Tuesday 21 October 2014

So full of twilight, dreams that glitter

I went to Blackpool a couple of weeks ago to see our new film That Night up in the Illuminations.


Here I am, with poet and judge Polly Atkin, local Councillor Christine Wright, and winning poet Sarah Leavesley who wrote the very beautiful That Night. It was a bit cold outside by the sea during the screening, you can probably work that out from our hunched postures, but it was a very clear night, and a great atmosphere.

The evening kicked off at Blackpool Central Library, with poetry readings and the announcement of the winners. There was also hot pot!! Despite living here for five years, I have somehow never had this Northern delicacy; I liked it. So did my dog Freddy, who accompanied me and Billy, the film's composer. Freddy kept sniffing the air and looking around him quite optimistically.

From the library we took coaches to the Illuminations, and onto a big screen watched the film projected. Suprisingly, I took photos:







Would you like to see the film in question? It's actually still showing at the Illuminations every night for a week more I think, but hey here it is on the inter webs:





You can read more about the evening on the Wordpool website here and here. Thanks to Clancy Mason and Lynne Pattinson from Blackpool Council for working with us; we loved it!


Friday 12 September 2014

The time was passed so pleasantly

Hey, remember ages ago when we said 50% of Emily&Anne were going to Vienna to teach a week long animation workshop as part of Tricky Women Summer School inspired by the poem The secretary chant by Marge Piercy? Well that happened! And there are photos to prove it:


Okay, so one photo. Promotion is not our forte.

That's Phillip up there. I advised him to paint his hand and animate it and he did! Would you like to see the finished film, including the above animated hand, and many other animated goodies besides? Well, guess what, it's embedded here, just for you:



The secretary chant made at the Tricky Women Animation Summer 2014 from Emily&Anne on Vimeo.

It was a really wonderful week in Vienna; I loved it. Everyone I met at the Summer School was lovely, and working with the workshop participants was very, very fun. I hope they are proud of the finished film. They gave me a load of chocolate at the end, so I guess they were happy too!

Wednesday 10 September 2014

The rhyme is losing to the riddling

We used to be pretty good at maintaining this blog and our "notable" activities, and lately (and by lately I mean the last 12 months or more), we are just rubbish. Well I don't know if that is about to change, but here is a new post nonetheless!

We've been asked to make a film for Blackpool Council's WordPool Festival of Poetry. As everyone knows, we love a reading and libraries and words, so we are very happy to working on this project. The short (very short) animation will be screened at the Blackpool Illuminations in the evening on October 2nd, which is when the winning poem will be announced and read by its author.

Details are here, and lookit, it's a poster:


Tuesday 29 April 2014

Pet Portraits for one and all..

Emily's Pet Portraits are out and about. All creatures great and small...




You can order your own one here: www.emilyhowells.com


PechaKucha 20x20

20 pics x 20 seconds. The Pipeline: Powered by PechaKucha has invited us along with 10 fellow animators to share knowledge, experience and ideas. We'll be showing some images from out past projects, as well as project to be Archy Declares War.

Amongst the speakers will only be the awesome Jim Le Fevre... hoorah and shucks! http://www.jimlefevre.com


Tickets are £10. You can book your ticket here: http://bit.ly/1mybu8A
Or to find out more see here: http://www.pechakucha.org/




Monday 28 April 2014

Strange Hill High series 2

I always prefer the second installment in a series - for example, The Two Towers, The Subtle Knife, The Empire Strikes Back... And guess what, the second installment of Strange Hill High is here. I spent 9 months in a large, cold, dark studio wrangling whatnot from 8am til 6pm, amongst a crew of ridiculously ace people, and here is the fruit of our labour:



The new series starts Tuesday 29th April at 5pm on CBBC. Watch it; it is good.

Wednesday 19 March 2014

I don’t think Fritz Lang was a fantasist

Anne is going to Vienna in June, would you like to hang out with her? Well, you can if you sign up for one of the workshops at Tricky Women Animation Summer!

We've shown our films at past editions of the Tricky Women Animation Festival, and a couple of weeks ago they contacted us about doing a workshop. And thus, Anne will be teaching a 5-day class called "Drawn-Digital Animation Collaboration". Which basically means we'll be making a short 2D animation together, mixing up different styles of animation and different processes both traditional and digital. The resulting film will be based on Marge Piercy's The secretary chant, which she has very kindly given permission to use. It is a fantastic poem; have a read:

The secretary chant


My hips are a desk, 
From my ears hang 
chains of paper clips. 
Rubber bands form my hair. 
My breasts are quills of 
mimeograph ink. 
My feet bear casters, 
Buzz. Click. 
My head is a badly organized file. 
My head is a switchboard 
where crossed lines crackle. 
Press my fingers 
and in my eyes appear 
credit and debit. 
Zing. Tinkle. 
My navel is a reject button. 
From my mouth issue canceled reams. 
Swollen, heavy, rectangular 
I am about to be delivered 
of a baby 
Xerox machine. 
File me under W 
because I wonce 
was 
a woman.


You can sign up for Anne's workshop, or indeed any of the others, at this link right here to the Animation Summer website.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

I wanna pack cute little lunches then read Danielle Steel

About a month ago we finished making a film for North West Libraries. It's part of the Time to Read initiative, and seems to have gone down well, they've even written up a report on its implementation and success in the region! If you enjoy information, you can read it here.

And if you like watching things, you can see the film here: