East Asia Premiere

Screening in The Official/Special Program’s Section for Short Films at Chungmuro International Film Festival in Seoul, 2-10 September.

Albuquerque Film Festival, USA

Screening  in Official Selection at the Albuquerque Film Festival, USA, August 25-29.

Review

The Astronomer's Sun
Reviewed By: Andrew Robertson

A stop motion figure enters an observatory, its skeletal dome stuck into the heavens, panels missing from its frame indicating age, neglect, a clear sense of abandonment. Inside there is a mechanism, an orrery fantastical which gleams with mechanisms and markings uncanny. Through a flashback, the eyes of a clockwork teddy bear, we see the orrery engaged, a man inside, with a comet in the sky, the terrified face of a child.

That same child now adult, the same bear hidden in the same chest, the same comet in the sky. With character design that recalls the stylised yet hyper-real figures of Eastern European animation, the ridges and quirks of nature before the rounded edges of Aardman, this is a visually exciting film. Served well by David Aston's sound work, the machinery and the small quantity of voicework, and by Peter Wright's music, it's technically excellent.

Written and directed by Jessica Cope and Simon Cartwright, it conveys a lot simply, and strikingly concludes with an ending that is almost equally maudlin and joyful. With its focus on machines arcane, even magical, this piece is phantasmagorical, recalling perhaps His Dark Materials before Tik Tok of Oz. The trick to short animation is to do just enough, and as the planets and gears of the orrery combine to wondrous effect so too do the elements of The Astronomer's Sun.

Produced by David Bunting and Peter M. Kershaw, Duchy Parade Films Ltd

Rome, Georgia

Catch “The Astronomer's Sun”, at the 2010 Rome International Film Festival on Saturday, September 11, at 11:00 a.m. in the historic DeSoto Theatre in downtown Rome, Georgia, USA.

Australian Premiere

The Astronomers Sun plays in official selection as part of the 59th Melbourne International Film Festival (22 July – 8 August 2010)! It screens as part of a program called Animation Shorts, screening on August 1st at 4.45PM at Greater Union Cinema, Melbourne.

London screening

Another chance to see The Astronomers Sun in London, this time at the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival

Venue: Institute Of Contemporary Arts (The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH)

Screening Dates: 22, 25 Jul 2010

Cost: £9 / £8 Concessions / £7 ICA Members.

Showing for two days only, Rushes: Animation showcases a fantastically eclectic selection of both new and established talent, UK and international, working with a broad range of techniques.

New York Premiere

You can see The Astronomer's Sun this summer in New York as part of the Animation Summer Block Party 2010.

ABP received 518 entries but are playing only 90 films The Astronomer's Sun is one of them.

Official selection success in Edinburgh

We are proud to be screening in the official selection of the Edinburgh International Film Festival!

The Astronomers Sun plays in the McLaren Animation 1 programme on the following dates:

Thursday 17 June 15:00 Filmhouse 3 (McLaren Animation 1)

Saturday 19 June 11:45 Filmhouse 3 (McLaren Animation 1)

Official website launced!

Thanks to our editor Adam Kirk, we now have an official website! http://www.astronomerssun.com/
It's crammed full of information about the film and the people who made it, a gallery and information of festival screenings. It also boasts a trailer and a podcast with myself and the directors! To whet your appetite, here's the trailer.... enjoy!

North American and Canadian Premieres

Fans in the USA and Canada will have a change to see THE ASTRONOMER'S SUN over the coming weeks. Our North American premiere is at the 36th Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF, May 20-June 13) as an official selection during SIFF's Short Film Weekend (May 21-23, 2010). The Seattle International Film Festival is the largest and most well-attended film festival in the United States with 150,000 attendees expected in 2010. SIFF screens a wide selection of the best new international features and documentaries over the 25-day festival, presenting more than 400 films from over 50 countries. Check out their great programme!
The Canadian Premiere for is at the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival between 1-6 June. WSFF is the premier venue for the exhibition and promotion of short film in North America and one of the leading short film festivals in the world.

The East European Premiere took place at the 6th edition of BucharEST International Film Festival in ROMANIA.  (20th and 25th April 2010). If you see the film, drop us a line! We’d love to hear from you.

Awards Night!!!

Those of you who have followed the Astronomer's Sun will know that we were nominated in the public choice category of British Animation Awards and last Thursday was awards night!

So Jess drove us down with her good friend Donna in tow for moral support. We made it down in one piece despite the car losing power half way! After a quick change (2hr 30 mins for Jess) we headed off to the South Bank.

The public choice category was announced last so we were down to our last nerve by the time it came around. Unfortunately though it wasn't to be. The prize went to Smith & Foulkes for their CG comedy This Way Up (Nexus Productions). It's a very well told tale and the visuals are slick, so we didn't feel too bad to lose out to it. However, before they announced them as winners they gave a special mention to the Astronomer's Sun as the votes were so close!! There are a lot of films in the public choice so to be within the top 4 or so is a massive achievement for us to rank so highly.

After the ceremony came the after party and thats were things get hazy. So I'll let the pictures do the talking.




Here's me with Nick Park!!!








Here's Jess with Pick Nark!!! He was exceedingly lovely and very patient of our drunken ramblings!









The award given for Best European Feature went to The Secret of Kells. It was a drawing by one of the greatest living animators, Glen Keane! After the party we ran into its producer, Paul Young. I asked if I could have a look at the image up close and he was in no state to say no!









Here's Jess with an assortment of BAA survivors. The rest of the pictures are a little too messy to post I'm afraid!





The awards were great but the real fun came on our way back from London when the breaks lost most of their power on the motorway! Jess managed to get us into a service station and we waited two hours in the hot sun for help. After the breakdown guy wrapped some tape around a hole in a pipe we were back on our way. Seems all our problems can be fixed with tape!

A message from Barry J C Purves

Master animation director, Barry Purves, got in touch with us after seeing "The Astronomers Sun" in AnimFest animation festival in Athens last month. He liked the film much he has written this extraordinary write-up:

This exquisitely crafted and sensitive film manages to raise some profound and surprisingly emotional ideas, all in a few oblique, beautiful and economic minutes. Animation at its' mysterious and haunting best.

Barry Purves, who was a mentor on another 4mations Digital Short last year, is one of the worlds great puppet animation masters and inspires all of us. His new book "Basics Animation: Stop-Motion" hits the bookshops this week and includes a picture from - "The Astronomers Sun"! Co-director Jessica Cope's, graduation film, The Owl House, is also featured inside! We couldn't me more honoured and more excited to be featured in such distinguished company!

Keep posted for details of where you can see The Astronomers Sun play across the world.

National Media Museum displays film set

We are very excited to announce the launch of a yearlong exhibition of the set from The Astronomer’s Sun at the National Media Museum. The set, which opened in time for the British Animation Awards, takes pride of place in the Animation Gallery, in the old Animator In Residence booth. Being the birthplace of many classic short films financed by the prestigious and long running Channel 4 scheme, there is no more fitting place to exhibit this new 4mations Digital Shorts film set, supporting new and emerging animators than the National Media Museum.


Above: Deb Singleton, Director of the Bradford Animation Festival with Simon Cartwright holding part of the set with Bjorn from the Media Museum.

Athens AnimFest

Visitors to Athens AnimFest got a chance to see “The Astronomers Sun” play in competition in full High Definition detail this week. Keep an eye out on the blog to hear about where you can see the film near where you live.

World Premiere with The British Animation Awards!

It’s finally here. The world premiere of “The Astronomers Sun”! We are very excited to launch the film at the British Animation Awards UK tour this month, where the film has been nominated for a Public Choice award for Best Short Film!

From the 8th to the 27th of February, you can catch the Public Choice screenings at a cinema near you, and vote for your favourite from a fantastic range of animated films made over the past few years. Three programmes containing a mix of animated shorts, music videos and commercials are screening at 27 venues across the UK. The Astronomers Sun plays in programme 3.

The British Animation Awards (BAA) covers all aspects of the UK animation scene, from student work to commercials, children's entertainment, short and experimental art films, music videos, new technologies.

We’d love to hear comments from people who catch to film on the blog. We are travelling to as many of the venues as we can, so if you see us, say hi!

Channel 4 preview screening 15 Jan 2010

Editor Adam Kirk outside the mighty 4.

Mentor Sara Mullock, Director Si Cartwright, Director John Williams

Director Jess Cope talking to Producer David Bunting

Hand drawn special effects

Lots of job sharing occurs in the making of short films, so it feels in the spirit of things that as well as co-producing “The Astronomers Sun”, I also got stuck into the film making like everyone else.

After providing the screams for Henry, ‘the screaming producer’ seems to have stuck as my job title! However what people might not know is I am a drawn effects animator by trade. Back in 2001, I animated effects for another 4mations short film, the multi-award winning “How to Cope with Death”, directed by Ignacio Ferreras at Tandem Films. So I was proud to lend my expertise to “The Astronomers Sun”, climactic effects showstopper.

As a stop motion film, we were all keen that to ensure that the effects reflected the ethos and style of the hand crafted world. Digital effects tend to jar and look out of place in stop motion films. For “The Astronomers Sun”, we used a combination of effects elements, optical, miniature, drawn and digital, with many shots combining several techniques to achieve the final look.

The majority of the drawn animation elements I produced were used for the transformation sequence. Henry was filmed with an LED light in his chest and shot using a Vaseline filter which gave a wonderful rich glow. I added hand drawn sparks and vaporous smoke.

Before and after: TOP: The original stop motion footage, complete with an LED light and Vaseline filter, and ABOVE, the final composited image with hand drawn smoke and light particles.

One of over 700 tonal charcoal drawings made of the main smoke pass, all animated on 1’s.

The sparks and smaller smoke elements were animated with a wacom tablet straight into ToonBoom Animate Pro, which sped up the production work flow as well as making it possible to create incredibly rich painterly shots. The drawn smoke elements then went to Kevin Herbison who created mattes for the smoke interacting with Henry and other objects in the scene. Finally, all of these elements were exported and sent to Zoe Matzko in London for compositing in After Effects. What’s exciting in tackling drawn visual effects now is how much modern compositing has transformed the toolkit of possibilities of open to drawn effects artists. Zoe took all of these various layers and made them work together like one beautiful and seamless photograph.

Miniature effects by David Ross

David Ross used a combination of model, practical and visual effects to create the breathtaking shots in the film showing the exterior of the observatory and the comets. Incredibly, David created his shots whilst studying full time at the Edinburgh College of Art. I asked David to share his experiences in working on “The Astronomers Sun”.


From left to right: Donald Holwill, David Ross, Neil Kempsell and Steve Warne.

What is your job on “the Astronomers Sun”?

I've been using a combination of model effects, practical effects and visual effects to create the shots in the film showing the exterior of the observatory and comets.

You are currently studying animation at the Edinburgh College of Art. What is it like working on a 4mations film at college and how is it benefiting your studies?

Working on “The Astronomer's Sun” has helped me enormously. When you take on a project like this it forces you to work to a level of professionalism that you maybe wouldn't with a college project. College allows you the freedom to experiment and make mistakes and but it doesn't give you the pressures of the real world. You have a responsibility to the people you are working for to create what you say you can create and it has to live up to their vision, which is a different kind of pressure from creating something for yourself. You also end up learning a lot about certain aspects of the film making process that college can never really give you experience with. I'm sure the experience I've had working on "the Astronomer's sun" will prepare me well for my degree film next year.

Simon and Jess were students at the Edinburgh College of Art. When did you first meet and how did they approach you about their new film?

By the time I started at ECA Simon and Jess had graduated, but I saw both their degree films shortly after and I was thoroughly impressed. Later in the year I briefly met Jess at the “Young Scottish Bafta Awards” because her degree film "The Owl House" was nominated in the animation category. It was many months later though before I was contacted about contributing to the “The Astronomer’s Sun”. It was actually Steve Warne who put my name to them. I had just finished a model effects shot for his stop motion film "Savage Mountain" and I guess he saw that Simon and Jess needed similar shots in their film. Simon contacted me by phone and explained the project to me. I collaborated with Simon over the phone for a few weeks, figuring out how the shots should look and how best to achieve them. When we shot the opening shot Simon came up to Edinburgh and it was great to finally meet him and work with him direct.


Donald Hollwill is the films mentor, so it must be handy for you having direct access to him at the Edinburgh College of Art?

Donald is around the department from nine till five during the week so I can see him during those hours when he is available, and he has been extremely helpful and supportive. I had figured out how I wanted to create the shots, but that’s only part of it. You then have to figure out how to actually make it work and that’s what Donald was so helpful with. He is great at coming up with a variety of practical solutions to problems. There is no how-to manual for the kind of low budget practical methods we were using so it was a case of trial and error and problem solving to make them work. I should also mention that the department’s technician Neil Kempsell was an enormous help and support too. My course mate Will Anderson played a huge role in actually getting these shots done in time for the deadline because he came in to help with the compositing load in the last week and solved a few problems we were having with motion tracking.













You say on your website that you try to create spectacular and convincing special effects by combining traditional in-camera effects techniques with modern day technology. Can you explain the processes in a little more detail that you are using for “the Astronomers Sun”?

When I go about creating an effects shot, I always try to shoot as much as possible for real in front of the camera. To me the computer is mainly for solving the problems that can't be solved during the shoot, making subtle enhancements to the shot, or for use as an affordable optical printer. The way I see it, modern day off-the-shelf editing and effects software actually make traditional effects techniques an affordable and practical option to those who don't have millions of pounds in the budget. Yet the software usually seems to replace the traditional techniques. Of course, there is a lot of skill involved in effectively using programs like Maya or After Effects to create a shot from scratch but I think it is usually a less creative and interesting option that often makes for a pretty sterile and lifeless effects shot. I'm mainly inspired by old school effects maestros like Derek Meddings and I try to think "how would they do it?" If you do that then you have an organic and slightly random look to the shot. For example, the comets in the Astronomer's sun could have been created using CG particle effects but I actually created them by shooting falling salt, which was then colour corrected and composited in After Effects.

For the opening shot of the film, where the camera tilts down past the stars and settles on a view of the observatory, we shot the camera move for real frame by frame. I felt the fact that we were doing this camera move frame by frame was an opportunity to shoot two passes - a matte pass and a beauty pass - and that would give up a really good quality composite superior to just keying out a green screen. However getting the two pass method to work without motion control was much more difficult than I imagined and it required everyone to put on their thinking caps to figure it out. We eventually got it to work and used the frontlit/backlit process, which Douglas Trumbull used on films like “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and “Blade Runner.” I'm chuffed we got that to work because it gave a really high quality matte for compositing. It's going to be a very useful technique for me in the future if i ever find myself shooting model space ships and things like that again.














Practical Special Effects are a very specialized area in animation. What got you interested in them?

I think it all started when I was about three and got hooked on “Thunderbirds” and the other Gerry Anderson programs. The show had all these really cool planes, space ships, machines, spectacular explosions, crashes and rocket launches galore. It really was everything a young lad could want in a TV show. I was never really that interested in the puppets; I just wanted to see the next cool aircraft or explosion. Some of the designs by Derek Meddings were just stunning. And all of this was done with little models. Everything was done for real. Every last thing you saw on the screen was real and crafted by hand. I still look back at the shots now and they are stunning. The amount of care and attention to detail that went into those model shots was unbelievable. It was all done at a time when nothing like this had ever been attempted before. At a very young age I did get pretty obsessed by it, so I think it was that that really set me of on my way.
It just kind of carried on from there, most of the films or TV shows I got really interested in had these model effects shots. Star Wars, Ray Harryhausen films, James Bond films, Superman etc, and when I was older films like 2001: A Space Odyssey. At the time, I had no idea how they did things. I found it all so fascinating. I looked at these special effects guys as geniuses, and still do think of many of them in that way.
I got the opportunity at James Watt College, where I was studying Graphic Design. In our last six months of the course we had our "personal project." I wasn't feeling that inspired to create graphic designs and technically we were also allowed to make a film or animation so I opted for that. This gave me the chance to create the kind of special effects I always thought I could create in my back garden and garage, and I worked on it pretty obsessively for six months. By the end of it I had nine minutes of effects shots showing a space ship on a voyage to Mars and back, and I put it out YouTube. When I came to study animation at ECA, people gradually got to know about my home made space film, and I started getting requests to do model effects for people. And now here I am doing what I've always wanted to do on this beautiful film "The Astronomers Sun."

You must be busy with all of your studies. What’s next after “The Astronomers Sun”?
I'll have a few college projects to keep me busy for the rest of the year, and I'll also be starting to turn my attention to my degree film. I’m really looking forward to getting the chance to make a film of my own again. I’m not completely sure what I’m going to do yet but I've got an idea forming in my head that will take my work back into space again.

You can view more of David’s work on his webstie
http://www.davidross-sfx.com/

Its ALMOST DONE!!

OK, so the last time I left a post it was some insane time in the morning and I thought we had FINALLY finished....well turns out we hadn't but now we pretty much have and I'd like to finally slap up a few images to remind you of what Si and my self have been doing in the lonely, COLD dark potting shed...which now smells like boiled eggs gone bad as we just recently found an old bucket of painty water that had been sitting in the sink for around 7 months and I happened to disrupt it whilst washing lube off my hands...an explanation will follow later don't worry!

So, here are some pics....enjoy!

Now you may notice an awesome blur effect on these shots...Si and I actually painted lube onto a bit glass which we mounted right in front of the camera lens. Hence why I was washing lube off my hands.  This gave these images a cool motion blur effect...hey and we got the lube for 75p because the box was torn...bargain!!! 

This part of the film was pretty awesome to animate although animating the orrery was incredibly tedious as the wires would tangle beneath the set and I would have to get underneath the set to untangle them mid shot.  It was a painful job but I must say my dad, brother and uncle did an awesome job getting this orrery working. We used Christmas baubles and the Orange coloured ones were made before I was even born!! We broke a few along the way but luckily my mom and dad kept finding them in boxes in the loft. I think we were down to the last one in the final orrery shots!!!

These are Teddy's final shots...

Its pretty funny to think that our Teddy only cost around £25 to make in comparison to the erm...£700 maybe more it cost to make Henry. Teddy is literally made out of twisted aluminium wire, balsa wood, glue a few watch parts and furry material. Henry has an expensive armature made at Mackinnon and Saunders and his body and heads are made from a special silicone called silastic rubber. He was then air brushed using pretty fancy silicone paints. MENTAL!!! I'm the idiot who said to Si, id rather keep Teddy than Henry. I think at the time all I could think of was all the painful hours I spent pocking every single hair into Henry's head and sculpting all 6 heads only to poke more hair and then carefully airbrush each head so they would match....I was sick of the sight of him but now I must say I regret saying he could have him. 

 I ended up making 2 Teddy's in the end and one giant teddy arm....oh yes and not to forget young Henry's fluffy little teddy in the chest. He held out amazingly and I am pretty proud of the little guy. 

Teddy was born from Simon's head and I have to say my partner is a genius for coming up with such an amazing and endearing character, at first  Ted was only  a small part of Henry's story but as time went on he became a key character in the Astronomers Sun and I loved making him as well as animating him. 

Both Si and I have been through hell and back to get this film to where it is now and we have been helped by some amazing people along the way. Our little team has made something quite awesome and I'd like to thank each and every one of them... Soon you will be able to see the fruits of our labour and I hope you all enjoy!!

sound design with Dave Aston

Yesterday I found myself driving over the snow covered hills to Skipton for the sound mix at the Digital Audio Company, led by Emmy award winning sound designer, Dave Aston.
Joining me were directors Simon Cartwright and Jess Cope, composer Peter Wright and editor Adam Kirk. It was an incredible experience, and for me quite emotional to see and hear the film come together after a year in the making.

Below, the master at work, Dave Aston at the helm.

On the directors couch, Simon and Jess. Note the directorial book on Simons knee... filled with and many doodles and notes. I’ve begged Simon to share a page or two on the blog. He is bashful... but it is Christmas!

Composer Peter Wright worked and perfected the score side by side Dave Aston. Yesterday was the ideal workflow. Hearing the music with the mix, if Peter or the directors wanted to change something or experiment with a fresh idea, Pete was on hand to do just that. Truly inspiring.

We have been extremely fortunate to have Dave Aston and his team working on the sound design to “The Astronomers Sun” over the last week, and I asked him if he would share some of the insights to the process of sound design with us. Here’s his interview.

Can you explain what is the role of a sound designer is?
According to Skillset Sound Designers are responsible for providing any required sounds to accompany screen action. Most Sound Designers are experienced Supervising Sound Editors who carry out a managerial role, steering the work of the entire sound post production process, combined with the specialist role of creating the sound concept for films. As well as creating the sounds for giant explosions or car crashes, Sound design is also the art of creating subtle sounds that enrich the language and feeling of a film.

You are the owner of your own studio, the Digital Audio Company. Can you tell me about the company and the your considerable experience in Sound Design?
Having my own studio is quite a luxury in this day and age, but it does mean that I can do the preparation in a good acoustic environment whilst being able to look out of the window over the Yorkshire Dales. We built the studio when the company grew too big to run from our house 15 years ago. At the time we were doing a mix of documentaries, drama and music mastering; which might seem odd, but we are audio specialists after all. We have two dedicated control rooms, one for mixing and one for preparation along with a voice room that can double as another preparation room. The two main rooms have ATC 50 speakers which means that we have consistent sound monitoring and much better preparation facilities than most. Our huge sound effects library is accessible from a central storage device so we can instantly access effects in any room. We’ve set things up so that the creative take precedence over any technical aspects of a job.
Even before I left school I was into sound, doing some live work with local bands and recording my friends playing, bouncing back and forth between two reel to reel tape recorders. I followed a path from the live work to music recording studios where I gained a wide variety of experience and learnt about the quality of sound. The music was great fun but too many long sessions meant that I decided to steer a course to sound for picture. When digital came along I bought an early digital audio workstation and set myself up to do audio post production for TV. Although I enjoy mixing I soon found my niche as a sound editor, bringing the pictures to life. I found that I had the knack of interpreting the wishes of the directors and producers that I work with, and they trust me to work on my own without their constant input. I enjoy this as I can be as creative as time allows and surprise them with the finished project.

How did you became involved in “The Astronomers Sun”?
I had worked with Peter (Kershaw), one of the producers, on a couple of short films he had done. (“Wilfred” and “Cinema of Horror”). When he rang me up I could hardly turn down an animation on my own doorstep.

What are the unique challenges working on an animated film as opposed to live action?
I have to say that working in drama we produce music and effects tracks for foreign language dubbing, so we effectively start with a mute film like animation for probably 90% of the scenes. What is different is that the sync sound might have something in it to inspire and develop, whereas the animation only has the pictures. The trick is to make the animation convincing as if it were real life. If I can’t convince myself I throw the sound out, so on this particular film the Teddy is the third attempt, so I hope you are convinced.

As well as yourself, you have a talented crew including foley from Universal Sound. You tell me a about that?
I have worked on numerous projects with the guys at Universal Sound. They specialise in Foley which is generally the replacement of footsteps and clothes movements when dialogue is stripped out for the foreign language versions. We have a working relationship where I will send them notes giving direction where needed and they just do their job. Very well I might add. Sometimes they will add other spot effects that I might not have here. For instance the opening of the watch and the fitting of the mirror are a combination of our efforts.

This is the first time that 4mations directors, Simon & Jess have had the opportunity to work with a sound designer. What has it been like working with them?
It has been a pleasure working with them as they are obviously keen to produce a film of the highest quality. They were obviously conscious of the final sound when doing the animation and were able to give me a good idea of what they had in mind for the finished product. I look forward to the next one.

Thanks Dave!
Watch out for on the special effects in “the Astronomers Sun” in a weeks time.
Until then, to one and all, Merry Christmas!
David Bunting, Co-producer