peter and the space between sitji chou

Peter and the space between

Very good film by Sitji Chou on the day the scientists believe they found nothing... hadron colider, Physicists Fabiola GianottiGuido Tonelli were applauded by hundreds of scientists yesterday as they revealed evidence for the particle amid the debris of hundreds of trillions of proton collisions inside the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva.(thanks Leah)!

John Grierson

"The documentary idea, demands no more than that the affairs of our time shall be brought to our screen in  a fashion which strikes the imagination and makes observation a little richer than it was. at one level, the vision may be journalistic, at another, it may rise to poetry and drama. At another level again, it is an aesthetic quality may lie in the mere lucidity of its expression". Quote from introduction of Grierson on Documentary by Forsyth Hardy.
More on Grierson here  from the Grierson Trust. Among his many achievements, John Grierson established the National Film Board of Canada during World War II, and served as UNESCO's first Director of Mass Communications and Public Information in 1947. Throughout his long career, he was in some way responsible for the production of well over 1000 films and television programmes. There is an annual award given at the BFi each autumn during the London film festival.

blink productions

BLINK  good stable of directors of adverts and pop promo, you will recognise the work. good profiles of the directors with their history, and what they do. have a look.

unofficial Tin Tin title sequence

unofficial tintin title sequence by James Curran. HERE

slimjim studios

...Yesterday (24 Oct), Edgar Wright revealed that a Mr. Steven Spielberg saw the opening credits on the web, contacted the artist James Curran, invited him to last night's UK premiere and hired him to work on his next film. Whoa.

Curran, a London-based designer and animator, created the TINTIN credits on a lark and somehow they found their way back to Mr. Spielberg (JoBlo.com perhaps?). Curran created the video in just about a month's time with music from the original TV series. As a huge fan of the series, he incorporated elements from all 24 books, even if they weren't a big part of the movie.(text from joblo movie network)

New Jim Le fevre title sequence

Making of the "Holy Flying Circus" Title Sequence - A Rather Large Phonotrope . BBC Story

Here

music competition.

there is an opportunity to compose a piece of music for a feature film (if you are that way inclined).
see more details HERE
8 minutes idle is a contemporary feature film based in Bristol, and the music is for a 'student Party' ...

unspoken cinema

Unspoken Cinema, non narrative cinema explained quite well, I feel.
"I especially like the tree-leaves analogy. It's a matter of perspective scale. The unit is either the leaf or the tree, depending on what scale is considered. All the shots don't necessarily constitute a narrative point, we should be able to consider the film as a whole, and the blank spaces (slow long-takes, empty frames) as one of many leaves that build the overall shape of the tree we are looking at. We shouldn't expect a meaningful message or an action in every shot. The film is a flow and we experience the length of a film in its entirety, with its time dedicated to "movements without action" and its time dedicated to "events with narrative progression". And these movements are as important as the action in cinema."

Dan Harries ~ nice vlogs, good site - top stuff

46 well timed photographs from the poke

the poke - 46 well timed photographs

The Movie Titles and Stills Collection

Loving this site at the moment. The Movie Title  Stills Collection 

it is designed by Christian Annyas, "the online curator of all things typographic in cinema" That's how Steve Heller described me once in a Daily Heller article, His blog is a very tidy read too, the example is rare finds of Saul Bass's poster work for Vertigo. interesting to see the different designs and shapes the movie posters had to be ~

 

Art Cloakey

did anyone see the google search header today? celebrating the art of Art Clokey ~ the pioneer of clay mation... see late vid HERE - and HERE

redbull animation competition

We're looking for supremely talented animators to show us what they can do. Red Bull Canimation is a nationwide hunt for creative talent, and it's open to anyone who’s passionate about animation, regardless of experience. The only rule is that our blue and silver can needs to take centre stage. After that, you're free to be as imaginative and adventurous as you like! Get involved and see how Red Bull can give your creativity wings. MORE...
three areas;
* Stop-motion

Are you the next Nick Park? This is your category
* CGI

Passion for CGI? Submit your work here
* Drawn

Traditionalists can make their mark in this category

British animation awards sting competition

The British Animation Awards Sheep Sting Competition (click on stings competition on left)

The British Animation Awards (BAAs) is about promoting and championing UK animation in all its guises, culminating in a an awards ceremony and massive party in central London. The Awards will be held at the BFI on the SouthBank on March 15. 2012.

This is your chance to not only be a part of the event but to showcase your unique talents on the big screen during the awards show itself. For BAA 2012 we’re organising a BAA sting competition – inviting you to create an animated sting to amuse and delight both online audiences and the cream of the industry who attend BAA. The brief is fairly open but we still have a few little rules:

1.Sheep - The BAA sting brief is to create something that contains one (or more sheep) with extra points for weaving in references to animation and or the UK). It doesn’t have to be the BAA sheep logo, it can be any sheep or sheep’s, and you can do with it/them as you will, as long as you aim to entertain the BAA audience in a quirky, inventive way (but do try and avoid the usual clichés – and smut!). The brief is similar to that given to the leading animation figures from all the world who have created our unique prizes: ranging from Tim Burton to Japan’s Koji Yamamura and Toshiharu Mizutani, Disney’s Glen Kean to Nick Park – or serial conceptualists Dan Greaves and Derek Hayes. Check out previous BAA artists’ work on the website’s Awards Gallery.

2. Duration - Your sting should be between 4 – 25 seconds in duration

3. Technique - There are no constraints on technique, genre or style as long as it is animated.
Just remember – originality is what we’re really after – look at the awards artworks for inspiration, just don’t copy them, that wouldn’t be very original… Be sclever and original. Be quirky and inventive. Be daring and dangerous. Just don’t be unacceptably rude and crude.

Who can enter? Students, recent graduates, hobby animators and professionals alike, the retired-but-still genius, as long as you are over 18 and currently UK based you can have a go

How it all works? Please email your BAA 2012 Sheep stings to stings@britishanimationawards.com along with a covering email including; your name, phone number and email address. Please title the file name as your ful name.

Entries can be submitted from October 5th, 2011, with final deadline of February 5th 2012. A selection will be online for public voting, and a final shortlist will be judged by a jury of industry specialists. The quicker you get it done, the longer you have to rack up public votes: but don’t forget that it’s quality above all that counts.

What’s in it for you?
Apart from a huge sense of pride and satisfaction from potentially seeing your hard labour up racking up online votes and possibly on the big screen in front of the industries greatest movers and shakers? OK, we’ll throw in a ticket to the gala awards night! And one for the party, so you can network like crazy!

Ken Garland

1962 - barbour index -

this isn't Garland, it is a gadget from '87, top of the lot sony...
Published writing
to follow up the short 'first things first' talk this afternoon, some info and writing by Ken Garland, the author.
the gist of what I was saying is that there is an opportunity at the start of this project of yours to encompass some ethical content and to consider some context to the work.
Are there any organisations that you are a member that may need content illustrating, illuminating, publicising?
how do you feel?
I graduated in 1987, at that time, posessions were out of range. there was an inner city pig farm out the back of where I lived and if the wind was bad direction, the house became very unpleasant.
I did not have much commercial aspiration, and it was not as much on the agenda of the uni to consider employability, as is the request now.
the preferred route was to try and extend education and get a place at the Royal College of Art and do an MA. Get a good portfolio together to apply for the RCA ironically was the route to London and the route to a commercial career for a time.

Any how - Ken garland writes well.

ben Mitchell ~ good egg.

Ben Mitchell was a student on the MA course, maybe three years ago. his blog is an example of how to keep a flame under the pan. check it out, too many blogs/websites perish at the end of a course, and the trail goes cold.

Book. producing animation catherine winder

Book producing animation by Catherine Winder.

budgets

check this out here
post by Captain Capitalism, an animator from Austin Texas. here>
mostly interested in peaks and troughs of animation financing. the money is very slight presently, It is your business...

Barbican -British Showcase (15*)

Barbican -British Showcase (15*)
Tomorrow september 1 in London town, best of British animaton. Even if you can't make it, then check out the names and do some research into what's hot at the moment.

LIAF on Now

LIAF returns for the 8th time to a new venue - the Barbican - with an exciting, intriguing, inspiring, sometimes controversial, thoroughly comprehensive collection of animation. Fri 26 Aug – Sun 4 Sep

See the programme here.

and more from the LIAF site here

Obituary - Robert Breer,

God ~ Robert Breer. One of the ten reasons why I started to animate.

1980 film here Swiss army knife with Rats and Pigeons.
“For me, the cinema medium is just an arbitrary thing which was invented that way to provide for the reproduction of natural movements. What I'm interested in is to attack the basic material, to tear up film, pick up the pieces and rearrange them.” mubi europe

new monograph, coincidentally, just released in paperback

Obituary ~ Alex Steinweiss - credited with inventing record cover album art

see the covers
In the 1930s recorded music was sold in plain packaging, or record shop advertising 'bags'; sets of discs were also usually issued in plain albums.

In 1939, Alex Steinweiss was the first art director for Columbia Records, where he introduced a wider application of album covers and cover art. Steinweiss was active in record cover design from 1939 until 1973, when he semi-retired to devote himself to painting. By his own admission, he has designed roughly 2500 covers.

Steinweiss' career can be divided into roughly five periods. From 1939 to perhaps 1945, he designed all the covers for Columbia. During this period, he developed the entire graphic "language" of album design.

The second period is from 1945 to roughly 1950, during which he was no longer the sole designer for Columbia. He also began designing for other companies. This period is sometimes described as the "First Golden Age" of the album cover.

Steinweiss' signature font, the "Steinweiss scrawl," first appeared in roughly 1947. Steinweiss claims to have invented the LP cover, which first appeared in 1948.

Starting in around 1950, Steinweiss did the covers and record label for Remington, and began a more than 20 year association with both Decca and London Records. Like his earlier periods, most of his early 1950s designs are drawn, for Columbia, RCA, Remington, Decca and London. This is his third period, when he did drawing, lettering, and layout that was often brilliant but perhaps not as memorable as his late 1940s period. It was during this period that he collaborated with Margaret Bourke-White on a memorable series of covers for Columbia.

Starting in the mid-1950s, Steinweiss added photography to his palette. Steinweiss's photographic covers are remarkably distinctive. He utilized strange garish colors, odd lighting, and numerous visual puns and reference points. copy from wiki
on a similar tip ... Neil Fujita, (AIGA interview here)
From 1954, when he joined Columbia Records, Fujita and his design team built on the tradition of the celebrated designer Alex Steinweiss to match the innovative covers from dedicated jazz labels like Blue Note and Prestige.

Soho shorts - finalists

FINALIST



RUSHES SOHO SHORTS ANNOUNCES THE FESTIVAL FINALISTS

Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, celebrating its 13th year, is excited to announce the 48 finalists in this year’s competition. The top three finalists from each category have been chosen by 120 judges, all of whom are long standing professionals in the chosen fields within the media and entertainment industry.

The RSSF 2011 Finalists are:

ANIMATION

THE EAGLEMAN STAG directed by Mikey Please at The Royal College of Arts

NOKIA ‘DOT directed by Sumo Science at Aardman Animations

A MORNING STROLL directed by Grant Orchard at Studio AKA



SHORT FILM

CAPTURING SANTA directed by Peter Cattaneo at Sprout Pictures

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT directed by Michael Davies at Spellbound Films

COLOURBLEED directed by Peter Szewczyk at Light + Mathematics



INTERNATIONAL

COCKRAOCH directed by Luke Eve at More Sauce

TWO LAPS directed by Owen Trevor at Lanky Boy and Luscious International

VIA GORI directed by George Barbakadze at Iluminar Pty ltd.



LONG FORM

HERMANN directed by Hana Geissendorfer at GFF KG

RITE directed by Michael Pearce at Digicult

DEEPER THAN YESTERDAY directed by Ariel Kleiman at The Victorian College of the Arts



BROADCAST DESIGN

AIDES ‘SMUTLEY’ directed by Againstallods at Passion Pictures

THE CHASE ¬ Venables and Bell and Intel directed by Smith & Foulkes at Nexus Productions

THIS UNPREDICTABLE LIFE - Honda directed by Smith & Foulkes at Nexus Productions



MUSIC VIDEO

MARCHING SONG – Esben & The Witch directed by Peter King & David Procter at Agenda Collective

IRON - Woodkid directed by Yoann Lemoine at Caviar / HSI London

ISLES – Little Comets directed by Aoife McArdie at Agile Films



NEWCOMERS

GOD VIEW directed by Billy Lumby

WORSHIP directed by Calum MacDiarmid

STARCROSSED directed by Tactful-Cactus at Tactful-Cactus



DOCUMENTARY

SKATEISTAN: TO LIVE AND SKATE KABUL directed by Orlando Von Einsiedel at Grain Media

PS YOUR MYSTERY SENDER directed by Benjamin Wigley at Artdocs & Scottish Documentary Institute

MANUEL DE LOS SANTOS directed by Peter Montgomery

The RSSF Finalists will be joined by Fujifilm Shorts nominee’s with all winners being announced at the RSSF Awards Ceremony being held at Curzon Soho on Thursday 28th July 2011.

The festival is a non-profit event, taking place from 20th to 29th July, and is recognized as one of UK’s best Short Film Festivals, promoting filmmakers to the film, TV and commercial production industries with an equal focus on emerging and established talent.

The festival opened with the very well received feature documentary POM Wonderful presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, directed by Morgan Spurlock. The documentary explores the potential for product placement in financing films, a source of funding that is increasingly applicable for short format work.

The last five days have seen sell out seminars at The Hospital Club, BAFTA, Deluxe Soho alongside panels at the Applestore discussing the Future of Documentary with the Documentary Filmmakers Group, the Future of Advertising with the APA and an amazing showcase from Addictive TV.

The straight 8 programme opened last night to a sell out audience of filmmakers and super 8 fanatics with a second premiere screening tonight with another new 20 straight 8 films - as yet unseen by their filmmakers.

All details can be found on the website: www.sohoshorts.com and the programme

The Cartoon Forum is neither a fair nor a festival, but rather a European co-production forum for TV and new platforms animation.

* 700 delegates each year, including 240 buyers
* 66 animation projects to be pitched
* A unique networking place: sightseeing tours, Welcome and Farewell Dinners
* Efficiency of the formula: +450 series financed since 1990, representing a total budget of 1.5 billion EUR

The 22nd Cartoon Forum will take place from 13-16 September 2011 in Sopot, Poland, a modern and lively seaside city near the historical city of Gdańsk.

have a look to see what is being pitched, where the productions are coming from, the style and approaches to writing, it is a good survey.

Derry, City of Culture in 2013

Derry~Londonderry has made history after winning its bid to be the first ever UK City of Culture in 2013. The momentous win means that in 2013 Derry~Londonderry will play host to a year-long celebration of culture in the city, opening its doors to visitors from across the world.

Like Derry is waiting, so are we. send me the links to your blogs, and I will put them up there on the left...