Today, July 3rd

Virgile from Flying V on Vimeo.

Supinfocom grads Clément Soulmagnon & Gary Levesque have joined forces again to form Flying V with their first short “Virgile”. Production was handled at Wizz in Paris. If the work looks at all familiar to you they’re both behind the viral sucesses “Gary” and “Yankee Girl”. Check out all three.

-Thanks Filip!

Jonathan Hodgson’s classic based on a Charles Bukowski poem.

Yesterday, July 2nd

WGMX 4 - Zombocalypse from Rob Moffett (VDA) on Vimeo.

Food for thought tonight when packing your car for the 4th. It’s Wagglemax’s Zombocalypse Survival Kit. Check out VDA Studio’s other assorted goodies on their Vimeo channel.

-Via Motionographer

Anyone that’s spent time tackling promotion of their work via various social media outlets knows it can be a time intensive pain. Thousands of animators on Facebook have all started with that basic question… where do you start? You can create a profile or group page for your work and without the proper outreach it’ll sit there lifelessly passed over. Now you have the usual options of tracking like minded profiles and groups and connecting in to post your opinions (and self promotion) aaand Facebook would love for you to commit a little cash for ads to pimp your latest as option number two. But if you’re a relatively unknown entity you’ve got an uphill battle ahead. Here are three examples that work for all the right reasons.

Shane Ackers new feature “9” launched a viral campaign a few months back under the group profile “9 Scientist”. The weekly updates share tidbits of background, cool tech and build anticipation for the film incredibly well. The scientist will answer questions and shares his fears, as chaos on the page will presumably build until the films release on 9-9-09.

I’ve gushed endlessly on this site about Pascal Campion and his beautiful illustrations and animation on his website but he’s such a great addition to Facebook. Just about every morning you can expect a new inspired illustration from Pascal on your FB home page. And I can only imagine the hordes of people that will discover the rest of his work as his profile continues to spread.

Finally… my two new favorite friends on Facebook… Dis Baman and Dis Piderman. Add them both and you can witness the glory of these two having a chat with each other on your daily feed. Brilliant! I’ll link to Alex Buterleria's video below so you’ll have a better appreciation before you visit.

I’m sure there are countless others out there challenging the Facebook platform specifically with inventive ways of spreading their work. If you’ve got a dynamite example let us know. All three of these strategies above are obviously time intensive but none of them really feel forced and they’re all accumulating something most cookie cutter profiles can’t, invested friends and fans.

Last Wednesday, July 1st

Got a really good thing from oceanwarmair on Vimeo.

Studio Oceanwarmair is probably best known for their weirdly inventive idents and commercial work. Well welcome to “Got a really good thing” the latest video for Twisted Tongue at Acid Jazz. It’s a funky surreal mix of live action and flash. Reminds me of Joel Trussel’s latest “Mr. Wobble’s Nightmare” by Kid606.  Enjoy.

-Thanks Mike!

Last Tuesday, June 30th

Bill Plympton has just released a new batch of recent work on DVD! The collection “Bill Plympton’s Dog Days” DVD gathers together three of his ‘Dog’ shorts, (the most recent “Horn Dog” is still traveling the festival circuit), and a slew of music videos and other shorts.

Animation director and writer David Levy posted a nice piece covering Bill’s work and the DVD this week. Levy’s Animondays Blog is a must read each week offering filmmakers and fans sage advice and guidance on most aspects of the animation biz.

Last Monday, June 29th

Basement Jaxx: "Where's Your Head At" 2009 Tour Visuals (by Max Hattler) from Max Hattler on Vimeo.

Animator and audiovisualist Max Hattler has been sharing some phenomenal clips of his latest work for Basement Jaxx May 09 UK tour. The visuals here are an electric arcade of crazy kinetics. If you can’t wrap you’re brain around the clip above Max has split screen the actual show with his visuals on the bottom and the show up top. The whole experience leaves me reaaaally wanting a full video upload of just the visuals. It’s cool to see the live effect of this with a wild crowd though.

I caught up with Max last week on everything else he’s juggling and he had this to share:
Apart from the Basement Jaxx tour visuals, I also created some work for The Egg’s US tour. This UK group is gathering some momentum on the US jam band scene at the moment. Having supported them with live visuals at their now-legendary gig at the Disco Bisuits’ Camp Bisco Festival in New York state in the summer of 2008, I went back to the studio earlier this year and created visuals for two new tracks, together with fellow RCA grad and animation experimentalist Noriko Okaku.        

I’ve also been doing a new live audiovisual performance with Noriko. This is a sit-down 40min set with music by Japanese artist dubmarronics.  Originally commissioned by Abandon Normal Devices, and premiered at Moves Festival in Manchester in April, we are now taking the live set to other film festivals such as Curtas Vila do Conde in July, Muuuvi Festival in a Transsylvanian castle in August, and (as a 3-screen version) to Fredrikstad Animation Festival in Norway in November.

Apart from audiovisuals Max’s latest short film Aanaatt just picked up the Host Award at Videofestival Bochum and is rounding the festival circuit at Annecy, Rotterdam, Melbourne, Edinburgh, Vila do Conde and the upcoming Onedotzero world tour. Max has been traveling out to many of these between giving talks at art colleges and teaching at the University of East London.

Also… the big project that’s been lurking on the horizon for a while now is his latest commissioned short film Spin. The project is shaping up and Max promises more news by fall.

Friday, June 26th

There are only 89 days of summer left this year. Malcolm Sutherland pretty much sums it up in his 2007 short “The Tourists”.  You can check out more drawings, sketches and animation on his newly revamped site.

Thursday, June 25th

Photograph of Jesus by Laurie Hill in association with the Getty Images Short & Sweet Film Challenge from Hulton Archive on Vimeo.

Last year Getty Images Short and Sweet Challenge picked ten directors to try and highlight the enormous content vault available at the Hulton Archive in London. The result is Laurie Hill’s terrific “Photograph of Jesus”. Hill uses the image archive here to great effect taking advantage of several iconic pics. Her highlights show a small sample of what truly seems like a bottomless pit of imagery.

-Via Short of the Week