Anifest
http://www.canterburyanifest.com/
I was a little fearful about what would happen after the trouble getting a ticket, and it turned out I had to exchange my ticket for the real tickets at the box office. I had actually got to the campus on the hill with plenty of time, and enough to buy a drink in the shop.
The first event was Suzie Templeton's Sergei Prokofiev's Peter & the Wolf, a very dark vision of the story, but with some really startling animation of the cat. There's something uncanny about the nature of stop-motion animation, which I must write about someday.
This was followed by three animators talking about their work - Templeton on Peter and Stanley (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh_dRnq7pZE), Robert Bradbrook on Home Road Movies (a lovely little fable about his dad and his dad's car) and Graham Ralph on The Magic Roundabout. This is clearly is one of those moments when you have to forget everything you ever knew about the original you used to love, and this is about characters that share the names. Dougal, in an insight that struck me as sound, will be played like Tony Hancock, Dylan will be a hippy, but not drug references - and indeed no current affairs will be referenced as these need to be shown overseas. Zebedee won't say "Time for Bed" because it won't be shown at bedtime - instead Dylan will say "I wish it were time for bed". There's a sense that these animators seemed driven by their limitations and skills.
Next up, the Smallfilms retrospective, with Peter Firmin interviewed by Loaf of the Dragons' Friendly Society, with special guest Emily, of Bagpuss fame, although rather older now. Firmin continues to enchant, and to self-efface - he is all too aware of the quality of the animation, which was churned out at a ridiculous speed. It was pretty amazing to see a five year old near me watch these cartoons and clearly be as enchanted as I would have been. Firmin had a Bagpuss and several Clangers with him, and one of the armatures he used (a naked Clanger...).
Of course, his professional animations were outshone by the competition screening - technology has made animation easier, and presumably these filmmakers had infinite time. To be honest, the stop-motion cartoons of local school children, made in three days, were technically more accomplished - but there is still a magic to Firmin and Postgate's work, which lies in the story telling and the voice. The best of the shorts we saw was the first - Pushkin, directed by Trevor Hardy, in which an old woman searches for her cat.
The end of the day was a series of live musical performances to three cartoons - though two of them had not been shown to us earlier with their proper soundtracks. These were followed by the awards, including a hilarious moment when the runners up to the Design a Character competition were told they didn't get goodie bags whatsoever. Poor things... The awards seemed to be given out with the most important first, with Pushkin winning for Best Short, and the Audience Award also going to it. Firmin was given a lifetime achievement award.
All in all I think this was a success, though perhaps it needs to have less emphasis on children's animation if it is to grow. But certainly I'd go again next year.
I was a little fearful about what would happen after the trouble getting a ticket, and it turned out I had to exchange my ticket for the real tickets at the box office. I had actually got to the campus on the hill with plenty of time, and enough to buy a drink in the shop.
The first event was Suzie Templeton's Sergei Prokofiev's Peter & the Wolf, a very dark vision of the story, but with some really startling animation of the cat. There's something uncanny about the nature of stop-motion animation, which I must write about someday.
This was followed by three animators talking about their work - Templeton on Peter and Stanley (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh_dRnq7pZE), Robert Bradbrook on Home Road Movies (a lovely little fable about his dad and his dad's car) and Graham Ralph on The Magic Roundabout. This is clearly is one of those moments when you have to forget everything you ever knew about the original you used to love, and this is about characters that share the names. Dougal, in an insight that struck me as sound, will be played like Tony Hancock, Dylan will be a hippy, but not drug references - and indeed no current affairs will be referenced as these need to be shown overseas. Zebedee won't say "Time for Bed" because it won't be shown at bedtime - instead Dylan will say "I wish it were time for bed". There's a sense that these animators seemed driven by their limitations and skills.
Next up, the Smallfilms retrospective, with Peter Firmin interviewed by Loaf of the Dragons' Friendly Society, with special guest Emily, of Bagpuss fame, although rather older now. Firmin continues to enchant, and to self-efface - he is all too aware of the quality of the animation, which was churned out at a ridiculous speed. It was pretty amazing to see a five year old near me watch these cartoons and clearly be as enchanted as I would have been. Firmin had a Bagpuss and several Clangers with him, and one of the armatures he used (a naked Clanger...).
Of course, his professional animations were outshone by the competition screening - technology has made animation easier, and presumably these filmmakers had infinite time. To be honest, the stop-motion cartoons of local school children, made in three days, were technically more accomplished - but there is still a magic to Firmin and Postgate's work, which lies in the story telling and the voice. The best of the shorts we saw was the first - Pushkin, directed by Trevor Hardy, in which an old woman searches for her cat.
The end of the day was a series of live musical performances to three cartoons - though two of them had not been shown to us earlier with their proper soundtracks. These were followed by the awards, including a hilarious moment when the runners up to the Design a Character competition were told they didn't get goodie bags whatsoever. Poor things... The awards seemed to be given out with the most important first, with Pushkin winning for Best Short, and the Audience Award also going to it. Firmin was given a lifetime achievement award.
All in all I think this was a success, though perhaps it needs to have less emphasis on children's animation if it is to grow. But certainly I'd go again next year.