Here’s a short I saw at a recent animation Flip Festival in the Midlands UK. It won Best of the Festival and I wanted to share it with you too. It’s called Kudan by Taku Kimura. And it must be good because I’m quite an ambassador for 2D and this is 3D.
A common preconception (among at least the British public) is that you can only use animation for whimsical purposes. Animation used to explain anything serious would just be trivialising the subject. This makes my blood boil. Fortunately people’s minds do seem to be changing, if very slowly. Films like Persepolis and Waltz with Bashir (which to my shame I’ve still not seen) must be helping change the tide surely?
Personally, I’ve also worked on films about sex education, legal aid and even health and safety which combine a serious message with something that isn’t going to bore the socks off the audience.
Further evidence to the cause is also supplied by a fellow Midlands animator Samantha Moore. Sam makes the most wonderful animated documentaries, from the jolly and rich tapestry of Success with Sweet Peas to the experimental wonder of doubled up. And her brilliant film The Beloved Ones tells about the rich lives of Ugandan women who must also live with the tragedy of HIV/AIDS. There’s no trivialisation here. Just great films.
I interviewed Sam about her short films and about her new project An Eyeful of Sound which you can follow on a special film blog.
MYLES MCLEOD: How did you get started in animation?
SAMANTHA MOORE: I studied English literature and Fine Art at Exeter University. That course seemed to embody everything that I was interested in – drawing pictures and telling stories. One of my tutors suggested that I put my paintings under the camera, and then I saw Caroline Leaf’s The Street, which was a style of animation and telling stories that I’d never seen before. I went to Central Saint Martins School of Art to do my post-grad where I made oil on glass animation.
Caroline Leaf’s The Street
MYLES: You’ve carved a niche in documentary style animations. Was that a conscious decision? Or something you found naturally?
Read more »
The 13th Annual Webby Awards are almost upon us and the nominees have been announced. There are almost seventy categories across the four entry types: Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video, and Mobile. The five nominees in Online Film & Video Animation category include a rotoscope style music video for Flairs, a news headline animation by the artist Jeff Scher, Stickman Exodus by the very productive Waverly Films team as well as two pieces entitled Get Your War On (the link for which seems to be a 404) and Perfectland. There are two ways to win in each category… the Webby Award is selected by appointed members, the People’s Voice Award is selected by the online community.
Flairs – Better Than Prince
This year the Webbys have also recognised additional entries of high quality with the accolade of “Official Honorees.” In an act of shameless self-promotion I’m pleased to say that The Brothers McLeod received one of these lovely “you’re not nominated but you still did some great work” awards for our little Sticks series.
The Barton Hill Animation Festival hit its fourth year in 2009. No it’s not Sundance, Annecy or Edinburgh… but it does have a great vibe. It’s a small festival in a disadvantaged part of Bristol, UK and it provides loads of hands on activities for the local kids. That includes the opportunity to make some animations of their own. Here are this year’s films:
Trip to Planet Dangerous:
… and Prince Harry the Brilliant and Mr Jealous Wellous
For more kids’ films check out this earlier Lineboil post and another on Cold Hard Flash.
I’m very excited. But you’ll have to wait at least a paragraph to find out why. The nominees for this year’s 2009 BAFTA Film Awards have been announced. Included in the list of feature length animations are Waltz with Bashir, Wall-E, and Persepolis.
The Short Animation shortlist includes Nick Park’s Wallace and Gromit A Matter of Loaf and Death, Marc Craste and Sue Goffe’s Varmints and… erm… The Brothers McLeod’s Codswallop. Excuse me while I shout “YESSS!” into a paper bag to keep for later. Both Marc Craste and Nick Park are former winners and are pretty much titans in the UK animation world so it’s tough competition. Whichever way it goes, it’s great to be sharing a nomination with them. Here’s our trailer:
Telltale Games is developing episodic games in partnership with Aardman Animations for Wallace and Gromit. They are going under the name of Grand Adventures and there’s a few initial screenshots and FAQs at the Telltale Games website. Here’s the trailer:
The UK’s 2008 TV Christmas schedule included the much heralded new film with Wallace and Gromit A Matter of Loaf and Death, but also sneaking in under the radar was a 3D film from the consistently magical Studio AKA. The film was Lost and Found, a beautifully bittersweet tale adapted from a picture book by the Northern Ireland artist Oliver Jeffers.
I first came across Oliver Jeffers when my brother bought his first book How to Catch a Star for his son. I remember thinking then that this was a picture book which made me ‘feel’ something – a kind of happiness and sadness combined – a kind of yearning. And the follow up Lost and Found was even more affecting. I was very excited to see that an animation had been made, and it didn’t disappoint.
I am, as a Brother McLeod, a lover of 2D and would have loved to have seen the original illustration style come to life. However, Studio AKA are so good at 3D that the film was beautifully realised while still being faithful to the original design.
The story is non-dialogue although there was a narration from Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge! etc.) which was well delivered. I felt that the story would have worked just as well without the narration, even though Mr. Broadbent has a lovely soft voice.
The other highlight for me was the music by Max Richter (Waltz with Bashir) which engendered the same feelings that the books do.
The DVD of the film is released in the UK on March 23, 2009.
