We recently received word that our film John & Betty has been selected to screen at the Hamburg Animation Awards 2012 and is in the running for this years Audience Award. This will be the films second screening in Germany after being previously screened in Stuttgart earlier this year. The film will be screened at the festival on 12 June where the audience will vote for their favourite. Our fingers are crossed and we will post again when we know the result!
L&A
How do you get two trees, six park benches, a bandstand, a house and part of a pub into a shed? The answer is, of course, build a bloody massive shed! An obvious solution to the problem in hand, which is exactly what we would have done were it not for certain financial constraints. Instead, we resorted to making them in miniature for use in our latest project, a music video for up-and-coming dup-step artist LiNC. The track is ‘Gave You The World’ featuring Harry David on acoustic guitar and vocals.
A huge factor in the enjoyment of creating stop-motion films, is having to create an entire world, from scratch. However, away from the kitted out studios of Univerity, this pleasure was not restricted to the building of sets and puppets. Equipment is expensive and when working with virtually no budget, buying it is sadly not an option. Rather than compromise and feel defeated however, we thought, how hard can it be? The next morning, Alex marched into the shed where he spent several days amidst the whirring of power-tools, banging of hammers and scratching of heads. Finally he emerged, triumphantly clutching his creations high above his head, the clouds parting to deliver a single glorious beam of sunshine to where he stood! Before skipping away to his room to play with his new toys, four lights and a tracking rig.
We came to this project with a lot of new ideas and skills that we wanted to try out. Having previously made very complex sets and puppets using many different materials and techniques, we decided keep everything relatively simple, carving the puppets from just one material and making purpose built sets for each shot. This meant we were able to complete all the sets and puppets we needed in little over four weeks. Using just one material meant that the puppets were incredibly light and as such were very easy to support using our home-made rigs and has helped give the film a fresh, contemporary aesthetic. The film is a culmination of all we have learned in the past two years from John & Betty to Canimation, it is a combination of diversity and simplicity and is coming together nicely.
As you’ll well know, when trying to be creative in a small shed in Yorkshire, imminent danger and certain bloodshed are never too far away. This project, is certainly no exception. Here’s Alex with his recollection of one such event…
“It all began when we decided it would be a nice idea to put forty-two LED’s into one of the models, to add a nice effect to the scene. This meant that the model, which had already been constructed, needed some slight alterations for it to neatly house all of the necessary wiring. So without hesitation, I picked up my scalpel and prepared for surgery. Little did I know that’s exactly where I’d end up with a significantly shorter finger. I returned to the shed some time later to the touching concerns of my colleagues. “At least you didn’t get blood on the bandstand!” said Luke as I walked through the door. The huge dressing, now encasing my finger, had put my hand almost completely out of action, however I dried my tears, soldiered on and completed the intricate task of wiring, with surprising dexterity.”
Thanks for reading, please come back for further updates on this or any other project we work on. Though, this blog may no longer be the first port of call for your Luke & Alex news, as we will be launching our shiny new website in the very near future.
London. Brick Lane. It’s the awards night for the British Student Film Festival. We arrived at the event and after a meeting a few friends and enjoying some free beer we were ushered towards our tables. A few more beers, curries, and various other culinary delights later it was time for the awards to be announced!
John & Betty was nominated for 4 awards including Best Sound, Screenplay, Animation & Film. Filled with tense anticipation we watched and applauded as the winning films were announced and screened. ‘Best Sound’ & ‘Best Screenplay’ were our first two chances but were awarded to “This is Not Real” & “The Phone Box” respectively. Despite our obvious disappointment, both films definitely deserved the accolades.
Then came the award for ‘Best Animation’. This was the one. It was a tough category as the quality of the submissions was so high that the shortlist was included more films than any other category including ‘The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling‘ by Joseph Wallace and ‘Ever Hear a Postman Whistle?’ by Bexie Bush. The envelope was opened, and the winner called out; “John & Betty!”. The feeling at that moment was fantastic, to have won another award for our film was simply brilliant. However, our greatest sense of satisfaction and achievement came from audience’s reaction as John & Betty was screened. There were chuckles, laughs and gasps.That was the real reward!
As you may or may not already know the British Animation Awards are just around the corner and this year they are asking people to submit ‘stings’ for use at there awards ceremony in March. It is of course a competition and only the ones with the most ‘Likes’ on Vimeo will be chosen. Due to our semi success in the Red Bull ‘Canimation’ competition we decided it would be a great chance to do some more animating!
Here is the finished ‘Sting’ for your viewing pleasure…
This time we decided to use cutout animation and film it from above, through several layers of glass. Here’s a few photos of our setup…
After two weeks of public voting, our entry for the Red Bull Canimation competition has made it through to the next round! We are now one of ten finalists in our category (Stop-Motion Open) from which a winner will be chosen by a panel of five industry professionals. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony somewhere in London on December 15th, so fingers crossed!
Thank you to everyone who voted for us! It was through your support that our film was chosen as one of the best.
For the cave dwellers amongst you, who may have missed it, here is the film in question…
The voting is now open for the 2011 Red Bull ‘Canimation’ competition and will remain open for the next two weeks. All you have to do to vote is to click here and watch, like, comment and share the video. Simple.
Thanks for watching!
L&A
Whilst working in London with Mike Please we heard about Red Bull’s animation competition, Canimation. We decided to have a go. after much discussion on our many train commutes, we came up with an idea, set a shoot date and went for it. We have been busy working on the film for a few days now and thought we should show you a little bit of what we have been doing. So here is a little bit of what we have been doing…
We aim to have the film finished by Monday morning ready for the deadline Tuesday 15th november. It will then go on the website ready for public voting so we will need you (your friends, and their friends) to help us win!
L&A
