Another batch of short films from Screen WM’sDigishorts scheme are set to premiere next week, featuring a hefty wedge of local film talent. There’s a free screening event to see all six Digishorts films at Light House in Wolverhampton on Tuesday 12 January, 6.15 – 8pm, as part of Screen Forum.
The Moon Bird
Names that stick out for me are BAFTA-nominated The Brothers McLeod, who will be showing their dark animated fairytale ‘The Moon Bird‘, and Lewis Arnold, whose film ‘Stained’ is inspired by author Ronnie Thompson’s time served as a prison officer. After the screening there will be a Q&A with some of the filmmakers, so have your hand-raising and poser-posing hats on ready.
Flash wakes up to a phone call from Angel announcing that he’s being released from prison and wants the £500k he’d left with Flash for safekeeping. Short of the full amount and pushed for time, Flash is forced to strike a deal with Evil who more than lives up to his name. 1 Day follows Flash’s race against the clock as he’s pursued by a rival gang, the police, his three irate babymothers and his granny
And here’s the trailer (warning, contains gratuitous, kinda-cool overhead shot of Spaghetti Junction):
1 Day, which is due for national release on 6th November has caused quite some controversy with the Birmingham Post reporting that it has been criticised for “encouraging impressionable youngsters to join violent criminal gangs” and “glamorising gun crime“ and BBC have reported that at least 2 of the big Birmingham cinemas, Cineworld and Odeon are not going to be screening it
The Flip Animation Festival brings three days of animational loveliness to the Light House in Wolverhampton, starting on 5 November (although the launch will be at Millennium Point in Birmingham).
There’s a fair amount being packed in – portfolio reviews, screenings of shorts and student films and workshops on game design and scriptwriting. Greg McLeod, from the Brothers McLeod will be animator-in-residence on the Friday, allowing all and sundry to watch him working. In fact, borrowed from the newsletter, here’s a summary of what’s on (follow the links for detail):
Light House in Wolverhampton are offering a video production workshop just for women which will be delivered by Film & TV Director Nerina Villa on Wednesday 11th March from 10am – 4pm.
The 1 day workshop will be a ‘hands-on’ introduction to video production techniques, exploring camera operation, lighting and sound. The workshop is designed for all skills levels; beginners, enthusiasts or those with more experience who may be in need of a refresher.
Cost: £35 + VAT (10% discount for earlybird bookings taken before Fri 27 Feb).
For more information or to book contact: Kelly Jeffs on t: 01902 716055 e: kelly@light-house.co.uk
Let me introduce myself, I’m Kate Spragg and I am taking the reins of Created in Birmingham from Chris. I’m sure you’ll agree that Chris has done a fantastic job since taking over in May 2008. The blog has brought together the Birmingham creative community which I look forward to becoming a part of, and finding out what makes it so vibrant, tenacious and proud of the city it belongs to.
I should point out that I don’t live in Birmingham – I live in Wolverhampton, but hopefully my passion for Brum’s creativity should make up for that. I have a Fine Art degree, but have moved into more digital creative pursuits since graduating in 2004. In the last couple of years I have worked in marketing and creative business development at Light House in Wolverhampton, co-organised the Flip Animation Festival, including running the event’s blog. I also co-run Colour with my fiancé Matthew. We put on live music events and write a blog.
As well as listings and regular news updates, I want to investigate how your creative endeavours impact on the city as a whole, and to find out how creative types can get ahead. I would like to continue the good work of Chris and Pete before him, and encourage others to utilise online media and tools to create, promote and reach out.
Please say hello if you see me out and about and you can follow me on Twitter, if you like.
Deaffest 2008, the tenth annual deaf-led film and TV festival will be held in Wolverhampton at the Light House 28-30 November.
The weekend of festivities will include screenings of films produced by UK and International Deaf filmmakers; Young Deaffest, which showcases work produced by young Deaf filmmakers; and a conference on Opportunities for Deaf Filmmakers, with panel discussions on how to pitch for funding for a short or feature film, a new Deaf TV channel and content for new online and mobile platforms
The programme looks quite impressively stuffed. Tickets are free, save for the Saturday night’s gala event (£12.50 and available from www.theticketsellers.co.uk).
The Flip Animation Festival (6-8 November at Light House, Wolverhampton) has been assembling a rather tasty line-up over the past little while, as documented on their nicely informative blog.
Highlights include:
A retrospective of work from Osbert Parker, best know for his cut out animation style mixed with live action; BAFTA & Screen WM Presents: Ninja Theory, the game developers behind the stunning Heavenly Sword and Kung Fu Chaos; Sita Sings the Blues, a screening of this modern classic and Indian epic; a day of Doctor Who animation treats and a real Dalek fleet will invade Light House!
The line-up is up on the Flip Festival website and tickets are available at very reasonable prices.
It’s competition time!
However, if you’d rather swipe a ticket for free then here’s your chance. There are two available, to be given separately (ie not as a pair) so there’ll be two winners.
All you have to do is leave a comment claiming your ticket, first two claimants will win. Rules are as before (except for the first one) and please use a proper email address so I can get in touch.
Halloween might not be my bag but at least it’s an excuse to put some interesting events on.
Aside from the Ikon Eastside closing party there are a fair number of Halloween-themed things going on. These are they (all happening on Friday 31 October, except the last two):
The National Trust are putting on events in the back to back buildings (50-54 Inge Street/55–63 Hurst Street, Birmingham). From 11.30am – 4pm they’ve got some nice events for the kiddies, then from 7pm to 9.30pm they’re “offering visitors a unique opportunity to linger for a while in our shadow-laden rooms, and silently reflect on the atmosphere of the back houses lit by candles, fires and oil lamps”
Vivid are showing a slowed-down version of Psycho that will last a full 24 hours. It starts at 9pm on Friday 31st and ends at 9pm the next day. Entry is free
At the Old Joint Stock Theatre, “Gemini present an evening of ghostly tales around the history of the Old Joint Stock followed by readings from a Medium”. The night’s called Ghostly Histories and perhaps the scariest part is that the blurb mentions “clairvoyants with solid reputations”
And on 1 November the Outer Edge’s next event at The Edge features “some obscure 3D horror and live horror sound effects from DJ FreakBeat”. Email outersight@live.com or text 07887 956297 for info.
The Light House in Wolverhampton are offering creative start-ups the chance to advertise themselves on the Light House LCD Screen Network.
This is a great opportunity for any creative business, from production companies and graphic designers to photographers and more. The screen network covers the main Chubb Buildings reception and Lock Works bar which currently sees a weekly footfall of 1000 people. The building contains over 10 companies and the bar area is a popular venue for business meetings, wifi users and networking events.
If you are interested and require further information then please contact Fung Ye Tsang, fungye@light-house.co.uk
Whilst browsing about the site I noticed they’ve got a few short animations you can watch on their media page. I particularly recommend ‘Onions’ by Natalie Hinchley.
Gigbeth – What’s On
The schedule for Gigbeth is coming together. Young Knives, Guillemots, The Destroyers, Sugarhill Gang and Einstellung are down so far with more to come
Light House October Highlights
Featuring independent film releases and new photography exhibition ‘Imagined Lines’cib by Matthew Hammond
Curates Egg Autumn Programme
Here’s the Curates Eggs’ latest mailout. All sorts of things going on including some stuff for the Birmingham Comedy Festival. There’s also some recommendations for other peoples events, which is always good to see
The Bad One review
Whatsonstage Midlands reviews Women & Theatre’s latest play… and they like it
Clusta Brand Cool Brands
“CoolBrands, the annual survey of the UK’s coolest brands, appointed Clusta to overhaul the brand identity for its 2008/09 programme”
Another Byte Of Banality: Turn It up Sonny…
Looking for used Soundsystems, PAs, Speakers, Amps, Microphones and other audio miscellany? Mark 19 October in your diary as the date of ‘Urban Village’ Dave’s Used Pro Audio Fair at the Custard Factory
Homer Creative
“a creative communications agency” who seem to do any number of related things including graphic design, web design, writing, editing, art direction, photography, etc and so on. They designed the cover for Gaynor Arnold’s Booker longlisted ‘Girl In A Blue Dress’ too
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.
KateGoes and Writes a BBC Theme Tune
“KateGoes are doing a theme tune for a new BBC sitcom called Coming of Age” as spotted by Dunc from the Autumn Store
Juneau Projects Live Album Launch
Fused also report that “Juneau Projects will be launching their live album ‘I Went to the Woods’ at New Art Gallery Walsall on Thursday 28 August 2008, 6pm-8pm and admission is free”
Help break a World Record this week
If you have any free time this week everyone working on the Big Picture would love to see you at Thinktank to help build this huge artwork. You can turn up at any time between 10am – 4pm each day until Thursday this week (if you’d like more details see the Big Picture site)
Sarah Ray exhibition
Fused report that “The very talented Sarah Ray will be exhibiting her work at The Marcus Galleries from the end of this month”
The Flip Animation Festival is on from 6-8 November (Thurs to Sat) at the Light House in Wolverhampton.
This year the festival will feature the C-Games Conference, a Drawing in the Digital Age symposium, an afternoon of animated Doctor Who and various screenings, talks and so on.
The website’s just coming together but the peeps at the Light House are running The Flip Blog and have put up a few quite charming items already.
For the animators out there, the last date for submissions is 8 August, so get your skates on if you’re planning to send something in. Here’s how to submit to Flip 08.
PLOT – Supporting Creative People
Got a start-up creative business in the West Mids and want business/marketing/mentoring advice? Drop into the Light House on Sat 21 June between 12-4pm for their Creative Sessions
Robot Vs Dinosaur have a blog
Which alerted me to the fact that Datassette has relaunched his site. RvD’s next night of laptoptronica is at Island Bar on Fri 20 June. They’ve got themselves a YouTube channel too.
The Public opening weekend
Fused Magazine have been going through the details – “the building is finally due to open its doors for the first time at the end of this month with a free festival programme on the 28th and 29th June”.
FLUX-FEST – flyer
Feast your eyes on the flyer and stick an event or two in your calendar.
Some great news from the peeps at 7 Inch Cinema landed on the virtual doormat today. The Flatpack Festival is the worthy recipient of funding for the next three years, securing it’s future and allowing the organisers to maybe think a little bigger.
Peter Buckingham from the UK Film Council (who are providing the funding) said of Flatpack:
Their innovative approach to screening films in churches, warehouses and shopping centres as well as cinemas and gallery spaces is a brilliant idea because it helps to attract new audiences to some great short films, animation and live film events
Flatpack 3 will take place in Feb 2009 and will launch “with a tribute to Birmingham’s pioneering film showman Waller Jeffs“.
DeafFest at Wolverhampton Light House have also received funding so well done to them too.
Last word goes to the understandably chuffed Flatpack producers:
without going all Oscar-night about it, it wouldn’t have been possible without all the filmmakers, volunteers, artists, promoters, technicians, funders, venues and enthusiastic punters who have chipped in to help us get this far. So thanks a lot, and here’s to Flatpack III in February 2009 and beyond…
