Animated Britain: Selections from Collections

Guest blogger: Ayesha Farooqui, Bradford College Animation Student

Paul Wells spoke on behalf of the Archive for British Animation Collections (ABAC), which is trying to create a British animation archive. He was well spoken, really clear and to the point.



Paul talked about the several issues which prevent and delay them from creating this archive, such as damage to objects and film, and locating and securing artefacts which may have been passed to the animators' family. An obvious issue is funding, and the transfer of skills and knowledge is a future issue.

If you want to listen to Paul's presentation, the podcast is available on SoundCloud.



Up until the screenings, I was really uninterested. I thought preserving the history of old animations wasn't worth my time, never mind my money. But then I saw what animation was like back in the old days. The Police Dog is a divine animation that needs to be kept and stored. Its quality animation, its innocent humour even made this modern day audience chuckle.

Fun on the Farm was so imaginative and creative. Eggs are rolling around, and one cracks which brings out the egg ambulance and egg paramedics to treat the injured egg. It's an hilariously adorable animation. The soundtrack reminded me of the soundtrack from the Disney film Pinocchio. So upbeat and happy with corn that dances like the Egyptians. For an old animation it's very smooth, and I learnt so much watching just these few animations.

Review of Panorama 3 at BAF 2011

Guest blogger: Zara Hussain, Bradford College Animation Student

I have to say, this year the Bradford Animation Festival team have really outdone themselves with the animations chosen for the Panorama screenings; full of exciting, heart warming, hilarious films which refuse to let your mind wander.



Sadly I missed Panorama 1 due to the Motion Capture Workshop, but I did get to see the Panoramas 2 and 3. I'll only be telling you about the third since my fellow bloggers from the College will be writing about the other two.



Panorama 3 went beyond my expectations. If allowed, I would have hugged that cinema screen!

My favourites from the screening would have to be The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling, On the Rails and Out on a Limb - traditional and beautifully animated - quite inspiring. Their stories are unique and manage to muddle your mind with so many feelings, you don't know where to start.

• The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling: I found this short clip incredibly humorous, but at the same time I felt somewhat sympathetic toward the old man and his fear of heights.
• Out on a Limb: By far the most original animation style. Leaving faint outlines everywhere the birds fly, creating a trail. Beautifully animated, also very funny.
• On the Rails - Very heart warming, watching the life of an old man as he travels on a train. Seeing his memories gives you a sense of his upsetting past.

Watch these films for yourself if you can.

Review of Panorama 2 at BAF 2011

Guest blogger: Alison Smith, Bradford College Animation Student

First of all, "hello". It's great to be writing for the National Media Museum Blog, so today I had an overall feeling of excitement, especially surrounded by people who have an interest in animation like me.

As I took my seat in Cubby Broccoli I was eager to set my eyes on the animations that were to be shown. As the lights went off and each of the short films finished, I thought to myself "Wow! I can't wait to go away and draw something." I was so inspired by what I'd watched on screen.

Out of the animations that screened, two were my favourite:

Princesse a stop motion animation directed by Frederick Tremblay. There was a genuinely unsettling feeling while watching the film. The camera angles used to capture the stop motion were the cherry on the top for me; such grim storytelling.



The wooden puppets seemed alive with emotion, even though their facial expressions stayed the same - the body language of the puppets was so strong. The especially scary part of the animation was when the wolf suddenly popped up, constantly banging and snarling outside the window trying to get inside to the woman. It just made me feel uneasy, so the animation was a success.

The other film that stuck with me was Las Palmas, an interesting mix of styles including stop motion, directed by Johannes Nyholm.



The setting was a hotel on a tropical island, where a real baby was dressed up as a middle aged woman on holiday with puppets, and it had the whole cinema roaring with laughter! I was even in tears; the baby's face, and how she stumbled around the bar set drinking (supposedly) alcohol and making a gigantic mess after partying too hard, was hilarious.

Once it finished, people couldn't stop giggling in the audience. I'd say that one was a success, to produce such a strong reaction.

Review of Panorama 1 at BAF 2011

Guest blogger: Ayesha Farooqui, Bradford College Animation Student

The cinema was filled with a healthy number of people - I had the right idea when I sat on the front row! Panorama 1 was an amazing collection of animations, all with various emotions and drawing techniques. It was enough to persuade me to watch the other Panoramas, the films were that inspiring.

A few of them really stood out for me.



The Saga of Biôrn, a 3D animation that is not only funny, but full of talent. A Viking is determined to get into the heaven of the Viking gods by heroic death. His attempts fail several times, for his enemies always end up killing themselves before he even touches them. My favourite technique in this animation is that it blends 3D animated characters with 2D backgrounds.



Another delightful animation is Ishihara, a simple animation made from coloured circles, telling the story of a boy who is colour blind, and later completely blind. David Lockard is the narrator, and his voice makes sense of the animation, even though it's a bunch of dots moving about. It really captured my attention and it was definitely an eye-opening and intelligent animation.



My eyes set upon a pretty lighthouse illustration with 'The Lighthouse' in a beautiful swirly typeface. This animation is made of flat browns, creams and cherry blossoms. The story is of parents supporting their children and making their children's dreams a reality.

A father and son live in a lighthouse and spend time together playing the piano. As the son grows up he spends less and less time with his father, and more time pursuing his dream. His father evidently gets older but is still happy his son has reached his goal.

When the father dies, the son with his wife and child continue the cycle, with the son supporting his family. This was an extremely emotional animation for me to watch, and I had tears in my eyes.

Motion Capture Workshop at BAF

Guest blogger: Zara Hussain, Bradford College Animation Student

Let the festival begin! It has been such a busy day so far... worth it though. This morning I attended the Motion Capture Workshop.

Thankfully I ran into the guy leading the workshop, Karl Abson. If it wasn't for him, I would have been running around Bradford trying to find the venue! I ended up getting to rummage through the workshop area and talk to Karl, and through this one to one and the workshop, I did learn a lot.

Did you know that all the equipment they were using is worth quarter of a million pounds?
That it was originally made for military defences?
And, that the motion capture suits are incredibly clingy?

I'm not that interested in motion capture, but after attending this workshop my mind was completely blown away! It was that good!

This is definitely a job you could never grow bored of.

Overall, the lecturers were incredibly friendly and enthusiastic about what they do and their presentation was definitely worth the time. Playing with swords in a practical session is AMAZING!

Karl is working on several projects including motion capture using animals. Have a look at his blog, you will not be disappointed.

www.karl-abson.com/blog.html

Hilary Roberts talks about Donovan Wylie

Blogger: Philippa Wright, Curator of Photography

What do you get if you mix up the talent of a world class photographer, the support of two National Institutions and a successful Fellowship programme? In this instance our future exhibition Outposts: Donovan Wylie Bradford Fellow in Photography 2010/11.

Hilary Roberts, the Head Curator of the Imperial War Museum Photograph Archive visited the Museum and spoke passionately about the importance of this collaboration. She said that our decision to award Magnum photographer Donovan Wylie the prestigious 2010 Bradford Fellowship was crucial in securing funding for the Outposts project.



The Bradford Fellowship is a partnership between ourselves, the University of Bradford and Bradford College and has been in existence since 1985.

Growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, Wylie became fascinated by military structures, which by their deliberate placement were intended to monitor and command their surroundings. His works there include the Maze (2004) and British Watchtowers (2007).

The Fellowship enabled Wylie to extend his interest in architecture of conflict to the distinctive landscape of Kandahar Province in Afghanistan. Wylie required military access in order to photograph in Afghanistan. The IWM were responsible for negotiating permission from the Canadian military for Wylie to embed with them in Afghanistan. In doing so, he became the first official IWM photographer to work in a conflict zone since the First World War.

Donovan Wylie: Outposts - Bradford Fellowship 2010/11

Blogger: Philippa Wright, Curator of Photography

Magnum photographer Donovan Wylie recently visited us to work on the final stages of his premiere exhibition Outposts. This new work is the outcome of a unique collaboration between us and the Imperial War Museum.



Donovan was awarded the prestigious Bradford Fellowship 2010/11, a partnership between Bradford College, the University of Bradford and ourselves. This was crucial in securing funding for the Outposts project. It enabled Donovan to extend his interests in the increasingly transient nature of modern military architecture and, the ways it is deployed in military observation.



In 2010 we began the collaboration to embed Donovan Wylie with the Canadian contingent of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. In doing so, he became the first Imperial War Museum official photographer to work in a war zone since the end of the First World War.



Throughout his career, the Belfast-born artist has remained fascinated by the ways in which conflict shapes people’s lives. His earlier works were influenced by the impact of the Troubles on his homeland. The theme of military and observation buildings can be seen in his photographs of the Maze prison (The Maze, 2004) and military watchtowers in Northern Ireland (British Watchtowers, 2007). The exhibition also includes work from these earlier projects.

This exhibition also forms part of Ways of Looking -a new photography Festival in Bradford (1 - 30 October).