FLIP Festival 2011 review

The FLIP international animation festival 2011 was held over the past three days and this weeks (slightly delayed) blog is dedicated to our experience at the annual event.

We attended on the two main days of the festival where our ringmaster sting was used to open the very first open shorts screening. What followed on Friday was an amazing line up of industry heroes such as Bill Plympton and Barry Purves. We attended Bill plympton's master class which was fascinating, as we got an insight into the process behind his work as well as his view on animation.



The ringmaster open the festival on Friday 28th during
the first open shorts screening


He shared his views on the animation industry still not accepting adult oriented animations, especially in the US where he believes they still see it as an art form and medium for children. An outside view that we also hope fades away so that more and more adult animations are accepted in society such as the dark humour of Bill Plympton's films.

Saturday was just as good with a talk from Aardman, (the legendary) Corgrove Hall and Brothers Mcleod premiering their latest film, Isle of Spagg. Two animations from S5S were shown during Open shorts 5; Caged and Overtime, that had a great response. A panel discussion on the state of 2D animation was also held near the end of the day with animation figures Charlie MacRae (Hanna Barbera) and Tori Davis ( Blue Sky, Walt Disney, DreamWorks ).

This was an interesting discussion which was set up to raise concerns for the growing lack of 2D animations. However, over the course of the discussion the concern was flipped with the recent trend of bringing 2D feature films in 3D, such as The Lion King. It was a great pivotal moment that proved that 2D animation is here to stay. It was also interesting to see that the majority of the open shorts were also stop motion which was great considering the recent perception that its a dieing form of animation.



Caged becomes an award winning animation at FLIP 2011


The Festival ended with the festival short winners and we are proud to announce that S5S animator, Ravi Maheru, won an award for short film, Caged, making us an award winning studio!

We enjoyed the festival and are looking forward to FLIP festival 2012.

Bridgnorth Animation Festival review

We're breaking the rules with an extra blog update to give you our mini review on the Bridgnorth Animation Festival.

The Animation Mini Festival was held at The Majestic Cinema in Bridgnorth featuring local animations and international animations. As we mentioned in previous updates, one of our own animators had their film shown during the festival. The event had a great attendance as each animation was shown on the big screen. Local animators were also given a moment to introduce their film which was a pleasant feature of the event.

The event was introduced by James Clarke, author of Animated Films, who gave a brilliant talk on the potential that animation has as a medium to be more human than live actions films can ever be. With the ability to tackle themes and subjects in a variety of styles and moods, where even the darkest truths of our society can be presented with a completely fresh perspective in its visuals as well as the story.  It was an inspiring talk and a great way to introduce the event.

The festival was closed with the trailer of Lion King 3D and a Toy Story short (in 3D too). The festival was a great experience with inspiring talks, a great location and amazing animations. It's a festival we look forward to returning to next year and the years after.

A new look

As you will have noticed by now, the blog has a new look. In addition to the blog, our website, twitter and YouTube profiles have undergone similar changes to match the new colour scheme.

The biggest changes have been made to our official site and is still being revamped. The layout has been altered for better navigation and the animator profiles will be improved alongside a new "about" section for S5S. We now have a contact form added to our contact page to make it easier to get in touch with us directly.

To also match the new colour scheme, the show reel will undergo a slight change too with a brand new logo animation. Amongst other developments, we are now working on several projects which we'll announce at later dates.

As we announced last week, we'll be attending the Bridgnorth Animation mini festival taking place tomorrow (Saturday 27th August) at the Majestic Cinema. Caged by S5S animator, Ravi Maheru, will be screened there too. We look forward to meeting everyone there. (More details on the festival here: http://www.bridgnorthmusicfest.com/ )

Thanks for the great support so far, if you haven't already please follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo and of course this blog to stay up to date on the S5S world! We'll be back next week with our weekly blog updates, also look out for a blog post dedicated to our impressions and experience of the Bridgnorth Animation festival.

Bridgnorth Music & Arts Festival 2011

The Bridgnorth Music & Arts Festival 2011 begins next week on August 26th which covers a wide range of events over the course of a week.

Sector5 Studios will also be present at the festival on the 27th to attend the Animation mini Festival. "Caged" will be shown at the event which is a short animated film by one of our own animators, Ravi Maheru.



Screenshot of Caged

 The Animation mini Festival will be held at the Majestic Cinema in Bridgnorth ( Click to see map )
on Saturday 27 August, 14:30 – 17:30.  We look forward to seeing everyone there next week.

For more details on Bridgnorth Festival, visit:
http://www.bridgnorthmusicfest.com/

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We'd also like to announce our new youtube page which you can visit at:

www.youtube.com/sector5studios

Drawn from Life

In harmony with the official launch of Sector5 Studios, an animation related event was held in Birmingham on Wednesday. Jonathon Hodgson's 'Drawn from Life" talk (hosted by Animation Forum West Midlands) dived behind the scenes of documentary animation, "Wonderland - The Trouble With Love And Sex".

It was in-depth and a fascinating talk that presented the genre of documentary animation as a genre worth exploring further. It was also great to see Jonathon Hodgson's pervious animations and illustrations that focused on the movement rather than being an exact replication of the subject's shape.

With the talk coming to an end, the evening transformed into a networking event where we met new and familiar faces. One of the more promising networking was with Animation Forum West Midlands' - Dave Allen who suggested organising a Q&A on the AWFM website. So keep an eye out for that in the near future.