'collage' in 2015 Dublin Animation Film Festival!

I was delighted to hear this week that my short 'collage' is to be screened in the 2015 Dublin Animation Film Festival on Saturday 17th October in the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire. Thanks to DAFF Festival Director Fionnghuala Ni Neil, to the selection panel and to my ace producer Fionn Boland!

http://www.dublinanimationfilmfestival.com/official-selection-irish-short-films/

Other Animation Manifestos...

Thinking on from last week's Symposium discussion with John Parry on 'A Manifesto for Animated Filmmakers in the 21st Century', Donald Taylor Black has asked about other 'animation manifestos'. I responded immediately that most animators don't feel compelled to consider their practice identity in terms of manifesto creation, so animation manifestos are rare. Svankmajer's 1999 'Decalogues' is already quoted in my dissertation draft, but a cursory google search throws up a selection of other animation manifestos...

Walt Disney's 1995 8-page 'letter to himself' (actually a letter to Chouinard's Don Graham) lays out the fundamentals for 2D classically drawn animation pedagogy - how to teach animators to draw better, to analyse action systematically and to build comedy into animation performance. A seminal document, even if Uncle Walt can be forgiven for universally describing animators as 'men'.

Walt image from lettersofnote.com

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/06/how-to-train-animator-by-walt-disney.html

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A very different approach fro 1960's Japan 'The Three-Person Animation Manifesto: Toward the Creation of New Images' By Kuri Yoji, Manabe Hiroshi, and Yanagihara Ryohei. 'New processes and technologies must go hand in hand with new modes of consciousness. Therein lies the path to the creation of truly new images.'

http://post.at.moma.org/sources/3/publications/72

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Skip forward to Kyiv in 1986, where Aleksandr Tatarskiy wrote his 6,800 word 'Making Animation' manifesto.

Tatarskiy quotes pedagogue M. Gurevich in the journal "Children's Literature" [Detskaya literatura],  "...in today's production of animation a strange, yet characteristic trait is readily noticeable: a gaping chasm between the forays of select seekers and the routine production of most others, between the flood and the works which are marked with the stamp of individuality." Tatarskiy is very much arguing for the 'select seekers'. "Animated filmmaking is practically the first art form which is encountered by a child." He also points out some of the parallel track 'siloing' which has always formed the environment through which animation and animators must navigate... "but here's the tragedy: our animation, on one hand, and artistic criticism, pedagogy, psychology and sociology, on the other, seem to move through completely different spacetime boundaries, and they never meet..."

Igor Kovalyov and Aleksandr Tatarskiy from niffiwan

http://niffiwan.livejournal.com/9422.html

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And from Stuttgart two years ago (April 2013), a manifesto arguing that German commissioning bodies (especially broadcasters) to be clear and transparent in relation to budgets, programming and commissioning. This manifesto also calls for support for feature animation as a form, for adult animation and the maintenance of 'a diversity of cultural identity.'

http://www.ag-animationsfilm.com/stuttgart-manifesto-english-version/

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And finally, Svankmajer's 1999 'Decalogues', including...

Remember there is only one form of ‘poetry’. The opposite of poetry is professional expertise. 

Surrender to your obsessions. There is nothing better.

Use animation as a magical operation. Animation isn’t about making inanimate objects move, it is about bringing them to life.

Keep exchanging dreams for reality and vice versa. There are no logical transitions.

The deeper you enter into the fantastic story the more realistic you need to be in the detail.

Imagination is subversive, because it puts the possible against the real. That’s why you should always use your wildest imagination.

Always pick themes that you feel ambivalent about. This ambivalence has to be strong (deep) enough so you can walk on its edge and not fall to either side or even both at the same time.

Cultivate your creativity as a form of self-therapy. Such an anti-aesthetic attitude brings creativity closer towards the gates to freedom. If there is any purpose at all in creativity it is that it liberates us.

Always put the continuity of your inner vision or psychological automatism before an idea. An idea, even the greatest one, shouldn’t ever be a sole motivation for wanting to make a film.

And Svankmajer's parting suggestion is that such 'rules' are there to be broken, with perhaps one exception...

Never subordinate your personal creativity to anything but freedom.

https://www.closeupfilmcentre.com/vertigo_magazine/volume-3-issue-1-spring-2006/decalogue/​ 

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I could also quote our friends and IADT graduate Eamonn O' Neill from his April 2014 IADT AnimSoc talk... Perhaps not quite a manifesto, but still some key human and animation learnings for us all!

99.9% of engineers do NOT make guitar pedals...

Be transparent (be open and honest with people)... (this actually comes from Eimhin)

It HAS to be human!

Make rules, set boundaries and start thinking about your work... Rules shouldn't be arbitrary, they should be based on the emotional intent of your film...

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should... Be economic.

Have BALLS - be scared - safe is boring.

Personal is universal! The more personal it is, the more universal it is.

Make work and show people. (get it out there, you don't know who's watching)

from eamonnoneill.ie

You get the work that you DO!

BAD experiences are STILL experiences.

There's politics and bullshit EVERYWHERE!

The grass is not always greener.

Reach out, ask questions, be a sponge.

You make your own luck (good luck follows hard work, work hard and get lucky)...

Learn always, because skills are brillz...

GO for stuff, you have nothing to lose!

It's okay NOT to know!

Don't plateau (just keep moving forward, keep trying to progress)

Say thanks - don't be a dick to people, there's enough dickheads EVERYWHERE!

http://quindpdp.blogspot.ie/2014/04/eamonn-o-neill-iadt-animsoc.html

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Dublin Animation Film Festival - IADT Graduate Films and Indie Cork Film Festival!

Best of luck to IADT Animation recent graduates Aisling O' Reilly, Sarah Walsh and Anita Gaughan who are showing their films in the Best Irish Student or Graduate Shortlisted Film category in the 2014 Dublin Animation Film Festival on Saturday 18th of October in The Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire. Well done to all and fingers crossed!

The following films have been shortlisted for the Best Irish Student or Graduate Short Film:

 1. In Sheep’s Clothing – Aisling O’Reilly –  IADT (Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology)

2. Marrying the Sea – Sarah Walsh – IADT (Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology)

3. Shoot – Rory Conway – BCFE (Ballyfermot College of Further Education)

4. Wounded – Helga Kristjana Bjarnadottir – BCFE (Ballyfermot College of Further Education)

5. Vertical Horizons – Anita Gaughan – IADT (Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology)

All of these films are eligible for the Audience Choice Award – voting takes place after the screenings on the 18th of October at the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire.

http://www.dublinanimationfilmfestival.com/best-irish-student-or-graduate-shortlisted-films/ 

Apologies but I won't be there to vote for my favourites - my 'A Warning To All Kings' short film is screening at exactly the same time in the Gate Cinema in Cork, at the 2014 Indie Cork Film Festival! Prayers welcome...

2014 Galway Film Fleadh - All Great Things Win!

Congrats, congrats, congrats to Clare Carroll 'A Girl's Best Friend' who won Best First Animation at the 2014 Galway Film Fleadh. Anita Gaughan 'Vertical Horizons' won Best Animation Sequence in an Animation Film and Sarah Walsh 'Marrying The Sea' received an Honourable Mention in the Best Animation Category. Best Animation was won by Boulder Media's Rob Cullen and Brown Bag's Cathal and Doc were presented with lifetime achievement Galway Hooker Awards!

Other IADT student films in competition included ‘Lena and Gray’ (Melissa Malone), ‘In Sheep’s Clothing’ (Aisling O'Reilly), ‘Your Move’ (Simon Riley), and ‘Useless’ (Eva Kavanagh) - all great to see - even if this year's animation screening was on at the ungodly hour of 9.30 on Sunday morning! DQ also screened his 'A Warning To All Kings' and Steve Woods screened his 'Keeping Time' during the week.

Huge crowd of IADT graduates, recent graduates and current students around. The Best Fleadh yet and thanks to Liz Quinn and the Fleadh Team for their immense hard work and for making us so welcome! Well done to all, but a special well done to Anita, Clare and Sarah!

Group Shot Sunday Morning

Anita Gaughan collects her Best Animated Sequence prize at 2014 Galway Film Fleadh!

Clare Carroll wins Best First Animation at 2014 Galway Film Fleadh!

Anita on the steps with Brown Bag glitterati...

Three winners!

Everyone happy.

Clare, trophy and Liam

http://www.iftn.ie/training/TrainingNews/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4287364&tpl=archnews&force=1

Corona Fastnet Short Film Festival 2014

Eminent director and great pal of ours Steve Woods emerged as a big big winner at the 2014 Corona Fastnet Short Film Festival, picking up Best Arthouse Film, Best Cinematography and Best Original Music for his latest dance film 'Keeping Time'. Congrats, congrats and very well deserved!

Big Winner Steve Woods eats fish and chips before picking up his prizes!

DQ did a workshop/seminar on Friday afternoon entitled 'Collaboration in Animation' - Festival Creative Director Chris O' Dell said he'd never experienced so much information packed into one hour! I also participated in various technical workshops organised by Chris and judged and presented the festival's Best Animation category.

Chris O' Dell with his baby Bell and Howell

An excellent, excellent festival as ever! Especial thanks to Helen, Chris, Pauline, Hilary, Maurice, Maria and Chris O' Dell!

Chris's Technical Workshop - Sunday morning

My Last Short Film - Ever!

The time has come to officially announce that my current animated short 'A Warning To All Kings' will be my last ever.

I've now completed 11 animated shorts - only three of them have been fully funded. My last 5 animated shorts have emerged (self-funded) from my 'cutbacks' internet series. Whilst the self-funded films have won prizes and have been very successful on the film festival circuit, they've cost me (and my family) an arm and a leg to produce and promote. I don't have the financial resources to continue this activity. As a very good friend says 'we gotta give up making short films, they're killing us'. Tony Donoghue describes 'a short film ghetto' from which escape is practically impossible. There's no money in this activity (there never was, I know) but the longer form (specifically tv) projects which I'd hoped would emerge from the success of my recent short film work have not materialised - funders are not interested. Schemes like Frameworks are fantastic, but they're getting harder and harder to access.

I now must concentrate on returning to tv production - the 'machines' series for RTE in 1999 was my last tv series. I don't care if my return to tv production takes years - it must be done. That's where the funding lies.

A Warning To All Kings - image

1991 - Arts Council Film and Video Award for ‘To Forget’ short film (stop motion) 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL-NLR3bpeA&list=UUT34LrcyJLGwiMF6CmyhPKA

2000 - Frameworks Award for ‘Florida War’ short film (CGI) 
2002 ‘Forest’ short film (CGI) 
2006 ‘Press p To Play’ short film (machinima) 
2007 ‘biography (of DT Finn)’ short film (machinima) 
2008 - Frameworks Award for ‘T’was a Terrible Hard Work’ short film (stop motion) 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APEMB_tDFWY&list=UUT34LrcyJLGwiMF6CmyhPKA

2010 'Mister Heaney - a wee portrait' (short film - stopmotion)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAtwCCtBOKo&list=UUT34LrcyJLGwiMF6CmyhPKA

2011 May 'leitronium' (short film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KFBR_hUV1s

2011 May 'rinkydink and the salmon of knowledge' (short film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7m7yJJm38w

2013 May 'Furniture, Murder and Love' (short film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msbQW2crEPk&list=UUT34LrcyJLGwiMF6CmyhPKA


2014 May 'A Warning To All Kings' (short film)

http://www.davidquin.ie/CV.html

3rd Year DONE - Alan Holly - Anim Table Quiz

IADT DL041/DL832 Animation Stage 3 is DONE for this year - most of the exit tutorials done yesterday, on my return from Dusseldorf - well done to all! Then the final excellent IADT AnimSoc lecture, with IADT Animation graduate Alan Holly.

Key learnings from Alan... Keep pitching those projects - projects may be shot down by one panel, but funded by another. Pitch projects only when you're completely happy with them - but pitch documents CAN be simple and concise (the Frameworks proposal document for Alan's CODA was 5 pages of (beautiful, moody) concept images, a script, a budget, a schedule and director's and producer's treatment notes)...

Try to work out exactly what will end up onscreen and try to schedule the production accordingly - don't leave tracts of your film, unplanned and 'not nailed down'.

Other Alan learning... When your film is finished - keep applying for film festivals. Just because your film is rejected by one festival, doesn't mean it won't be accepted for the next festival - it might even WIN the next festival.

Once again - excellent lecture from Alan and thanks to Emily, Ross and the AnimSoc for organising it!

Next, it was upstairs to the Animation studio for a small 3rd year 'exhibition', AnimSoc pizzas and bottles of fizz... After that, an Animation exhibition fundraising table quiz in Bakers. Jazis - a long day, but a great day!

2014 Stage 3 exhibition...

Baker's - the table quiz...

Baker's - the table quiz...

Baker's - the table quiz... Checking them pesky answers...

Jazis - ANAMU Newsletter from 1992?

Mention of THE QUINS in an ancient copy of an ANAMU Newsletter... Who dug this up? Though marked from 1993, I think it's probably from 1992, when my first short film 'To Forget' started doing the rounds on the film festival circuit. As Pegbar's Daniel says 'a pinnacle changing point of Irish Animation?'

Seems like yesterday? No... Seems like a LONG long time ago!

Thanks to Daniel from Pegbar and to Cathal and Doc for the Twitter mentions!

Here's a Youtube link to a rough SD version of 'To Forget'...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL-NLR3bpeA&list=UUT34LrcyJLGwiMF6CmyhPKA

2014 Corona Fastnet Film Festival

Just finalising my dates with the 2014 Fastnet Film Festival...  On Friday 23rd May, I'll be doing an Animation Seminar 16.00 - 17.15 and on Sunday 25th May, I'll be taking part in a 'Technical Forum' 10.30 - 13.00 Chaired by Chris O'Dell.

http://www.fastnetshortfilmfestival.com/

Brown Bag Films - 20th Birthday Party

Jazis - is it 20 years since the Baggers began? Great night at The Gibson Hotel and great to see all the gang (including all the 'old gang' and the IADT grads! Thanks for the invite! Does Derek still bring 30 packets of biscuits into studio every week?

Shane, DQ and Paul

Eamonn O Neill - IADT AnimSoc

Congratulations to Emily Lynch and Ross Ryder of the IADT Animation Society for following up their success with Louise Bagnall's recent fantastic talk with a one hundred and fifty minute epic talk and presentation by Eamonn O Neill! Entitled 'things I thought and things I think...'

Key Eamonn O Neill learnings from the evening...

99.9% of engineers do NOT make guitar pedals...
Be transparent (be open and honest with people)... (this actually comes from Eimhin)
It HAS to be human!
Make rules, set boundaries and start thinking about your work... Rules shouldn't be arbitrary, they should be based on the emotional intent of your film...
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should... Be economic.
Have BALLS - be scared - safe is boring.

Personal is universal! The more personal it is, the more universal it is.

Make work and show people. (get it out there, you don't know who's watching)

from eamonnoneill.ie

You get the work that you DO!
BAD experiences are STILL experiences.
There's politics and bullshit EVERYWHERE!
The grass is not always greener.
Reach out, ask questions, be a sponge.
You make your own luck (good luck follows hard work, work hard and get lucky)...
Learn always, because skills are brillz...
GO for stuff, you have nothing to lose!
It's okay NOT to know!
Don't plateau (just keep moving forward, keep trying to progress)
Say thanks - don't be a dick to people, there's enough dickheads EVERYWHERE!

Inspirational stuff! A joy to hear!

www.eamonnoneill.ie

All Good Things!

Hugely talented (but impoverished) award year animation students from IADT Dun Laoghaire are holding an off-campus screening and event in Dublin's Lighthouse Cinema and Block T, in June 2014. The students are funding the project through cakesales and through crowfunding site Fundit! Please donate and become part of some great animation stories!

We are all IADT students, but ALL GOOD THINGS is not an IADT event, it's completely independent and self-generated. However, hosting an exhibition and screening, printing artwork, creating a zine and serving food & refreshments doesn't come cheap, so we've set up a FUND IT campaign to help cover a portion of the costs. 

We'd appreciate any contribution you could make! In return we're offering a range of rewards, and you'd be investing in the night itself, our artwork, and our futures. 


Check out our FUND IT page here: http://fundit.ie/project/all-good-things

https://www.facebook.com/IADTAnimation14?notif_t=fbpage_fan_invite


https://twitter.com/IADTAnimation14

RTE will NOT screen it...

Donald Taylor Black sends this update on his 2012 documentary 'Skin In The Game', in which I appear, way back in the day, animating Jedwards for 'cutbacks' in the middle of a General Election.

Dear All,
The film has been screened at a wide variety of festivals, arts centres, and cinemas over the last number of months - both in Ireland and the USA. Last week it won Best Documentary at the Irish Film Festival in Boston, the oldest Irish film festival in North America. 
On Wednesday, 9th April, Maynooth Film For All will show it at NUI Maynooth at 8pm in the theatre of the Iontas Building, North Campus.

Unfortunately, it seems that RTÉ will not screen it.

RTE will not screen it... It says it all...

'Skin In The Game' will be screened at the Irish Arts Centre in New York (553 West 51st Street) at 7pm on Tuesday, 6th May2014.

Donald Taylor Black’s Irish-Film-Board-funded documentary, examines the financial crisis through responses of a number of artists who used it as subject matter for their work. 

Participants include: Christy Moore (musician); Seán Hillen (photographer); Rita Ann Higgins (poet); Brian Maguire (painter); David Quin (animator); Anthony Haughey (photographer); Nicky Gogan (filmmaker); David Bolger (choreographer); Gerald Dawe (poet); and David Monahan (photographer) as they look at emigration, ghost estates and the legacy of politicians and bankers. Roddy Doyle has written texts for the film that are voiced by actors including Lorcan Cranitch and Hilda Fay.

74 MINUTES, IRELAND, 2012, COLOUR

Internet Research Methods - Submission 2 - blogpost

‘Has digital production and digital distribution (through Youtube etc) fundamentally altered animation?’

The world wide web is 25 years old today. Huge internet platforms – Facebook, Youtube and Google are now dominating the lives of millions. This presents enormous challenges for creatives, especially for media creatives like animators. Since the earliest days over 100 years ago, ours has been a broadcast model – we make animations in order to screen them (in cinemas or through tv) to broader audiences. As broadcasters, we spoke (through our films) and the audiences passively viewed. We rarely met or interacted with our audiences. The mechanism of commissioning and funding of our productions was usually professionally based, highly selective – even elitist.

Now, with digital production, we can make animations using cheap laptops, shareware software. Through the internet, we can distribute our videos instantaneously across the globe, reaching millions of viewers – if the videos prove popular (that popularity being determined by their success in (apparently) impartial search engines) … And our audience can respond immediately, messaging us directly with comments (good, bad and ugly). Even when our audience doesn’t contact us, their digital trails are gathered and fed back to us through Youtube Analytics, telling us who they are, where they were from, how long they watched, what device they were watching from – the data generated is endless.

But wait! 6 years old children can create videos (even animations) for the internet. Crazy Jihadists on a mountain in Yemen can create video for the internet (and can gain millions of followers too).

But has all of this digital and internet opportunity fundamentally changed animation? In conducting my first interviews with animation professionals, the consensus seems to be ‘no’. Animator Steve Woods is adamant that the practice of animation remains unaltered…

My stock answer is, the practice hasn’t changed at all. What I’m saying is that ehm, when a piece of technology is invented, or a new format is preferred, it tends to make other formats and technologies redundant, but that wouldn’t be the case in animation.

Steve’s argument, is that the craft of animation – even with the pervasion and cultural dominance of digital media and the internet – maintains a continuity. New technology and new digital or internet opportunities or challenges merely add to what Steve terms ‘the animation storehouse’…

And all the other technologies which were invented, like cutout animation, which is a very primitive form of puppet animation, and sand animation, or any other technologies which have come along, all add to the treasure house. You know, they don’t make the currency redundant, the previous currency redundant, it’s just more eh, treasure being added to the treasure chest that is animation.

There’s another danger too… As professional creatives, we imagine that it’s important that we bring our vision, often our very personal vision of the world to audiences and that we do this (if possible) over a sustained life-long career. Too much internet video is one-off, amateur, chancy, almost random. Internet creatives who pride themselves on search engine manipulation and the generation of multiple viral videos tend to manipulatively and slavishly play to established audiences. As creatives, we still cling to creative freedom, to the right to make statements which we want to make and which will find, surprise, entertain or move new audiences. There’s still a lot of work to be done, even if it’s merely adding to Steve Wood’s ‘treasure chest that is animation’.

BBC article on Tim Berners Lee and the 25^th anniversary of the world wide web…

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-26540635

Internet Research Methods SPA

Today is the final evening of the 20 week IADT Internet Research Methods SPA (Special Purpose Award), run by Dr. Brendan Rooney. Excellent module which, whilst covering the specifics of internet research, should more properly be renamed 'postgraduate research methods'. Great class (around 20 students), most of them cyberpsychology undergraduates. Must get that final written submission into shape...

IRM - Rooney in Lecturing mode...

IRM - in class discussions

Maynooth, Cintiqs and Art of/and Psychology Seminar

Busy day yesterday! First, I presented the latest version of 'anatomy of an internet series' to Barry McCabe's final year Digital Media students in Kairos in Maynooth. Thanks to Barry for the invite again!

Returned to IADT around lunchtime to discover that Dee Mc was the first of our 4th year students to get a Cintiq working! Later in the day, Anita emails me to say...

'I've been using it for an hour or so and I've done more than I'd have done in a day on a tablet (And it looks infinitely better too!)'

Woohoo! Success!

In the afternoon, in the Drawing Project in Dun Laoghaire, Brendan Rooney and Nicola Fox Hamilton present 'Art of/and Psychology' seminar.

Psychology of engaging with Film, Art and other visuals.

Dr. Brendan Rooney and Nicola Fox Hamilton (IADT Lecturers), introduce and explore some ways in which psychologists can explore human engagement with film, art, graphic or other emotional information. What do we know about the way humans engage with this art and entertainment and how can we apply this knowledge?

The session discusses the aims of psychology of art, film and design. Explore areas such as persuasive, emotional or universal design. Using research on film, the session will explore the interaction between our automatic emotional responses towards film (or art) and our thinking about the film (or art). Followed by some collaborative discussion and Q&A.

Excellent presentations and a pointer to future interdisciplinary potentials for our institute.