Branchage Film Festival Jersey 2009

For the 1st 4 days of October the island of Jersey will be home to the Brachage Film Festival. There is a lot packed into those 4 days but here's some of the highlights for animators.

Friday 2nd October 2009 - Mont Orgueil Castle

The Secret of Kells is an animated fairytale for both children and adults. It won the audience award at both the Edinburgh Film Festival 2009 and the prestigious Annecy animation festival in France.


Friday 2nd October 2009 - Opera House

This is followed by Animagica Night. The Icelandic quartet Amiina performing an original soundtrack to classic Lotte Reiniger animations followed by the ‘live cinema’ experience of Paper Cinema. Inkblots, photocopies, cardboard, angle-poise lamps, the occasional table, video technology, a laptop and a banana box, are all put to use alongside a cast of hand-drawn marionettes magically brought to life.

Saturday 3rd October 2009 - Town Hall

Bev Sage is host to Richard Golesowski from Aardman Animations, for a special Shaun the Sheep masterclass, with models and images to show how little Shaun makes it to the big screen.

Also featuring trailer of new animation “The Puffas” by Ray Hedges and live performance by Simon MacDonald.

StopPress:

There will also be animation in the Max Hattler retrospective and in the London Short Film Festival presents Music & Video.

Follow the latest about the Branchage Festival on Twitter.

Aardman latest

Aardman have been busy over the summer. They have been moving into their new offices, creating animation on the Nintendo Wii® and have been commissioned to make a new inventing series for the BBC. They have also been involved in a range of adverts such as the Change for Life, Cherios, Marie Claire and Birds Eye 'Steakhouse'. The Aardman feature films teams are working on "Arthur Christmas" and "The Pirates! which they hope to release in 2012. They have also been building a digital WebbliWorld.

Morphmation Finalists

The finalists are up for the Aardman/Firebox Morphmation competition.

Fishcake by Jennifer Kell
Morph: Fair Play By Ian Timothy
Tea and Biscuits by David Hart
Morph Gets Fit by Rachel McGrath
Morph Stains on the Carpet By Peter & Caroline

Morphmation Animation Competition

Aardman have teamed up with the online gadget store Firebox.com and are looking for short animated stopmotion Morph films.

There's a chance of winning a one-off signed original sketch of a scene from your film by Peter Lord, Creative Director of Aardman, a copy of Stop Motion Pro6.5 High Definition software or an Animation Station.

Enter now

Full terms and conditions

Aardman's new office

Wallace and Gromit are moving to a new home after creators Aardman Animation were given the go-ahead to build a £10 million headquarters.

The Oscar-winning studio will move to a three-storey complex next to its current dockside base in Bristol after the plans were approved by the city council.

It will almost double the number of staff currently working at the site from 110 to 200, as nearly all the company's employees are relocated to the new expanded development.

Aardman co-founder David Sproxton said it was an exciting time in the company's history, "the building will mean everyone can be together at last and out of the Portakabins."

The building will boast its own "mini cinema" and could feature four wind turbines on the roof - providing up to 25 per cent of the site's energy needs.



More details can be found via the Wallace and Gromit Forum.

Bafta Winners

There's plenty of articles about the other Bafta winners. Animation Ramblings is interested the animation winners. Congratulations to WALL-E and our home baked A Matter of Loaf and Death and a not forgetting Terry Gilliam who's films (and animation) have entertained us all over the years.

ANIMATED FILM
Winner - WALL•E – Andrew Stanton
PERSEPOLIS – Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
WALTZ WITH BASHIR – Ari Folman

SHORT ANIMATION
Winner - WALLACE AND GROMIT: A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH – Steve Pegram, Nick Park, Bob Baker
CODSWALLOP – Greg McLeod, Myles McLeod
VARMINTS – Sue Goffe, Marc Craste



ACADEMY FELLOWSHIP
TERRY GILLIAM

Happy 30th Birthday Morph

"Morph, the plasticine character made famous by the late TV presenter Tony Hart, is celebrating his 30th birthday with a photo shoot in a men's magazine."

From: BBC Entertainment News

Aardman BBC1 double premiere on Christmas Day

At 5pm on BBC1 on Christmas day TV premiere of "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" will be shown.
And at 8:30pm we have the UK premiere of Aardmans's latest claymation film, A matter of loaf and death.



The latest film is a 30 minute murder mystery. Wallace has opened his own bakery, Top Bun and a 'cereal killer' is killing off all of his rival bakers in the town. Wallace is love smitten with Piella Bakewell and Gromit is worried that his master will be next for the chop.

After completing the film in just 7 months, Nick Park says that he's giving his brain a rest. Aardman are not resting though and are busy recruiting for both CG and Stop Motion positions for work on "The Pirates!"

Animation fans in Australia were lucky enough to see this film a month early.

More creature discomforts

Back in November the Creature Discomforts adverts for Leonard Cheshire Disability were first shown, this week there will be more new characters and adverts but the message is the same and beautifully expressed by the voice behind Tim the Tortoise Ian Wilding, "See the person, not the disability".

There's lots of info on the site about how the adverts were made and the people who helped make them. You can also order the DVD of the adverts from the website.

Javier Leon - CGI Clay

Javier Leon is a CGI artist who demonstrates the power of 3D Max. He's created some excellent images that mimic the claymation and model style of Aardman and to be brutally honest he's done a much better job of it than was done for Flushed Away.





Thanks to Kramer Klaymation for find this.

Animation Bafta Winners 2008

The Bafta winner of the Best Animated Film was as predicted, Ratatouille. I'm glad but not surprised that this film was recognised for it's brilliance. The Golden Compass beat it to the post for Visual Effects.

Aardman's "The Pearce Sisters" recieved Best Short Animation award, I'm not sure that I could have predicted that one as Crumble Giant was also excellent. I thought Osbert Parker's Head over Heels was disapointing but I suspected he had some good contacts in the industry to lobby for him. So overall I would not have been able to choose between the three but again I'm glad Aardman was recognised for its new animation techniques used in this film.

New Creature Comforts

Aardman's latest creature comforts is made for Leonard Cheshire Disability charity. Leonard Cheshire provides services for disabled people and campaigns for their rights and have provided input for Aardman to create a range of new characters including Spud the Slug, Peg the Hedgehog and Flash the Sausage Dog. The characters explain some of the prejudices that are still common in the UK and are all voiced by real disabled people. The director Steve Harding-Hill described working with disabled people as being incredibly satisfying.

The Creature Discomforts characters appear in adverts that will be seen online, in magazines, at bus stops and on the Tube from this Thursday.

The aptly named "Creature Discomforts" series is previewed online and can be seen in full in the spring of 2008.

Anti-pesto van inspiration for sale

Nick Park from Aardman Animation is kindly donating his own van to the Wallace and Gromit's Children's Foundation. This is of course no ordinary van but the one that inspired the anti-pesto van from the film the Curse of the Wererabbit. The vehicle is an International Austin A35 van which was made in 1958. Please note that this is Nick's own van, not the replica one that was shown at the premiere. Money from the sale will go to the children's foundation to improve the quality of life for those in hospitals and hospices. Previous events from the Wallace and Gromits Children's foundation include the Wrong Trousers day.

Nicks Austin Van for Sale on Ebay

"Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation is a national charity raising funds to improve the quality of life for children in hospitals and hospices throughout the UK. Serious illness is always distressing but in a child it is cruelly so as it steals away childhood itself. The Foundation funds an innovative range of projects to ensure children in hospitals and hospices have a better, brighter future."

http://www.wallaceandgromitfoundation.org/

Trouble at' Mill for Wallace and Gromit

Nick Park teams up with Bob Baker co-writer for wrong trousers and close shave to make a 30 minute film called "Trouble at' Mill". The favourite Northern Team Wallace and Gromit set up a bakers with a windmill on top of the house and a collection of robotic tools to "help". Whilst they are out delivering their Top Bun - Dough to door delivery service, Wallace spots Piella Bakewell cycling past and instantly falls in love. However trouble is afoot as Gromit spots that 12 bakers have disappeared this year alone. You will have to wait to find out what happens.

Nick and team expect to take 7 to 8 months to complete the film and hence plan to release it with the BBC at the end of 2008. Nick reports that he is happier with the short film format as it allows them to keep Wallace and Gromit who they are rather than having to make adjustments to please an international audience who may not understand some of the cultural references.

If you need some help making your own Wallace and Gromit creation then you can attend a workshop at Woking's Lightbox with an Aardman model maker on 20th October and again on 17th November.

Links
Official Wallace and Gromit Site
Manchester Evening News
BBC

Naked Chef on Kids TV

Fresh One and Aardman Animations have combined forces to animate Jamie Oliver. The new series "Little J" looks at a young Jamie and his quest to become a chef. He's joined in the 52 part series by other characters such as a mad scientist called "Eggs Benedict", a band "The Vulgar Vegetables" and kitchen mentor Nonna. The 10 year old Jamie aims to inspire kids to think positively about good food.

The series is directed by Tom Parkinson who has previously worked on a film and series with Oz naturist anti-hero "Big Jeff" and short films Ramble On and ‘La Fille avec Les Orilles de Jambon’ (the girl with the bacon ears) both that were shown at festivals around the country.

Aardman News

I've kind of been stockpiling Aardman news so here's a whole bunch of announcements together.

Aardman's been making a few changes internally, new writers Matthew Graham, Peter Baynham and Ashley Pharoah have joined and Sarah Smith in the Aardman Features. Sarah has been promoted to Creative Director.

The Creature Comforts US series has been cancelled before CBS has had chance to show all of the episodes. You can join the petition to get it back on air. CBS claim that it was looking for higher ratings. However some lucky people got to see an unaired episode at Platform International Animation Festival in Portland.

Shaun the Sheep however goes from strength to strength by winning the Cristal for Best Television at this Annecy International Animation Festival. 'The Pearce Sisters' by Luis Cook won the Special Jury Award. You can watch a couple of clips of the harsh life by the sea that these sisters endure on the Aardman website.

The new projects in the pipeline are:

'The Cat Burglars', a comedy heist that follows a gang of milk-pilfering stray cats as they pull off their biggest ever job - the 'Great Milk Float Robbery'. Steve Box directs this claymation film

'Operation Rudolph' an action-adventure comedy set on Christmas night. It shows the North Pole operation as an exhilarating ultra high-tech military procedure on a massive scale, revealing how Santa and his huge army of combat elves can actually get round the whole world in one night.

'Pirates! Adventure with Scientists' will be directed by Peter Lord.



The story from Gideon Defoe sees the Pirate Captain and Charles Darwin travel from the pirate dens of Port Royal to the streets of Victorian London stumbling on his arch-rival Black Bellamy and the Elephant Man in a plot to save the last dodo from the dining table of Queen Victoria. Gideon Defoe is working on the script with Peter Lord and Gnomeo and Juliet writers Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil

A new (non Wallace and Gromit) project from Nick Park and 2 other projects.

For those of you who followed the "Purple and Brown" series on Youtube, you should love the new series Pib and Pob that is now available on Atom Films.




http://www.atomfilms.com/films/pib_pog.jsp

The latest Pib and Pog films are directed by Peter Peake who directed the origional film back in 1993/4. He's also been involved with a big selection of other Aardman projects including Creature Comforts and Rex the Runt.

Finally, Aardman films should also soon be available on Joost.

Animated Adventures Exhibition

For those who want to see how animation is made there is the Animated Adventures Exhibition in Liverpool's World Museum. The exhibition looks into the whole of the creative process and is on from now till August. Visitors can experiment with lighting, sound and character creation.

Exhibitors include Timothy Albee, Aardman Annimation, Banjax, Evan Cagle, D7 Studios, Michael Sormann and Richard Vaucher.

Aardman was given high praises this month in 3D World Magazine which also contains tutorials on animals and fur, a free copy of Curvy 3D and reviews of Ghost Rider and the latest news and events.

Shaun and Simpsons

Shaun

Shaun the sheep's new show is soon to be shown on the screen. Shaun and his pals are online now and will be appearing on CBBC on 5th March. The Shaun the Sheep website is packed full of goodies including games, artwork, things to make and clips like the one below:

The Simpsons

The Simpsons Movie trailers are available online in wonderful 2D. All of your favourite and lots of your not so favourite characters are in this film. Some of the trailers are available in high definition so we might find that the film will eventually be released on a HD Disk.

Cars and Flushed Away win Annies

Lightning McQueen and Mater won the Best Animated Feature at the Annie Awards this week for the Cars film by Pixar

Flushed Away won awards for animated effects, feature character animation, feature production design, voice acting (Ian McKellen), feature writing and best animated video game.

One of my favourites "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" won best animated TV production and music awards.

The Winsor McCay Award for Recognition of lifetime contributions to the art of animation was granted to Bill Plympton, Genndy Tartakovsky and Andreas Deja

More details of the Annie Awards

Making Toons has several mentions of Genndy Tartakovsky.

Dreamworks and Aardman

This week has been a week of DreamWorks and Aardman news. The two companies had planned to make 5 films together but have parted ways after just 3 of them.

The films made in the deal were:

• Chicken Run
• Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit
• Flushed Away

The claim from DreamWorks is that the films were unprofitable which seems a reasonable reason to split, but for me the numbers just don't add up.

Here's a few films to help the comparison:

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (one of the all time most profitable films of all time)
Opening Weekend: $136M
USA: $423M
Global: $1,065M
Estimated Cost: $150M ($450M for the 3 films)

Wallace and Gromit
Opening Weekend: $16M (top for that weekend)
USA: $56M
Global: $186M
Cost: $30M

Happy Feet

Opening Weekend: $41.6M

USA: $192M

Global: $355M

Monster House
Opening weekend $22M
USA: $74M
Global: $137M
Cost: $75M

Over the Hedge
Opening Weekend $38M
Global: $239M

Ant Bully
Global: $54M
Cost: $50M

Polar Express
Cost: $170M

Incredibles
Cost: $100M

Valiant

USA: $19M

Global: $61M

Cost: $40M (target)

Flushed Away
USA: $62M
Global: $154M
Cost: $149M Split between ($90M production, $30M prints and advertising)

Looking at these figures, the Wallace and Gromit made a not insignificant profit of $150M and Flushed Away is breaking even so far. Of course these numbers don't take into account deals with people such as McDonalds or other Merchandising and they don't include DVD sales. Flushed away cost more than average for a CGI film, this is probably because of learning and because early in production it was going to be stop motion but was changed to be CGI so some costs were written off. It may also have been because of the work force being in different countries. But the claim from Dreamworks that it made a massive loss from the film seems unfounded.

Aardman and Dreamworks claim to have separated amicably so there should be few loosers from this split. As we saw a few weeks ago Aardman have plenty of work on and seem to be doing quite well and have announced that they are planning on making another Wallace and Gromit film. However one predicted looser is the Crood Awakening film written by John Cleese which is believed to have been put on hold by Dreamworks. A reworking of the Hare and the Tortoise in mockumentary style was also planned.

Some related links.

Marketing Spend on films
http://www.slate.com/id/2120335/
http://www.screendigest.com/reports/mini/2006/film_marketing_cost_evaluated/06-4-f5/view.html

Cost of Animation
http://www.animationnation.com/wwwboard/messages/318.html

Animator Pay
http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/swzl_compresult_national_CM02000023.html http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/animations-pay-rates-vs-average.html

Curse of the Were Rabbit
http://www.toonhound.com/wererab.htm