Up Up and Away wins BAF award!

The short film, "Up Up and Away", made at Bricknell Primary school Hull, picked up the coveted Bradford Animation Festival Award for Best Film by Young Animators! The film was animated by Jessica Wolff's year 4 class and was created as a school project to teach foreign language skills in a fun and memorable context.

The BAF jury said, "We were impressed by the innovative concept of this schools project, which combines both teaching foreign languages and children's love of animation."

In the film, two children have an amazing hot air balloon adventure, visiting Ireland, France and Germany. Journeying past the Giants Causeway, the Eiffel Tower and other incredible sights, they try out their language skills, eat ice-cream, and sing songs.

In recognition of the importance of developing talent, the winner of the Best Film by Young Animators Award was announced at a special screening on Saturday 15 November. The shortlisted films were all of an incredible standard. It was an honour to be in the selection, and were both totally lost for words when we discovered Jess's kids had won!

I first met Jess through BBC Learn Xpress, when we made an animated version of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", as a tool for foreign language development. It is partly because the BBC were never able to clear rights to show the film and because the project showed such potential that we decided we should find a way to work together again. I had some of my happiest times working on "Up, Up and Away", and it is certainly down to Jessica's belief in the talents of her pupils, her own artistic ability and her commitment to perfection that made "Up up and Away" such a memorable and satisfying film both to watch and participate in. I realised that I never posted anything about the film when we were making it as I was so busy, so here's a few pictures. You can see everything about the film is ambitious. The sets are the largest I've ever worked with in a schools project, filling the whole library. We made a camera dolly using some duplo trains and fishing wire, to provide the pov shots from the balloon.

Jess is now helping me train school teachers in animation for the National Media Museums education programme Anim8ed Stories, which I am currently delivering at schools across Yorkshire. I will get the change to work at Bricknell School again next year when Anim8ed Stories visits Hull. Phil Regan, who project managed BBC Learn Xpress is now managing Anim8ed Stories with me, so the whole team is united again, which is fantastic!

Congratulations to Bricknell School, Jessica Wolff and her most amazing pupils!

Watch "Dreams" on Charge TV

Wow! The animated film "Dreams", created by year year 6 pupils at schools in Rochdale, Salford and Liverpool for Verd de Gris visionary arts project Dreams is being broadcast on satalite TV Charge, tommorow, Saturday and Sunday.

Charge is produced by The Media Trust / Community Channel - it's a youth strand that focuses on charity, societal, environmental and volunteering issues. Each week they focus on a different topic with studio guests and featured content - this episode is looking at child filmmakers. The Show is broadcast on Community Channel Sky 539 / Virgin TV 233 / Freeview 87 and online (http://www.chargetv.co.uk/). Media Trust is a registered charity.

Dreams is being broadcast on:

Wed 12th 08.00 (Sky 539 • Virgin TV 233 • Freeview 87)14.00, 20.00 and 02.00 (Virgin and Sky only)
Saturday 15th 08.00 (Sky 539 • Virgin TV 233 • Freeview 87)14.00, 20.00 and 02.00 (Virgin and Sky only)
Sunday 16th 06.00 (Sky 539 • Virgin TV 233 • Freeview 87)12.00, 18.00 and 00.00 (Virgin and Sky only)

Cinema of Horror

I completed animation for Duchy Parade Films upcoming short film "Cinema of Horror" this October. I first worked for Peter on his RTS award winning cinema short "Wilfred", way back in 1999. He was the first person to really give me a chance, and placed his trust (and money) on me delivering an animated poem for the film, during my graduation year at Senior College, Ballyfermot. It was wonderful to work with him again, to direct animation for the title sequence on his upcoming cinema short, "Cinema of Horror". A ten-minute drama about three film students who see the world through the fantasy of the films they like, inspired by current trends in Asian and Far East Cinema.

The sequence was based on a design by talented Digital Arts graduate Shuang Nui. I did the first pass on the storyboard before my feature film storyboard training at Aadman Animations, and storyboarding on "Shaun the Sheep", so it was good to go back with the benefit of all that experience and produce a revised storyboard pass and a story reel.

We had a shoestring budget, but the benefit of a wonderful young team eager to learn. Shuang Nui came onto the production, with an eye on clean-up animation, ensuring the style was faithful to the original design, Kevin Herbison, who also worked on "Wilfred", composited the sequence and also helped out on character inbetweens. Rebecca Stothert, of Goole Silent Movie fame, was on GCSE work experience at Duchy Parade Films and was able to see the drawn animation process and help out with scanning, and digital ink & paint. I saw the sequence cut into the film last week with the music and effects track, which is looking and sounding great. I'll post more news, artwork and animation on Cinema of Horror over the coming weeks.

Halloween spooks

I had a fun time taking workshops at the Animation Station in Banbury for half term, helping children make Halloween cartoons. We teamed up with The Campaign For Drawing. who held workshops in 1000 UK venues, from scout huts to national museums in the ninth Big Draw, 1 to 31 October 2008. This annual programme shows that drawing is the perfect medium for observation, self-expression and fun.

Stepney animated film screen in worlds top animation festival!

I have just heard that "Jack and the Beanstalk", made by year 2 pupils as part of the "Animated Solutions" educational program with Creative Partnerships Hull was shown at the 12th International animation festival, Hiroshima, Japan.

The Film was screened as part of the "Animation by Children of the World" program on August 10th and was one of only 12 films showing in its category. 1,656 films from 56 countries entered the festival, with 76 titles selected for the official competition program. A huge congratulations to all involved. Also screening in the same category was the world premiere of ASIFA's Workshop Group Film, "Olympics, Let's Fantasize". I worked with a group of young people at the National Media Museum on their Olympic film for the compilation. This project has been supported by the Lottery through the UK Film Council’s First Light Movies initiative. For those interested in seeing the film, it is being shown on Sat 15th Nov at the Bradford Animation Festival. President of ASIFA UK, Pat Raine Webb will be presenting the film with me.  

Also screening is "Up, Up and Away" made at Bricknel Primary School Hull, which is screening in competition for the Films by Young Animators Award. If that wasn't exciting enough, then I will be announcing the winner of the Best Children's Animated Film at the award ceremony! Can’t wait!

co-operative young film makers

I had an absolutely brilliant time at the co-operative young film makers festival on 9th and 10th Oct.

Without a doubt, the best thing for me was seeing so many young people I've worked with over the years turn up to see their films on the big screen, like the Goole Silent Movie group with their film "The Lost Princess" (above left). What a buzz!

It was great to see so many people at my Animation Fascination talk and at the UK premiere for ASIFAs Workshop Group film, "Olympics Let's Fantasize". To see what my groups in the afternoon created with just a pad of paper, a pencil and a little imagination, check out these flipbooks! Nice one!

Best Animated Film Award!

Well done all. The Biomation Aspergers Syndrome Syndrome film was the winner of the animation category at the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival awards announced on Sunday. The Aspergers Syndrome film was commended for its use of animation to explore the social, scientific and emotional aspects of Aspergers Syndrome.

The competition received entries from across the world including America, Canada, France, Germany, Spain and Israel. It was such an honour to see the film being shown on the big screen at the prestigious Filmhouse in Edinburgh alongside other award winning films.

You can view the film on the 4mations website here.

For more information on the film, visit the BioMation blog.

Festival season

Congratulations to all the young filmmakers I have worked with whose films are screening at the Co-Op Young Peoples Film Festival: Dreams (Verd de Gris Art & Design), Howard and the Bear (PennyPot youth group), How Wilberforce Stopped the Slave Trade (Creative Partnerships Hull & Stepney School yrs 3+4), Olympics, Let's Fantasize (ASIFA and the National Media Museum), The Lost Princess (Duchy Parade Films and Goole Town Council.)

We will also be screening the UK premiere of Olympics Let's Fantaisize" as part of the festival on Fri 10th at 12pm,  an animated film made by young people around the world to celebrate the Olympics, expressing their fantasies, ideas and messages surrounding the Olympic Games. Organized by the ASIFA Animation Workshop Group (AWG), the UK workshops took place at the National Media Museum, supported by the Lottery through the UK Film Council's First Light Movies initiative.  The world premiere was at the world famous Hiroshima Animation Festival, 7-11 August.

Also on Friday, I will be giving a fun talk, Animation Fascination, and a couple of 'quick draw animation workshops' at the festival on Friday 10th at the Natinonal Media Museum. The co-op young peoples film festival runs from 9th to 10th Oct and tickets for all the above avents are available from the Mational Media Museum.

Congragrulations also to the young people, and entire BioMation team. The Aspergers film,has been nominated for an international award as part of The Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival, the largest festival of its kind and is becoming a major cultural event in Scotland. The film will be screened as part of the festival between the 2nd and 17th October. The film is availbe for viewing on the new 4Mations website.

Back at Aardman!

Well, I'm so excited to be back at Aardman Animations! This is my second week storyboarding on the second series of "Shaun the Sheep". I'm here with Jay, Ashley and James, all from the feature storyboard course, and Aardman storyboard guru, Rob, who is kindly suffering us all and imparting his years of knowledge and skills when asked. As "Shaun the Sheep" has no dialogue, it is a particularly interesting storyboard challenge, as we try to find the best way to visually tell the story. And what a wonderful challenge. Of course, like all of Aardman's animations, the characters are all wonderful, and my main challenge early on has been to get into their shoes. One of the many brilliant things about Aardman is that we have models from the 1st series to hand for reference. Here's a couple of photos of myself and Ashley working hard :)

Goole Silent Movie sails to Switzerland

"Dr A D Holmes" and "The Lost Princess" screened in Switzerland at the Super8 Special 2008 on Saturday! Rain put pay to plans to screen the films outside, but neues kino was nearly full with a crowd of abot 60 people watching the program. Also quite a lot of filmmakers were there in person.

Summer animation workshops

This week I'm at the Animation Station in Banbury, talking animation workshops with 9-16 year olds. We are celebrating 400 years of the Banbury Town Charter, and together with Banbury Museum, bringing paintings of the town to life. We've had an amazing amount of publicity this week. including a live interview on BBC Radio Oxford! The films will be shown at Summerscreen festival - Best of the Fest, 7.15 at the Phoenix Picture House, Jericho, Oxford. To more information and to see a behind the scenes video, click here.

Cinema of Horror

What do Zombie Movies and Bollywood have in common? Check out John Andrews latest film performance, who played the Inspector in The Lost Princess Goole Silent Movie, and find out! Peter M Kershaw was so impressed with his acting talent, that he invited him to star in his latest short film, Cinema.

David Kendea, who played the Sea Captian, also stars. Cinema of Horror can currently be seen on the internet at Virgin Shorts.

Flippin' great flipbooks!

Sat 5 July saw the return of the Culture Shock Youth Festival in Northallerton, produced by Connecting Youth Culture, North Yorkshire County Council. This year, 160 young people made flipbooks in my flipbook animation tent during the day, making this the most successful single event I have ever staged! Here's a glimpse of the flipbooks filmed during the course of the day.

culture shock flipbooks



To see why the Utah Saints said Culture Shock is better than Glastonbury, view the highlights from 2007.

Goole Silent Movie screens at Culture Shock

It was great to see Becky, Jonny and other cast and crew members supporting Goole Silent Movie at the Culture Shock Festival in Northallerton. "Dr AD Holmes" and "The Lost Princess" played throughout the day last Saturday in Northallerton in Yorkshires biggest youth festival. I say others, because they were all wearing lots of face paint, from the circus tent, I presume, so hard to recognise! I was working at the festival in my flipbook animation tent. What a great day!

The big summer of 2008!

What a great few weeks it's been. I travelled from Aadrman Animations in Bristol to Banbury to start a Creative Partnerships programme with North Oxfordshire Academy, where we are making a series of animated films exploring the impact of climate change. Banbury is celebrating it's 400th charter this year, and the Animation Station organised a competition for children to take part in a special animated film commemorating the history of their town. The final film, which brings to life historic paintings of Banbury was premiered at a big gala celebration in the town.


Last Saturday I returned to the Arts Institute at Bournemouth for their animation alumni reunion. Great to see so many familiar faces and see everyone and the course, blossoming from strength to strength.

This Friday saw the preview screening of "Jimmy Saves the Olympics" for ASIFS Workshop Group film "Olympics Let's Fantasise". The museum rolled out the red carpet for big day and it was great to see such a high turnout to honour the young peoples work. We had a huge amount of media interest, and I spend most of Friday being whisked off for various interviews!
“Jimmy Saves the Olympics” is currently playing on the BBC Big Screen in Bradford up to 4 times per day for the foreseeable future. The film will also be screened at Bradford Animation Festival and the Co-op Young Filmmakers festival.


Saturday was the brilliant Culture Shock Festival in Northallerton, were I returned for a third year to run a flipbook animation workshop in one of the festivals great marquees. 16o young people made flipbooks, making this years workshop the biggest and best yet! As always is was a huge buzz, and an awesome event. I stayed around to listen to the closing acts, Utah Saints, and Boy kill boy, who were knockout! Utah Saints said it was better than Glastonbury! Enough Said!

Feature story training update from Aardman

Compare and Contrast! A photograph of our merry band of story trainees (Crustoids, as named by Frank Gladstone, who is in the centre of the 1st photo) on our first day at Aardman Animations - and 8 short weeks later at our found farewell night out.

The last 8 weeks have evaporated in a blur of frenzied activity and, learning - with little time for blogging of anything else. It has all been an incredible adventure, and a truly amazing experience. I feel like I've grown incredibly as an artist, and I'm eager and exited to put what I've learnt into practice. What made it all the more enjoyable, was learning along side such a wonderful group of people, many of which I am sure will be firm and good friends for years to come.

As well as being taught by the inspirational Frank Gladstone, we were treated to several special presentations, including visits by Christian Lignan (digital storyboarding procedures), Bruce Block (visual language), Steve Kaplan (comedy workshop).

For our final assignment, we worked with Aardman's editorial team, who cut our storyboards into story reels for review, along with the scratch tracks we recorded, which was incredibly fun. Seeing our storyboards timed into story reels, was an amazing and revealing experience. Seeing the pathos and rhythm they bought to it and the choices they made in removing and adding story panels.

Here's some more pics from our last training day. Happy days!

Aardman storyboad training!

I've been so busy these last few weeks doing animation workshops around the country, I've barley had time to check my email, never mind write on my blog.

However my life is going to take a exciting twist over the next few weeks as I've been accepted onto South West Screen and Aadman Animations' storyboard training programme!

I'm one of ten people taking part in ANIMATION BRIDGE: STORYBOARDING FROM START TO FINISH which has been developed in response to a need to improve the skill levels of storyboard artists working in the UK animation industry. Trainees will be taught by an international team of specialists on a programme designed by the industry for the industry. The programme is informed by an extensive R&D stage funded under a Skillset Film Skills Fund Innovation Bursary.

For my storyboard test, I was given a Wallace and Grommit sequence to interpret, which was a lot of fun to do. I was interviewed last week by a panel including course tutor Frank Gladstone, ex-Head of Training and Artistic Development at Disney and Dreamworks Animation. I'm incredibly excited (and a little terrified) to have this opportunity, which I'm sure is going to shake challenge me and inspire me to my core. I will endeavor to update my blog with progress over the next fun filled 8 weeks. I'm exhausted thinking about it! Well, better catch that train. Over and out!

Goole Silent Movie screens in Cambridge!

Congratulations to everyone on Goole Silent Movie!

"The Lost Princess", written by Rebecca Stothert & Emma Gill and directed by Rebecca Stothert will be screened in Competition at the Cambridge Super8 Film Festival!

The Cambridge International Super8 Film Festival shows the best films originated on the Super 8 format.

Goole Silent Movie, produced by Goole Town Council and Duchy Parade Films was shot on black & white Super 8 film, sponsored by Kodak and produced using optical process emulating the techniques of the silent period to produce a truly authentic historical film.

The Super 8mm film format has undergone a creative renaissance in the last five years due to the digital revolution and the re-discovery of small film by users the world over. In 2007, the first Cambridge Super 8 Festival was a hugely successful event with more than 70 films in 3 competitive programs and 2 non-competitive programs. All genres of film were represented (animation, fiction, documentary and experimental film), illustrating the diversity of the format and our film selection.

"The Lost Princess" is playing on Thursday 24th of April at 8pm in The Centre @ St Pauls Hill road Cambridge.

It must be Easter!

Last weeks ASIFA Workshop Group animation workshop at the National Media Museum was fantastic . Eight children were chosen from Belle Vue Boys, Belle Vue Girls School, and St Josephs Catholic College in Bradford to represent the UK in the production of a short animated film to celebrate the Olympics. This was a fantastic opportunity to take part in the creation of an animated film which will be used as part of a film made by young people from all over the world.
The short film titled “Jimmy saves the Olympics”, created by the group at the National Media Museum, tells the story of Jimmy, who is chosen to take the famous Olympic flame from Athens to the Olympic stadium. On route, the athletically challenged Jimmy, tries his hand at a variety of Olympic spots. His rugby skills are come against the ultimate test when an alien tries to steal the flame. Through it all, the inclusively of the Olympics is celebrated. everybody, no matter what there colour or size can feel part of the Olympics.

I'll put up some photographs and stills from the film next week, when I have a little more time. There is an interesting local press story about the project here.

This week I completed a series of workshops at Harrogate Army Foundation College, partly funded by CYC, which has resulted in an incredible short stop motion film, "Howard and the Bear", written by 15 year old Madeline Moyle. Maddy is an very talented young budding animator and I expect the film, and Madeline to do very well in the future.

Next week I'm in Swindon teaching for the University of Bath's creative arts week, "Crazy Cartoons" the for pupils in year 10.

ASIFA International film project

I am extremely excited to be delivering a very special animation workshop at the National Media Museum next week, during the Easter holidays.

Thanks to the support of the NMM and funding from First Light Movies, who fund and inspire young people, throughout the UK, to make films reflecting the diversity of their lives, I will delivering an animation workshop for ASIFA (the international association of animated film), founded in 1960 in Annecy (France) by the most famous animation artists of that time (Norman McLaren & many others).

The ASIFA Workshop Group is a global movement represented in 23 countries and on 3 continents. Every year a worldwide animation project, composed of several regional children animation workshops, is realised. The films created are presented at some of the world’s principle animation festivals.

This years theme is the Olympics. The young people in Bradford will be using animation to explore their "fantasies, ideas and messages on the Olympic Games or anything related to the games, freely within about 2 minutes." Their film will become part of an international compilation of animation, compiled in China and promises to provide a world stage for the young people to express themselves creatively. Through the process, young people will develop their drawing and animation skills, build confidence and have their aspirations raised in a fun and creative atmosphere.

There is a fascinating article of the history of the ASIFA workshop group on the ASIFA website.


I will be be publishing updates on this exciting project during the week.