Short Video from Indonesia Visit November 2013

Here's a short video from my trip to Indonesia.

Kieran Argo in Indonesia 2013

Thanks to British Council in partnership with Universitas Multimedia Nusantara, Universitas Ciputra and HelloFest, Jakarta.

Pictures from Indonesia 2013

Ahh... sweet memories of my fantastic trip to Indonesia for a series of talks in November 2013

Click here for pics

Surabaya, Thursday, 7 November 2013
Universitas Ciputra
“Snapshot Of Short Film And Animation Festival And Artwork In The Uk”
1. Encounters Short Film And Animation Festival
2. Animation In The Uk Today
3. Artist Dialogue With Local Animators

Jakarta, Friday, 8 November 2013
Atlet Century Park Jakarta Hotel, Senayan
Hellofest Masterclass With Kieran Argo

Jakarta, Saturday, 9 November 2013
Komplek Kolam Renang Senayan
Hellofest Anima Expo

Jakarta, Sunday, 10 November 2013
Komplek Kolam Renang Senayan
Hellofest Anima Expo

Jakarta, Monday, 11 November 2013
Universitas Multimedia Nusantara
Public Lecture And Q & A Session

Thanks to the British Council in London and Indonesia and HelloFest for all their hard work and friendly support! 

Floating Nowhere, Suspended in Dreams...

There's a fantastic equilibrium to be found from going to a festival in the freezing Nordic North when it is mixed with lovely warm people and great films. The traditional and famous sauna party only adds to the yin and yang of extremes. Some festivals can be a life-changing experience.The Tampere international short film festival is no exception and is responsible for changing the lives of many a filmmaker in a wholly positive way. Situated 100 odd miles North West of Helsinki and surrounded by lakes it is one of the most northerly and is the longest running short film festival in Europe (43 years old). Whilst the temperature at night can drop to minus 20c the hospitality inside the redbrick buildings mixed with the friendliness of delegates from all corners of the globe cannot fail to warm the bones especially when one or two Koskenkorva vodkas have been, err, sipped.

I've been attending the festival sporadically since 1995 and I'm glad to report it hasn't changed all that much - certainly not in any negative way. Being invited as a follow-up to Darren Walsh's live-animation exhibition at Encounters festival last September it was great to go back with an old friend and reminisce.  The most striking change is the scale; the festival has expanded and has managed to incorporate many of the surrounding (ex-factory) venues in a manageable and easily-accessible way.  It still manages to deliver an impressive range of screenings, special foci, workshops and special events. To see such consistency in programming over the years, especially considering the major changes that have affected all aspects of short film and animation production and distribution, the festival is like a true friend - one that you can always rely on but you don't necessarily see that often.

Paying particular attention to the Finnish national and international animated films I was impressed more by the Finnish offerings. The films from Katariina Lillqvist (Faruza), Jenni Rahkonen (Hanen Tilanne) and Heta Jaalinoja (My Baby Don't Love Me) all made a strong visual and narrative impact for various reasons. 

If there's one thing a good festival can do it is this: it can make you appreciate and share the love people have for their art and the life-affirming nature of short film. Where else, over the space of a few days, can you get to meet like-minded people from all over the world, share your passion for film and animation and leave with the knowledge that people can become great friends in a relatively short space of time?

Well done and warm thanks to the fabulous festival team for keeping this essential European short film celebration alive. 

If you get the chance, don't stay out in the cold - go!

http://www.tamperefilmfestival.fi/site/

http://wikitravel.org/en/Tampere

photo credit: Darren Walsh

The Future of Animation Event - Animated Encounters and Rushes Soho Shorts

The Future of Animation: Creative Advertising, at the Apple Store, Regent Street on Tuesday 26 July, 17:00.

Panel members

Kieran Argo, Animation Programme Manager, Animated Encounters (Chair)

Joan Ashworth, Head of the Animation, Royal College of Art

Darren Walsh, Director, Passion Pictures

Martina Bramkamp, Senior Lecturer, Kingston University

Philip Hunt, Creative Director, Studio AKA

Outline of Event

Hosted by Animated Encounters

The production of commercials continues to be the 'bread and butter' for many animation companies and often provides the only revenue that funds other productions such as short form and experimental work. With the prevalence of CG work expanding alongside traditional forms such as hand-drawn and stop-motion what are the pressures and constraints facing commercial animation production in today's market especially with the need to consider a multi-platform approach?

Our panel of established and creative professionals will consider implications in choosing CG over stop frame, cost vs creativity, and deliberate on what commercial agencies want and what school's are providing.

Nishith Takia, Shelley Page (picnic host) and Michael Rose

Matt Groening and Lou Beauchard

Matt Groening and (picnic host) Biren Ghose

Lou Beauchard, Nick Park

Vrej Kassouny, me

Annecy Day 4

Sorry for the delay, a few days late I know but I've been unable to get online.

Friday 11^th June 2010

Last full day here spent working at MIFA in the morning where I finally met Jackie Edwards from the BBC (Cbeebies). She gave me some other useful BBC contacts.

Spoke briefly with Anthony Utley from Live Frame Studios and we are looking forward to talking more back home.

Most of the afternoon was spent at the annual DreamWorks / Technicolor / Autodesk picnic in the park. Met our generous hosts Biren Ghose from Technicolor in Bangalore, India and Shelley Page, DreamWorks. This picnic is for me the most important gathering of the festival as the key companies and individuals are invited and the party begins. I met dozens of people including most of the people mentioned so far along with Kerry Drumm my ex-colleague and good friend. She and husband Steve are emigrating to Oz in a few months – she will be missed by many in the UK.

Matt Groening and David Silverman turned up, everyone’s cameras came out again.

Other festival folk I met include:

Expo Toons – Buenos Aires

Vrej Kassouny, 'ReAnimania' – Yerevan International Animation Festival, Armenia

Fredrikstad Animation Festival, Norway

Animayo – Canary Islands

Also, production companies:

My friend and ex-Aardman colleague Michael Rose from Magic Light Pictures in London, Producer of the multi-award winning ‘The Gruffalo’. (I’m very pleased to see ‘The Gruffalo’ picked up the Annecy award this year for Best TV Special - well deserved).

Bryant Whittle from the UK

Nishith Takia from Krayon Pictures, India

Emma McGonigle and Sophie Trainor from MPC in London. Sophie I’ve known for years from the days when she ran the superb London Effects and Animation Festival.

Back at the Bonlieu cafe I bumped into Dimitri Granovsky, Director of the top quality Georges Melies School of Animation and Vis. FX in Orly, France. He’s going to kindly look into sourcing a few films for one of my programmes.

After dinner with Nick, Angie and Lou I met up with Darren Walsh from Passion Pictures for a last few sups of ale at the rammed Cafe des Arts behind the old prison in the old town. The Cafe is a main hangout for festival-goers. Chatted to Gerben Schermer from the Holland Animation Festival and Spike from the Spike and Mike festival USA.

Didn’t manage to make it to the Argentina party unfortunately – too tired!

All Annecy awards were announced on Saturday, here's the link:

http://www.annecy.org/annecy-2010/festival/awards

Congratulations to the winners and everyone who made it into competition and participated this year.

A la prochaine Annecy!

The Finnish Sauna Party by the lake.

Marv Newland third from left.

Carolina Lopez from Barcelona

Lou Beauchard from Paris

Spike from the Spike & Mike Festival (California) with his usual understated head-dress.

Annecy Day 3

Thursday 10^th June 2010

Je suis fatigue!

Started the day at MIFA following up some new contacts.

It’s a HOT day and the UK stand is not benefitting from the air-con system.

Managed to step outside for a catch-up with my friend Lou Beauchard – a young French Animator/Director, Armaturist and Sculptor. She’s made a good small film based loosely on Wilde’s ‘Dorian Gray’.

Lunch with my old friend Carolina Lopez from Barcelona. Carolina is Executive Producer at the production company ‘8deAgosto’.

Other people I met today:

Andrew Simmons – Animation Supplies manufacturer.

Sylvain Vaucher – from SwissFilms who kindly gave me the latest Swiss shorts DVD to consider.

Peter Parr from the newly named Arts University College Bournemouth.

Alex St George from Skillset Academy Wales.

Russell Taylor from 16 03 Films in Edinburgh.

Marta Jiminez Pumares – Exec. Producer from Forma Animada in Seville.

Tina Klemmensen – Illustrator from Denmark and ex-Aardman colleague from way back.

Vrej Kassouny – Festival Director from ReAnimania in Yerevan.

Without a ticket I managed to follow Dave Sproxton, Angie Last and Natalie Martin from Aardman into the Simpsons show thanks to Angie’s persuasive techniques.

The Simpsons show was hilarious, as expected. The auditorium was packed.

After swiftly visiting the Finnish Sauna Party by the lake (I love the way the Finns pack with them their strong drink, saunas and folk songs – how I miss the Tampere festival!), then the Gobelins School party where I met Fumi Kitahara (ex-DreamWorks Publicity) and meeting Paul Driessen again with the marvellous director Marv Newland (Rocketship) a small group of us finally managed to get out to the Passion Pictures villa out of town to have a long chat with Hugo Sands and Darren Walsh by the lakeside. It was without doubt the most picturesque meeting environment I’ve ever experienced. A large Otter like mammal was spotted by Hugo as it swam past us - Hugo couldn’t quite remember the correct name in French but it looked like a big Otter to me. I really appreciated Hugo and Darren’s time and it was really useful to discuss possible ways for future collaboration between Passion Pictures and Animated Encounters.

A storm was brewing, the wind picked up considerably, lightning and thunder rolled in so some of us made a dash for the very rare and very expensive taxis back into town.

Annecy day 2

Ross Garner- Stop Motion Pro

Maggie Ellis - Film London

Juan Pablo Zaramella - Director and Jury Member

Jayne Pilling and Michel Ocelot

Clifton Village Characters copyright Big Squid 2010

Abi Feijo and Regina Pessoa

Gin Piau from the British Embassy, Paris

Annecy Day 2

Wednesday 9^th June 2010

Today is the first day of the MIFA (The International Market of Animated Film). Animated Encounters is part of the UK stand kindly supported by the British Embassy in Paris and South West Screen in Bristol. I had a good chat with Gin Piau from the British Embassy who is in charge of the participation of British companies throughout the key French market events such as Annecy. Gin and Sophie Debodisco – Senior Trade Advisor (UKTI) have been incredibly helpful with their support for the British contingency as has the ultra-organised Johanna Bolhoven from South West Screen who has been responsible for bringing the group together and organising the whole UK MIFA presence with great professionalism and friendliness.

It was great to have Juan Pablo Zaremella drop by the UK stand - he's on the Graduation Film Jury along with Nick P. and Peter De Seve.

There is a real camaraderie and friendship between the Annecy attendees (both old and new) and that is one of the unique features of Annecy.

I managed to catch up with my old friends Abi Feijo and Regina Pessoa from Portugal. Two of the nicest people you are ever likely to meet. If they were a bottle of Port they would be Vintage but with a Ruby character as well.

My highlight of the morning was hooking up with Ross Garner and Paul Howell. These guys co-own Stop Motion Pro (SMP) – the leading industry standard software for stop-frame animation. I had a good talk with Ross about festival involvement and he kindly gave me a demonstration of their latest SMP 3D system – it really is something to behold – a fine thing of beauty and something I think everyone interested in stop-mo animation should check out – maybe something you will be able to see in action during Animated Encounters in November (18-20^th in case you’ve forgotten already)....watch this space!

The lovely Maggie Ellis from Film London arrived mid-afternoon and we chatted about funding issues and opportunities. She is Head of Production and Talent Development at Film London and is as keen as I am to develop new opportunities for new talent. Hopefully I will be speaking again to Maggie in the near future.

Just before the 4pm competition screening I managed to catch Hugo Sands and Andrew Ruhemann from Passion Pictures. I wish to talk more with them about a possible presentation of some of their work. I’m also dead keen on seeing Andrew’s new film that's in competition 'The Lost Thing' (nice strawberries Andrew!).

Across the tables was my old festival chum Peter Lord who was chatting with Hannah Minghella – President of Production at Sony Pictures Animation. Hmmm...I wonder if there is any scope for new productive relations between Animated Encounters and Sony Pictures Animation....

Managed to watch the International Competition 3 programme – What a mixed bunch of stuff there was - some good - some baaad! Had to pinch myself to check reality on a few occasions.

Mr Darren Walsh from Passion has arrived. Arranged to catch up tomorrow.

Had dinner with Jayne Pilling (Director of the British Animation Awards) and met Michel Ocelot – one of the true greats – who was collecting signatures in celebration of Nicole Salomon – Nicole was someone everyone at Annecy used to see every year doing what she has always done best – promoting and celebrating the artform and its creators. Hats off to Nicole!

Annecy would not be complete without the larger than life Spike, with small hat as always, from the Spike and Mike festival of animation (California).

Ended up in the Captain’s Pub (English pub) on a strict two pint limit (almost) with Andy Wyatt from Falmouth. We failed. It was good to meet two of Andy's students and hear their experiences of Annecy so far.

I was very pleased to meet up with Phil Davies from Astley Baker Davies - the company that brought us the hugely successful pre-school series 'Peppa Pig'. I'm looking for an opportunity to chat more with Phil to persuade him to maybe bring a show to Bristol....