Brittany Veitch is a young artist and toy designer with an eye for the macabre. Recently graduating with first class honours in Industrial Design from RMIT University in Melbourne, as well as having a Diploma of Furnishing, she is a great example of the transdisciplinary practice of many designers today. Creating her work with different media and practices from drawing, CAD, sewing, animation, video, to performance art and puppetry; she explores themes that are always a little left of centre.
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Brittany Veitch is a young artist and toy designer with an eye for the macabre. Recently graduating with first class honours in Industrial Design from RMIT University in Melbourne, as well as having a Diploma of Furnishing, she is a great example of the transdisciplinary practice of many designers today. Creating her work with different media and practices from drawing, CAD, sewing, animation, video, to performance art and puppetry; she explores themes that are always a little left of centre.
A fairytale childhood
Much of her childhood years were spent in her mother’s toyshop ‘Hobbit House’, as well as playing with the family’s menagerie of pets at their home, including a deer, alpaca, turtles and quails. Brittany’s creations are often inspired by animals and their involvement in fairytales, as shown in her ‘Maimed Fairytale’ and ‘From the Woods’ collections. Although she has always marvelled at her sister’s vintage Steiff collection of toys – ‘I am particularly taken with a velvet zebra’ – it wasn’t until 2005 while studying Industrial Design that she began to make her own toys. Encouraged by working in an experimental studio in an open, supportive environment, at university she felt unrestricted by traditional industrial design constraints and developed what became the ‘Maimed Fairytale’ collection, ‘in which the wounds inflicted on the toys are inspired by passages from the early editions of childhood fairytales.’
Maimed Fairytales
Toys from the dark side
Brittany sees her toys as art pieces, and hopes to have them exhibited and collected, rather than mass-produced for commercial gain. However, she delights in current trends in popular toy design and cartoons which delve into darker places in the name of fun.
‘I like that there is an alternative to the saccharine cute, for instance, Nathan Jurevicius’s ‘Scary Girl’, Amy Winfrey’s web cartoon ‘Making Fiends’ and the likes of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez. Within my work there is recognition and admiration for other artists and practitioners, and a combination of these influences plays a role in how my work evolves.’
Creative inspiration
Brittany other creative influences range from Hieronymus Bosch’s vivid and complex imagery; to the way that Hiraki Sawa’s video art uses scale within environment to mix fantasy with the banal; the eerie sculpture and rogue taxidermy of Elizabeth McGrath; to video visionary Chris Cunningham’s clashes of the horrific and the comical; as well as animator David Firth’s wry-humoured flash animations of strange and disturbing stories. Brittany recalls viewing Firth’s work was what prompted her to create her own animations.
Designing across media: with a needle and thread in hand
Brittany generates and refines her concepts using both the computer and pen and paper, most often by sketching out ideas on paper and then refining the patterns using software such as Adobe Illustrator. However some of her sewing work is done more on the fly, where aesthetic and structural decisions of a project can be made as it progresses. Brittany chooses to hand sew most of her creations, such as the ‘From the Woods’ collection, as it is an integral part of the process and aesthetic of the pieces, but other toys use a combination of machine stitching and hand sewn detailing.
The ‘From the Woods’ collection has recently caught the eye of the frontman of Finnish band HIM, Ville Valo, who made a special request to meet Brittany during the band’s recent tour of Australia and went home with a family of seven deer from the collection.
From the Woods, 'Stomach Flap' Materials: vinyl and felt.
Brittany also enjoys the freedom of working in animation.
‘Animation as an artistic medium is a blast to work with because it requires patience and dedication…at the moment I am working on a hand drawn paper animation that explores the relationship between a mute girl and a lump of coal and [explores] themes of reticence, melancholy and how companionship is formed.’ Brittany has also provided illustrations for magazines, and participated in a puppetry show in the 2007 Melbourne Fringe Festival. She also has a number of planned projects in the works, including a series of short videos of landscapes modelled in 3D CAD software, as well as a photography series exploring the cliché images of 1950s happy families using cast taxidermy forms disfigured with the plague.
PAPER JAM. Murderous office machinery versus office drones. Braden Keir, Ben Landau, James Secombe, Brittany Veitch.
Transdisciplinary practice
Brittany describes transdisciplinary practice as a ‘cross-pollination of skills and ideas. From this emerges a different way of thinking about design. I am comfortable being a transdisciplinary practitioner and will work on multiple projects focused on different skills and media as an effective motivational tool to produce a steady flow of work outcomes. Being able to switch from video to CAD to sewing is very liberating and enables a thorough investigation and exploration of ideas.’
Brittany’s advice for students planning on entering the design community, particularly that of industrial design, is to ‘get involved by entering competitions or by participating in collectives. Be active and open and never be afraid to experiment.’
Kate McCurdy
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© Disney/Pixar
In recent years, animation has made the leap from 2D cartoon to 3D feature film. Always in the front line, Pixar Animation Studios have kept up a stream of memorable masterpieces and the good work keeps on coming. They seem so busy that it is surprising that they have time to leave the studio at all, so when Andrew Gordon, Supervising Animator at Pixar Animation Studios, was recently in Melbourne to undertake the second Autodesk Animation Workshop, Kate McCurdy took the opportunity to explore a few key points.
Beginnings at Pixar
Andrew Gordon joined Pixar in 1997 as an animator on their second feature film A Bug’s Life. Since then he has worked on every Pixar film including significant work in Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars and Ratatouille. He has most recently worked as supervising animator for Pixar’s new original short film, which will be released theatrically with WALL•E later this year.
The process of characterisation
While Gordon admits to having what may be called an ‘animators’ box of tricks, such as canned gestures, cadence of walks, as well as hand and mouth shapes; a lot of his characterisations come from his own improvising. When approaching a new project, he explains that he will take a day or two to plan and think about the aims, goals, thematic elements such as comedy, and the entertainment value. He will often film himself acting, for example, he will put on skiboots and walk around in an exaggerated fashion to see how it may affect the character. Gordon says that, for him, the most important thing to do first when constructing a character is to ‘get the walk’.
© Disney/Pixar
Quality assurance
Andrew Gordon believes that Disney animation has historically had a definitive style and the high level of quality has been maintained by the animators. Similarly, Pixar’s strong creative style and direction that has become familiar with audiences ever since the release of Toy Story is largely due John Lasseter. Lasseter, chief creative officer of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios and principal creative advisor at Walt Disney Imagineering, trained with Disney animators and brought with him the strong attention to detail and quality to his work and the team at Pixar.
Above all, Gordon believes that a ‘good story’ makes a good film, and that animated films these days are becoming increasingly adult which gives them a further enduring quality. He is also a firm believer in the films having a message, and he would apply this principle to his own films which he hopes to direct in the future. He would very much like to make short films with his own ideas, because right now while he enjoys the projects that he’s working on, ‘they’re all based on someone else’s ideas, not your own’. He’s very interested in period pieces from the 1920s, but ultimately it comes back to a good story plus interesting, funny characters with some depth to them.
© Disney/Pixar
Animation education – workshops and blogs
Having taught animation since 2000, Gordon is no stranger to the teacher’s role. When he’s not animating or after a project wraps, he enjoys travelling, taking his message of style and substance to animation students and professionals worldwide. He recalls that his best experiences as a student was getting information from ‘the people who are doing it’, and he feels now like he is able to give something back with the workshops, as well as his collaborative blog SplineDoctors.
© Disney/Pixar
SplineDoctors
SplineDoctors is a blog founded by a number of prominent animators at Pixar, including Andrew Gordon and dedicated to animation education. The blog includes links, videos, and also podcasts or ‘SplineCasts’ to which anyone can subscribe. Brad Bird, writer and director of Pixar films The Incredibles and Ratatouille, is an enthusiastic supporter of the development of Splinedoctors.
The SplineCasts include interviews with Brad Bird; Dr. Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios; Andrew Stanton, writer, director and animator of Finding Nemo and the upcoming WALL•E; Pete Doctor, writer and director of Monsters Inc.; as well as ’roundtable’ discussions with Andrew Gordon and other animators associated with Pixar. Frequently updated with new podcasts and blog items, Splinedoctors is an inspiring and priceless resource for animation students and professionals alike.
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Body Language – still frame
Emily Gobeille is an art director and designer currently working in the motion graphics industry. Her recent project, ‘Funky Forest’ is a immediately engaging, interactive and brightly-coloured experience. Kate McCurdy spoke with Emily to learn about the artist’s drive and passion for designing for children.
Autumnal beginnings
Emily grew up in a small town in Connecticut, among lots of cows, cornfields and apple orchards. She recalls that ‘growing up in New England where the seasons change in a very definite and visual way fostered my love for every bit of design in nature – and also my love of cranberry juice.’
In 1996 Emily moved to Boston where she received a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a concentration in graphic and interaction design. At MassArt, an institution known for their solid design program, she learned the fundamentals such as design principles, colour theory, and typography. After graduating she worked for three years as a print and interactive designer with companies including Razorfish and Big Blue Dot, a studio specialising in design for children. Keen to work on her own projects again, Emily moved to New York to attend the Design and Technology MFA program at Parson’s School of Design. At Parsons she was able to focus on designing interactive systems within a narrative context and also found a love for motion graphics.
Thesis project – Walking sequence board
Thesis project
As part of her MFA, Emily completed a thesis project using the DVD as a medium for interactivity in order to make education for children fun.
The goal of her thesis project was to create a narrative experience for children aged 3-5 that was entertaining, provided an opportunity for autonomous choice-making and was a platform for learning.
‘I developed an interactive DVD fable called The Best Fort Ever. The overarching story is about the character’s quest to find the Great Inventor. The project’s main story is broken down into smaller sub-story sequences, each containing its own lesson, connected by the branching narrative thread. These smaller chunks were more manageable for young children’s attention span and also allow for changes in tempo, interaction and style.’
For this project Emily wrote a branching narrative, built the puppet characters, shot them on greenscreen and then composited them into her animated designs.
The illustrations in children’s literature were a major inspiration for this project.
‘I wanted to create visual worlds that were memorable and captivating. The variety of visual treatments also function as cues for the user in the story and for pacing purposes.’
In this sense, the DVD seemed the perfect medium for Emily’s thesis project. She felt that its potential for interactivity had not yet been exploited. The greatest advantages of the DVD were that as a medium it is familiar and accessible to children without requiring adult supervision, as well as being able to support rich audio and graphics without any load time.
Funky Forest
The ‘Funky Forest’ was produced as a collaborative project with Theodore Watson. Emily and Theodore created an immersive, interactive ecosystem where children manage a virtual forest by creating trees with their bodies, and then divert and dam water flowing from the digital waterfall to feed the forest. The types of sounds and creatures that inhabit the forest depend on the amount of water the forest receives. Their goal was to create an open system that would allow children to play and see how their actions affect the ecosystem.
‘Funky Forest’ made its debut at the 2007 Cinekid Festival in Amsterdam. After working on the project for two weeks straight, they were astonished at the positive reaction from the kids when they first entered the space.
‘[The children] loved it. They even realised that the creatures would fly away when they got too close and spent hours trying to trap them.’
Funky Forest – trees take the shape of your body
‘Funky Forest’ has been Emily’s favourite project so far, as she was able to experience seeing the first-hand the children’s reactions to their project.
‘It was incredibly rewarding to see kids really playing – and in ways that we could not have imagined. For some it was quiet exploration and at other times there were 18-20 frantic kids in the space with a team managing the water, a team creating trees and a few “managers” telling the teams where trees and water were needed.’
Being able to accomplish this project from what Theodore and Emily had imagined together has been very satisfying for them both, as well as inspirational, and Version 2.0 is now in the works! A video of ‘Funky Forest’ in action can be viewed on Emily’s website, zanyparade.com.
Funky Forest
An ongoing creative collaboration
Emily continues to foster her drive to develop fun teaching tools for children, as is shown by her recent collaborative project – again with Theodore Watson – an experimental poster series entitled ‘Here to There’. ‘Jungle’ and ‘City’ are the first two in the series for children that combine science, nature, algorithm and design to feed their imagination and curiosity.
Emily’s motivation for the series stems from her own childhood memories.
‘We remember in detail the pictures, paintings and patterns that were on the walls around us as we grew up. We realised that this long-term access to a child’s attention is a great opportunity to introduce concepts of mathematics, design and narrative in a fun, intuitive and visual way.’
Emily and Theodore developed a suite of software tools to programmatically build elements based around concepts of algorithm, permutation, cause and effect, and topology. These elements are the building blocks for the different worlds and become a part of the stories being told. The programmatic-designed elements are mixed with hand-illustrated forms and quirky creatures to create a bizarre hybrid world that talks to both hemispheres of the brain.
‘Theodore and I really enjoy working together and I think we learn a lot from one another’, Emily says. ‘We share a similar enthusiasm and excitement when it comes to seeing an idea through to its solution. Because our approaches to problems and strengths are different, we’re able to bounce off each other and end up somewhere where we could not have gotten on our own. We have some awesome brainstorming sessions and just need to find the time to make all of our ideas.’
Inspiration
When asked whose work inspires her own projects, and whom she aspires to, Emily acknowledges two artists in particular.
‘The kinetic sculptor Arthur Ganson has always been an inspiration to me. There is a quality to his work that I love. It is whimsical, mechanical, intricate, delicate, graceful and often quite funny. And of course Jim Henson has been a huge influence on me. I would love for my work to create a similar feeling of wonder and delight for people.’ As well as artists, Emily cannot ignore the influence of her growing up on her work.
‘I’m definitely inspired by nature and I love warm colours and texture. I’ve tried not to have a distinct style, but as much as I try to avoid it, there are some recurring themes and elements that keep popping up in my work: trees, birds, bicycles, sneakers, weather – all of the things I’m obsessed with. Maybe I should embrace it and see what happens.’
The process – from paper to the screen
Emily is very much a ‘paper person’, and she always starts designing on paper, rather than going straight to the computer. She keeps a lot of sketchbooks and paper around her so that she can jot down ideas and working things out throughout the design process.
‘I find it easier to get ideas down quickly without getting too caught up in the details,’ she says. ‘For me it’s important to get away from the computer screen, especially during the early design stages.’
Emily explains how the story behind each project develops with the design process.
‘While I’m working on a project I tend to make up stories about the design. It makes it fun for me and helps when I know I’ll be sitting in front of the computer for the next ten hours. I think that’s when all of the quirky details come out – because they are part of the story.’
Here to There – Jungle – poster series for children.
Up ahead
Emily has three new projects in the works. The first is another collaborative project with Theodore, which explores the way that people communicate with nature, and will make its debut mid-year at the Riviera Gallery in Brooklyn. Emily also has two projects of her own which both contain themes of the body, what it’s made up of and how it moves. ‘Inside Out’ investigates the human body, while ‘Body Language’ is a short film about a journey and mood and communication through body language.
Foremost in her work is Emily’s passion for children and seeking to engage them in an entertaining and educational way, and this is sure to continue to inform her work into the future.
‘I love the way that children approach the world,’ she says. ‘There is something amazing about the way their imagination flows between fantasy and their perception of reality. There is little hesitation when approaching something new or tackling a problem. What I love about designing for children is that opportunity to tell a story and provide a space for learning where they can create their own rules and logic. I also find it to be the most rewarding.’
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Jonathan Zawada, Shane Sakkeus and Collider have joined forces to create a new video clip for music darlings ‘The Presets’ that partners the use of the song in BMW’s TVC for their new Series 1 vehicle launch.
BMW Series 1 campaign
The new Series 1 campaign
Since the 1970s, German car-maker BMW has, as part of its sales and marketing campaign, including an Art Cars programme where famous artists have been invited to paint BMWs. Likewise, film directors have been invited to make short films, each featuring a BMW. In a highly competitive global market BMW promotes its products as clever, stylish, sexy, superbly engineered and highly desirable, to a broad buyer profile. Its latest marketing concept on video is an eye-popping, futuristic, roller-coaster of digital engineering. BMW has pushed its own boundaries in an effort to boost its image with a younger, financially-mobile target market for their new Series 1 vehicle launch. By directly seeking relevance with this demographic, BMW hopes to win world wide returns.
This new commercial is a large collaborative project, selecting the best in Australian music, design and creative direction, together with the input of a French remix expert. Are you the one? by Sydney electro outfit The Presets, remixed by Lifelike, was commissioned by Modular People for BMW. Invited on board as creative directors were Jonathan Zawada – a regular collaborator with The Presets – and Shane Sakkeus, two talented Australian print designers. The Sydney-based design and film collective, Collider, were asked to work with Zawada and Sakkeus to produce the video.
Design in motion
On making the leap from print design to music videos for The Presets, Zawada says, ‘I’ve worked on a couple of their music videos in the part in an art direction capacity, and in my development of their other visual material I’ve always endeavoured to construct a sort of universe to accompany the music that could then give rise to numerous stories within it.’
However, the TVC is not a simple music video – it involves compositing, 3D animation, motion graphics and visual effects – so did this present a greater challenge to the print designer?
‘I think the type of execution we opted for, 3D animation, was a really sympathetic way to ease into direction motion…as the controlled environment it provides allows for a fairly familiar work method,’ says Zawada.
BMW Series 1 campaign
Creating a new universe
Described as ‘optical bliss’, the video takes us for a spectacular ride on highways suspended over a galactic landscape. Traversing through parallel worlds of rainbow moon rocks, pyramids and cosmic clouds, thousands of animated BMWs or ‘The Ones’ navigate the heavens and earth alike.
Zawada and Sakkeus designed the environments which could then be flooded with thousands of moving vehicles.
Zawada explains that the idea was partly inspired by the fantasy worlds of computer games:
‘The idea of recording multiple [car] races and playing them back simultaneously is a feature of an online car racing video game called Trackmania and we really wanted to explore this idea and expand its possibilities into a vast and mythical environment of our own construction.
There seemed to be an almost infinite array of visuals that could be created by playing with the ideas of gravity, inertia and simple physics that became mesmerising and fantastic when massively multiplied.’
He believes that this concept complements The Presets’ sound and image well: ‘The world that The Presets inhabit in all of their artwork has always been a bit mythical and we really wanted to extend that universe as far as it could go in the worlds we created for the cars.’
Enter Collider
Once the concept for the project had been developed, Collider were responsible for the technical side of the project. They were able to create the programme effects which could animate each one of a thousand cars in each scene. On working with Collider, Zawada recalls a rewarding learning experience.
‘Collider really were a pleasure to work with. They were really helpful with developing out ideas along the way and figuring out ways to realise what we had in our heads. Not really knowing a great deal about CG animation, we initially approached them with a kind of rough sketch of what we were after in broad strokes, and they helped steer us in the directions of what was possible. The restrictions we ended up with were really due to the fact that the video is only three minutes long and I think we really had worlds in our heads that could have accommodated a half hour epic!’
BMW Series 1 campaign
The result of this creative collaboration between Zawada, Sakkeus, Collider and The Presets is a highly imaginative visual feast. For BMW, its production line now takes on a market of cosmic significance.
Anne Paterson
Further information
The video for the Presets “Are You The One” 1 Serious Remix can be viewed on line at www.areyouthe1.com.au or the track can be downloaded for free here
The Presets
The Presets on Myspace
Modular People
Jonathan Zawada
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Jonathan Zawada, Shane Sakkeus and Collider have joined forces to create a new video clip for music darlings ‘The Presets’ that partners the use of the song in BMW’s TVC for their new Series 1 vehicle launch.
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Kate McCurdy
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In an attempt to support and promote the myriad disciplines that fall under the umbrella term ‘digital moving image’, this year the Jerwood Moving Image Awards was established to provide a platform for exploring and debating the artform as it exists today, as well as its future prospects.
Of the 350 entries received, three winners were selected by the judging panel as leaders in their field: Sophie Clements, Johnny Kelly and the creative partnership of Rosie Pedlow and Joe King. They have each received £10,000 as winners of the first ever major award in the UK for artists working in the relatively new discipline of digital moving image.
Digital moving image is a ‘uniquely exciting creative discipline of almost limitless possibility,’ says Roanne Dods, Director of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation. She adds that ‘the three winning films wonderfully fulfil the potential of putting digital technology in the hands of the artists, and will hopefully encourage audiences, artists and critics alike to engage more closely with this artform’.
The fact that the judging panel was led by Wayne McGregor of the Royal Ballet displays the breadth of this new discipline into all areas of the arts. McGregor observes that ‘the staggering diversity of practices that we’ve seen [in the award's entries] from dance film and documentary to animation and video art, reveals a discipline that is vigorously creative and consistently challenging its own boundaries.’
The three winners’ work are prime examples of this blurring of disciplines, as they combine elements of filmmaking, sound design and music, screenwriting, visual arts, as well as animation and digital effects to create the films.
A collection of their work as well as the other five finalists, and twenty-two other shortlisted films can also be streamed online at the Jerwood Moving Image Awards website.
Frame, Set & Match (FSM) are one of the largest independently owned post houses in Australia. Based in Sydney, they specialise in design, visual effects, colour grading, compositing and digital intermediate.
Game On at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) is an exciting exploration and celebration of the development of video/computer game technology from the earliest electronic game, Spacewar, in 1962, played on a giant computer, to present day games and into the future. Game On looks closely at the relationship between design and culture. It examines the many areas of design in this industry, such as graphics, illustration, animation, sound, game design and technology, game consoles and much more.
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Kate McCurdy
Frame, Set & Match (FSM) are one of the largest independently owned post houses in Australia. Based in Sydney, they specialise in design, visual effects, colour grading, compositing and digital intermediate. With a strong background in design, they have worked on commercials, feature films, television series, re-branding, music videos, and most recently the graphics package for Tropfest 8, the largest short film festival in the world. Not only did FSM create two packages for the event, they were also a sponsor of Tropfest 8, which reflects the company’s strong philosophy of supporting and fostering emerging filmmakers, as well as emphasising FSM’s own participatory role in the Australian film and television industry.
Tropfest graphics package
FSM approached Tropfest early in the production of the film festival, as they were keen to be the first design and post production company engaged by Tropfest. The brief was for a graphics treatment for their AV presentation in the form of two packages, one for Tropfest 8 and for Trop Jr, both with a completely different look and feel. FSM’s strong focus on design greatly appealed to the John Polson, founder and Creative Director of Tropfest. He recalls that ‘from the start, they offered amazing design direction and dedication.’
The result of the collaboration between Emile Rademeyer, FSM’s Senior Designer, 3D animator Ferry Taswim, as well as the art direction of Dean Mathers from Spin Communications is a graphics package that well represents the fun, dynamic, exciting and often surprising nature of the film festival. The package can be viewed on the FSM website.
Keep it in house
Frame, Set & Match pride themselves on their state-of-the-art facilities and the expertise of their staff such as the new addition of Crash Carlucci, formerly of Riot, Santa Monica, whom has recently joined the team as senior colourist. The post house is now, thanks to the procurement of two BaseLight film grading systems and their Da Vinci 2K, able to produce high definition grading and digital intermediates for clients looking for flexibility and creative freedom in grading for their film prints.The strength of FSM is that so much is done in house: colour grading, digital intermediates, sound, concept, design, compositing, editing and visual effects, without the need for their clients to outsource for these services. One of the successful examples of this is when FSM worked on Paul Goldman and Alice Bell’s music video for Silverchair’s Straight Lines. The visual effects team at FSM supervised the shoot, provided rushes, transfers and grade, and brought in Stuart Cadzow as lead compositor to work with the team on compositing the live action and special light effects. The visual effects complemented the intense grade to the pictures, and gave the video a distinct look that won the filmmakers ‘Best Video Clip’ at the ARIA Artisan Awards in September 2007.
Colour grading for commercials and feature films
Colour grading is the process of altering and enhancing the colour of film prints, and FSM have two Millennium telecine suites at their disposal for HD and Standard definition scanning. The main functions of digital colour grading are most often to restore and compensate for errors in the filming from the shoot, such as changing lighting conditions, but also to optimise the print for compositing and visual effects, and to change the mood or look of the print. FSM are often called upon to grade film for commercials, especially those that require strong branding such as car commercials for the likes of the Mitsubishi Outlander, Toyota TRD Aurion as well as Volvo’s ‘Destination Life’ campaign. These commercials also incorporated composition and visual effects facilitated by FSM’s Flame systems, popular with art directors and producers for their interactivity and flexibility, especially in branding projects.
FSM have also completed colour grading on a number of Australian and international feature films, such as Suburban Mayhem, Jindabyne, House of Flying Daggers, and have produced digital intermediates for Catch a Fire and Clubland. Mark Wareham, Director of Photography for Clubland, praised FSM on their chosen technologies: ‘The strongest asset of your DI system is that there are no surprises when you screen the answer print. All detail and subtleness of the colour is preserved. [Their] FilmLight process incorporating the NorthLight scanner, TrueLight calibration and BaseLight grading ensures the organic look of the negative is preserved with no video artifacts.’ Clubland was well received at its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007 with the final print delivered by FSM.
Design and re-branding
FSM are keen to promote their strong design background, and interest in creating concepts and designs for clients, as well as maintaining their reputation as a finishing house. Their talent for design has been recognised with their recent work for the Tropfest film festival and their rebranding of the NRL and Football for Fox Sports in 2007. Michael Neill, Executive Producer for NRL and Swimming at Fox Sports said that FSM ‘came back with a design concept that took the look of our broadcasts in a new direction, while displaying a complete understanding of our aims and objectives.’
FSM was established in 1984 as one offline edit suite and from their quality work on commercials and music videos has seen them to grow into a significant post house in Australia. Their versatile business model allows them to take on cost-effective and simple projects such as transfers, to more complex digital intermediates, compositing and high definition deliverables for commercials and feature films. Frame, Set & Match’s recent successful graphics package for the Tropfest Film Festival will display their impressive talents in design to a worldwide audience.
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Anne Paterson
An interactive history
Game On at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) is an exciting exploration and celebration of the development of video/computer game technology from the earliest electronic game, Spacewar, in 1962, played on a giant computer, to present day games and into the future. Game On looks closely at the relationship between design and culture. It examines the many areas of design in this industry, such as graphics, illustration, animation, sound, game design and technology, game consoles and much more.
Game On also examines the importance of computer game culture and its place in society; how it borrows from other forms of creativity such as television, music and movies: for example, GoldenEye (Rare), Star Wars (Atari) and Discs of Tron (Bally Midway), and, conversely, the way in which other creative fields are influenced by games such as Tomb Raider (Core Design) and Resident Evil (Capcom) which have become successful movies. Game On also looks at the impact of particular film genres such as anime and comic genres such as manga.
International exhibition at ACMI
This is a worldwide exhibition, originating in London at the Barbican Gallery in 2002. It has already toured the United States, Europe and Asia and more than a million people have seen it. Just like computer games’ design and technology, this exhibition has evolved to keep pace with ongoing developments in the industry.
120 playable games on show
Game On is definitely hands on – a totally interactive experience. We are invited to play! There are over 120 of the most famous video games ever made, in one place and playable. ACMI is the only cultural institution in Australia with a dedicated exhibition space for video games, known as the Games Lab. This comprehensive exhibition is divided into sections which showcase specific areas within the realm of game design and technology, such as Early Arcade Games, Games Consoles, Games Families, Sound, Cinema, Games Culture – USA, Europe and Asia, Multiplayer Games, Online Games and Machinima, Kids’ Games, Character Design, The Making and Marketing of Games, and Future Technology. Running simultaneously with the exhibition, is a rich programme of associated events including gamerthons, watching game artists at work (Tantalus, Interactive), game memorabilia (www.acmi.net.au/collectors), debate on violence in games, choosing good games, and a unique feature of this exhibition – Australian-made games such as the 2007 Game of the Year Puzzle Quest (Infinite Interactive), The Hobbit and The Way of the Exploding Fist (Beam Software)(Melbourne House), and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger (Krome Studios).Game On has something for everyone.
A showcase of games design
From a designer’s perspective, the Game On landscape is vast and provides an inspiring experience. The exhibition is a superb example of how broadly the term ‘designer’ can be applied. From concept development of characters in the games, for example, Sonic (the Hedgehog) created by Sega’s Yuji Naka, and Mario, created by Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamototo, to the marketing of the packaged product, we are able to examine a comprehensive design process, combining the talents of designers from diverse fields.
Game On
The History and Future of Computer Games and Gaming
ACMI Screen Gallery
Thursday 6 March – Sunday 13 July 2008
10.00 am – 6 pm daily; Thursday nights until 9 pm
Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Federation Square, Flinders Street, Melbourne
Animated documentaries are a new wave of an older art form combining elements of a life, a lifetime career, a unique art, and a quick sharp look at what holds it all together in a new age technological mix. Terri Dentry talked at length with Marie-Josee Saint-Pierre about her latest animated film, which showcases the life of a master of animation: Norman McLaren.
The short animated documentary, McLaren’s Negatives by Montreal based filmmaker and animator, Marie-Josee Saint-Pierre, musters some of the latest technology to bring to life the words, images and works of one of animation’s true pioneers, Norman McLaren (1914– 1987). In the process of channeling McLaren, she neatly bookends the beginning of one of our newest artforms with current day filmmaking practice, but reminds us that the essential ingredients remain a creative soul and a good idea.
