Three Square Wheels animation!

POP!designpic02

Here is my latest design work for POP!. I was working on the look of the town. It was painted in acrylics. The perspective is a little off but overall I am happy with it.

Cheers

Neil

Hello again,
Well another day and another load of animated short films at the melbourne international animation film festival. I saw a couple more international programs and saw I few good films you will want to look out for at a festival near you.

Wanted, France. Another film from Supinfocom. Unlike other films from this school this year, this one has a comprehensible story line. Basically it is a chase film, but it does it very well , racing around an abandoned fun fair. good fun.

T.O.M UK This recently picked up an award at Annecy and it is a fun quirky film that doesn’t overstay its welcome. Lovely Narration.

The Adventures of John and John. UK A funny film but since I am a stopmotion animator I was put off by the poor stopmotion technique.
Other people in the audience seemed to like it though.

Caracas Belgium. Basically a sea shanty but done in a lovely and interesting style with a great music track.

Mr Schwartz,Mr Hazen & Mr Horlocker. Germany.
This was a great fun film that had the feel of that cult film Three rooms starring Tim Roth. Lots of fun with a classic final shot.

The highlight of this first session was

Administrators Belgium. This film was from belgium but was clearly based on eastern european bureaucracy gone mad. It also had environmental overtones if you assume the fire is an analogy of global warming. Great film.

The second session I didn’t enjoy as much as the first but there were some good films in particular.

Where’s the gag Taiwan. This film will only be appreciated by fellow animators. The filmmaker captures the animator/filmmaker angst perfectly,and if you are an animator you will get all the jokes. Good stuff!

Puppet USA. Masochistic fun done in a great hand drawn style that gave it a refreshingly feel. You could still see the rough lines that hadn’t been completely cleaned up. very nice.

Cry from the Past Australian. A lovely paint on glass film of an old story from a Australian whaling community.

Here and there by Obom from NFB Canada. A lovely film tellng the story of the disjointed childhood of a girl. I enjoyed it , but I did have the feeling I had seen a dozen more like it from NFB.

Okay thats it. I’m going again tonight so I’ll post again soon.

Cheers

Neil

anifestmelb.jpg

Hi everyone,
Its on again. My favourite event each year the Melbourne International Animation Film Festival. One week gorging myself on animation from around the world. I go every year for inspiration and to get a good snapshot of what’s happening in the world of animation.

Here’s the link www.miaf.net

It was opening night last night and I checked out the first of nine international programs. Films I really enjoyed from that session included:

Burning Safari France 1′45
A short little funny film full of frenetic action

Journey to the Disney Vault USA 3′15
How these guys got this film past the legions of Disney Lawyers I’ll never know, but it was a very funny film if you know your animation history and get all the jokes.

Ten Thousand Pictures of You UK 3′00
Excellent pixillation film technique wise. A bit funny too.

Weiss 5′15 Germany
I good idea that ran too long.

Dreams & Desires 9′45 UK
Another Joanna Quinn gem. This film is a riot of color action, and incontinent dogs.

Jeu 3′00 Switzerland
A fantastic paint on glass perspective changing eye candy.

On the downside:

A couple of films from the CGI supinfocom school from france that are visually fantastic but the stories were incomprehensible. A few years back I was wowed by some films from this school that did have great stories as well but the last few years i have seen nothing but this eye candy dross that has useless stories that are trying to be too clever/surreal and it just doesn’t work.

There were a couple of other films that tried to be deep and meaningful with poetic narration that didn’t make any sense at all.

In summary a collection of good films and poor films, normal for a short film festival. The standouts for me were Dreams & Desires & Jeu both excellent. I’m still looking for the “one” the one film that takes my breath away but I still have a lot more sessions to see. I’ll keep you posted.

Cheers

Neil