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Animocity started out as a site for Royal College of Art animation students to share their films, production stories and general thoughts. Now we're all long-graduated but we keep updating (irregularly)!
We are all freelance film-makers, so if you like what you see and would like to discuss commissioning work you can contact any of us by emailing lauriehi_AT_hotmail_DOT_com. Any comments about the work or the site are also welcome at the same address. We hope you enjoy your stay.
Director:
Laurie Hill
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
Director:
Laurie Hill
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
Director:
Laurie Hill
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 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!
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
Director:
Laurie Hill
My First Taste Of Death was screened at:
Fantastisk Filmfestival
Lund
Sweden
18 – 27 September 2008
Director:
Laurie Hill
My First Taste Of Death will be in
‘Anima Docs’ programme
at
Animafest
Zagreb, Croatia
31 May – 5 June 08
Director:
Laurie Hill
My First Taste Of Death was screened at the Curzon Soho as part of
‘Celebrating Persepolis’
LIAF shorts programme
25 April 08
Curzon Soho
Shaftesbury Avenue
London
Blurb said:
Screening this Sunday at the Curzon Soho Cinema, London at 6pm:
The London International Animation Festival (www.liaf.org.uk) is all about screening the most creative, personal stories being told in the world of animation from every corner of the globe and we are very proud to be able to screen 6 fine examples of the form as a supporting programme to the wonderful feature film PERSEPOLIS (out at Curzon Soho and Renoir on 25 April).
Here are stories dating from 1635 right up to the present day and subject matters such as the Iran/Iraq war, losing your virginity and very devilish young teenagers.
The London International Animation Festival 2008, screening at Curzon Soho in September, holds much more where this came from.
Director:
Laurie Hill
My Life At 40 will be at
Monstra 08
Lisbon, Portugal
8-18 May 08
Director:
Laurie Hill
My First Taste Of Death will be at
Cinequest Film Festival
San Jose, USA
27 Feb – 9 Mar 08
Director:
Laurie Hill
Another nice piece of Jerwood news here:
My Life At 40 is one of the eight finalist works up for the Jerwood Moving Image Awards 2008.
There’s a complete streaming version now available online at
www.jerwoodmovingimage.com
There’s also an exhibition of the eight finalist works on at the Jerwood Space in London at the moment, details below
Jerwood Space: 20 February – 20 March 2008
Jerwood Space
171 Union Street
London
SE1 0LN
Jerwood Space opening times:
Monday – Friday : 10.00 – 17.00
Saturday – Sunday : 10.00 ? 15.00
Entry: Free
Director:
Laurie Hill
My First Taste Of Death was on the Dazzle reel at London Short Film Festival
4 – 13 Jan 08
www.shortfilms.org.uk
Director: Laurie Hill
Another tasty morsel of slightly old news …
I was featured in the New Directors section of the December issue of Shots Magazine, 2007.
Director:
Laurie Hill
Nice piece of news here:
My Life At 40 has been shortlisted for the Jerwood Moving Image Awards 2008
Director:
Laurie Hill
My Life At 40 is screening at:
Slamdance Film Festival
Park City, Utah
USA
17-25 January 2008
Director:
Laurie Hill
The Bloomberg New Contemporaries show moves on to its final UK venue at the Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester
It includes My First Taste Of Death
Bloomberg New Contemporaries
Cornerhouse Gallery
Manchester
23 November – 20 January 08
Director:
Laurie Hill
My First Taste Of Death won Best Student Animation at Cine?Eco in Portugal
Blurb says:
The International Festival of Cinema and Environment Video in Serra da Estrela – CineEco?2007- is in his thirteen edition, that will take place from the 22nd to the 27th of October 2007, and will congregate fifty environmental movies. The best movies can win in ten different categories.
Cine’ Eco
International Festival of Cinema and Environment Video of Serra da Estrela,
Seia, Portugal
22-27 October 2007
Director:
Laurie Hill
My Life At 40 is screening on the 25FPS reel at:
Animateka
International Animation Film Festival
Ljubljana, Slovenia
3-9 December 2007
Just catching up on a few bits of news – some are a slightly out of date …
Director:
Laurie Hill
My Life At 40 is screening at:
Optica
Gijon, Spain
November 2007
Director:
Laurie Hill
My Life At 40 is screening at:
Animation Nation
Singapore
23 – 30 November 2007
Director:
Laurie Hill
Some nice awards news …
My First Taste Of Death wins ?Special Award? at VAD Festival
Girona, Spain
17 – 21 October 2007
Director:
Laurie Hill
British Council ?outstanding British animation? reel
Istanbul International Short Film Festival
Turkey
7-14 November 2007
Director:
Laurie Hill
The London leg of this show opened last week ? I actually made it for once!
Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2007
Club Row, Rochelle School
Arnold Circus, London E2 7ES
10 Oct – 4 Nov 2007
www.newcontemporaries.org.uk
Director:
Laurie Hill
Some nice news …
LAURIE HILL – My life at 40, winner of the INTERNATIONAL STUDENT MEDIA ART FESTIVAL AWARD 2007
Official release says:
?On Saturday 29 September the nominated films were presented in the film theatre of festival centre Amicitia in Leeuwarden after which the prize … was awarded by the Media Art Festival.
Students from around the globe can submit their work for the ISMAF AWARD. The panel of judges consisted of Tijmen Hauer, filmmaker and curator Amsterdam, Marten Winters, artist and curator Leeuwarden, Marie-Jeanne van Ameln, Galerie Sign Groningen and Nadine Bors. Their criteria where, amongst others, intention, storyline/narrative, technical presentation, originality and the relationship between image and sound.
During the Media Art Festival 2007 all works nominated for the ISMAF AWARD 2007 were exhibited in the Videoskoop at Galerie Sign in Groningen.?
Director:
Laurie Hill
Programmes:
International Panorama
Special International Programme For Children
Cinanima
Espinho, Portugal
5 – 11 November 2007
Director:
Laurie Hill
Tindirindis International Animation Film Festival
Vilnius, Lithuania
25 – 28 October 2007
Director:
Laurie Hill
VAD
International Video and Digital Arts Festival
Girona, Spain
17 – 21 October 2007
Director:
Laurie Hill
British Council ?outstanding British animation? reel
Anim?Est
International Animated Film Festival
Bucharest, Romania
5-16 October, 2007
Director:
Laurie Hill
‘My Life At 40′ is nominated for an ISMAF Award at Media Art Friesland
Media Art Friesland
The Netherlands
20-30 September 2007
Blurb says:
‘The Media Art Friesland Festival 2007 is the 11th edition of the festival. The festival is an international platform for audiovisual arts, as video, film, new media, sound, installations and Internet in the province of Friesland and Groningen. The main locations are Leeuwarden, Drachten, Beetsterzwaag and Groningen.’
Director:
Laurie Hill
Ottawa International Animation Festival,
Canada
19 – 23 September 2007
Director:
Laurie Hill
My First Taste of Death
Best Animated Student Short (Special Award For Animation) at
10th Shanghai International Film Festival
16 – 24 June 2007
Director:
Laurie Hill
Taiwan International Animation Festival
28 September – 7 October 2007
Taipei, Taiwan
Director:
Laurie Hill
Calgary International Film Festival
Alberta, Canada
21 – 30 September 2007
Director:
Laurie Hill
Cinefest Sudbury International Film Festival
Ontario, Canada
15 – 23 September 2007
www.cinefest.com
Director:
Laurie Hill
Date: August 16th
Event: A World of Shorts (a WSFF event)
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
?Throughout the year, the Worldwide Short Film Festival partners with the National Film Board of Canada to present monthly screenings of short films.?
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