Polla Syncharitiria (To me)

I am happy to say my animated short film Onde Quer Que Vás Lá Estarás (Wherever you Go There You Are) has been selected for the 5th Athens Animfest Animation Festival. My short film is now on its second year of the festival circuit and this is the first festival of 2010. It is a real pleasure to be selected for Athens. (And I really like this year's poster!)

bbbbrrrrrrrrrrr...!

Season's Greetings

Little Green Gestures

You can watch here my first ever go at live-action, documentary and rotoscoping. It is my three minute short documentary entry for the Channel 4 / 4 docs online competition. Again made with the help of friends, in a very short period of time, it was a very, very steep learning curve. Can't help but being very hard on myself about it, but already looking forward to make another film.

If you like it, I would be really happy if you voted for it too!

Liquid Soap, a hands-on Project

Liquid Soap is a Webcast TV comedy series written, produced and directed by students at Bath Spa University / Artswork Media. The webcasting project, led by Eastenders Producer/Director Chris Jury and Touch Films Producer Nic Jeune, aims to provide an ongoing professional production environment for all Bath Spa Broadcast Media, Performing Arts, Design and Screenwriting students.

"Set entirely in the toilets of the café at ‘First Central University’, Liquid Soap will reveal the hilarious world of gripping micro-dramas that are played out daily in this intimate location.

It’s Marion & Geoff meets Shameless; The Office meets Skins; Spinal Tap meets the The Smoking Room."

Episode One and Episode Two are already live and every Monday a new episode becomes available, culminating in the release of the 30 minute Omnibus on Monday 16th November.

Not only this is an excellent hands-on project for the students to learn about the industry but also a way to fundraise for the partner charity Wherever the Need. "This Bath-based charity initiative is a unique community arts project fronted by high profile celebrities, such as Sienna Miller and the Duchess of York, and is open to anyone who wants to pledge their support to help raise money to build eco-sanitation toilets and provide clean drinking water for people in India."

The aim this academic year is to produce ten new 5 minute episodes and then to carry on producing 15x5 minute episodes a year for the next five years. Take a peek at the Trailer and the Making Of or learn more about it here.

What a surprise!

Just got an email from the Short Shorts Film Festival of Mexico and it turns out my film Onde Quer Que Vás, Lá Estarás / Wherever You Go There You Are or in spanish "Donde Quiera Que Vayas" :-) was awarded the Best Ibero-American Short Film. I am really amazed.

The judges were Nelson Carro (Cinema Critic), Gustavo Sanchez Parra (Actor) and Armando Casas (Film Director and the Director of CUEC - Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos).

A big thank you to the judges, the organisation and (yet again to) all the people who made the making of this film possible.

Uppsala Internationella Kortfilmfestival - Sweden

Although I never meant my film to be a children's film it has been being selected to some children festivals and programmes. And the Uppsala International Short Film Festival is no exception. Onde Quer Que Vás Lá Estarás / Wherever You Go There You Are will be one of the thirty shorts competing for the Best Children's Film Award :-) I am flattered to have my film screened in a country of ground breaking filmmakers. Välkomna till årets Uppsala Internationella Kortfilmfestival 19-25 oktober!

Wherever You Go around the world

It is with delight that I can say my short graduation film Wherever You Go There You Are / Onde Quer Que Vás, Lá Estarás has been being selected to a lot of my favourite Animation and Film Festivals.

Just this week I have found out it will be part of the Emerging Talent Programme at the Encounters Short Film Festival in Bristol (which makes it eligible for the International Newcomer Animation Award) and that it was selected for the World Film Festival of Bangkok.

Other recent selections include the Short Shorts - Film Festival Mexico and the aluCine - Toronto Latin Media Festival and this year it has also been presented at the Appledore Visual Arts Festival (where it was awarded a Special Mention), Busho - Budapest Short Film Festival, Porto7 - Festival Internacional de Curtas Metragens do Porto and Animamundi 2009 (a personal favourite!)

I have also had the immense honour of having the film short listed for the Cartoon D'Or 2009 alongside good friends (and great filmmakers) like Will Becher with The Weather Man (UK) and Sam Orti with The Were-Pig (Spain).

The five finalists were Aston's Stones (Sweden), Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (France), Party Animals (France), Please Say Something (Germany/Ireland) and Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (UK). I had the pleasure to work on the latter :-)

I am amazed how far the film has gone and how well it has done. I thank again and again the people who helped me achieve this.

May this film be the first of many :-)

It's official!

OOglies on CBBC

Indiana Sock (animated by Andy Kaiser).

OOglies is an animated stop-motion series we shot in Glasgow for BBC Scotland. It was created by Nick Hopkin and Austin Low and the executive producer was Sue Morgan. They gathered a group of 12 animators (including myself) to shoot hundreds of sketches (6 hours in total!) It was a record breaking 4 months work during which we shot on average a whopping 25 seconds a day. It was a wonderful adventure and I am sad it is over... but really chuffed to see it air soon: 

On CBBC and BBC HD as from the 10th of August at 5.45pm (and at 9.15 am and 5.45 pm everyday after that). Do have a look at the funny googly-eyed house-hold objects. I am most certain they will make you chuckle. Enjoy!

Oceanário de Lisboa

Nothing like having friends visiting to make you do the touristic things. And pick up the pen and sketch book again :-) Here are some sketches from the trip to the Oceanário.

OOglies in Glasgow

I am happy to say my recent absence from the blog is due to a new animation job I am doing in Glasgow. I have moved up there and am loving every minute of it! The project is a stopmotion animation series for 6-11 year olds and it is a fast-paced sketch show which sees everyday household objects come alive with a simple pair of googly eyes. It is very funny and so much fun to do! The team at the BBC are ever so talented and the Scots are extremely friendly. You can read more about it on the BBC Press Release. It will be aired on CBBC as from summer, so keep your (googly) eyes peeled!

The Festival Circuit III

Yes. It is good news. Excellent news actually! "Onde Quer Que Vás, Lá Estarás"/"Wherever You Go There You Are" has been selected for the Annecy - Festival International du Film D'Animation - 2009. I am taking part on the Graduation Films Competition and cannot believe it! And also It was selected for the Indie Junior section of Indie Lisboa - Festival de Cinema Independente de Lisboa, for the Panorama of the Athens Film Fest and for the Ljubljana International Short Film Festival. I am really happy and really grateful to the friends that participated on the making of the film :-)

The Festival Circuit II (Two by two)

My short film Wherever You Go There You Are /Onde Quer Que Vás, Lá Estarás has been selected for two more festivals. One is AnimaBasauri in Bilbao - it was selected for the Karratu Short Film Prize and the other one is Monstra - Festival de Animação de Lisboa - for the Student Competition. I am really happy to feel some recognition for the hard work and even though it is a no-budget student film it still has some receptiveness. The short was developed for the Master of Arts in Animation at the University of the West of England (which I gained in 2008) and completed at the Lisbon Studio with the help of my dear and talented friends - more details on my website.

Website Updated!

My dear and old friend Vibs has yet again been so kind as to update my site: www.sarabarbas.com and been so patient as to try and teach me a little Flash(...)

Your time, help and talent are invaluable Vibs! 

Do have a look at the new additions and while you are surfing have a look at Vibs' work too (which she is in the process of updating as well!) :-)

Animated Exeter 2009 - Big Careers Day

Animated Exeter's 2009 edition is just around the corner (13th-21st February) and this year, as part of the Big Careers Day, Susannah Shaw invited me to do a Demo/Lecture on Lip-synching. I will be bringing a puppet from Aardman and demonstrating how we would animate it and mentioning some tricks of the trade. I will concentrate on Stop-Motion (for obvious reasons) but I believe that the Lip-sync rules (or lack of them!) easily translate from technique to technique.

       

A Matter of Loaf and Death

Last Summer, briefed by the ever so talented and kind Nick Park, I did some sculpting and posing for the marketing stills of the latest Wallace and Gromit half hour BBC Christmas special. Here are some examples of that work which you can download as wall paper from the official website and a couple of making-of pics (don't mind the mess!)

       

1997: My first animation job :-)

When I had just turned eighteen I did my traineeship at Animanostra - learning 2D Traditional Animation, thanks to Humberto Santana and Rui Cardoso. I was then given my first job as an inbetweener and tracer and had the chance to work with a wonderful team (who are to this day my dear, dear friends): Pedro Brito, Ricardo Blanco and Osvaldo Medina :-)

The Festival Circuit

This week the sending of innumerous packets to the Animation and Film Festivals has paid off. I never imagined how much work that involved - it is a job in itself! 

I am really chuffed to say that "Wherever You Go There You Are"/"Onde Quer Que Vás, Lá Estarás" has been selected for Animated Exeter - Best of the West Showcase and Best Student Film Competition - and for Fantasporto  it was selected for the Panorama of Portuguese Cinema and invited for the Panorama of Portuguese Animation. It is very rewarding :-)

Wallace and Gromit in the Right Trousers

This September Harvey Nichols opened a new store in Bristol. As part of their opening campaigns they like to integrate something that its representative of each specific city. And, in Bristol, who-else is more recognizable than our good old Wallace and Gromit? And, of course, the very glamorous Lady T. 

Now even Wallace and (a reluctant) Gromit wear designer suits and accessories.

I was involved in the making of this campaign produced by John Woolley. Directed by Nick Park: the very talented Debbie Smith and Graham Maiden did their magic in the model-making department and Loyd Price and I did our sculpting and posing to camera on the studio floor (with the lovely, lovely team: DDB London, Harvey Nichols and the photographers).  It was a very intensive yet amazing job and it is very rewarding to see these images all over Bristol!