Girl

Hooray For Money!

Although I have crowed about it to my pals I would like to crow a little more.
I've had one of my Boxhead and Roundhead cartoons accepted into The Annecy Animated Film Festival.
Special thanks in particular to the good looking and talented Mr Matthew Saxton, who furnished me with 100% legal and original music for nothing.

I'll prattle on briefly about making a short film for a moment.
In this age of technology and computers I genuinely believe that it is a relatively easy process to make some kind of short production.
I do not hesitate to add that it is not so easy to make a GOOD short film, but with a little ingenuity there are good results to be had.
I have never applied for production funding in the UK, although I am sure there must be some out there.
And I never really applied for film funding back home, because every single conversation I had with the little Hitlers in charge of dishing out funds ended in me losing my temper and saying things like, "You must be fucking kidding me?", and "Fuck off - you must be joking?".
I've learned through impatience that the best way to get anything done is to do it yourself.
But have a think about the following:

An investment of $41,880 to Troy Melville and Janine Wright for the project Returning Gilbert. The film will focus on a Tasmanian ‘horse whisperer’ who has been asked to travel to Africa to practise her craft on a rather unusual subject. The subject in question is Gilbert, a zebra raised in captivity for so long that he now needs to be ‘reverse engineered’ before he can be returned to the wild. Funding from Screen Tasmania will enable Troy and Janine to travel to Africa to capture what promises to be unique footage.

Fourty one thousand, eight hundred and eighty dollars for TWO people to AFRICA and film "unique footage".
You must be fucking kidding me?
Fuck off - you must be joking.
And what do you get for your money?
Perhaps it's something like THIS.
Fact is, these guys have the right idea.
Apply for the money.
Get as much as you can squeeze out of them.
You can go make a movie with a handcam and a laptop these days with a little effort and some heart.
Then go spend the money on beer and barbeques for your friends.

UPDATE: Give THIS article a read...

Here are some other gems funded by Screen Tasmania.
It's worth mentioning that this is DEVELOPMENT money.
No cash for anyone with plan!

A grant of $10,060 to Robyn Brake to assist in the organization of the annual Tropfest screenings at Hobart's Salamanca Square.
Just to clear this up.
Tropfest is a film festival originating in Queensland.
Every year a package of the films tours the nation.
$10,060 it would seem goes towards a projectionist pressing the play button in Hobart town.

A grant of $53,129 to Matthew Van Rooijen and Mauricio Milne Jones for production of the animated short film The Long Beach. A mystery girl releases a man with patterns and fishes.
What the feck does this mean?
She releases a man with patterns and fishes???
I don't even know what to say.

And here's our friend Troy again...
An investment of $70,000 for the production of an animation project called Worry Doll. Worry Doll tells the tale of three dolls that discover a horrific murder leading to a road-movie adventure. The film's creative team is led by writer/director Matt Coyle whose graphic novel of the same name inspired the film. Matt will be working with producer Troy Melville and animator Adam Walker.

I did a quick google for Troy and it reveals another $15,000 (take note of this figure) from another government department for "a mentor, office space, support for career and business plan development, and assistance to attend relevant training courses". His friend Janine Wright will be accompanying him.

I also found this terrific chunklet:

A Victorian film-maker who threatened to cut off an associate's toes and fingers has avoided a jail sentence.

"Anthony William Pritchard, 39, was convicted in the Hobart Criminal Court of using a telephone to menace Troy Melville in May last year.
Chief Justice Peter Underwood said Pritchard had spent three-and-a-half weeks in custody while on remand and that was enough.
The court heard both men had been involved in making a French documentary in Tasmania about abalone poaching.
Pritchard became worried Mr Melville was going to implicate him in criminal activity and rang him to demand $15,000 (cough, ahem, cough) to pay possible legal bills.
No hard feelings towards Troy - he's just doing his job," Pritchard said.
He betrayed me in the sense that he didn't give me full information.
From that, dare to say I got paranoid and didn't know what was going on and took matters into my own hands."

Alphabet

I illustrated an alphabet book not long after I got here and sent it round the publishers.
It was soundly rejected by all publishers.
I however believe that the pictures are really fucking good and I'd enjoy reading this to kids.

Inglund

As the weather is becoming jolly again, a couple of us wandered out to a nice pub in a place that I can't remember the name of.
On the way, master illustrator Stephane Kardos discussed matters of world importance with ex Soviet Prime Minister, Gorbachev.
It was quite a heated debate and was only soothed by lashings of beer and Sunday roast.

Interestingly, it was the first place I'd ever been that actually felt like England, although much of it smelled like I'm used to London smelling...
Just in from Oscar A. Grillo -
"Don't neglect to mention that the red house with a white balcony in the second photo is where Gustav Holst, the author of "The Planets", lived. "

On the way back we went on a nice stroll to a graveyard where we stumbled across the grave of Hogarth....

And Whistler....

And some poor undervalued bugger who was buried inside a barbeque to save space.

Azamat

I did this little doodle that ended up looking like Borat's producer.
Unintentional, but a not inaccurate.

Now and Then

This is my friend Gracie Jean, who has changed a lot since I left Australia.

Hillside

And Further Uncensorship

Further Uncensorship

Uncensored

Censored

Go Have a Look

Anyone who spends any time trawling the blogs knows there is often not a lot to be excited about.
It's always nice when we see one of our pals post something nice, and it's good to be supportive, but beyond that I think it's easy to be dissapointed.
During the week I came across the blog of Ian Worrel. I was initially drawn to visit his blog after he left some very accurate comments on the blog of some other much less talented person.
His work is absolutely marvelous and I'd encourage anyone with an interest in drawing and animation to go take a look.
He has a couple of blogs, but THIS ONE has the nicest stuff on it.
You can also view his very lovely student film HERE. I didn't love it at first (although the images are wonderful) but it has grown on me very much.

Community Service

Business

I read an interview with crazy man and professional Dutchman, Paul Verhoeven and found this gem:
M: Tell us about the "Houdini" film you wanted to do.

V: Houdini had this medium he could communicate with and after his death, strange things came out of her vagina that are documented with the School Of Parapsychology in New York. Its probably the reason why it never got made.

Normally I'd like to leave some kind of clever comment there but I can't even begin to imagine what to say.

Still On Hold

The latest BnR is still on hold.
Here are some completely unrelated images to entertain you in the meantime.

My Dog

Today my cousin and her boyfriend returned from my wide brown homeland.
I was most happy to see this small video clip of my dog, who now lives with my parents, both willing ball throwing slaves.

The Scouts

Gormless

Go man Go

Splorp

And here is a clip of David Byrne singing a Whitney Houston song that should bring joy and warmth to all.