Tuesday 4 June 2013

Pixillion - InnovateUK Animation Script.


Currently working with Remco Merbis at Pixillion on a short animation script (CGI) for The Technology Strategy Board - InnovateUK.

More on this soon.

Aardman Animations - Shaun the Sheep.











In May I had a meeting with the Producer of Shaun the Sheep, John Woolley, about the possibility of submitting some story ideas for Series 5. And a week or so later I sent in 8 new ideas. More on this soon.

Monday 16 July 2012

A Quick Round Up - Dec 2011 to July 2012

JULY 2012 - Developed, wrote and co-directed two 3 minute Internet Commercials for Pixillion Digital in Bristol. Both ads were for Bath-based company 'On Direct' - one for their 'Cloud Direct' site, the other for their 'Backup Direct' site.

The ads featured Bristol actor Jason Bailey as 'The Man in a White Suit' (think Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty) - the God / Willy Wonka-like controller living and working inside the totally white and heavenly world of the On Direct 'Cloud'.

MAY to JUNE - Continued to work closely with Director Rupert Miles on the Vietnam based feature script 'Girl on a Motorcycle'. As of writing this, the board is now almost down to 40 or so index cards - and is being written into Final Draft. Treatments for the other projects on the slate are on hold. The plan is to complete a good first draft of GOAM by Christmas.

MAY 2012 - Hired by Aardman Commercials to add 2D animation effects to another 'Change for Life' commercial. This one had an Olympic theme.

APRIL 2012 - Visited Hereford College of Art to deliver a Story / Scriptwriting Lecture to Illustration BA Students - and to workshop their short film idea. A fun day as always.

MARCH 2012 - Started serious and concentrated work on the 'Girl on a Motorcycle' feature script with Director friend Rupert Miles. Before this the two of us collected all our ideas together, and compiled a slate of 10 Film and TV drama ideas.

We should have done this years ago! Lots of fun and very exciting.

JAN 2012 - Wrote a 2 minute internet commercial script for Pixillion Digital. This was my first project for their Bath- based client 'On Direct'. The film promotes the company's Cloud Services and features on the main On Direct site.

JAN 2012 - Hired by Aardman Commercials to add 2D animation effects to a new 'Change for Life' commercial. This one had an alcohol consumption theme.

DEC 2011 to JAN 2012 - Returned to the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham (my 4th year!) to deliver Story / Scriptwriting Lectures, and set 2 short film-making modules, to 1st and 2nd year Graphic Design BA Students.

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Ravensbourne College - October 2011













Returned to Ravensbourne College on the Greenwich Peninsula for my 4th year as a Sessional Lecturer for the Animation BA course. As before I was there to hear and comment on final year student film pitches (from a Story / Script point of view), to help pick the films that would be made, and to workshop the teams over the next coming months.

The films to be made are:


1: THE Y FACTOR - X Factor spoof animated to real Monty Python recording. 
2: SPELLBOUND - Two rival magicians battle for supremacy. 
3: THE SMOKING ELEPHANT - An elephant tries to hide his smoking habit in a non-smoking jungle. 
4: MOTION COMIC - A robot detective hunts a criminal over and through the panels and pages of a comic book. 
5: THE CAT AND THE RAT - The story of how the rat became the first sign of the Chinese zodiac. 
6: CHRIS FRY - Ravensbourne Graduation title sequence and stings. 
7: OWEN JACKSON - 10 second idents for each letter of the alphabet. 
8: FOOLS GOLD - A gold prospector pays for his impatience by loosing what he most wanted to find. 
9: MINOTAUR - Greek myth where the Minotaur is distracted and tamed by a ball of wool. 
10: THE OBESSIONIST - Biography of a Father and his obsessive personality. 
11: SYNESTHESIA (?) - Documentary about the condition where people can 'see' music as colours etc. 
12: SCISSORS - Dark fairy tale about a mother's warning to her son about sucking his thumb. 
13: MAN AND FLY - A man learns to live with his recurring Giant Fly nightmare. 
14: MAN VS HIS DEVIL HAIR - A vain man's daily battle with his wild and uncontrollable hair.


More on all these ideas soon.

Edinburgh College of Art - Oct 2011








In Sept I contacted Jared Taylor, the new course leader of the Animation BA at Edinburgh College of Art, and was invited up to the college (over 2 days) to hear final year student film pitches, and to deliver my 'Story' Lecture.
I flew from Bristol in the early hours and returned later the same day. They were two 'very long' days, but well worth the trip. As I had the pleasure of working with a very interesting group of Animation students, and hearing their short film ideas.















The 12 films being made are: 


1: Roza Brozek

'John Smitty' - A tale about a spitting boy and his vengeful shadow.

2: Katie Charter

'Hannah and the Moon' - A little girl who tries to find the missing moon (with animated text).

3: Anna Ginsburg

'Bombay Bicycle Club' music video based on short story by Italo Calvino. And a Guardian documentary about depression.

4: Ainslie Henderson

'Tom Moody' (The Twa Tams) - A musician and his child-like alter-ego overcome stage-fright.

5: Ellie Howson

'Fairy Tale' - About a girl / young woman who ignores her Father's warning about entering an Enchanted Forest.

6: Yuan Kai

An IPad app for autistic kids, A promo video, and three 2D short films about the end of the world.

7: Alexander Kelly

Animated 'Creature Comforts' style Vox Pop - The subject matter and theme still to be decided.

8: Claire Lamond

'All That Glisters' Short story by Anne Donovan - About a young girl who finds her own way to celebrate her Father's life.

9: Rebecca Manson

Ambient intelligent environment - An Art Instillation - About art being affected by the presence of a viewer, even after the viewer has left the room.

10: Vitalij Sicinava

'The Tea Party' - A depressed Russian Stork tries to impress his fiancee.

11: Abigail Welch

'The Banana Sessions'  music video - A ship full of Musical Bananas foil a Pirate's plan for their gold.

12: George Wheeler

'The Dyslexia Machine' - A mad scientist experiments on a students mind to find a cure for Dyslexia.

Clive Juster & Associates and 'Mr Benn' - Sept 2011


During the summer I re-contacted and visited Clive Juster in Axminster, Devon.

I worked for Clive (then the co-owner of King Rollo Films - based in Honiton, Devon) for 12 years, and was involved in the production of many 2D pre-school animation series.

We discussed the possibility of working   together again - maybe with a project involving David Mckee's 'Mr Benn', 'King Rollo' or one of the other properties Clive represents.

More on this soon.

Toucanhead Digital Comics & Pixillion Digital - Summer 2011

   
During the summer I've been developing the idea of a new area for me and Toucanhead - that of Digital Comics.

This avenue would give me much greater control over the whole creation and distribution of a project, the possibility of reaching a wider audience, and hopefully a means of generating some direct income from around the world.

I've been talking to Remco Merbis of Pixillion Digital - a Bristol based Digital Production Agency - about collaborating on such a venture, and developing a joint project.

More on this soon.