Bill Plympton in Edinburgh

This year's EIFF was great for animators. Watching the great Bill Plympton introduce Idiots and Angels, his new feature, was quite a treat – as was watching the film. Even better, Plympton was drawing pictures for everyone afterwards and selling artwork. We couldn’t resist a couple of preparatory sketches: one from Idiots and Angels and one from the brilliant short Hot Dog.


Here's the "asshole guy" who’s the main character in Idiots and Angels. Go and see the film if it’s screening anywhere near you.

we love you Ray Harryhausen

I cannot begin to tell you how excited we were to hear Ray Harryhausen speak at the EIFF's In Person event this afternoon. Harryhausen is a god among animators.

Favourite quote, on pre-Harryhausen special effects: "The dinosaurs were just men in dinosaur suits. They looked like refugees from a costume war. A five-year-old wouldn't believe they were dinosaurs."


Adam meets Harryhausen at the book signing.

pocket shorts panel

I've been invited to be a member of the panel at the EIFF Pocket Shorts launch event, Mobile content - new forms, platforms and opportunities for filmmakers. The focus of the panel is "Platforms and Opportunities" and other speakers are: David Farquhar, Shoreline Media/RSAMD (chair); Danny Meaney, New Media Partners; Derek Milne, Motorola; and Jason Hall, Teebster/Pocket Shorts. I’ll be introducing About Here and talking about the challenges and benefits of producing short films for the mobile platform

A second panel focusing on "The Filmmaker's Perspective" will be chaired by Jason Hall and will comprise: Anne-Claire Pilley, John MacLean, The Aliens; Simon Meek, Tern TV; and Robbie Allen, Scottish Screen.

It's all happening on Thursday, 26 June 2008 at 14:30 at the Apex Hotel.

EIFAC 2009 call for papers

I’m helping to organise the third Edinburgh International Film Audiences Conference. EIFAC 2009 will be held on 26-27 March 2009 at Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The call for papers is out now – abstracts need to be submitted by 31 August 2008.

So far we have several speakers confirmed: Ian Christie (Anniversary Professor of Film and Media History, Birkbeck, University of London) will be opening the conference and Sean Perkins (Research Executive, UK Film Council) is our closing speaker. We also have a plenary panel that will include Professor Martin Barker (Professor of Film and Television Studies,
Aberystwyth University, co-editor of Particip@tions), Emily Munro (Head of Learning, Glasgow Film Theatre) and Robin McPherson (Screen Academy, Napier University). Sounds good, doesn't it?


More information on the EIFAC website.

EIFF pocket shorts event

This year’s Pocket Shorts films will be launched during an industry event in the Edinburgh International Film Festival. The films will be screened as part of a panel event taking place on Thursday, 26 June 2008. I’m looking forward to seeing the work of the other Pocket Shorts film-makers – and to getting to know them at the party afterwards!

If you’ve got a delegate pass for the EIFF then come along to Mobile content - new forms, platforms and opportunities for filmmakers next Thursday afternoon.

and I wanna thank my mom…

Things are a lot less hectic around here now that Pocket Shorts is over. There will be new stuff to show soon and more About Here posts. But, in the meantime, I wanted to make sure that we’d thanked all the people without whom Pocket Shorts wouldn’t have been possible. These are the credits from the About Here films. Thanks, all of you.