There are some moments that you have to stop and pinch yourself. It's because you've imagined or hoped that they might one day happen. And then one day they do happen. Today we were nominated for a BAFTA for Short Animation. Codswallop has been doing really well for us on the Film Festival circuit. We've had quite a few festivals contacting us asking us to submit it, presumably after seeing it at other ones. This latest bit of news is the icing on the cake - actually it's the jam filling and probably the sponge as well. We are shortlisted with only two other short animations - both by BAFTA winners. One is Marc Craste and Sue Goffe's Varmints, which I haven't seen but looks beautiful. The other is Wallace and Gromit's latest outing which was the most popular bit of TV in about a hundred years. Now that's what I call tough competition!
The Brothers McLeod feature on BBC Midlands Today. We were interviewed today by Giles Latcham for our local BBC news bulletin. Cool! Rather strangely Gary the camera man was the same guy that filmed us last year for BBC's Inside Out.
The BAFTAs! On Jan 14th 2009 we really weren't expecting to be going to the BAFTAs three weeks later. But fate decreed it should be so. It was immediately clear from the nominees that we didn't have a chance of winning - up against Nick Park who has more gongs than a Chinese percussion factory.
However a strange alchemy takes place in your brain over three weeks where you start to believe that possibly maybe you'll win - even with your four minute experimental film up against two former BAFTA winners who’ve created 25 minute narratives. And with all the TV coverage extended over three channels BBC Three, Two then One, we thought there was a good chance all our friends and family might see us on the gogglebox too!
The night before the BAFTAs there was a nominee's party at Asprey's the jewellers on New Bond Street. We went with wives Lucy and Louise and sister Caroline (pictured above). Very swish, and slightly cramped in places, rubbing shoulders with the rich, the famous, the facelifts and the other 90% who like us were of no interest to the paparazzi and autograph chasers huddled out front. I spoke briefly to Nick Park congratulating him on his inevitable win. I should have spoken to Terry Gilliam. Saw Dev Patel, Sharon Stone and Mickey Rourke. Mickey was completely rock and roll, with his battered face, shades (even though it was night), Rolling Stones hair, shiny suit and, bless him, some very posh slippers with golden crests embroidered on the toe end.
The following day went by with this and that until the evening, when we got dressed up to the nines and got in a taxi and ordered the driver to take us to the BAFTAs. I think he was rather excited. We were dropped at the end of the very long red carpet and walked towards the Royal Opera House past the likes of Claudia Winkleman and various other celeb interviewers waiting for Brangelina.
Awards ceremonies are always rather tedious to watch on television, but sat in the stalls of the Royal Opera House, there as a nominee and surrounded by celebrities, it seemed like quite an event… although you do realise just how few people are actually celebrities. There were 1500 people attending – actors, directors, effects, production, PR, investors, blaggers, bloggers, gangsters (probably), and they even let in some writers and animators. Of those 1500 I probably recognised about 50 people max as celebs.
The moment came for our category – the third one announced (but not on TV – short films and short animation don’t count as real BAFTAs apparently – not that I’m bitter. Except I am. How long would that have taken to show? About five minutes out of their three hour BAFTA TV marathon. Ooo! But we don’t want to encourage new filmmakers or anything do we Mr BBC! No that might encourage innovation or new people to get involved. Whoa there! That’s dangerous talk. I think this digression has lasted long enough now - actually I don't. I could go on quite a lot longer. But. You know how I feel.)
A camera was duly shoved in my face to judge my reaction to winning or losing. It was a very intense moment indeed. For a split second I thought we could do it. And then they read out Wallace and Gromit. Of course they bloody did. I knew it when I first found out we’d been nominated. I’d just convinced myself it was possible in between. You have to keep smiling. Even though you’d probably smile anyway if there wasn’t a camera in your face. You’d just “not have to think” about smiling.
Afterwards we were shipped en masse to the Grosvenor House in coaches, which was an amusingly practical and unstylish way to get around. I sat watching the back of Armando Ianucci's head trying the think of something interesting to say to him other than - hello - I like your stuff. The dining room for 1500 people looked spectacular like something out of a 1930s gangster film. I was looking around to see if Robert de Niro was there holding a baseball bat. But no. As well as the majority of tables down on the main floor where all the big guns and the gangsters and molls sat there were a few tables up top around the balcony. You guessed it, that’s where they hide the short animation and short film people. Boo hiss.
This was where a slight glumness set in for a while. Inevitable since we’re borderline megalomaniacs. Also we now felt like we’d accidentally arrived at a large wedding where we didn’t know the bride or groom or many of their friends and family. A mix up with the tables meant we had to squeeze up and let a rather offensive PR guy and his plus one onto our already crammed table. He proceeded to tell us all about himself and how he had been to the BAFTAs loads of time and wasn’t he wonderful. Then we had to argue with the waiting staff about the vegetarian meal they’d buggered up for my wife. This all left a rather unpleasant aftertaste.
One brief reversal came when Sue Goffe and Marc Craste introduced themselves to us – fellow nominees in our category for the beautiful “Varmints”. I’d like to have spoken to them more, but we were a bit flummoxed by the whole occasion by this point. A party then followed on from the meal. I had to ask Stephen Daldry where everyone was going because I didn’t have a clue. He seemed very nice. I should have finished my film script, then I could have given that to him at the same time.
After watching pop band ‘The Feeling’ butcher ‘Walk This Way’ we knew it was time to call it a night. We returned to our hotel, tired, spun out, but still gloriously BAFTA nominated. It’s all rather bonkers, but still very interesting to have seen inside this exclusive club even if we didn’t quite feel part of it yet.
Finally a note on celebs. There was one moment in the evening where we saw Meryl Streep hug Penelope Cruz while both stood beside Daniel Craig. I wondered for a second if some kind of celebrity critical mass might be achieved, and an atomic explosion might destroy us all. But no! And so finally finally… here is the list of celebrities seen with our own ocular visual receptor organs.
Mickey Rourke, Stephen Daldry, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Goldie Hawn, Armando Ianucci, David Baddiel, Jonathan Ross, Jonathan Pryce, Ian McKellan, Kate Winslet, Simon Beaufoy, Patrick Stewart, Kylie Minogue, Mick Jagger, Daniel Craig, Emma Watson (Hermione), Sharon Stone, Steve McQueen, Ron Howard, Brendan Gleeson, Noel Clarke, David Frost, Michael Sheen, Danny Boyle, Dev Patel, Amy Adams, Terry Gilliam, Nick Park, David Sproxton (Aardman founder), Meryl Streep, Kirsten Scott Thomas, Michael G. Wilson (one of the Bond producers), Gemma Arterton, Penelope Cruz.
Our BAFTA nominated short continues to attract attention. Codswallop has been accepted into the prestigious Annecy festival in France. It will be in competition with 40 others short films selected from around the world.
Our BAFTA nominated short animation Codswallop continues to appear at more film festivals. We're very pleased to announce that it is in competition for the McLaren Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
I don’t want to go on about the BAFTA thing (yeah! BAFTA BAFTA BAFTA), but while at the 2009 film BAFTAs, when we were nominated for a BAFTA at the BAFTAs, we met fellow BAFTA nominees (and former BAFTA winners) Marc Craste and Sue Goffe from the amazing BAFTA winning studio aka.
This year wasn’t our year because the legendary Nick Park was out and about and claimed the gong for Wallace and Gromit. But it did mean we’d got to commiserate with Marc and Sue and a little while later they asked to work with them on a project.
The Law Centres Federation runs centres around the UK which are not-for-profit legal practices providing free legal advice and representation to disadvantaged people. They wanted four short animations to explain what they did in a short and engaging way. So we worked on two of them and the very talented illustrator Chris Haughton worked on the others (you can see one on his YouTube channel).
We made one of the films in a style similar to our short film Codswallop. But for the other, we thought we’d have a go at something new. We’d had an idea about animating some fabric models and so, once we'd picked our story - about a family man overcoming a drug addition and volunteering at a law centre to get his life back on track - Greg starting sketching.
We then brought in friend and designer Asia Werbel of Colourspace to turn the sketches and illustrations into fabric models. She also created a fabric background complete with patchwork houses and button trees.
The finished models and background look fantastic and personally I think it creates a magical looking animated film. You can buy some of Asia’s handmade plushes and other designs on Etsy or at Uneeka.
The rest of the crew included the very talented animator Tom Evans, Paul Johnston from Rhythm Studios and the voiceovers for all the films came from Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty.
Well hasn't it been a funny old year! It started out with a BAFTA nomination for Codswallop in the short animation section opposite Aardman and Studio AKA (who very generously asked us to work with them later in the year), then we shared in a Webby with the rest of the Tate Kids team, as well as being Webby Official Honorees our Sticks series.
And today we found out that we've been nominated in two categories at the Children's BAFTAs for the work we did with the Tate (once again up against Aardman and Studio AKA). Phew! You could say that we're more than just a little bit chuffed.
For the last three weeks I've been blogging once a week for the BAFTA website as part of their Children's Blog 2009. There are three fellow bloggers - all from the animation category of the competition - Ben Lock (Chop Socky Chooks), Lucinda Whiteley (Horrid Henry) and Philip Hunt (Lost and Found).
I've been trying to tell my blog from the point of view of Orthus, our two headed character who features in the Art Sparks films for which we've been nominated (with Sharna Jackson - Hooray! - our producer from the Tate).
Another BAFTA night and sadly no golden face statue to bring home, but like a cup of steaming hot mulled wine, we're not bitter! In fact we had a splendid evening hobnobbing with colleagues, introducing ourselves to some new folks and even gathering the courage to introduce ourselves to Richard 'the hamster' Hammond and the delightful Catherine Tate.
There were a few celebrities present including a couple of Harry Potter actors... Lucius Malfoy (hello to Jason Isaacs), and Mrs Harry Potter (aka Ginny Weasley aka Bonnie Wright). But best celebrity of the evening has to go to Bernard Cribbins who was there to receive a lifetime achievement award. He was certainly a feature of our own childhoods - Greg used to listen to an audiobook of Swallows and Amazons which he read, and one of my favourite audio stories was Bertie's Escapade in the Marshall Cavendish Storyteller series. Both tapes died from being listened to too much.
Congratulations for the evening must go to Philip Hunt and Sue Goffe at studio aka for winning for Lost and Found. It's an amazing piece of work and they are deserved winners in the animation category. Congratulations!
I don’t want to go on about the BAFTA thing (yeah! BAFTA BAFTA BAFTA), but while at the 2009 film BAFTAs, when we were nominated for a BAFTA at the BAFTAs, we met fellow BAFTA nominees (and former BAFTA winners) Marc Craste and Sue Goffe from the amazing BAFTA winning 
For the last three weeks I've been blogging once a week for the BAFTA website as part of their Children's Blog 2009. There are three fellow bloggers - all from the animation category of the competition - Ben Lock (Chop Socky Chooks), Lucinda Whiteley (Horrid Henry) and Philip Hunt (Lost and Found).
Another BAFTA night and sadly no golden face statue to bring home, but like a cup of steaming hot mulled wine, we're not bitter! In fact we had a splendid evening hobnobbing with colleagues, introducing ourselves to some new folks and even gathering the courage to introduce ourselves to Richard 'the hamster' 
