Created in Birmingham

The next Animation Forum WM event will be Shorts on Walls as part of Flatpack Festival. The event starts at 6.30pm, Saturday 14th March 2009 at The Victoria pub.

As with previous ‘…on Walls’ events this will be your chance to screen your animated shorts and chat with fellow animators. Entry to the event is free, and all Animation Forum WM members are encouraged to make submissions. To attend simply RSVP by email to info@animationforumwm.co.uk.

To submit work email Dave Allen on the above email who will give you all the details.

Film Forum West Midlands has been set up following a conversation at the last Birmingham Film Makers meet organised via Facebook.  Taking its cue from the Animation Forum WM:

The focus of this blog is to expose opportunities and bring people together from different disciplines of filmmaking, with the aim that these lovely people will mingle, learn and thrive of each others support to help strengthen the Midlands’ position within the media industry.

The first post only went up yesterday, so give them a little time to pretty it up, but this is one to subscribe to if you’re in any way interested in film in the West Mids.

• shameless self promotion (for a good cause) « graphiquillan
  Please go and vote for Shona’s beautiful design. It’s so quick to do and you’ll be supporting Birmingham’s creativeness. Please. Go on
• 4Talent Central Film Weekender
  As part of the Hello Digital festival the local 4Talent folk have put together some film events at the Electric Cinema. On Friday there are 5 films from the annual Horrorfest competition. Saturday sees Pixar’s Michal Makarewicz introducing WALL-E (in high def). Sunday returns to horror with 28 Days Later, followed by a debate on the future of digital film
• YouTube – ArtsFest2008′s Channel
  ArtsFest has a YouTube channel for the 2008 events
• Punch – News – MOBO 2008 nomination for Punch!!!
  Ammo from Punch was nominated for a BeMOBO award which honours an individual or organisation making a difference in the community. He was pipped to the post by Ricky McCalla in the end but a round of applause is due nonetheless
• Twitter / punchrecords
  Punch have joined Twitter, by the way
• Big Cat Group on Hello Digital
  Big Cat give an overview of the events happening next weekend (Thurs – Sun) at Hello Digital
• Digbeth is Good- Sunday Xpress this Sunday at the Adam & Eve
  Promising not only “singers, poets, comedians, strange music-makers and rattlesnakes” but “free roast potatoes and good cheer” too. Sounds splendid
• Animation Forum WM – Eight Eyed Sea Bass in Profile
  Interesting interview with Paul and Dom from Eight Eyed Sea Bass. Covering topics like the London/regions divide, funding/support for animators and current/future projects. Having seen it, I can also confirm that they have a “bloody nice studio”
• D’log – 10th Birmingham Tolkien Fest
  Pencil in 16-17 May 09 if the thought of a Tolkein Fest makes you go weak at the knees. If not, don’t

• Independent Of The Month – Style Birmingham
  Lora Leedham – Studio 6, The Merlin Centre of Contemporary Design, Hockley
• Isaac – a man of many talents who redefined the word legend
  Roger Shannon pays tribute to the late Isaac Hayes in an article most remarkable for the idea of a band consisting of Isaac Hayes, Huggy Bear and Taurean Blacque with Lovejoy as their manager. Oh, scrap that – I just got to the bit where Roger auctioned Hayes’ boxer shorts…
• Birmingham pubs Google Map
  Tom Scotney’s putting together a map of Birmingham pubs. Check it out and maybe give him a hand – it only takes a sec to add your local/fave
• Animation Forum WM research report
  “The Animation Forum West Midlands’ research report is now online for all to see. The report looks at the region’s ever-growing animation sector, and the role Animation Forum WM has played, and has to play in the process”
• Interview with Birmingham Opera Company’s Graham Vick
  Why does Birmingham Opera Company need 2,500 tonnes of mud to stage a Mozart opera? Its director tells all to (The Guardian’s) Erica Jeal
• Home of the Autumn Store Blog – How to Put Bands on and Not Lose Loads of Money
  “The next in my occasional series about how to put on a gig”
• Death Cassettes
  A new cassette (not record) label – “Limited to 100 copies.. On One of Four Coloured Cassettes, Hand made Artwork and Covers, And free digital downloads of the tracks tooooo for yr ipodz” (Spotted by Dunc at Autumn Store)
• Finally, if you’ve not had a chuckle at the council yet…
  They went and used a picture of Birmingham, Alabama’s skyline on a leaflet.  They seem to have used the first pic that came up when they searched ‘Birmingham skyline’ with Google – not that they were prepared to admit that at first, which is probably why every man and their blog has written about this now.  Ah well.

• Ads On Walls round-up
  Another quality, well-attended Animation Forum West Mids event – here’s the list of screenings and contact details for everyone involved
• Guardian says Digbeth has 2nd & 3rd best outdoor dancefloors in UK
  Ben Neal spotted that “The Guardian voted The Rainbow 2nd best outdoor dancefloor in the UK, and swiftly followed it with The Custard Factory’s Factory Club (Medicine Bar) as 3rd”
• The Book for Birmingham
  “To celebrate the National Year of Reading, we want to capture the city’s reading choices and ultimately find the The Book for Birmingham… You can nominate a book any time up to 17 August 2008″ Voting begins on 1 September. Winner to be announced during October’s Birmingham Book Festival
• St Patrick’s Day Festival – update
  Spaghetti Gazetti report on July’s public meeting discussing feedback from the 2008 Festival & Parade.