Call for Submissions: ANIMARKT Pitching, Branch of Polish Event ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum, Extends 2018 Pitching Submission Deadline

Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.

As of August 1st, 2018, ANIMARKT Pitching – a branch of ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum, an annual puppet animation-centered conference based in Łódź, Poland, where producers, distributors, representatives of TV broadcasters, animators and other professionals in the stop motion industry share with those who attend the conference their experience and practical knowledge about working in animation industry, including pitching sessions, discussions, presentations, workshops, and individual face-to-face meetings, the first event of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe – has extended its pitching submission deadline for stop motion short film projects to August 5, 2018.

“We are excited by the substantial number of all submissions that have already been submitted. Nevertheless, in order to maximise the opportunity for creators to present themselves and their projects in front of professionals from many countries, we are pleased to extend the deadline for projects of stop motion shorts,” says Agnieszka Kowalewska, programmer of ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum.

The regulations for pitching are as follows: The film being pitched must be at the development stage. It must not have a final runtime over over 26 minutes, and at least 80 percent of the film should be made with the technique of stop motion puppet animation. Projects may include animated shorts or television special episodes made with the use of puppet technique.

Furthermore, an additional asset of the project must include the artistic input of creators (Animation Director, Storyboard Author, Author of Artistic Designs, Composer, or an animator responsible for the realization of a significant part of the animation) from at least one of the following countries: Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Germany, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia. However, the event’s organizers welcome creators from all over the world.

The full list of pitching regulations are accessible on www.en.animarkt.pl/pitching. Applications are to be submitted by an online application form at: https://goo.gl/forms/jrbY9FSjEI0fmagJ3 until August 5th, 2018.

ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum 2017. Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.

From all the applications being sent, the Selection Committee will choose 15 projects which will be presented on October 11th, 2018 as part of Pitching during the ANIMARKT event. The selection committee includes: Agnieszka Niewadził (CeTA, Poland), Nikodem Szlęzak (CeTA, Poland), István Mráz (Mozinet Ltd., Hungary), Michal Podhradský (ASAF, Czech Republic), Andrej Gregorčok (Fest Anča International Animation Festival, Slovakia), Agnieszka Kowalewska-Skowron (MOMAKIN, Poland), and Paulina Zacharek (MOMAKIN, Poland). The pitching jury will be announced later this month.

The person responsible for presentation of the selected project will be provided with a hotel accommodation (7 nights) and a reimbursement of 80% of travel costs (up to EUR 150). Moreover, they will participate in two training sessions. The script session with Wim Vanecker – a producer, screenwriter, director, script consultant, and the project manager of European Short Pitch – will be organized in a form of individual meetings focused on a given participant’s projects. Training sessions with Nancy Denney-Phelps – an animation historian and journalist who cooperates with the prestigious AWN.com publishing group – will have a similar form. Nancy will conduct a training sessions that will aim at improving the participants’ skills connected with presenting projects.

Among the projects presented during the ANIMARKT event, the Pitching’s jury will select two main winners. Information concerning the awarded projects will be announced on October 13th, 2018 during the Closing Gala of the Łódź Animation Festival LAL.KA.

The prizes in the contest are the Audiovisual Technology Center contribution in kind in the amount of: 60.000 PLN (ca €14.000), 40.000 PLN (ca €9.300) and additional awards, such as accreditation to Mifa 2019 and sound post production including studio and sound engineer for 5 days (offered by Playade Sound Studio).

The organizer of ANIMARKT is MOMAKIN (www.momakin.pl) – a multi-tasking unit working for popularizing and propagating animation and supporting creators in Poland
and in international arenas. The partners of ANIMARKT include: Audiovisual Technology Center (CeTA) from Wroclaw which is also the founder of the awards for pitching winners, ASAF (Czech Republic), Mozinet (Hungary), Fest Anča International Animation Festival (Slovakia). ANIMARKT is partially funded by the International Visegrad Fund
and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.

ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum 2017. Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.

ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum – which includes ANIMARKT Pitching – will take place in Łódź, Poland from 8th to 13th October, 2018.

To learn more about ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum you can visit their website by going here. For additional information concerning ANIMARKT Pitching, please email Iwona Buchcic, ANIMARKT PR and Marketing Manager, at i.buchcic@momakin.pl, or at +48 502 598 925.

You can stay tuned for upcoming interviews and articles by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our homepage, by following us on our Facebook @StopMotionGeek, or by following us on our Instagram @stop.motion.geek.blog.

Comments

Phil Tippett's "Mad God: Part 3" Fully Funded on Kickstarter!

The stop motion legend, Phil Tippet, has launched – and has now successfully funded – the third chapter in his beautiful and weird dystopian series of stop motion short films entitled Mad God , via crowdfunding the project through Kickstarter. WE DID IT! --- MAD GOD 3 kickstarter sucessfully funded ---- GREAT THANKS TO ALL ! --- — Phil Tippett (@PhilTippett) June 17, 2017 The project’s initial goal of raising $40,000 has been met and surpassed by financial backers with a final tally of $45,845 from the Kickstarter campaign , which ended yesterday. As Mr. Tippett explains in his Kickstarter video, the money will go towards feeding the crew working on the project out of Tippett studio in Berkeley, as well as to buy materials and to help “keep the adventure going,” as he explains in his Kickstarter video. Phil is a master of the craft of stop motion, which he's helped pioneer since the earliest work of his career. Starting in 1975 with his employment at Industrial Light ...

Read full article »

Interview with Matt Bollinger, Painter and Animator Behind Stop Motion/Painting Hybrid Short Film "Between the Days," a Beautiful Portrait of Routine, Unfulfillment, and Despair in Middle America

"Before Work" finished painting featured in Between the Days . Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger. Often – far too often – we forget the true weight of our actions, our everyday decisions, ranging from those big to small. And, in forgetting, we forget ourselves – who we truly are, where we have been, what we have done, how we have gotten here, to this very place in this very moment. For we are nothing if not the sum total of all our decisions, our actions…even the most minute, even those – perhaps especially those – made in the thrumming humdrum of the everyday: the act of rising from our bed and reaching over to flick off the alarm resting on our bedside table, lighting a cigarette, collecting yesterday’s trash before moving on to more, equally menial tasks. Moments spent alone, in ostensible comfort – the comfort provided us by 21st century accoutrements so many of us have grown to take for granted. Whether we are aware of it or not, each of our actions leave a ma...

Read full article »

Interview with Heather Colbert, Filmmaker Behind The Music Video for Tom Rosenthal’s “How Have You Been?”

Hypnos looking on at the moon. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert. “After talking with Tom, I just let the track play, while I drew or noted down ideas that came into my head,” Heather Colbert—a Bristol-based animator and filmmaker—tells Stop Motion Geek about the origins of her newest project: creating, almost single-handedly, the music video for English singer-songwriter Tom Rosenthal’s “How Have You Been?”—a haunting and beautiful acapella piece off his latest album, Z-Sides . “He told me the album was about sleep and so the images that came to me were of nocturnal and natural things. I also saw a connection in the beautiful lyrics to a character living with mental health issues, especially in the line ‘I woke up, but it didn’t go away’. So I began to see a creature trying their best to get on with their task, but being hindered by the fear of the world that they inhabit.” Hypnos (left) and Shadow (right) in the film. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert. The third musi...

Read full article »

Aardman Co-Founder David Sproxton's Tips for Success in the Animation Industry, Part 2 (of 3): 4 Production Tips

David Sproxton Over the course of Aardman co-founder David Sproxton’s two in-depth interviews with Watershed’s Mark Cosgrove, it becomes blatantly obvious that his easy-to-listen-to, soft-spoken words offer an invaluable resource to animators and filmmakers alike in the way becoming successful in the business of animation. In keeping with the theme of last-week’s article, this week signifies the second post in Stop Motion Geek’s series of articles on advice for animators and filmmakers accrued from Sproxton’s interviews with Cosgrove about the history of Aardman, wittily titled “ Aardocs .” Last week, the elements of Sproxton’s advice that I chose to write about primarily pertained to pre-production, whereas this week I’ve chosen advice of his that pertain primarily to the process of production. His advice – posted below – span everything from importance of knowing your limitations to an excellent way to to build your skill-set as an animator or filmmaker to the value of creati...

Read full article »

Aardman Senior Model-Maker Jay Smart Reveals Aardman's Puppet Materials and Plasticine Techniques for "Early Man" to Adam Savage of Tested

Adam Savage (right) holding "The Farmer" puppet from Shaun the Sheep and Jay Smart (right). Copyright Tested. Along with the usual humdrum of press ranging from critic reviews and interviews with voice actors regarding British animation powerhouse Aardman Animation’s latest feature film – Early Man , a “prehistoric underdog sports story,” in the words of the film’s director Nick Park – has come by the way of the YouTube channel Tested something really exceptional and especially meant for stop motion enthusiasts – a deep-dive into the materials and plasticine techniques Aardman uses for their puppets presented by television personality and special effects aficionado Adam Savage and Jay Smart, a senior modeler at Aardman. During Savage’s tour of the plasticine department, Smart gives Savage a demonstration of a system Aardman began developing for Chicken Run , their first plasticine-driven feature film, to methodize a system for mixing large batches of plasticine to p...

Read full article »

"Junk Head 1"

http://youtu.be/ge18Ieyi9bI Fundraise the sequel: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/junk-head-2--2 Credits: Director - story/camera/puppet/set/sound/voice Takahide Hori CG - Norikatsu Seo Subtitles - Emily Balistrieri Hori Proudly Holding a Puppet From Junk Head 1

Read full article »

"Robot Jox"

Robot Jox Theatrical Release Poster With the upcoming RoboCop remake I though it only necessary to discuss the 1989 action flick Robot Jox . Robot Jox was the first massive project for David Allen Productions, and to watch the movie shows you that with $10,000,000 and a devoted and passionate crew, you can accomplish a magnificent final product. Robot Jox , full film: http://youtu.be/jZXWHswqCQo According to Ray Harryhausen, the gigantic Stop Motion puppets were, "The robot puppets for Robot Jox were so heavy that they often needed to be supported by tungsten wire sliding along overhead rails while walking." Even though the critics were none to pleased by this film, many new and unseen things were accomplished in this film. It is worth a look or two. I hope after reading this post and watching the film you will agree with me, even though it's not Shakespeare, this is a innovative, and interesting masterpiece of...

Read full article »

Aardman Co-Founder David Sproxton's Tips for Success in the Animation Industry, Part 1 (of 3): 3 Pre-Production Tips

Aardman founders David Sproxton (left) and Peter Lord (right) standing in front of Wallace & Gromit set for Variety (Photo by Charlie Gray) “It all started at a kitchen table,” says co-founder of Aardman Animations, David Sproxton, about the beginning of his career in animation, “Pete [Peter Lord] and I met as schoolkids….Pete and I got to be great mates and we started playing and thinking up stories. I was always interested in photography and kind of, I guess, the process thing about films….One day we got out the Bolex, stuck it up on a stand and actually just cut images out of color supplements. We’d obviously watched programs like Vision On , which obviously used a plethora of styles. Cut out is the easiest thing to do. We didn’t really understand cel animation or actually how you drew stuff. We just moved stuff around and did stuff with chalk drawings.” Earlier this year, Aardman, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of their studio, released a ...

Read full article »

King Kong [1933]

Yes, it's back to the olden days, back when the idea of Stop Motion was the brainchild of Willis O' Brien. King Kong , is the most influential movie in history as far as I'm concerned. Willis O' Brien, was born on March 2, 1886 in Oakland, California. He did run away at the age of 13 but, as most do after running away, returned at the age of 17. Now into the Stop Motion aspect of it all. Finding himself with some time to kill one afternoon,

Read full article »

Interview with Samuel Lewis - Animator, Character Designer, and Sculptor on Stop Motion Short Film, "Lost & Found"

Knotjira, a clumsy dinosaur made of wool, as seen in Lost & Found . Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith. “If I had to pick a starting point for my career as a stop motion animator I would have to say it was my obsession as a six year old with a book called ‘Playing with Plasticine’ by Barbara Reid,” Samuel Lewis – a London-based stop motion and 2D animator and director, whose most recent labor of love can be seen in his contribution to the Australian stop motion short film, Lost & Found – tells Stop Motion Geek. Upon reflection, Lewis explains that his love for the medium of stop motion began very early in life, and has merely managed to burn ever brighter in his fervor to master the craft. “I would spend countless hours fixated on sculpting tiny snails, fruit bowls and dinosaurs to the point where I would stay inside on family holidays sculpting a surfer in a beach scene rather than going to the actual beach that was only a short walk away,” Lewis recalls wistfully. “...

Read full article »

Stop Motion Geek

Search This Blog