We’re starting up an award to celebrate hot young animators working in all media and rewarding them with moola, mentorship and screening at the Sydney International Film Festival. Here’s the press release.
With the second UTS: Sydney International Animation Festival set to launch in Sydney on 24 September 2010, emerging animators have a chance to get a leg up in the industry through the Sixty40 Proto-Ninja Award.
The Sixty40 Proto-Ninja Award will consist of $999.99 cash plus a two-month mentorship with Sixty40, a design and animation company that combines the love of creativity with the reality of commercial production.
Entrants must create a new work of between 40 and 60 seconds length, which follows the theme “Underdog”.
Deadline for entries is 6th August 2010.
“The focus of the entry should be on telling a story that strikes an emotional chord around the theme of the underdog,” said Sixty40’s Animation Director Matt Taylor. “So, we’re looking for films that are funny, sad, inspirational or evoke some other emotional response.”
Production techniques used are completely open and could include stop-frame, traditional 2D, motion graphics, 3D, photography, puppetry, film or video. The result must ensure a compelling experience for the viewer rather than just a display of technical prowess.
“We use the term ‘ninja’ to signify an animator or designer with superior skills, vision and passion who can be relied on to not only pull their own weight in a studio but also to bring fresh unique qualities to their work. A ‘proto-ninja’ is a ninja-in-the-making who has not yet had the chance to unleash their talents on the world. The mentorship will give the winner time, resources and guidance to help them develop their film, experience and secret powers on their path towards full Ninja-dom” continues Taylor.
Ten finalists will be screened and the winner announced at the opening night of the UTS: Sydney International Animation Festival, Friday 24 September, 2010. As well, the ten finalists will have their work streamed from the Proto-Ninja award website for a period of 12 months or until the 2011 winner is announced.
In 2010 the Festival will showcase sessions such as the Australian Panorama, SIGGRAPH Highlights and the wonderfully twisted Late Night Bizarre, along with a new batch of animation from France, the US, UK and China to mention a few. After the success of last year’s international guest speakers Clare Kitson, former commissioning editor for the UK’s Channel 4, and Oscar winning Canadian animator Chris Landreth, 2010 will continue to provide access to the movers and shakers of the global animation industry.
The nice folk at Digital Media World took the time to summarise the production process we went through to make the TV1 idents. The article will appear in their latest issue but of course, it’s also online.
Apologies for the exclamation mark, but that’s major news! The Creative Hotshop awards identifies Australia’s most interesting/charming/innovative/coolest/sexiest production house of the year.
We are very flattered to be included amongst the 3 finalists in the animation category.
Big ups to Motionographer, Drawn and Boing Boing for sending some viewers the way of the TV1 Summer spots. You can tell when one of these blogs take an interest in your work: your internets go crazy.
We’ve just finished a series of stop motion idents for TV1 that featured objects coming to life to explore the quintessential Australian summer. The themes were Celebrations (which ticked off christmas and new years and general summer parties), The beach (which was about hot summer days, getting burnt, hot sand, cool water and summer fruit) and finally backyard barbecues (which was about impromptu summer sports, barbecues and cricket matches on the radio. It was affectionately titled “Sausage Party”).
Here’s a photo of the dog relaxing in the set for the logo resolve for “Celebration”. Download the greatest desktop pattern ever by clicking the image.
Battlestar has already been selected by and appeared in a variety of sweet film fests: The Holland animation film festival (HAFF), The Portable Film Festival (here), The Fantastic Planet Film Festival (here) to name a few. But in massive news, it has also been selected to appear in the very exclusive DotMov Festival out of Japan. It’s one of only 18 movies to appear, and we are proud as hell.
…and Psycho Teddy is still out there, making an impact in the world. This is pretty amazing advance: someone is Vlogging their reaction to the video. It’d be good to play them both at once so you can see what she’s seeing, feel what she’s feeling. You certainly know what she’s thinking, because she’s saying it out loud.
Wooo! it’s been a while in the making but we just got our copy of the 15th anniversary IdN anthology. Our work is sandwiched between Shilo and Stardust, which is great company to keep, and on the enclosed dvd we have made a mind-blowing film which prophesises the not too far away future when pandas fly in hover cars and we work in the park in our email enabled space helmets. Available at all fancy book shops around the globe.
Check out the film Sixty40 was asked to make top mark the occasion here:
If you happen to be strolling down Burton St. Dalringhurst one of these nights you’ll notice 2 massive projections in the front garden of an old timey restaurant. The animations going at timelapse speed and represent a neglected space being reclaimed by nature. The projections run for 6 weeks and each week we release a new phase of growth. Eventually it will become a beautiful overgrown garden to to match the transformation going on behind the screens.
As part of our on going strategy of putting characters everywhere, we’ve started a project of putting characters on top of poles around the neighbourhood. Keep an eye out for them.
People, get in their and vote your asses off for us. We’re catching up to the other people in Median Vote score (currently we’re at 4.32 the next film is at 4.61 or something). Vote early. Vote often. We might just win something. If we do we’ll split it with you.
The Battlestar clip has been accepted into the Portable Film Festival which launches this Saturday. It will also be featured as one of the festival highlights on their site on Sunday which is excellent (and a great choice might we add). It is in the Music Video category and naturally we want to win as we have made the best film clip ever.
From August 1st – 31st, Portable Film Festival will present its biggest festival program yet of nearly 180 films, from over 800 submissions from 46 countries, across the festival categories of Short Film, Music Video, Look at Me, Get Animated, First Hand Capture, and Feature Film. From widescreen vistas to webcam confessionals, Portable will present the zeitgeist highlights and the under-the-radar prototypes of the big names and future talents of contemporary filmmaking, direct to your laptop, iPod, PSP or 3G mobile phone!
I love you guys, how do i vote? To register to vote please go to:
The category winners will be decided by audience voting; you’ll see your film player page has a simple rating system of 1-5, with 1 being subjectively regrettable, and 5 being possibly the Best. Film. Ever. Viewers can also post comments, critiques or talk to you directly via the comments pane on your film’s player page. Voting is open for the next month. And I guess like any good election, you can only vote once.
Our film title: Battlestar
Director: Sixty40
Category: Music Video
Please forward this onto as many friends, family, pets with internet access as you can think of as it would be great to get the awesomeness of “Battlestar” out there wherever we can. The world needs to know.
A very sweet animation about love with a terrible warning. To find out more about the very accomplished Doctor Prawn, check out his blog. Thanks Ran Ran.
The “Throw us a Bone” campaign we worked on last year continnues its awards run winning a yellow pencil at last nights D & AD awards in London, taking out the mobile marketing category. Congrats to all involved.
Check the work out here, and read about the awards here
Comments about “Battlestar” collected from around the web:
“That’s blowing my brain to shreds…. Awesome clip & the remix really flips it from the original..Tasty! - http://www.juslikemusic.com/
“Ooh very nice. It’s like lenticular vision in 3d. Is this 4d? :O” - http://gadgets.boingboing.net
“From concept to execution, it’s impressive. And you know what? They just made me an insta fan of the company, the producer, and the emcees. Ahh, I love freshness! =$”
- http://silver.sterlingsanders.com
“the video to Harmonic 313 ’sBattlestar got me tripping, how did they do that? http://bit.ly/WQrjE (ace!)” - twitterer onpoint
“one of the dopest music video’s I’ve seen in a long time” - twitterer Azer
This Friday, May 29 at 8pm Sixty40 will be talking at “Behind the Screens” at the MCA as part of the week long Creative Sydney festival, which celebrates the wealth and diversity of the city’s creative talents. Also speaking will be Host - Jay Katz (Mu-Meson Archives), Ian Cope (Rising Sun Pictures), Ben Briand and Basil Hogios (Cherub Pictures), Deborah Szapiro (The Good Fight), Phil Lloyd and Trent O’Donnell (Review with Myles Barlow on ABC2). It’s free and runs from 8-9pm, there’s a bar, so hey… see you there.
To register for these free events and for more info hit creativesydney.com.au
Creative Sydney runs May 27 – June 12 2009, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Circular Quay, The Roxy, Parramatta
Holy Maceroni. Warp records have released our clip for the artist Harmonic 313 onto their main page to hype up the impending release of the amazing sounding single. The album, from which it comes is reviewed thus:
” A head splintering masterpiece”- Dazed & Confused “a brilliant re-wiring of post-rave sonics” -Q 4 **** “Joins the dots of Detroit’s recent musical history,drawing a line between hip-hop legend J Dilla, the electro futurism of Drexciya and the hi-tech soul of the likes of Kenny Larkin”- Plan B
For the clip, we’ve pioneered a technique of stereoscopic editting that lives up to the sprit of “head-splintering”. Follow the link to check it out. Watch out if flashing imagery is a problem for you, there’s a lot of it.
The ringtone inspired a film clip and that film clip has inspired someone, possibly in a strange way, one million times. That deserves an exclamation mark, maybe two. It’s great to read the comments that are left on the youtube page, so check them out here. We really are touching some people out there in internet land. Respect.
Update: Sony has removed the 1 million plus video and changed their embedding options for some reason. Visit their new one here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLeYEcHHs5E
In its first appearance of the award season, in a really tough international competition - ‘Throw us a Bone’ picked up a Bronze Lotus!! Thanks to the SDCH, Gen, Hannes, Moxi Sound and the hard working guys at M & C Saatchi.
Anna burns invited us on to be the weekly guests on FBi’s “Out of the Box” weekly show, where creative types get to present the music that floats their boat. We got an hour which we filled with Muppets, Budos Band, Mudhoney and more. Thanks, Anna, we had a ball. If you missed it, then check it out here…
Here we perform live the haunting “Pandas who need people” in front of an adoring crowd. Or they were adoring to begin with anyway. Then they turned ugly.
Sixty40 is shooting a new video clip for harmonic 313. It’s a dance base clip using a steroscopic technique which will make your eyes pop out of your head. The dancer is the indubitable Andy Uprock. We’ve just finished shooting it and commencing the edit. Then we saw this. Which reminds you: it’s all in the performance baby.
The indubitable Dr. Prawn has released a film clip to welcome in 2009. He combines haunting insights with a groove reminiscent of late night Neil Young sessions.
The last message in Sign form from Evan Newby, a fine animator who is moving his pencil on in the world. He was responsible for much of the hard drawing work in The Eduganda Panda show. We salute him.
Here’s a blast from the past. A karaoke video with no words. This haunting reworking of the Streisand classic was created in 2003 for Sixty40’s 3rd birthday and performed by man in a panda suit. It was filmed in Kings Cross, Sydney. Now, we’re 8 and a bit, it’s like a blast from the past.
Matt has a doll in Cupco’s upcoming group show, amongst a legion of your favourite artists. Opening’s on the 16th down at Damien Minton Gallery in Redfern. See you there, whooo!
THE UNITED NATIONS OF CUPCO
100 international artists received a felt template
of a Cupco Doll from Luke Temby/CUPCO.
Come and see the 70 that came back.
DAMIEN MINTON GALLERY
61-63 GREAT BUCKINGHAM STREET REDFERN
damienmintongallery.com.au
December 10 - 20, Opening Party December 16th
Artists include APAK + Bwana Spoons + Nakanari + Euan Macleod + J. Otto Siebold + Sixty40 + Diego Medina + Leo Robba + Abi Temby + Scrappers + Le Merde + Furi Furi + Kazmo + Little Frends of Printmaking + Arbito + Snaggs + Oliver Hibert + Wrecks + Dehara + Sam Gowing + John Yates + Shawn Wolfe + Yupyland + Kiyoshi Nakazawa + Shawnimals + Jeremyville + MCA + Peskimo + Steven Moore + Johnny Ryan + Abe Lincoln Jr. + Chris Magnusson + Nerissa Lea + Reg Lynch + Reach + Jude Fowler Smith + Chris Magnusson + Tado + Jon Burgerman + more…
Next in the series of fresh signs to illuminate the multi-use park out the front of our office is the double-faced Dan. Paying homage to one of our super-ninjas, Dan. Take that drifters.
two weeks ago we held the first ever Sixty40 Social, to celebrate turning 8 years old. It was upstairs at the world bar and had a Groucho Marx theme. Masks were worn, chocolate cigars were smoked, cake was eaten, booze was consumed and good times were had.
The “Throw us a bone” campaign for Sydney Dogs and Cat’s Home launched Yesterday. Sixty40 created the worlds most endearing dog to encourage people to contribute money to the dogs home charity via their mobile phone. Generous tourists and drunk office workers have been texting the 9m screen at Customs House in Circular Quay to see Frankie thanks them by name and then do a trick.
Meanwhile there’s a collection of very glowing reviews:
“Move over red rover, let sixty40 take over” - Marketing Mag
10 x 3 meter wallpaper for an attic space. A bamboo forest in anaglyphic 3d. At the very least, it’s a massive, abstract, beautiful image… at the best, you’ll be able to put on the Red-Blue Glasses and listen to your mind go pop.
The hype film we made for the home games of the roosters has been selected to show in the Holland Film Festival. I wonder if they’ll like it as much as 15000 screaming football fans?
Sixty40 is helping judge this competition for iRiver. Apparently one submits ones animation/motion graphics or song and if one wins, one gets to be the official video of their new player plus tour the country in one’s own balloon. Or something. Check out their site to find out what exactly is going on. Some time with Sixty40 is even part of the main prize. Respect.
We were at the shoot for a new show we’re doing the show packaging and identity for Disney’s “Alpha Breaks”. It’s great to walk into a place and see your logo made real, not just real but with flashing lights. This brings to 2 the amount of times that has happened to us. The other one was for the very neon “The Lair”:
here is a shot of Nash Edgerton and our muppet, chillin’ and discussin’ the film industry, whilst we were filming our haunting new promo film for SPAA Fringe.
Sixty40 is in the middle of making a promo for the SPAA Fringe. In the film, the main character walks past a poster for a movie, the type of which he hates. That movie is “Spider Monkey”.
The cat is fully out of the bag, and hunting children in the park. This photo is from an expose in the Daily Telegraph about the apparent outrage of political correctness that forced Psycho Teddy to turn into the “vanilla” DJ Tedy Z. Best quote of the article from the organisation that promotes fair representation of people with psychiatric problems StigmaWatch:
“We acknowledge no on is setting out to cause offence but you are not going to have a ringtone making fun of someone with cancer.”
Our old sign was a picture of the front of the building with the same sign on it, created a mental vortex of recursiveness. Our new one is a specimen jar full of pickled turtles called “Glass Half Full”. Hope the locals have taken their meds.
We’re not quite sure if the irony of this will come off just right, but you may notice this image as one of our rotating images on our proper website. We would like to say, that in no way do we condone the use of cats to LOL.
- Having a life size animatronic costume made of one of your characters.
The bear formerly known as Psycho Teddy, has a new single coming out which we are animating at the moment. To launch the single and whip this nation into dancing hysteria he will be appearing at shopping centres around Australia in the upcoming school holidays. Woah! The costume’s being built now, but here is the plasticene Maquette and fur samples for the costume. Stay tuned….
A couple of years ago, Matt and Mark MC’d a burlesque tour around Australia. Dressed like classic Barnum and Bailey era circus hosts, they enthralled some frightened audiences with bad jokes and some even worse magic tricks. One of the best dancers from the tour, Andy Uprock, has been doing some pretty inventive street art using cups and fences for a while now, but now Mooks has paid him to tour the globe and take it up a notch. Nice one.
Today marks the 7th birthday of one of Sixty40’s quiet achievers: Doctor Prawn. He has been answering medical and personal questions on his blog for all these years with the proud words: “As a Doctor and a Prawn”. God Bless you Doctor Prawn.
The campaign has begun. Bus Shelters, News papers, online and big TV coverage for the Super Toy Sale creative. All of the toys in the spot were custom designed because we couldn’t use real products. There’s a lot of love in them, especially the MonkeyRider. Enjoy.
We are currently in the thick of production of a huge, and very exciting TVC for K-Mart. This is Matt directing kids in a huge house we’ve just filled with toys, all so we can get into the real business end of the spot. As George Lucas said “the nice thing about animation is that there’s no actors”.We hear that Georgey, working with kids involved a lot of unusual ways to get them to do what you needed… again and again. To be aired on the 2nd July.
Sixty40 directed SeanyB’s new clip for “Happy Today”. As things turned out,it got tied into an episode of “Australia’s Next Top Model” where appearing in the clip was the prize for a model challenge. The result: a crazy day of helmets and tall, beautiful people and a slick graphic clip.
Every couple of weeks we invite photographers, illustrators artists or designers from within Sixty40 to contribute a new sign for the studio. It shines out over a park that is inhabited by drug users and weirdos. It’s a big opportunity to influence drifters so it’s not taken lightly.
Matt and Mark present to 2200 people at the Sydney edition of Semi-Permanent. Later Dan and Mark talk and close the Brisbane version. Both times we experienced a great feeling of transient fame. Getting stopped at parties related to the event was strange, but when you got stopped at unrelated parties and drunk people wanted your photo; that was crazy.
We became best friends with Justin from SuperFad www.superfad.comand had a great time.
Following the success of the Psycho Teddy Ringtone, Sony commissioned an even more intense film clip for release in Asia. What we didn’t know was that it was also being released in Australia. Following that, we were even more excited to hear it got to #1 in physical single sales and #5 overall for a week. Go Psycho Teddy, Go. Check the film clip below and pay particular attention to the user comments on the YouTube Page Fantastic.
