InFrame.tv has produced a great 5 minute documentary with Shaun Tan which offers an introductory glimpse at the work-in-progress on his short animated adaptation of  The Lost Thing. It includes little (unfinished) animation clips, and aspects of designing and directing the work. On his website Shaun also writes about his involvement and includes some interesting new sketches and models. I noted the film in 2005, so it is exciting that it is expected to be finished this August!

The film, by Passion Pictures, will be 15 minutes long, and uses CGI with 2D handpainted elements. I’m interested in the comments about achieving rich textures, as they are so much part of the illustrations, and CGI is often so disappointingly smooth and shiny.

I’m happy to see a new book, too: Tales from Outer Suburbia.

I worked on the puppets for Jigsaw Theatre Company’s production of The Lost Thing a few years ago, so you will find numerous related previous posts here:

The Lost Thing
Shaun Tan

Also: The Lost Thing website

(photo credit: stephenccwu)

This huge wire marionette appeared at the opening of the new Vancouver Convention Centre last weekend; I gather it was associated with Cirque du Soleil. It was a performance by the Underground Circus, and the marionette was made by Peter Boulanger (who was kind enough to let me know in a comment below). It’s made of aluminium (I guess it’s really thick round wire?) , and at about 40 feet, billed as the tallest marionette in Northern America. The puppet moves to music and is operated by 5 puppeteers working pulleys. In this photo you can see it standing fully, supporting two acrobats: the one in the ball and one on the length of material. This is a great photo of it, too.

(influence of Royal de Luxe? Peter says not directly, though he knew of their work)

I’m not sure if this is just an Australian venture, but Penguin Books here currently are selling about 50 of their most popular titles with the old classic orange, cream and black covers that I love. And they only cost AU$9.95. I bought Pride and Prejudice. Since the release has been so popular I hope they bring out some of the other-colour classic covers too: I’d like a Woolf title in purple or green.

Laura tells how six million were deprived at the Jane Austen and Comedy Conference in Melbourne! Germiane Greer gave the introductory lecture.

Graham Base’s 1986 alphabet book Animalia has been turned into an CG-animated TV series which is premiering today at midday on the Ten network in Australia, and simultaneously on BBC1 and CBBC in the UK, PBS Kids in the US and CBC in Canada. There are 40 half-hour epidodes, and you can see a trailer here. It’s made in Australia, mostly at Photon VFX.

Remember how we scoured each drawing for the small boy hidden in the page? He has been developed into a main character, Alex, who along with a friend, Zoe, get conjured into the magical world of Animalia. It sounds promising – I just hope I remember to watch it!

Here are some links that interested me:

• animalia.tv : Website and trailer
• Digital Media World: Jami Levesque, CG Supervisor, Animalia Productions, will present a behind-the-scenes look at the Making of Animalia on Thursday 15 November at 11.15am at the Australian Effects & Animation Festival 2007 in Sydney.
• Animation Magazine: precise
• Animalia Animated and The Series that (almost) never was: longer articles in The Age
• At youtube: Graham Base talking about the series in two sections: 1, 2; and a glimpse of the character maquettes .

Liz Wong, painter and a freelance illustrator, is making a graphic novel of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It should be fun to see how it progresses. I looked around to see if there have been other Austen graphic novels, and yes there are. Anne Timmons’ Northanger Abbey is included in Gothic Classics: Graphic Classics Volume 14. Here is a sample drawing. And a manga style version of P&P, illustrated by Tintin Pantoja is due to be published in about September 2007. If you take the Sequential Art link on her site you can see her version of the first proposal.

In addition to the decisions on how to break up the page, what to zero in on, how to convey action, and what interpretations are being made through image rather than word, I was interested – but not surprised! – to see the influence of Andrew Davies’ 1996 adaptation of P&P.

Can you hear the world settling into armchairs, sofas and beds, curling up to read Harry Potter?

While my foot is in a cast I’ve picked up an old knitting project, continuing knitting squares for a blanket. I’ve done about 6 new ones, and I’m up to about 42 squares.

I’ve watched a motley collection of DVDs:

Casino Royale – a complete waste of time, apart from the animation at the beginning which was great – loved the way it played with pattern and card imagery.
Happy Feet – good animation, but crap illogical storyline
Cars – hackneyed if worthy themes, but cool and inventive concepts and animation
Robots – hackneyed if worthy themes, but cool and inventive concepts and animation. Loved all the mechanical ideas.
HP: Goblet of Fire - enjoyable, but so much missing
Starskey and Hutch – thoroughly enjoyable crap – loved it, much to my surprise
Jindabyne – an uncomfortable but really good film; sustained creepiness; feminist, though that opinion might seem odd. My haunting image is of the hooked trout, about to become the mens’ trophy, powerless and taking its final slow gasps and flaps.

And motley reading? I’ve just finished re-reading all 6 of the Harry Potter books. And Bryce Courtney’s The Potato Factory which I enjoyed though it’s not great in any sense. And an old Donna Leon. Now I’m on to The Poisonwood Bible. But I expect to go back to Harry when I get my turn with the new one next week.

I’m deep into re-reading all the Harry Potters, enjoying them.