I made these gouache paintings from photographs of the Blitz. I guess I’m using the images as allegories of the damage done to Britain by the financial crisis, and the subsequent attempts to manage it through IMF/World Bank/Government imposed austerity measures.
I’ve been working on a few personal projects that have National Identity as a running theme. They’re works in progress. Who’s personal work ever gets finished?
The environment for this first one is a grimy Northern town built from cardboard railway models. The targets and flags allude to collective and individual conflicts.
In Protecting Our Way of Life I’m using video loops of fences and walls to make a border, physically and metaphorically, around footage of Britain and the British.
The grids are influenced by those used in Gilbert & George’sDirty Words series from the 1970’s. As the piece progresses the “walls” become less substantial and the subject of the video becomes less apposite of British self image.
Just Do It, the crowd funded climate camp documentary directed by Emily James, is premiering at the Sheffield Doc Fest on June 9th.
One of the great things about working on documentaries is the enthusiasm that filmmakers have for their subject and this bunch are the ultimate example, they really live it.
I helped out with some of the R&D and here are a couple of stills from an animation sequence about a protest at Chatham House that I made for an edit shown at a preview screening at the Frontline Club.
just-do-it.org.uk
sheffdocfest.com
Now available to stream: http://justdoitfilm.com/direct-from-jdi
I made some animation for Alan G. Parker’s feature documentary Who Killed Nancy? last year and it was released in February. It played at cinemas in London and around the country and it’s now out on DVD.
Nick Rutter, the film’s DOP, contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in working on the film. The production team at Bill & Ben had decided that the budget wasn’t going to stretch to the archive footage that’s available and to fill in the gaps needed to tell the story with animation. Although it sounds like a patch up job it actually turned out pretty well with the different styles of animation complementing the punk aesthetic of the subject.
Above is a still from a sequence in the film where the part played by Max’s Kansas City in New York is discussed. It was the club where Sid Viscous’ new band had a residency shortly before Nancy Spungen died. I wanted the animation to have a hand made feel to reflect the times. Below is a shot from a sequence of the exterior of CBGB’s in New York. The figures, taxis and buildings were traced with marker pen on to acetate and then scanned for compositing.
Below is a still from a sequence depicting Sid Viscious’ Heroin addiction. In this sequence I treated the images to look they had been produced by silk screening to look like album cover artwork of the period.
Below is a still from the sequence about the graffiti in CBGb’s slagging off Nancy Spungen.
There are several sequences in the film that cover the events in Sid & Nancy’s room in the Chelsea Hotel on the night that Nancy Spungen died. this still shows the location of fingerprints found in the room.