Brand new Catfish 2013 showreel...

Catfish Showreel 2013 from Catfish Collective on Vimeo.

Help Stop UK Puppy Farming

Now, I know this isn't animation related. But it is dog related, which is even more important.

There has been a petition set up by Super-vet Marc Abraham which will hopefully stop UK puppy and kitten farming.  I've only been aware of puppy farming since we got our bundle-of-fluff Bernie a year and half ago now, if it's something you don't know about it's definitely worth having a look into (www.pupaid.org).  Once you've looked into I'm pretty sure you'll be sharing the petition around as much as you can to try and get the signatures required to put an end to it.

Puppy farms are where puppies are bred purely for profit. They are kept in truly awful conditions with no consideration for their health or happiness.  The puppies are then taken away form their mum and sold to pet shops, online or through other dealers and are usually very poorly and in pain.  Many of the puppies often die within a few days of arriving at their new home. 

'Most dog owners say they'd never buy a dog from a puppy farm, yet a large number will due to common scams especially by private dealers. This is exactly why Pup Aid have launched this e-petition. We need 100,000 signatures from the nation's animal lovers to make the Government listen and hopefully end this needless and preventable suffering for good.' - Marc Abraham

All photos are from @Pupaid

So please sign the petition & share it around wherever you can:           http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/49528

Late Night Work Club #1: Ghost Stories

www.latenightworkclub.com

Ghost Stories Trailer from Late Night Work Club on Vimeo.

Design Juices talk Animation with Catfish Collective

Catfish Collective have a feature on the front page of the Design Juices Website. Why don't you have a little look, you know, if you've got nothing better to do. Click 'ere.

Skwigly banner

On Friday 4th January I made the un-advent banner for the wonderful Skwigly.co.uk website! Every day after Christmas there has been a banner made for the website by different artists and animators each to represent a different day.  My day was 'first day back at work'.

A peek under the post-production bonnet..

Have you ever watched an animation and thought 'yeah, but how much have they actually animated in camera?' or 'how did they make that sky look so gosh darn magical?'.  Well, we decided to make a little video to show some of our favourite Catfish shots from our most recent animation 'The Invitation' before, during and after the post-production stages.

The Invitation: Post from Catfish Collective on Vimeo.

A Catfish Collective christmas animation

My fellow Catfish Collective partner Joe Orton and I have recently finished this Christmas animation.  It's all paper cut-out stop motion which we animated on a good ol' multi-plane table.  

The Invitation from Catfish Collective on Vimeo.

Being Bradford Dillman and Shorts International

Being Bradford Dillman has been signed to Shorts International! Hooray! So they will hopefully be spreading the BBD word all over the big wide world.

Oh. Mime. God.

Hello.
  
This morning I'd like to share with you all a lovely little short film written, filmed, edited and cried over in a mere 48 hours for "The 48 Hour Film Project London". It won the International Competition and is now, today, released online.  It's written by my embarrassingly talented boyfriend Joe Patrick along with some other equally embarrassing people.  It stars Martin Freeman, he's in a new film this year called 'The Hobbit' or something. I'm not sure. I haven't heard much about it...

The Girl Is Mime

Enjoy!

Ps. I did the costume on it too.

The Girl Is Mime - Starring Martin Freeman from Tim Bunn on Vimeo.

Late Night Work Club

Here is the trailer for a mysterious animation project i'm involved in... Enjoy it.. Share it.. 

Hope you like it!

Late Night Work Club from Late Night Work Club on Vimeo.

#LNWC

Selfridges Christmas display..

The other week I helped out EEP Studios with making the Christmas in-store decorations for Selfridges in Manchester. It involved making hundreds and hundreds of giant paper chains, loads of staples and A LOT of glitter. Like, imagine being covered in glitter and then times it by more glitter. That's how much. There's still sparkles embedded in my carpet.

And here is the end result! 

It was definitely worth all the weird looks on the bus.

Being Bradford Dillman hits Vegas!

Molly and Bradford have won the Golden Reel Award at the Nevada Film Festival! 

It's been a very good week.

Being Bradford Dillman and the Academy Awards 2013

I found out yesterday the Being Bradford Dillman has been screened for consideration in the Animated Shorts category for the Academy Awards 2013! I was kindly pointed in the direction of a post where the animator Michael Sporn had highlighted on his blog some of his favourites and Being Bradford Dillman is one of the lucky few that he likes the look of! This is a huge compliment as some of my favourite animators and some of the best animations I have seen are in the list! Good ol' Michael.

So we should hopefully find out soon which films have made the long list, short list and then the finalists! Fingers and toes crossed!

Mega Being Bradford Dillman review..

Wow! I just saw this very lovely review of Being Bradford Dillman from the Citizen Jane Film Festival!

We are Catfish Collective.. Apparently

I am very happy to say that myself and Joe Orton have set up a new animation collective called 'Catfish Collective'.  We both specialise in good ol' stop motion and have got all the kit to do model animation and multi-plane all the way from pre-production through to post-production.  

Here's a little introduction we made in our studio..

A Small Cinema: Animated Shorts Programme

So the programme is up for the animation screening that I've curated with A Small Cinema and I must say that I'm rather excited about it. I'm also running a workshop on the day of the screening (November 2nd) showing people different animation techniques and hopefully making a few shorts along the way! 

The Small Cinema website is definitely worth a nosey at... just click HERE. There's a whole bunch of films being screened throughout October and November that you can go and watch there.  And what makes it even more exciting is that they've renovated an old miners building and built the cinema from scratch! They've even documented the whole process. Pretty neat, huh?

House of Cards - wide shot - timelapse

Here is a time-lapse of myself and Joe Orton setting up the wide shot we animated for the House of Cards title sequence.  It took ages.

67 Festival Acceptances!

Here are a few more Being Bradford Dillman Screening dates:

Austin Film Festival, Texas: October18th-25th

One of Pete Williamson's
early Molly sketches.

Citizen Jane Film festival, Columbia: October 19th-21st

Sydney International animation Festival, Australia: October 12-14th

Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival, Switzerland: 17th-21st October (In Competition)

Warsaw Film Festival, Poland: 12th-21st October

So far that means we've had 67 festival acceptances. I can't really believe it. I never thought when I was standing in the freezing cold basement for 7 months, animating on my own in fingerless gloves that this would happen.

BBC Bitesize History..

Here is a little selection of title clips I animated for BBC Bitesize History at the beginning of the year.  I made a few more but these are my favourites.

Being Bradford Dillman screens at 3 Mills!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that Being Bradford Dillman will be screening before the Corpse Bride at the Made in 3 Mills Film Festival on 6th October at 12.20.  I'm going to try and go along so hopefully see you there!

Best Animated Short at TIFF 2012!

I've been reliving my youth in Florida for the past 2 weeks with no internet connection and had this lovely surprise sitting in my inbox when I got home.  Being Bradford Dillman won BEST ANIMATED SHORT at the Toronto Independent Film Festival! Hooray!

Being Bradford Dillman screenings...

Being Bradford Dillman has a few more festival appearances coming up!

Crystal Palace International Film Festival in October.

Toronto Indie Film Festival on 7th September

Viborg Animation Festival, Denmark in October

Sedicorto Film Festival, Italy in October

In competition for 'best short' at Palo Alto International Film Festival, California September 27th-30th September