OLD MAN

over the weekend i attended the opening night of animation block party. watching animation and relaxing outside on the lawn of a high school in brooklyn – we know how to get down! most of the shorts in the mix were new to me such as this, this and this. great films and a really great night! and i finally had a chance to catch a new short by one of the ladies of animation, leah shore.

{ still from “old man” by leah shore }

just watch.

“for more than 20 years charles manson has refused to communicate with the outside world… until now. these are the actual never before heard phone conversations between canadian best selling author marlin marynick and charles manson.”

yes please! from there the film drops and you fall down the manson hole. it get’s outta hand, and purges energy that jumps off the screen and juggles with your brain. leah broke out the metal!

~joy

Island Jam

Our dear friends at the Charleston International Film Festival invited us to design the poster for them again this year!

When they asked us to create an animated festival trailer as well, we decided to bring the happy creatures in the poster to life for the big screen.  We hope you enjoy the spontaneous island dance party as much as these little guys.

Noelle

The fun thing about being an artist

Joy and I were delighted to see Leonardo DeLuzio’s short film Apt. 5A at the SoDak Animation Festival last fall.  I liked it so much that I referred him to the Charleston International Film Festival to submit this year.

The fun thing about being an artist is you can draw pictures.  Obviously.  But you’re not just limited to drawing pictures to combat boredom or even to get paid.  You can draw people Christmas gifts.  You can make get well cards and Thank You cards.

This is the Thank You card Leonardo sent over after he was accepted to Charleston.  Those are his characters from Apt. 5A with our girls.  Absolutely love this.

Noelle

Dig my sound.

November 17th was a big day.

It was especially exciting for me, personally. Because it was the day that I received my very own cowbell from Sodak!!

Gene Frenkle + I are really exploring the space. I have what appears to be a dynamite sound.

Thanks so much to Cable, Peter, Marc + any other angels who were responsible for making my day!!

Noey, now we have TWO.

~ Joy

Happy thank you more cowbell please

Like a broken record, this has been my little rant since returning home last weekend from the SoDak Animation Festival in Brookings, SD.

This beautiful baby is the Golden Cowbell Award. I miss it! Because there it is, sitting cozy on Noey’s desk snuggling with her trinkets. We’re sharing it. Sharing is caring, but only for a little while right?? I need a new mantra.

In all it’s glory, the cowbell was constructed by Peter Reichardt  + designed by Marc Wagner ~ who incidentally, also designed the festival poster.

{click here for full image}

Place Stamp Here was the big winner of the Independent Animation category for “intriguing visuals from interrelations of mixed media and found objects” + “narrative sentimentality”. I thought it couldn’t get any better than winning a cowbell award, but then bubbles fell from the ceiling when we went up to accept it. {!!!} The full list of 2011 festival winners is here.

Thanks so much to Cable Hardin for making it all possible + to the 2011 jurors ~ Dr. Leda Cempellin, Billy Sides + Giles Timms.  Giles is an animator + he screened 2 very cool shorts at SoDak this year. We especially enjoyed the cut-out, meticulous, creepy style of Dead All Along.

We arrived at the airport bar + sipped Fat Tire Ale until we were picked up by Devanshu Narang, Filmmaker’s Assistant // four year crew member of the SoDak Animation Festival. After the hour long drive from the airport we learned Dev’s studied animation — he’s also a painter, musician + all-around hilarious gentleman {we’re all now best friends.}

We got to the fest just in time to geek out on animation.

“An evening with David Chai”

{Cable Hardin’s very classy interview with David Chai + there’s a dog}

It was awesome to finally meet Dave. We’ve been big fans of his work ever since Fumi + the Bad Luck Foot. He told funny stories, shared his process, insight + advice during the Q&A. It was a great start to an awesome weekend!

Alexia Anastasio’s documentary, Adventures in Plymptoons screened next. Bill is a dear friend of ours + such a down to earth guy that it’s almost easy to forget that he’s actually wildly famous! The intimate interviews with animators from all around the world are hysterical + inspiring. We wanted to go home to animate, but went out to Jim’s instead…

{vintage cigarette machine … just realized our dad used to have one like this in his old restaurant!}

We made our own after party with the filmmakers. David Chai + Dylan Hayes were ready to party! We were able to meet Erin OBrien — her animated short, Urban Myth, won honorable mention. We hung out with the crew, including Dev, Cable, Cole Behrends + had some surprisingly yummy South Dakota pizza at 2am. By the way, Brookings is FREEZING. My feet were numb + then we had a celebratory shot at Sully’s + then I feel asleep.

The following night we screened our short with some amazing animators:

{Dylan Hayes: Playing For Keeeps}

His animation style is QUALITY, up there with the likes of Superjail. Plus the wonky jams kick-f*cking-ass. We heart it even more now that the soundtrack can be purchased on a mixed-tape.

{Bab Pau Bab / P.F.K..}

His site also features an animation-a-day for 12 days. This is insanely impressive considering the variety of styles, the never-ending silliness + think about how hard it is to complete just a drawing a day!

{Dan Markowitz: Board To Death}

During the Q&A ,Dan explained the tedious process of creating this jaw-dropping stop-motion piece. The characters were made of rubber bands + thumbtacks on a bulletin board, a truly original medium. Unpinning the pins repeatedly sounded pretty painful, but it was worth it in the end when the rubber banded, stretchy sea creatures came to life on screen.

And finally…

…

{Greg Bro: A Cock Tale}

Greg wrote a great recap after the screening. His graphic, GRAPHIC short warned the viewers what to expect {see above} but Greg felt that perhaps this audience wasn’t ready for such “mature immaturity”. In the back, in our little corner of the theater, we were all cracking up at the uncomfortable, fast-paced, raw humor… the quick, witty banter between the characters. However, Greg got mixed reactions. “About the only audible reaction I heard was a collective gasp during an abortion joke midway through the film.” But he loved every awkward minute of it.

I had a similar feeling when we curated a generally DARK screening in Vineyard Haven last year. People walked out of our show! One guy from the audience came up to me afterwards, proudly, and explained why he left. “The animators are too much in their own heads, I didn’t understand most of it, too dark for me.” Somewhere between the blah blah blah, it was a learning experience {ick} I learned that not every audience is going love what I love. And even since then, my decisions have inevitably led to unavoidable “mistakes” bc well, you can’t please everybody. Recently, a little old lady came up to me after Place Stamp Here + told me she couldn’t follow any of the dialogue. “Young people talk too fast these days, old folks can’t follow it.” Meh.

{dinosaur dance party + mandatory coffee break at cottonwood coffee}

BONUS: my top 5 favorite filmmakers who were not present, but it was such a treat to see their work on the big screen anyway are…

5. Prayers For Peace: Dustin Grella *** Honorable Mention – Student Award for “treatment of personal + reflective content”

4. Nosy Bear: Fran Krause

3. Accumulonimus: Andy Kennedy

2. The Extinction of the Saber-toother Housecat: Damon Wong

1. Defective Detective: Avner Geller ***Winner of the Golden Cowbell for Student Animation, “Humor and brilliant content” + “outstanding technique and facial expression”

I think that’s a wrap or I’m tired.

Have I mentioned I have a golden cowbell?

~Joy

 

 

Festival Week

{via Bill Plympton ~ the Woodstock Film Festival 2011}

After many weeks of traveling with Place Stamp Here to screenings + animation festivals, pre-parties, after parties + after-after parties … we’re barely human anymore. We’ve become caricatures of ourselves!

In Woodstock, we attended two excellent screenings of the “Dark, Deep, and Funny” Animated Shorts, curated by Bill Plympton + Signe Baumane.  LUMINARIS by Juan Pablo Zaramella won Blue Sky Studios Award for Best Animation! We’ve been big fans ever since his last pixilation, HOTCORN.

We were super excited to meet Andy Kennedy, creator of the award winning short film, ACCUMULONIMBUS.

The Coney Island Film Festival Opening Night Party was beyond insane.  We’ve never been to any film festival like this one – it truly captured the essence of Coney Island with an outstanding performance by the burlesque ladies, sword swallowers, + fire dancers at the freak show!  Sorry, “No freaking photos allowed!” It was so fun to be a part of + we hope to return next year to experience the festival in full.  Added bonus, our friend Victoria Cook won Best Animation for her short, DEVIL TOWN. Congrats Victoria!

{Bill Plympton + yours truly at the MV Animation Spectacular}

The Martha’s Vineyard International Film Fest to represent our new film as well as our award winning trailer. It was unbelievable. From the sold out screening, to the bike rides, to the oceans white with foam! God bless Vineyard Haven… To find out more about the films that screened, Bill wrote a great write up. Words alone can’t explain my fun times, so here’s the experience in pictures:

When I was deciding whether or not I could make it out to MV again this year, Mocha Mott’s was the real deal breaker for me. It’s my favorite spot on Main Street. Every year, we sit + sip delicious chai lattes between screenings.

Art Cliff Diner is amazing! The food truck is open late night + has everything you could ever dream of, including enormous whoopie pies.

Jameson + I took a bike ride. Adventure time!

Easily the coolest truck I’ve ever seen.

No bikes allowed here, we continued on foot. There’s a little area on the island that is home to the Gingerbread Houses. Pay close attention to the love that I’m about to express for them. It’s one of the few places that even comes close to the Disney Magic Kingdom’s, It’s A Small World.

These are the Bauers. They fixed up their gingerbread house + painted it in all it’s glory.

A nice lady hanging her laundry out to dry…

This nice man was just sitting out on his porch, carving some kind of artifact out of wood. When I asked him what he was making he said, “A mess.”

Everyone in gingerbread land names their home. Like “Happy Daze.”

Well we had a week! It was fun to reminisce + share it all.

This is the reason why we work so hard, continually making films. Thanks to all the of the festival directors + volunteers for making it all wonderful as usual. I already can’t wait ’til next year!

~Joy

Warm + Unfuzzy Films

Here’s a little trailer we made to introduce the screening tonight.

We’ll be hosting the show in collaboration with The Big Screen Plaza. The films were selected based on the vision of the individual artists, but their common thread is they are all uniquely beautiful + warm, but not fuzzy. We kill fuzzy.

More info can be found here.

Enjoy the adorable overload,
Joy + Noelle

everybody’s kickin it back

Odds are the show is probably your basic dumb shit . But then you sort of think well maybe it’s beyond dumb, maybe it’s a ra-tard. Maybe it’s something really cool that you don’t even know about. And uh, and you started feeling like you definitely wanna be a part of it.

I’ve got to celebrate this teaser for the show, created by Taylor Armstrong.

Showcasing our submissions of half-cocked short-shorts, we promise you’ll be disturbed and/or left in great dismay.

It’s all happening at Glasslands this Wednesday, July 13th at 8pm — come experience some dumb shit AND drink a cold beer at the same time.

~Joy

The Making of Place Stamp Here

It’s a trailer!  Watch, if you please.

Sometimes, films aren’t planned. Place Stamp Here was an accident. Shhh, a happy accident, darling.

“I realized that sometimes my favorite part of my job is that my chair swivels, so maybe I need to more actively pursue other, more creative, more lovely projects.” - Kelly Sharp

And then Kelly sent us her charming script.

When she talks, Kelly goes off on these tangents that are wonderful and natural and so insisting that she narrate the script exactly how she’d described it to us in an email, we moved forward with our take on how to tell the story visually…

To the storyboards.

Cute … we could’ve drawn the whole film that way. But at the same time  1.) I sort of loved finishing a film in such a timely fashion and  2.) I really loved using the actual trinkets and the things we’ve all collected on all of our travels. Which also made the process unique and interesting. And amazing!

The music really tied the film together — composed by Jasmin Way, Carter Logan and Hannah Rawe of The Chandeliers with Zach Knox on piano.

It was so fun to collaborate and we’re so lucky to be surrounded by such creative types. We all thought of it like this — maybe we’re broke and maybe didn’t plan on making another film … but it’s festival season which equals fun. Motivation!

We used different techniques like shooting the stop-motion elements, combining traditional animation with cut-outs, watercolor, photographs. It’s um, a cornucopia of mixed media.

But OK, my favorite part was making coffee-stained paper for the backgrounds.

Mmmmm coffee makes anything possible.

~Joy

Workin it at Charleston International Film Fest ’11

We’ve been attending the Charleston International Film Festival since it was born in 2008 { see recap from 2008 and 2010 } and it gets better and better every year.  The weather was perfect for bike rides to screenings, enjoying yummy summer drinks, watching great films and staying up super late only to do it all again the next day.  This festival is fun in the sun.  Some highlights!

AND we won Best Animation for our little film Place Stamp Here.  This made us smile as the films in the Animation Block were amazing and to be chosen as the best among them is surprising and wonderful.

Thanks Charleston!  Work it baby.

Noelle