Animation Forum West Midlands are running an after-work (6.30pm to 8.30pm) event at The Rainbow in Digbeth on Monday 28 April 2008. It’s called Shorts on Walls and in their own words:
Whether or not you actually make short films, Shorts on Walls is a great chance for animators to meet and network after work with other freelancers, animation companies and professionals over a mid-week beverage.
It’s free to attend but please let them know if you’ll be going down. There are contact details and more info on the Animation Forum West Midlands website.
Incidentally, props to AFWM for showing how this web promotion lark should be done – the news page of their site has an RSS feed and features a map of the venue. There’s also a Facebook group (with a list of participating animators/studios) to join as well as a newly-minted YouTube group.
Animation Forum give notice of Looking Forward, a half day event this Wednesday for the audio-visual industry.
This is an excellent opportunity for Animation Forum members to voice their opinions on the skills needs of the regions’ animation sector, as well as discover the business support available. The Animation Group at this event will be chaired by an Animation Forum representative; Peter McLuskie of Light House.
Animation Forum has a new website with a members area for people to upload their work to and connect with others in the area. Interestingly they’re also using a Facebook group for discussions which is a sensible move – using a service that already exists and most people are already on.
This panel discussion will look at the impact of new and emerging online platforms and tools and will ask what the opportunities are for animators and filmmakers and can online distribution and exhibition lead to professional commissions? The panel comprises an exiting line up of animators who have had a significant impact online and who mix this ‘amateur’ work with professional commissions: Greg McLeod, from the Brother’s McLeod who are responsible for the recent Skittles ad campaign and whose ‘Spamland’ has received nearly 1m views on You Tube; Lasse Gjertson, whose films have had a huge impact on You Tube, particularly ‘Amateur which has received more than 6m views and 6 honours, including most viewed all time; Katy Davis, who has been shortlisted for the MyMovie Mashup competition and has been a feature profile on MySpace and produced the award winning short animation, Gone Fishing. The panel will also include Ana Kronschnabl: author of Plug in Turn on: A Guide to Internet Filmmaking and is the founder of plugincinema.com. The panel will be chaired by Kate Taylor who has worked in short film distribution and exhibition since 1998 and has been involved in a number of leading festivals and agencies, including Kinofilm, onedotzero, British Council and is co-founder of the London Short Film Festival.
While this has the potential to be full of people who don’t know anything spouting off about “user generated content” and coming up with strategies to make the wonderful mess of YouTube into something resembling the old ways (sorry, I get carried away) I have a feeling this will be rather more interesting and useful than that, mainly because of the appearance of Lasse Gjertson who does stuff like this:
There is, of course, loads more going on over the three days of the festival. Check the site for details or pick up a program about the place.
This morning was the press launch for the Flip Animation Festival, taking place at Light House, Wolverhamton, from November 1st – 3rd. I was there, so I guess I’m “press” these days.
The launch was introduced by Dave Harte of Digital Central with a few of his obligatory stats (apparently the West Mids has 30% more startups in film, tv and animation than anywhere else in the country – [Update: see comments for Dave's clarification of this]) followed by 20 minutes of screenings in including the Animation Forum’s showreel. Since this was included in the goodybag on DVD I’ve ripped it and uploaded it to YouTube. It seemed the right thing to do.
There was also a showing of Natalie Hinchley and Chris Randall’s The Animal Book, previously blogged here and I’m happy to say it’s as glorious as you’d hope. Good work chaps.
Regarding the importance of a real world festival in the age of online distribution and promotion through YouTube the panel said an event was important, primarily for the animators as a networking opportunity and a chance to get out of dark studios and away from computer screens. Alongside this was a chance to meet the next generation face to face through student competitions and graduate showings.
There the fact that it was curated was also appreciated, putting specific works in the formal context of a cinema rather bubbling through the morass online.
For the local scene it was good to have a landmark event in the year giving some cohesion and promotion for the regional industry on an international level.
It was nice to hear that University graduates are concentrating more on storytelling these days whereas previously technique would have been dominant, implying students are more at home with the technology these days.
A question about where the large animation studios were was answered by David Ledsam saying that there used to be bigger companies in the past but they suffered from not having consistent workloads. These have been replaced with smaller outfits who are able to survive through the droughts and expand when work appears. There’s also an international aspect with Friends and Heroes specifically spread across the globe having animators in Korea and writers in LA. While they have a 3D studio in Birmingham it’s only a part of their business.
I made a note of The Character Shop, based in the Jewellery Quarter, but I’m not sure in what context. Worth linking to them though.
There were a few mentions of the Animation Forum which is primarily a networking organization providing opportunities for local animators to get together and share information. The next event of theirs is Animation in the YouTube Generation on November 2nd which, tying things up nicely, is part of the Flip Festival.
Also in the goodybag was a USB dongle which, cleverly, was loaded with high-res images from the animations on show. If you’re blogging about the festival you might find them useful so here’s a 10mb zip of them.
As it’s still a few weeks away I’ll be posting more about Flip nearer the time but you can follow their blog for updates. It does, unfortunately, clash with Gigbeth but most of the events are during they day so it’s possible to do both. Which I intend to.
The event then finished and we had food. Which was handy as I was hungry. Pretty good spread all told.
If I was being cruel I’d say the title of the latest exhibition to take place at Curzon St Station is an indication of some shark jumping, but I’m not and it looks pretty cool.
An exhibition by a group of international visual communicators. Fusing ideas of European, Asian, North and South American students discovering their individuality through their studies at UCE’s BIAD. [...] A mix of diverse influences, oozing concepts articulated in photography, animation, moving image, illustration, graphic design, scenography, visual identity and branding.
The private view is on October 1st from 6-11pm and the exhibition runs from the 2nd to the 5th from 11am-8pm.
If you had to sell the Animal Book to someone in a minute, what would you say?
CR: In the way it was made, as far as I can remember, I don’t think there has been either a studio or a film of this scale or ambition that has been produced here before. That may sound like I’m blowing our own trumpet a bit, but I can’t honestly remember a studio that’s had the experience or the willingness, or I suppose ‘passion’ is a better word because we love doing it, to actually do large scale stop motion animation. So that’s why The Animal Book came about, and the reason for The Animal Book was that we wanted to do something that wasn’t just animation for the sake of it, there was a story behind it, a tale to tell, and I suppose the pitch for the story is it’s about going to where you belong, finding a better life.
NH: Yeah, simple pitch: it’s about two sisters who maintain the giant machine that they live in, until one day a mysterious book appears. And from that point, they have really crazy adventures, things happen and they end up discovering some place that they really belong in.
Flip is an eclectic mix of all things animation. Based in the heart of the Midlands the festival provides a wide range of experiences from educational workshops for young people to experimental animation for grown ups; from industry led panels to feature film screenings and from international showcases and retrospectives of short films to spotlights on animation companies.
You can get a taste of what the festvial was like last year on this archived site an do the social network thang on their MySpace. The festival runs from 1st to 3rd November at Light House in Wolverhampton.
Youth charity Kikass are seeking creative submissions (virals/short film clips/animations) for What Would You Do For A Pound, over the next month, offering the best entrant contacts and work experience with top creative agencies (as well as over £2,000 of stuff like a Nintendo Wii, i-Pod Video Premiership tickets and career coaching). We’re looking for young creatives age 16-25 with the talent to produce a creative/foxy/inspiring clip on the theme of money/debt/financial challenges. And it’s for a good cause, too – part of a charity campaign to help 16-25 year olds get out of debt and avoid being the victims of predatory banks and companies. Kikass works with people and brands like Channel 4, Virgin, Levi’s and O2 and are always up for promoting new talent.
Do you know of any young creatives or students who are looking for exposure and additions to their portfolio, who might be interested?
They’re specifically targeting Birmingham at the moment so if you’re young and interested, or know someone who might be, contact Jo Worsley at Jo@kikass.tv or 020 7729 0092.
The 2007 Flip Animation Festival has been announced for November 1st – 3rd at Light House and other venues in Wolverhampton.
Flip is an eclectic mix of all things animation. Based in the heart of the Midlands the festival provides a wide range of experiences from educational workshops for young people to experimental animation for grown ups; from industry led panels to feature film screenings and from international showcases and retrospectives of short films to spotlights on animation companies.
They’re currently open to submissions from animators until August 3rd. More details can be found in This document (Word) or by contacting Angela Slater at Light House on 01902 716055 / flip@light-house.co.uk.
Animation Forum West Midlands are running an after-work (6.30pm to 8.30pm) event at The Rainbow in Digbeth on Monday 28 April 2008. It’s called Shorts on Walls and in their own words:
