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Archive for November, 2008:

Laurie Hill winner of Getty Images / Short & Sweet Film Challenge with ‘Photograph Of Jesus’

Posted by lauriehill at 12:55, November 28th, 2008

Director:
Laurie Hill

Some very nice news hot of the press!

Photograph Of Jesus won the Getty Images / Short & Sweet Film Challenge! yippee!

New film by Laurie Hill: Photograph Of Jesus

Posted by lauriehill at 13:24, November 25th, 2008

Director:
Laurie Hill

Well I’ve completed a new film!

See the entry below for ‘Photograph Of Jesus’.

Ah – here we go …

here’s a link to a version on youtube (try the ‘higher quality’ setting)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zve2chDhB_4#

and another on vimeo – loses some detail but you can still make out what’s happening

http://www.vimeo.com/2362113

Here’s some more info about how it happened, as reported in Shots:
http://www.shots.net/news_detail.asp?id=4470&WT.mc_id=shots_newsletter_20081113_4470

Photograph Of Jesus

Posted by lauriehill at 13:05, November 25th, 2008

Director:
Laurie Hill

LaurieHill poj 08 smllLaurieHill poj 09 smllLaurieHill poj 02 smll
images courtesy of Getty Images

Film title:
Photograph Of Jesus

Running time:
6 mins 40 secs

Description:
Looking for photographs of Jesus, yetis and Hitler in 1948?
Help is at hand with this documentary-fantasy based on true stories of requests for impossible images. Real-life archives become the stage where fact and fiction collide, belief runs amok and unruly images have a life of their own.

Aspect ratio:
16:9

Language of dialogue:
English

    LaurieHill photogofjesus 06

    La La Song

    Posted by lauriehill at 13:04, November 25th, 2008

    Director:
    Laurie Hill

    LaLa applewide smLaLa appleyuk smLaLa flybut sm

    Film title:
    La La Song

    Band:
    The Kissaway Trail

    Track title:
    La La Song

    Record Label:
    Bella Union

    Running time:
    3 mins 5 secs

    Description:
    Beneath an innocent exterior, this promo for The Kissaway Trail reveals a darker, maggot-ridden heart. Made on a tiny budget, Laurie Hill directs, animates and stars as the cutout runaway in a tale of near-misses, frustration, escape and its repercussions. A stray rocket out of the blue brings disaster, the heavens offer encouragement from afar and a deluge of cockroaches, maggots, dinosaurs and butterflies makes satisfaction an elusive goal. A digital/stop frame collision with plenty of blu-tack.

    Extra info:
    The idea was to create a surface-level innocent story of escape but then reveal a darker flip side and its repercussions.

    Pure cgi can get a bit sterile – and I was really trying to avoid that. I wanted to try a hybrid approach combining computer animation with traditional stop-motion techniques.

    I created my main puppet using cutout photographs and wire – I’m sure you can still see some of the blue tack and glue if you look closely enough! But it’s those hand-made touches and glitches that give it vitality and character. I stop-frame animated this and the other found objects against a bluescreen, shooting with a digital stills camera. These were then placed within computer-generated 3d environments made with elements by illustrator Tekura Maeva.

    Aspect ratio:
    16:9

    My First Taste Of Death

    Posted by lauriehill at 13:03, November 25th, 2008

    Director:
    Laurie Hill

    MFTOD2

    Film title:
    My First Taste of Death

    Running time:
    9 mins 30 secs

    Description:
    Another special collaboration crossing the barriers of time.

    A kind of angsty and tormented take on Hollywood actioner full of surreal detail and humour. Me and the boss discover Dodo island, I face a deadly struggle with my nemesis the demented sea scorpion and the whole adventure can only end in tears.

    Miniaturised King Kong but without the ape?

    Extra information:
    As with My Life At 40, the script is a genuine document written when I was 12 and left unedited.

    BAFTA award-winner Ian W. Gouldstone provides the voiceover.

    About the music: ‘I wanted a powerful original score to be a key feature of my film and was keen to have a close collaboration with the composer, Andrew Lomatschinsky, from a very early stage in the development of the film. Visual and musical ideas were to develop together and proceed through close dialogue right through to the final dubbing session. Jacquelyn McKay provided the soprano vocal performance.’

    Andrew Lomatschinsky comments on the score: ‘All the music is original and written for this film. As a point of interest, the text used for the soprano is formed from extracts of writings from Hildegard von Bingen (c.1175 AD).’

    Aspect ratio:
    16:9

    Language of dialogue:
    English

    My Life At 40

    Posted by lauriehill at 13:02, November 25th, 2008

    Director:
    Laurie Hill

    LaurieHill mylifeat40 01 1

    Film title:
    My Life At 40

    Running time:
    7 mins 40 secs

    Description:
    I’m not 40 yet but I’m forward-thinking. A special collaboration between the director, aged 12 years, and his 34 year old self, both looking forward to a glorious future as a 40 year old conservation hero and Lamborghini owner. Made with six years to go!

    Note on technique:
    This film uses a variety of techniques: real and computer animated cutouts, drawing, photography and time lapse. No moving image cameras were used – just digital stills cameras.

    Extra info:
    My Life At 40 is billed as a collaboration between versions of myself at different ages struggling to articulate and realise their dreams. In doing so, a negotiation between idealism and pragmatism occurs. The script is a genuine document written when I was 12, rediscovered many years later.

    Directly after completing My Life At 40, I worked on a project for BAFTA-nominated director Osbert Parker – a promo film for the World Wildlife Fund, ‘WWF Living Planet’, featuring lots of great cutout animation.
    ‘My Life At 40′ describes my desire to become a conservation hero by the age of 40 and so this felt like it was a step in the right direction!

    Generally speaking, the drama of Control Vs. Unruly Forces is usually bubbling away at the heart of my work and this can fly off in any number of directions. There is also a tension between the desire to create narrative and another to dissolve it. A healthy dose of (dark) humour and a sense of absurdity are also crucial ingredients in the mix. If I can make myself laugh I know I’m on the right track!

    Aspect ratio:
    16:9

    Language of dialogue:
    English

    Weather Report

    Posted by lauriehill at 12:59, November 25th, 2008

    Weather Report is a collage of footage home recorded over an entire year on one UK channel – weather reports. The supposedly banal is transformed into cultural gold!

    LaurieHill WR 01

    Director:
    Laurie Hill

    Project title:
    Weather Report

    Individual work titles:
    1. Weather Report
    2. Chrissie, Sian, Martyn, Robin, and Becky
    3. Chrissie
    4. Sian
    5. Martyn
    6. Robin
    7. Becky

    Running time:
    approx. 45 secs each
    all together 6 mins

    Description:
    Composites formed from instances of appropriated TV footage: national and London weather reports recorded over an entire year 2004-2005 on one UK channel.
    These home-recorded reports have been cropped to a single video ‘line’ each and spliced together to form new hybrids.
    Together the hundreds of linear fragments play back simultaneously, as do the vocal commentaries.

    Chrissie, Sian, Martyn, Robin, and Becky is an amalgam of multiple presenters, charting the frequency of their appearances.

    Aspect ratio:
    4:3

    Language of dialogue:
    English

    My First Taste Of Death at Fantastisk Filmfestival, Sweden

    Posted by lauriehill at 3:01, November 25th, 2008

    Director:
    Laurie Hill

    My First Taste Of Death was screened at:

    Fantastisk Filmfestival
    Lund
    Sweden
    18 – 27 September 2008

    www.fff.se