Right, hello, cheers for reading this. Welcome to day three of this Cartoon Forum blog. I’m writing this back at in my hotel room at the end of the event, so this’ll be the last ‘proper’ blog. I’ll spend a bit of time going back through what I have blarted out on here and tidying it up and making the whole thing somehow presentable for publication in the magazine. This opening paragraph will probably be the first thing to get edited out. You big bastards.
So today was the day most of the Brit projects were wheeled out, and following the daily ‘Croissant Show’ it was clear we were in for some real treats. For the first time I was torn between my choices of what to see. A trailer for a project about a super hero who uses soul music – called ‘Soul Man’, seemed the clear choice, the project looked funny and the trailer was crammed with great fully realised CG animation. Next up, however, we were shown a trailer for the opposing project; ‘Majorettes’. Containing absolutely no animation, and no dialogue, the trailer was knocked up using only concept work, but presented in such a clever way that it got the story and characters across brilliantly, and looked fascinating. I decided to go for Majorettes – surely another lesson that yet again less is more and ideas and presentation can be everything. Less is more, and you can’t say that enough.
First on the bill though was the Brit project in development ‘Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost’, from Hibbert Ralph animation. The trailer for this comprised more or less solely of a static CG turnaround, although the studio cleverly threw in a surprise that managed to cause a room full of seven hundred people to jump. What I found even more impressive is that they showed the exact same turnaround during their pitch and a woman in front of me actually jumped again, despite knowing the surprise. ha haa.
Originally written in 1887, the Canterville Ghost is one of Wilde’s most enduring stories. As the studio conceded, it has been made for tv and film before – even as an animated movie. However, this version is a very promising looking adaptation, and now it only has gone and got the backing of Stephen bloody Fry. Fry’s production company ‘Sprout Pictures’ is on board, and the National ‘wonky nosed Twitter fan Belgium runaway’ Treasure has also lent his voice to the project. I’m not sure if having Fry on board an Oscar Wilde project is impressive, or simply just inevitable. However, surely having the Wilde ‘cultural guardian’ lend his seal of approval is as near to making this an official project as you are likely to get. Especially as the writer’s works are public domain and any old two bit production house could trot out their version if they fancied it.
I don’t know if it’s worth mentioning figures that are bandied around here. The budget attached to the Canterville Ghost, for example, was 8 million Euros. The budget of any project tended to sit between 2.5 million Euros and 15 million Euros. Mostly all of the 56 projects pitched over the past two days are after some form of financial backing, which adds up to quite a bit. I know that these figures sound like a lot of money to me and you, but the weird thing is that after two days of these numbers being tossed about with abandon, you find yourself nodding away when a project is announced as having a budget of 2.5 million, murmuring, “ooh, that’s cheap” to nobody in particular.
What’s even odder is that films cost less to make at the moment. It’s not that they are cheaper to produce, but cutbacks during this current financial climate have meant producers have to deal with less money. When you take into account the fact that attendence figures at Cartoon Movie are up 40% over three years, but production costs have dipped, this does leave the question; why is there such a rapid growth despite more competition and lower funding? The answer, given by Marc Vandeweyer, the director of Cartoon Movie, is that there is simply creativity in Europe. Projects are creatively driven, and it’s hard for things such as budget constraints to hold that back. Given the recent loss of the UK Film Council and the axe that currently hangs precariously over MEDIA, lets hope that this statement proves to be true.
Projects in Concept saw a pitch from the well respected brit animation house Nexus. I last time I saw the Nexus lads in conversation with Paul Wells at the Bradford Animation Festival. There, they tantalisingly hinted that they were considering making a feature film. Here, they revealed that was all bollocks. They weren’t considering making a feature at all. Given the quality of the work on display here today, they must surely have been working on this movie for ages.
Cog tells the story of the conflict between the privileged ‘cute’ animal kingdom – rabbits, deer, etc – and the outcast vermin of the world. Taking centre stage is a brown rat who discovers he has a wonderful singing voice and realises that, if he disguises himself as a cute white mouse, he could make something of his life. Further comic relief is supplied by two crazy cockroaches. The animation tests we were shown contained a real ‘Despicable Me’ feel to them, managing to successfully tread the line between cute and rebellious. At it’s heart is a story of acceptance and realisation, with a social commentary on community. I caught up with the Nexus lads and asked if there was any comment on race in their film, which they were quick to deny, but I guess when your story feaures a black rat dressing as a white mouse such comparisons may inevitably be drawn.
Other films in concept that are worthy of note included ‘Elvis’, from Superprod, and ‘Little Caribou’ from Barley Films. This particularly had visuals that were haunting and mesmerising, and a story that was both succinct and spell binding, to such an extent that it was rewarded with a rousing round of applause.
‘The Jungle’, a project in development, is a film that is never going to have a huge audience. This was reflected by the low audience turnout for this pitch, but fortunately Quark films seemed aware of this, and accepting of it, and delivered a brilliant pitch nonetheless. It is a pity that events like this sadly always favour the commercial projects, so ‘3D Santa Wank’ packs out the seats, while this project, an intelligent adaptation of an Upton Sinclair novel (he of ‘Oil’, which became ‘There will be Blood’) fails to draw the crowds. Quark, who made their mark with their award winning graduation film Milk Teeth, are working on bringing the book to life with Firkafilm, and have developed an interesting method of producing Rembrant style painterly animation in a relatively quick way that loses nothing in visual quality. The story, following a Lithuanian couple who head to 1908 Chicago, slowly have all their dreams destroyed as they suffer poverty, prison and rape, all within a butcher community, that happens to be a city within a city. The protagonists remain hopeful against all odds. Given that this film is being served up against a slew of commercial, colourful zany kids popcorn flicks, I hope that Quark remain hopeful too. This is a film that deserves to get made, and having already gained interest from Film4 (a reliable supporter of films such as this) and the UK film Council, I really hope it bears fruit.
The final Brit project of the day was ‘My Haunted House’, a project in concept from Gravy Media / Partizan. Ultimately a film in CG, this was pitched entirely using 2d illustrations. The story centers around a young boy who lives with his family, who happen to all be ghouls, ghosts, monsters and beasties. A few nice gags were thrown in for good measure, including Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein visiting marriage guidance councilors. The style of the illustrations was, fittingly, very close to the old IPC ‘Shiver and Shake’ comics. I put this to the brain behind the project, and designer of the work, Alex Williams, who cries with delight, revealing that he grew up reading these very comics. It would be lovely then to see the film rendered in the style, but CG is the way forward. Incidentally, it turns out that Williams is the son of one Richard Williams. Not that Alex is prepared to reveal this himself. Indeed, he doesn’t mention his famous connection once. Not that you can blame him. I’m sure it would be easy to crow about having having such a well respected father, but Alex is getting plenty of attention for all the right reasons, and it is well deserved.
Immediately following their pitch, ‘My Haunted House’ discovered notes of interest waiting for them in their pigeon holes, despite their worries to the contrary. However, Cartoon Movie is not a place where deals are struck there and then. The process of getting a cheque handed over takes time, and many people I have spoken with who have had some form of success at Cartoon Movie have it in the following weeks. Many assistants are here, who’s job it is to go back to the money people with a list of films they consider suitable. There are many fine, deserving films here waiting to get off the blocks, so lets hope some chequebooks get dusted off in the next few weeks…