Sitting in the darkness, what a world to see

We've got a couple of film screenings going on at the moment. The first is this Tuesday 25th at Hebden Bridge Picturehouse, as part of Uncanny Valley Animation Festival. We have got two films in competition, Spin Spun Span and A Film about Poo! To get tickets, check out the festival at this link.

The second screening is today at Edinburgh International Film Festival. Sun in the Night Time showed there a few years ago, and it's on today as part of a commemorative screening in memory of Scott Ward, who spent ten years as one of the animation programmers for EIFF. He kindly selected Sun in the Night Time to screen there back in 2008.

You know that we are living in a material world

Our short film Spin Spun Span will be shown as part of a screening at a new haberdashery that has just opened up in Birmingham. If you're out and about this Friday and fancy a bit of a knitting and crafting themed excursion then do pop along! Here see, these gentlemen are having fun...

There's a little echo calling

The Liverpool Echo have written an article about the project I did with FACT and Holy Cross Primary School. The animations are not mentioned, but it does talk a lot about the veterans and the pupils' reactions to meeting them, which is nice. The article includes a really nice letter one of the children wrote in the last session. Very sweet!

Here's a photo of one of the students with Jack, one of the veterans. To read the full article, click here.

Stop Before You Start

We've just begun work on our second film with poet Sheila McGill. It is part of an "anti-starting" campaign about smoking. The scheme is being piloted across schools in Bolton and Sheffield.

We had our first sound session last week and all went very well. Our three voice artists Sheila, Matilda, and Josh did a great job and nailed it first time!

For more information about Stop Before You Start visit: stopbeforeyoustart.co.uk/ 

I fought in a war

For the past couple of weeks I've been working with FACT and Holy Cross primary school in Liverpool to create a couple of animations as part of the Battle of the Atlantic celebrations. This May will be the anniversary, and there are plenty of commemorative events going on in Liverpool.

I was commissioned to work with a class of 8-9 year olds. We were visited by John and Jack, two veterans of the Battle, who kindly talked to the children about their experiences. Inspired by these, the children are creating two animated films, helped along by me.

Here's a sneak peek of some illustrations which will be displayed at FACT. I collaged together different children's drawings to create the pictures, one for each film.

The animations will be finished in the next week or so, so I will post again about their exhibition.

We always have a laugh and then we all get in the bath

This Sunday we're in Manchester with a stall at the Victoria Bath Fanzine Fair. If you're in the neighbourhood, come check out our wares. Emily's recently added to her tattoo collection with some Arctic themed ones, including an orca, an arctic fox and some very pretty icebergs, ready and waiting for some happy buyers. See you there!

In the van, with my friend

We're really pleased to let you know that A Film about Poo will be showing at the Best of Cannes in a Van. The programme is made up of the Festival's favourites from the last few years, and they are very kindly including our 90-second opus. You can see A Film about Poo, and others, on Wednesday 8th May in London. Click this link for more information, including the other films so far confirmed.

Strange Hill High

I've been working as an animator on a new CBBC show for the past year, and it's finally about to broadcast! The show is called Strange Hill High, and it's on Wednesday 8th at 5pm on the CBBC channel.

Josh Weinstein, who was one of the writers on The Simpsons, is one of the showrunners, and it stars Doc Brown, Richard Ayoade and Emma Kennedy.

I've been really proud to work on this programme, as it looks really different from everything else out there, and the scripts are very sharp. It was put together with a strange mixture of live action rod puppets, plus CGI animated mouths and facial expressions (that's me), which in itself is also an unusual way of working.

Because of its unique look, the show is getting a lot of promo before it airs, which is exciting. Here's an article from the Independent, and if you go here you can watch a bit from BBC Breakfast where Weinstein and Kennedy talk about the show.

Despite animating on it, I still haven't seen it all put together, so I can't wait to see it! Hurrah!

I'll take the high road from factory to factory

We had a jolly old time at the Tate Collective's Event on Thursday; 'Glam 21st Century Factory'. You can check out some photos from our shoot here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilyandanne/sets/72157633213289334/

Also to see more about the great venue Camp and Furnace see here:

http://www.campandfurnace.com/

Heads turning as the lights flashing out it's so bright

We're back in Liverpool this Thursday night for a Tate Collective party at Camp & Furnace. Emily and I will be running a photo shoot on the night - come be glamorous!

We are stardust. We are golden. And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.

Here's the latest addition to our shop. Temporary tattoos, all based on garden creatures. So if birds, bees and beetles are your thing then they're just the ticket!

You can see more of them at our shop here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/127519195/handmade-temporary-tattoos-garden-life

Wherever there are cats there are dogs

I'm doing some drawing today for a new item for our shop.

It's going to be one of a set of grumpy cat magnets, to go along with the happy dog magnets.

Zines zines zines

On Saturday we were here:

It was a really nice day with lots of people coming and going and buying. I'd not been to Electric Works before, and it was quite an interesting place. It had a massive helter skelter just in the middle of the building, which you could ride on, but which I did not. 

Sheffield Zine Fayre was also the debut of Emily's new zine, Twit Twoo. It's about owls, and it looks a bit like this:

We are currently updating our online shop to include our zines and things, as we ran out of stock a while ago. The new shop is here, and will have more things for sale over the next few weeks...

I wanna be a mole in a hole digging low and slooow

We were very excited to see 'Digging Deep: The Adventures of Sky the Reluctant Hero' at the Contact theatre on Saturday Evening. Nikky Norton Shafau (winner of the Flying Solo Commission 2011) led us on a beautiful immersive adventure touching upon issues of mental health, with incredible sound design by Martyn Ware (Heaven 17) and animation from us.. hooray! Our short animation was part of the production and was projected in parts during the show. At one point very creepily across the unmade bed, very eerie! A wonderfully imaginative performance and fairy jolly at times despite the serious subject. 

You can see the trailer just here:

Also if you wish to find out more abut Sky and how you can be a part of her story then follow this link below:

http://diggingdeep2012.wordpress.com/

GLAM at the TATE

If you like GLAM and happen to be about Liverpool way tomorrow, come check out this exhibition on at the Tate. We'll be filming 21 seconds of fame, so if you want to pull a few shapes or give it your best 'blue steel', we'll capture the moment for you.

Here's the Tate's website where you can book tickets.

It's the 6th BFI Future Film Festival

Here is a trailer for this year's BFI Future Film Festival, made by Rob Savage. We won the Festival a couple of years ago in the Best Animation category, and we were asked to help out with the trailer - we just did the yellow animated bit at the end, but still it's nice to get back in touch with the BFI guys!

The Festival is on 16-18th February in Southbank, London.

I wanna publish zines part seventy two

Emily and I are doing another zine fayre, this Thursday. It's our first in ages! We'll be at Manchester Gallery in, er, Manchester, on the 31st from 5pm, selling delightful things. The night ends a bit before 9pm, so don't dally after work.

For more information, take a look here.

I could be dreaming

Sounds like the Sleep Paralysis Project had a good screening the other week. Our film Hum was showing. Here's a nice review of the events, at this link.

A slow down show for you

For the Northerners amongst you, Emily and I will be part of a short film screening this Tuesday at Sheffield Showroom. It's Tuesday 22nd 7:30 - 9pm, and it'll be a first for our short educatioal/anti-smoking film called Invited Guest. Educational AND anti-smoking! What a sell! Well not to worry, it's not preachy or full of cancer statistics, it's part of a pilot scheme that's currently running in schools around Bolton and Sheffield. The film is shown as part of English lessons, and talks more about the experience of smoking, using the idea of an invited guest (the cigarette) that has now out-stayed its welcome (the addiction).

Here's a couple of stills to whet your appetite, and for more information, please do click here.