Sprockets

I always look forward to ANIMA BRUSSELS , not just because it is in Brussels which is only a 30 minute train ride from my home in Gent, but because it is a wonderful opportunity to see a wide array of animation.  The Festival, housed in the beautiful Art Deco Flagey building, takes place February 20 through the 28^th, Carnival week vacation in the city, and features programs for all ages.From Hayao Miyazaki’s new masterpiece,  Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, which I was lucky enough to see earlier this year to a tribute to American film maker Ralph Bakshi there will be something for everyone at ANIMA BRUSSELS.   Bakshi created the first X rated animated film with his 1972 adaptation of R. Crumb’s emblematic underground comic strip Fritz the Cat.

Riga, Latvia is one of my favorite cities.  The Daugava River running through the center of the city before it reaches the Baltic Sea makes it a wonderful city to walk through.  Riga is a historians delight, full of architecture that reflects the diversity of cultures, from the 12^th Century German conquest and art nouveau delights to 1991, when the country won independence from the former Soviet Union.  The architecture of the Soviet period is still interesting to give you a feel of how the city was when it was still part of the Soviet Block.

Sergei Eisenstein was born in Riga and his father, a famous architect, designed many of the beautiful art nouveau buildings.  The city reminds me very much of St. Petersburg.  It has the same beautiful yellow and rose hues of paint and when the sun light hits at the right angle the city glows – sort of like those evenings in San Francisco when the sunset hits the windows of the buildings and they glow golden.

The beautiful mountain town of Monodendri, Ioannina, Greece was the perfect setting for the 2^nd annual Animart. From July 13 through the 20^th, 54 college age students and 6 professionals from the world of animation gathered in the picturesque village for workshops ranging from clay animation, hand drawn cartoon animation and Maya to sound design and composing music for animation. Vassilis Boutos, director of the European Animation Center, is the organizer and energy behind Animart.

Students from three different South Eastern European countries completed very creative films. Participants were not required to have any prior animation experiences, but with a combination of excellent instructors and some hard work by the students, everyone had a sense of accomplishment at the end of the week.

While post production continues, viewers around the world are getting a seek
preview of the new feature film clay animation production from the Academy
Award winning team behind HARVIE KRUMPET. MARY AND MAX has been made in
Melbourne Australia, filmed over 57 weeks. The large team of set and model
builders, armature designers and sculptors have build over 1500 sets, props
and characters and now with actual production complete Writer, Director and
Designer Adam Elliot is welcoming the opportunity to share with you a sneak
peek at the world of MARY AND MAX.

The website features the story synopsis and character outlines, as well as
images from the film. The site also features links to all our partners and
details on our cast and crew. Also for fans of stop motion animation there
is a wealth of behind the scenes details including "Making of Mary and Max

and webisodes "that reveal the ugly truth" about the production, as well as a
news and comments page for your thoughts and of course a shop!

I first met Merlin Crossingham when Wallace and Gromit invited him to accompany them to the wonderful Russian/Ukrainian animation festival that takes place each year on a cruise ship.  The three of them had the cabin across from Nik and I and in the course of the voyage we all became on first name basis.

Merlin was the second unit director on Curse of the Were Rabbit and also a key animator. Since then he has co-directed a series of Creature Comforts for CBS. It is nominated for an Emmy, and so he will be off to LA at the weekend for the awards. Recently he has also been directing stop motion commercials for Aardman. Currently he is supervising the animation on the latest Wallace and Gromit.  Merlin told me that it is “A half-hour special for Christmas this year, but not a Christmas-y story though, it’s a bread based murder mystery. Wallace and Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death”.

One thousand feet up, things are not as they should be……

Two men, one crane and a very big box.

Crained was created to fill a week in the life of two animators, shot with plasticine on glass in HD. In order to make an animated film in five days some rules were laid down. Shoot with whatever was to hand, shoot fast and blind (no video assist), and to live with whatever came out at the end.Cained is as close to guerrilla film making as animation can be.

Merlin has thrown down the gauntlet to any other animators who have a week of free time on their hands and are crazy enough to want to stay in the studio instead of going on holiday. 

To enjoy the fruits of their labor, visit:

http://www.4mations.tv/clip.aspx?key=72B72B8EA1FACEA4&ctx=medialist&type...

When I first learned that the 2008 Annecy Festival of Animation (9 – 14 June in Annecy, France) was spotlighting feature films I was quite apprehensive. An animated feature has to be really good to make me want to stay in my seat for an hour and a half without falling asleep or wishing that it was over, but I was in for a pleasant surprise at the festival this year. Of 40 features submitted to the selection committee, 9 were placed in competition, 12 screened out of competition, and 3 were shown as special premiers. It was a fine selection and the subject matter and styles were so varied that there was something to please everyone.

Nina Paley’s brilliant musical adaptation of the Indian epic Ramayana, Sita Sings the Blues, was an instant crowd pleaser. Drawing the film together with songs from the 1920’s songstress Annette Hanshaw, including the poignant Mean to Me, Nina tells the legend of the Indian god Rama from Sita’s point of view. Nina also weaves her own personal story of her husband’s mid-life crisis and subsequent dumping of her via e-mail throughout what she refers to as “the greatest break-up story ever told”.

MONSTRA, Lisbon Animated Film Festival (May 8 -18 in Portugal) is indeed a monster of a festival. For 11 days the festival brought together the cream of United Kingdom animators for a salute to British Animation along with quality competition programs. The British segment included workshops and retrospectives honoring Paul Bush, Phil Malloy, the Brothers Quay, Vera Neubauer and many other artists.

The American born identical twins Stephen and Timothy have lived in England for so long (since 1978) that they are considered an important fixture on the British film scene. Their highly surreal films are full of personal and distinctive imagery that can be disturbing and riveting at the same time. Two retrospectives of their work were screened.

As I watched noted director and film critic Natalia Lukinyk's touching moving documentary film Alexander Tatarsky, Or How To Embrace The Immense . . . I found it hard to believe that it has been almost a year since one of the biggest hearts in Russian animation stopped beating. Natalia's touching celluloid portrait began as part of her new trilogy of films about creative Russian and Ukrainian artists in three different fields titled The Restless Talents. Sadly the film was completed as a labor of love after the untimely death of her close friend.

Natalia gives us a warm and insightful view into the early life that shaped a true artistic genius. Humorous moments of Alexander playing with his beloved toy collection which he said every grown-up child needed and pictures of him with his dogs and cats that played an important part in his life from early childhood show one side of this very complex man. Most beautiful of all are the pictures of him with his wife and of him holding his young son at home in Moscow.The great director and animator went on to found Pilot Studios, the first private animation studio in the new Russia, turning it into one of the world's leading animation studios. Pilot is world renowned, winning awards at festivals the world over and mentoring several decades of animators and script writers that now work in all corners of the world. Speaking of his dear friend and colleague at Pilot, Valentin Telegin said "He took up a flag and led the troops." This quote complete summarizes the great man's life.