Animation: Diving into the Benjamin Pollock Archive

Benjamin Pollock's Toyshop in London has started a fun project:

I’m excited about a lockdown project that we can give you a taste of here. We let artist @keithkhanlondon into the archives of @benjamin_pollocks_toyshop and we can’t wait to see the results. Yes, animation is a slow process so we’ll have to be patient.

Sock Monkey Sneak Peek

The Mushroom Hunters

Action Shot

From the film, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, this is a scene showing a mechanical prop operated off-stage that provides the illusion of a sea monster 'eating' a sailing ship.  What fun!

Although this was meant in the film to be full-size, the same type of mechanisms, scaled down, would do beautifully in the toy theatre.  Hmmmm...that gives me an idea.......

Shadow Smash Hit: Feathers of Fire

Feathers of Fire: A Persian Epic is a visually breathtaking cinematic shadow play for all ages, created and directed by Hamid Rahmanian, a 2014 Guggenheim fellowship-winning filmmaker/visual artist. The play unfolds an action-packed magical tale of star-crossed lovers from the 10th-century Persian epic Shahnameh (‘The Book of Kings’)

Maker Spotlight: Maggie Rudy & Mouseland

Recently, I discovered a wonderful article about  Maker Maggie Rudy, who invited us into her studio where all the magic happens for Mouseland...

Artist & Author, Maggie Rudy

Maggie’s fascination with mice began in the third grade, when her family moved to Lancaster, England, where her father, a biologist, had a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in physiology. She awoke from her “baby stupor” to an English aesthetic that would remain hugely influential in her life: hedgerows, gypsy carts, and a field trip to the home of Beatrix Potter. From a shop in Lancaster, the Rudy household acquired some mice made of felt. She and sisters Susy and Annie dressed them and placed them in a variety of settings. The “rapture of the tiny” that she celebrated in childhood has never left her.
- Rapture of the Tiny

The short film below is fun to watch, where Maggie lets us in to her studio, and shows us a few of her secrets on how she makes the magic happen!


Currently, Maggie has a traveling diorama touring the US, as shown below. Be sure and check it out if you can, when it comes near you!

Ma'agalim (Circles) / Jane Bordeaux (Artist)

Jane Bordeaux, a band based in Tel Aviv, has launched a Hebrew language music video for “Ma’agalim”, using a rotating penny arcade entertainment machine to explore the concept of cycles. A wooden doll, stuck in place and time, is overtaken by every-day life scenarios. Finally the clockwork behind the scenes comes to a breaking point, sending the doll and all the characters into a new dimension. 

- From the Inspiration Room

Life certainly does seem like a matter of just going in circles day after day, especially as you get older. This delightful animation also has a deeper more melancholy message. The lyrics are translated, below...

Lyrics
Translated from Hebrew

Nights turns into days
Days turn into years
And inside them I am going
Fast and in circles
Winds are blowing at me
Blowing down my neck
Everything seems too far
Oversizing me

It’s not me that’s progressing
It’s just the time that’s moving on
It’s just another passing train
It’s a further tightening rope

Sunrises sinking fast
Seasons passing more
And I am the same
while the time is cutting short

Tunnel Book: Zombifying a Classic

When watching a recent film entitled, Pride + Prejudice + Zombies, I was enchanted by its opening prologue...

In keeping with Regency-era authenticity, the prologue unfolds through a tunnel book, providing a theatrical stage for the fictional narrative to take place. Working with satirical newspaper cartoonist Martin Rowson, Ben and team transformed hand drawn illustrations into 3D animations, intricately rendered and paced to the prologue’s voice over narration...Pride + Prejudice + Zombies was all done in 3D, the team worked hard to recreate the visceral and dusty reality of a regency tunnel book, they added creases, paper texture, flickering candle light, jerky animation, lens distortion and depth. - The Mill

A wonderful article about the "world-building mashup".

National Geographic: Paper History

In the latest edition of the National Geographic magazine, they examine the history being uncovered in the latest 'big dig' under London.  The paper animation below, commissioned by the National Geographic Society, brilliantly summarizes it.  However, I urge you to read more here...

Anomalisa: Stop Motion Alive & Well

Anomalisa co-director Duke Johnson, setting up a shot...

Movie Poster [Click to enlarge]

An amazing stop-motion film is about to be released, entitled "Anomalisa".

It's nice to see the older technologies still not only being done, but being done brilliantly.

It's a painstaking process, taking much longer to set up and film shots than in live-action.  But if done right, it's something very special.

In one of the first reviews, the writer states,

       Anomalisa is a movie with wit to burn and enough incidental touches that the total achievement feels immense.

Crankies!

What exactly is a...crankie?

It's a panoramic scene, rolled up like an open scroll on two spindles, that are hand-cranked so that it scrolls across a backlit "viewing screen".



An example of a crankie, by the talented Katherine Fahey; I can hardly wait to see her recent work for an upcoming film, coming out in 2016.  According to Katherine, It will be a film about "...a traveling story teller, who uses a crankie to tell the story of the American revolution through 6 different people who lived through it.  Among them, a housewife, a native american man, and an African american man.  These stories are taken from actual oral histories of people who lived at the time."  Sounds amazing, and it will be a GIANT crankie, the biggest she's ever made!

A still from the upcoming 2016 film (as yet unnamed), featuring a giant crankie, made by Katherine Fahey...

To see more crankies, go to the Crankie Factory!

Stop-Motion Noir!

Cat, Mouse with a Brick, and Cop: The Eternal Triangle

In the UK in 1996, a three-minute pilot was created in hopes of launching a new Krazy Kat cartoon series.  It was directed by Derek Mogford and produced by Spitting Image Productions.

Krazy Kat had been animated often before, and always in long-running and successful series. There were theatrical Krazy Kat cartoons in some form or another running from 1916 to the end of the thirties, and in the sixties the character was brought back for a television series.

So what makes this 1996 Krazy Kat cartoon so interesting if the strip has been animated so many times before? The difference is that, apart from being British, was that it was the first (and so far only) time the characters of Krazy Kat had been brought to life using stop-motion animation. The pilot was produced by Spitting Image Productions and directed by Derek Mogford, an animator who had previously directed several stop-motion children shows including Postman Pat and Bertha.

Sadly, the pilot was never aired and did not lead to a series.

- Credit: Smart Than the Average!

The Collector

Meet Richard Balzer. He collects optical toys, and much more.

How do you convince a generation that’s perfectly content to watch a cat in a shark suit ride a Roomba to be interested in antique animation toys? "The simple answer is, just show them as they were," says Balzer. "Not as static figures, but as animations." This led Balzer to hire Brian Duffy, a young Los Angeles-based animator who began helping Balzer digitize and animate Balzer’s collection of phenakistoscope and zoetrope illustrations.

See more animations on Dick's tumblr!

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens: UPDATE

The last time I posted about this project was about a year ago.  The man behind it, Steve Arnott, contacted me today and wanted me to know that an updated video demonstrating more of the digital animation, soundtrack, and narration was now available to view.  The video above is that sample.  It shows great promise, and has many fascinating and magical scenes. The narration is done by Roy Trumble, from his reading of J.M. Barrie's earlier, shorter work about Pan...

The film is making good progress. Steve did some film work in Norway last month, where they are enthusiastic about the project - part of the film may be produced there.

Arnott knows his subject well, and has written about its history and influence.

To find out more about the film's history, and what the goals of the film project are, go here.

As I find out more information, it will be posted here.  Stay tuned!

Doctor Puppet!

This combines two of my great loves - Puppetry/toy theatre, and Doctor Who! This animated Doctor was created by the talented Alisa Stern. You can see more of Alisa's work on her YouTube channel...

Before Neverland

Before there was Neverland, there were the Gardens...

Crowd sourcing has begun for Peter Pan at Kensington Gardens.  The animated film, influenced by toy theatre, shares earlier stories of Peter Pan:

Peter's adventures in Kensington Gardens pre-date those in Neverland. First published in 1906 it's an adaptation of The little White Bird of 1902 which marked Peter Pan's first appearance in print. Peter is a baby who thinks he's a bird and so can fly. He finds himself in the Gardens and makes friends with the birds and fairies who live there. Peter learns to play Pan's pipes and looks after children who become lost in the park. The story predicts many of the elements to be found with Wendy and the Lost Boys...

New Peter Pan Film

A new film is being made which combines the arts of toy theatre, animation, and film.  One of the producers, Steve Arnott, has this to say of a newly released demo trailer:

This is a work in progress, the voice and music are just guide tracks and more scenes will be added. We hope to use a famous Scottish voice for the narrator (so if anyone has David Tennant's email, please forward!) Also, we are open to any offers of funding; the film so far has over 200 supporters and 50 animators working on it. Anyone who contributes will share in the profits. Also, 20% will be going to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, who have given the project their blessing. We are are looking at a release date of either Christmas 2013 or Easter 2014, depending on how things proceed.

If you would like to know more, or help fund the project, please leave a comment, and I will be happy to put you in touch...

A Man & His Dolls

My friend Vanesa shared this trailer with me recently. As she says, "This looks like an extraordinary film about dolls and a man's relationship with them..."

A Nazi scrutinizes Captain Hogancamp...

After viewing the trailer, viewing still shots taken by Mark (the man behind all this), and reading about the story behind the film, I couldn't agree more. An amazing use of the imagination and creativity for self-healing.

Toy Theatre Influence: 2D Animation II

Another animation film project that incorporates elements of toy theatre, is in production.

Molly is an incredible artist. I've been following her for years, and own some of her art. This is exciting to see her art come to life!