Wednesday 11 July 2018

Mister Heaney in Galway, Again! Film Fleadh Retrospective Screening Wednesday July 11th 2018 13.00 to 16.00

Thanks to Eibh Collins for including 'Mister Heaney, a wee Portrait' in the first of the Fleadh's 30th anniversary screenings! 'Mister Heaney' won Best Animation in the Fleadh in 2010 and is still fondly remembered by all!

Mister Heaney on the Beach - Sherkin Island, Co. Cork


'Mister Heaney, a wee Portrait' win Best Animation in Galway 2010 - Steve Woods, BoS, DQ and Paul Young

Short Film Retrospective : Programme One
Wed 11 July / Black Gate Cultural Centre / 1pm - 6pm

Short Film Retrospective, 30 Years of Winning. To celebrate our 30th anniversary and three decades of exhibiting shorts, we are delighted to be screening some of our festivals award winning short films. Daily programmes of the Fleadh’s winning films from 1989 to 2017, will be screening in the Black Gate Cultural Centre Wednesday 11th – Sunday 15th.from 1pm – 6pm So, join us in the Black Gate, grab a drink or some nibbles and catch some films! This screening is free and on a first-come-first-serve basis. Each programme will be a mix of genre, medium, production year and rating.

https://www.galwayfilmfleadh.com/project/short-film-retrospective-programme-one/

see 'Mister Heaney, a wee portrait' (2010) on Youtube... (Winner of Best Short Animation, Galway Film Fleadh 2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAtwCCtBOKo 

Wednesday 6 June 2018

MSPU Skype Seminar 'THE DISSEMINATION OF THE EXPERIENCE GAINED IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL PROJECT TEMPUS'

Thanks to MSPU's Rustem Gibadulin (Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies), Alexey Mikhalsky and to Olga Antropova for their kind invitation to present at their Skype seminar last Thursday morning (31st May 2018). I did 30 minutes on 'Quality Assurance in Irish Higher Education'. I look forward to working with our MSPU colleagues in the near future on partnership initiatives. Thanks to all!


Tuesday 22 May 2018

DAAD TCA - Transnational Cooperation Activity - Bonn 16th and 17th May 2018

Grateful thanks to Klaus Birk and Beate Koerner's excellent DAAD team for their invitation to attend the Transnational Cooperation Activity 'Dissemination, Sustainability and Impact in Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships'. Over 30 National Agencies represented, including our very own HEA. I participated in two Day One Fishbowl sessions with Maggy Ovaa and Francesco Girotti, moderated by Valeria Biggi - very interesting format.

Some central learning through the two days - start every project application with 'impact' - what do you want to achieve? Dissemination also must start with the greenlight of any project, and must keep going all through your project, not happen at the end with the publication of reports etc. Great idea to develop a dissemination plan before you start, and a communications plan - make certain that all partners agree to communicate through the same platforms or channels. On sustainability - the Commission seems very keen that open access, online courses (including non formal courses) should be included as the outputs of more partnership projects - persistent digital resources adding to the knowledge base and CPD for years to come.

Some great tools demonstrated too, including two Impact assessment tools.

Great ideas! Well done and thanks to all!


opening address - DAAD's Klaus Birk


Maggy and the team test the Impact+ tool


Impact+ tool in action




Tuesday 10 April 2018

Paku San passes away!

Studio Ghibli's Isao Takahata has died at the age of 82.


image from 'kingdom of dreams and madness' film 2013 - Takahata, Suzuki and Miyazaki in Ghibli's rooftop garden

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/apr/06/studio-ghibli-co-founder-isao-takahata-dies-aged-82

Various February and March 2018 Awards!

On the evening of Tuesday 20th March, the RTS (Royal Television Society) RoI student Awards ceremony was held in RTE. Delighted to say that IADT graduates Aoife Moiselle and Tara Woods won the Student Animation category with their film 'Consent'. The Award presented by Cartoon Saloon's Paul Young!


Paul Young ( CEO Cartoon Saloon ) presented the Animation Award to Aoife Moiselle (IADT)
(image from RTE)

http://www.superannrte.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6131:rts-student-awards-2018-photos-rte-20th-february-2018&catid=31&Itemid=104





Then, on Wednesday 21st of March, the inaugural national DELTA Awards ceremony took place in Dublin's Mansion House.

The DELTA Awards (Disciplinary Excellence in Learning Teaching and Assessment) was hosted by the National Forum to celebrate discipline groups within institutions who demonstrate sustained achievements in teaching and learning enhancement.  The DELTA Awards form an integral part of the overall National Learning Impact Awards designed to enhance, showcase and strengthen teaching excellence in higher education by recognising the value of teaching at a national level.  The National Forum was delighted to have Mary Mitchell O’Connor, T.D., Minister of Higher Education will attend and present the Awards.

Taking place in the Mansion House, Dublin 2 the DELTA Awards were an evening of celebration for our finalists, who are all leading the way with successful and ambitious approaches to change in teaching and learning within their disciplines.

Very proud to say that IADT's 'Critical Thinking and Creative Practice' project won one of the awards! Our project was led by Sherra Murphy and Elaine Sisson, with Fiona Snow, Clyde Doyle and myself as the project team, though the project represented our entire Faculty of Film, Art and Creative Technologies. Thanks also to IADT's President Annie Doona and to Therese Moylan (Chair of IADT's Teaching and Learning Committee) for supporting us on the night! A celebration of success and good things in Teaching and Learning!


Pictured: Andrew Forde USI, Clyde Doyle, Fiona Snow, Elaine Sisson, Sherra Murphy, David Quin, Faculty of Film, Art & Creative Technologies. Prof Sarah Moore
(image DELTA)




Tuesday 13 February 2018

Mike Nguyen Animation Masterclass - Tuesday 6th February, DLR Lexicon, Dun Laoghaire

Thanks to our great friend Maestro Barry O'Donoghue of Barley Films for organising last week's Mike Nguyen Animation Masterclass (6-8pm, Tuesday 6th February) in the DLR Lexicon, Dun Laoghaire.




Mike's topic for the evening was Character Performance and Workflow and wow, was it an inspiration! Great to see a good mixture of animation students and recent graduates from IADT, from Ballyfermot and from other schools and colleges. A lot of buzzed up young people!

A few gem quotes from Mike on the night...

Animation is very simple!
All of the animation principles are to invoke LIFE!
Three things have to come together - technical, performance and DRAWING! We want to see performance, not technical! Today, some animation misses the mark sometimes!
You have to train your eyes to move beyond technical flashiness... 'Is it just moving around, or is it ALIVE?'
Is it alive, is it telling me something?
I become the character, YOU become the character, you animate. I don't see anyone. I don't see the paper. I live in the animation.
Aim to make money is short aim! Aim to make someone joyful and happy and also make money, that's HIGH aim!
You feel the movement, you live the movement. That's why it's really tiring afterwards. That's why I don't go to the gym!
The drawing will just tell you where to go - I'm just listening to the drawing!
I would love to see good films come from anywhere! Good films are hard to find!
It will get easier for you. In time you will wake up and everything will be easier. For now, you're not minding the pain! If I don't swim, I'll sink. One day I realise, just swim, and the pain goes away.
You ARE the future industry! We will always try to make things NEW and different!





www.julyfilms.net