Lion at Home roars in at Kids First!

Wow, well good things keep happening with “The Lion at Home” - scooped 2nd place for BEST STUDENT PRODUCTION, ELEMENTARY at the Kids First Best Awards 2010! The World's Largest Film Festival for Kids!
Lauren Longworth, Jury Manager at Kids First, said “This designation is quite an honour and, with it we hope to express our appreciation for the outstanding work you do on behalf of children.”

The Lion at Home was made by an incredible year 4 class and thier equally incredible teachers at Bricknell Primary School in Hull in collaboration with the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull as part of the National Media Museums anim8ed programme, under my mentoring. 

It won the Chec television award for the Best animated Film made by Children at AniFest 2010, ‘Best Child-Made Animation’ award at the first Silver Salt Animation Festival 2010 in India and third prize at the National Young Filmmaker’s Award, Leeds Young People’s Film Festival



Now in its eleventh year, the KIDS FIRST! Film Festival is a showcase for children's films, TV shows and DVDs from major studios and independent filmmakers. The festival partners with more than 150 venues worldwide who host more than 10,000 screenings of KIDS FIRST! films year-round to an audience of more than one million.

A full list of winners can be found here.

I'm currently working again more with Bricknell Primary School on a new film that's every bit as exciting - I'll start blogging about it very soon!

Carbon Cycle Caper

The animated film, "Carbon Cycle Caper", which I produced, storyboarded and directed for the Science Museum, has launched on the Science Museum website! The animation supports a teacher’s pack that enables schools to play the game.

I had a ball working on this film, which is designed to have the look and feel a homemade cartoon. There were two exciting sides to Carbon Cycle Caper. First was the innovative concept - creating a short animated film to promote a major new schools activity for the Science Museum that would visually explain to teachers how to run the game in schools nationwide. The second was the way we set up a production team to create a film to the high production quality needed on a tight production schedule, within a relatively small budget.

As I was working part time as a tutor for Sunderland University, it seemed to me that forming a team mixing a professional crew and students could be a possible great solution to this, providing real world production experience for a group of our star students and also giving us access to equipment and studio space at the University.

Student animator, Frazer Barrington working on Kate Youngs beautiful set.

Combining teams of seasoned professionals and new talent is something I have seen work extremely well in the past, not least as co-producer on 4mations Digital short film “The Astronomers Sun”. For “Carbon Cycle Caper” I was able to reunite some of our professional crew with a handpicked group of student animators. This included lighting cameraman, Alistair McKenzie, editor Adam Kirk and Sound Designer Dave Aston from the Digital Audio Company. In addition to this we employed a wonderfully talented young artist, Kate Young, a recent graduate at the University of Sunderland to take first bat on the films art direction and design and build the set.

The animation team at Sunderland Univeristy team with some of the cast characters- From left to right

Robert Lawson, Bianca Pollio, Dominic Shaw, Aaron Warters, Frazer Barrington

Animation studnet Dominic Shaw was my props character man - and boy what a job he had! His deask became which became an asortmant of frankenstein collections, wtih canibalised miniture plastic body parts of the 50+ chidrlens models we needed to create. Dom was responisible for all of these and the many impossible challenges I gave him during production. 

 

A lot of the charm and style of the film, came from having no movement at all in the characters. When we did need body movement, such as picking up the 'atoms', Dom created replaceable characters for each movement.

Below - a still from the film of the energentic split screen game.

The Independent

Interesting article about animation careers in the postgraduate section of the independent by Russ Thorne which I contributed some musings for. You can read it online here.

Anim8ed & St Aidans win Hollywood film award!

I'm thrilled to announce that pupils from St Aidans CE High School in Harrogate are celebrating after their animated film, “Hungry for Health” won Best Youth Fest Animation in Hollywood, California, at the 16th edition of the annual International Family Film Festival!

This is even more special for me as I am a former pupil of St Aidans, so having the chance to work at my former high school was a really special experience. There is a chance to see a special TV report on the films success on BBC Look North next Friday at 6.30pm.

The 2011 IFFF awards celebration was held in the Chaplin Theatre at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. The IFFF’s comprehensive program of screenings, panels and special events ran from March 16 through March 20 on the Raleigh lot. With over 23 countries represented in the films officially selected this year, the IFFF truly added emphasis on its “International” status.
The St Aidans pupils made Hungry for Health, an animated campaign film promoting healthy lifestyle choices for young people. The film was made as part of the National Media Museum’s DCMS Strategic Commissioning funded Anim8ed project in collaboration with the British Library’s "Campaign! Make an Impact" initiative using public service campaigns from history to inspire young people into creating their own contemporary versions.
There is a chance to see it play closer to home, at the National Young Filmmakers' Awards, taking place on Monday 4th April as part of Leeds Young People's Film Festival.

It also plays in competition at the VAFI - International Children and Youth Animation Film Festival Varaždin, 29th April - 1st May 2011, partner of the Los Angeles International Children's Film Festival.

Hungry for Health also won critical acclaim last November, winning the BAF 2010 Films by Young Animators Award at the National Media Museum.

Dennis Richards OBE, Headteacher, said: “It has been an inspiration to discover an art form which hitherto we knew nothing about, which has made such an impact on so many children and the school as a whole.”

Deb Singleton, director of Bradford Animation Festival said: “This year we had a fantastic response to our call for entries for the Films by Young Animators category, both in terms of number of films submitted and the quality of the films. We awarded Hungry for Health the top prize in recognition of the filmmakers’ ambition and success in creating an engaging, funny and pacy film with a clear message. We particularly admired the creation of films within films, each of which had a distinct style, as part of the overall story.”

St Aidan’s art teacher Jane Smithson, said, 'It was a tremendous experience for our young people. They were utterly engaged with the research, writing and artwork. Some comments from the young people were "Best time of my school life", "It really improved my confidence in my ability in art". As a teacher I found it built their confidence and made me think about how I deliver my lessons, as the risk taking is what they really enjoyed'.

Simon Lee, student animator, said: “It was an amazing experience being in such a creative atmosphere led by David Bunting. I never would have thought at the start that we would finish with anything reasonable, let alone an award!”

This is the second BAF win for an Anim8ed project. The scheme has produced animations that have won awards all around the world. Anim8ed was set up in 2004 to enable young people to engage with various museum collections through animation.
IFFF is a non-profit educational and cultural organization in Los Angeles County, California.

Filmming Remember to Smile

Well yesterday we filmed our final Straight 8 entry, "Remember to Smile", Written by Laura Arnott and directed by Laura Arnott and Katy Burns. Film and Theatre director Darren Bolton supervised the shoot, along with crew supervisor Adam Kirk with myself producing. Sophie Backhouse played our lead role, and with the range of emotions she sensitively portrayed it was hard to remember that this was her first acting role.Maisy-Rae Millward and Evie Peta Backhouse played the central character at different ages of her life with other performances from Tiger Watkins-Bailey, Maidie Deighton and Jessica Barker, with our Executive Producer and Youth and Community Arts coordinator, Nicola Dixon taking a guest role.

The films now go to the Straight 8 competition organisers for developing and judging, so the first time we will get to see the film is at the premiere on July 9th!

Here's a few photos from the shoot:

 Samuel Burrows on camera. Behind him, crew supervisor, Adam Kirk offers guidance during one of the tricky handheld shots in the film.

80s children. Maidie Deighton and Tiger Watkins-Bailey dressed in 80s gear by wardrobe supervisor Emma Renhard and assistant Kimberley Scott.

Directing supervisor Dannen Bolton discussing a scene with Laura and Katy.

Filming Going Up

Behind the scenes stills from our second film, "Going Up", written by Harvey Griffin and Sam Pratt, Directed by Harvey Griffin. Filming these in one day is not easy and our young crew did themselves, and us, proud working in demanding circumstances on a very long day. Especially for our two lead actors, Mathew Oldreive and Francesca Jackson, who heroically contented with the smells of festering cream and a crammed crew in a lift.... for five hours... it was quite an achievement! Of course we had a lot of fun in the process too. Here's a snapshot. We'll post fresh pictures with words from the director soon.

From lef to right: Francesca Jackson, Mathew Oldreive, Shaun Schwegler (with reflector) and director, Harvey Griffin.

Harvey Griffin cheking a shot, with camera opperator Sam Burrows with Directing Supervisor, Madeliene Frost.

Crew supervisor, Adam Kirk checks a shot.

Trapped in the lift - Madeliene Frost talks through a scene (seperated by a wall of glass!) with Mathew and Francesca.

All in a days work!

Mathew Oldreive and Francesca Jackson in the lift.

On location with "Man from the Moon"

More pictures from the making of "Man in the Moon", for Goole Straight 8 and a few words from the Hannah Turner, the films young writer/director.Hannah Turner (Writer,Director)
On set: Alec Clark, (Man in the Moon) Hannah Turner, Director; Madeliene Frost. Supervising Director and Sam Green, Crew

Producer David Bunting talking through a scene with the Man from the Moon, Alac Clark.

Shaun Schwegler filming on Super 8, with Adam Kirk, Crew supervisor, filming digital video assist.

David Bunting, Producer talks through a shot with Shaun on camera. Director Hannah Turner is in the red jumper.

The day of the filming was great! It was a long, cold day that tested the best of us but it was all worth it to see all of the ideas come together to make one brilliant film. The cast and crew were all excellent and co-operative and easy to work with. I found the process very interesting and I have learnt a lot from the entire film course.

Hannah Turner, Director

"Man from the Moon" in the can!

On Saturday we filmed our first short film, Hannah Turner's "Man in the Moon". All the live action is now in the can, with just one animation shot and final credits ready to film.

Shooting Man in the Moon on film, it felt only fitting that the production stills were also captured on film as well, so we will post most of the location stills in a few days, once we have them developed.

In the meantime, here's  a few pictures of last last week's progress.

On Thursday we welcomed director Madeline Frost from the Lawance Baltley Theatre in Huddesfield, who worked with our cast.

Emma Renhard did a and a couple of her students from Yorkshire coast college helped provide the films Victorian and romantic and magical themes with beautiful costumes. Here Josh Robert Darby and Jessica Perryman, pose for a Victian photograph as the Young Man in the Moon and his wife.

As well as playing the love interest, Jessica Perryman also helped with the films magical animation scenes, something as a professional animator, I had a lot of fun guiding. 

There's still plenty to do on "Man from the Moon", but today we started work on "Remember to Smile", which we film in a couple of weeks. Professional actor, Paula Henstock travelled over to Harrogate to provide the voice track for the films central character.

Paula, who is busy rehersing with Madeliene for a writing festival at Lawence Batley Theatre later this month, gave a beautifully tender reading of the films dialogue track. After a long and cold location shoot yesterday, recording dialogue in the comfort of my own home with coffee to hand felt a real treat!

Goole Straight 8 Production week

Well we've had an amazing and frantic Production week. - On Saturday, we shoot our first film, "The Man in The Moon". Can't wait! Here's some of the highlights of our week in pictures.

Tuesday - Cinematography with Adam Kirk.

Tuesday afternoon - Auditions and screen tests!

Wednesday - Shaun calling the actors from Tuesdays auditions to tell them the good news.

Rece - Finding locations for the films (the one day it rained!) Harry and Sam are testing our our Super 8 Cameras.


Thursday - Rehearsals with Director Darren Bolton.

 Thursday Lunchtime - a video conference with the crew from ITV's This Morning! Thank to Joe Eibin  production coordinator (right) for making this possible and the rest of the team who kindly gave some of their time to talk with our filmmakers and answer their questions. Jo was one of our production apprentices in Goole Silent Movie, and a terrific role model for our current young filmmakers.

Friday - music auditions with Dave Bainbridge and costume fittings with Emma Renhard.

Hungry for Health travels to Hollywood!

I'm excited to announce that the animated short film, "Hungry for Health", made by pupils at St Aidan's C E High School, is nominated for an award in Hollywood at the Youth Fest International Family Film Festival Youth Fest! on March 19th, 2011, at the Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, CA, USA.

An animated campaign film promoting healthy lifestyle choices for young people, Hungry for Health offers a unique young person's perspective on diet and childhood obesity, referencing social pressures, advertising and new media. Hungry for Health was made as part of the National Media Museum's anim8ed programme in partnership with the British Library's, Campaign! Make an Impact innovative initiative that uses history to inspire young people into active citizenship.

Leeds Pals plays in Hollywood

I'm excited to announce that the animated short film, "Leeds Pals", made by pupils at Kellback Primary School is nominated for an award in Hollywood at the Youth Fest International Family Film Festival Youth Fest! on March 19th, 2011, at the Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, CA, USA. 


Leeds Pals has played in festivals around the world. It has won awards for Emerging Talent: 12 and Under and the Audience award at Fresh Flix, Encounters Short Film Festival 2009 and the Best Child Made Animation at Silver Salt Animation Festival 2010. It is also currently screening on a worldwide tour at the worlds largest film festival for kids, KIDS FIRST! The Festival partners with more than 150 venues who host screenings year round to an audience of more than one million.

“Accurate portrayal of a real battle using hand-made drawings and cut-outs. A tribute to an important battle, and set to poetic lyrics which were clearly read and delivered an easy to follow story.”

Kids First! Jury

“Powerfull and subtle use of mixed media to tell a powerful tale - brilliant. Loved the genuine input of children's styles and their voices. the stop motion sequence of drawing soldiers and barbed wire was a creative first! So appropriate.”

Sheila Graber, Animation Director

Astronomers Sun wins in Seattle!

We were thrilled to hear that “The Astronomer’s Sun” won Grand Prize in this year’s Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival! The awards were announced to a sold out house at Seattle’s renowned Cinerama Theatre. We were really sorry not to be there in person, but I'm told it was was an incredible night, and an amazing experience watching the films on the big screen with a rapt audience of sci-fi/fantasy film fans. Thanks to everyone in Seattle for who made this such a festival to remember.

Amazing new young peoples film workshop starting in Goole

If you have every thought you would like to make a film - a real film - and you live in the Goole area, this is for you!

We are NOW seeking young people aged 13 – 18 who are budding actors, film-makers, writers, animators, researchers, technicians, musicians and costume designers to make the film. Over the next 2 months, four films are planned to be shot using Super8 film cameras, supervised by professional filmmakers from across Yorkshire and beyond. The challenge - to submit to one of the toughest and most exciting film festivals in the world - Straight 8, and be considered for screenings in London and Cannes!
The first films I ever made were with a Super 8 camera. Learning to use film gives young people the chance to use the technology that founded the film industry. The flickering projector takes us right back to the magic and dream of cinema. The particular challenge - and the skill in this competition, comes from creating and editing a film in camera. We have no second changes. No take twos. No chance to ‘fix it in edit!’ Our young filmmakers are going to be taught skills and the techniques not normally taught outside film school. We have an incredibly talented team of people from the four corners of the film industry from writers and directors to actors, editors, composers and costume designers, who will all be sharing their knowledge with these young people. What we are doing is totally unique. We are creating a mini film school for budding filmmakers. It’s going to be incredibly exciting and will push our young people to realise their creative potential.

Visit the new Goole Straight 8 blog to find out more!

Free CPD animation training, 1st Feb at the National Media Musuem

Thanks to Estelle Baker and everyone from the museum development service for Hampshire at the Isle of Wight Museum. I've just come back from a wonderful week training teachers and museum educators animation skills as part of the British Library Campaign Make an Impact training days.

For those of you in the Yorkshire region who may like animation CPD training a little closer to home, I am delivering a a FREE CPD programme at the National Media Museum in Bradford on Tue 1st February, 9.30am-3.45pm. At the moment there are 5 places left and places go on a first come first served basis.

Due to government cuts, I’ve been told this will sadly be the last CPD day that the National Media Museum offer for the foreseeable future, and I’m eager we sell out this event. I’ve taught this programme around the UK, from York to Hull to the Isle of Wright to amazing feedback.

During this 1 day course teachers will learn about how to use animation as a creative learning tool in the classroom.

This course aims to:

1. Demystify the process of using animation in the classroom

2. Identify the links between animation and the national curriculum


3. Discuss the practice of using animation in the classroom


4. Gain practical experience of using animation as a tool for learning

The CPD day is being run as part of the anim8ed learning programme, Supported by DCMS and DCFS through the Strategic Commissioning programme.

To book places, contact the School Services Officer, Di Carey on 0844 856 3799, or email learning@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

For an example of one of our previous training days at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull click here
To find out more about anim8ed and for fee animation resources visit the webstie:

Shaun Goes Potty

It's wonderful to finally see Shaun Goes Potty transform from story sketches into full animation. I worked as a story artist on this episode from Shaun the Sheep, which was an amazing experience. In terms of story issues, this was a difficult episode to work on with a huge script crammed to bursting with just too many good ideas!

One of those was a dream sequence of Bitzer being a legendary pool champ, which was a lot of fun to board, but in the end was rightly cut to give Shaun and Bitzer more screen time together.

I remember looking at this episode in story reel form with the director, Chris Sadler and an editor and it came to aprox10 minutes. At which point we asked - what is the story really about. The resulting changes, which many story artists and great minds worked on, see the various location shifts changes to one which allows screen time to concentrate on the entertainment of a terrific concept. I had a ball, to pardon the pun, working out some of the visual humour of Shaun and Bitzer challenging each other to a game of pool. Catch it now on the BBC iplayer!

Happy New Year

As we look back on 2010, we are very pleased to announce our 9th award for The Astronomers Sun!


On Sunday December 12th, The Astronomers Sun won the The Audience Choice award at Anima: a festival of contemporary animation by women.

This follows winning the Best of the Festival award at the Flip Animation Festival!

Thanks to our directors Simon Cartwright and Jessica Cope, our talented team, and most of all everyone who has seen The Astronomers Sun this year and made 2010 such a special year for the film.

This has also been a great year for films made my young people I've mentored. Hungry for Health won Best Film by Young Animators at the Bradford Animation Festival and “The Lion at Home” received an award in the Animated Films Made by Children category at the 9th annual AniFest 2010 – the International Festival of Animated Films.

The Lion at Home" (Bricknell Primary School) and "Leeds Pals" (Kell Bank Primary School) also won  the “Best Child Made Animation” award at the first Silver Salt Animation Festival 2010, India's largest ever animation festival and the Lion at Home came second at Flip Film Festival and 3rd at the Leeds International Film Festival.The New Year kicks off with the The Lion at Home (Bricknell Primary School/National Media Museum), and Leeds Pals (Kell Bank Primary School/Awards For All) selected for screening at the worlds largest film festival for kids KIDS FIRST! Film Festival showcases new and classic children's films and videos from studios as well as independent and youth filmmakers. The Festival partners with more than 150 venues who host screenings year round to an audience of more than one million. They will be included with approximately 75 films at our events running through January 15, 2010.

Happy New Year!!

BAF award for St Aidans!!

I'm absolutely thrilled that my former school, St Aidans CE Hight School in Harrogate, won the Bradford Animation Festival award for Best Film by Young Animators with their film "Hungy for Health"! I worked with teachers and pupils at St Aidans earlier this year to help with with their film, which was made in partnership with the National Media Museums Anim8ed programme and the British Libraries Campaign Make an Impact and funded by the DCMS.

Headmaster, Mr Dennis Richards and along with one of my old art teachers, Mrs Smith, and a huge group of pupils who made the film, made a special trip to the BAF to collect the award. Sadly Jane Smithson, who ran the project in Art was ill and unable to be their. The film was made in collaboration with departments in History, English, Art, Music and Drama and is testament to the talents of the pupils concerned and the commitment of the school from Mr Richards down to go the extra mile and produce something that is expectational in every sense of the word.

The jury said:

In awarding Hungry for Health the top prize, the Jury admired the filmmakers' ambition and success in creating an engaging, funny and pacy film with a clear message. The jury particularly admired the creation of films within films, each of which had a clear a distinct style, as part of the overall story."

A still from of the films adverts praised by the BAF Jury.

BAF 2010

Well I'm currently at BAF, and have been immersing myself in an amazing films and speakers from all occur the world. This year, Sunderland University invited me to take a group of their students so I've had the immense privilege and excitement of travelling around with the group and being inspired in animation together. Highlights so far include a look at the visual effects of Inception with Double Negatives Frankin, the wonderful Gene Deitch, Clair Kitson, Paul Mendoza from Pixar and Phil Mulloy's feture film, "Goodbye Mr Christie".

Tomorrow at 10.30am I'm marking the 50th anniversary of AISFA and presenting the UK premiere of a film made by young people all over the world including here at the National Media Museum.

Then I'm going to be cheering on 4 schools I've had the privilege to work with, who all have films battling it out for the prized Film made by Young Animators Award.

Leeds Pals made my pupils at Kellbank Primary Scool as won awards at Encounters Film Festival and Silver Salt Animation Festial, India.

Also nominated and playing in competition for the first time are:

Journey to Gaurna, Dishforth Primary School

Hungry for Health, St Aaidans CE High Scool, Harrogate
I Have a Dream, ASIFA UK group, National Media Museum

The Astronomers Sun is also in official selection, with a nomination for Best Children's Film, so it's going to be a busy and exciting day!

Ralk and screening of The Astronomers Sun in Bradford

Lion and Home and Leeds Pals tour USA with Kids First!

 I am pleased to anounce that two wonderful films made by children, The Lion at Home (Bricknell Primary School/National Media Museum), and Leeds Pals (Kell Bank Primary School/Awards For All) have been selected for screening at one of the world major children’s festivals in the USA. KIDS FIRST! Film Festival showcases new and classic children's films and videos from studios as well as independent and youth filmmakers. The Festival partners with more than 150 venues who host screenings year round to an audience of more than one million. They will be included with approximately 75 films at our events running through January 15, 2010.

 

The Kids First Adult jury said about "The Lion at Home"

Very enjoyable story about a lion who gets shaken out of his picture at an art museum and visits the other artwork. It's told by claymation figures, statues in the museum. Their voices, with British accents are hilarious and very easy to understand. Wonderful student film by elementary students!

The Kids First Adult jury said about "Leeds Pals"

Accurate portrayal of a real battle using hand-made drawings and cut-outs. I especially liked the short section where they showed in fast speed a kid's hand drawing the pictures. It was a tribute to an important battle, and set to poetic lyrics which were clearly read and delivered an easy to follow story.