Memorabilia Day two

So here it is the second day report from my recent trip to the LG arena for Birmingham's Memorabilia event.

When booking the tickets I had insisted that we go for both days, though on the second morning I was feeling concerned that there would be nothing to do and we would have wasted our money. Fortunately the second day was even better than the first. 

The Hall was far less busy on Sunday which was nice as it allowed us to look at the stalls with greater ease although there was less atmosphere. We started the day by doing a lap around the arena to see if there was anything we missed the previous day. 

On both days there were lots of people dressed in Sci-fi, cult and movie costumes. The good thing about it being quieter on the Sunday was it allowed more time and room to get photos with the people in costume. I had my photo with some clone troopers and Alan had a photo with Darth Vader.

We decided to fill our day up we would check out the talks on the main stage. The speakers who appealed the most were Michael Biehn, the Starwars crew, David Hasselhoff and Craig Charles. Each speaker was allotted 20 minutes and the format was largely the same for each. The host would introduce them, ask questions and encourage the audience to ask questions. 

The Michael Biehn talk was interesting although he didn't seem to thrilled to be there. He spoke about starting a film production company and how much easier and cheaper it is to now make a film. 

The Starwars crew consisted of Boba Fett, Greedo, the rebel pilot with the black moustache from a New Hope and the Storm Trooper who said the line “these are not the droids we’re looking for”. I was reluctant to see these guys as I didn't think it would be very interesting. As it turned out they were great. Lots of funny stories, very charismatic and entertaining. 

Next up was David Hasselhoff, who was another talker who I wasn't that fussed about seeing. I know that the "Hoff" has a large cult following but even just the nick name puts me off. I was never particularly a fan of either Knight Rider or Baywatch, I only liked Yasmine Bleeth who while a teen consistently made my various celebrity top 10s! We went to see him as there was space and we wanted to see Craig Charles who was on after. David Hasselhoff was meant to start a 1PM though was running late, it turned out he was running about 30 minutes late. The host stalled by dishing out lots of freebies which ranged from tat to some DVD's, I didn't get anything. 

So the Hoff finally turned up at about 2 to a packed audience took the microphone off the host and began talking and didn't stop till about 2.40. The host struggled to get him to wrap up and kept trying to bring the Q&A to an end. The Hoff was fantastic very charismatic, full of energy and just really funny. He was very honest about himself, his career and seemed keen to recapture the glory days of Knight Rider. I still wouldn't pay £25 to shake his hand and to write his name on some of my property but  I would definitely like to attend a similar event with the Hoff.

The last speaker was Craig Charles of Red Dwarf and Coronation Street who was another highlight. He was consistently funny and had allsorts of fun tales about Red Dwarf and Robot Wars. He explained that Robot Wars was cancelled due to the robots becoming to big and powerful which obviously created lots of health and safety problems. It was a shame he didn't have longer to talk as it was all really interesting.  

We finished off the day by checking out the last Robot Wars which was again really entertaining. Then had a final walk around of the stalls. I purchased some comics, clothes and a mug. The next Memorabilia is some time in March and then the big London Comic Con is in May I'm planning on attending both of those after having such a good time at this event. Advice to anyone planning on going to any of these events in future, take a packed lunch as mostly on Saturday there were long queues for food and the prices were vastly over inflated!

Memorabilia Fair Day One!

Memorabilia 2012 Day One

I attended the most recent Memorabilia fair at the LG arena in Birmingham on the 24th and 25th November. It has been years since I've attended an event like this so was looking forward to it. I don't buy comics or toys any more though I still enjoy that culture and the atmosphere. 

I attended with my two friends Pokemon Master Alan Kwan and the film maker Malcolm Kennedy. We had early entry tickets for both days. On the first day Malcolm and I arrived at 9 to be greeted by a disorganised mess of a queue, the attendants sent us form one side of the queue and back again. Once finally in we had a wonder around until Alan joined us (he was travelling from a different location to us). 

Upon entry we were given a free 50th anniversary issue of Spiderman and a program, posters were on offer but we didn't want to carry these around. The stalls were selling a wide variety of merchandise and collectables. It was cool to see a mix of toy dealers and smaller start up businesses selling custom made merchandise rather than the over priced “collectables” as a lot of stands were selling. I appreciate old toys that are mint in box are expensive as they are hard to come by but I find it ridiculous that a Batman figure fresh off the production line can have such a high price tag. 

The smaller custom stands were selling limited edition designed posters, t-shirts, mugs, clothing, console cases etc. It was awesome to see these stands as all of them were being manned by the designers and makers of their products. We got chatting to some of the owners of these stands and its far more satisfying knowing that you are giving the money directly to the products designers. 

One of the stands I bought an ace super hero mug off was Head shot clothing. The lads on the stand were super friendly and had loads of great stuff definitely worth checking out.

In the middle of the arena were all the celebrities asking for £15 to £25 for 30 seconds of their time. They ranged from actors from Starwars, Only Falls and Horses, Michael Biehn and David Hassellhoff to name a few. There were even some glamor models who just about managed to cover their nipples (well done them). 

Dalek made by Robots live and a house robot

As we worked our way to the other side of the arena we found the Robots Live ring. As far as I could tell this was the same as Robot Wars from TV, I assume they had to change the name for licence reasons. We watched one of these events. I was never to fussed about Robot Wars when it was on TV but seeing it live is totally different. Its really good! The first robots out were the smaller light weight Robots that were mostly wedges with flippers on. These were really fast and chucked one another all over the ring. Next there were boxing robots and they did a segment I think was aimed at kids. Then the final part was the heavy weight Robots and were again predominately wedges but these were even more satisfying to see fight. They're all much bigger than I imagined, it was really exciting seeing such powerful robots smash one another up. 

Around midday the arena began to fill up and it became very crowded so we decided to get lunch. Malcolm had brought sandwiches with him so me and Alan began to look for somewhere to eat. There was a Subway straight outside the arena but it had huge queues. We settled on the Weatherspoons but it had a special LG menu that was very expensive, we were going to buy some paninis but they had sold out, it turned out anything under £10 had sold out. So we had sweets and fizzy drinks for lunch. 

In the afternoon we continued looking around the stalls and made a few purchases. I bought some canvas prints, DVDs, postcards, a Megaman keyring and a Pokemon league cap. The event finished for the day at 5PM then we headed home. In a couple of days I’ll post my report on Day Two.

Batman preparing for a poo!

Quick update

Been quite busy this week just got back off holiday, I camped and walked Hadrians wall. It was a good holiday but has left me feeling like I now need a holiday, very tiring.

As a result todays blog is going to be brief and an update of what Im upto. Today Im going to go to Calumet Photographic in Birmingham to buy some new studio lighting which is very exciting. Other new purchases are just before I went on holiday I purchased some new sound recording equiptment. A new condenser microphone, mic stand and pre amp. These were all bought from Fair Deal Music in Birmingham the staff there were very helpful.

I am just putting the finishing touches to a small set to do some new animation with the Blades Animation Mascot. Im going to be producing a couple of short pieces to add to the showreel. These should be ready by the end of the of the month so look out for those.

Well thats it for now.

Rich

Organisation the key to success!

So this new blog is all about Organisation and how its really important! I've even taken lots of photos to demonstrate how I keep myself organised. I've always been into having a diary to keep track of what I'm up to and like to make lists of things to do. Over the years I've expanded and altered how I organise myself. In this blog I'm going to cover how I organise myself, projects, the studio and my work.

I try to always carry my diary with me for a mix of reasons. For keeping notes, collecting numbers reminders and planning my time. Obviously I have a mobile which I know can do all these things. I prefer using a diary as I can see all the days neatly laid out with my notes on, it is also a bit more significant writing something down I'm more likely to remember if I write it down rather than just putting a note on my phone.

Although a diary is very handy my most useful tool is my year long planner. This is great as I can see the whole up coming year and plan my time out well in advance. It helps to keep me motivated as well as I can clearly see whats coming up and get excited about what I'm going to be doing. I use a August to August rather than start till the end of the year chart. This is mostly as I decided to start using a year planner during the summer last year so this was better value for money than a planner I could only use for a few months. I use the coloured dots to mark specific times holidays, days off etc. I write directly on to the planner for things that are going to last for a couple of days i.e. animating. Then if theres a couple of jobs to do I write the notes on a post-it note and attach it to the appropriate day. Before the wall chart I would plan out animation projects in Numbers but have found this to be far more versatile and simply easier to look at.

Next up we have all my to do lists. These relate directly to my wall chart and help me plan the chart and what I do on my days. Each sheet attached to the note board is its own category theres business, marketing, creative, learning and S&S (the series I'm developing). I then list all the things I have to do under the appropriate title. Business covers business things like updating my business plan or sorting receipts. Marketing covers mostly social media reminders, updating the marketing strategy, taking photos of what I'm up to blog ideas etc. Creative days are days set aside for making, animating, painting etc. Then I have learning days for learning different software or maybe reading a book. Im currently learning, Game Stencyl, Motion, Word-press and improving my Final Cut skills. The idea is I can just note down that I want to have a day set aside for one of these lists then pick and choose what I want to do off them. Finally have a priority list of things to do that are particularly pressing and often take priority. As tasks are completed I simply cross them out. 

Just below my notice board on my desk I have this cool desk mat. It has a clear cover on that lifts up to allow me to store all sorts of stuff under. As can been seen on the left I dump all my receipts for organising at the end of the month. Then on the right I've got bills and letters that I need to keep a track of. As well as being a handy place to stick notes it creates a very comfy surface to lean on. 

I have a filing cabinet this is pretty self explanatory so I wont elaborate.

   

                        

Next Im going to cover how I organise projects. Each time I start a new project I have a new sketch book to work in, to make notes, drawings, ideas etc to keep it all together. I label each sketchbook to so its easy to find. These cool label stickers were from WHSmiths and look way better than boring plain white labels.

                        

As well as having a new sketch book for each project I have a storage box to put everything into. This can be a hard copy of a production bible, original story board, sketchbook, receipts, invoices, letters etc. Again this keeps everything together, the same goes for on the computer. I have a designated folder for each project, then back it up on an external hard drive. 

I believe organisation really is very important, from planning out a project, being able to find things and just keeping everything tidy. 

Animation Journey

Hello I've decided that this post will continue the new start to this blog and give some more background about how I was led to a career in animation. I'll cover some of my influences and things that inspired me along the way.

Growing up I was interested in cartoons, sci fi and fantasy. My favourites were cartoons like Transformers, Thundercats and pretty much any other violent action cartoon. Even now I remember seeing both Transformers on Wackaday and Thundercats which Im sure debuted on a Sunday night which is a bit weird. As a child I wanted to be either a barbarian or Optimus Prime briefly after watching Top Gun I wanted to be a Jet. Both the title sequences for these series were so cool, exciting, iconic music and slick animation. Having watched the shows more recently these are the only parts that are any good. If you still think either of these cartoons are very good your mistaken.

As with all cartoons they had all sorts of tie-ins films, toys, cloths, comics etc. I sporadically bought comics of all sorts of stuff Spiderman, Transformers, Zoids (which I recently re-read and its a great read) Thundercats etc I settled on collecting Thundercats Comics which I have most of a run of the first 100. The Zoids comics features excellent art and even early work by the awesome Grant Morrison

check this out its really good apart from the abrupt end

I settled on Comics as my passion and my goal became to be a comic book artist. In the UK during the 80s Marvel UK produced loads of original comics so I could see a direct route to the career. For me Cartoons and Animation was unachievable. I felt quite detached from the production method as it was behind a screen and out of reach, I had no means to reproduce what I saw on TV. Comics I could hold read, draw and create myself.

My big problem with toys was that you never had all the figures, I used to cut out the characters I hadn't got and stick them to card with bases to expand my ranks of Transformers. 2D cardboard Transformers were quite limiting as they were flat and didn't Transform. When I decided that didn't work I began making Transformers out of Plasticine. This worked far better to the point that I just played with Plasticine Transformers instead of the toys. As well as having a complete collection of Transformers I had all the Marvel Heroes and all the Turtles (and blue peter inspired sewerbase) all made from plasticine.

At school I took Art as an option. Then progressed to College continuing with Art though expanding to study Graphics, Jewellery, Printmaking, Ceramics and Media. I never really enjoyed Media as we had to use Macs which I couldn't get my head round plus I just didn't like using computers. For one of the projects we had to book out a digital camera and take photos of letters. I had left it so late that the cameras were all booked out. As I still had to do the work I bought a cheap digital camera with some Argos vouchers I had won from my job at Mcdoanlds. The Camera did the job and it had an animation feature. Rather than exporting the images as individual photos its was possible to export them as a short quicktime. Then you could add effects in paint. This was my first attempt at Animation. Unfortunately I no longer have any of my early attempts at animation though they were probably amazing works of art. The project I bought the camera for also turned out to be my first film project.

The project was a creative presentation of collected and made images of the alphabet. Rather than just handing in a pile of images I filmed all the images. I held a toy rocket on a string and made it fly past the alphabet for a simple narrative (it was very crude). At this stage it still hadn't occurred to me I could be studying film or animation. I imagine based on my work up to now it was probably looked best for me to avoid this route.

While looking for Universities I was planning to continue with Art and do a fine Art course. It wasn't until looking at a prospectus on the journey home from Wolverhampton I even realised you could study animation at University. I changed courses at the last minuet and did Visual Communication at UCE (now BCU). On this course I studied both live action and animation. I had a go at drawn which i found to be soooo painfully boring that I only produced a handful of drawn animations. I think I still have them on a mini DV somewhere, if I ever find them I may put them online for people to laugh at.

I switched to stopmotion as this is the best one and most fun to do. People often say you have to be patient and it takes ages but I find it pretty instantly rewarding. Within a couple of frames you can have a puppet come to life thanks to your work, I find it very quickly gratifying. Then the more you add the cooler it becomes. This is why I dont enjoy creating drawn animation, you have to sit and draw the same thing over and over and its not until you scan or film it that you can properly appreciate what you have done. I have a lot of respect and time for drawn animators and their great work. The other cool thing about stopmotion is your basically playing with toys and plasticine. Its not quite as fast as just playing but you no longer have to imagine your toys coming to life you are actually bringing them to life.

Okay thats the end for now. I'd like to spend more time in the future writing about specific animations and films that I either think are great and worth checking out or things that have really been an influence on me. I think this covers how I got into animation though.

Intro to the All New Blades Animation Blog

Hello so Ive been reading friend of Blades Animation the talented live action director Malcolm Kennedys recently started blog. Below is Malcolm's logo please click on the link to be taken to his website. (don't do it yet till you've read this blog though)

www.malcolmkennedy.co.uk

Malcolm's first entry is an introduction to who he is and what he's about. I thought "umm did I do this?", No I did not. I had a look over my old post to double check as I couldn't really remember but No definitely didn't. So what follows is finally an introduction and welcome to the Blades Animation Blog.

I am actively trying to be more proactive with Blogging, tweeting and facebooking so this entry is all part of this new marketing blitz. Im aiming to blog about once every other week, tweet about once a day and put something on facebook once a week.

When I first started this blog it was just going to be updates of what I was doing, which I guess it had been. I decided that this was in-fact boring so out the window with that and from now on its the all New Blades Animation Blog. I based its boringness on the repetitive titles of the blogs they are all just variants of the word update. My favourite blog post is the networking one, I re-read it the other day and I just thought "THIS IS BLOG GOLD!" Anyway so this made me think from now I'm going to try to put in more useful blogs that are hopefully more interesting. I've got lots of draft blogs I've been compiling for a couple of months now, most of them are just titles with a few notes. I've even got the blogger app so am totally committed to getting these posts done and online.

Right so things Im going to cover going forward are still some updates of projects and what Im up to but less of these. The next puppet I make I intend to document the full process and stick it up on here as a sort of puppet making tutorial. Im planning a day trip to london to buy some studio lights which is going up on here. At the end of September Im going to be walking Hadrian's Wall as research for a project I'm working on which will probably be a mix of smaller posts. I've got lots of creative businesses posts I want to put up, this covers, my work process, marketing advice, scheduling, pricing, how to keep costs low, book reviews, all sorts of stuff and some fun blogs like favourite films etc. If readers have requests then please message me and I can probably do requested blogs or answer questions as well, cos Im nice.

So I think that works as a indication of what this Blog is about from now on. I want to avoid doing any really long blogs and keep them nice and digestible, so I shall stop now. I will try to follow this post up with some history on how I began on my journey into animation, where I started, the routes I took and so on.

Thanks for reading, please like the facebook page to stay up to date on whats going on.

Rich

Inspiring Websites/people/programs

I am well aware I have again failed to keep the blog updated and I haven't produced videos of the studio as I think I said I would last time. Iv'e decided not to make videos incase you see all my cool stuff and come and rob me!

Today I am going to talk about website that I find inspiring that I recomend you check out. I find them inspiring for a number of reasons the people who make them and their content. The following is a list and descriptions so please read on.

Angry Video Game Nerd/James Rolf
I cam across the angry video game nerd while at Uni trying to avoid doing some work. The AVGN is a  web series staring and made by the film maker James Rolf. Theres over a hundred AVGN episodes, he has also worked on other web series and produced his own short films. So if you are trying to procrastinate and want something funny check this out.
James Rolf seems like a cool guy and seeing his work is really motivating. He made a joke game review and uploaded it to youtube and the AVGN took off from there. He's currently working on a feature film of the character. I really like the do it you self culture and use of the internet to self publish work and to find an audience. This is what I am working towards making my own films for the internet.

Nostalgia Critic/Doug Walker
While watching the AVGN nostalgia critic kept coming up on the side on youtube and eventually I checked him out as well. The first episode I watched was his review of He-Man and She-Ra christmas special which is so funny definitely worth a look. I again find him inspiring for similar reasons to AVGN as it is a DIY show that he makes a living off. As well as the Nostalgia Critic he does lots of other shows the other most famous is the 5 second movies.

The Guild/Felicia Day
The Guild was a business model I was advised to look after i had finished pitching my project on the Transform@lab last year. I had watched a couple of episodes before but never really got to fussed about it. When I finally sat down and watched it from the beginning I then proceeded to binge watch all 5 seasons. This series is a comedy and follows a group of gamers who play a warcraft clone called the game. The series is created by Felicia Day who is an actress that wanted to expand the parts she played so created the guild. It was originally meant to be a television series but her producer suggested turning it in to a web series. The first episode were self funded until they ran out of money. They then added a pay pal button for donations and managed to fund the rest of the series. Microsoft came in and said they would begin to sponsor the series and the guild has continue since. It is now transferring to the youtube channel Geek and sundry. Felicia Days channel that also hosts lots of other cool programs.

Zero Punctuation
This is a web series I have only recently discovered. A new episode comes out each week and and they are comedy reviews of computer games. The reviews take the format of a high speed commentary with minimalist animation. I don't really find this so much as inspiring more just really funny and great when Im having a quick break from doing some work.

Zak Ryder
Zak Ryder is a professional wrestler with WWE and from that it may sound like he has already made it in his career choice. He was actually a failing wrestler who no one liked and was barely on television. He started producing a you tube show Long Island Iced Z to try to make a connection with the fans and save his career. As it turned out it worked audiences in attendance at show started chanting his name and demanding he come out. Eventually he started being featured on the TV shows, has a DVD and tons of merchandise. He still does his show though it is now featured on WWE's youtube channel. The episode are mostly comedy based and padded out with lots of catch-phrases but its a great example of some one picking up a camera and using the internet to find an audience. Since Zak Ryder has been so successful the WWE has heavily embraced social media and now you can barely see the wrestling as there are so many images of social media logos on the screen.

Well thats all I can be bothered to do at the moment i might do something like this again in the future. I've some cool stuff Im going to be working on in the coming months for now you will just have to wait probably for another 6 month before I update the blog again.

Rich

Update

Got lots of stuff coming up.

I'll be starting the next commission a week Wednesday currently just getting everything ready for that. Its not a massive project so will only last for about a month, possibly slightly longer. I posted another clue on twitter today as to what it is.

Been busy today working on a short film thats scheduled to come out in time for Christmas this year. Currently at the scripting/storyboarding stage. This part can sometimes take ages as theres no point making a film if the scripts rubbish so its very important for this part to be perfect before moving onto anything else. I've done some character designs but these wont be finalised until after the script/storyboard is set and Im ready to start making things. This film is currently going by the title HNY until I think of something good.

The second major project I'm working on is currently called S&S this is ongoing as its a series idea rather than a short so wont be ready any time soon. A large portion of the character designs are complete and Im finishing off the character profiles. The series is a road movie, adventure across Britain. Im  figuring out the plot and the route the characters are going to take. Then at some point this year I plan to spend time traveling the route to help the writing of the plot/script.

During the next week Im going to film a short video tour of the studio so you can all see what it looks like. Though I wouldn't hold your breaths as if you check back through my previous blogs you will see I say all sorts of stuff and don't do it.

So like me on facebook, follow me on twitter, leave a comment or suggestion and i'll see you soon!

Rich

Whats up

So again a long delay since my last up date, been really busy doing all sorts of projects.

The biggest news is we've just confirmed a new commission for the National Sealife Centre Birmingham. Its not animation related, though it is creative based if you follow the Blades Animation twitter you'll be able to see clues as to what the project is.

We're working on two animation projects at the moment one is a short with the aim to be finished by December 2012. The second is an ongoing multi platform series that we've been working on since the Transform@lab earlier last year.

Finally the last bit of news is studio related. we bought a new slim book shelf. That doesn't sound very exciting but it now means all of our book are a lot more accessible and look far neater. :)

Rich