My administrator and his revolting villagers

Over the last few weeks I've had time to get along with my vampire film Frombald which I've been making (very slowly) for a couple of years.   Before I came to animation I spent from 1992-2002 making prints using stone lithography, screenprinting and woodcut, so I'm pleased to return to the tools and methods of relief printing to make this film.  I've mentioned this before but I'm printing directly onto 35mm using rubber stamps.  I've carved about a hundred stamps so far which I've printed onto the filmstock in different configurations and loops, I can review the sequences on my Acmade Compeditor and then I'll scan them digitally so that I can add sound, all of this in the bathroom bog of course.

I'll try and take some studio snapshots tomorrow.

Folly for a Flyover

While I'm at it, I thought I would post a picture of the Folly for a Flyover too.  It's a good summer to be staying at home in East London, I expect next summer might have some attractions too but not having been lucky with golden tickets we'll see how it shapes up.  We might well rent our house to Usain Bolt and head for Bologne or Naples.

Treasures on our plot

All Aboard!

Here's Nina Pope on her very popular Floating Cinema at the Laburnum Boat Club for the premiere of the animation that I made with the young people at the club.  Nina is looking expectant because the kids jumped on and off the boat from all sides.  It was very exhilarating for me to be upon the water for the evening with friends and film fans. We moored at the Waterhouse Restaurant for the latter part of the evening and showed the film many times to groups of 12 people at a time.

Laburnum Boat Club

I've been busy making a little film with the Laburnum Boat Club.  It's a fantastic youth club on the canal, and if I was 9 years old again I would spend every Saturday there messing about in boats on the canal.
I was commissioned by Floating Cinema to go there for a day's workshop in June and make a film to go with the Nature of Bow, a film that I made in 2003 with older members of the community in Bow.
The new film is called The Nature of Laburnum Boat Club and it will premiere next week on the Floating Cinema as part of the Shoreditch Festival.

East London is quite the place to be.

I'm Not Moving

We've been back to Watch me Move, this time with a small appreciative crowd, here they are watching Tron.  It's certainly an exciting exhibition in my opinion, and they have included a lot of work by filmmakers working with animation in the broadest sense;  the Themersons, Harry Smith, Fischinger, Stan Brakhage,and Martin Arnold, to name but a few.  It would have been a perfect introduction to the world of animation for students, but sadly it finishes just before the next semester begins.  

The artefacts relating to animation are beautiful and eye-catching, especially a zoopraxiscope of Muybridge's called Galloping Horses, Multiple Phases and a pair of magic lantern slides depicting Alice in Wonderland made by W.R Hill in 1876.  In the same space are some models and armatures, including an extremely expressive Were Rabbit.   However the objects don't quite offer a comprehensive overview of pre-cinematic devices or a context for the puppets and models.  Especially muddling is the cabinet of action figures, merchandising from cartoons (x-men, superman etc) placed too high up for smaller viewers and though attractive en masse, not so pertinent to the show.  

It's not really a gripe from me though, there are plenty of other places to access the historical or technical context, not least the National Media Museum and The Museum of Childhood, plus there are so many erudite speakers and interesting panels over the period of the exhibition that the Barbican will be my second home over the summer.  See you there!

Caroline Leaf

Caroline Leaf gave a very inspiring talk and demonstration in the hot little green room at the Watch Me Move show last night.   She has previously referred to her technique as being like a 'particular sort of performance', and so it was last night at the Barbican as she carefully recreated an encounter between her ill fated Owl and Goose for us.  She made changes to her frame under a live camera and then said "click, click" to represent the recording of two frames. It was very mesmerising and exciting to see her working,  and how generous she is in sharing all her tips and techniques.  You can see a step by step guide to sand animation and her other techniques on her website.  

After the demonstration, Caroline talked about the spontaneity of working in a direct technique, where mistakes are often incorporated, (though strictly if they serve the narrative of the story).   What was most interesting to hear was that she taught herself to draw the camera moves or changes of shot I think for economical reasons, because she didn't want to shoot more than she needed and hadn't an editor for her earlier films.  Critically she feels the straight-ahead technique encourages great rigour but also offers freedom, which is of course obvious in her films, but this is why she now uses sand to teach some of these disciplines at the NFTS. Those lucky old students.

Excitingly the wonderful filmmaker Kayla Parker is writing a PHD thesis about gender and creative practice in direct animation and here on her website she has shared a few of her thoughts, a few of which chime with those of Ruth Lingford's which I wrote about on an earlier posting.  I shall definately watch out for Kayla's written work or presented thoughts.

Felix Massie

What a brilliant website I'm So very Jealous.

LIAF - The Best of the Fest... Ever

My Old, Old Man and I had a thrilling outing at the Barbican last night, he did his thing - partied and died, and I got to chat about it afterwards in fine company (see above).  Joseph Pierce made Stand Up, which is old news compared to his equally excellent Family Portrait.  The films are very well crafted in every aspect, the script, the live action and the drawing. Robert Morgan, who made The Cat with Hands in 2001 and many other films in between was showing his new sex comedy Bobby Yeah! for the first time.  It was created chronologically, over 3 years and had a real flavour of Mr Bickford's wonderful work, not just the solo guitar and brilliant stop motion animation but the enjoyable though despotic 'just where the hell are we going here?'  There was a good question: 'Are you all crazy?' and a pertinent comment from Ruth Lingford, who pointed out that out of the 9 films chosen to represent best of LIAF, only one was made by a woman.  She felt that women were less visible in the world of animation than they were 10 years ago.  I think Channel 4 had a lot to do in addressing the gender imbalance within the industry, and now that everything is economically squeezed again, maybe women in particular feel less able to take risks and put their necks out.  

Šwankmajer's Alice

Although it was exciting to see Jan Šwankmajer in person, it was almost better to see his feature film Alice from 1988 again and in one go.  I remember seeing it serialised on the television and noting that it was extraordinary but it was nothing to a 86 minute immersion.  What I especially liked is the fact that there is no spare animation to the frame, the editing is beautiful, the story uncompromisingly Alice (although without a Cheshire Cat - who liked him anyway?)  Alice is played by a mesmerisingly beautiful child who is appropriately bold and grubby and inclined to petty acts of malevolence.  The poor old stuffed rabbit (who was created by Eva, Šwankmajer's wife) kept leaking sawdust from a rip in his tummy and the sight was more shocking than blood would have been in it's place.  There are socks, false teeth and eyeballs collected to create a caterpillar, fish skeleton's and animated meat and then the brilliant queen, cut from playing cards who properly snips off heads here and there. 


Šwankmajer talked a little about the background to making the film, his own background (puppets), surrealism and the politics of filmmaking in the Czech Republic.  It was interesting to hear him talking unhindered with his friend (who's name I can't find), who was also a surrealist artist.   Peter Hames obviously knows his stuff but was a bit fidgety and unfocused, and the audience were very keen to chip in but the questions were mostly quite long which made them hard to translate and the so flow was generally lost after a while.

Watch me Move - The Animation Show

Wendy and I have been to the opening of Watch me Move, it's such a wopping exhibition that sensibly having put refreshments first, we weren't able to even get upstairs by the time we were ushered from the gallery.  So I don't certainly feel in a position to make a detailed report at this juncture. The early part looked really great though, very thorough, all the films that I would have in my top 20 plus many that I didn't know about or havn't seen including Percy Smith's Birth of a Flower from 1910. A very early, very poetic film capturing flowers opening using timelapse.  Smith adapted his film set-up with candle wicks, pieces of meccano, door handles and gramophone needles to record the flowers even while he slept, a large bell being set to ring and wake him up if anything went wrong!


In the exhibition space the early films were projected onto hanging cloth, the fabric creating little spaces here and there, while the films with soundtracks were three or four to a room, faced by sitting booths (modelled by Wendy  below) with speakers in the roof of the booth.  It was still hard to sequester the appropriate sound for the film you were watching, but I don't know how else you could show so many films in one space.  Headphones are tangly and impractical for projected work.   Anyway, it promises to be an exciting time with all the concomitant visitors and screenings.  I'll try and keep abreast of it all for any far away visitors to this blog.

  

Here is our last picture of Stromness, our friend Bec helpfully waving a white towel. Bye!

Our incredible journey

We've been to Orkney and back this week, over land and sea.  We weren't prepared for such beautiful weather*. What a splendid place, all the more so for having dear friends to visit.

*which is why I wont post a picture of us swimming Hazel

Maurizio Pollini's standing ovation

He really deserved it, those notes are still rattling around my head.  The rest of London appeared to be next door at the Queen Elizabeth Hall listening to John Berger and Tilda Swinton.  What a city this is. Must get out more.

Wonderland

 The Trouble with Love and Sex is an interesting animated documentary on BBC iplayer, you can watch it until June 22nd.  Directed by Zac Beattie and with the brilliant Jonathan Hodgson directing the animation, the film is a real peep into 5 people's experience of receiving regular counselling at Relate.    It's a very moving film, and extremely sensitively made, the animation providing anonymity for the participants, sometimes though the picture adhered over cautiously to a version of the live action, when I wanted it to provide a counterpoint or to add something extra more often.  Maybe it would have been too risky, the film has been really popular with the general public, which is encouraging because it's the first feature length animated documentary commissioned by the BBC (can this really be true?). I hope there will be more.

We have to go through the Olympic site every few days to get to our potatoes, and we are often drawn to the Container cafe next to the view tube for great coffee.  Here is ArcelorMittal Orbit going up through the window, Anish Kapoor must feel cock a hoop.

Breer

Goodness! I shall be heading North as soon as this Robert Breer exhibition opens at Baltic next month.  There's also an interesting seminar called Kinetic Colour presented by Star & Shadow Cinema on the 18th June, featuring splendid Gary Thomas and Pip Chodorov.

Monster Soup

Emily and I are developing our interest in all things germ related having finished our lovely First Light film - The Germinator.  Just as well that there's a good exhibition about Dirt at the Wellcome Trust. It features this brilliant image from 1828, dedicated to the London Water Companies, when the Thames was particularly monster soupy.   One of the highlights was finding three animations commissioned and owned by the Deutsches Hygiene Museum in Dresden in the 1960's.  I've found one on here. You must wash your apple before you eat it, like Snow White, and another one here.

Anthropologist Mary Douglas is quoted in the exhibition:  "Dirt is just matter out of place", which reminds me, I have to move some of my matter into a different place.

Swankmajer

Animation friends - don't miss the wonderful Swankmajer's visit to the Barbican on June 16th at 7.30pm.  You can still get tickets.  See you there!

Bed & Sofa

I saw this lovely silent  film from our sofa, but I notice that you could also catch it at the BFI this month.  It was made in 1927, written by Viktor Shklovsky and directed by Abram Room.  It's a complicated story told so cleverly, every shot just right.  I must try and be a bit more spare.

The Compeditor

It's difficult to describe how exciting and useful this is, being able to see my tests straight away.  Thank you to Graham and to Bazza's Bazaar.

Hello strangers

I'm currently preparing for some activity of the animated variety, so I shall close my door on the beams of sunlight and the sound of bongos that accompanies it around here.  My studio is a health and safety concern though and is presently only accessible by diving head first in from the doorway so first I must make a space.  A large space for a new acquisition, for I hope to be the proud owner of an Acmade Compeditor this week or next, and then I start some more tests on my vampire film Frombald.

Show us your shorts

I showed some of my shorts last night at a WFTV & LIAF event at Deluxe Soho.  I was on a panel in the company of Magdalena Osinska and Suzanne Deakin, it was really nice to catch up with LIAF news and think about animation a bit.  It was easy to see why Suzanne has been so successful as a commercial animator.   Talent plays a large role of course  but also she has a very positive attitude to the processes and challenges of working commercially.  My favourite animation of hers is the Olay 'The End of Lines', you can see it here on the Slinky website.  Magdalena can animate anything!  I saw Zbigniev's Cupboard in the summer, but I hadn't realised that she also made 'Joyets', she's so versatile, it's no wonder she's currently busy at Aardman.

Spring!

This is a little timelapse sequence that I took this time last year.  The exciting event will probably happen again quite soon.

Small recreational excitements

Our potatoes and our coffee in the shed and an absorbing trip to the Wallace collection.

My excuses

I have been having a busy patch and I admit guiltily that I have been contributing to another blog, temporarily neglecting my own news from the bog.  Emily Tracy and I have been helping Gayhurst Community School to make their First Light film about sneezing and germs and you can read all about it on their blog.  We've been helping the children to make an experimental animation with archive footage; we spend alot of time frowning and scribbling notes between workshops because we are trying out ideas and techniques that are strange and new to us both. Of course the children take it all in their stride and with glee and gusto.

 I have also returned to Anglia Ruskin University to teach a little bit on the animation module, which I always really enjoy and next week Wendy Scott and I start a Creative Partnerships project near Tilbury Town.

To Paris and Back

With grateful thanks to my parents-in-law for keeping our home life together, we were able to skip merrily off to the Festival of Different and Experimental Films in Paris,  there was time to go to the Pompidou centre to see the wopping Mondrian de Stijl exhibition, the Cluny Museum and many cafes of course.

Snowy leaves, birdy footsteps and squirrel looking in.