Let the Festivities begin....

Hi everyone, it is that time of year again 2014 has been a lot better for me personally. I feel better and more hopeful going forward into the new year than I did at this time last year. Fact is though regardless of how good or bad the past 12 months have been Christmas brings out the best in me without a doubt. Since my last post I have been back in the festival scene a bit. Now by that I don't mean my work unfortunately, I am working on something that I hope will be screened on the festival circuit in the too distant future. However, I mean visiting I went down to Bristol to the 20 year anniversary of Animated Encounters.It had been 4 years since I last attended, it continues to grow and maintains it's reputation as one of the best festivals in the UK in my opinion. It was nice to meet up with one or two old contacts I haven't seen for awhile. And also make a few more a composer whose client base includes the BBC!And a couple of younger up and coming guys that had just finished university. One guy had his film at the festival I was very impressed it was well animated and humorous as well. However for me this year the highlight was meeting Glen Keane, for all of you that know the industry or even those that just like to watch animation. Keane is simply a incredibly talented animator/artist he was an animator for Walt Disney for many, many years. He has animated some very famous characters the Beast out of beauty and the beast, Ariel the little mermaid and Tarzan to name but a few. He has decided to leave Disney and work on his own stuff and I thoroughly recommend his film Duet to anyone who appreciates Disney type animation. This film is beautifully animated and so charming I was stunned when I saw it, but in no way surprised by the high quality. After the talk not only did he give us all a signed drawing out of the film, he spent the best part of an hour talking to students and answering loads of questions before going to visit Aaardman studios. I feel very lucky to have met Glen Keane he is a gentleman and a fantastic animator/artist, as a result of a good festival I left Bristol with a lot of renewed energy. Since then I have been working a new project for which the concept had been developed a few years ago, in written format anyway. Now I am at the stage where I am producing it, its more organic than my last film my last film was very planned and ordered. This is more growing day by day a bit at a time I feel good about it I can only hope the final film works well. I will be taking a break over the holiday's gathering my thoughts and then proceeding in the new year with the short as I have so far little by little. All that remains is for me to wish my loyal readers a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous new year in 2015.