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.
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.
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.
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.
Wed, Jun 17th 2009, 19:57
Whilst in Annecy, inbetween meetings was much merriment. During this time Myles and I, Sam & Laura from Open Book and Tim from Bull & Gate came up with a rather wonderful idea for a new series. Inspired by my treading in a fresh pile of dogs doings 'Poo Shoo' was born. To see the full pitch click on the picture below. Move over Superman and Spiderman there's a new superhero in town and he smells of poo.
Mon, Jul 6th 2009, 12:10
Here's a photograph by Alexandre Dubosc from the Annecy festival. I don't know about you, but in this photograph it looks like Serge Bromberg the festival director is singing to me and Greg. I look a little embarrassed about it and Greg seems to be enjoying the song. Of course, we are actually being interviewed by Serge. Somewhere there's a video of it all, but I don't think it's been published on the web.
