near you:
Studio AKA's Grant Orchard on "A Morning Stroll"

As well as everyone who took the time to be interviewed, special thanks to Ashley Boddy and JP Vine for their help with the "Spiffing" piece, as well as Ren Pesci from Studio AKA who, as well as helping setup the interview, has the greatest name in existence.

Geeking Out

The other day, in anticipation of my landlord's annual visit, I decided to tidy up the apartment and at one point found myself dusting my cenobites. That's not a euphemism for anything, rather a declaration of my utter geekdom. Observe:This is who I am - a man painfully close to 30 who not only keeps toys, but displays them and keeps them clean. A man who buys vinyl records just because they're great big versions of albums I already own and like. A man who has developed legitimate objectophilia toward his Wacom Cintiq. A man who, in the past fortnight, has watched every episode of "Dinosaurs" on DVD. And a man who, yesterday, went all the way to London to be photographed with some cult celebrities. In much the same way as an infant gets their picture taken with Santa Claus at the mall. The experience really makes me think more people should embrace the geek within, because oftentimes it can be a fucking blast.
The event in question was the London Film & Comic Con, which I visited as part of my 'research-into-marketing-my-own-books-but-really-just-an-excuse-to-geek-the-fuck-out' endeavours. Lots of people I'm into were there so it made for a pretty awesome trip.First off there was Doug Bradley, who I've actually met before but as I've shed 100+lbs since then I wanted to get a better pic. Doug is mainly known as Pinhead (the leader of those toys I was dusting up there) from the "Hellraiser" movies. I'm actually not a big horror fan but I always liked Pinhead - he just struck me as classy, kind of like the Frasier Crane of movie monsters.Then the face of my fondest childhood movie memories, Christopher Lloyd, which I think even the most adamant non-geek would struggle to turn down an opportunity to meet. Between Doc Brown, Professor Plum, Uncle Fester and Judge Doom he's already one of my favourite character actors in the world, plus "Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead" and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" are two of my favourite films as an adult, and he was fantastic in both of those.Also signing was Lea Thompson, Marty McFly's horny mom from "Back To The Future" and "Caroline In The City", a show I probably shouldn't admit to being familiar with. The beautiful older woman/redhead combo made it pretty tough to not ask her out; I was at the precipice of saying she was 'my density' but good sense (and a fear of being ejected by security personnel dressed as storm troopers) prevailed.The crème de la wotsit had to be, without a shadow of a doubt, author/artist/director Clive Barker, a man who I'm literally somewhat in love with. He's not a presence in animation as such (though he's been at the helm of some fantastic video games and graphic novels) - as a storyteller though he's 90% responsible for why I do what I do...far less competently than him, admittedly. But as a creative force he has been a tremendous influence and I probably would never have pursued the career I'm in now were it not for him. He's come up from time to time on this blog, but one day soon I'll write up a proper asskissey post.
As well as being incredibly gracious and funny, he spent the day signing autographs with an injured hand which was, frankly, above and beyond the call. They say you shouldn't meet your heroes to avoid being disappointed. Whoever 'they' are should have been a Clive Barker fan, because now I've met him in person I admire him twice as much.Ashley Laurence (also of "Hellraiser") was there too and as well as helping to fill in my DVD cover o' autographs she could be one of the nicest women alive. Granted, that's based on an accumulative five minutes of interaction but I'm a fantastic judge of character (as my adorable new pen-pal Casey Anthony would agree).
So I'm flying pretty high right now. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the amazing Negshin who was exhibiting and got me passed the queues so as not to miss my photo shoots. Without her the day would've been thrown completely out of whack and more or less ruined, so she's pretty much my favourite person in the world today. Go to her site and buy some prints, why don'cha? Or check out this film she co-wrote and give it some love:

Cruisin'

More fest news, "The Naughty List" will be part of another touring (or rather, cruising) festival from September 24th to October 3rd. The KROK International Animated Films Festival takes place on the Princess Dnipra which will be traveling through the Ukraine, stopping off at Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Sevastopol and Odessa. So, if you fancy some swashbuckling adventure (I'm sure river cruisers give you the option to swashbuckle), check it out.
Speaking of Eastern Europe, I found out recently that the woman who sold me my Wacom Cintiq is an Estonia-based model and artist who, by insane coincidence, is the face of David Thorne's hysterical 27b/6 website/book. Well, it's a coincidence because I recently became a huge fan of the website. If you're not familiar with Thorne, he's an Australian designer who, either from boredom or a career that has beaten him down to breaking point, publishes his email correspondence with a succession of recipients whose grasp of reality and humour is alarmingly literal. He cultivates a consummate douchebag persona although you always find yourself rooting for him. Anyway, it's a great go-to site for when I'm feeling all procrastinatey. And 'Tabitha' is a pretty talented artworker as well, so give her work a look.
Okay, I haven't talked about me for several sentences and frankly it's making my skin start to itch.I have two mini-edits of my films "Ground Running" and "The Naughty List" online at Virgin Media Shorts, one of those online short film competition thingies. They aren't in the running or anything, right now they're just two of about three-thousand that are presently viewable online. I'm usually a little loathe to put entire films up but as these versions are exclusive edits to accommodate the unusual 2'20" cutoff time I'm less precious about it. In both cases the stories (such as they are) are still pretty much the same. Some of the humour/timing doesn't play as well but given the concession I think they still work overall. Anyways, if you like you can give them a watch or several hundred. And share them with everyone you know - it doesn't affect whether or not they get shortlisted so I can't really be accused of trying to skew the judging in my favour.

Fatherhood

Today is a glorious day - for my life, my career and my emotional maturity as an adult. A couple weeks back I made the life-altering decision to adopt a li'l Estonian bundle o' joy. She was being neglected in her home country and, frankly, needed a more nurturing environment where she could be raised with the love and attention she deserved. Things didn't run as smoothly as hoped - multiple delays and red tape presented themselves, accompanied by much anxiety. For nearly an entire week she was being held by the British government before being released to me. It was a trying time for us both, I'm sure.
This weekend the bond of familial love won out and we're now together forever. Here's a pic - I've decided to call her Cindi:Sure milked that analogy dry, didn't I?
That's right, lovelies. Blessed art me, FOR I AM WITH CINTIQ! It had to be done, my desire to continue to produce traditional animation had been too long at odds with the back strain of...well, back strain. And endless hours spent cleaning, inking, scanning and re-cleaning each individual frame. Now I can do all that on the screen - the Cintiq essentially works like the world's most awesome Magna Doodle. Observe this classy product demonstration:

Predictably enough, the first thing I drew on it was my schwanz. What did you expect, a fucking sunset? This is me we're dealing with here.So, while I abandon all hope of finishing any of the eight billion projects I have on the go right now in favour of a lifetime of technologically wondrous doodling, my now pathetically antiquated film "The Naughty List" which I made with (sneer, scoff, derisively snort) pencils and paper has been snapped up for the 2011 edition of the Film Sharing Lo/No Budget Film Festival Tour, which will see it screened at various times/dates/locations throughout Germany from July to September. "Ground Running" was part of the 2009 tour so it's very cool to be involved again. I especially like the way my film is represented on the front of the program, flanked by a pair of bare boobies and a pair of gouged-out eyeballs respectively. Makes sense to me - tits, Christmas, gore - pretty natural grouping there.The usual info is up and online at their website if you want to see if the tour makes it anywhere near you. Assuming you're in Germany to begin with.

Lions and orgasms and validation, oh my!

So it’s been roughly twelve months since I finished “The Naughty List”, and I’m happy to say that in its first year out there it’s managed to score a nice round thirty international screenings. This is a really happy feeling as it’s roughly the same amount of outings that “House Guest” took twice as long to accrue, plus I’m still at the helm of my own distribution and am getting this stuff out there and seen without any sales/studio representation. I’m sure plenty of auteur filmmakers and indie animators out there know what a dreary uphill struggle the process can be at times, so all the festivals and networks, big and small, who have seen value in what I’m trying to do mean a lot to me. Go go pantsless Santa!The thirtieth event in question is Cluj-Napoca’s Comedy Cluj International Film Festival, which makes for the second time the film has been shown in Romania. Maybe they get a kick out of the anti-consumerism angle. Well, maybe they would if there was one, it certainly isn’t a deliberate theme of the film. I’m the biggest consumer I know; The inside of my apartment looks like a Forbidden Planet tradeshow – toys, film posters, standees, no women in sight, you name it. Anyhoo, the festival goes from October 14th to 23rd.While I’m a-typin’, I may as well point y’all in the direction of a couple more pieces I did for Skwigly. One is an interview with established animation veteran Ruth Lingford, former RCA lecturer, two-time Animate Projects director and current Professor of the Practice of Animation at Harvard, which I’ve heard is kind of a big school. Her most recent film “Little Deaths” was produced as part of their Film Study Center fellowship. It’s something of a stream-of-consciousness visual affair, not ordinarily my thing except A) this one’s about orgasms and B) Daffy Duck’s in it. Kind of.Truthfully it’s a really interesting film with a lot to like, not least of which the soundtrack which interweaves conversational snippets wherein a variety of contributors attempt to describe sexual climax and its associations. It makes for alternately fascinating, amusing and unexpectedly poignant viewing.Another interview is with Alois Di Leo, one of the NFTS graduates from last year whose student film “The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Lion” is, frankly, a pretty masterful piece of work. Bucking a lot of the less positive trends among younger filmmakers today, it very deftly deals with a story (a deaf boy retreats into a fantasy state after developing an imagined affinity with lions) that could easily lend itself to hackneyed sentiment or audience pandering. Instead the narrative unfolds very matter-of-factly, so the moments of humour and emotion occur completely organically. As it progresses it sort of slaps you upside the head, but not in a contrived way.Both filmmakers had a lot of interesting things to say about the process and how they regard their craft, so I’d advise any of you with animation/filmmaking impulses to give them a read:
A Conversation with Ruth Lingford – “Little Deaths”
A Conversation with Alois Di Leo – “The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Lion”
There are more features/interviews/reviews a-comin’, some of which I’m pretty excited about. Insufferable braggart that I am, I’ll doubtless link to them here, so stick around folks.

The Brighter Side of Rejection

I got a really pleasant surprise the other day by learning that “The Naughty List” was screened at Annecy Plus, a standalone event after the Annecy festival organised by Bill Plympton and Nancy Phelps. It’s essentially an annual showcase of films rejected by the main festival, and I have to say I’m stunned by the company I’m among. Films by Mark Nute, Joost Lieuwma, Kirsten Lepore and MoonBot are all festival standouts and crowd pleasers – comedically, visually, really in every respect - so to find that they didn’t make it in is a real head-scratcher. I’m really pleased that we got a showing at all though, and have yet another reason to be hugely grateful to both Plympton and Phelps.
For more info you can read an overview of the evening up at Skwigly by Steve Henderson. Many thanks to Sara Barbas for letting me know about the event and who was at Annecy pitching her new feature project which, knock wood, will be coming together shortly.By the way, “Naughty List” will be headed back to Germany for Filmfest Emden-Norderney in a couple days, showing twice as part of the program “New Pictures, New Worlds” (Friday June 17th 8pm and Monday June 20th at 9:15pm). ‘Cause I haven’t patted myself on the back enough with this post, apparently…
Yeah, I know. I suck.

Pencilled People Ponderings

I’ve been keeping at the life drawing after my resolution to do so earlier in the year. Amazingly, when I resolve to be a better human being and eat more salads it never pans out, but staring at naked people I’ve really been able to stick with. Huh.
It’s a strange beast, sketching the non-cartoon universe. Some days I’m really happy with what comes out, others see me mortified with how childlike and amateurish my drawings seem. I still hit a brick wall with faces although I’d say my sense of proportion and perspective is gradually improving.As well as the figure drawing I’ve been dabbling with some landscape and environments as part of a sketching group that meets on the weekend. I’m a lot less happy about the quality of these than when I draw people, so they’re not going up here any time soon. I’ll crack on regardless, I guess knowing that you suck at something is the first step toward getting better at it.On a completely separate note, I realised last night that today is the two-year anniversary of the greatest day of my life, seeing the briefly reunited Faith No More headline at the Download Festival in 2009.I’ve honestly never been as euphoric as I was for those two hours, and it’s unfortunate that the only footage of the whole show that exists online was ripped from the SD, mono, muddy-sounding webcast. Recently however a snippet of the setlist did get broadcast in HD and stereo, so In Memoriam here they are.
Coincidentally I have also made some baby steps back into the music world. Two weeks ago I did my first set in four years at a Bath-based venue I’m not too prepared to disclose as I’ll be doing more shows there in the coming months and want to keep them on the QT (I’m adorably shy).Of course my obsession with the band insisted on me throwing in not one but two Faith No More covers. Here’s a rough, unmastered snippet for your enjoyment – assuming you enjoy derision. When I have time I’ll do a proper mix and chuck it online somewhere.
Struwwelpeter - ‘Midlife Crisis’ live cover snippet

Affected

The last few days have been spent putting together a rough dialogue record for "Bullies", which has led to the crushing revelation that the film as it presently exists is TWENTY-FIVE minutes in length. Fucky-fuck-fuck. And, might I add, a fuckity-fuckeroo.
That's actually not so much a concern as far as the production goes - "House Guest" was originally eighteen minutes and took about six months to produce, including the trial and error of cutting my teeth on the software and a more laborious overall animation style. The issue is that longer animated shorts just don't do as well. Sales agents and the festival circuit tend to like their films short and punchy. The exceptions tend to be the types of films that break new ground or just massive studio productions. Mine ticks neither box, so unless Aardman want to pick up the rights (Hinty-McHint) I'm in a lickle quandary.

That aside, I'm really happy with the way the recording went. I may have to redo it more professionally down the line, but for the purposes of an animatic it came off quite well. Here you can see me step up to the plate as a mic stand on top of my directorial duties:

The guy playing Liam is my old school friend Chris Richardson, which is apt as it's a film about old school friends reuniting. Also Chris has pretty decent acting chops, which is kind of important when it comes to, well, acting. We first met at school where him and a couple other kids would record skits impersonating members of staff with eerie precision. They were calamitous, indecipherable at times and frequently abandoned at the midway point due to constant corpsing. But motherfuck, they were funny.

The Larry Soundtrack, for which I designed the cover. Trust me, it both made perfect sense and was incredibly witty back in 2000

I kept trying to insinuate myself into the process, encouraging them to do it professionally in a way that I could make marketable. Even at fifteen I was a fiscally conscious executive douchebag at heart. Fortunately they smelled my despicable agenda a mile away and wouldn't have any of it. But now the tables have a-turned!

In a slightly more professional environment (note the use of an actual pop shield in lieu of an unwashed sock - and they say Kubrick gave his performers shit) I recorded my dialogue separately, on my lonesome which made for a strangely schizophrenic experience:

So, with altogether too much material to work with, the film's preproduction is pretty much done. Sumbitch, I may just end up pulling this off. If I can decide which region of Ireland my character's meant to be from...