RTS Prize

Thursday and Friday I was back in Newport as The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling returned to Wales to screen at Ffresh Student Moving Image Festival. The film was nominated for two awards: Best Animation (which We Weren't The First Ones Here won last year) and a new category Best UK Graduate Animation. I didn't win either but did win 2nd Prize Royal Television Society Student Animation Award which was nice. The RTS Wales centre described the film as having "sophisticated imagery and music".

Ffresh festival goes from strength to strength; this year had an impressive programme with guests such as Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies), Asif Kapadia (Senna) and Jonathan Caouette (Tarnation). My festival highlights included a panel discussing the differences between festival circuit and internet release with Liz Harkman from Encounters and Matt Lambert, editor-at-large for Motionographer, as well as an informative talk by Merlin Crossingham from Aardman who is Creative Director of Wallace and Gromit.

Watersprite Nominations

I'm excited to announce that The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling has been nominated for two awards at Watersprite International Student Film Festival in Cambridge, UK. The film was shortlisted a few weeks back for 'Best Animation' and 'Best Original Soundtrack' for the film's fantastic score by Kit Wilson. The film made it through the second round of judging by industry professionals in London and is now in the final nominations for the two categories. This is really exciting for several reasons, one being that this is the first nomination for the film's music. James Nee, director of Ffresh Festival in Wales described the score as 'great' and 'perfectly suited to the story and style of animation'.

Kit and I have been friends since we were very small and used to make films together on a black and white video camera in our parents living rooms. In the last few years as each of us has developed our work we have worked on four projects together including animation and theatre. For Afraid of Falling I wanted the music to feel like a silent film score, and we worked together on the way the music could tell the story with the visuals, reflect the emotions of the character and punctuate moments in the animation. Here's a bit about Kit's practice;

Kit Wilson is a composer based in London, currently studying for an MMus at TrinityLaban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. The majority of his work is studio-based, with a particular emphasis on synthesising disparate styles around complex grooves. His music draws heavily on the rhythmic ideas of contemporary jazz and metal, and explored how to introduce these ideas into a number of contrasting genres.

You can hear some more of Kit's music on his Soundcloud and you can watch the other films Kit and I have collaborated on here: Curiouser and Curiouser (2007), The Scientist and the Omnipotence of Dream (2008). Since the beginning of 2012, The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling has been selected for six more festivals and has been shortlisted for eight awards, a huge reward after all the hard work and I'm thrilled that the film will be seen by more audiences around the world.

New Year

 

 I'm pleased to announce that The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling has been selected to screen at One Voice festival in Bournemouth and Animated Exeter in february and also Athens Animfest in March (details on the screenings page). I went to Animated Exeter back in 2008 with composer Kit Wilson after finishing Curiouser and Curiouser. That year the festival had a brilliant exhibition by the Brothers Quay entitled Dormitorium. The Quay's work has always been an inspiration to me and I have written about their work in several essays over the last few years. Here's a picture of a tailer puppet from Street of Crocodiles (1986) in one of the intricate sets.

Tailor puppet from Street of Crocodiles (Atelier Koninck, 1986)

This year the festival programme looks equally exciting and I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the talk 'Crossing the Celluloid Divide' by multi media theatre company Forkbeard Fantasy. I recently saw a brilliant exhibition of their work at the Southbank Centre in London, a rare chance to see the 37 year history of such a vibrant and experimental theatre company. On display were puppets, drawings and designs, interactive sculptures, costumes, videos of performances and photographs.

Theatre of Animation Exhibition, Southbank Centre 2011-12, Img: BBC

Animfest will mark the films first screening in Greece, I'm happy it's reaching all these different places. The last time I was in Athens I woke up on the roof of a building... I'd love to visit again.

From BAF to BBC

The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling seemed to go down well at Bradford Animation Festival last month. Unfortunately I couldn't get up north to attend but thought I'd post these two mentions the film recieved. The first is on the National Media Museum's blog by Zara Hussain who thought the film was 'incredibly humorous'. Read the piece here. The second was on a blog by animation student Cassandra Adsett who described the film as 'lovely'. Read the piece here.

I'm also delighted to announce that Afraid of Falling has been selected to show across the UK on the BBC Big Screens scheme. The screens are used to showcase all kinds of entertainment from live broadcasts of operas to sport to short films and the screens appear in around twenty cities around the UK including Portsmouth, Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmigham.

Geraldine McCullagh, Editor, Screens' Operational Centre said,

"We’re always on the lookout for material of sufficient interest and quality to appear on all our screens. This time it’s a selection of animations from Newport Film School that were particularly beautiful and engaging, and it’s not the first time we have taken their submissions to the Screen Manager in Wales to go UK wide."

This is what I said (for the film school press release),

BBC Big Screens is an exciting opportunity for my film to reach thousands of people in a unique way; I love the idea that people could stumble across the animations whilst in a city centre. Screening at film festivals is great but this gives the film a platform to reach a wider audience which is important to me. It's a real privilege to have been selected and a significant break for the film.

November Screenings

If I have any fans in Estonia, or if you happen to be passing by Talin, you can see Afraid of Falling at Animated Dreams Festival this week. For details on when the film is screening click here. They also included a clip of the film in their trailer for the Best International Student Animation category which was nice.

For a chance to see it in the UK, the film is at Encounters International Film Festival this week in Bristol. See my blog post about Encounters here for more information. The film will be screening at the Arnolfini on Wednesday 16th at 18.00 and Friday 18th at 12.00. Click here for screening details on the Encounters website.

You can now also find me on Twitter where you can find some more regular updates about the film. You can find me: twitter.com/#!/josephwallaceuk

BAA Shortlist

I'm thrilled to announce that The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling has been shortlisted for the prestigious British Animation Awards 2012. Founded by Jayne Pilling in 1996, the awards have been running for fifteen years and showcase the work of the best talent in the country, new and old. Here's what the copy on the website says about the awards.

We’re back - and busy preparing for the next British Animation Awards, which will take place March 15, 2012, at the BFI on the Southbank. The British Animation Awards is a totally unique event: the only one that brings together all the key players, and emerging and established talent, from the many and varied sectors of the UK animation scene, for an evening that is very different – and we think rather more fun! – than most Awards events.

There is another stage of selection before the final award nomination but I'm really pleased simply to be shortlisted. You can read an article about the awards (albiet a fairly old one from 2004) on the BBC here.

Life of the film

The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling has screened, and is screening, at various festivals internationally. See the screenings page for more details. The film also won the Best Up and Coming Animation Talent award at Canterbury Anifest which was a real honour and a great festival. We'll be at Bradford Animation Festival and Encounters International Film Festival in November.