Frank: I Love You All

That would probably be his response if he knew my thoughts on the film.

If you don't know about Frank, learn about Frank.

The music that the technically fictional band 'Soronprfbs' (that's right) 

creates throughout the film is quite great. Here's hoping the film's soundtrack is released as the Soronprfbs album.

If you saw the film, you may have struggled to get this song out of your head afterwards. 

I certainly did, for a good reason.

What he said.

Stuck in the Sound: Let's Go!

The best music video I saw last year, came out the year before; Slow, bro I know.

It stars this delightfully scowling astronaut. He pretty much single-handedly 

got the band Stuck in the Sound on my radar, and for that, I thank him.

You'll want to watch this video, it's certainly worth it, 

from an animation and musical standpoint:

Innova Libre

You know, I never mentioned, while I had my Hidden Histories project,
I had an additional film project to get on with:



I present to you Innova Libre, featuring my wonderful comrades
Lillian Squires & Agostino Carrea.

It's a short film I created for a brief called 'My Eye, My Vision'. It deals with my vision of where character ideas stem from, and how they choose to manifest in your mind:



Did the boy look familiar at all?
& don't worry, it's not meant to be serious.

Despite choosing to specialise in illustration,
I do still very much love moving image.
Experimenting with some simple yet effective shots throughout the filming process
reminded me of this

FFFFEEDBACK:

My tutors said it was a very ambitious projects, as I was directing, filming and getting actors together. I got a feeling one of them wasn't too much a fan of some snippets of acting, but they were impressed on a whole... I think.

According to my friends & peers, I've come up with something cool.
But personally, I feel I missed the mark with this one, with a bunch of tweaks, and a few re-shoots, this could have been something great.

Hey, it's my first live-action film. I think I've done ok.


Oh, see what I had to put up with filming this!:



Just a thought, is it worrying that the outtakes are longer than the actual film?...

*************

EDIT - The answer to that was yes, so years later for the sake of all our eyes and ears I took the videos down! No need to thank me!

Runaway Brain

Got to stop drawing myself, it's making me look vain.


'Becoming Mickey'
[10.5"x16.5" Inks & Monochrome Pencil on HeavyWeight Paper]

I don't know why but this feels like my first proper illustration in a while.

Oddly enough, dressing up as Mickey Mouse the other day has rekindled a couple of feelings.
For one, my fondness of the lil' fella.

Another thing that has been rekindled is my love for animation. Through researching for the costume I came across a few mickey mouse cartoons, old & new.

They are fantastic. Full of perfect motion, charming narratives & beautiful scenery.

One which really stood out to me was the Academy Award nominated short called Runaway Brain. Seeing as it came out in 1995 I'm surprised today was the first time I saw it.

Watch it here:



It's the little things that got me with this, like the rapid change and contrast in the characters' colour palettes during the fight scene.

This year I have the hard choice of choosing to do illustration or moving image next year. Over the holiday I was starting to edge towards illustration. But after watching shorts like this it's become a level playing field again.

I just love Mickey's freaky altered look




& now I desperately need to get hold of this vinyl toy.



I think I should give the Mickey Mouse theme a bit of a rest.
Well, for now anyway.

Hibernation

[1985. A secret tree house. Two children disguised in animal costumes experiment on reviving a bee. But they are searching for a way to bring back something much bigger.
A magical and moving story about a journey of discovery and revelation.]

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across this award winning short film at short&sweet, it's one truly beautiful piece of film, and if you don't well up, just a tiny bit, at least a little on the inside, I might be inclined to declare you're lacking a soul.