Doodles, scribbles, clay creations and all sorts else at the Bradford Animation Festival

Bradford based filmmaker and artist Josh Tucker (@MomentaryLaps) takes us through his day at the National Media Museum’s Bradford Animation Festival (Image from Tram – see below)

It’s 9:10am. I’m early. I set off with plenty of time to spare, stocked up on supplies along the way to help push me through a full day’s worth of animated delights. The sound of free jazz filters through the air (from my now removed headphones) as people, like me, arrive too early.

The discussions soon turn to animation. “The 19th Bradford Animation Festival” someone quotes from a poster, their face seems to lighten up as they say it. I find mine doing the same.

By 9:50am everyone’s in and sorted. I’m handed a wad of tickets and I sift through them manically. A huge assortment of animated films await me. The day has begun.

11:20am and the Official Selection ‘Professional 2’ has just finished. I’m immediately blown away by the sheer volume of diversity the Animators/Directors have brought to the fray.

Three films stood out at me, and for drastically different reasons. The first film shown (and what an opening to my stint at BAF) was Seven Minutes in a Warsaw Ghetto (Johan Oettinger, 2012 – image left). The character and set design is astonishing. Themes of social importance and oppression can be seen throughout, using specific character traits to illustrate this. A film that showcases wonderful use of character/set design.

The second film shocked everyone. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. After Tram (Michaela Pavlatova, 2012 – image at top of this post) finished I overheard a guy say “well…That was unexpected” followed shortly by a large laugh and continued to say “…What was that!?”. It played with what at first seemed like the norms for an everyday worker, we follow a female character as she goes about her day, driving her Tram and picking up workmen on the way to do business. Shortly after the repetitive theme kicks in, BANG, it changes. We’re now suddenly thrust into the bizarre sexual desires of our tram driver, imagining all sorts of obscene scenarios with everyday objects becoming phallic and crude representations of the male form. Even the workmen become objects in her somewhat depraved fantasy.

And last but not least there was Moxie (Stephen Irwin, 2011). A truly disturbing animated short about a pyromaniac bear who misses his mother. The only reason (and I can’t work out if it’s a good enough reason quite just yet) that it seemed to stick in my mind was due to its insanely hyped up grip on depression. Most of us [Audience] laughed – a few smirked at its crude nature. Many were left with more questions than answers. Nevertheless ALL of us, after the lights went up, were thinking the same thing. “what the heck was that?” Random for random sake? Maybe they were going for the ‘any press is good press’ strategy. Who knows.

It’s now 13:12 and i’m sat eating lunch, mulling over the catalogue of films now sifting through my mind. I’m finding digesting both the films and this sandwich quite taxing. I sip my watered down coke and my thoughts turned to the Official Selection: ‘Student 2’ collection.

Having just finished university myself, I was greatly looking forward to these – hoping to see the ‘rough and ready’ approach to which i’ve become accustomed. I was somewhat disappointed to see, almost straight away, that this wasn’t going to be the case. On some level, the techniques used by the students out performed that of the professionals. But for me, what separated the two was the subject matter. The students seemed slightly lost in creating something technically sound, leaving the professionals to pick up in terms of a narrative, giving us something to think about. Maybe it was I who wasn’t ready for such a high technical level of student film.

16:25 and I have just come out of the Official Selection: ‘Professional 1’. I have five minutes till the next intake of shorts. I’ve managed to isolate the films that stood out, there being fewer in this bunch than the last.

Romance (Georges Schwizgebel, 2011) had an incredible sense of pace and movement, so incredible in fact it made me feel physically sick. Maybe give this one a miss if you get motion sickness. Villa Antropoff (Vladimir Leschiov, 2012) is beautifully weird. It utilizes a nice little time loop to great comedic effect. But alas, the one that stole the entire day for me was Oh Willy… (Emma De Swaef & Marc James Roels, 2012 – image right). This beautifully crafted, incredibly immersive short grabbed everyone. It infused comedy and tragedy so brilliantly that you could feel the audience ebb and flow with each new piece of information. As the story unfolded, the soft (literally – made from what seemed like wool and fabrics) created environment never once felt fake or unreal. It drew you into the world of our main character – into his past and present life, filled now with emotion and sorrow, but subverted by its comic value. It had the perfect combination: emotionally gripping, fantastic realism and slightly strange. My favorite film of the day so far. [editor note: Oh Willy wasn’t only Josh’s favourite, as t went on to take the coveted BAF award for Best Professional Film]

it’s 17:50. I’ve just come out of my last collection for the day – and my stint at BAF – Music Videos and Commercials. I’m on the way to the bus stop, extremely tired from my intensive day of films. The music videos were very good – Stop motion being a key favorite technique amongst them, but unfortunately non really stood out at me. The commercials were rather dull and tiresome. I could hear the audience’s patience level diminish as two or three of the same company’s commercials aired one after another after another.

I’m now at the bus stop, looking over the BAF booklet. My day has been intense, but well worth it. The sheer volume of variety was astounding – a true mashup of genres, ideas, techniques and the love of storytelling.

One of the biggest aspects of BAF that surprised me most was the audience and the atmosphere that they created around each film. Not afraid to laugh, to clap – which I’ve never experienced within a cinema environment and thought only Americans did. I was wrong – to gasp and to truly speak their minds. They really helped me get a sense of love for animated storytelling. You could tell instantly, from the moment we all turned up, that every one of us was there for one reason: to bear witness to brilliantly creative animated storytelling.

Josh is a short filmmaker, working on new film coming next year. Visit his website www.Joshua-tucker.com or catch him on Twitter @MomentaryLaps. He is also currently working on the Up North Short Film Night at White Cloth Gallery in Leeds?