Flickerfest - Best of Melbourne Screening

My film Crooked is showing in Melbourne this week, as part of Flickerfest's 'Best of Melbourne' Screening.
It's on at 7pm this Thursday the 26th, at the Kino Dendy cinemas on Collins Street.
Check out the program.

Legendary - For Illustration Friday

Here's a quick watercolour of Bob. With a name like Bob how could you not be destined for greatness?

Illustrator Profile: Jon Klassen

Every so often I see an artist that makes me want to throw down my pencil, throw out my sketchbooks, and pursue a career in accounting.
Mrs Black, my uninspiring year 9 maths teacher made sure that would never happen. Thanks a lot Mrs Black!

Melodrama aside, the work of Jon Klassen is rocking my socks at the moment.
And rather than making me want to commit career suicide, it's making me want to plaster his beautiful works all over my walls.
He was an artist on the soon-to-be-released stop-motion animated feature, Coraline, where he worked on visual development of props and sets. Check out the development drawings on his website - interesting!


He also blogs, and sells his prints at Nucleus Gallery, just incase you all want to buy me a print, wink wink!

bear for a baby

One of my friends just had a baby, so I decided to make her a little painting to hang in her nursery.
I’d been doing digital stuff for so long, I forgot how much fun it is to actually paint. With a real paintbrush! Paint! And paper!

I don’t really have a space set up for painting, with my desk space engulfed by the all powerful iMac. So here’s my messy set up on the kitchen table.
Yes, that is an ice-cube tray that has rediscovered life as a palette.
I soon found out that round tables were not made for painting, as I kept on nearly knocking the paint off the edge of the table.
First sketched, then painted a few of the teddy’s little limbs with gouache. This was the first time I’d used gouache in years, and I like it! It’s dries so clean and flat.
Well, I painted the rest so quickly, I didn’t stop to take another pic. And here he is framed and ready to go.

Hope you like it little Luka!

Lucille Screenings update

The Adelaide Film Festival is starting this weekend, and they've kindly invited my short, Lucille, to screen as part of the Animation Passport program. Curated by Eddie White from the People's Republic of Animation, it looks to be a killer program! I'm pretty humbled to be screening my film in such good company.

If you haven't seen these films yet, here's your chance! There are some real gems in this animated mix-tape
The films screening are: Skhizein, KJFG No.5, A Coffee Vending Machine & His Sword, I Met the Walrus, Lucille, Madame Tutli-Putli, Oktopodi, and Western Spaghetti (which I recently featured right here)

Festival screenings for Lucille have also just been confirmed at:
BUFF International Children and Young People's Film Festival in Malmö, Sweden, and Tricky Women's Film Festival in Vienna

Thanks adelaide, Malmö and Vienna!!

Illustration Friday: Time

A late entry for Illustration Friday's 'Time' topic. Even I can see the irony in that. Perhaps i should've drawn something about lateness.
Anyway, here's Public Enemy Robot. In the house.

Victorian Bushfires

Sad times here in Victoria. It's hard to even imagine the scale of the devastation these fires have caused. Please give to the Australian Red Cross Victorian bushfire appeal if you can.
Read news and eye-witness accounts at ABC News

Western Spaghetti

Do you like spaghetti? I like spaghetti. Especially this very clever
stop-motion animation cooked up by PES.

Flickerfest Screening

Flickerfest, Sydney's summer outdoor film festival, is starting this weekend, and my very short short, Crooked, will be screening in Australian Program #3.

If, lovely reader, you happen to live in Sydney and want to check it out, it screens at 9pm on Sunday 11th and Monday 12th. I will be at the Sunday night screening if you want to say hello.

Munich

Here’s a bunch of photos from my week at the Munich international Festival of Film Schools, where Crooked was screening.

Beautiful Munich!

checking in at the festival lounge – the festival staff were awesome

The audience at the Film museum, where all the screenings were held

After every film, there was a Q & A with the director. I think we were all really nervous at first, but the hosts were fantastic, and asked great questions.
I don’t know what the hell I’m saying here… I must be talking about my great boxing skills.
Tour of the Bavarian film studio, of which the most interesting part was... wardrobe of course!

Apparently, most of the wartime uniforms were originals from the time. creepy!

Nothing remained of the pancake with almonds and apple mousse,apart from memories and an oily pan. Yum!


Of course, the real highlight was meeting directors from all over the world, and seeing some damn good films..
one of my favourites was a film called And Thou Shalt Love, by the talented Chaim Elbaum. Check out the trailer:

Kids and Lucille at Fed Square

I forgot to post this pic up earlier, but here is the screening of Lucille at Federation Square.
Just before my film came on, a huge crowd of schoolkids swarmed in and sat down to watch, which is great, as they were a good audience.

It's interesting what they laugh at!
One thing's for sure, kids think bums are very funny! :)

Screenings in Beijing, Bradford and Munich!

Is it really November? How did that happen?

'Crooked' is showing at a bunch of festivals over the next 2 weeks.
So, if you're reading this and you just happen to be in Beijing, you can catch it at the International Student Film & Video Festival.
It's also screening at the lovely Bradford Animation Festival in the UK, where you can see it this Thursday and Friday in the Short Shorts program.

But the most exciting news is that this weekend, I'll be flying to Munich to attend the Munich International Festival of Film Schools. It's one of the top student festivals, and will be screening 44 films from around the world.

That is damn excitement! :D

Now.. what am I going to read on that 27 hour flight from Australia...

Ecstatic City

My animated film Lucille is currently screening as part of Chris Doyle's installation, Ecstatic City, for the Melbourne International Arts Festival, on until the end of the week.

You can step into little "miniplexes", built right over the water outside the National Gallery and check out some works by local filmmakers.

Here's a blurb from the festival website:
"Part temporary architecture and part video projection, Ecstatic City is situated in the moat of the NGV International. Designed as a kind of 'miniplex marina', viewers can explore the site and take in some remarkable and refreshing video works that have been created by some of Australia's great moving image-makers."

Strings

The topic on Illustration Friday this week is strings! Beloved strings!
So, how could i not "cheat" and show a few stills from my animation Lucille (about a girl in a guitar shop)?

I always like seeing other people's process, so here's a few before and after shots, comparing the original rough storyboard to the final animation.







There's something in the immediacy of a rough sketch that sometimes can't be recreated. I like the rocker's face in that last storyboard sketch more than the final shot. It's much more menacing! But I ended up going for a more deadpan look. (It went better with the actor's performance)

Any Melbournians reading this? You can see this animation on the big screen at Fed Square this Thursday (the 16th), with my other film Crooked and all the other films nominated for ATOM awards this year. They're on 7:30 to 9pm, and it's FREE. See you there!

happy weekend! :)

Illustration friday: sugary

Donut on his ciggie break. It's tough to be so sugary all the time.

Animator Spotlight: Adam Bizanski

I first saw the work of stop-motion animator, Adam Bizanski, at Resfest a few years ago.
His video for The Shins' song 'Pink Bullets', is a gentle and heart-breaking tale of love between two paper cows.
The way he infuses so much emotion into their little paper eyes is remarkable.

Bizanski made his first music video while doing his compulsory military service in Israel, finishing it on his breaks at home.
He asked a friend in the US to give his work to The Shins at a New York in-store appearance. Eight months later, he received a call from the lead singer James Mercer, and this lead to the Pink Bullets clip, which he created in his bedroom in Tel-Aviv.
He's since directed videos for Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade and Zero 7.
Go check out his website to see Pink Bullets and more. Now i say!

I heart Vinni Puh

Check out this fantastic Soviet era animation of Winnie the Pooh by Fyodor Khitruk. It's interesting to see how differently the story and design are interpreted.

In this Russian version, the attitude and humour are much more representative of the book, and so much damn cooler than the syrupy disney version. I love it! Let's hope someone translates the other episodes soon.

Detach

for illustration friday...

I've noticed I usually tend to go for subdued colours. I don't know why, my brain just always picks those colours first... So I tried to push myself with this one and use a more vibrant pallette.

I kept going with this illustration all evening... sometimes it's hard to know when it's actually finished and it's time to stop!

clickety for a close up

Atom Awards

Both my films, Lucille and Crooked, have been shortlisted for an ATOM award for animation!
ATOM is the Australian Teachers of Media, and they hold awards annually for film, TV and new media.
It's a great honour, thanks ATOM!

Now enough talking, time for some imagery... will post a new illustration up soon!

retro future

Here's a teeny little retro-future graphic I did for work, which didn't end up being used. It was a fun little job though - robots, rockets, what more could you ask for?
Click on the image to view it (slightly) bigger.