For all you Fans of Stop Motion Animation

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Inspiration: The White Stripes - Fell in Love with a Girl Video Clip

This weeks inspiration is dedicated to a band I love who has finally called it a day. Of course it is also dedicated to LEGO stop motion animation.  I didn't realise there was such a huge movement for this but have just discovered this webpage Brick Films which is entirely about LEGO stop motion animation and has it's own forum, tutorials and shop! 

Anyway back to The White Stripes and their video clip 'Fell in Love with a Girl' it's an oldie but a goodie - I hadn't watched this in ages and it is amazing! Directed by Michel Gondry who also did the film The Science of Sleep which also features alot of stop motion animation.

Interview: Malcolm Turner & Helen Gibbins - Melbourne International Animation Festival

(image source: MIAF)

In just over a month (19th - 26th June) the annual Melbourne International Animation Festival will be held at ACMI. To coincide with the upcoming festival, we wrote to Malcolm Turner the Executive Dicrector and Helen Gibbins the Festival Manager to have a chat to them about the history of the festival, their thoughts on stop motion animation and the Australian names to look out for when the festival starts. 

This is an awesome festival and there are so many things on offer in the program this year (especially for you stop motion fans). To buy tickets you can either go to ACMI Online or to their box office in the city at Federation squre.

Now for the interview!

Can you give us a bit of background information on how MIAF started?

In 1999, 2 Melbourne animators (Nag Vladermersky and Susi Allender) had completed a short animated film called Ashputtle Or The Mother's Ghost. They toured with this film and were amazed to find animation festivals existed in every corner of the world except here. Meanwhile, in New Zealand Malcolm Turner had been running arts festivals and theatre companies and other arts events and was becoming increasingly interested in animation, including bullshitting his way into a job programming animation for a the New Zealand Film Festival (just one of many great leaps of faith to pay off for visionary NZFF Director, Bill Gosden). All three began communicating about Ashputtle and in no time had formed a plan to unite in Melbourne, set up a festival and live happily ever after. Two outta three ain't bad.

What does MIAF11 have on offer this year in regards to stop motion animation? Is there a strong presence?

Stop motion is an interesting term. There's certainly plenty of classic/traditional puppet animation spread right throughout the program. Probably the most specific answer I can give is that this year's technique focus is "Cut-Outs". There will be an entire program devoted entirely to cut-out animation both contemporary (which is in competition) and classic, dating back to some early McLaren work from the 1940's (the print of which arrived this very afternoon). MIAF exists to present the notion of animation as a diverse artform (both words carrying equal importance). In part, this means reinforcing the fact that most animation is not, in fact, in CG but is still to one extent or another truely handmade, even if computers are called upon to help with the drudge work. This means that there is always a hell of a lot of stop motion animation in the festival line-up - always has been, always will be. So long as people keep makin' em, we'll keep showin' em.

Have you noticed an increase or a resurgence in stop motion animation in recent years through your work with the festival?

Yes and no. I think there is AT LEAST as much stop motion around as ever there was and in many ways computers have made some fringe elements of the workload easier and, of course, have great boosted distribution opportunities and in turn that has made more people want to give it a go. But I think there is a decrease in the perception of most people about how much stop motion animation is out there. The roll out of main stream animation (be it features, commercial applications, gaming, etc) would probably present a false impression to someone who only looked to the mainstream for their view of where animation trends are heading. The one possible exception to that rule MIGHT be TV ads, there's a surprising number of stop motion ads out there but how the ratio of stop mo to CG runs I don't know.

Are there any stand out Australian entries in stop motion you can mention?

Yep. ZERO (Christopher Kezelos, David Cox), GRAVITY (Darcy Prendergast), THE BATCHELOR EXPERIENCE (Fiona Dalwood), REMEMBERING BONEGILLA (David Pennay), BLOWN AWAY (Seamus Spilsbury), AWW JEEZ (Michael Greaney). Interestingly, there was probably just about as many stop motion submitted for the student section as submitted for open competition.
 

Why do you think audiences still connect with animation and in particular stopmotion animation?

Geez, where do you want me to start? It is WAAAAAY more likely to have a soulful componant to it, they are real objects. There is a sense of understanding how it is made, a sense the audience can appreciate the wonder. There is a stronger chance that it will feel like a personal statement and will be a more individual looking and feeling work. They tend to lack polish and sheen (the non-charlie variety.... whatever happened to that dude anyway, he was big news this time last week) which makes them easier to connect with on a more personal and instinctive level. None of these are universal truths (trust me, there is no shortage of shitty, souless stop mo out there) but as a generality I think they're undeniable elements of the auteur animation landscape and I just never see that changing, some people just really want to make films using those tools and while people are making them people will watch them and seek out the best ones.

Big thanks to Malcolm and Helen for answering our questions. We are hoping to have more on the festival when it hits Melbourne in June including reviews and hopefully some chats to the local animators as well if we are lucky!

Stay tuned...

Inspiration: Hélène Ducrocq (FRA) - Elle Demeure

(image source: KaAM)

Hélène Ducrocq is an animation director from France and part of a multimedia collective called KaAM. She is also an illustrator and artist in her own right has a gorgeous portfolio over here!

I was lucky enough to be given permission by Hélène to show their latest creation Elle Demeure which is a stop motion animation made from paper using a technique called Stratastencil.  They have a great website which shows some stills from the film, some process images, serveral films showing the making of the stop motion animation and of course the actual animation!

I have included a few images and one of the making of video's just to give you an idea of the techniques used and what was involved but please do go watch the actual animation here.

Also here is a link to an interview Hélène did with thenewfilmmaker.com where she explains her inspiration, techniques and education.

Thanks Hélène for sharing!

p.s: I have to mention I saw Hélène's work over at a beautiful blog called Upon a Fold about paper artists.

(image source: KaAM)



(image source: KaAM)

(image source: KaAM)

MAKING OF - clip ANA DESS - "Elle Demeure" : 3j... by collectif_KaAM

Exhibition - Cat Rabbit

(image source: The Creative Haven)

Okay - this is a partial review until we make it into the city again as unfortunately we were way to early for the gallery thanks to an early rising toddler. We did however manage too get some picks from the outside to entice you into going to visit the magical world that Cat Rabbit has created.

Sponsered by Frankie and held at No Vacancy Gallery at Federation Square this is Cat Rabbit's first solo exhibition Secret Animal Realms. The exhibition features beautiful handmade creatures, embroideries, accessories, zines and of course what we are very interested in - a stop motion animation!

Cat Rabbit has collaborated with Melbourne animator Isobel Knowles to create a whimsical and fantastic animated world. We don't obvoiusly want to reveal much but it was lovely to see Cat Rabbits creations come to life in this film. The animation is showing at the Atrium at federation square while the exhibition is showing.

Please go check out the exhibition if your in Melbourne it will be on from 20th April to 8th May.

Below are a couple of images we managed to get from the outside.

(image source: The Creative Haven)

(image source: The Creative Haven)

(image source: The Creative Haven)

  

The Creative Haven - Blog Makeover

This blog started out as a record of a stop motion animation I had made with my partner Andy a few years back but I have recently decided that I would also like to make this blog into a little hub of information on stop motion animation production in Australia.

The Creative Haven is still our production company and we will (when we make stuff!) be posting about our works but as they are few and far between at the moment I would like to expand the blog to include what people are up to, exhibitions, film screenings and competitions within Australia. Additionally I would like to have an inspirations section which shows independent and indie animation from over the world.

If anyone has any suggestions for film clips or wants to post about an exhibition or event coming up please let me know. You can email suggestions to me at thecreativehaven@hotmail.com.

In the meantime my apologies as there will be a bit of maintenance work happening to update the blog for it's new direction!

Eagle Vs Shark - Apple Animation

Long time, no post!  Here is a little clip from the movie Eagle vs Shark. I have been meaning to share this for a while, I saw the movie on SBS last year and its fantastic.

Inspiration - The Science of Sleep

It has been ages since I have watched this film but I love it.  I found this clip on youtube which puts together some of my favourite animated/arty moments of the film!

Animation Inspiration - United States of Tara Opening Sequence

I know this show has obviously been around for a while but was just watching the show last night and thought I should post about the animation in the opening sequence. How amazing is it - I love the popup book concept and illustration style.

I am hoping to be posting here more regularly with more stop motion inspiration, info and hopefully something i have made (if i ever get my act together!). If you have seen any great stop motion animations lately please send me an email or leave a comment as I would love to add them to the blog.

Maricor Maricar - Architecture in Helsinki Video clip

Check out this aweseom video clip by Sydney animator's MaricorMaricar for Architecture in Helsinki - 'Like it or Not'.

Sewn then animated!