News from Brett Ingram of Bright Eye Pictures:

Bright Eye Pictures is thrilled to announce two new exclusive DVD releases for retail, wholesale, and institutional buyers. Just visit the store at our new website: www.brettingram.org

PROMETHEUS’ GARDEN (28 minutes, 1988) is the only film over which legendary stop-motion animator Bruce Bickford maintained complete creative control. Bright Eye Pictures is making PROMETHEUS’ GARDEN available to the public for the first time since its completion two decades ago. The DVD features a commentary track by Bickford, an alternate score by Shark Quest’s Laird Dixon, and the half hour documentary featurette, LUCK OF A FOGHORN: the Making of Bruce Bickford’s Prometheus’ Garden, directed by Brett Ingram.

Synopsis: Inspired by the Greek myth of Prometheus, a Titan who created the first mortals from clay and stole fire from the gods, Prometheus’ Garden immerses viewers in a cinematic universe unlike any other. The dark and magical images of this haunting film unfold in a dreamlike stream of consciousness revealing an unlikely cast of clay characters engaged in a violent struggle for survival. Enchanted forests, animated torture chambers, hamburgers that morph into mythical monsters, and epic battles between giants, fairies, and anachronistic historical figures populate just a small corner of Bickford’s animated universe. Like all Bickford films, Prometheus’ Garden defies description and simply must be experienced. In Clay Animation, film scholar Michael Frierson writes: “Bickford offers us a visionary landscape, a hallucinogenic retreat into magical settings where figure and ground may transform into the other at any moment, enchanted settings in which modern technocrats are easy villains and nature is under siege.” Bickford is an underground artist who has mystified animation critics and inspired generations of animators, while somehow eluding fame. He has been described as the world’s only “outsider artist” working in the medium of animation. He has been recognized as a “genius” by Frank Zappa and countless other iconoclasts. Under employment by Frank Zappa, Bickford relinquished creative control of his work (which was edited and scored by Zappa). Consequently, Prometheus’ Garden is Bickford’s most comprehensive and least compromised vision.

Best known for his collaborations with rock iconoclast Frank Zappa in the 1970s (THE DUB ROOM SPECIAL, BABY SNAKES, THE AMAZING MR. BICKFORD), underground animator Bruce Bickford has influenced generations of artists with his startlingly original vision.

What the critics are saying about PROMETHEUS’ GARDEN:

“Wildly imaginative and morbidly funny” - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“Surreal, absurd and metaphorical” - ANIMATION MAGAZINE

“Psychedelic metamorphosis” - ANIMATION WORLD JOURNAL

We are also happy to announce the exclusive release of the new MONSTER ROAD “Collector’s Edition” DVD. This new version features a DVD-9 encode for superior image quality, plus the movie soundtrack by Shark Quest and 45 minutes of extras, including rare Bickford animation and deleted scenes from the documentary. MONSTER ROAD is a feature length documentary exploring the wildly fantastic worlds of legendary animator Bruce Bickford. Tracing the origins of Bickford’s iconoclastic worldview, the film journeys back to Bickford's childhood in a competitive household during the paranoia of the Cold War and examines his relationship with his father, George, who is facing the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease. MONSTER ROAD was directed by Brett Ingram. MONSTER ROAD won “Best Documentary” at the 2004 Slamdance Film Festival, eventually screening at more than 90 festivals around the world and winning sixteen awards, before premiering on Sundance Channel in 2005.

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A clever parody on what it is to be a conceptual animator by Chris Landreth. In this animation Chris has a dialog with his characters and writes himself into his own animation, titled 'The End'. I realy enjoyed Chris's spin on conceptual art and pretentious symbolism.

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I recently found another incredible example of stop motion animation. The Bead Game won the 1978 BAFTA Film Award. Ishu Patel (Born April 20, 1942, in Jalsan, India) is the award-winning animator responsible for this masterpiece. Ishu Patel is also on the National Film Board of Canada and currently teaches animation and storytelling in India. Enjoy!

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Presenting a short animation: The Fly by Konstantin Bronzit. Please turn your volume up before viewing. The sound of the buzzing fly is very irritating. In this film a fly destroys the peace of a meditating Hindu statue.

'The Fly' won Best Animation Film (International) at the 'Drama Short Film Festival' 2003 and Audience Award at the 'Sweden Fantastic Film Festival' 2004.

More Surreal Animation.

I recently got in contact with a film maker whom I have a lot of respect for. I discovered during our correspondence that Brett Ingram is not just a documentary maker, but is a great animator in his own right. Brett Ingram (who directed 'Monster Road', the award winning doco about legendary Bruce Bickford) is the animator behind Freak Box (right). I asked Brett to describe his short animation and give our readers a little background information about himself. Here was Brett's response:

"What do a monkey, a robot, and two numbed out teenagers have in common? The symbiotic processes of the idiot box, as it turns out.  Freak Box is a stop-motion satire of the lulling evils of television – an electro-mechanical circus where viewers lose – and find - themselves in the hopelessness of a pixel array constructed by monkeys and robots."

"At the time I made Freak Box, I was freelancing as a sound mixer for documentaries, commercials, and various cable television programs. I also directed a couple of episodes of a “documentary” program about dog breeds on Animal Planet. In my youthful naivety, I was astonished at the level of manipulation of the content by the producers. Each episode was completely formulaic with cinematographers following “style sheets” for uniformity and the whole bit. Network executives constantly challenged my choices in subjects (mainly dog owners) based solely on their appearance or manner of speaking. The whole experience reminded me of a circus, one where monkey minds orchestrate productions carried out by robots to produce homogeneous faces on a screen watched by couch potatoes."

"I became interested in stop-motion animation in film school. Bruce Bickford was invited to our local film festival one year and I was charged with helping him conduct a stop-motion workshop. Watching Bickford gradually animate a morphing head frame by frame over the course of six hours was mesmerizing and left a lasting impression."

"I never received any formal training in animation. Inspired by my brief experience with Bickford, I learned everything by trial and error. Once you understand the basics of stop-motion and how the illusion of cinema works, the rest is an application of imagination and problem-solving skills through endless hours of labor."

"From the beginning it seemed to me that straight character did not fully exploit the creative possibilities of stop-motion as a medium. I was drawn to the surrealism of the Brothers Quay, but found even more inspiration from their acknowledged primary influence, Czech animator Jan Svankmajer. Svankmajer’s work was more original and idiosyncratic, yet his stories and the ideas they communicated were paradoxically more universal. I digested the work of Bickford, Svankmajer, the Quays, and others before experimenting to find my own aesthetic."

Brett Ingram's Website.

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Sloan Fine Art will open with a two part group show, from January 31 to March 8, 2008

Part 1 of the Opening Exhibition is on display from January the 30th to February the 16th, 2008, and features works by Clayton Brothers, Vince Contarino, Nicholas Cope, Elizabeth McGrath, Kristen Schiele, Aaron Smith and Eric White

Bruce Bickford's "The Uplands" will be on display in the Project Room from January the 30th to March the 8th.

Part 2 of the Opening Exhibition features works by Andrea Aversa, Jud Bergeron, Marion Peck, Jean-Pierre Roy, Mark Ryden and Joe Sorren and will open Wednesday evening, February the 20th and continue through to March the 8th.

Right: Bruce Bickford’s Prometheus’ Garden, 1987, 28 minutes, clay animation 

Although I have already posted an article with a short clip about Bruce Bickford and the Monster Road Documentary, I feel that this enigmatic man is underrated and have decided to post a longer video clip (right) with more footage of Bickford's inspirational stop frame animation. Too many people are unaware of Bickford's eccentric genius and credit his work to Frank Zappa (whom he collaborated with in his early career).

I highly recommend this film, which is a thorough overview of Bruce Bickford's massive body of work as well as a great documentary.

Selected footage from Monster Road.

More Surreal Animation.

Rinat Gazizov's first major work was for Lennauch film studio in 1988, when he and Konstantin Bronzit directed the animated short "Very Small Tragedies". In 1991 he directed "Midnight Games" for Pilot studio in Moscow. This short is about the strange goings on at night when we are all asleep, but when we wake everything is as it should be…Or is it?

In 1992, still working for Pilot studio, he directed "Introduction" (right) another spectacular short full of oddities. In this animation strange creatures undergo metamorphosis as one scene blends into the next.

Gazizov (b. 1962 in Kirov, Russia) has created more than 25 short films, 20 animated music videos, more than 60 advertisements and has illustrated 14 books for children. He has recieved the prestigious "NIKA" prize from the Academy of Cinematic Arts of Russia, and the "OVATION" for his music videos.

More Rusian Animation on Youtube.

In 1981 Ivan Maximov began work as an illustrator for a number of Russian newspapers and magazines, before he decided to take courses in film direction and screenplay (1986 - 1988) which led to his first major animated work "FRU - 89 From Left to Right". His unique style of animation led to high acclaim and many prizes for the shorts that followed, "5/4", Libido of Benjamino", "Wind Along the Coast" etc.

Although Maximov is best known for his animation shorts he has also been involved in many animated advertisement campaigns, music clips, and has even helped to develop a video game based on his animation called "Full Pipe". Since 2002 he has been teaching future animators at the School - Studio Shar and VGIK.

"Slow Bistro" 2003

More animation by Ivan Maximov.

More Rusian Animation on Youtube.

I recently stumbled upon Alexis Garland Waller's first Stop Motion Animation, 'Dante's Inferno' on YouTube and was so impressed that i contacted Alex and asked her about her inspired creation.

Alexis Garland Waller - "Svankmajer and Bickford are two of my favorites.  (And I absolutely LOVE that gloriously surreal documentary about Bickford, "Monster Road"…)  Svankmajer's Conspirators of Pleasure sort of changed my imaginary life, too.

I started making animations when I was a kid, probably inspired by Will Vinton's Mark Twain and Rip Van Winkle claymations. All I had for a camera, though, was a super 8 (or was it hi-8?) video camera. I'd set up the scene, then click the record button on and off really quickly, move the figures, then click the button quickly on and off again. Those would be the "frames." The editing process involved two VCRs and an old four track sound mixer that my babysitter's husband handed down to me.  It was a pretty crude set-up, but I would spend hours and hours during the summers creating surreal clay worlds and bringing them to jittery life.

I quit making animations when I went to college.  It was Dante and my degree in Italian lit that brought me back to visual art in general, and a mini epic clay Commedia was born out of those studies two or three years ago when I borrowed a friend's 16mm Bolex.  Soon after, I bought my own camera and equipment and I began designing Inferno and Purgatorio.  I've only shot two-thirds of Inferno thus far.  The devil is ready and waiting for his minute upon the stage, but relegated to a shoebox in my closet for now.  I just haven't had studio space or time to finish the film.

I'm currently eking out a living as a freelance writer in Charlottesville, VA. I make art and study the occult and astrology on the side."

Run Wrake is best known as the animator and illustrator who has collaborated with Howie B and created visuals for U2’s Vertigo tour. His latest short animated film “Rabbit” has been very successful at international film festivals.

"The story is basically a very simple morality tale about greed - the dangers of greed and exploring nature. It came about when I found some 1950’s stickers in a junk shop about 20 years ago. When I was moving the studio out of Soho about 2 years ago, I fond them again in the bottom of the drawer and thought it would be great to make a film out of them. There were about 200 different stickers."

Run Wrake's Website

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I recently stumbled upon this incredible short animation by Joan Gratz. In 'Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase' (1992) Joan used Two-dimensional clay stop motion animation to morph the work of 35 famous artists and won Best Animated Short at the Academy Awards.

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Released in 2004 by School-Studio Shar (a part of Pilot studio), "Blue Pool" was the directorial debut for a young Katerina Maximova, also doing the art direction and screenplay.

Having worked as an animator on Ivan Maximov's 2003 animation "Slow Bistro" and being a student at the animation school where Maximov was a prominent teacher, her influences can be clearly seen. Katerina however, gives a lighter and brighter look to her animation.

More Rusian Animation on Youtube.

Introducing 'Breakfast', part 1 of Jan Svankmajer's three part movie called Food (Jidlo) 1992. This incredible stop motion animated film blends human actors with clay prosthetics.

Lunch - Food Part 2

Dinner - Food Part 3

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Polish Animator/artist
Tomek Baginski (born January 10, 1976, Bialystok) is best known for his Oscar-nominated short film The Cathedral 2002 (right) and 'Fallen Art' or 'Sztuka Spadania' 2004.

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