Now this is a very special work, created by the wonderfully twisted brain of Tom Bland and London based freelance animator and illustrator.
He created this for a short film competition as well as for fun and practise.
The competitions theme was ‘B Movie’ and all entries should be about 3 minutes long. He won the competition but only one other person entered it that time.
Passion Pictures, have done it again! Well, more specifically Pete Candeland has done it with the directorial skills that brought us Rock Band cinematic for The Beatles, he’s recently directed this commercial for Coke Zero called ‘Happy Kingdom’.
The clip was produced by Debbie Crosscup from Passion Pictures and the designated creative agency was Ogilvy Argentina, with the creative direction of: Gastón Bigio, Jonathan Gurvit, Javier Mentasti and Christian Camean.
Based on the popular Daily Telegraph comic strip of the same name by Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor. BreakThru has worked with Charles and Russell to bring Alex off the page and on to your screens.
Alex has been shot, kidnapped, run over, abducted by aliens and marooned in the Amazon rainforest. He’s endured two weeks as a homeless person on the streets of new York (a team-building exercise), been called to the priesthood by God (he declined) and he’s had vivid nightmares about being a pupil at Hogwarts, of going down with the Titanic and of being employed, ignominiously, as a milkman. For the most part none of these experiences have dented his blinkered complacency or wholly mercenary attitude to life.
Several ‘real’ people have made appearances in the strip: Tony Blair, Prince Charles, Prince William, Nicola Horlic, Martha Lane-Fox, Robbie Williams, and Bill Clinton.
In 2002, creators Charles and Russell were awarded MBEs for services to the newspaper industry. More information about the Alex comic strip is available at the alex cartoon website.
How do you fancy winning an iPod or an online 3D course from Escape Studios?
That’s what they’re offering as a thank you for those who have graduated from a UK university and don’t mind spending 5 minutes filling in their Graduate Survey. Basically, they’re interested in learning about how you got on finding a job, and how well you think your university prepared you for the world of work.
The winner will be revealed in a few weeks’ time.
It feels unsettling because is real and is close to all of us. This animation is a follow up to the award winning short ‘Blokes’ and was animated by Matt Frodsham depicting the word of Mat Lloyd’s poem. They are both tapping into major social issues here, so I am sure it will get all the attention it deserves, and hopefully it will spark some positive reaction, something that goes beyond the exchange of knowing looks between the viewers while they nod in agreement, but then do nothing.
Mat Lloyd says: “I wrote the poem on a canvas with a marker pen the morning after I was attacked.
The night before I was in my local park on the opening day of the skate park I’d helped get built, it was nearly midnight. We’d organised a DJ to play the day out in a marquee and I just popped out to take a leak. In my drunken state I was stumbling to find a bush when I heard, and felt, a sort of ‘boink’ sound. I knew I’d been hit on the back of the head, and I knew it wasn’t with a fist. I don’t remember much else other than being back at the marquee with a bleeding head…”
Matt has kept an in depth step-by-step log about the making of the animation.
After an overwhelming response for the 2009 festival Encounters International Film Festival, Bristol, has once again teamed up with YouSendIt, to accept festival submissions digitally. In a bid to decrease waste and make life a lot easier for Filmmakers, with YouSendIt, filmmakers can upload an entry directly through the Encounters web site.
Submissions open 19 April and close on 30 June. This year sees the return of Animated Encounters and Brief Encounters as the two competitive strands. Films under 30 minutes of any genre are accepted, see the Encounters International Film Festival website for full terms and conditions.
My new reel for twenty 10.
I always struggle to make reels. I start off thinking that they’re going to be a load of fun and then slowly the realisation dawns on me that I’m my own worse client. To start with I’ve seen the work an unprecedented amount of time and although I’m pleased with everything I’ve included, I also know where the problems are — almost by timecode. I know what I’m capable of. I know what I’d like to be capable of and I never give myself enough time.
I had a sudden rush to create this reel after a friend and colleague sent a link to my web-site and a promise of a new reel to a Warner Records executive.
Years gone past I would create a montage of the prettiest bits of my work to my favourite track of the month, but last year i made the decision that I would reveal more of the work than try to hide behind a polished promo of bits. I think when putting a showreel together it’s easy to view other people’s and feel nervous that you have not got enough good stuff to include.
According to the Daily Express Tim Burton is taking on the creation of a new animated 3D version of The Addams Family. He is hoping CG will resurrect the spooky Addams Family, who last appeared on the big screen in 1993’s Addams Family Values.
Deadline.com has reported that Illumination Entertainment acquired the rights to the original cartoons by Charles Addams and the company’s boss Chris Meledandri will act as producer. Tim Burton’s intention is to stay away from the original TV series or the 90s films and instead get closer to the original “Addams Family” designs once published in New Yorker Magazine.
The London International Animation Festival is organising a fabulous event with American cult animator Bruce Bickford. This is a rare, one-night-only presentation of his films, featuring the exclusive English premiere of his new film that he has been working on for many years – Cas’l (excerpt bellow).
Bickford is best known for his collaborations with musician Frank Zappa in the 1970s, he’s an underground artist who has mystified animation critics and inspired generations of animators, while somehow eluding fame. He has been described as the world’s only “outsider artist” working in the medium of animation.
The event takes place at The Horse Hospital, 30 Colonnade. London, WC1N 1JD on Monday March 15th at 7pm. Nearest tube is Russell Square.
The Brothers McLeod always seem to have exciting new projects up their sleeves. They are currently working on a short series of police comedy animations for BBC Comedy Extra. Based on their Sticks animations. You can meet the characters for the pulp fiction on their website.
I think this is truly inspired, and it goes to show it doesn’t take much to do something fresh and full of personality, with clever writing you can go very far. I’m really looking forward to the first instalment of the adventures of Detective Inspector Plank and his team.