DUCK director Richard Cullen has been nominated for a BIMA award for animating the music video to Darren Hayes’s “Who Would Have Thought.” This is wonderful news for Richard who is getting set to release the animated film This Delicate Film We’ve Made which will be released on Dec 1. It will later be released on iTunes worldwide February 2009.

BIMA is the industry association representing the interactive media and digital content sector.  It supports individuals and organisations which deliver high quality, creative and innovative, interactive media solutions. It strives to stimulate commercial growth, and acts as an industry liaison with academia and government through the provision of knowledge, encouragement and economy; BIMA is a united voice for its members and strives to develop an internationally competitive new media industry in Britain.

I caught up with Richard to congratulate him on the nomination. Here’s what he had to say about being nominated:
“It’s a massive compliment to be short-listed. I am, to use my favourite word, chuffed. Although I haven’t quite processed it yet - it feels as though it’s happened to someone else.

I certainly didn’t anticipate [being nominated]. It’s always strange for me to think of people even seeing my work, so to consider the idea that people might discuss it, or consider it worthy of this kind of attention is a bit beyond me, really.”

The Los Angeles screening of Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues was a triumphant success. Not only did the film sell out at REDCAT, but there was a line about 30 deep around the corner waiting to get in this past Monday night. The crowd loved the film! It’s a real testament to the remarkable film Nina has made. If you have not yet seen the film, please make sure to visit www.ninapaley.com where you can find a list of upcoming festivals where it will be screening.

Nina was unable to attend the screening, but she was so kind as to answer a few questions for us. Thanks Nina!

How would you describe the style of animation you have employed in the film?
2-D vector with some 2-D raster. I used several visual styles: a colorful cut-out style mixing fantasical cartoony “ancient India” motifs with Bollywood/Busby Berkley/Fleischer influences; fake shadow puppets inspired by traditional Indonesian, Malaysian, Cambodian, Thai and Indian designs; collages from pieces of printed Hindu devotional cards; fake Mughal miniature paintings (hand-painted by me using watercolor on parchment); straight-ahead free-hand animating in Flash; and hand-traced rotosope.

What prompted you to tell a story based on the Ramayana?
Oh my goodness. I moved to Trivandrum, India in 2002, following my then-husband. I read the Ramayana for the first time there, and was puzzled by what at first seemed like Sita’s extraordinarily submissive
behavior in the story. Then I went on a business trip to New York, and my husband dumped me by email. That changed my whole understanding of Sita and the Ramayana. I also heard the songs of Annette Hanshaw at that time, and everything came together.

How long did it take you to make this film?
3 years of work spread over 5 years of time.

What’s next for you after all the screenings are over? I hear you’re helping a fellow animator edit down a film. Is that correct?
Nope, but I’m available. I’m so busy trying to keep “Sita” going, it’s a full-time job except it doesn’t pay. I might write a graphic novel about my experiences with film festivals, the Movie Biz, the Law, and bed bugs. It’s been quite a year.

Where are you based?
New York, at the moment.

What is your current involvement with DUCK? Any DUCK-related projects coming down the pike?
If anyone sees my work on DUCK’s reel and says “I want Paley!” I am so there. It hasn’t happened yet, and I’ve been too busy to pitch, but I’m very happy to be represented that way. Mark Medernach has been a
huge supporter of “Sita,” and you can tell from the roster of DUCK animators that he understands and supports animation as art, not just commerce.

Has your film been a finalist or winner of any awards?
“Best Feature Film” Annecy International Animation Festival 2008
“Best American Feature” Avignon Film Festival 2008
“Best Script” (!) Athens International Film Festival 2008
Honorable Mention, “Best Animated Feature” Ottawa Animation Festival
2008
Special Mention, Generation 14-Plus, Berlinale 2008

Do you have a distribution deal in place?
Not yet, but it will probably be released in France before the US.

Do you think Sita could work on a TV channel in India like Hungama, or would your interpretation of the Ramayana be considered too liberal?
The political climate in India makes “Sita” a risky proposition there, but some Indian festival directors are interested. They have to get it past their committees, which are rightfully anxious about possible controversy. The film presents the Ramayana as several stories in several traditions, while certain Hindutva nationalist parties in India insist there’s only one Ramayana - theirs - and attack any dissent. Salil Tripathi recently wrote an article about exactly this in the Far East Economic Review.

Don’t forget to check out the animated feature film Sita Sings the Blues tonight at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles at 8:30 p.m. The film is by DUCK director Nina Paley. For more details, see the blog below from last week.

Independent documentary and 2008 Sundance finalist Up the Yangtze will be screening for FREE today at the University of Southern Cailfornia (USC). I previously blogged about this monumental documentary back in May when director Yung Chang was in town to promote the film. Once again, Chang returns to LA to provide a Q&A with students.

The screening is today at 2 p.m.
University Park Campus
Taper Hall of Humanities
201

For details, please visit: http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/32/event/867098

Mark your calendars now! Animator extraordinaire and DUCK director Nina Paley will be screening her first animated feature film, Sita Sings the Blues, at REDCAT in Los Angeles on Monday, October 13 at 8:30 p.m.

In her first feature-length film, comic strip artist-turned-filmmaker Nina Paley juxtaposes multiple narrative and visual styles to create a highly entertaining and affecting vision of the Ramayana — the ancient Sanskrit epic and essential fixture of the Hindu canon. Musical numbers choreographed to the 1920s-era jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw spin off an astonishing whirlwind of flying monkeys, evil monsters, gods, goddesses, warriors, sages, and winged eyeballs. The film spans continents and millennia in parallel stories of two wives being unfairly dumped, one in the American autobiographical present, the other in the mythical Indian past. Three hilarious Indonesian shadow puppets narrate both the ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the epic.

We will  be chatting with Nina sometime between now and the screening, so make sure to add us to your RSS feeds, or check back often.

Tickets are $9 at the door or $7 with a student I.D.
(REDCAT is housed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall at 2nd Ave and Grand Ave in downtown LA.)

For the official blurb on the REDCAT page, visit: http://redcat.org/season/0809/fv/paley.php
For a complete list of all cities that will be screening Sita Sings the Blues for the remainder of 2008, please visit www.ninapaley.com

A few months ago I interviewed one of our newer directors, Richard Cullen. He recently completed work as the editor of the DVD concert video by Darren Hayes, “The Time Machine Tour.” The DVD debuted at #1 in the UK around July 22. Kudos to Richard (and Darren) and apologies for not blogging about this sooner.

Next up for Richard is another DVD titled This Delicate FILM We’ve Made. It’s due out in December and will feature 13 music videos off Darren’s last album. The majority of the films will be animated with Richard having animated and directed the majority of those. I’m sure it will be another #1 hit in the UK with a large following worldwide as well!

Rejected is a student film from UC Santa Barbara from 1999. You should watch it. That’s why i’ve embedded the YouTube spot below. Yes, I’m trying to make things easier for everyone. The film is by Don Hertzfeldt. He has a rather postmodern (i hate the word) website at www.bitterfilms.com where he talks about his upcoming film I Am So Proud of You. The website also is the only place where you can buy merchandise from his sundry films. So if you want a shirt with a picture of “My spoon’s too big” on it, then you are in luck! Don has made numerous films over the last 9+ yrs and has won innumerable awards at film festivals around the globe. I envy him in a way because he proves that you don’t have to be a talented artist to make great animation. You just have to be clever and tell a story. The medium is the message, after all. Wait, that doesn’t seem to make sense here. Nevertheless, enjoy!!!…

I recently met a new Belgian filmmaker who’s bringing a fresh and clever style of short films to Hollywood. The filmmaker in question is Maxime Brulein, head of Two M Films. Maxime’s films have been screened at the Belgian Consulate in Los Angeles and have a following online through YouTube. They are throw-backs to the witty short films of the 60s and 70s, particularly in Europe. I myself am a big fan of Miss Heaven Lee

Check out Maxime’s YouTube site at: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrDirector 

I spoke to Maxime, and he was kind enough to update us on his current projects:

Current projects and biggest influences
I just finished my thesis film for UCLA, called ‘Trouble On a Plane’.  The six minute short film is a homage to my biggest influence and master Alfred Hitchcock.  I shot it the way Hitchcock would have done it, using specific colors, specific camera angles and specific camera movements.  Even the story is very Hitchcock, being a murder mystery … With a twist.
Next to that I’ve been asked to write the pilot script for a possible TV series and I’m going to be working closely with a Mexican director on a concept I came up for, a historical drama set in both Belgium and Mexico.  This project should be shot in the next two years.  Meanwhile, I’m also writing a script about an American art history student who goes to the Belgian medival town of Ghent to write her thesis.  I’m planning to shoot it in Belgium next summer.

Below is a brief bio on Mr. M:

Born and raised in Belgium, Maxime Brulein got bitten by the movie bug at age three while watching his first Disney movie.  At 12, his parents gave him a Single 8mm camera which he used to shoot his very first short films, in which he would cast his younger sister and his cousins.  Considering that most of his cousins were girls, much of his early work resulted in an all female cast.  At 18, he started the NARAFI film school in Brussels, but left after two weeks, feeling that the courses were concentrated too much on the technical aspect of filmmaking and not enough on the creative side of it.  After graduating college with a master’s degree in Tourism Economy and Marketing, he traveled around the world, working as a tour guide in Florida, California, Italy, Tunisia , etc…  After working as an Assistant Production Coordinator on the Warner Brother’s feature A Dog Of Flanders, he ended up in Los Angeles in 1998, where he started UCLA Film school.  He has since then made about 15 short films, a seven webisode long internet series and it currently working on two feature scripts. 

The California International Animation Festival will take place this year on Saturday, July 19 in lovely Modesto, CA. DUCK’s Shih-ting Hung’s “Viola: The Traveling Rooms of a Little Giant” will be screening at the festival around 3:30 p.m. Tickets are available at: http://www.calanifest.com/ for $10 in advance.

This looks to be an up-and-coming event, but it looks like a great place to meet some exciting new and emerging talent! It’s sponsored by Animation Magazine.