Created in Birmingham

We’ve acquired a nice little pile of booklets and mini publications on the CiB desk which we’ve been meaning to mention, so thought we’d just post them all up together.

First is Ammo Magazine. This cute and colourful little thing is packed with illustration and designer/ artist interviews.

Ammo also accepts submissions, so if you think your work would fit in on the pages of this small but perfectly formed publication, take a look at their submissions page.

This book from Creative Birmingham profiles the 30 shortlisted nominations and 6 winners from the Invisible City Awards. Categories included ‘Things that made me think’, ‘Things that made me smile’, ‘Things that taught me something’, ‘Things that make me proud’, ‘Business things’, and ‘Cultural things’.

Created in Birmingham was up for ‘Things that make me proud’, which is nice, but unfortunately we lost out to Tomorrow People.

This publication for Hello Digital retells ‘stories from a digital city’, with plenty of glossy photos of Birmingham – current and future – along with articles from a range of industry specialists and experts.

This tasteful and nicely designed programme is from the 2010 Supersonic Festival, featuring all the events, activities and artists who performed across the weekend.

While we’re on the topic of festivals, The Independent Festivals Group launched a publication earlier this month, celebrating the cultural value of Birmingham’s independent festivals.

Included in the group are Bass Festival, Birmingham Book Festival, Birmingham International Jazz and Blues Festival, Fierce Festival, Flatpack Festival, Rhubarb Rhubarb and Supersonic Festival.

This publication can be downloaded for free here, and makes for quite an interesting read – Redefining Culture – Birmingham’s Independent Festivals

• We Could Be Heroes Clothing
  “This is We Could Be Heroes Clothing, an independant clothing company set up in the UK.” And this is their blog
• IdeasTap | Forums: CASTING – Actors needed for UK Film Council funded short film.
  “We are currently looking to fill a number of primary roles for a new project, ‘Fifty’, a short film to be made in association with Screen West Midlands as part of the UK Film Council’s Digishorts scheme.” I happen to know they’re after a bus too – can anyone help?
• The Birmingham Press
  I’d not spotted that they have a website
• Birminghamsalon’s Blog
  Audio from Birmingham Salon’s ‘What are libraries for?’ debate is up online
• Twitter / Deluka: On stage at #newtwitter launch party
  Nice…
• Twitter / Mostly Jazz Festival: News News. Mark Ronson AND …
  “News News. Mark Ronson AND Duran Duran in Swordfish Records on Tuesday 28th from 4pm. Head down to meet them!” Sorry for the late notice on this one
• Media Archive for Central England to release The Black Country 1969 DVD on 1st November – Switchboard
  “Media Archive for Central England are preparing to release the first of a number of retail DVDs that will be released in the coming months and years, and our first DVD release is The Black Country 1969″
• Son Of The Public Meeting | We Are Birmingham – The Shop
  Details of the shop emerge – a new logo, potential premises, company directors…
• Popular Music History – So What? – Discussing the political economy of popular music history
  Rob Horrock’s “PhD research scrapbook”. He’s the manager of Einstellung too
• Opportunity for filmmakers to screen their films as part of Hello Digital 2010
  Producers’ Forum have “a space at The Custard Factory Theatre, which seats 100 people on 21st and 22nd October from noon -18:30″. Give them a shout if you want to submit a film or two
• Digbeth is Good » Getgood Link: Art Stalking: 48 Sheet
  Nice vid about the 48 Sheets project with a link to Ana Milgram’s take on it/response
• Sister Tree
  “Established in 1997 by Sharon Jones and Margaret Polack, Sister Tree is a Theatre Production Company which concentrates on leading workshops in all branches of the art”
• Midland Actors Theatre
  “MAT is a leading touring theatre company. We are dedicated to telling stories. Our aim is to take stories, myths and legends from different cultures and traditions, and retell them in new ways”
• Mind Your Language – jon bounds
  Worth bearing in mind – “I’ve worked out over a few years that “private view” means two things: if a show is big and important it means “no entry unless you’re invited”, if a show is small or not that well known it means “please come, there’ll be free wine and nibbles”. It’s developed as art-jargon for some reason, and people who know know and those that don’t don’t. But it does put off people who might otherwise have liked to have attended—and the smaller shows could do with that, in fact they want it.” Now to decide if your show is big and important or if it’s smaller
• Black Country Creative Advantage
  “Black Country Creative Advantage is a 2-year project of the Centre for Art, Design, Research and Experimentation at the University of Wolverhampton and Longhouse/Multistory in West Bromwich”. They have a conference coming up on 9 Oct
• 2011 submissions call : Flatpack Festival
  “Lengthening nights and falling leaves mean it’s time to start cranking up for Flatpack”. Click the link for details on how to send your stuff in
• Birmingham Post – Galaxy radio puts Capital into Birmingham
  “A spokesman for the firm said no jobs would be lost in Birmingham as a result of the rebrand and that breakfast and drive-time shows would be locally made”

Very late notice, but if you’re at a loose end tonight then you could do a lot worse than head over to the Electric Cinema for the Birmingham launch of stand-up/video comedy phenomenon Popcorn Comedy:

featuring the rap/stand up stylings of Doc Brown and the wonderful Holly Walsh live on stage, as well as a selection of the newest and funniest videos from the web in glorious high resolution

It’s part of the Birmingham Comedy Festival (which is currently ongoing) as well as being sponsored by Hello Digital.

Tickets are £6, get them from the Electric Cinema website or, more realistically given the time, on the door. I’ll be going along, maybe see you there.

There’s a little more info on Dice Productions’ blog – they’re organising things and will be premiering their new video.

I obviously had too much time on my hands back in August because I volunteered to run a 48-hour film competition.  From humble origins Film Dash (as I called it) it gathered pace, got bundled into Hello Digital and culminated in 11 films being produced over a single weekend with one being shown at the Odeon on Sunday night.

I was more than chuffed with how it all went.  Three times as many teams entered than I had cautiously hoped for and the quality of the films was astounding.

I’ve rounded up links to all the films on the Film Dash website and I really do recommend checking them out, they’re all under 5 minutes so it won’t take that long.

The judging panel (which didn’t include myself, thankfully) picked a winner and that is the excellent ‘Dunkirk’ by Team TTV:

Dunkirk from Pete Ashton on Vimeo.

There’s a very good chance I’ll be organising something again next year.  Details to be confirmed/dreamt up later, but it was too fun not to do again.  If you want to get on the Film Dash mailing list just email ‘SUBSCRIBE’ to filmdash@gmail.com.

If CiB posts have been a little light over the past few days (and they have) then it’s been because I was doing a blogging/social reporting job for Hello Digital and the associated conference, Hello World.

As a result there’s plenty of stuff (reports from conference sessions, short interviews with speakers, photos and a liveblog) to browse through on the Hello Digital blog.

Personally, I very much enjoyed the whole thing, but that kind of feedback won’t necessarily make for a better event next year.  So, it’s good to see the organisers are already soliciting feedback via their blog.

If you’ve got any gripes, suggestions or requests for more of the same (I thought the calibre of speakers was particularly good) then let them know in the comments on their blog.  Or here if you like, and I’ll pass comments on.

To get you started, I’d ask for:

• The programme (or some of it, or at the very least the dates) to be announced earlier
• Better (and open) wireless internet provision
• Conference sessions to be streamed live to the internet
• More fringe/evening events to be provided/encouraged

• 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

Hello World is:

Birmingham’s international digital media conference, held at Millennium Point from October 23-24 as part of the Hello Digital festival

Tickets at the talks are free but, given the calibre of some of the speakers (impressive bods from Flickr, Pixar, Channel 4 and so on), really will need to be booked online pretty sharpish.

Here’s the line-up.

Thursday 23 Oct:

• 9.30am – Gaming Gets Serious
• 11.15am – Doing Business in a Digital World
• 2pm – Digital Content Creation and Distribution

Friday 24 Oct:

• 10am – 4iP Regional Launch
• 11.45am – Digital Debate: Do or Die? Coping With Convergence in the Digital Age
• 1pm – “Talent 2 Market”- Developing the Skills of the Creative and Media Sector
• 2.30pm – In Conversation with Heather Champ, Director of Community at Flickr
• 3.45pm – In Conversation with Michal Makarewicz, Pixar Animation Studios

The full site for Hello Digital (23-26 October 2008) is now up with all the event info and other gubbins you’d expect.

It’s been put together by talented localers Made Media, Maverick, Fluid & Stef Lewandowski.

There’s a flurry of good film-related stuff going on at the moment and now Screen WM have just launched this year’s digishorts too:

the annual short film production scheme that offers new and emerging filmmaking talent the chance to develop and produce a short film with support and a budget from Screen WM

You’ve got until Monday 10 Nov to get your short film ideas in.  A shortlist of 25 ideas will be developed before the final 6 go to production.  Go to the digishorts website to grab an application form.

There are going to be roadshows about the West Mids with

a spectacular one day event in Birmingham on Saturday 25^th October as part of Hello Digital which will include discussions, screenings and possibly the chance to pitch your project to a panel of industry experts

Which sounds jolly.

*Gratuitous plug alert*

While we’re on the subject of short films, Film Dash is a 48-hour film challenge happening 17-19 October.  I’m running it but it’ll be great, honest, and anyone’s welcome to enter.  Here’s the Film Dash website.

• The big Film Dash logo vote
  Film Dash – the 48-hour film challenge happening in Birmingham on 17-19 October is picking up pace. We need a logo though. A couple have been submitted; please have a look and vote for your fave
• Capsule Blog » The Joyful Bewilderment
  Capsule are involved in a group exhibition at Rough Trade East (in London 2-27 Oct) called The Joyful Bewilderment, along with other West Mids types including members of The Outcrowd Collective, Lucy McLauchlan, Rik Cooper, Stef Grindley, Lee Basford, Ben Javens, Chris Keenan and Lawrence Roper
• Fused – Student Issue
  Fused’s one-off student special has tips from Johnny Foreigner, The Twang, Poppy & The Jezebels, Bigger Than Barry, Bohemian Jukebox and The Editors. Read it online here
• Punch Update Sept 2008
  Lots of news of things and happenings from the Punch crew
• Hello Digital – Calling all artists
  “UKType is looking for typographers, lettering artists, calligraphers and other creatives who would like to participate in a day of filming” for production on Baskerville – The Animated Movie

I mentioned this in passing as part of the round-up of Hello Digital-related events but here’s a little more info:

Baskerville the Animated Movie celebrates John Baskerville, the man, the typeface and his future legacy. The film will be complemented by the development of a site-specific installation

It’s being headed up at BIAD but from what I hear there are all sorts of collaborations going on.

A new version of the website will officially launch on 22 September but for the time being there’s a good amount of information on the script, scenes and so on but no shots from the film itself yet.

The film will get a showing at Hello Digital (where and when TBC) and you can follow the link for the current Baskerville Project website.

I’ve been feeling a bit off-colour the past couple of days, so apols for the lack of decent posting.  If anything’s going to raise my spirits it’s the prospect of a sodding great whale and a huge robot both turning up in the city.  It’s like Power Rangers or something.

The former comes courtesy of Claudia Losi’s Balena Project as presented by Ikon Gallery (and previously alluded to).  A 25ft cashmere whale will be deposited by the escalators in The Mailbox from 24 Sept to 26 Oct.  This is what it looks like:

Hmm, so it doesn’t look like a fearsome, city-levelling villain, more like me flopped on my sofa feeling sorry for myself.

Meanwhile, flyers for Hello Digital (a mere 6 weeks away and still no-one knows quite what it is) will apparently be distributed around the Bullring tomorrow by a giant robot.  Brilliant!

I’ll write something about Hello Digital when I know what’s going on but details have been trickling out:

• It’ll be happening predominently at Millennium Point and will be free to attend
• SCAMP will kick things off on the first night with an “electro-acoustic and live visual performance”
• An international digital conference called ‘Hello World’ will take place on 23-24 October
• There’ll be an interactive ‘Field of Light‘ from the Plus Expo people, controllable via a microsite (this sounds dead cool)
• Capsule’s ‘Home of Metal‘ project will launch at Wolverhampton Art Gallery on Saturday 25 Oct
• Baskerville: The Animated Movie will get it’s premiere
• Killriculum seems to involve getting kids to watch scary short films while lying in coffins
• Digital Storytelling is “a touching vision of the world we live in”. Hmm, sounds very worthy
• The Light House in Wolverhampton, in association with 4Talent, will be screening “contemporary and classic film from the Film4 back catalogue”

So far the Hello Digital blog and Twitter are up and running and the main site is due to go live any minute now.  Meanwhile here’s the flyer:

Hi8us have teamed up with all sorts of people including the Creative Careers Surgery, Hello Digital (on which more in a later post) and The Brothers McLeod to put on some talks and masterclasses in September.

Digitoons Talks

• 2 Sept @ The Theatre, Custard Factory with Tobias Fouracre (Tandem Films) and Chris Randall (Second Home Productions)
• 3 Sept @ The Herbert, Coventry with Greg & Myles McLeod (The Brothers McLeod) and someone from Cosgrove Hall Films (TBC)
  
• 4 Sept @ Light House, Wolverhampton with Helene Friren (Tandem Films) and Richard Hayes (Cosgrove Hall Films)

All talks last from 6.30 to 8pm with nibbles until 9pm.  They’re all free too but places are limited to you’ll need to book – call 0121 753 7700 or email kate@hi8us.co.uk for that.

Digitoons Masterclasses

In addition to the talks:

The Brothers McLeod, will give six budding animators the opportunity to take part in five masterclasses to enable them to create their own one-minute animations. The finished product will be screened alongside renowned industry professionals at Millenium Point, as part of Hello Digital.

The classes will take place weekly between 16 Sept and 7 Oct 2008.  To apply for that call 0121 753 7700 or email kate@hi8us.co.uk.

For more info on the talks and masterclasses see the DigiToons eflyer.