DEVIATE 08

This year's UK Film Council & NI Screen digital shorts scheme, 'Deviate' is being run & produced by Redray Films.  The 4 films selected for production were 'Chains' written & directed by Alanna Riddell, 'Happy As Larry' written by Dave Kinghan & directed by Brian Philip Davis, 'Lonely Hearts Interrupted' written & directed by Tanya Andrews, and 'Rip & The Preacher' written by Mark Jordan & directed by Michael Lennox.  Gawain Morrison & Anna McCaughtry, of Seamless Productions, were both brought in to assist Redray Films in delivering this year's films.  Anna was production designer & head of wardrobe, and Gawain was production manager & 1st AD.  Click here for more info on them.

STRAIGHT 8 ART

As the Straight 8 time of year came ever closer, it was a bit of a struggle to find the time to come up with an idea, much less to film it. 'It would have been criminal to miss out on it, as it's a great competition, so I came with Sugar Free, which didn't need any other people in front of or behind camera, so that I could film it all in my own time,' said Gawain Morrison.

We found out a couple of weeks' ago that it was selected for screening at this year's Straight 8 Art event in Brick Lane, London, during this summer.  So there may have to be another wee trip to view & party.  You can check out the stills version of the film on this website by clicking here.

TITANIC ISLAND INTERACTIVE

Titanic Island Interactive is an absolutely stunning website, with huge growth potential beyond it's captivating start point.  Awakin Productions have stepped things up a gear from their Armoy Armada site, and have used what they learnt from that to create what is an intriguring use of the internet.  Gawain Morrison, from Seamless Productions, was brought in to assist the Awakin team to project manage this website and interactive content. It is due to be fully live in early July, so please take the time to check it out at www.titanicisland.tv

VINCENT BACK TO ALBANIA

We were oh so close to getting going on this, but unfortunately at the eleventh hour our friend Boiken felt that he wouldn't feel comfortable being our second character, and we must respect this, even if it was disappointing.  Since then Celine Loiseau has been working hard with French funds, and potentially German funds to get the money together for a version of the film to be shot, and delivered to French cable TV.  We have also been in discussions with the organisers of Sheffield's Docfest to get some feedback from them, and they were very supportive, and gave us some great feedback, so we'll carry on with our direction.  And in the mean time Vincent Hazard, the director has been back out to Albania on the hunt for a new second character, so we'll keep you up to date as things progress.

ARMOY ARMADA

Awakin Ltd have been working on an online Armoy Armada project for some time, using GPS, mobile devices and documentary-style filming.  They came to us and asked us to sort out their music, which needed to compliment the filming style for the background score, but also needed something with high energy for the title track.  We got in touch with Sean Smyth for the background score, & local band The Cutaways for the title track.  You can read more about it on this site by clicking here.

WINDING DOWN SOUND MIX

Richard Parkin's film 'Winding Down', produced through Redray Films, was brought to us for a sound mix in preparation for it's screening in competition at Belfast Film Festival.  it follows a man who repairs clocks as his eyesight goes, and he has to give up his way of life, winding down to it's ultimate conclusion.  There were some interesting audio effects that we discussed with the producer, Villi Ragnarsson, & the director, Richard Parkin, when his eyesight starts to go, the sounds of the clock whirring starts to pan & phase.

UPDATED ART DEPT SECTION

It's been a while since we updated the art department section, so we thought we should get it up to speed, and include some adverts and short films that have had the Anna McCaughtry touch.  These include award-winning commercials for local company Streetmonkey and the UKFC/NI Screen commissioned digital shorts for Deviate.

FINAL DELIVERY OF JUKEBOXES & TRIGGERS

It's been a long time coming, but we're in the final stages of Jukeboxes & Triggers, with the animation that has been created by David haughey in it's final rendering window.  There will be a couple of different versions of this piece, one which will be short form, which will be approximately 4 minutes, placed to music on Red Label Records.  The other piece will be approximately 12 minutes and will comprise of a lot of extra footage created by David.  We're very much looking forward to seeing the finished piece, and hope to get it out to some festivals near you soon.

3 SEAMLESS FILMS SELECTED FOR BELFAST FILM FESTIVAL JAMESON'S SHORTS COMPETITION

Great news for Seamless Productions after 3 of 2007's productions were selected for competition at Belfast Film Festival : 'Gr8 Orbit' by Brian Philip Davis, 'Speedle's Tower' by Anna Fitzsimons & Richard Davis, and 'Out Of Tune' by Fran Apprich.  Congratulations to all who were involved in creating these films because without you they wouldn't have been made.  Keep an eye on the festival guide to find out when they will be screened, and we hope to see you all there.

IT'S THAT 'STRAIGHT 8' TIME OF YEAR

Ladies & Germs it's not too late to get your hands on an 8mm camera & enter the Straight 8 competition.  The deadline for delivery of film & audio is March 26th 2008, so get on their website and get your cartridge, colour or black & white, posted out to you, and get on with making your film.  There's nothing quite like doing a Straight 8 project or the sweats before it gets screened on the large screen. Have you got the cahoonas?!  www.straight8.net

AWAKIN TO TITANIC ISLAND INTERACTIVE

Belfast digital media company Awakin, in association with NI Screen and the White Star Line Archive, bring the rich maritime heritage of Titanic Quarter to life with the launch of TITANIC ISLAND – INTERACTIVE (Ti-i).

Ti-i will develop online over the next two years to encompass the impressive achievements of shipbuilding and marine engineering on Queen’s Island, charting the development of the oceanliner in the period 1871-1914. 

They are developing education and family resources to compliment the online experience and in the near future, within Titanic Quarter itself, using interactive digital content, downloadable to a personal device, such as an iPod or iPhone.

Gawain Morrison, of Seamless Productions, has been brought in as project manager to help Awakin to deliver this hugely exciting project.

RED RAY PARTNERSHIP

This year Red Ray Films are delivering the UKFC/NI Screen digital shorts training scheme 'Deviate', where film-makers in the UK regions are given the opportunity for project development, over a period of months, with professionals.  After the development period 4 projects are selected and financed.  Red Ray have asked Gawain Morrison to be Production Manager & 1st AD for the 4 shorts and he said 'It's great to be part of both this scheme, working with Red Ray Films, but also getting the opportunity to work with new talent coming through in N.Ireland.'  Anna McCaughtry of Seamless Productions has also been asked to be the Production Designer & Head of Wardrobe for all 4 films.

MUSIC VIDEO FOR 'THE BETA LOUNGE' EDITED AS WE SPEAK

It's been a while in the coming, but we've managed to get a rough cut done, and the fine tuning is being done by Derek Jones of Mumbo Jumbo & Another Avenue.  It's all a bit of a tricky one as the green screen stuff is being placed in between a few layers of other content, so the edit has taken a while. But we hope to have a finished piece in the next 6 weeks, so we'll let you know when that's ready.

NEW TRAILER FOR DUAM DRITA

A new trailer has been edited from the footage that we shot last time we were in Albania, in December 07.  We were there to confirm with our characters whether all wouldbe fine to go ahead with our feature-doc concept, to research the story in much greater depth, and to gather our permissions.  It also let us establishe what amount of time we would need to be allowing ourselves for getting around the country & what facilities we'd need to be securing.  We had a lot of help with translation, accomodation & in fixing whilst we were there from Elton Caushi, from Albaniantrip.com so anyone needing advice, or assistance, or even just a place to stay for a holiday, then this is your man.

SEAMLESS PRODUCTIONS MOVES OFFICES

It's been a bit of a chaotic couple of months operating out of cardboard boxes, making use of Steve's wireless connection [thank you Steve], loosing files, finding files, saving to different folders and them magically disappearing for a few weeks at a time.  But it's official and we have now parked out butts in our new space, and gradually a sense of normality is returning.  Thanks for being patient with us during this time & we hope to see you round for a cup of tea some time.

ALBANIA RECCIE ROUND 2

After our visit to Albania in July 07 we required another 10 day trip to get our bearings, get all permissions, both from locations & characters, and to generally suss out the potential problems that may arise on the shoot, along with furthering our friendships with the people who we have met & been in contact with.

It was a very different trip this time, getting to meet with the spokesmen/leaders of the 4 main religions and hearing their take on the Albanian situation; arriving on National Day when the whole of the centre & boulevard was blocked off so that people could walk around the various stages of music & performance; watching the military march through the city as they parade their army in the hope of joining NATO; spending time in the northern mountains where the temperatures would drop to -5 degrees celsius.  And this was only some of what we experienced.  Check out the photos on the Duam Drita page.

ATTENDING IDFA

Every year for 2 weeks Amsterdam, hosting the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam [IDFA], becomes the centre of focus for documentaries, with film-makers, broadcasters, buyers, sellers, and members of the public all attending various events, parties & screenings.  If you're into documentary this is where you want to be.  Gawain Morrison attended this year's IDFA to make valuable contacts, meet with potential co-production partners, listen to industry professionals discuss changes in the format & broadcast, and to watch some great documentaries.  As a result things are looking very positive for the Seamless Productions feature-doc 'Duam Drita'.  To find out more about IDFA click here www.idfa.nl

POSSIBLE FRENCH CO-PRODUCTION

Seamless Productions is in discussions with TS Productions, based in Paris, in regards t a possible co-production for the feature-doc project 'Duam Drita'.  They have been in several meetings with the director Vincent Hazard, and initial discussions with French broadcasters have proved to be positive, so we are hopeful that we can come to some arrangement in early 2008 on how to move forward, with the aim of shooting in summer of 2008.

SCREENINGS AT QFT

Saturday 17th November saw 5 of our short films & music promos screened on the silver screen for the first time & we had a super turnout to the Queens Film Theatre, on what was a pretty crappy rainy Saturday evening, so thank you all who made the effort.  Even though we were all a bit nervous they were all very well received, and we had a great party afterwards coinciding with the Red Label Records album launch for Men In Speedos.

Round 2 In Albania

Gawain Morrison, Vincent Hazard & Line Langebek will be heading back out to Albania at the end of November to do another reccie and meet some more folks in regards to their proposed feature-doc set in the country.  Gawain will be spending a week attending IDFA, Amsterdam meeting with folks to drum up some funding.  "We're looking forward to it, and we'll be there during Tirana's International Film festival, so we'll be in good company," said Gawain.

Seamless Productions 2007 Screenings @ QFT, Belfast

On Saturday 17th November Seamless Productions will be screening a selection of it's 2007 productions at Belfast's Queens Film Theatre, from 5pm to 6pm, and the after-party will include an album launch from Belfast electronica band 'Men In Speedos' and a good knees up until the wee small hours.  Perhaps we'll see you there.

'A Moment On Your Own' Music Promo Complete

Director Chris Baugh & editor Derek Jones have cut together a great promo for the Men In Speedos tune 'A Moment On Your Own', part of the Kalamazoo Album series.  To give it a home video look they tweaked with plugins & grading, and its come up a treat.  Again as a result of great acting by our stars, Dylan & Jessie, and with some fantastic props & outfits by Anna McCaughtry, we've got a lovely bit of work.

Jukeboxes & Triggers Logo Artwork

Daryl Campbell has been working away to get the Jukeboxes & Triggers logo artwork designed, and we're almost there.  It looks fantatsic, and we hope to print up a limited edtition run of DVDs, which Daryl will help us to design.  Click on the image to get a larger look at it.

Beard For 4Talent

Colete Casey, from meida-production company Loki-C, spent the day with us when we were shooting the promo for 'A Moment On Your Own', shot a lot of footage, and cut together a great piece for the 4Talent website.  You can catch the interview at The 4Talent Website Make sure to check other bits like Paddy Bolomers Bogs .. brilliant .. or Sandra Gourley on NIMIC as well as all the other film peeps.

Johnny Lightwing & The Queen Of The Alien Universe

The second shoot of the Kalamazoo series has taken place and it was great fun.  Our two stars Jessie & Dylan Jones were fantastic as Queen Of The Alien Universe & Johnny Lightwing.  Anna McCaughtry's art deptartment on this shoot was a large part of it's success with costumes and sets speaking volumes on screen.  thanks to all involved for a lot of hard work and hopefully we'll have a cut of it soon.

A Fishy Tale Down On The Towpath

As part of the 15 Seconds Film Festival a Sunday morning fish shoot was planned.  Anne Cinnamond came up with the fantastic fish costumes, Gavin Sloan & David Bacon naturally slipped into the roles of fish, and Jim Fanning was our human catch.  Chris Beck shot the piece and we must apologise to the large number of mountain bikers & Sunday strollers who's Sunday morning walks were upset by our presence, and by our raucus laughter that accompanied every take.  What a brilliant shoot.  thanks to all involved.

Mono-Shawcross

After the success of the last show and the kind invitation to have priveleged access to film Neil Shawrcoss at work, Gawain Morrison was asked to film Neil creating his latest paintings.  This time Neil was going one step further than last time, paintings his figures in one colour only, a hugely difficult task, and one that he made look so easy.  The new cut will be going online soon.  Again this has never felt like work, more like a chance to have fun with friends.

Miguel Ortiz Perez of SARC To Team Up For Holosuite

Gawain & Miguel met last week to discuss whether the ‘Holosuite’ project was something they could work together on, and Miguel was very positive in his involvement.  Both of them clicked in terms of seeing the possibilities of bringing the audio & visual experiments to the table.  With Miguel’s PhD experience and access to SARC’s facilities in Belfast he will be able to bring a cutting edge audio dimension to the conceptual visual creation from Gawain Morrison.  We look forward to seeing how this project progresses.

No Jammer In The Way

After several months of discussions the Rollerderby girls have decided to go with some other people for their documentary.  We wish them every success in finding a venue, and establishing a regular league in UK.  Keep an eye for them somewhere near you.

First Kalamazoo Shoot

This is a massive project and will take somewhere in the region of 18 months to complete.  We had hoped to begin shooting in June, but a combination of concept development, heavy workloads, and appalling weather have meant that this August weekend was the first shoot of 13 videos.  It went really well and our wakeboarder, Peter O'hara, & trampolinist, Simon Black, were putting in 110% effort to give us our shots on the Saturday and then young Shea Harper & his mum Amanda were briliant for us on the Sunday.  Big thanks to Conor Rotheram for grafting as our DoP especially since we were shooting a fair amount of green screen ... good effort lad!

Finishing Post in Sight for Out Of Tune

We spent a day with Derek Jones in Another Avenue, Dublin, doing the final grade on Out Of Tune and it's looking lovely.  We have a dolby mix scheduled for 17th August and once that's complete we will marry the final picture with audio, and we hope to have a cast & crew screening towards the middle of November.

The Final Stages of J&T

Somewhere around two and a half years ago a group of directors and animators met with some electronic musicians and a concept was born ... to use the audio to trigger images in the brain.  From then untiol now has been a long process of conceptualisation & production.  We are now in the final stages of post-produciton on all 4 of these projects.  We hope to be screening them all at a Seamless Productions evening at Belfast's Queens Film Theatre somewhere towards the end of September and it will be great to see them all on a big screen.

Rollerderby meeting

Line Langebek, Lindsey Hopkinson & Vincent Hazard were invited by the rollerderby girls to come and pitch the idea of the documentary to them a couple of weeks ago.  Line & Vincent who will be directing the documentary, along with DoP Lindsey Hopkinson had a good meeting with all the girls discussing the various possibilities for the documentary, who would be up for being on camera and generally laying themselves out for a grand-sussing out by all of the rollergirls.  The feedback so far hsa been very positive and we hope to hear confirmation from the girls in the coming week.

Spam Screens in Mayfair

It wasn't as nerve-wracking as last year's screening, probably because I had an idea of what was to come, but Straight 8 still ranks up there as one of the more pulse-accelerating events that I've been to.  No idea of what is going to arrive on screen with your name attached to it except for what you saw in your head when you were shooting it ... and how likely is it that you'll have shot that?!  Rushes Soho Shorts Festival along with Straight 8 had the screenings in the plush surroundings of the Curzon Cinema in Mayfair this year ... we walked out of the screenings as a Ferrari & a Rolls Royce came past .. as you do!  Thanks again to Ed [Straight 8] and Rushes Soho Short Fest for a great event.

Albania Reccie

Vincent Hazard [Director], Line Langebek [Writer], Anna McCaughtry [Stills] & Gawain Morrison [Producer] spent a week in Albania, during July 07, meeting with people, discussing the project 'Duam Drita', and researching the country & contacts.  It was a very succesful trip setting in place a lot of what we hope to shoot next summer.  Vincent shot a lot of good footage for our promo & Anna took a large number of stills, soon to be on the site.  it's a complex country with a lot to achieve, but with a lot to offer the rest of the world.  We'll keep all of our bits crossed that we can get funding for this project.

Sooper-Dooper Spain

Huge thanks to all the folks at the Media Business School, in Ronda, for a hugely beneficial course.  Seamless sent producer Gawain Morrison for the week long course in the beautiful surroundings of Ronda, where the information imparted by the various tutors and students was extremely timely & very valuable.  This is a course that we would strongly recommend to anyone getting ready for their first feature project.  Again maybe it was luck but there was a lovely bunch of people attending this course and hopefully those contacts will remain for years to come.  Thanks also to NI Screen for helping to finance this trip.

A-do-ron-ron, A-do-ron-Ronda

Gawain has recently been selected to attend the Film Business School, part of the Media Business School, in Ronda, Spain.  The course runs from 27th - 30th June, & concentrates on production finance and legal structures, with particular emphasis on constructing a Finance Plan for each producer’s film project. Gawain is attending with his feature film in development 'Units Of Sleep'.

You can find out more about the organisation & the courses that they run at their website www.mediaschool.org

Back From Washington

What a week!  Big thanks to Lesley Holmes & Brendan McGoran for organising a smashing trip.  We had meetings with commissioning editors for National Geographic & Discovery, one to ones with festival organisers & US producers, and a day attending the Digital Media Conference for the future of digital media on the web.  On top of that all the folks from Belfast who went on this trip were top class & good fun and I look forward to the next time we get a chance to hook up.

Brian Gets The Lipstick Bug

Ever since we began our stroll into the world of 'Lipstick' we have had in the back of our minds that we would approach local composer Brian Irvine to score the whole of the musical extravaganza.  We wanted to make sure that we had developed the concept far enough to be ready to approach funders, before we actually approached Brian.  Having seen several of his concerts, which are all done with great humour & intelligence, we knew that he would at least give the project some thought.  We contacted him recently to ask if he would collaborate with us on this project and he enthusiastically agreed to take part, which was great news.  Brian won the 2006 British Composer Award & will bring great talent to our film.  You can find out more about him & his work at the following site www.brianirvine.co.uk

Seamless For Washington

Belfast City Council, Momentum & N.Ireland Screen have arranged for production companies based in N.Ireland to attend Washington DC for a Creative Showcase, in the hope of building business & networking opportunities.  Seamless Productions is one of the succesful companies who applied for this opportunity, and will be hoping to generate interest in, and hopefully funding for, some of the projects that we have in development. You can find out more about this at www.rediscoverni.com

Albanian Reccie

As part of the research that we're doing for our Albanian documentary 'We Want Light', our Danish writer Line Langebek, our French director Vincent Hazard, and producer Gawain Morrison will be spending a week in and around Tirana, the capital of Albania.  We hope to build on the contacts already established by Vincent, as well as shooting a lot of footage to create a trailer for future funding applications.

Out Of Tune In Post

It was always going to be a tight schedule to shoot all of what we needed within the 2 days, but with the crew that we had on board we knew it was possible.  And since our two leads were so good we felt we like we could take on anything .. and we did, and the results from what we've seen so far are proof of that confidence.  Thank you to all involved at all stages for helping us to get this far.  We'll keep you informed of how the post production comes along.

Lipstick Photos Online

How much fun was had on the two evenings of taking photos for the development of this film?  There's not enough space to tell you ... I think you'll see by the photos that we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and hopefully it will give a much better pictorial representation of what we're trying to achieve with this film. 

One night was for shooting the spides/chavs/millbags and the grabbing Dave the drag queen scene.  And the second day of shooting was the studio shoot of the drag queens & the conversion of the lead chav/spide.

Tara Lynne O'Neil For Speedle Narration

A couple of years ago, whilst having a few drinks in the wilds of Fermanagh, Anna Fitzsimons, one of the animating team for Speedle's Tower, asked Tara Lynne O'Neil if she would be interested in doing the narrators voice for a story she had in her head.  Tara Lynne said yes and thought nothing more about it. 

2 years later Anna came back to her to hold her to her word.  With an ease that only those who are genuinely talented can show Tara Lynne threw herself at the story & the narration, bringing a very special extra sparkle to an already fantastic animation.  We can't wait for people to get an eyeful and earful of the finished piece now.

'Spam' Selected for Rushes Soho Shorts Festival World Premiere

It's official people ... 'Spam' has made it into the Curzon Mayfair screeningsin London, of the Straight 8 films.  Out of 131 films that were submitted 50 were selected to screen in London on 29th & 30th July, so if you're around on those dates then it would be great to see you for the world premiere.

Janee Rambocus For Out Of Tune

After some succesful casting sessions in Belfast & Dublin we found have ourselevs some great actors to work with, young & old. 

The star of this short will be Janee Rambocus, an actress from Dublin, who having obtained an M.A. in Acting, in a School of Acting, in London, has gone on to appear in various stage plays, and more recently appeared in the legendary Irvine Welsh’s short film ‘Nuts’. Janee will be playing the part of Maria.

The young talent on this short is called Jenna McCormick, from Young Stars Agency, in Belfast. She is 13 and will be playing the part of Emma, the young girl who has lost her youth in the environment of a strip club.

Straight 8 Has Been Spammed

Woooo that was a knuckle ride getting that sorted.  Action man star 'Gilda Fish' & Barbie look-a-like 'Velma Bishop' flew in from diffferent projects from around the world, to take part in this very important piece of film-making.  And with very few resources, and even less crew we managed to shoot the 3 minutes & 20 seconds worth of 8mm film, create a score, and record the voiceovers, all in 3 days.  Now we have to sit tight and hope that it all comes out as it was meant to .. risky business this Straight 8 malarchy..

Straight 8 & Spam & Chips

That last minute rush is upon us again, where we've been intending on getting the Straight 8 film shot, but we're trying to get other projects completed so it's all seat of the pants ... but that's how we like it.  The film is called 'Spam', and it's gonna be a mish mash of action man, barbie & real footage ... and of course a starring role for the ever-reliable friendly meat product.

Jammer In The Way

Writer & co-director Line Langebek & director Vincent Hazard headed off to meet with the London Rollergirls, the queens of all things rollerderby in the UK.  The hope was that if everyone met, and got on that we could discuss the possibility of doing a documentary on these guys & their sport, and see what is going on with its comeback in the states & the potential spread of the sport in Europe.

Out Of Tune

We're into phase two of our casting, and we're off to Dublin to cast for our lead in Out Of Tune.  We've got some great supporting cast for the club scenes, and we're looking forward to getting to Dublin to meet the talent there.  We're going to be shooting Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th April, in a club in Belfast.

New Art Department Section Online

It's been bubbling away in the background for nearly a year, and we've just been a bit too busy to get it sorted, but the first wave has begun.  Anna McCaughtry, our resident production designer, has worked on many different projects from TV to film, from carnival to theatre, from costumes & set design to blood special effects.  The first part of the site will be a showcase of work to date, and the second part will be an online catalogue of props available for use.

Figures by Shawcross

Neil Shawcross is working on a new collection of paintings, this time stretching himself to create vibrant & energetic figures, in a variety of poses, a lot of them sketched from ballet movements.  This time he's attempting to paint with only black paint ... a challenging proposal to work with one colour, and especially when black can be a very heavy colour ... so the use of space is ever more important.  And we're lucky enough to have been invited back to document it.

Jumping Jukeboxes

We are continuing to learn an awful lot about the 3 different styles of animation that are three quarters of the Jukeboxes & Triggers project.  We had all underestimated the sheer amount of time that it would take to complete these, but they are really starting to take shape now, and the end is in sight.  They are going to look kick ass once they are finished.

Gothenburg ... The return

What a great time had by all.  3 days of fairly full-on script writing workshops, and then 5 evenings of full-on drinking and ramblings.  Met some top folks, hopefully some of whom I'll get to work with in the future, and got some good tips on how to move a feature concept forward, so all good!  Would highly recommend a Script Factory course to anyone .. make sure you go out of the country for it though, coz you may as well have a holiday and see somewhere new whilst your at it. [www.scriptfactory.co.uk]

Show me the J & T

Daryl Campbell has been working away on some concepts for the Jukeboxes & Triggers identity, so that we can do a unique DVD interface, and packaging, so as to showcase these 4 shorts to the best of our ability.  Whenever we get some piccies then we'll put them up to have a look at.

Photoshoot for Lipstick

After hearing that we didn't get through on Cinema Extreme with the Lipstick Of Peace, we've taken stock, regrouped, and are going at from a different direction this time.  Helen Sloane [www.munkeybiter.com] has kindly agreed to take our digital stills for us, and we've various friends & family who are stepping up to get glammed & shammed in the name of art.  We'll use the photos to put together a pack to approach various funders with, and keep all bits crossed for it to work.

Doing Gothenburg

The location ... Gothenburg not Gotham City, although there might be a penguin or two knocking about.  Our producer Gawain Morrison is off to the lovely Gothenburg for a week long course, called Scene Insiders, with The Script Factory.  This is their flagship European training programme for filmmakers across the continent. Designed for writers, directors, producers, developers and readers, the programme makes links between all sides of the industry.  And it's on during their International Film Festival .. how good is that!  Really really looking forward to it.

Move over Star Trek

For a few years an idea has been knocking around in our heads  to create a very basic version of the Star Trek 'Holosuite'.  We're not going to let you into the secret of this just at the moment, but suffice to say that we are working on a concept for a multi-camera multi-screen experience, that we will be looking to premiere simultaneously around the planet.  It's an ambitious project but it will be worth it.

Latest on Jukeboxes

We're almost at the final edit for the first of the Jukeboxes & Triggers pieces, directed by Brian Philip Davis.  We have screened it to a few people, some of whom were involved, and some of whom were not, and it's getting all the responses that we had hoped ... brilliant.  The animations are coming up to the dedline for their first rough-cut feeedback, so we're hoping to have some feedback on those by the start of February.   Ooooh it's all getting exciting.

Trigger-ing the ideas

We paid a visit to David Haughey during the week, to get an insight into the workings of his mind ... it'll take some time to recover this adventure as it's a splendidly surreal place to spend an afternoon.  We got to shoot some footage of him talking us through his animation, so check it out in his section of Jukeboxes & Triggers on this site.

Ongoing Jukebox Animations

Jukeboxes & Triggers is now in full swing.  We've one shoot udner our belts, and the other 3 animations are in various stages or production.  'Speedles Tower' by Anna Fitzsimons & Richard Davis is in the model/set build stage, and it looks fantastic.  Check out the first 'Making Of ..' footage in the Speedle's Tower section.  David Haughey has been scribbling frantically for his storyboard, and we should have some video next week, of him at work before he goes to the hand-drawing it all into the computer via graphics tablet.  And Gareth Morrison & Daryl Campbell are building their 2D & 3D worlds independtly from each other at the moment, and after this weekend will have a bit of footage of where that project is at.

Jukeboxes First Shoot

Saturday 25th November saw the first of the 'Jukeboxes & Triggers' films being shot.  The whole Panavision studio was filled with a scaffold structure, built to house the walkways for all of the art department.  And underneath the structure was a 360 degree track.  In the middle was the star of our show Caitriona, who was the angel onto whom was having the paint dripped. 

An amazing day's shoot, and we've started the pos-production on it now, so hopefully we'll have a rough cut done before Christmas.  Check out the Gr8 Orbit section on this site to see timelapse of the rigging being put up in the studio.

Wellieboot Dude & Pacamac Kid

Our 15 Second Film recently screened at the 15 Second Film Festival as part of Channel 4’s Ideas Factory, which was held at the Black Box, in Belfast, celebrating the creative talent of N.Ireland.

www.blackboxbelfast.com / www.ideasfactory.com / www.15SecondFilmFestival.com

Shawcross – Round 2

Recently we’ve been in discussion with both Neil Shawcross, and Bernie Jaffa, owner of the ArtTank Gallery, and both are keen to go for a Round 2 of the video-documenting of Neil’s nest set of paintings. We had so much fun last time we did this, that it would be criminal not to hook up again. At present we’re talking about starting to shoot again in January 2007.

Patricia Rabbit Pussy

It's moving along slowly, but great things come to those who wait.  We're working with local artist/performance artist Timmy White, putting together script ideas for a 6 part show, for PRP.  Keep an eye on this space.

Jukeboxes & Triggers – The latest :

We've been cooking along with this project rightly ... a meeting with Brian Philip Davis & Angus Mitchell our DoP for Brian's shoot, & Panavision to check out their studio space ... all looks tickety boo.

Then a meeting with David Haughey ... there are gonna be problems with 12 field scanning with hand-drawn animation, so it's looking likely that he's going to go with full digital animation, and use a tablet to draw his stuff.

After the meeting with Anna FitzSimons & Richard Davis, of Chewie Films, they're going to build a set for their puppets to dance through, and then do stop-frame 2D animation ... it's gonna be awesome - cheers for Ruth at Catalyst Arts for the use of her space to build the set.

And last but not least, the meeting with Daryl Campbell & Gareth Morrison went really well, chatting about how they're going to bring the 2d & 3d worlds to collide.

Seamless & Red Label Partnership Approved

Local record label, Red Label records & Seamless Productions came together to form an idea nearly two years ago, and have since then been moving forward to create 4 audio visual pieces, all as part of a project called Jukeboxes & Triggers.  The premise behind it was that an initial musical piece would be created by artists on Red Label Records, and then 4 animators/directors would listen to those pieces of music, and create visual reactions to what they heard.  The development would then be bounced backwards and forwards between the audio producers and the visual creators, until 4 audio visual pieces resulted.  3 of them will be animations, and will be shot on Hi Defintion.  The animators & directors are Anna Fitzsimmons & Richard Davis, Daryl Campbell & Gareth Morrison, David Haughey, and Brian Philip Davis.  The musical artists are 'Men In Speedos', and 'Eric Needs To Know'.  Keep an eye on this space as the development starts to take place.

We got word last week that we have been granted funding from the various people that we had approached.  We must thank NIFTC, for providing a large proportion of the funding for this project, Dream Ireland for offering Dreamlab funding, and also NIMIC for their support.

www.niftc.co.uk / www.dream-ireland.com / www.nimusic.com / www.redlabelrecords.com 

3 Seconds & The Cat Get A Donkey

The folks from Concorto Film Festival, in Italy, were kind enough to invite both '3 Seconds My Arse', and 'The Cat' to be screened along with a selection of films from around the world.  The director, Anna McCaughtry, hopped on a train in the south of France, and headed off for what turned out to be a lovely trip to Italy, hooking up with some great people.  And on top of that, both films won their prestigious Golden Donkey Awards, 'Best Art Direction' for 3 Seconds & 'Best Cinematography' for The Cat.

http://www.concorto.com/

Our Suit Goes To Leicester Square

The Invisible Suit has been seen. It was selected to be screened at the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, in Leicester Square, London, in August.  It was a supremely un-nerving event for us all, but it was fine because almost everyone else in the cinema was watching their films for the first time as well ... so we all shared the pain!  Congrats to all who screened films and to Ed & Ben who organise the event.  Everyone interested in film should have a go.

http://www.straight8.net/

3 Seconds Goes Gold

After '3 Seconds My Arse' continued it's successful festival tour by winning an Award for Best Dark Comedy [Short] at the Los Angeles screening of the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival, during March 2006, it won a Remi  Gold Award at Worldfest, Houston. It also screened as part of the Independent Film Festival of Boston, during April.  We'd like to say thank you very much to all the festivals who have been good enough to screen our film, and thanks to anyone who has gone along to watch it.'

The Cat
 

Seamless Producer, Gawain Morrison, produced a film called 'The Cat', with director Fran Apprich, during the summer of 2005, as part of the NIFTC Deviate scheme.  Having already won Best Cinematography [Short] at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival, in October 2005, and screened in Los Angeles, in March 2006, 'The Cat' won a Gold Remi Award at Worldfest, in Houston, at the end of April 06. Gawain is presently working on a new project, with Fran, for Make Ireland, based in Belfast [www.make.ie], to be shot during towards the end of 2006.'

The Invisible Suit

The Invisible has been shot. At the start of March we shot our entry to the Straight8 Competition called "The Invisible Suit". We had pretty much every weather condition known to man visit us during the weekend and shot from early Saturday morning till Sunday night. We just hope we get selected to be screened at a Straight 8 show somewhere.

http://www.straight8.net/

Cook With Derm

We have been working on an idea for a while, to make Derm famous. His kitchen antics are spectacular, from his "banoffees with black bananas" to "cheesecakes with furry strawberries" Our first episode is "Derm goes - Mexican" with a Derm style guacamole....... airing soon.

Shawcross - Naked

Neil Shawcross is one of Ireland's finest livingpainters, and at 67 years young, came into his own with a new show, called 'Naked'.  We were lucky enough to be asked to document this man at work, in the beautiful space of the ArtTank, in Belfast, over a period of 9 months, in the lead up to his show, which was part of a city-wide retrospective of his career.  You can check out some of the artwork & stills at www.naked-shawcross.com