Tue, Feb 26th 2008, 10:33
We were shortlisted for the Children's Jury Award at the prestigious Encounters Film Festival. The film is Fuggy Fuggy 2, and it screened in Bristol on Friday 23rd, Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th November at the festival in the lovely city of Bristol.
Fri, Jun 13th 2008, 10:02
We're off to the Showcomotion Conference in July and have been invited by Tim Dann to sit on the panel for the Get Shorty session.
Sat, Jul 12th 2008, 11:21
Just finished a short film 'Codswallop' based on the postcards I've been doing. Hopefully it will be showing at a festival near you soon.
‘Codswallop’ is a subconscious drift through despair, frustration, joy and redemption.
Based on a series of stream of consciousness postcards sent by the filmmaker to their son, ‘Codswallop’ features a collection of surreal characters at crucial moments in their briefly glimpsed stories.
Beware of hats!
Tue, Jul 29th 2008, 10:44
Our latest short film Codswallop is finished and heading out on the Film Festival run. We can't release the full version online until it's done it's rounds of the film festivals so for a sneak peak, take a trip over to Aaron Simpson's top industry blog Cold Hard Flash.
Mon, Sep 8th 2008, 16:01
I've left Greg to post a million things on the blog and been terribly silent for a while. But lots to muse upon not least because I went to the Edinburgh Fringe in August. More of that later. One of the acts I missed while there was the 5 star rave review rated Camille O'Sullivan. Fortunately she's now on a tour and I saw her last Friday at the Town Hall in Birmingham. Never been to the Town Hall before - most impressive after its refurb. Camille was marvelous - amazing voice and utterly potty - going from the heart bleeding sincerity of songs like God is in the House (a Nick Cave song) to invading the crowd and making us all shout 'meow' at her. Very entertaining. Go and see her if you can.
Mon, Sep 8th 2008, 22:31
We're off for a weekend in Amsterdam. No, not that sort of weekend. We're off to the Klik! Animation Festival (12-14 September 08) because the lovely people running the festival have selected our film Codswallop for their Open Competition. It's not our first film to get into an international film festival (our films are better travelled than we are), but it is the first international one we're attending so we're really looking forward to it.
Sat, Sep 20th 2008, 13:24
Amsterdam... where we went on the weekend of the 13-14th September to visit the lovely people at the Klik! Animation Festival. Our short film Codswallop was runner up in the Open Competition which was great. We also met Oscar winning animator Suzie Templeton and her lovely chap Rosto who were very complimentary about our film too. Klik! have this great thing where they hand out clickers, so at the end of a screening instead of just clapping, there's also lots of clicking (or Klik-ing).
Tue, Oct 7th 2008, 09:04
Our latest short film Codswallop has so far notched up the following international film festival appearances...
As well as appearing at 7 Inch Cinema.
If you want to catch it in the UK you'll be able to see it
Here's the trailer for Codswallop from our YouTube channel.
Mon, Oct 13th 2008, 19:37
'Still' A series of seven exclusive prints available to view at the Lighthouse in Wolverhampton during the Flip Festival. The text comes from Myles' regular bouts of free writing which Greg has interpreted in a black and white hand drawn style.
Wed, Oct 15th 2008, 13:05
Hooray! Flip is on it's way. The Midland's very own animation festival is back for its fourth year in November. We will be there in various guises - with a print exhibition, showing our Dogg cartoons for 4mations.tv and also chairing a discussion about Doctor Who animations. And this year Greg has also designed the look for Flip Festival with a variety of kookie characters.
Fri, Oct 17th 2008, 08:50
Our short film Codwallop has been selected for another film festival... this time the Anchorage International Film Festival in Alaska, who were good enough to show our film The M Man a few years back. That makes eight festivals so far. Fingers crossed for more.
Tue, Nov 25th 2008, 11:38
Here's a short interview I did after the Flip Animation Festival on Doctor Who Animation that I chaired. Featured panelists were James Goss formely of the BBC Doctor Who website, Jonathan Doyle of Firestep and formely Cosgrove Hall, and Rob Ritchie, a fan film animator from the North East.
Flip Animation Festival 2008 - Myles McLeod on Doctor Who from Kate Spragg on Vimeo.
Wed, Nov 26th 2008, 13:46
The Brothers McLeod's short film "Codswallop" has won an award! It was voted Best Short Short (short film under 5 minutes) at the 17th St. Louis International Film Festival. Hooray!
Tue, Jan 6th 2009, 09:27
Our short film Codswallop is now heading off to the San Francisco Independent Film Festival and the prestigious Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival in France. Wahoo!
Thu, Feb 5th 2009, 09:18
See BAFTA nominated Codswallop at the following events:
Animated Exeter
http://pub2.exeter.gov.uk/
Shorts on the Walls
http://www.animationforumw
Flatpack Festival
http://www.flatpackfestiva
Mon, Feb 9th 2009, 21:40
Codswallop goes back to The Netherlands in March where it will be screened at the first GoShort International Short Film Festival in Nijmegen.
Wed, Feb 11th 2009, 10:16
Our BAFTA nominated short animation "Codwsallop" has been given a "Special Jury Mention" or the rather better sounding "Mention Spéciale du Jury" at the 31st Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival.
Sun, Mar 1st 2009, 15:36
Our BAFTA nominated short 'Codswallop' is off to Berlin's prestigious Pictoplasma Animation Festival. It features in the Psychedlic Mix Night programme. More details in the downloadable programme of events.
Mon, Mar 16th 2009, 19:19
Hooray! At last Fuggy receives a gong. Fuggy Fuggy has won an audience award at the New York International Children's Film Festival. Fuggy won out in the 8 to14 year old category.
Thu, May 7th 2009, 12:03
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.
It's also off to the capital of film itself to appear at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
In addition, it recently featured in Leeds Young People's Film Festival, and is now heading to International Filmets Festival of Badalona near Barcelona.
Thu, May 14th 2009, 09:20
We're going to Annecy this year because our short film Codswallop is in competition there. But last week we also found out that we are doing a double whammy because children's TV series Harry and Toto created by Paul Shuttleworth and made by Handle and Spout and GS Animation, is screening an episode in the category "TV Series Official Selection". The episode is Up and Down written by Myles. You can watch another episode of Harry and Toto on YouTube to get a flavour of the series.
Fri, May 8th 2009, 08:20
Last week I attended a session at the Stratford upon Avon Literary Festival. Apparently there's a famous writer who came from this neck of the woods once. Anyway... I picked out The Art of Adapation as an interesting session. Andrew Davies of Pride and Prejudice et al. fame was due to be there but had to go to Hollywood instead. The panel didn't disappoint though.
Paul Allen talked to three writers, radio writer Mary Cutler (The Archers, Falco radio adapations), novelist and screenwriter David Nicholls (Starter for Ten, Tess of the D'Urbervilles adaptation for TV) and Deborah Maggoch (adapter of Pride and Prejudice for the big screen, and The Diary of Anne Frank for the BBC).
Actor Richard Derrington did some readings. He has a great voice and I recognised him from a play (rather appropriately an adaptation of the novel Unless) that my wife was Costume Supervisor for at the Stephen Joseph Theatre.
Various elements of adaptation were discussed. Here's a few nuggets that I picked up.
Paul Allen kicked off asking about voiceover. Obviously books are often told in a first person narrative which makes voiceover seem an obvious choice. But it can often be a lazy option. Sometimes the adapted dialogue needs to be more like the internal narrative of the original book and less like the dialogue as written in the original. Sometimes the deliberate use of voiceover at a crucial moment can work really well, especially if it's used sparingly elsewhere.
There was a lot of talk about what you keep, what you chuck away and what you add. Essentially you have to ignore all the fans who say, "you are going to include that bit aren't you?" and create something that seems authentic to yourself.
Adaptations of real lives can be tricky because they don't have plots! Sometimes you have to fill in the gaps. For example Deborah Maggoch commented that Anne Frank's diary isn't very specific about why she fell in and then out of love with Peter. So Deborah had to make a leap of imagination for her TV adaptation.
Dates of events are often shuffled around to suit the screen adaptation.
Adaptations into serial form have other requirements... you need to find a way of summarising at the end of a week of radio stories. And at the beginning of the new week you need to summarise and have a second big bang beginning.
Writing about absent characters works in a novel, but is trickier in radio.
When adapting something that's been successfully adapted before you have to find the themes in the story that resonate with you and find a new angle. David Nicholls revealed he's working on a new film version of Great Expectations, but it's still too early to say if it'll make it beyond script stage.
When adapting create your first draft from the original work, then don't refer back to the original work again. That is regressive. The adaptation should evolve from the draft.
Sometimes the "favourtie bit in the book" doesn't translate to screen and has to be left out completely. David Nicholls spoke about how in his novel Starter for Ten there is a comedy dance sequence which everyone who reads the book finds very memorable. When he adapted his novel for film he was encouraged to include that scene. The scene was shot for the film, but it just didn't fit in to the screen narrative. As a result the whole scene was dumped. David said it was expensive lesson for him to learn.
Depending on the project, the writers used the book alone as the basis for a story, or they did do some research around the era. Sometimes for real and recent events they decide not to talk to the people involved and to find their own story in amongst the existing material.
And there it is... and remember, all but one of Shakespeare's plays were adaptations of earlier works.
Thu, Jun 18th 2009, 15:01
The Brothers McLeod will be at the inaugural Aberdeen Film Festival as special guests on the 25th July 2009. More details to follow.
Mon, Nov 2nd 2009, 08:37
Come celebrate the launch of Flip Festival 09 with a look at the current state of the West Midlands’ animation industry, drinks and screenings. Find out more here
Sun, Nov 1st 2009, 19:40
Just a quick note to say Codswallop went to the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia. They slightly reworded our synopsis... but only in a very complimentary way, so we don't mind.
"Based on a series of postcards made by the directors to send to their children, Codswallop is a splendid repertoire of images about frustration, happiness and redemption presented in a constant flow that redefines the screen’s margins as a story-containing space."
It's sad we couldn't make it to the festival, especially since Sitges is a favourite holiday spot of Gregs.
Also... it's been to the Norwich Film Festival.
Wed, Jul 1st 2009, 07:37
Our short animation Codswallop is off to some more festivals - in Portugal, Mexico and New York.
17th Curtas Vila do Conde IFF
Expresión en Corto International Film Festival
Animation Block Party, Brooklyn (Program 4)
Mon, Jun 15th 2009, 12:16
It's 11.30am on Monday and I'm still experiencing mild anti-climatic feelings from four days in Annecy. It's like that feeling you get after a great holiday when you can't quite believe you're back home and working. Which is exactly what I'm doing (or technically avoiding by writing this blog entry).
We've never been to the animation festival and conference in Annecy before, but it's easy to see why people go back year after year. The setting is beautiful, the comaraderie is excellent, the Grande Salle cinema in the Bonlieu building has a screen larger than Scotland and seats nine million people... the list goes on.
We attended the screening of our own short film 'Codswallop' on the Wednesday night in the aforementioned Grande Salle. It seemed to go down very well, with plenty of clapping, whooping and thankfully a total lack of paper aeroplanes being hurled at the screen while it played. We did the whole 'get up and bow' thing at the end also, which was fun in front of so many people.
The programme also featured seven other shorts including Slavar, a powerful animation about modern slavery in Sudan, which went on to win the big short film prize 'The Annecy Cristal'. It was one of those films that makes you so angry about the way some people are treated by others, that you think perhaps everyone in the world should just stop what they're doing, get together, sort the problem out, and then get back to work. If only it worked like that!
The programme also featured Cordell Barker's Runaway, a great story about a runaway train and the interactions of the different class of passengers. It had a real Chuck Jones feel and went on to win a Jury's Special Award.
As well as screenings, conferences, and meetings there were also a few exhibitions. Greg and I only got to see one which was from the Panique au Village feature. We're both big fans of A Town Called Panic (UK name) and hopefully the film will get some distribution over in the UK.
I didn't get to see too many screenings with all the hobnobbing and meetings, but I'm pleased to say I did manage to see Australian feature Mary and Max (which jointly won Cristal for best feature at the festival with Coraline). Mary and Max is a sad but heartwarming tale about two lonely penpals. It's from Adam Elliot, writer and director of Harvie Krumpet. Thanks to Sam McCarthy from Open Book who donated her ticket to me (the screening was a sell out).
On Thursday morning we went back to the Bonlieu to be interviewed by festival director Serge Bromberg who was great. He didn't pull his punches in his questions. I hate nothing more than an obsequious interviewer, and he was definitely not that. Also anyone called Serge is great in my book.
I will write more tomorrow about some of the wonderful persons that we met while out there... otherwise this blog entry will become a novel.
Mon, Mar 16th 2009, 19:08
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.
Fri, Jun 26th 2009, 10:42
Annecy thoughts part deux. Yes it's a couple of weeks now since we got back from Annecy (sadly!) but here's another update on what we did and who we met!
Who would have thought it possible to meet so many people in such a short space of time? Largely thanks to the UK Trade and Industry stand being so well organised there was a high concentration of British creatives in one spot.
We met a bunch of folks including Sam McCarthy and Laura Seymour from Open Book, Tim Frost from Bull and Gate, Andy, John and Rowland from Tank Creative and the guys from GS (Grupa Smacznego). We also bumped into many other familiar faces over the three days we were there: Jamie from Karrot, Jo from Hit (who I almost didn't recognise without her floppy hat!), and producer geniuses Jackie Edwards (now of Cbeebies) and Helen Brunsdon (ex-Aardman). Greg even met Nick Park and had a brief chinwag.
On our first night we randomly chose the Captain Pub for a drink. We'd met Sarra, animation student from the Midlands, and Justa from GS in Poland (from the studio that animated Harry and Toto) and headed down there after the screening of Codswallop. Little did we realise that by some mojo magic we'd landed at the Brits favourite evening haunt. We returned to the Captain Pub the following evening and might just have had a little too much to imbibe.
We were also very fortunate to meet Tim Frost, a very talented illustrator, who had a wonderful children's pitch - World of Burt - printed out in the form of a kids' storybook. Check out his flickr account for lots of lovely illustrations.
Sam and Laura from Open Book run a film night called Paper Bag - you can find out more here.
Thu, Jul 16th 2009, 09:42
On the 24th August we will be heading north for a couple of days courtesy of Peacock Visual Arts to take part in the very first Aberdeen City and Shire Film Festival. We're running some workshops and also putting on a public screening of our short films with a Q&A to boot.
If you're based in the Highlands (where all good people have their roots) then come along... the screening is 6.30pm on Saturday 25th August at the Peacock.
Download the brochure for the whole festival here.
Mon, Aug 17th 2009, 09:46
BAFTA and Paper Bag are opening the 6th London International Animation Festival with a party packed evening of films, live performance and music. We have been invited along to talk and show a few of our films and witness an actor reading of one of our Spamland films.
Show starts at 7pm at the Roxy Bar and Screen. Come along and help launch the good ship LIAF.
Our short film Codswallop is also featuring in the International Programme 3 of LIAF. More details on the LIAF website.
Thu, Sep 24th 2009, 09:00
Our short Codswallop continues it's tour of the universe. One of the interesting things to keep an eye out for is how different countries translate the almost untranslatable word of "Codswallop" itself. For example... Tonterías (Mexico)
and Disparate (Portugal).
Here's some more festivals where Codswallop will be/is/has been:
Curtocircuíto in Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Anim'Est Festival in Bucharest
L’Étrange Festival
GLIMMER, the 7th Hull International Short Film Festival
Milano Film Festival
Imago
KROK
24th Brest European Short Film Festival
International Short Film Festival Leuven
26th Annual Chicago International Children's Film Festival
Hawaii International Film Festival
Wed, Oct 7th 2009, 10:22
Once again Peter McLuskie of the Light House has asked us to inveigle our way into his fantastic animation festival. The Flip Animation Festival is now in its sixth year and we've been fortunate enough in previous years to have sat on industry panels for debates, chair a session on Doctor Who animations, show an exhibition of prints, design the look for the festival, and opened the festival with a retrospective of our work.
This year we're back like a chronic rash... and are running a scriptwriting course, interviewing Sarah Cox and showing a programme of short films (not our own this time - instead it's a bunch of films that we love and want to share).
Find out more at the Flip Festival website and book your tickets asap!
Wed, Oct 21st 2009, 07:41
A quick mention that Codswallop was recently at the Anima 09 festival in Argentina!
Thu, Nov 19th 2009, 10:10
The Flip Animation Festival has been and gone for another year. This time I (Myles) ran a scriptwriting workshop and Greg made an animation in half a day (as an animator in residence) from one of the short scripts produced at the workshop. Here it is...
Greg was also on the jury to choose the best short animation from the festival programme. The winner was Kudan by Taku Kimura - an extraordinary piece of work.
Wed, Jan 27th 2010, 17:20
The Moon Bird is not yet a month old, but already it's heading out into the world to fend for itself. It's already been selected along with our other short film Codswallop to be part of the British Animation Awards' Public Choice programme.
It's also off to three festivals already.
Wed, Feb 17th 2010, 15:00
Last year Peter McLuskie, organiser of the Flip Festival, asked us to curate a programme of short films. We had great fun selecting the films: some from our childhood, some we'd come across at other festivals, some we'd discovered from friends or just on the olde internete.
The screening went down very well. Many thanks to Holly Corfield-Carr who did all the leg work in getting the films together.
Here's what we screened...
Feed the Kitty (Chuck Jones, USA, 1952) 7’00”
Marc Antony, the bulldog, inadvertently adopts the tiny kitten, Pussyfoot. But trying to keep his new pet a secret can only invite disaster! A Merry Melodies classic that is counted amongst the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by the animation industry.
A Town Called Panic, ‘The Card Thieves’ (Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier, France, 2003) 5’00”
A quirky and colourful 3D puppetoon which uses plastic models picked up at fleamarkets as its cast. Cowboy, Indian and Horse meet the neighbours over a game of cards.
Part One | Part Two
The 7 Brothers (Paul Driessen and Kaj Driessen, Netherlands, 2008) 12’20’’
Once upon a time there were seven brothers. They wandered the streets of their village, searching for fairy tales. Back at home, they write their stories down, until they hear their last tale being acted out next door, quite differently from the way they had written it. The brother's wanderings are shown in live action; the fairy tales are animated.
Lapsus (Juan Pablo Zaramella, Argentina, 2007) 3’30”
A curious nun ventures into the darker side of her animated world. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Hiroshima Animation Festival, and an Animation Spotlight at Sundance 2008.
Au Bout du Monde (Konstantin Bronzit, France, 1999) 8’00”
An ordinary family live in extraordinary conditions on the top of the rock. The story of a delicate house that has gathered 17 awards and a nomination for a César, the most prestigious of French cinema prizes.
Dog (Suzie Templeton, United Kingdom, 2001) 6’00”
A young boy longs for reassurance about how his mother died. To protect each other, he and his father hold their agony inside, where it festers. An exquisitely animated film that has won 18 awards, including a BAFTA, from an Academy Award winning director.
Moomins (various, Poland/Austria, 1977/1983) 5’00”
A favourite fuzzy-felt version of a children’s classic. It is currently being restored and prepared for cinematic 3D release in a cinema near you!
Love Triangle (Yasmeen Ismail, United Kingdom, 2007) 3’00”
A young man struggles with the fact that his girlfriend, upon returning from a trip to see her estranged Indian family, has unexpectedly turned into a samosa. A Channel 4 Mesh production.
Le Trop Petit Prince (Zoia Trofimova, France, 2002) 6’44”
As the sun rises on the horizon, some stains are revealed on its surface. A tiny, persistent boy sets himself the task of cleaning these marks, using every conceivable method at his disposal. Winner of 4 awards, including a Crystal Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Link to IMDB
Puppet Boy (Johannes Nyholm, Sweden, 2008) 18’00”
Puppetboy is sweating floods of clay, preparing for a lady's visit. He becomes even more nervous when she arrives. Winner of 10 awards, including Silver Mikeldi - Zinebi (Bilbao, Spain); Audience Prize - Premiere Plans (Angers, France); LAB10 Main prize - Tampere Short Film Festival (Finland); Main Prize - Eksjö Animation Festival (Sweden).
Mon, Mar 8th 2010, 10:27
The Moon Bird has won the Best Made in the Midlands award at the Stoke Your Fires film festival. We are very chuffed to have won, but sadly couldn't be there to collect it. So far we've managed to avoid any of the festivals where we actually win.
In other good and bad news from the British Animation Awards, Codswallop was shortlisted for Best Short Film, but failed to make the final three. The finalists were rather randomly revealed on the Forbidden Planet website a few days ago.
Mon, Mar 15th 2010, 12:27
The Moon Bird heads to its third British film festival this month with a visit to Birmingham, our home city. It will be playing as part of Colour Box Shorts, also Shorts on Walls and alongside the feature film The Secret of Kells.
Mon, Apr 12th 2010, 10:29
The Moon Bird will be showing at the 2010 Athens International Film and Video Festival. It has also been selected for Cartoons on the Bay.
Fri, May 21st 2010, 10:41
Codswallop is going to the Hay Festival and will be screening as part of the Eat My Shorts programme.
31st May
5 June
Tue, May 25th 2010, 17:08
The Moon Bird is flying East to the Czech Republic soon and can be seen at the Zlin International Film Festival For Children & Youth. It will also be screening even further East at its Asian premiere in Korea at PIFAN. But it's not all East East East... The Moon Bird will also be heading due South South West for Anima Mundi in Brazil.
Wed, May 26th 2010, 10:03
The Brothers McLeod will be involved in a number of events at the Stratford upon Avon Fringe, including an Animation Night, a live paint and a illustration exhibition. Check out the flyer...
Wed, Jun 2nd 2010, 16:23
We are pleased to announce that the Edinburgh International Film Festival will be screening The Moon Bird in the McLaren Animation 1 section. This is our second film to be nominated for the McLaren Award, but there's plenty of stiff competition as always including from several other 4mations funded animations including Emma Lazenby's BAFTA winning Mother of Many!
Thu, Jun 3rd 2010, 11:12
Coming up: Sunday 17th July 2010.
This is taken from the Larmer Tree Festival website: "The Brothers Mcleod's resident animator and illustrator Greg McLeod presents an eclectic mix of animations from their back catalogue of short films, including their BAFTA nominated Codswallop and their latest film The Moon Bird. Greg will be talking about the films and giving an insight into the creative process of animation."
Mon, Jun 28th 2010, 10:10
The Moon Bird is heading to Brooklyn, New York to spookify the audience of the fantastic Animation Block Party on the 1st August.
