Category - Animators

Mother of Many

Emma Lazenby’s film “Mother of Many” has just been nominated for a BAFTA in the Best Short Animation category. Emma has documented the making of her film in a fascinating blog called MoM written under the pen name of ElsieDarkwinter.

“Mother of Many” is based around the rhythms of a baby inside the womb and the rhythms and day to day routine of the midwife being calm and controlled – leading women through the most life-changing and challenging event of their lives. It was made using real recordings of childbirths and foetal heartbeats, combining painting on glass, hand drawn animation, Flash and After-Effects.

The blog starts back in March 2009 where we find Emma doing rewrites for her script. She writes; “I am having a lot of difficulty. I have written a script – first second and now on my third draft. It feels like I just rewrite the same script every time. It is changing slowly, but with the constant deadlines, I feel I have to keep finishing each script and never address any of the things that are bothering me. I just rush, panic, fluster and beat myself up a bit.”

Emma tells how she got the idea for the film; “The film is about midwifery, and is a celebration of my mum, who did this job for 30 years – delivering thousands of babies and a large percentage of the local population. I started thinking about it a year ago when she retired. It feels like an idea with some point, the point being to do a job with meaning.”

By the middle of April ‘09 the script is coming together. Emma writes; “…all the people (the funding ones) have said they are much happier with the new script (third draft) and I have been storyboarding roughly, doing some more work on design.”

Early May ’09 finds Emma working on her animatic. She says: “Animatics are nice – because you see the film, but not so nice, because the drawings are all so scrappy.”

By mid-May the animatic has been approved and Emma announces; “Today has been the start of making the film. I designed some pregnant women, made a list of things I have to do and how each scene works.”

In June ’09 Emma talks about the sound track. She has given her recording machine to an independent midwife in the hope of getting some authentic sound. She writes that she is “…waiting for women to pop who will let us record them grunting and screaming or just breathing calmly depending on how the births go.”

Emma Lazenby painting under camera (picture from MoM blog).

In July ’09 Emma has some animators working on her film but she wishes she could find the time to animate herself. She seems to be constantly on call to make decisions, emailing, talking and designing. She is determined to find a way; “This week I am in a little room away from email and everybody and everything – painting and playing under camera to make nice womb textures and contractions – it is lovely.”

By mid-September ’09 the film is nearing completion. Emma writes; “I am going to London tomorrow to help with the sound mix at Fonic. I am really looking forward to seeing it with proper sound instead of my cobbled together stuff.”

In late September the film is finally finished and Emma has mixed feelings. She writes; “I have no idea what I have made or what it looks like – if it is good or bad – whether I like it or not. I feel rather weird really but so excited. It is so odd to get to the end.”

The film’s BAFTA nomination is announced in January 2010 and Emma makes a blog post. She begins; “I am really quite shocked and it is only sinking in that my film has been nominated for a BAFTA. It is ridiculously exciting.”

You can read the full account of the making of “Mother of Many” in Emma Lazenby’s blog MoM.

Watch a clip of “Mother of Many” on YouTube.

See the full list of BAFTA award nominations.

Postscript (23 Feb 2010): Congratulations to Emma Lazenby on winning the BAFTA Short Animation award for with Mother of Many. Watch the winner interview.

Have you seen “Mother of Many”? Please share your thoughts on the movie in a comment to this post.

Skeleton warriors from Jason and the Argonauts.

If you are an aspiring puppet animator you can now learn from the master of fantasy animation in a series of movies on YouTube. Some of Harryhausen’s most notable works have included his animation on Mighty Joe Young made with pioneer Willis O’Brien, which won the Academy Award for special effects in 1949, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts, featuring a famous sword fight against six skeleton warriors.

The Harryhausen Chronicles documentary, narrated by Leonard Nimoy, covers much of his work with some great close-ups of his puppets and lots of advice from the master himself. In the introduction Ray Harryhausen says: “Fantasy is a dream world and I don’t think you want it quite real. You want an interpretation and stop motion gives it an added value that you can’t catch if you try to make it too real.”

The Harryhausen Chronicles are split into six parts. The links are below:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

What is you most memorable Harryhausen movie?

Paddington Bear in episode 1 of the original TV series.

Paddington Bear was featured in Animator’s newsletter issue 3, winter 1982 when we interviewed director of animation Barry Leith at FilmFair Animation Studios. At the time Barry was working on the Paddington Bear TV series. In that series Paddington was a puppet and the humans drawn animation, cut-out and mounted on card so that they could be integrated on the same set as the puppet.

Now Paddington Bear is to take to the big screen in a production that is to be a mixture of live action and computer animation. The film is being produced by David Heyman, the man behind the Harry Potter films. The Sun newspaper reports Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding has been signed up to play Paddington Bear’s cousin – a half man, half beast who, like Paddington, comes from Darkest Peru.

The original TV stories were written by Michael Bond with puppet and drawn animation by Ivor Wood. In the first episode the bear is spotted by the Brown family on Paddington station where he had arrived from Darkest Peru as a stowaway. He had a label round his neck that read “Please look after this bear, thank you”. In no time at all Mrs Brown named him after the station and he became part of their family.

It is understood the new film will be based on an original screenplay inspired by the various characters and episodes in Paddington’s life as told through Bond’s books. It is being co-written by The Mighty Boosh director Paul King and Hamish McColl, co-writer of 2007 comedy film Mr Bean’s Holiday. Paddington Bear has much in common with Mr Bean; both are very polite and very accident-prone.

The flying harpoon from “Skywhales”.

The short film “Skywhales”, was featured in Animator’s newsletter issue 7, winter 1983. It was written and directed by Derek Hayes and Phil Austin at Animation City. Skywhales has been discovered by a new generation, thanks to its appearance on YouTube, and has become a cult classic on the Internet.

Derek Hayes and Phil Austin met as students at Sheffield Hallam University where they were on a diploma course for Art and Design (1971 – 1974). Whilst at university they collaborated on several animation projects using a clockwork Bolex camera and an old enlarger stand. That lead to a life in film and was the start of a creative partnership that lasted 18 years.

After graduating they were offered places as the first animation students at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) where they made a 20 minute film, “Max Beeza and the City in the Sky”, as well as working on live-action films with other students.

After the NFTS Derek made a short film for BBC Bristol called “Albion”, which was part of the “Animated Conversations” series. Then in 1979 he got a call from Julian Temple, a fellow ex-student of the NFTS, to say he was directing a feature film with the Sex Pistols called “The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle”. He asked if they would do some animation for it. Derek Hayes and Phil Austin joined forces again and promptly launched an animation company, called Animation City, to do the cartoon inserts, graphics and titles for the film.

Animation City was based in Soho, London for 14 years, making commercials, TV graphics, pop videos and short films. Among the short films was “Skywhales” made for Channel 4 TV. The studio won various awards including a BAFTA for the titles of “Jeeves and Wooster”.

Phil Austin sadly died in 1990. In 1993 Derek closed Animation City to become a freelance director and since then he has directed two short films and two cinema features:

“The Miracle Maker” (1999), was an award winning animated life of Christ and featured the voices of Ralph Fiennes, William Hurt, Julie Christie and Miranda Richardson. It used model animation, 2D animation and computer graphics.

“Otherworld” (2002), with Ioan Gruffydd, Daniel Evans, Matthew Rhys and Philip Madoc. It mixed 2D animation, computer graphics and live-action to retell a series of ancient Celtic legends of love, magic and war.

In 2003 – 2004 he worked with Aardman Animation developing a feature film project called the “Tortoise v Hare”. He was engaged as Director but the film was a casualty of the collapse of the relationship between Aardman and DreamWorks.

From 2005 to the present Derek has produced storyboards for Cartwn Cymru, Cardiff, “Friends and Heroes”; CharacterShop, “Haven”, “DU”, “Knight Rider” and Bristol Zoo. He has also worked as a storyboard supervisor and consultant for various film companies including Dramatico Entertainment and Ragdoll Ltd.

Derek has been External Examiner for various animation courses, including the RCA and the London Institute and is a lecturer at University College Falmouth on the Digital Animation BA course.

See also

Skywhales – background information on the film.
Skywhales – the story.

External links

Derek Hayes official website.
About Derek Hayes – University College Falmouth website.

Skywhales, by Animation City.

Animation: A Handy Guide

The films of Sheila Graber were featured in Animator’s newsletter number 5, summer 1983. At the time she had recently given up her post of Head of Creative Studies at King George Comprehensive School to pursue animation on a full-time professional basis.

In a career spanning more than 20 years she has created over 60 shorts and 3 TV series. One of Sheila’s driving forces has been to “use animation as a means of communication not just for entertainment but for education and healing too”.

She has run animation classes as far a field as Tunisia and Caracas, and gained an Alumni Fellowship from Sunderland University in 1998 for “Outstanding services to Education and Art”.

Sheila is currently running a series of weekly art and animation classes for adults with special needs for the “Brothers of Charity” in Waterford, Ireland. This is a long term project of 4 years standing. The results are so successful she hopes to continue and evolve her work in this area.

Sheila has just written a book, with supporting DVD, called “Animation: A Handy Guide”.

More information about her can be found on the Sheila Graber web site.

Sheepdog drawing by a young Michael Salkeld.

Animation by a Young Film Maker was an article written for Animator’s newsletter issue 2 autumn 1982 by Michael Salkeld. At the time he had just become the winner of the BBC Young Filmmakers competition.

I thought it would be interesting to see if he had gone on to follow a career in animation. An Internet search turned up a profile of Michael Salkeld on the Axis online resource for contemporary art.

Michael says “I am an artist working in animation, capturing the subliminal rhythms of movement and refining them within the animation as a choreographed graphic representation. For me animation is choreography and visual orchestration. I have worked in a variety of techniques ranging from hand drawn and painted animation to 2d and 3d computer CGI and video. I also compose music.”

In October 2009 two films by Michael, “I am a horse” and “North Circular”, were projected on to the classical frontage and portico of Civic Hall Millennium Square Leeds, as part of Lumen’s programme in the Light Night festival.

His film “North Circular” was screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival 2009, Montréal. Canada and “I am a horse” was screened at the Melbourne International Animation Festival 2009, Australia.

Michael Salkeld’s recent awards include “A little More Fun Animation” at the Moves 2007 Festival, Manchester, UK.