Institut Francais, 17 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2DT.
24 – 27 May 2012
The international Bande Dessinee & Comics Passion festival returns to London in May 2012. This year’s festival runs over 4 days, and features a huge range of events, including talks by Guy Delisle and David B, as well as a screening of Marjane Satrapi’s new film, Chicken with plums (Poulet aux prunes).
The latest installment of web series, Off Book, looks at artists working on film and television title sequences. Karin Fong and Peter Frankfurt discuss their Mad Men title sequence, as well as their well-known opening credits for David Fincher’s Se7en.
Ben Conrad explains how his title work integrated into the physical world of Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland, allowing zombies to rampage right through floating letters announcing things like “Columbia Pictures” and “Produced by Gavin Polone,” and spelling out the numbered rules of post-apocalyptic survival even as the protagonists observed, bent, and broke them.
Canadian puppeteer Jeff Achtem’s Swamp Juice is playing at London’s Soho Theatre until 5th May before doing a 3 month UK tour.
The comedic shadow puppetry features punk snails, opera singing mice and a toothy swamp monster all made from bits of rubbish. The show will be of interest particularly to theatre design and animation students. It features an innovative 3D section. The creator, Jeff Achtem, is not hidden behind the scenes; he works from on stage so you can see how he creates his special effects.
The show has previously played at the Edinburgh Festival to rave reviews and was the winner of the Edinburgh Festival Total Theatre Award 2011.
“The 3D finale is the absolute highlight of show and beggars belief as we follow these characters underwater and through the air, dodging jellyfish and aircraft as we go. This is brilliantly magical entertainment for the whole family” – Edinburgh Festivals Magazine.
“One of the greatest innovations in shadow puppetry” – The Scotsman
For more information see http://www.bunkpuppets.com
Bar Shorts at XOYO, London EC2A 4AP
16th April 2012, 7pm, FREE
Bar Shorts is a brand new bi-monthly short film and animation night curated by Chris Shepherd (a sessional animation tutor at UCA Maidstone) & 12Foot6. The opening night will feature Grant Orchard’s Oscar nominated, BAFTA winning A Morning Stroll, Joseph Pierce’s The Pub, Phil Mulloy’s The Banker, as well as films by Tim Brunsden and Jesse Collett.
Please visit XOYO’s website for more information.
Given the current debate about the future of animation production in the UK and the Animation UK Campaign (formerly known as Save British Animation), for 2012 BAA are running an online poll and discussion forum to determine the UK’s Favourite Ever British Animated Character of all time.
To celebrate the rich heritage of notable and well-loved animated characters, BAA are asking you to nominate, and discuss, your favourite characters for consideration for their shortlist : winner to be announced at the British Animation Awards 2012.
They are asking you to nominate present favourites and cast your minds back to best-loved characters from the past. Will it be Simon’s Cat or Wallace or Gromit or Roobarb or Custard? The Meerkat or virtual cartoon band the Gorillaz? Dangermouse, Bagpuss , Bob the Builder? Delving further back into history: Noggin the Nog or Captain Pugwash? The Lurpack buttermen? And the list will go on…
The only qualification is that the character was created in the UK – for a TV series, ad campaigns, or online, or one-off TV special.
Nominate your favourite, and tell BAA why! febac@britishanimationawards.com. Check out who has already been nominated here.
Hayward Gallery, London
1 Feb – 13 May 2012
British artist David Shrigley is best known for his humourous drawings that make witty and wry observations on everyday life. This exhibition, his first major survey show in London, will cover the full range of Shrigley’s diverse practice, including photography, books, sculpture, animation, painting and music.
Please see the exhibition website for more details.
A special edition of Animation: an interdisciplinary journal, (Vol 6. no 3, November 2011) is focused on documentary animation
It is titled Making it (Un)real: Contemporary Theories and Practices in Documentary Animation, Guest Editor: Jeffrey Skoller
Prof Dr Suzanne Buchan, Professor of Animation Aesthetics at UCA and Director of the UCA Animation Research Centre, is editior of the journal.
It is available online at http://anm.sagepub.com, or via the UCA Library Journal portal
Making it (Un)real: Contemporary Theories and Practices in Documentary Animation reflects the current border crossings in animation and documentary studies in which the experimental spirit of the films themselves are pushing the boundaries of scholarship into new realms of thought and aesthetic experience. The issue argues for the animated documentary as a radical cinematic form with the potential to enliven – reanimate – older forms by lifting them out of worn out epistemes and denaturalizing their often clichéd and moribund cinematic forms. The issue features cutting edge critical work by a range of emerging and well-established documentary, animation and experimental film scholars and makers, in an attempt to understand the ways this unsettling mix of non-realist and live action imagery makes meanings and importantly why this hybrid form of documentary animation has become aesthetically and politically necessary in this particular cultural moment” (Jeffrey Skoller)
ICA Cinema, London
2 – 15 December 2011
The ICA Cinema is showing animator Jan Svankmajer’s latest film, Surviving Life. Eugene, seemingly content in his marriage and mundane career, finds himself repeatedly dreaming of a mysterious beautiful woman. Seeking the help of a psychoanalyst to explain this phenomenon he finds himself increasingly torn between his erotic dream life and the waking world.
Jan Svankmajer discussed the film in a rare interview with AnOther Magazine, which you can read here.
Deadline : February 5th, 2012
The BAA sting brief is to create a short animation (between 4 – 25 seconds long) that contains one (or more sheep) with extra points for weaving in references to animation and or the UK.
To enter, please email your BAA 2012 Sheep stings to stings@britishanimationawards.com along with a covering email including; your name, phone number and email address. Please title the file name as your full name. If above 10mb, please email a download link.
BFI Southbank, London
23 – 27 November 2011
The latest Onedotzero Festival will again explore new forms and hybrids of moving image across motion graphics, short film, animation, music videos and more. Find out more information and book tickets on the festival website.
