I’m very pleased to welcome Andy Capper back to the show, to discuss the journey he and VICE founder, Shane Smith, took into the dangerous heart of Liberia for the latest revelatory film in The VICE Guide to… series.

Showlinks
VBS
CNN Presents VBS.TV
Liberia
Lariam
William Bennett / Cut Hands
Jihad Milkshake

• The VICE Guide to Liberia – Shane Smith & Andy Capper
• The Vice Guide to Liberia
• DN EP 150: Swansea Love Story – Andy Capper & Leo Leigh
• Time Piece – Kat Mansoor
• Swansea Love Story – Andy Capper & Leo Leigh

The VICE Guide to Liberia (2010)
VBS travels to West Africa to rummage through the messy remains of a country ravaged by 14 years of civil war. Despite the United Nation’s eventual intervention, most of Liberia’s young people continue to live in abject poverty, surrounded by filth, drug addiction, and teenage prostitution. The former child soldiers who were forced into war have been left to fend for themselves, the murderous warlords who once led them in cannibalistic rampages have taken up as so-called community leaders, and new militias are lying in wait for the opportunity to reclaim their country from a government they rightly mistrust. America’s one and only foray into African colonialism is keeping a very uneasy peace indeed.

Watch the full series on VBS.TV

• DN EP 155: The VICE Guide to Liberia – Shane Smith & Andy Capper
• The Vice Guide to Liberia
• Swansea Love Story – Andy Capper & Leo Leigh
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Us Now – Ivo Gormley

It’s an oft quoted phrase that ‘Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity’, well this week’s guest Fede Alvarez is certainly living proof of that. After working away on his pet ‘robots attack’ SFX project for a couple of years, Fede cashed in on the Facebook built, viral hype surrounding his short Panic Attack (Ataque de Pánico!) by hopping on a plane to LA and ultimately penning a $30m feature deal with Ghost House Pictures, under the mentorship of director Sam Rami. Fede joins us to discuss the journey from $300 short to the much talked about Hollywood deal.

Showlinks
Murdoc Films
Aparato
Maurits Binger Film Institute
Tyrants from Afar
House of Secrets
Sony HVR-Z1
Adobe Premiere
Adobe After Effects
3ds Max
FumeFX
Glu3d
Detonation Films
Motionographer Post
Ghost House Pictures
CAA
Rebel Without a Crew

• Panic Attack! – Fede Alvarez
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN LFF09: Passenger Side – Matt Bissonnette
• DN LFF09: Men on the Bridge – Asli Özge
• DN LFF08: Tricks – Andrzej Jakimowski

Panic Attack! (2009)
Giant robots invade Montevideo!

• DN EP 154: Panic Attack! – Fede Alvarez
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

Eddie White, co-director of the beat poetry meets Arabic Jazz, kidnapped felines short The Cat Piano, joins us to discuss the film’s creation and the tricky journey through film festival submissions, wins and eligibility rules to make it to the pre Oscar nomination short list.

Showlinks
The People’s Republic of Animation
The Cat Piano
The Cat Piano Facebook Page
Adobe Photoshop
Katzenklavier
Michaël Dudok de Wit
Nick Cave
Oscar Rules & Eligibility
Oscar Animated Shorts Short List

• The Cat Piano – Eddie White & Ari Gibson
• The Wonder Of Wes
• Filmstock #8
• DN EP 144: Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson
• DN EP 143: Subprime – Beeple

The Cat Piano (2009)
In a city of singing cats, a lonely beat poet falls for a beautiful siren. When a mysterious dark figure emerges, kidnapping the town’s singers for his twisted musical plans, the poet must save his muse and put an end to the nefarious tune that threatens to destroy the city.

• DN EP 153: The Cat Piano – Eddie White & Ari Gibson
• _grau – Robert Seidel
• Zoo – Robin Bushell
• ZOMBIE ZOMBIE: Driving Clip – Simon Gesrel & Xavier Ehretsmann
• What We’ve Found Out About Stem Cells – Richard Fenwick

I’m joined this week by director Ivo Gormley, whose documentary feature Us Now explores the ways in which Internet communities are able to share knowledge and form intelligent, collective decisions, and how this could translate to the governing of our lives and society as a whole.

Showlinks
Us Now
Ivo’s Twitter
The Us Now Global Screening Project
Think Public
CouchSurfer
Mumsnet
Royal Society of Arts
Linux
Ebbsfleet
mySociety
Playmarkers

• Us Now – Ivo Gormley
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening
• DN Special: Joy Division – Grant Gee
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: Still Bill – Damani Baker & Alex Vlack

Us Now (2008)
Us Now takes a look at how the internet could allow us to do away with politicians and run the government ourselves. It tells the stories of the online networks whose radical self-organising structures threaten to change the fabric of government for ever.

• DN EP 152: Us Now – Ivo Gormley
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Tokyo Cowboys – Daneeta Loretta Saft & Patrick Jackson
• They Turned Our Desert Into Fire – Mark Brecke
• The Super Noble Brothers – Mark Escribano

Get out there make the film you want, with the kit you have to hand and recognition will follow. Despite sounding like a fairytale that indie filmmakers tell each other during the tough times, director Marc Price did just that for his debut zombie feature COLIN, which not only picked up a trail of buzz at Cannes last year, but also landed him a cinema release and DVD distribution deal. Marc joins us this week to bring the fairytale to life.

Showlinks
COLIN
Nowhere Fast Productions
Concrete Canvas Arts
Good Taste made Bad Taste
Panasonic NV DS15
Adobe Premiere
Rebel Without a Crew

• COLIN – Marc Price
• Thirst – Park Chan-Wook
• The Host with the Most
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening
• Hotel Harabati Competition

COLIN (2009)
Colin is bitten by a zombie; he dies and returns as one of the undead. We follow him as he wanders through suburbia during the throes of a cadaverous apocalypse. Through his encounters with objects, places and people, we learn who Colin was and more pertinently, what he has now become.

• DN EP 151: COLIN – Marc Price
• ZOMBIE ZOMBIE: Driving Clip – Simon Gesrel & Xavier Ehretsmann
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Us Now – Ivo Gormley
• Tokyo Cowboys – Daneeta Loretta Saft & Patrick Jackson

After their successful collaboration on the decaying seaside town documentary Blackpool: Las Vegas of the North, directors Andy Capper & Leo Leigh have joined forces again and hit the streets of Swansea to produce their second film for VBS’ Rule Britannia series, Swansea Love Story. They both (separately) join us on the show this week to discuss their DIY methods for capturing the true lives of young and often homeless heron addicts.

Showlinks
VBS
SpineTV
The Plague Interview
Sony HVR-Z5
Heavy Metal in Baghdad

• Swansea Love Story – Andy Capper & Leo Leigh
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening
• DN Special: Joy Division – Grant Gee
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: Still Bill – Damani Baker & Alex Vlack

Swansea Love Story (2009)
Swansea Love Story, is the newest installment of VBS’ Rule Britannia series, and follows young heroin users in the city, their families and their daily routines.

• DN EP 150: Swansea Love Story – Andy Capper & Leo Leigh
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Us Now – Ivo Gormley
• Tokyo Cowboys – Daneeta Loretta Saft & Patrick Jackson
• They Turned Our Desert Into Fire – Mark Brecke

Despite the open mind I try to always bring to cinema, I have to admit that the term ‘British gangster film’ makes my heart drop involuntarily as I brace myself for a parade of wide boys with imaginatively descriptive names such as Fingers Charlie, running round with shooters, spouting Mockney. Director Ben Wheatley has shown me the error of my ways with his outstanding debut feature Down Terrace, a British film that is much more concerned with the ‘family’ portion of the term ‘crime family’ and how those closest to us are perhaps the ones we should fear the most.

Showlinks
Mr. and Mrs. Wheatley
Cunning Stunt
Modern Toss
Ideal
Rob Loves Kerry
Red Digital Camera Company

• Down Terrace – Ben Wheatley
• Down Terrace
• DN LFF09: Passenger Side – Matt Bissonnette
• DN LFF09: Men on the Bridge – Asli Özge
• DN LFF08: Tricks – Andrzej Jakimowski

Down Terrace (2009)
Bill and Karl have just got out of jail free but all is not well at Down Terrace. The family business just isn’t working out and Karl’s had more than he can take of his old man’s philosophising and preaching. Karl’s girlfriend is pregnant – by him? Who knows… Either way…a little information goes a long way and its definitely time for a spring clean. By any means necessary…

• Down Terrace
• DN EP 149: Down Terrace – Ben Wheatley
• Sugarhouse – Gary Love
• Lovers – Carl Zhang
• Hotel Harabati – Brice Cauvin

So once again it seems that the great films we curate here on Directors Notes refuse to be contained by our humble site and are making a break for the silver screen. This time round we’re honoured that CINECITY, the Brighton Film Festival, with whom DN has had links for many years, has given us a slot to strut our stuff.

Amongst the films selected by El Vez and myself, regular visitors will recognise a fair few past guests, with a couple you won’t (yet) have seen on the site. If you click on the video above, you can watch the trailer we’ve put together for the screening to get you in the mood for the evening’s entertainment. What could possibly make the screening even better? Well a cover charge of £0. Yep, it’s FREE entry too so there’s absolutely no excuse for missing it if you’re within a 200 mile radius of Brighton.

Another reason to come along, is that the spectacularly talented Kate Kamikaze has designed the brand new DN poster you can see below, along with accompanying postcards which should be getting their first public outing at the screening.

We’re really excited to be hosting an evening of some of our favourite shorts, massive thanks to all the directors and hope to see you there.

We shall be screening:

I Will Smash You – Michael Kimball & Luca Dipiero (7:15)
Stories of people smashing office environments, chairs, TVs, phones, cars and more. You’ve never seen anything like this before.
www.littleburnfilms.com

Jenifer – Stewart Copeland (4:25)
The film-maker explores his relationship with his mother through a recorded conversation between eighth-grade students and astronauts aboard the international space station.
www.gohomefatboy.com

Bathtub – M.A.Y.O. (3:25)
In a bathroom set with diamonds, white cake, and a porcelain claw-foot tub, a beautiful young woman readies for death. She’s hooked up to a machine, which instead of reading her vital signs emits a warning about the extinction of dinosaurs. In the minutes before her death, she practices a ritual to prepare herself for the unknown.
www.mindallyouroutsides.com

Spider – Nash Edgerton (9:00)
It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
www.bluetonguefilms.com

Voltage – Filipe Lyra & William Paiva (4:15)
Just like modular synthesizers, people connect with each other in order to achieve diverse objectives. In Voltage, robots, half-human and half-synthesizer, powered by a huge amount of energy, connect to each other in an electric and chaotic trance.
www.bamstudio.com.br/

Altar – Nathan Bezner (18:00)
A janitor cleans the same filthy toilet every day. As he begins to remove stranger and more bizarre objects from the commode, he discovers there may be more to his situation than he’d initially realized.
www.nightowlpictures.org

Cerrado Al Publico – Poet Zero (6:10)
A police officer and the barriers of understanding – physical and otherwise.
poetzerofilm.com

I Love Sarah Jane – Spencer Susser (14:16)
Ah, young love. The air seems clearer. The sun seems brighter. There’s a spring in the step. Too bad about the zombie apocalypse.
www.bluetonguefilms.com

• Twinklebum in New York
• Reading & Leeds Festival Time
• DN Hits the Festivals
• Dislocation Festival
• Carling Weekend Reading & Leeds ‘07

After reading about a group of desperate slum dwellers from Sri Lanka who daringly posed as the non-existent national handball team in order to secure their passage out of the country, producer Uberto Pasolini decided to temporarily sit in the director’s chair to bring their true life story to the big screen.

Showlinks
Machan
The Full Monty

• Machan – Uberto Pasolini
• DN LFF08: Quick Gun Murugan – Shashank Ghosh
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening
• Hotel Harabati Competition
• Herzog Gets the Treatment

Machan (2008)
Based on a true story, this tragicomical tale tells the story of a sports team with a difference… Living on the margins of society, under impossible pressures, a group of desperate slum dwellers find an invitation to a handball tournament in Bavaria, Germany. This one-way ticket to the West could be the answer to their prayers and a solution to all their problems… 

• DN EP 148: Machan – Uberto Pasolini
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Us Now – Ivo Gormley
• Tokyo Cowboys – Daneeta Loretta Saft & Patrick Jackson
• They Turned Our Desert Into Fire – Mark Brecke

You know the sinking, gut wrenching feeling you get when your favourite TV show up and quits at the height of its success, or that band you love and adore call it a day after just a couple of kick arse albums? Well that’s something I’d always presumed wasn’t a worry I’d ever need to have when it came to film festivals but no, Filmstock, DN’s festival of choice will be no more after this weekend! I sat down with co-founders/directors Neil Fox & Justin Doherty to chat over how Filmstock has developed over the years and why they weren’t joking back in 2003 when they told me Filmstock would be; “…the festival that goes up to 11″.

Showlinks
Filmstock
Zero Balance
Exploits Of A Cultural Saboteur
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
Tony Hendra

• Filmstock: Establishing a Film Festival
• Filmstock 9
• Filmstock 11: This is the End
• Filmstock 11: The Best of the Shorts
• Filmstock 11: Oil City Confidential

In the third installment of our daily Doc/Fest gems, Super 8 legend Norwood Cheek takes us through the Attack of the 50 Foot Reels filmmaking challenge.

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A Buzz Films Production

• Doc/Fest 09 – The International Pitch
• Doc/Fest 09 – Crossover Summit
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod03 – Daisy Asquith
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod02 – Emily James
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod01 – Lee Kern

Sheffield Doc/Fest day two sees six filmmakers pitch for a £10k DFID funded opportunity to create a 10 minute short for the Community Channel. Greg Sanderson chairs a panel of judges including Executive Producer Jane Stephenson.

.

A Buzz Films Production

• Doc/Fest 09 – Crossover Summit
• Doc/Fest 09 – Attack of the 50 Foot Reels
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod03 – Daisy Asquith
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod02 – Emily James
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod01 – Lee Kern

The time has come once again when the documentary film community converges on the city of Sheffield for Doc/Fest. With director Frank Boyd as their guide, Buzz Films‘ Jan Bednarz & Simon Wan captured the goings on at the inaugural Crossover Summit event.

.

A Buzz Films Production

• Doc/Fest 09 – The International Pitch
• Doc/Fest 09 – Attack of the 50 Foot Reels
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod03 – Daisy Asquith
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod02 – Emily James
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod01 – Lee Kern

Sadly, we’ve reached the last of our London Film Festival ‘09 afternoon tea interviews, but it’s a great one to go out on. I very selfishly took up a nice chunk of time with directors Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas, who were at LFF for the premiere of their much anticipated documentary, American: The Bill Hicks Story – a look at the life of one of the world’s greatest comedians and thinkers, as told by the family and friends who truly knew him.

Showlinks
American: The Bill Hicks Story
Bill Hicks.com
Waltz with Bashir
The Kid Stays in the Picture
La Jetee
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe After Effects

• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: The Whites Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights – Emmett Malloy
• DN LFF09: Still Bill – Damani Baker & Alex Vlack
• DN LFF09: Starsuckers – Chris Atkins

For his third feature Passenger Side, director Matt Bissonnette decided to go back to basics and the freedom that comes from shooting a film on a low budget, with a skeleton crew. We sat down over LFF tea and cakes to discuss the process of bringing his tale of road tripping, polar opposite brothers to the screen.

Showlinks
Matthew Bissonnette
Passenger Side

• DN LFF09: Men on the Bridge – Asli Özge
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: Trash Humpers – Harmony Korine
• DN LFF09: The Road – John Hillcoat
• DN LFF09: The Limits of Control – Jim Jarmusch

As a fan of many years and with a couple near misses in the past, today’s LFF interview is probably the highlight of the festival for me. It was my pleasure to spend some time (however brief) with director Harmony Korine, to discuss his latest offering Trash Humpers, along with the chances of us ever seeing the abandoned Fight Harm project surface.

• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: Still Bill – Damani Baker & Alex Vlack
• DN LFF09: Passenger Side – Matt Bissonnette
• DN LFF09: Men on the Bridge – Asli Özge
• DN LFF09: Enter The Void – Gaspar Noe

Today’s LFF afternoon tea interview is a doubleheader with co-directors Damani Baker and Alex Vlack, who after over 11 years of patient persistence, were able to bring their documentary Still Bill to the screen; a look at the life, relationships and of course music of the legend that is Bill Withers.

Showlinks
Still Bill

• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: 45365 – Bill Ross & Turner Ross
• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner
• DN LFF09: Trash Humpers – Harmony Korine
• DN LFF09: The Whites Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights – Emmett Malloy

Hailing from Germany’s Black Forest region, the artist simply known as Trimpin is a sonic experimenter, who combines the roles of inventor, engineer and composer, with a body of work that also defies categorization. Director Peter Esmonde joins us at the London Film Festival to discuss the challenges of creating a documentary which elucidates the creative process of such a indefinable artist.

Showlinks
Trimpin: The Sound of Invention
Trimpin

• DN LFF09: Still Bill – Damani Baker & Alex Vlack
• DN LFF09: 45365 – Bill Ross & Turner Ross
• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner
• DN LFF09: Trash Humpers – Harmony Korine
• DN LFF09: The Whites Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights – Emmett Malloy

Today’s LFF interview comes from Asli Özge whose debut feature Men on the Bridge began as a documentary concept to explore the distinct lives of three men working at the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul. However, after meeting her potential contributors during the research stage, Özge decided she could better serve their stories through fiction, employing two of them to take up roles as themselves in the feature.

Showlinks
Men on the Bridge

• DN LFF09: Passenger Side – Matt Bissonnette
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: Trash Humpers – Harmony Korine
• DN LFF09: The Road – John Hillcoat
• DN LFF09: The Limits of Control – Jim Jarmusch

Do you believe in true love? If so how do you go about finding that special, once in a lifetime person? These are the questions that send Charleyne Yi and a ‘documentary’ crew on a road trip across America, with a pit stop in Paris to see if the city of love can save her burgeoning romance with Michael Cera. Will they live happily ever after? Only if their Harley can outrun the cops and their bullets.

I got to sit down with Charleyne Yi and director Nicholas Jasenovec at the London Film Festival to discuss their documentary/fiction mashup feature Paper Heart.

Showlinks
Paper Heart
Panasonic Varicam

• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner
• DN LFF09: Up in the Air – Jason Reitman
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: The Whites Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights – Emmett Malloy
• DN LFF09: The Men who Stare at Goats – Grant Heslov

Kicking off our series of interviews from the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival, I got to chat to Bill and Turner Ross, brothers and co-directors of 45365; a verite feature documentary which explores the daily lives of the inhabitants of the American town (and hometown of the brothers Ross) – Sidney, Ohio.

If you happen to be reading this whilst the London Film Festival is in full swing, you can catch 45365 on the big screen on the 23rd and 26th of October.

Showlinks
45365
Panasonic AG-DVX100
SXSW

• DN LFF09: 45365 – Bill and Turner Ross
• 45365 – Bill Ross & Turner Ross
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: Still Bill – Damani Baker & Alex Vlack
• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner

45356 (2009)
45365 explores the congruities of daily life in an American town – Sidney, Ohio. Through a patient and inquisitive look at the lives and landscapes that make up this community of 20,000 people, it captures the complexities and ambiguities of their shared experience. Conclusions are left to the audience as the component characters speak and act for themselves, as themselves. These storylines eventually coalesce into a mosaic of faces, places, and events. It is an inquiring look at everyday life in middle America. From the patrol car to the courtroom, the playground to the nursing home, the parade to the prayer service, it explores their relationships and interactions – with each other and their environment. Father and son, boyfriends and girlfriend, cop and criminal, officials and the electorate, patrons and providers – it is a portrait of the city and its people. – people somehow not unfamiliar in a landscape that becomes increasingly understood. Sidney is the small town experience. It is a community – of schools and sports and factories and neighborhoods and familiarity.

• DN LFF09: 45365 – Bill Ross & Turner Ross
• DN LFF09: 45365 – Bill and Turner Ross
• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: The Whites Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights – Emmett Malloy

When a person goes missing they leave both a mystery and a tragedy behind. Many filmmakers find themselves drawn to the inherent drama present in the mystery, but in his documentary The Space You Leave, director James Newton focuses on the tragic nature of such disappearances and the life long effects suffered by those who are left behind.

Showlinks
Quark Films
American Movie
Missing People
Wolfgang Tillmans
Sony HVR-V1

• The Space You Leave – James Newton
• Time Piece – Kat Mansoor
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• Keepintime: Talking Drums and Whispering Vinyl – B+
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening

The Space You Leave (2009)
Each year, an estimated 200,000 people are reported missing in the UK alone. But when a loved one goes missing, the space left behind in their families can mean a future trapped in a tortured present, one obsessed by the past.

• DN EP 147: The Space You Leave – James Newton
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Us Now – Ivo Gormley
• Trusted Computing – Benjamin Stephan & Lutz Vogel
• Tovarisch I Am Not Dead – Stuart Urban

We’re joined this week by past guest Luca Dipierro who has combined forces with author Michael Kimball to create I WILL SMASH YOU; a documentary which explores the personal thoughts and feelings associated with objects whilst providing catharsis and realization for its participants through conversation and destruction.

Showlinks
Little Burn Films
Michael Kimball
Luca Dipierro
Black Biscotti

• I WILL SMASH YOU – Michael Kimball & Luca Dipierro
• Time Piece – Kat Mansoor
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• Keepintime: Talking Drums and Whispering Vinyl – B+
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening

`I WILL SMASH YOU (2009)
I WILL SMASH YOU is a documentary film in which dozens of people each tell a story about an object that has some personal meaning for them and then destroy that object in whatever manner they wish. Michael Kimball interviews each person about their chosen object and the story behind it, which leads to amazing realizations, for both the subject and the viewer.

• DN EP 146: I WILL SMASH YOU – Michael Kimball & Luca Dipierro
• 24 Weeks, 3 Days – Luca Dipierro
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Us Now – Ivo Gormley
• Trusted Computing – Benjamin Stephan & Lutz Vogel

It’s always daunting confessing undying love for the first time. Even more so when the girl concerned thinks of you as her ‘little brother’. Throw in the confusion of arriving in a country where you don’t speak the language or even have the correct phone number for the object of your desire and you’re firmly in the shoes of director Alex Winckler’s protagonist Ralph in his short of the same name. Alex takes us through the hurdles of shooting abroad, with plans perhaps not as fully laid out as they could have been.

Ralph Materials
Script

Showlinks
Parkville Pictures
Alex’s BBC Film Network Page
Fulbright Scholarship
Shooting People
Cowards
Coming Up
UK Film Council
Future Shorts
Shorts International
Berlin International Film Festival

• Ralph – Alex Winckler
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN LFF09: Passenger Side – Matt Bissonnette
• DN LFF09: Men on the Bridge – Asli Özge
• DN LFF08: Tricks – Andrzej Jakimowski

Ralph (2008)
A teenage boy travels alone to Marseille to tell his best friend that he is in love with her but he hasn’t told her that he’s coming.

• DN EP 145: Ralph – Alex Winckler
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

Animation can be a long, arduous process that requires God like patients, however after taking part in a real-time arts project, director David Wilson discovered that combining praxinoscopes with custom record labels created a much faster form of animation that could be completed fully in-camera; without the need for any post or 3D manipulation. David joins us to discuss the process and why a hands on approach to working can lead to new creative discoveries.

We Got Time Materials
Making of Video

Showlinks
David Wilson Creative
David’s YouTube Channel
Metronomy – How Say
Praxinoscope
Blink Ink
Red Digital Camera Company
The Mill
BUG – The Evolution of Music Video
Colonel Blimp

• Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson
• DN EP 042: Auto Pilot, Distortion, Ping Pong & Biker Mike – Mike Chan
• Moros Eros: On My Side – Jesse Ewles
• Filmstock #8
• DN EP 141: Body – Zhivko Dimitrov

Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson (2009)
Using both praxinoscopes and the technique of matching up the frame rate of the spinning record to that of the camera, no computer super-imposing was used; what you see is what rolled off the camera. The transitions between each section of animation was created by simply cutting or wiping between the bits of footage.

• DN EP 144: Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson
• Moros Eros: On My Side – Jesse Ewles
• Auto Pilot, Distortion, Ping Pong & Biker Mike – Mike Chan
• _grau – Robert Seidel
• Weightless – Erika Janunger

This week’s DN guest Beeple is a director who works across many areas of film, including live action, music promos and animation. For his latest piece Beeple decided to widen his skill set by adding 3D animation to his arsenal and a mere 5 months later completed the frankly impressive continuously rotating, isometric perspective piece Subprime.

Subprime Materials
Stills
Renders

Showlinks
beeple.com
Nobot
Kyle Vande Slunt’s Vimeo Page
Donebestdone
The Crisis of Credit
ISO
Cinema 4D
Cartoon Smart: Perfect Isometric 3D Animation!

• Subprime – Beeple
• The Wonder Of Wes
• Filmstock #8
• DN EP 153: The Cat Piano – Eddie White & Ari Gibson
• DN EP 144: Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson

Subprime (2009)
Watch as the American housing market spirals out of control. An urgent cry for simplicity, Subprime uses a constantly rotating isometric perspective to illustrate the current subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. Every successive house that is built folds into itself and sprouts the growth of a bigger one, only to repeat the ultimately futile process again.

• DN EP 143: Subprime – Beeple
• _grau – Robert Seidel
• Zoo – Robin Bushell
• ZOMBIE ZOMBIE: Driving Clip – Simon Gesrel & Xavier Ehretsmann
• What We’ve Found Out About Stem Cells – Richard Fenwick