BBC WebWise - Social Media Basics

Does the world of social media confuse and perplex you? Have no fear! Simply visit the BBC WebWise website and watch these 9 short films in which Jim Hammersmith will explain the basics.

The films were written by me and directed by George Sander-Jackson. They were produced by Arthur Cox and Aardman. Jim Hammersmith is played by Chris Grimes who also did the voice of Little Face in my short film of the same name.

Even if you are not confused and/or perplexed by social media watch the films anyway, you may still enjoy them.

toronto zoo polar bears

It is a new year and once again I am going to make an effort to keep this blog up to date (a statement I make at least once a year on this blog). It is two months short of a year since my last update so I'm not going to bother going over everything I have been up to in that time except for this ad campaign for Toronto Zoo that I directed in the middle of last year. It was a short and fun job with results that pleased me. Not sure why I never posted it before as it has been online ages now but here it is. They were produced by Arthur Cox and Aardman, I directed and animated all of them except for "Skills" which was animated by Felix Massie.

Blubber


Seasick


See My Breath


Lost


Skills


One thing that was particularly exciting for me about this campaign was that it is the first time that artwork of mine has made its way on to merchandise. If you would like to own this rather nice colouring book or jigsaw puzzle sporting my complex and detailed polar bear artwork you can purchase them from the Toronto Zoo website.

jumped out of a plane

I had an amazing experience on Saturday when I took part in a skydive at Skydive Cornwall in Perranporth to raise money for The Vanessa Grant Trust. It nearly didn't happen due to cloudy weather but it cleared up at about 3pm and the skydiving was able to commence. Fourteen people took part (although due to delay from weather a few people are doing their jump next week instead) and about £3000 has been raised so far so thank you to everyone who donated.

Ending on a Right Stuff moment.

jumping out of a plane

This weekend (more precisely Saturday 27th of March 2010) I will be jumping out of a plane. Unlike my previous attempts at jumping out of planes this will be an organised skydive and, even better then that, it will be for charity.

The skydive is to raise money for The Vanessa Grant Trust and has been organised by my cousin Ross Sundercombe. It will take place at Skydive Cornwall at Perranporth Airfield in Cornwall and there is about 14 people taking part. We will be jumping throughout the day on Saturday. I hope to have my jump filmed (I don't think I will be able to wear my glasses or contacts so this way I still get to see it properly myself) and I will post the video at a later date. If the weather is bad and we are unable to jump then the skydive will be re-scheduled to a later date.

Of course the purpose of this post is to look for sponsorship (that being the case I should have written this post a few weeks ago but I neglected to think of the usefulness of my blog for such purposes) and I would love unconditionally* anyone who would like to make a donation.

If you would like to make a donation just email me (my address is on my website - link to the left) or DM me on twitter and let me know how much you would like to donate and I will get back to you about collecting payment (easiest is cheques made out to "Vanessa Grant Trust"**). Donations will still be accepted after the event up until the end of April.

For those who worry I am going to be getting a free skydive at their expense I am paying for the skydive myself (not the whole skydive, just my jump) so put your minds at ease. I'd feel guilty otherwise.

For those who donate or have already donated - Thank you very very much!

*conditions apply

**A few people have mentioned justgiving.com as a good way of collecting donations which is true but unfortunately not suitable in this case. Here's the info I got from my cousin - the reason is that my cousin Ross and his girlfriend Lauren work under the umbrella of the Vanessa Grant Trust and are personally involved in projects that the charity support, in particular the Vanessa Grant School in Kenya. They travel to Kenya twice a year to work at the school. Therefore they have an agreement with the charity that means the money they raise is specifically used for the projects they work on. Money that is raised through justgiving.com goes directly in to the charity's pool of money and it is more difficult to keep track of the total amount raised and it can end up distributed elsewhere. Therefore the money is raised in the form of cash and cheques and is then sent on to the Vanessa Grant Trust as a bulk donation which subsequently directly funds the projects that Ross and Lauren are involved in. I think I have explained that right.***

***You can tell the value of this blog post by the addition of small print.

Mother of Many wins BAFTA

Arthur Cox director Emma Lazenby's film Mother of Many won the BAFTA for short animation last night. Congratulations to Emma who fought off a Gruffalo and a Happy Duckling to obtain the prize.

Christmas in Wonderland available on iTunes

John and Karen and Operator are available as a very reasonably priced double-bill from iTunes. They've been on there for a while but it only just occurred to me to add a link to my website and blog. I made a nice image for you to click on, to the right of this page, if you wish to make a purchase.

In the 'more by this director' portion of the iTunes page you will see that I also starred alongside the late Patrick Swayze in Christmas in Wonderland. My memory of this is unclear however, it was probably during my post-Little Face dark period.

British Animation Awards Public Choice

Anyone who likes Adam Buxton or animated yellow blobs on legs may be pleased to know that my film Little Face (which features both), that I co-directed with Ben Lole, is being screened tomorrow  night (the 9th February 2010) at the Watershed at 6pm as part of the British Animation Awards: Public Choice 3.



If you go along you will also have the opportunity to vote for your favourite film, which may or may not be Little Face. A list of all venues and dates for the BAA: Public Choice screenings can be found here.

I perhaps should have blogged this sooner to give people more time to change the plans they have already made for tomorrow night but unfortunately I didn't.

my baa

The awards at the British Animation Awards are all individual pieces of artwork by various artists and animators. This year I was asked to make one so I did a painting that you can see below.

It is currently obscured by the layers of plastic and cardboard that I wrapped it in ready for the journey to London in care of the Royal Mail. I will post a proper picture of the painting when they are all officially unveiled. In the meantime just create a mental picture of it with the help of the following fact: It is mostly blue and depicts ninety sheep.

Congratulations to Emma Lazenby for her BAFTA nomination! Her new film Mother of Many has been nominated in the Short Animation category. Well done Emma!



In unrelated news, I hosted a Ghostbusters evening on Saturday night. Both Ghostbusters films, Chinese takeaway (representing the last of the petty cash), marshmallows (pretended they were Stay Puft) and gin (because, you know... it's a spirit). It was the sort of evening I always imagined I would have to enjoy alone until I suggested it. Most exciting of all was that the evening was attended by a BAFTA nominee!

what I have been doing and what I wish I could do

I have just finished a two and a half minute animation for Friends Provident insurance that I have been working on since just before Christmas. It was all about ribbons representing our journey through life. I will post it at some point if I am allowed to.
 

Now that is done I have a few short films scripts I need to get written while I have a gap between jobs. I am quite anxious to make another short film now and have a few ideas and oppurtunities that I need to follow up.

On an entirely unrelated but far more blog worthy note here is a fantastic video I just found, depicting a journey through the known universe. That is a journey I would like to take. It's produced by the American Museum of Natural History which is one of the significant reasons why I wish I lived in New York.

Even though I have embedded the video it is best to watch it on youtube in HD.



You see? Fantastic.

Watching it made me think of a book I really love and will now recommend - Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon

the life and death of salary man snowman (kim)

What follows is a sequence of pictures depicting the snowman I made last week when it snowed. I was on my way to work and found this big almost untouched area of snow. I decided to build the biggest ball I could manage and two hours later the ball had become this snowman. I was quite pleased with him and was hoping to depict his slow liquid demise over the following days. I decided to call him Kim. Sadly he came to a decidedly violent end...

06/01/10 Morning

For scale purposes here is a picture of me standing next to the snowman Kim soon after completion.

06/01/10 Evening

 

That evening I was pleased to see that the snowman Kim was still intact, although he had gained anatomical accuracy at some point during the day, as well as the words 'save me'.

06/01/10 Evening

 

Here is a profile shot showing the aforementioned anatomical application. Note the tire mark of a bicycle tread at the base.

07/01/10 Morning

 

The following morning snowman Kim had lost his gender specification. It is unclear how.

07/01/10 Evening

 

By the evening snowman Kim was no more.

 07/01/10 Evening

 
Having surveyed the scene of the crime I pieced together what I believe to have taken place. Having decided to ignore the words 'save me' a group of at least two (two being the minimum required to form a group) people attacked snowman Kim violently from the right hand side (snowman Kim's left) with a succession of kicks and punches (maybe even a drop-kick or two). The head probably went early on and was subsequently stamped to pieces, leaving nothing but an eyebrow and a bit of nose left for identification. Snowman Kim was also whacked with bits of evergreen tree, leaving various remnants of pine needles and trigs lodged in his neck and torso. Having failed to fell the remains of snowman Kim's body the group moved on. Probably to knock down a carefully stacked tower of cards or put cigerettes out on an infants birthday cake.

It is unclear what time snowman Kim was destroyed but he barely lasted past 24 hours, if that.

The good news is my new year resolution is to update this blog more often. It looks nicer now so I can bare to do so.

salary man snowman

I couldn't get the blog link on my website working for a while. It is working now though.

It snowed today (and a bit last night). This is a great event. It took me three hours to walk to work. First I strolled around the park, then I stopped to make a snowman, and then I threw snowballs at the ice on the river.

I built this salary man snowman as a tribute to all those who have to work today. Technically I am one of them so I have a few hours to make up.

reboot

Just been re-designing my website and this blog to make it in to something more pleasing to the eye. There are still a few creases to iron out and an extra layer of polish to add but it's already much nicer then the previous one I think.

the great pumpkin

It has been quite sometime since I have updated this blog. I have been meaning to update my entire website and have been neglecting to post anything in the meantime. Here's an interim post however.

I have been preparing for some moderate Halloween celebrating, the primary activity of which will be watching a candle burn out inside the Charlie Brown pumpkin I carved.

BS1 matthew walker

If you visit the College Green/Unity Street BS1 area on google maps and look at street view you will see me on my bicycle, cycling to work. Incredible.

out of focus group c

On Friday the 13th, which was five days ago, Little Face was screened in front of a public audience for the first time at Adam Buxton's Out Of Focus Group C at the BFI on the Southbank. It was a thoroughly entertaining evening of stand-up, music, poetry, Famous Guy and Little Face.

Joe Cornish and Adam Buxton's Baad Dad were sitting in the row in front of us. I don't know what they thought of Little Face but afterwards Adam said he liked it although found it hard to watch himself in films. But he did say he liked it and for that I am pleased.

Played hangman on the train afterwards. We worked out that during the 1.6 hours of play we averaged 3.2 minutes per game.

eagerly awaiting a papier-mache oscar

Two exciting pieces of news to report;

The new Arthur Cox website has now gone live at www.worldofarthurcox.com where you can now watch clips of all our films and adverts and other things that we have made.

Also Peter Bradshaw from the Guardian has had good things to say about John and Karen!

little face clip

Here is a clip from Little Face that I have uploaded to Vimeo. It is also on YouTube.

matthew walker's website

Having spent eight and a bit years existing in the twenty first century I have finally caught up and created my very own website with out any help from anyone.

I have had a website in the past but I merely designed that one and then gave it to Felix Massie to make it work. This he did, and he did it well. It was done in Flash and had animated pop-up windows and everything. It took him a very long time and was incredibly difficult apparently and he has refused to do me favours since. This proved problematic when it came to updating the website because I did not have the faintest idea how and even if I did it was probably really complicated and not worth the effort so I scrapped that website and made this blog instead.

Now, after one tutorial and two evenings of fiddling in Dreamweaver, I am finally on the same rung of the evolutionary ladder as this man, and he knows how to make a website worthy of the Internet.

I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to master the admittedly quite simple art of website making but better late then never.

For now this blog is still the homepage of www.mattdotwalker.co.uk

The new website is at my new web address; www.matthewwalkerswebsite.com that is where you will now find my films and other work.

sundance 09

Felix Massie and I returned from the Sundance film festival on Friday evening. Our luggage arrived on Sunday evening after a brief stay in Atlanta.

It was good fun although unlike any other film festival I have been to. Mainly because it is primarily a feature film festival with people you recognise from films walking around looking a lot shorter then you realised. I now know for a fact that I am taller then Kevin Bacon, star of Tremors and Hollow Man!

Unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to see how my height compared to that of Robert Redford, star of Cosmic Collisions at the Hayden Planetarium, New York. I was hoping he would greet us at the airport, and at the B&B, and at our individual screenings but sadly not. He wasn't even driving any of the taxis or shuttle buses! It seems he is not nearly as omnipotent as I assumed. Maybe his omnipotence is reserved for the feature film makers.

Our screenings went well. Both Kieth Keith Reynolds Can't Make It Tonight and John and Karen got good responses. It was the first time I have seen John and Karen with an American audience and there was quite a difference (I have seen it with a Canadian audience which was close but not quite as vocal). They are very good at the audible buildup to a laugh followed by the laugh and a single clap (sometimes two!) at a joke they like. It was a nice feeling.

The feature film John and Karen preceded was Peter and Vandy (a romance shown out of sequence with the break-up at the halfway point and the first date towards the end) which I really enjoyed. Other films I enjoyed were Dare (the psychologically scarring side of teen romance), Black Dynamite (blacksploitation spoof with Richard Nixon doing kung-fu) and Bronson (not sure how to succinctly explain this one but it was very good). I did not enjoy Shrink (a Hollywood shrink who is as messed up as his various high profile clients) which felt like Hollywood examining it's own flaws but deciding that they aren't flaws at all and coming over a little bit smug about it. The whole intro and Q&A session afterwards also came across as a bit smug and self-congratulatory which left a bitter after taste and maybe marred my appreciation of the film. Kevin Spacey was there though, provoking uproarious applause every time he made a noise. Unfortunately he was too far away for me to successfully gauge his height.

I think my favourite part of the festival was the Q&A sessions after each film (except perhaps for Shrink). Particularly Dare which featured Sandra Bernhard, who I am only familiar with from her role as the nutter who wasn't Robert De Niro (Masha, thanks IMDB) in The King of Comedy, but the film geek in me silently applauded when she appeared on the stage.

The other highlight was the large quantities of snow everywhere. I am glad I took some quick-drying walking trousers with me because I spent as much time as I could up to my knees in the stuff. We threw some snowballs, built a moderate snowman and spoilt every bit of unspoilt snow we could conveniently and legally spoil. The only downside was that it did not snow while we were there and the snow gradually became dirtier and slushier over the course of the week. I successfully fell over three times. Not proper full-length Home Alone style falling though, but the more embarrassing nearly-saving-yourself-windmill-arms-and-legs style falling. Felix Massie failed to fall over even once. Bastard.

I also ate my first Twinkie which was closely followed by what will probably be my last Twinkie. After the influence of Ghostbusters and Die Hard I really wanted to like the Twinkie but it was really quite horrible. Saying that I probably would not turn down another Twinkie. I think they may have addictive qualities, like smoking and Cartoon Brew.

We also watched Obama's inauguration at the B&B we were staying in. There was a definite buzz among everyone around the town that day and there were people with Obama hats and t-shirts. I can't even begin to imagine Gordon Brown on hats and t-shirts.

I learnt yesterday that HP stands for Houses of Parliament. I don't use brown sauce very often so have failed to notice the presence of Big Ben on the label and make the connection.