Event: "Scrap Paper Animation" with Dell Stewart

(Image Source: Harvest Textiles)

There is a great stop-motion animation workshop being run by Dell Stewart at Harvest Textiles in Melbourne for the kids this school holidays (2-5 April). "Scrap Paper Animation" is part of a 4 day workshop series for 9 - 16 years of age and is an awesome opportunity to learn to use collage cutouts and printed paper elements to create sets and characters using a multi-layered glass set-up. Lucky Kids!

If you are interested in participating you can book here.

We are hoping to have more on Dell's work coming soon.

Christmas Competition Winner: Paraphernalia by Bridget O'Halloran

Paraphernalia from Bridget O'Halloran on Vimeo.

We would like to announce that the winner of our Christmas Competition is Bridget O'Halloran with her short film Paraphernalia. We were all totally amazed at Bridget's effort so well done! We look forward to seeing more stop motions from her in the Future. 

Call for Entries: Christmas Competition

*UPDATED INFORMATION IN RED!

I have been thinking on this for a long time and have finally decided to have our first stop-motion animation competition for all our readers as a thanks for all your support and also to have a bit of fun! The idea will be for entrants to create a stop-motion animation up to a minute based on the theme "Hearts Desire" which can be interpreted anyway you like. The winners will be judged by our guest judges (yet to be announced).  Malcolm Turner and Helen Gibbins of the Melbourne International Animation Festival (which I am so excited about!). We recently interviewed Malcolm about the MIAF festival this year here if you want to check it out.

Malcolm and Helen have kindly offered ONE free Festival Pass to MIAF 2012 to go into our prize pool. This prize will unfortunately only be open to Australian residents (unless you can let me know if you want to fly over for it!) but all our other prizes will be open to international entries.

First prize will be a copy of  a great book called Basics Animation 04 - Stop-motion by Barry Purves (below). and there will also be some runner up prizes to be announced at a later date.

Part of the runner up prizes will be a copy of Mad Monser Party (1968) a Halloween themed children's film created by the Rankin/Bass animation house and written by Mad magazine's creator Harvey Kurtzman (with Len Korobin). 

I found out about Mad Monster Party through this article at Dangerous Minds which also has a great little clip from the film to watch.

Also a copy of the DVD Lotte Reiniger's Fairy Tales whom I discovered through our interview with Isobel Knowles. Lotte Reiniger was an amazing papercut artist/animator from Germany starting her work around 1922. Click here to watch a sample of her work from the film Papageno from 1935

There will be more details to come but here is a basic guideline for entries are:

• The competition will be open to all our subscribers through the blog and Facebook and is for people of all skill levels.
• Entries Close  Sunday 11th December 2011.
• If you are interested in entering please make a comment in the post below or on our facebook page to sign up.
• Your stop-motion animation can be made from anything - paper, textiles, plasticine, photographs, everyday objects etc - use your imagination.
• Your animation can be anywhere up to 1 minute as long as you address the theme 'Hearts Desire'
• Entries should be emailed to thecreativehaven@hotmail.com and should include a link to your video (through youtube, vimeo or whoever else you might use) and a short description on how you have addressed the theme 'Hearts Desire'.
• All entries will be screened on The Creative Haven blog and facebook page for people to see, the top entries will be judged by our Malcolm Turner and Helen Gibbins who will accordingly choose 1st, 2nd and 3rd places.
• There are a variety of stop-motion softwares you can trial such as Dragon Stopmotion,  Stopmotion Pro, Stop Motion Maker or any other editing software like Premier Pro.

The idea is to have fun doing it, sharing it and hopefully win a great Christmas present in the process! So sign up now!

Event: Desert Island Flicks - Shaun Tan

(Image Source: provided by ACMI)

Although this isn't stop-motion related - it is Australian and awesome so had to pass on the news from Australian Centre for the Moving Image.   So much great stuff happening at the moment! Details from ACMI below:


Desert Island Flicks October event
Castaway with Shaun Tan Unclassified 15+

Join artist, author and filmmaker Shaun Tan as he discusses his five favourite films in ACMI’s popular Desert Island Flicks event this October. Shaun grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, and currently works in Melbourne. His books, including The Rabbits, The Red Tree, Tales From Outer Suburbia and the acclaimed graphic novel The Arrival, have been widely translated and enjoyed by readers of all ages. Shaun has worked as a feature film concept artist on films such as Pixar's Wall-E, and wrote and directed the Academy Award-winning animated short The Lost Thing. In 2011, he received the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in Sweden for his body of work.

Join this Oscar-winning animator, author and illustrator as he talks through his most cherished cinematic moments. Desert Island Flicks presents a ‘who’s who’ of cinema, television, literature, sport, politics, art, science and culture, revealing their insights and personal stories into the films that moved them and why. 

Presented in ACMI’s intimate Studio 1 space each month, the event is a mix of key clips from the subject’s top 5 films in dispersed with chat, led by a host. By journeying through films in this way, the event often reveals fascinating biographical information, career influences and the philosophical insights of the guest of the moment.

Dates Tue 4 Oct 2011, 7pm
Location Studio 1
Admission Full $15 Concession $12 ACMI Member $11

Opportunity: Lunch with Adam Elliot at Stables at Stones

(Image Source: Provided by Stables at Stones)

It must be the warm weather and the hint of spring as here is another great event to get along to for all you stop-motion animation lovers. We received the following information from Lucy at Stones of the Yarra Valley today.

STABLES AT STONES PRESENTS

LUNCH WITH ADAM ELLIOT

Sunday, October 16

The Stables at Stones of the Yarra Valley is delighted to announce an exciting series of informal lunches featuring some Australia's most well-loved personalities. 

Our inaugural lunch in the gorgeous surrounds of The Stables on Sunday, October 16 will feature Academy-Award winning director and claymation producer, Adam Elliot. Over the course of the afternoon, Adam will have a chat about his career to date and answer a few questions to an intimate audience of just 50 guests. 

(Image Source: Provided by Stables at Stones)

Raised on an Outback shrimp farm by a retired acrobatic clown father and a hairdressing mother, Adam developed a truly unique style of storytelling through his fantastical use of the humble medium, plasticine. With such beautifully poignant, quirky films as Harvie Krumpet and Mary and Max to his name and a swag of international accolades including an Oscar, Adam has a fascinating story to tell.

Date: Sunday, 16 October, 2011

Time: 12pm – 3pm

Cost: $75 per head - three-course lunch, including an informal chat and Q&A with Adam Elliot

Bookings 03 97390 900 or email: info@stonesoftheyarravalley.com

www.stonesoftheyarravalley.com

Call for Entries: Collaboration with Daniel Louie - Post Graduate Choreographers VCA

I recently received an email from Daniel Louie from the Postgraduate Choreographers of the Victorian College of Arts looking for people interested in a project he is coordinating which could potentially incorporate elements of stop-motion animation. 

If you are interested here are the details - he needs a response as soon as possible as the project will be presented in November.

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I'm putting a call out to anyone interested in working on a project that investigates the relationship between architecture, animation and live art/dance. 

Animation required will likely be short, looped material projected onto various surfaces of a building. Possible approaches could include working with stop-motion, photo collage, sketches, or working with light & shadow, to name a few.

The work will be highly collaborative and I will work in with your schedule. Presentation outcome in first week of November.

Feel free to contact me via  email at d.louie@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

Study: Animation at Victorian College of the Arts

Study,Experiment,Make Animation @ VCA Film & Television from vca animation on Vimeo.

If I ever have the opportunity I would love to do further study at the Victorian College of the Arts in Animation especially stop motion animation - alas my HELP debt is already big enough at the moment!

For those of you who do here is your opportunity to find out more. The following information was provided by Paul Fletcher lecturer at the VCA in Animation (see previous post for joining in on Paul's project) about upcoming open days and information sessions about studying Animation at VCA.

VCA Graduate Course Information Sessions in Film and Television

There will be 2 sessions coming up on Tuesday 23rd August and Wednesday 24th August for people interested in undertaking a Graduate Diploma or their Masters. Next year the Graduate Diploma in Animation officially becomes known as the first year of a Masters by Coursework with the option to leave with a Graduate Diploma after the first year or continue into a second year to complete a Masters by Coursework.

General Open Day for VCA Film & TV

The general open day for all Universities and the VCA Film and Television Faculty is Sunday August 21st from 10 am – 4pm. At this stage a full Undergraduate Bachelor course specialising in Animation will go ahead but unfortunately wont be ready for next year (scheduled for the year after 2013!). However they will be running again a Foundations in Animation Course on week day evenings and some weekend days over 10 weeks between March and July.

Click on the image below to enlarge and read more about the Graduate Course Information Sessions:

Call for Entries: Hidden Creatures 2012

Hidden Creatures Bendigo Town Hall Basement 2011 from Paul Fletcher on Vimeo.

I recently received an email from Paul Fletcher who is a Lecturer of Animation in Film and Television at the Victorian College of the Arts. He is seeking contributions for an exhibition he curates yearly called Hidden Creatures.  The above film documents a little of this years exhibition at Bendigo and it looks fantastic!

Paul is looking for submissions of images, text, animation or sound to be considered for next year's Hidden Creatures exhibition. It may be possible for your entry to be animated in a an online movie, exhibition screen or projection.

The cut off date for submissions is 15th December 2011. To find out more and submit your work for the Hidden Creatures project follow this link.

Here is a little of what Paul has to say about the exhibition:

"WHAT CREATURE IS THAT ? Is an audiovisual Field Guide to rare and imagined creatures. A collaborative ongoing community collection of writing, pictures, sound and moving image related to acknowledging, caring for, and understanding the creatures of our imagination, rare and endangered creatures specific to our own environments and the creatures that are our ourselves."