Exchange illustration

Leo recently created this illustration for Exchange magazine, a wide-circulation newsletter for NCVYS that makes it’s way to youth organisations throughout the UK.

Virgin Media Shorts

Leo Bridle's 'Train of Thought' is battling it out for the Virgin Media Shorts competition. If short-listed it'll be screened on 35mm before selected features! The Virgin peeps seem to think it's top-drawer:

"Stunning work. Set in a world made of paper, a man’s sketches come to life during a train journey. The incredibly intricate animation is complimented by some beautiful music and a storyline that wonderfully essays romantic longing."

Visit http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/films/entry/342821/train-of-thought to rate the film yourself.

‘August’ on Cartoon Brew

This week 'August' by Matthias Hoegg is screening on Cartoon Brew TV:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/brewtv/august.html#comment-552740.

There's a nice write-up and interview too:

Continuing our Student Animation Festival, we’re proud to present August created by Matthias Hoegg at the Royal College of Art. He has created that rare student film which manages to be stylish not just visually but also through its unconventional and layered approach to storytelling. Shoot questions and comments to Matthias in the comment thread below. Here are Matthias’s notes about his film:

I made my film August whilst on my two year Masters course in Animation at the Royal College of Art in London. I started the course with a loose idea for a film based around a Japanese fable, “The Dream of Akinosuke”. In the fable a wealthy landowner takes an afternoon nap in the shade of a big tree during a picnic with friends. He has an epic dream in which he’s married to the princess of a remote island empire for several years. When he awakes shortly after his friends tell him that a yellow butterfly, a symbol of the soul, appeared to have come out of his mouth when he was sleeping before being grabbed by an ant and dragged underground. Digging open the ants nest the men uncover an entire ant kingdom, in which Akinosuke immediately recognizes a model version of the island kingdom from his dream.

I was really intrigued by the fable’s blend of metaphor and natural reality. So the starting point for my film was really to use a colony of ants activities to reflect the internal process of a human character’s mind. Looking for a more contemporary setting that would involve ants I remembered my first awkward attempts at having a holiday of my own with friends as a teenager. After making a complete tip of our campsite we had to keep moving our tent onto different spots so that the ants that we attracted wouldn’t catch up with us. Perhaps I should mention here that I am originally from Munich, Germany and if you have ever been to a German-style campsite you may have witnessed campers dedicating their entire holiday to tidying and keeping a perfect order in the great outdoors. We were clearly the weakest link in that community. In August I wanted to use the ants to create anticipation and a sense of adventure that the boys are looking for in their holiday, when in fact they fail to realize any of it on a human scale.

I started storyboarding the film in late 2008 and had finished it by early June 2009. All elements of the film were drawn digitally and then animated in a cut-out style. I enjoyed working with the constraints of the cut-out approach and the sense of awkwardness it evoked in the characters. My friend the 3D modeler Mattias Bjurstom got on board with this project and he created the 3D set for the film based on a cardboard model of a camper van and various textures that I provided him with. Most recently I have put the final touches on my graduation film at the RCA. It is called Thursday and it follows two characters through and out of the repeating patterns of everyday life, but in a future world. Its style is more simplified and graphic, using a range of patterns that were created in 2D and 3D to evoke the dazzling futuristic world that the characters inhabit. I am represented by Beakus in London, a new animation studio started by Bafta-award winner and Trunk founder Steve Smith.

SohoSoHo News

Matthias Hoegg and Leo Bridle are featured in SohoSoHo's news this week! Go read it here: http://www.sohosoho.tv/news.pl?news_id=231

July Newsletter

Our July Newsletter is out, running around the interweb like a headless chicken. Here it is in brief:

This month we’re proud to present Matthias Hoegg’s new film ‘Thursday’. It’s a beautifully composed story that takes place in the near future where a technologically-managed world can’t prevent real humans from getting together. Designed in mesmerising digital patternation with stylish animation and sound, ‘Thursday’ is a fine complement to Hoegg’s previous short ‘August’. You can watch the trailer by clicking the image below, and if you’d like to see the whole film just get in touch…!

Matthias Hoegg’s 'Thursday'

In the studio this month we’ve been animating tattoos and that little boy who travels back in time for the BBC.. We’ve also re-discovered a neat typographic viral about ‘Nudism’ by Leo Bridle. Taking text from the excellent advice on wikiHow.com it's an indispensible guide to 'getting away with it'…Watch by clicking on the image below:

Leo Bridle’s 'Nudism'

Remember – give us a call if you’d like to see Matthias Hoegg’s short ‘Thursday’ in it’s entirety. We’re sure it’s going to grab a lot of attention and we wouldn’t want you to miss out!

Until next month….

 

Littlebeak Showreel

Our sister site for Kids animation has a fab new showreel featuring work by Leigh Hodgkinson, Leo Bridle and Steve Smith. Watch it below, or via littlebeak.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

One To Watch & Annecy

A quick mention to The Reel who made Leo their 'One To Watch' in May (PDF here)! Leo follows fellow Beakus director Matthias Hoegg, who was their 'chosen one' back in May (PDF here). Well done guys..!

Leo is also off to Annecy this week to support his amazing short 'Train Of Thought>' in the graduation films competition! See below for a list of screening times and locations. And of course, do say hi to Leo if you see him – he might even hold some brand new Beakus reels upon his person..!

And don't forget Steve Smith's 'Leap of Faith' is also screening as one of 50 films chosen to illustrate the history of animation! 'Don't Blink!' is being shown at the following times:

Steamtrain

Leo Bridle's fantastic 'Train of Thought' has just been awarded a special jury mention at the Czech Republic's 'AniFest' celebration. It will also be screened at this year's Anima Mundi in Brazil…

Looks like there's plenty of stations left on this train's whistlestop tour of the planet!

Doritos

Well done No Fat Clips! They've beaten us to our own scoop…! Leo Bridle's spot for the Dorito's contest 'Love Triangle' is available to watch online, at http://dekku.nofatclips.com/2010/05/doritos-love-triangles.html. We'll get it up here soon.. It's a short slice of food fetish, enacted by a pot of sauce and some fried crisps, shot in stop-motion and live-action by Leo last month. Enjoy – and eat up!

SCRUB THAT – it's on our site here: www.beakus.com/blog/doritos-sharing-feels-good

Leap of Faith in Annecy

It's not every day your work is shown next to the likes of Jan Svankmajer, Norman McLaren, Oskar Fischinger and the Brothers Quay… But Steve Smith's excellent short 'Leap Of Faith' is taking it's rightful place amongst these big-hitters in a special programme in the Annecy International Animation Festival this year. To celebrate it's 50th anniversary Marcel Jean has compiled a programme titled: 'Don't Blink! The History of Animation in 50 very short films'.

Screening dates are:

8th June, La Turbine, 9pm

9th June, Decavision 2, 9pm

11th June, Bonlieue Petite Salle, 6pm

To discover more, click http://www.annecy.org/annecy-2010/festival/programmes:201042

‘August’ heads Cartoon Brew Fest

Congratulations to Matthias Hoegg for the inclusion of 'August' in the inaugural Cartoon Brew TV Student Film Festival!

Exclusive online screenings will take place on www.cartoonbrew.com from 17th May.

This tops a good festival circuit for Matthias, whose latest film (also his graduation film from the Royal College of Art) is due to be released later this month.

To read about the festival, click: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/shorts/official-selections-for-cartoon-brew-tvs-student-animation-fest.html

Leo Bridle is here

Beakus is delighted to welcome the fantastic Leo Bridle to it's ranks for director representation in the UK.

Leo is a young but incredibly talented and ambitious director whose work has already made a big impact – a million views on You Tube can't be a fluke, right? Even before graduating from the Arts University College Bournemouth with his beautifully crafted short 'Train of Thought', Leo had created the multi-faceted promo for Emily Loizeau 'Je Suis Jalouse', a viral sensation 'Web 2.0' for 'The First Post', and the short 'Still Life with Flowers'.

'Train of Thought' went on to feature in over 25 festivals worldwide, not least the British Animation Awards and the London Short Film Festival. In a few weeks time it'll be competing in Europe's premiere animation competition, Annecy International Animation Festival. Using a highly delicate stop-motion technique that combines paper cut-outs and photographic prints, the film certainly carves a niche of it's own, and you can watch it right here.

So Beakus are thrilled to sign Leo up, and we can't wait to set him down to work…

Movie mayhem

Big apologies to all who've tried to watch our work on this site recently.. We were the unwilling recipient of some large-scale phishing, leading to the site being temporarily suspended, after which we discovered none of our movies played!?

Don't you just love the web, and all the splendid hackers out there just itching to make your life a misery?

Well, we're up-and-running again – all except those who browse in Google Chrome, who might find their movies are just a white blob… Sorry, and yep, we're working on it.

Try Firefox instead..?

Blogtastic

Beakus is getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere, naturally… Here's a pick of the reviews:

http://dekku.nofatclips.com/2010/04/beakus-galore.html

http://www.animationblog.org/2010/03/steve-smith-bluna-beakus-stuffed-mtv.html

http://coldhardflash.com/2010/03/beakus-breaks-out-with-bbc-series-stuffed.html

http://dekku.nofatclips.com/2010/04/psapp-side-dish.html

http://motionographer.com/2010/03/03/new-animation-studio-beakus/

http://www.directorsnotes.com/2010/03/08/a-new-animation-studio-beakus/

http://www.cpluv.com/generic/mainitem/34767

http://dekku.nofatclips.com/2010/04/steve-smith-leap-of-faith.html

http://lineboil.com/tag/beakus/

Also in the press is an article Steve Smith wrote for Design Week about what inspires him each and every day. If you subscribe to Design Week you can read the article online at http://www.designweek.co.uk/inspired-steve-smith-beakus/3011278.article, but if you don't we'll be posting it up here quite soon for your delictation!

Grand Studio Opening

A quickie, as we're knee deep in boxes, but Beakus are settling in to our new studio! Just a stones throw from St.Katherine's Wharf, near the Tower of London, and in a converted pub, the studio will house our productions and directors.

Run by the lovely 'Happiness at Work' and also home to a plethora of talented illustrators, the studio sits above a very nice cafe 'The Turks Head' and is a lovely walk along the river from Tower Bridge.. Need any more excuses to come visit?!

Stuffed goes Live!

Beakus director Steve Smith's anarchic comedy 'Stuffed' has launched on BBC Comedy Extra. The first of five episodes is ready to view, so we recommend you go see it now here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/extra/video/p0070lb6

Or, if you're lazy, you can watch the first episode 'Lady Bear Bear' below, but do please give it a rating (5 stars is a good round figure) so the BBC know you liked it.

The synopsis for 'Lady Bear Bear' reads - Brat brings a new playmate into The Shed – the voluptuous Lady Bear Bear. The woman is quite literally filth on a stick, but somehow projects that beautiful innocence only found in the eyes of your new puppy as it defecates in your favourite slippers. Bear is of course thrilled with this coquettish addition to the shed, and turns on a bit of special. Personally, having met Bear, I find he has the charm of a damp tweed suit, but perhaps when he switches it on, he turns flip mode squad and hooches like the best of us. Well that is unless Brat has his wicked way.

New work from Bluna

Amazing new work from Bluna this week..! Three idents for MTV (Argentina) made entirely in 3D around the themes of Friendship, Fun and Dreams. They're a colourful, neon-lit smorgasbord of adventure, with cute characters and surreal environments to explore…

Watch them here.

Beakus cards

A new range of cards – if Beakus bumps in to you, nab one…

Mutilated Bee

This had been buzzing around. So we burnt it's eye off…

Dear Sesame Street

Just spotted something on Hear No Evil about a competition being run by Sesame Street. It brings us back to the argument against 'Live Music', whereby animated in their scores (pun intended) rushed to animate scenes of a feature film in the hope theirs was chosen, for which they received a small sum of cash and a 'prize'.. Imagine X-Factor for animators…. Well.. Seems everyone wants something for nothing. Here's the open letter, and follow this link to join the debate: dear sesame street

Dear Sesame Street,

We, the undersigned, would like to register our concern over the contest you are now conducting with Aniboom. We are concerned that your contest includes a solicitation of original design concepts, characters and content to be produced on a speculative basis by cartoonists, artists, motion designers and animators.

This approach, requesting new and original work to be created in competition, is one that we believe seriously compromises the quality of work that is entered into “competition” and is questionable, at best, for a reputable organization to request.

Sesame Street has long been a highly esteemed provider of educational programming for children. From its inception, it has shown respect and support for the independent animation, film, and design communities. Artists have responded by creating lasting work – that is as valuable for children and adults today as when it was first created. We applaud that work, and hope that Sesame Street will continue to push the fields of animation and film-making. As such, we also think that Sesame Street should uphold the ethics and professional behavior we’d like our own children to grow up with. Is the education we want to pass on to them that artists’ and animators’ work is not valuable? That the only way to ‘make it’ is through winning a contest?

There is a more appropriate way to explore the work of various artists. A more effective and ethical approach to commission new work is to ask a pool of talent to submit examples of their work from previous assignments as well as a statement of how they would approach your project. You can then judge the quality of the artist’s previous work and her way of thinking about your project. The artist you select can then begin to work on your project by designing an original solution to your criteria while under contract to you, without having to work on speculation up front.

…

Motionographer

We're on the front page of Motionographer! Well… our logo is… but click through and maybe the points will add up and we can get that job lot of iPads we've been coverting..? thanks Motionographer.!

BBC Comedy to air ‘Stuffed’

Beakus director Steve Smith has just put finishing touches to a new mini-series of 'Stuffed', his dark comedy for 'just older than kids', commissioned by BBC Comedy. The series will air exclusively on BBC's comedy website from February.

Smith created 5 sadistic, yet hilarious scripts which were animated by a small team at Trunk. Voiced by Simon Greenall (Alan Partridge, CompareTheMeerkat.com) the sharp, acidic tales take the dastardly red-headed boy and his put-upon Bear in to sickly uncharted territory!

Check back soon for release information.

NFTS show

Steve Smith will be popping along to the NFTS show at the BFI on Friday 26th Feb to get a ganders at the new crop of directors facing up to life outside of the college bubble. He's very much looking forward to it – and if you spot him do say hello?!
 

Social Network

Spreading our wings on the hinterweb we've signed up to Facebook and Twitter. Click the logos below to pay them a visit.

Ooh, and don't forget you can sign up to our RSS feeds (giving you all our new postings as they happen) using the link 'Subscribe to Beakus News' at the bottom of the page.

NEW DIRECTOR / Matthias Hoegg

Beakus is delighted to sign up soon-to-graduate Royal College of Art MA student, and all-round lovely guy, Matthias Hoegg. We'll be shouting about Hoegg alot over the forthcoming months as he takes his first steps in to the limelight, shepherded by Beakus' producer Steve Smith. Have a look at his first-year RCA film 'August', which is full of a beautiful melancholia. Hoegg specialises in seamlessly mixing 2D and 3D, and is keen to stretch himself through working on music videos and commercials. Drop a line to studio@beakus.com if you'd like to hear more about Hoegg.

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to Beakus!

We're a brand new animation production company based in London.

Although we're new, our team has amassed over 20 years experience between them in the field of animation production.

Here are a few things we most definately do:

• We produce top-notch entertaining and eye-popping motion graphics and animation for the media industry!
• We work in Commercials
• And in Titles
• Idents
• We make bespoke broadcast animation for Channels and Production Companies
• We create music videos!
• We develop shorts for adults and content for kids
• We are also adept at creating comedy series and one-offs
• And we can create animation of all kinds for the web

Animation is a complex thing. Just so we're all absolutely sure, we can create animation in:

• High-end or lo-fi Digital 3D
• Digital or Hand-Drawn 2D
• Puppet or Stop-Motion
• Cut-Out
• Sand
• Pixillation
• Hand-Drawn
• Post-Effected
• … and even combine all that with live-action!

Our mission is to keep pushing back the boundries of what animation can do in this digital era. We want to surprise, wow and impress through a steady focus on strong design, inventive creativity, emotive and affecting characterisation,  and the highest production standards.

Take a look around and see what we can do for you…