I saw this film last week, it's the kind of film i'd loved to have seen growing up along with other fantasy films like Labyrinth, Krull and The Thief of Baghdad. It's about two guys (one caucasian, the other middle-east asian) who grow up together under the same carer; who tells them stories of an old myth about the Djinn Fairy and how she promised to marry the person who freed her from her glass prison.
The boys become rivals from the get go, each claiming to to seek out the Djinn Fairy and free her. What follows is that journey....
This film is another from director Michel Ocelot, whom also made my previously reviewed film 'Kirikou and the Sorceress'. The style is very much the same, however, this film has been created in 3D and the use of bold colours with almost no shadows at all gives it a vectorised look.
I'd say that it probably wasn't a great film worthy of a dozen awards because it looks pretty good and the story is about average, but this is the kind of film that I would want to show my children. What I really love about Ocelot's work is the message that it carries, both this film and the Kirikou film contain an important (and simple to understand) moral message which the storyline ultimately drives towards, and I hope that he continues to make more films like this in the future.
They are French movies dubbed into English so unfortunately there are other works of his which are available only in the native tongue (without subs) and I hope that the various film councils and committees out there will be able to bring those works to us.
If any of you have access to the Sky Arts channels (they're free channels so should hopefully be on freeview, etc.) then keep an eye out as both 'Azur and Asmar' and 'Kirikou and the Sorceress' are often listed on rotation.
Showing posts with label animation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animation. Show all posts
2 September 2010
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5 May 2010
Review Richard Haynes, today's speaker.
Richard Haynes 05/05/10
Richard Haynes is an animator and illustrator who mainly works in stop-motion animation.
He has always been passionate about drawing and acting, so he thought animation was perfect for him. He did Art in A-levels, and a Foundation Course where he produced a live action film at the end, which helped him helped him entering the Degree course he was applying for: Arts Institute at Bournemouth. There, he specialised in traditional drawn animation (stop-motion). At the end of the Degree he did a final film called The Typewriter - which couldn’t be longer than two minutes.
Richard showed us the rough animation he did on Christmas 2002 and then we saw the final one, made in June 2003.
He sent the film to the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France, and thanks to that he is working in the industry, as he met a producer from Cosgrove Hall.
He told us that the producer liked him because of his way of presenting himself, he pointed the fact that this job it’s all about meeting people.
Cosgrove Hall proposed him to do model animation, which was a challenge for him. He did little animations for kids called: Little Robots. Richard told us that every tiny model cost thousands of pounds!
He worked for them for five years. Now, Cosgrove hall has closed, because of the recession.
Recently he’s been working in Aardman Studios, where he has been working in Shaun the Sheep for 8 months.
Richard said that with Aardman everything was very different because when the contract ended, he knew he had to go find another job.
He showed us some of his showreels, which contained a lot of model animation, such as Shaun the Sheep, The postman Pat, Little Robots, Squidge and the Hardnuts (computer and model animation), etc.
I asked him if he had ever created the puppets, but he said that his work is just focused in acting and performance.
Haynes told us that what he likes about stop-motion animation is its believability, the fact that the characters actually exist, and children love that. So do I!
Mike asked him if he thinks Manchester is a good place for animation development, and Richard said that Manchester has been fantastic for him and that it has a good future in animation. He also said that in the BBC there’s a lot of animation going on.
I enjoyed very much this talk, Richard was very enthusiastic and you could tell he love his job.
I am not sure if I am going to do animation in the future, but this talk made me think of an animation technique I’ve never thought before: model animation, and the fact that you don’t need to be good at drawing to do that.
2 April 2010
Oliver Postgate
Did anyone by chance catched the BBC four programme on Wednesday night about Oliver Postgate....
Well as I need to do more reviews I thought this might be a good chance to do one about this programme because it was interesting.
Firstly, who is Oliver Postgate and secondly, what did he do and finally, why should we know about him today?
Oliver Postgate was bus driver...(only kidding) was an animator but if you look at it another way he was the driving force behind trying to create more animations for children for T.V in the late 50's.
Postgate in his make shift studio (his bedroom) produced many simple (low budget) stop-motion animation some only lasting about 5 -10 minutes. This was also produced using low standing equipment and wiring a camera with a motor then wiring to a control to allow the person the capture single frames and later going on to set up Smallfilms animation company. Being able to write scripts, do the filming and being able to do the voices animations could be produced quickly.
Works he created is Ivor the engine (below), The Pogles, Noggin the Nog, Bagpuss and (very annoying) The Clangers.
So why is he still important today? simple answer he was and still is a genius, the scriptwriter, the animator and the man with many ideas. Many if you look around today at small animations you find similar style, which can be classified as new contemporary. I think work such as, Ivor the engine I think is very inspirational and influential to animators today as the animations shows a strong force to push and experiment with equipment and not to rely heavily on one thing because you might get it done quicker but it might not be unique in style or language.
Hoped you enjoy.... P.S I am not that old to be asked did I enjoy them as a kid....
Well as I need to do more reviews I thought this might be a good chance to do one about this programme because it was interesting.
Firstly, who is Oliver Postgate and secondly, what did he do and finally, why should we know about him today?
Oliver Postgate was bus driver...(only kidding) was an animator but if you look at it another way he was the driving force behind trying to create more animations for children for T.V in the late 50's.
Postgate in his make shift studio (his bedroom) produced many simple (low budget) stop-motion animation some only lasting about 5 -10 minutes. This was also produced using low standing equipment and wiring a camera with a motor then wiring to a control to allow the person the capture single frames and later going on to set up Smallfilms animation company. Being able to write scripts, do the filming and being able to do the voices animations could be produced quickly.
Works he created is Ivor the engine (below), The Pogles, Noggin the Nog, Bagpuss and (very annoying) The Clangers.
So why is he still important today? simple answer he was and still is a genius, the scriptwriter, the animator and the man with many ideas. Many if you look around today at small animations you find similar style, which can be classified as new contemporary. I think work such as, Ivor the engine I think is very inspirational and influential to animators today as the animations shows a strong force to push and experiment with equipment and not to rely heavily on one thing because you might get it done quicker but it might not be unique in style or language.
Hoped you enjoy.... P.S I am not that old to be asked did I enjoy them as a kid....
2 December 2009
The Girl Who Didnt Dress Bright
This is going to be my second review (yes my second maybe my tenth well be in next ten years or so but...) as I forgot if I can review adverts (pitch folks at the ready...) anyway "The Girl Who Didn't Wear Clothes", or the advert from Think! Road Safety advertisement. We have gone from the days where we have singing hedgehogs teaching the green cross code "Stop, Look and Listen"and now we are in the days where scaring little kids is much better. This animation was made by the company Nexus Production in 2d and 3d computer animation.
The narrative is set out in a poem and told as a tale about the girl who didn't dress bright. The advert reminds me of a Tim Burton animation with use dearm like surreal backgrounds and flash backs of what happened.
This is a simple but I think effective advert as its done a creative way to not terrify a young audience but would make a impact into thinking.
21 November 2009
culture vultures
if, like me, you're usually put off watching BBC's the culture show, because of simon-bloody-mayo and lauren-fuckin-laverne, it's worth gritting your teeth and suffering this week's episode - now available on BBC iplayer...
the show has a '20 years of wallace & gromit' thread running through it, with lots of behind the scenes stuff from aardman studios, as well as interviews with the founders. some interesting stuff there, especially the bits where you get a glimpse of all the other stuff [mainly advertising] that aardman have been responsible for and where nick park talks about his inspirations and influences.
just fast-forward through the obligatory sections featuring the usual 'i'd eat my own shit with a knife and fork, to get my face on the telly' zzz-elebrities, trotted out to say how much they l-u-u-r-v-e wallace & gromit, and you're good to go!
the show has a '20 years of wallace & gromit' thread running through it, with lots of behind the scenes stuff from aardman studios, as well as interviews with the founders. some interesting stuff there, especially the bits where you get a glimpse of all the other stuff [mainly advertising] that aardman have been responsible for and where nick park talks about his inspirations and influences.
just fast-forward through the obligatory sections featuring the usual 'i'd eat my own shit with a knife and fork, to get my face on the telly' zzz-elebrities, trotted out to say how much they l-u-u-r-v-e wallace & gromit, and you're good to go!
8 November 2009
Collage animation of Monty Python
During last week I came up with the basic story line but the cartoon effect that I thought I wanted wasn't going to fit within my style of working. So talking to Stíobhart about wanting to add collage to the story he recommend looking at the Monty Python titles, which I had and can't get out of my head because it's really good animation for the 70's and I think might work today...
28 October 2009
Brushing up..
I've decided I want to use Illustrator and After Effects for my brief and so I needed to brush up on After Effects as I haven't used it for about a year.Doing this I made a quick simple,not so great,walking animation.The straightest legs you have ever seen!
PS: If you're wondering why it is 16 seconds long when it should only be about 5/6 seconds long...I forgot to cut it down when I was editting.
15 October 2009
david shrigley vid
those of you who managed to stay awake during my introduction to the you brief a week or so ago, will already have seen this. those of you who were zzz-ing in the corner [not mentioning any names!] might not have done. nor will the two newest members of our happy band of brothers and sisters - so here it is again, on the intarwebs.
as i said at the time, i think this animation could have been produced for the you brief. if you listen to the narration by itself, [most of the time] it's almost a sensible, everyday personal account of someone's life, but the imagery and animation style used turn it into 'something completely different'*.
Who I Am and What I Want by David Shrigley
* © monty python
as i said at the time, i think this animation could have been produced for the you brief. if you listen to the narration by itself, [most of the time] it's almost a sensible, everyday personal account of someone's life, but the imagery and animation style used turn it into 'something completely different'*.
Who I Am and What I Want by David Shrigley
* © monty python
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