Happily Ever After

I braved the snow and cycled to see Su Blackwell's current exhibition 'Happily Ever After' in the Long & Ryle Gallery! I couldn't feel my hands when I got there but it was worth it. It was brilliant to see her work in the flesh after all these years of admiring it online! 

I was taking it all in, studying the way she constructs her sculptures - I expected a lot of invisible thread and was surprised to see it was mainly wire. What I didn't realise was that the books she sculpts have actual significance to what she is illustrating, so I fell even more in love when I noticed that her Red Riding Hood book sculpture was actually made out of an old copy of Red Riding Hood.

This one was my favourite! I got chatting with the girl working there who treated me to a free copy of the exhibition catalogue! Made my day!

OBVERSE the show

The show was a hit! We were really worried hardly anyone was going to come because of the snow! But there was a great turn out! And prints were selling like hot cakes!

Unfortunately due to lack of funding we were unable to reproduce the catalogue at the time of the show, but we have since got the funding we need and so the Obverse Catalogue is coming soon!(It has already had some interest from the V&A, fingers crossed!)

Santa's sack

A few of us DPS student popped into Nexus last week, I got a sneak peak of the stop frame animation I worked on the week before - I can't wait to upload it, but I'm not allowed until January!

We popped in to see Johnny Kelly, tucked up in the loft, his space is like an amazing den! We found him working at his desk, surrounded by artefacts from his past animations. He said he had more and dug out a box from under his desk full of bits from his animation 'The Seed'. And let us have whatever we wanted - it was like Santa handing out presents from his sack! I got the seed itself and a few other bits, including them Nexus eco friendly DVD showreel! My love for Nexus has grown even more!



 
Beccy McCray, director of creative development at Nexus Productions, says about their new DVD packaging: "We wanted to create something much more sustainable than the plastic jewel case and came up with the idea of a multi-functional and 100% recyclable cardboard box, inspired by the visual language and utilitarian functionality of the humble transit box."

The Seed from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

Up & coming

During my week with Nexus, I met Alejandro Restrepo - my fellow runner! He is a second year Interaction and Moving Image student at LCC, and his work is brilliant! This is his trailer for the amazing documentary he made in South America this summer! Because of this I now have a Wacom Bamboo!

Trailer One With Nature from Alejandro Restrepo Gomez on Vimeo.

I also met Kris Hofmann, a recent graduate of RCA, she originally studied Graphics at Camberwell but has found her strength in the world of stop frame animation!


Frühstück from Kris Hofmann on Vimeo.

Beyond the Valley

 

I also had a meeting with Kristjana from Beyond the Valley today! And I am jumping straight into a design brief for them! It's a very exciting project, inspired by their Ink Forest Design from their Spring Summer 2011 collection. Kristjana has given me some amazing books of real and fanciful animals to get me started!

Visual Editons

I had a meeting today with Anna from Visual Editions (at their teeny office) and some work is in the pipeline! Anna treated me to my first xmas present, a copy of their first book - the life and opinions of tristram shandy! I worked with them back in the summer on the amazing Tree of Codes!

Action!

Last week I was the runner on the shoot of a Johnny Kelly stop frame animationl, produced by Nexus Productions. I can't say or show much of the shoot, but here's a few behind the scenes pics that I won't get in trouble for!

 

I helped the production designers to make little gadgets to aid some of the tricks in the animation.

 

I discovered this, the 'magnetron'! The coolest gadget ever - basically a magnetic broom!

The shoot took place at Clapham Road Studios, this is where most commercials are shot. There were loads of remnants from past shoots lying around the place.

 

I learnt lots of neat little tricks - like lifting floor boards to install motors to make things move like magic!

I also learnt of Dragon Stop Motion, for any animators out there - this software is the way forward!

I had a brilliant week, everyone was so warm and friendly, it was like working with one big family! We had breakfast, lunch and dinner together everyday, round a massive table, watching videos on youtube! I laughed loads and ate loads! They made me feel like a really valued member of the team! The director definitely offered me more cups of tea then I offered him! I definitely want to work with them again!

Links:

Production Company: Nexus Productions
Production Designers: We are the art department
Director: Johnny Kelly
Producer: Beccy McCray

Stop Frame Animator: Matthew Cooper
Animator Assistant: Kris Hofmann
Studio: Clapham Road Studios