Tad's Nest

Petra Freeman has made a lovely film under the Animate! scheme. You can see it at the BAA public choice screenings. The film is called Tad's Nest, which is a place where eel's go to mature and somewhere Petra remembered grown-up's talking about when she was young. The film is about memories and young girls, both vulnerable and eerie and busily absorbed with rituals, snipping, pouring, scuttling and watching. Never quite free from peril, not least in the form of a lash tongued sibyl. The pace of the film is just right and the narrative is full of surprises without being obtuse, which demonstrates great skill when working as Petra does, in a straight-ahead fashion, with minimal planning. I hope there will be another film soon. You can also see her film Jumping Joan on the Animate projects website (amongst many other brilliant works!)

King Henry VIII & King Charles I

My film The Old, Old, Very Old Man is showing at The National Gallery in Feburary.

My birthday present

Nina and Tim gave me this for my birthday, I don't know if anyone else has ever seen one. It's fantastic, the white letters stick to a piece of glass and there is even a little stand so that you can film vertically.









































Hazel might be wondering why I'm not blogging about the moomin pants that she gave me, this is not the right place.

A Mouthful of Biscuits, an Eyeful of Sound

At last I've finished all the christmas chocolate and biscuits, which was top of my january to-do list. Now I'm free to get on with the merry business of filmmaking.
To spur me on and by way of inspiration I went to the premiere of Samantha Moore's new film An Eyeful of Sound, showing at the Rich Mix as part of the London Short Film Festival. Sam received Welcome Trust funding for her animated documentary about Synaesthesia, a brain condition where when one sense is stimulated two are triggered. She interpreted three synaesthete's verbal descriptions of what they saw when hearing music or sounds to the extent that she brought a 3D animator on board to broaden her palette and to be as faithful as she could be. It's very pleasurable and insightful to be able to see inside a synaesthete's brain in the hands of such an accomplished animator, I hope it will have many festival outings. The film sadly didn't get the East End Film Festival prize, but I bet it was darn close behind the winning film Seafront by Stuart Moore & Kayla Parker, a joyful, beautifully framed and made snapshot of activities at a tidal bathing pool, some reckless, some listless. This still picture from the Sundog media website gives a good impression of the jollities: (wow)