Archive | January, 2012

Finalists at the British Animation Awards

Posted on January 19, 2012 by in Animation, Man In A Cat

January’s been a bit of news-gasm, but do bear with us. It can’t go on like this all year (or could it…?). Anyway, the latest bit of news is that All Consuming Love (Man in a Cat) has been selected as a finalist at the British Animation Awards in the Best Short Film category. Whoop, and indeed, de-doo.

This means we’ll be going along to the glitzy awards ceremony at the BFI on March 15th. (See artist’s impression of the awards).

We’re also up for the BAA Public Choice award so if you see the film at a BAA screening be sure to vote for us! We’re hosting a Birmingham screening of the Public Choice films at The Custard Factory on 9, 10, 11 Febraury. You can book tickets for the screenings (which include a free drink courtesy of Light House) on our Eventbrite page at: baawardsbham.eventbrite.com

 

 

9th-11th Feb: BAA Public Choice Voting Screenings

Posted on January 17, 2012 by in Events

We’ve teamed up with Animation Forum WM and The Light House to host the British Animation Awards Public Choice screenings in Birmingham!

As part of the British Animation Awards, several voting screenings take place nationwide to decide the Public Choice Award. The programme is a mixture of BAA’s shortlisted short films, music videos and commercials made over the past two years. There are three programmes taking place and will be a great chance to meet other animators and filmmakers over a free drink.

The screenings will take place from 7pm on 9th, 10th and 11th February at The Custard Factory Theatre, Digbeth.

You can buy your tickets below or go to the Eventbrite Page and check out the full listings there.

 

As you would hope the line up looks incredibly strong and I can’t wait to see some festival winners that I’ve missed so far. On Saturday 11th, the Brummie massive will be representing, with Man In A Cat and Second Home’s Pilsner Urquell advert competing.

Here’s some stills from the programmes:

Man in a Cat wins Best Comedy Short at London Short Film Festival

Posted on January 17, 2012 by in Awards, Man In A Cat, News

Having been super excited to nominated, it’s with even more excitement that we can announce that All Consuming Love (Man in a Cat) took home the LoCo award for Best Comedy Short at the 9th London Short Film Festival! The film will now screen as LoCo Film Festival’s Discovery Short before its Discovery feature film at the BFI. Here’s me, Louis, and Denise from the London Comedy Film Festival with the shiny prize:

LoCo award best comedy short LSFF

It was a lovely surprise to have won and it really justifies the hard work of everyone involved in getting the film made, especially Louis who put more into Man in a Cat than anyone. Obvious thanks go to the festival for selecting the film, and LoCo Film Festival for selecting us as winner in our category. We couldn’t have done it without the backing of UK Film Council, Screen WM, and producer Jon Petrie who helped to secure our awesome voice cast of Kevin Eldon, Josie Long, and Isabel Fay.

It’s great that LSFF even had a comedy award in the programme. Most festivals don’t so it’s brilliant to be recognised for making a funny film when that is what we set out to do. Now we need to decide what to do next, so that’ll be fun. You can see all the shortlisted films and winners on the LSFF website.

Oxfam International Women’s Day video

Posted on January 13, 2012 by in Animation

Here’s a video Louis designed, animated and directed for Oxfam’s International Women’s Day. It was written by Matt & Vince and produced by Michael Ford. Chris Warren assisted with the animation.

The existing branding heavily uses silhouetted icons, so silhouetted characters made sense in terms of style and turnaround speed. The tapered character designs and painterly stamp textures helped give the video the elegance and dignity it needed. I also made sure to shoehorn in a few character animation techniques to give a little sparkle to the movement and acting.

Everything had to be turned around in about three weeks over Christmas, but I think we managed to make the limited style and schedule work to our advantage.

In preparation, I looked closer at Saul Bass‘s work and was pleasantly surprised by the strength of the line based character in his title sequence in It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Graphical animation usually needs to chuck out some real-world physics to accomodate the abstract imagery, which can clash with the physics and timing of great comic acting.

Here’s some stills from the title sequence of  It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World:

Man in a Cat picked out by Sight & Sound magazine

Posted on January 12, 2012 by in Animation, Man In A Cat

sight-and-sound-logo

It’s been a busy old news week, hasn’t it? So busy that we forgot to mention that All Consuming Love (Man in a Cat) had been picked out by Sight & Sound magazine in it’s top-nine films at the London Short Film Festival, which is more than nice of them.

Here’s what Sight & Sound‘s Dylan Cave had to say about the film:

The festival opens with this weird hand-drawn animation about a tiny man who lives inside a stray cat. The cat is given shelter by a lonely young woman and the little man inside immediately falls in love with her, making plans to leave his feline home. An original, cheeky, and surprisingly coherent piece.

That’s right, “surprisingly coherent”. Louis says he wants that on his gravestone and I may hold him to it. And just so you know they’re not any old jokers:

Sight & Sound was first published in 1932 and in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the nascent BFI, which still publishes the magazine today.

So there.

We’re going to be at the London Short Film Festival awards ceremony on Sunday 15th Jan so if you’re going to be there too say hello!

Shortlisted for Best Comedy Short at London Short Film Festival

Posted on January 10, 2012 by in Animation, Man In A Cat

In more awards news All Consuming Love (Man in a Cat) has been shortlisted for the LoCo Award for Best Comedy Short at the 9th London Short Film Festival. We’re in the top three alongside Tequila (dir Jon Drever) and Tumult (dir Johnny Barrington).

The winning film will screen as LoCo’s Discovery Short, highlighting the best new talent at the London Comedy Film Festival, at the BFI Southbank in January 2012. The winning filmmaker will also receive a free place on their LoCollege course ‘Kickstart Your Comedy Career’, worth £100. Thanks to LoCo.

Here’s hoping, eh? We’ll be at the awards do on Sunday 15th Jan at the ICA so if you’re going along say hello! We’re @Ravonski and @Louishudson on the Twitters.

Shortlisted for the British Animation Awards

Posted on January 9, 2012 by in Animation, Man In A Cat

man in a cat british animation awards shortlist

All Consuming Love (Man in a Cat) has been shortlisted in the Best Short Film category at the British Animation Awards. Woo!

The British Animation Awards is a totally unique event: the only one that brings together all the key players, and emerging and established talent, from the many and varied sectors of the UK animation scene, for an evening that is very different – and we think rather more fun! – than most Awards events.

The BAA shortlisted entries will be seen by the main jury in mid-January, who will decide on three finalists and a winner and it’s very exciting to be in the mix.

The film is also in programme three of the BAA Public Choice awards

The Public Choice Programme offers you – the audience – the chance to select your favourite films from a fantastic range of animation films made over the past two years.Three programmes containing a mix of animated shorts, music videos and commercials are screening at 21 venues across the UK.

So if you see the film out and about give us a vote! You can see the venues and screening dates for the Public Choice awards here.

Wish us luck!