New year, new graduation films. The renown classic animation French school Gobelins posted earlier this month the 6 selected animated shorts that will represent the school for the coming months until the next baked graduate year. As for 2011 we have a good mix of greedy ogres, magic wolfmen, legendary beasts, introverted women, isolated dogs and voyeurs….
(Fur by De François Barreau, Marion Delannoy, Claire Fauvel, Rachid Guendouze, Vincent Nghiem, Benoit Tranchet)
(À travers la brume by Théo Boubounelle Violaine briat, Marie-Clémence Gauthier, Clément Girard, Aude Guibourt, Clara Voisin, Maïté Xia)
(Eleanor by Chloé Bury)
(Les chiens isolés by Rémi Bastie, Nicolas Deghani, Jonathan Djob-Nkondo, Paul Lacolley, Nicolas Pegon, Jérémy Pires)
Rok’s poem which already showed at London’s Independent film Festival last April brings his rich mix of folklore and black magic into his most ambitious personal project to date. For Rok, who’s accustomed us to his always twisted fables, emphasizing the generation of feelings is more important than the script of the work itself… ‘I generate images and if they have visual meaning to me, then I search for their literal meaning,’ he explains. ‘First, I just look out for the right textures, colours and composition, and then I listen to the image and find a story for it.’
The young Slovak which moved to London to study animation is now one of the key animators of Truk and we really hope he’ll keep bringing the East European narratives and this very unique Soviet style in his upcoming works. We need more eastern quirky and less western 3D softy.
There are many fables, you have Aesop fables, Andersen fables, those of La Fontaine and even those of Lionhead studios. From the Royal College of Art we have two new graduates who could become one day classic fabulists: Soyoung Hyun and Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits.
Both with a refreshing digital drawn style we encourage you to discover on their websites, especially on Soyoung’s graduation film “How life tastes” which is doing the world festival tour right now and will hopefully be on-line for our pleasure in a not-so-distant future.
still from How life tastes
Soyoung is originally from Korea where he had already started to study media contents design, motion graphic and animation. After receiving a BA in Hyper media Design from Hansung University in 2007 he felt he needed more, dive into the not easy (and amazingly competitive nowadays) world of animation. So he got here to London to study a posgraduate @ the RCA.
If a couple of weeks ago we were thinking about realistic Matrix-style roof jumps, today we’ll dive into the fantastic world of behavioral biology. You know… how animals (including us) behave in their natural habitat.
Because Pascal Giraud is not only Julien Regnard‘s close friend who co-directed “La Nuit de l’Ours” with but possibly one of this year’s La Cambre best animation cinema graduates. And he just happened to post his latest project a couple of weeks ago.
A project we have to inevitably compare with another crazy “biological” animated documentary … (remember Carsi’s Doomed?) and that we also hope to see on our local channel very soon.
Pascal’s objective is to make a tv series which deals with the biological basis of our behaviour and helps us to understand thanks to his animations. The idea apparently came from reading the books from French biologist Pr.Henri Laborit and after working with his friend Jonhattan Fayard (who recently graduated from Cognitive Sciences in France) they’ve both gone for this scientific series.
Each episode should talk take their little laboratory rat (an egg in this case) to a series of experiments. We’ll keep you informed.
After so many videos, shorts & cut-out orgasms Mr Power is going to give that buzzy fund-raising platform named “Kickstarter” a try. And what is he going to raise funds for?
You probably remember that amazing short “Path Of blood” from 3 months ago, after such a warm welcome and now that Eric considers himself (so do we) a cut paper animation master (just have a look at his previous shorts), he’s thought that PoB deserves to become his first feature length animated film.
Whereas the short film was mostly silent, the feature film will delve deeply into a large cast of interesting individuals each with their own motivation for walking the path of blood. I am extremely proud of the story I have created, there are tons of surprises in store and plenty of engaging and bloody action. (bloody action yes! that’s what we’re hear for!).
The level of detail the finished film will showcase is going to be staggering. Everything you’ve seen of my cut paper work so far has only been a precursor to what I feel is possible within the medium and I am very excited to put my skills to the test.
We don’t talk much about Belgian animation (mayb too much about French, Brit & Spaniard…) but we’ve heard about La Cambre before, and it’s always nice to see recent-graduate’s work. Julien Regnard just uploaded his latest works to his vimeo account; and it seems like Neo was a bit of a parkour wannabe… he just didn’t “study & drink enough milk”, that’s the secret!
His previous “La Nuit de l’Ours” which he created with Pascal Giraud & Alexis Fradier grabbed quite a lot of attention this year not only being part of Annecy’s official selection but winning Anima’s best short film award or “Court Mais Bon” Jury award.
His water-colour & paint on glass aesthetics (using many times the French software TVpaint) are key for these results, and we really hope to see more. Much more.
At the same time the well renown Gobelins students (2011 promotion) got to do this year’s festival opening credits. A great mix of jazzy-squizo-nipponish-nocturnaish shorts … and a lot of talent as usual, let’s keep those names in our heads shall we? Even if you’ll probably have forgotten them all by tomorrow.
Next month starts one of those exhibitions which will delight big & small equally. A dream within a dream taken out of the insomnia and creative seizures that artists like Étienne-Jules Marey or Walt Disney used to suffer.
A historical trip through the animation history produced in the last 150 years going from the emergence of the animated image, from early scientific experiments with photography to the latest wonders of computer generated imagery… and all those hairs that Pixar’s supercomputers can generate!!!
Kara Walker, Lucy 2009 Carter Whitlock
You know how much we love animation here @aqnb, and we have a special interview prepared for the end of the month, we shall be dedicating special attention this summer during the Barbican exhibition and all the satellite events, articles, interviews… (and hopefully if the London International animation festival takes place again… no details so far), so if we were you, we would tune in on a regular basis.
“Watch me Move” should bring a comprehensive mix of the good old pioneers (Lumière brothers, Mr Marey..) the omnipresent American essentials (Disney, HannaBarbera, Pixar…) & the Japanese masters (Studio Ghilbi, Toei Anmation..), we have to say that we’re missing a heavier European & UK component (with the exception of Semiconductor)… but the truth is that trying to cover the whole history of animation is so ambitious and complicated that Greg Hilty (curator) has probably had to make very hard choices.
Stop-motion, CGI, Technicolor, time & space collages, impossible geometric patterns… endless technologies that have brought decade after decade unimaginable possibilities. The exhibition is divided into seven interconnected themes: Apparitions, Characters, Superhumans, Fables, Fragments, Structures, and Visions.
do new generations know what Snow White means in the animation world?
Animation is definitely one of the most powerful tools to promote, export and reflect local cultures and Watch Me Move should dive & explore this relationship between animated films and our local / universal cultural phenomena. The show features over 170 works, from iconic clips to lesser-known masterpieces. Taking the viewer behind the dream-world of the finished film, it includes puppets, stage sets, storyboard drawings, wire-frame visualisations, cel and background images.
How animation stopped being experimental to become a mass-market trend in the 30s, how the comic industry has forever nourished their animated cousins since the first DC & Marvel houses appeared in the States, how new technologies are enabling tangible virtual worlds like those of Avatar or Tron… and on top of the usual educational introductions, there will be of course many, many, many screenings.
But to know which, you’ll have visit the @Barbican Center this summer.
Len Lye, A Colour Box, 1935
From June 15th till September 11th (for £10 though, good things aren’t free these days unfortunately).
Many years ago while spending my summer vacations @ the French Loire Valley I had the opportunity to meet one of those beings that make our world a bit miserable. A young convinced creationist girl (don’t know from which specific opinion though) who would noisily & publicly laugh at me when suggesting the possibility that we were a result of great apes’ evolution. I’ll always remember her big laugh @ Tour’s Rue du Commerce, and feeling stupid for not sharing her inspiring beliefs…
… I guess I should have payed more attention to the Book of Genesis being a kid instead of waisting my time most afternoons with those nature documentaries aired on public TV (with which I had wonderful siestas on my couch I must admit).
That was over a decade ago, when “La 2” public TV channel still had a decent rating and kids would join straight after school (and after those “Great Documentaries”) for their respective dose of animated steroids.
Things have changed a lot since then, National Geographic or Discovery programs still make it everyday at 14:30 & 16:00 but the contemporary substitutes of He-man, Thundercats or Sesame Street have now moved to their very own channel … the wonders of DTT.
Docu-animation could have been a perfect substitute for those afternoon slots rather than forcing all kids (biggest % of La 2 viewers up to that moment) move. What about those youngsters who loved watching the lion pride savage killings just before a bit of animated educational action? Well here’s a perfect mix (and opportunity) for the Spanish 2nd public channel (or any) to gain back a bit of that momentum… Guillermo Garcia Carsi has come up with a “hopeless” hotchpotch that perfectly fusions the scientific thoroughness of a BBC investigative nature report with the absurd abstraction of a kid animated product. Is it feasible to merge these 2 worlds? Let’s find out.
pájaro loco
aqnb: How are you doing Guillermo? Did you used to take a nap while watching those “La 2 documentaries” straight after school … or were you hypnotized by the hyenas nervous laughter?
Our latest animated profile is a Russian spy apparently, who’s managed to infiltrate himself into one of the best American animation schools (Calarts). We’re sure he’ll go back to mother Russia & spread all the info he’s learned upon studies completion next year. Why didn’t American authorities see him come?
Vitaliy Strokous second year film was recently uploaded to Vimeo bringing his chalk drawing talent to the digital world with “an ode to noncomformity”.
one of his street-chalk pieces
An artist to follow over the coming years without ignoring his already excellent previous films…
Aaaaaaand another short film festival for your collection! (and for you to participate in!): the London Small Short Film Fest 2011 which once again will try to showcase the best film directors, producers, writers and animators… so if you consider yourself one, pay attention..
This year’s Call for Entries is now open, and you have 2 & half months (until August 12th) to register & submit your -15min film in two categories: “Best Under 5 Min” and “Best over 5 Min” (up to 15 minutes long); @ 10£ fee and on-line. The prize? £1000 which we’re sure you wouldn’t mind winning right?
(Grant St Shaving Company by Payal Sethi, last year’s over 5min winner)
The winners will then be screened at The Smalls Short Film Fest next autumn and will take place at The Gallery Soho on Charing Cross Rd, London, UK on the 21st and 22nd of September.
You can be student, amateur, alien… or a seasoned pro; and it doesn’t matter neither if you’ve used your mobile phone, your DSLR or using 33mm film … (well… or so they say).
(A Cheeky 20 by Chris Fallen, last year’s under 5min winner)
So there you go, another film contest for your collection!
Kris Hofmann‘s latest piece is a very straightforward declaration. Since little we are all taught what, how and where to be, play with, behave like. The latest issue of the Cambridge University-original magazine “Granta” is all about women… and feminism.
And this great piece of animation is in response to Rachel Cusk’s ‘Aftermath’, which is published in their 115 number.. ‘The Feminism Issue‘.
Although this post has more to do with Mss Hofmann‘s great stop-motion works than with the eternal (and sadly still true) gender discriminatory problem. Kris graduated from the RCA a couple of years ago and hasn’t stopped working as a freelancer for several well-known houses… the BBC, V&A museum, OneDotZero… the usual you know. Now it seems she’s preparing herself for the assault of the big animation festivals. Go for them!
Amazing stuff you’ve done so far Kris, we’re delighted to discover your works.
It’s been 2 years since Toby Jackman graduated from the UK TV & film school (and finished this great film for his last year) but only 2 months since he published it on-line for our delight.
Whether this animated short has a significant resemblance with Koji Morimoto’s Animatrix episode is another discussion, we are completely carried away by the completely random & improvised story which somehow fits & comes together extremely well in the end.
We’re eagerly awaiting new films from this London artist who’s been working for Slinky for the past 2 years (most of their films are still available on their website), and whose illustrations are equally desirable.
Hates the madison
As a child I copied the characters from the Beano and Dandy. Encouraged by my parents I created new characters, stories and situations on A4 printer paper for my friends and family. After the Beano I moved on to 2000AD and MAD, along side early morning cartoons, saturday matinee films on BBC2 and late night animation/short film seasons that had been recorded, I gathered influences and interests that I used in my illustrations. I took these to college to learn Graphic Design.
Speedskate
Unfortunately for Toby, since dedicating so much time to the animation world his tea making skills have rapidly declined, and as a result he’s now a coffee drinker. Oh boy.
Recovering a great piece of French animation by Annelaure Daffis et Léo Marchand now that their new project La Vie Sans Truc is on its final production stage and we expect it to be finished next fall.
AnneLaure & Léo have created this blog (in French only, but you know the wonders of Google translate), so we can follow step by step their creative roadmap… their obstacles, unexpected events, scenario making process, story-board, sound editing, highlights… pretty much everything.
image from their upcoming short
Their new animated short (co-produced by the French national image & animated centre CNC & the cable-TV emporium Canal +) will bring us their unique with those radical graphic cuts & hotchpotch of different backgrounds that made them famous back in 2001 when they released their very first animated collaboration…
After working with Yann Tiersen, releasing their “La Saint-Festin” in 2007, short where a fearful ogre tries to get back his teeth for the annual “Saint-Festin” where each ogre eats a kid, and releasing their “Cowboys aren’t afraid to die” (an spaghetti western animated mix-mash), AnneLaure & Leo are now working on their two new projects: La vie sans truc and a new western: “L’immeuble”.
Ryan Kothe, who has some kind of stop-motion obsession, is our latest discovery from the vimeo factory, one of those artists with “a lot of spare time”, … enough to build (literally) or create whatever he needs for his videos.
Ryan (a Kiwi graphic designer working in broadcasting) doesn’t need much material to come up with these Beetlejuicesque worlds (extremely condensed, highly communicative pieces). A Canon 550D, a tripod and a few lenses, the rest is all self-created scenarios & situations imagined in his own little cottage.
still from his "Billy Brown's Coupe" short
A rather unique style that you can fully discover on his vimeo page (or by reading this interview @abduzeedo).
It might take a bit (even a year) before this film is released in the UK or outside France (with a planned June release date) but we can already start admiring the latest work of Joann Sfar (Gainsbourg – Vie héroïque director, better known for his comics).
Finally adapting his last decade’s best-seller “Le chat du rabbin” into full featured animated film which Joann started producing with Antoine Delesvaux in 2008 just when the last 2 books of the cat series were finally published in English.
"Which of the following prophets has the longest beard, Moses, Jesus or Mahoma?
Algiers, 1920s. Rabbi Sfar has more than one problem. His beautiful daughter is becoming a teenager and above all, his parrot-killing cat has just started talking! The delivery of a trunk from Russia further complicates matters when a painter is discovered inside, more dead than alive. The painter is on a quest for a hidden tribe and its mythical city in Africa. Convinced that the city really exists, he sets off on an incredible adventure, taking with him the Rabbi and his cat, a wise old Arab Sheikh and an eccentric Russian millionaire.
an idea for a posteranother of the unlikely to be released posters
Now it’s a matter of patiente till it it gets to your local cinema (if ever as the French distributir UGC haven’t even planned on a foreing release calendar) you can always get a cheap ticket to Paris and watch it this summer while tanning at the great fake Paris Plage.
