February 2010 Newsround
10 days, 10 films – Edinburgh College of Art
10 days, 10 films – During a two week assessment period, the tutors at ECA asked students to make a new film every day for ten days.
The 3rd year students createrd 10 films in 10 days while the 2nd years had to produce 5 films in 10 days – they didn’t want to scare them too much!
With a new idea every day, they couldn’t spend forever agonizing over it, sometimes they just had to go with it and make the best of what they had… and if one didn’t work quite right, it didn’t matter, because tomorrow was a new day – and a new film.
Once completed they uploaded it to Youtube before the end of each day.
Profit Hunting
Iain Gardner has produced another transvision animation for Investment Company Artemis which will be seen in airports and train stations.
London based ad agency Libertine have been so impressed with Iain’s contributions since 2007 to this campaign that they persuaded him to keep going, despite commitments to his 4mations Digital Short THE TANNERY which is hoped to be released soon.
Iain supervised the work which was completed by two talented graduates of Edinburgh College of Art Owen Rixon, whose graduation film was entitled Welcome to Twister, and Andy MacPherson who graduated with Pigment of Imagination.
Both Owen and Andy, amongst other talented individuals, have been volunteering vast amounts of their time to assist Iain in completing his low budget film, so he was delighted to be able to put some paid work their way.
Ink Digital – TV and Film
Ink Digital recently completed 8 Maya based idents for Irn Bru’s Rugby League sponsorship commissioned by Leith.
They are are currently working on a Knife Crime viral and a follow up to their Elephant carrier bag commercial.
And of course The Illusionist which a team of forty at ink worked on was premired at the Berlin Film Festival to great acclaim.
The Finger Trap screens globally
Eighteen months into its festival circuit, The Finger Trap is still going strong with screenings at 25 festivals globally. The film has had a good start to 2010 being selected to screen in five upcoming festivals.
- International Festival of Animated Film, Stuttgart 2010
- Animac 2010, International Animation Film Festival of Catalonia, Spain
- REGARD – Saguenay International Short Film Festival, Quebec, Canada
- Sguardi Altrove International Film Festival, Italy
- Berkshire International Film Festival, MA, USA
The Finger Trap has also been selected to screen with Bristol based the Cube Microplex Cinema. The Cube is travelling to the Dominican Republic to set up temporary social cinemas for refugee children affected by the Haiti earthquakes.
The Haiti Kids Kino Project will screen films for Haitian children, while providing workshops and equipment for them to make their own films.
www.nanoplex.cubecinema.com/haiti_kids_kino
Directed and animated by Julia McLean, produced by Shian Holt, The Finger Trap is the story of the young at heart Wilson Brown who becomes stuck in his Chinese finger trap toy whilst preparing an anniversary surprise for his wife.
Completed in August 2008, The Finger Trap is a Digicult project in association with Glasgow Media Access Centre (GMAC) and Scottish Screen made with support of the UK Film Council New Cinema fund.
BAFTA winner – Mother of Many!
Mother of Many – Directed by Emma Lazenby and Produced by Sally Arthur for ArthurCox
On 21st of February my film ‘Mother of Many’ was awarded a BAFTA for best Short Animation. The shock and excitement are still huge for me as it was very unexpected. I was with my Mum Pam Lazenby and Sarah Cox and Candi Smith from ArthurCox were there to support me as my producer Sally Arthur is 39 weeks pregnant so couldn’t make it to the ceremony. Everybody cheered for Sally and there was a HUGE amount of clapping for my mum for helping so many people into the world, and plenty clapping to all midwives everywhere for doing an AMAZING job.
I am so overwhelmed and excited and very shocked to have this very shiny and heavy mask.
Mum was my inspiration for the 6 minute animated film ‘Mother of Many’. She worked at Airedale hospital in the Yorkshire Dales from 1981 to 2008 and in that time delivered well over 3000 babies – and even went on to deliver some of the babies children. Though I was always very proud of her, when she retired in 2008 I started thinking a lot more about what an incredible career she has had. It is such a hugely challenging and life changing, unpredictable job helping so many people into the world, I can’t think of a more worthwhile occupation, so I decided to make a film to celebrate my mum and midwifery.
For more information head to World of Arthur Cox
Henry Cruickshank – Dorset Cereals
“Simple” is a one minute film created by Edinburgh based animator Henry Cruickshank in responce to the competition breif set by Dorset Cereals.
It is currently 13th place in the rankings, the top 24, will be go on to be judged by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park).
You can vote and view the film at the Dorset cereals site.
It features music by Edinburgh based signer song writer Emily Scott
Animated trailer for Carry a Poem campaign
This February Edinburgh’s residents have been challenged to carry a poem as thousands of free Carry a Poem books and pocket poetry cards were handed out across the city.
Binary Fable was commissioned to produce an animated trailer for the campaign. The brief was for something playful and a wee bit subversive to complement the poetry book and appeal to a secondary school audience.
The trailer screened online, in libraries and schools, on buses, and on the BBC Big Screen in Edinburgh’s Festival Square during February 2010.
Watch the trailer.
Super Umami – BAA shortlist
Congratulations to Super Umami for making the final shortlist for this years British Animation Awards, with KNTV Sex!
Selected for the Children’s TV category for the second time, Director – Garry Marshall would like to say “a big thank you to all the animators who worked on the show, and everyone else that’s helped bring KNTV so much recognition.”
AWNtv – Top 10 Submissions of 2009
And finally check out the AWNtv editor’s picks for the best animated shorts submissions of 2009.
There you will find not one but two Scottish productions – Terry Runders Kicks a Stone by Dave Ferguson and Crow Moon by Selina Wagner. Well done to all involved!