Anifex in Adelaide, South Australia | Broadcasting & media production company

Anifex

Locality: Adelaide, South Australia

Phone: +61 8 8363 1669

Address: 65 King William Street, Kent Town 5067 Adelaide, SA, Australia

Website: http://www.anifex.com.au

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24.01.2022 I have been a stop motion animator for more years than I care to mention. As a stop motion filmmaker, I have a few bugbears when it comes to watching stop motion films. For example... I have a "thing" about live action shots inserted into stop motion that try to pass themselves off as part of the animated action. It usually occurs with close ups when an animated character is writing something for example and an extreme close up of the page sees the end of the pencil writing i...n real time... stuff like that. For my latest film "The Better Angels" I was faced with a dilemma. In one shot, the main character lights a candle. It is an extreme C/U so we are really just looking at the very top of the candle at the wick. A burning match moves into shot and lights the wick before withdrawing. I really didn't want to shoot the shot "live" as I felt it would be incongruous with the rest of the action, and as previously mentioned... I have a "thing" about this... so I opted to animate it. The problem I had was that the story I am telling is a serious one and this action was critical in terms of the narrative. I was very concerned that any sort of stop motion treatment of the flame would look hokey and would therefore diminish the power of the shot... I couldn't animate a lighted match because it would burn much too quickly and would be out before I even reached the candle....so this was the animated solution that I came up with. It was shot as a series of plates. Plate 1 was the top of the candle with wick. Plate 2 was the unlit match moving in, fitted with a grain of wheat light globe at the end. This was animated into shot a frame at a time until it touched the wick. A pause and then I animated the match back out of shot. This also gave us the interactive light onto the candle as the match approached and left the scene. Plate 3 was a real flame on a match which was shot against black. The flame didn't move, but stayed in the centre of the frame. That way, I always had the complete flame to use without any of it being cut off by the edges of the frame. By gently blowing on it, I could make the flame move in sympathy with the action. As the match moved in, I could blow on the flame as if it was being moved forward. By blowing on the back of the flame it looked like it was leaving. So far, so good. I gave all of the components to Marty Pepper who is doing the VFX for the film and he put all of the elements together. The result? It looks perfect.... so perfect in fact that I might as well have shot it live. There is nothing to indicate that it's animated at all! The only up side for me is that at least I will know that I bothered to animate it, rather than take the easy option! Ha!

22.01.2022 The year is 2017 BP : (Before the Pestilence) Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film. I was there representing my short animation "After All." I always make sure my first lunch at the festival is a traditional German beer and a sausage of some sort. Stereotypical I know, but absolutely delicious too! :)

19.01.2022 In 1999 we made a short animation film called "The Book Keeper." It was based on a book by a friend of mine, Strephyn Mappin. Strephyn unfortunately suddenly passed away a few years ago, but every time I see these pictures I think of him. He came over to Adelaide from Melbourne to see the props and characters and he was surprised at how we had interpreted his short story. In his mind, the shop was all glass and chrome... Very modern and minimalist, whereas I went for a more e...arthy, daggy look. The film concerns itself with a strange man who owns a bookshop. He is so protective of the books that he hates selling them and will even resort to murder to protect them. His greatest challenge occurs when a bookworm manages to get into the shop. It causes havoc before the final resolution. The art direction was done by Deane Taylor (A Nightmare Before Christmas) and we were lucky to have such a talented designer living in the Adelaide Hills at the time. When we were building the sets and props, we came up with the mantra "If it's a right angle. it's a wrong angle" in keeping with Dean's dislike of symmetry. The film certainly has a very distinctive look. The film was well received all around the world and picked up quite a few awards.

18.01.2022 Shout out to Anifex for the incredibly eye-opening studio tour a few of our production team and supervisors were lucky enough to experience earlier this week.... Anifex are the super creative minds behind some of your favourite animated television adverts Schmackos, Home Hardware and blast from the past, Mr Oily from the Kraft Peanut Butter ad (which still makes our mouths water for peanut butter!) JoAnne was an incredible host and happy to share her knowledge and experience as she took us behind the scenes of the animation world, revealing tips and tricks of the trade. We are grateful Anifex allowed us an all access pass through their studio, it will no doubt inspire our team to explore their creativity, not only with animation, but all aspects of their artwork and design #ThankYou #Inspiration #AnifexStudios #SocialEnterprise #SociallyInclusiveDesign #NotJustAFAD (F*cking Awesome Design)

17.01.2022 A few months ago I was asked by Vincenzo Maselli to write the foreword for his new book "Anatomy of a Puppet." Today I received in the mail a copy of that book. I was relieved to see that I had an English copy and not Italian! :) The book is a terrific read and is a must for anyone who is interested in puppets, both the manufacture and the psychology of how we interact with them. Here is a copy of the foreword. ...Continue reading

17.01.2022 We made the poster! Bottom corner! So proud! :)

15.01.2022 On a trip to the UK a couple of years ago, I called in to the British Film Institute on the banks of the Thames. While I was there, I popped in to the book shop and was pleased to see a copy of " Basics Animation: Stop Motion" by Barry Purves, which featured a few photographs from my short films Gargoyle and Sleight of Hand. It was quite freaky travelling half way around the world and seeing some of your work in print at the BFI. Thanks Barry!

13.01.2022 Behind the scenes on a Home Hardware TVC shoot. Note the gorgeous old Mitchell camera. These days we use digital stills cameras. Digital cameras are great. They are smaller, so for animation purposes they are better because you can get into tighter places. The picture resolution is phenomenal, and the playback options second to none..... but I don't think you can beat the look of these old beauties.

07.01.2022 In 1999 we were asked to do a live action/animation shoot for an advertising agency in Hong Kong. It featured shopping bags walking themselves home to indicate how easy it was to shop. The live action background plates were shot on location and we then shot the animation back in our studio in Adelaide in South Australia. The bags you can see here were stand ins so that we could frame the shots, making sure we left enough room for the animated bags when they were dropped in l...ater. Yes... that is a Mambo shirt I am wearing... but in my defence... it WAS 1999! What was particularly memorable about this shoot was the fact that on the last day we were scrambling to get everything shot before a cyclone came in in the afternoon. The very last shot was a close up of a car wheel driving past as a bag looked on. Just as I called "cut" and "it's a wrap!" the heavens opened. We were so lucky. The cyclone was ferocious and I remember the staff of the hotel knocking on doors and making sure that everyone's curtains were shut and we were told to keep away from the windows. I did see a bus crushed with a fallen tree branch. We were flying back to Australia the following day. When we got to the airport, only one runway was operating because the cyclone had flipped a 737 plane onto it's back and they were still trying to move it. Good shoot though!

06.01.2022 On Saturday 7th November, we had the WA & SA chapters of the Australian Cinematographer's Society Awards at the Marion Hotel. It was a "skinny" version of the awards and we were under no pressure as we had nothing in for consideration. Here are a couple of Photo's from the night.

05.01.2022 Very pleased to announce that "Meanwhile, at the Abandoned Factory..." has been accepted into the animation section of the Filmquest Film Festival in Utah. The festival specialises in sci-fi, horror and fantasy films. Great news! http://www.filmquestfest.com/speakers/animated-shorts-2020/

03.01.2022 I just spent a very productive hour with sound designer Justin Astbury on "The Better Angels" soundtrack. I had had an idea that could have potentially improved the ending with regards to the sound and I was keen to see if this new thought was a good one. Justin kindly indulged and humoured me and we had a crack at changing the ending.... only to go back to the original. It is important though to try other possibilities. By going through the process it confirmed that our first thought was the best and if we hadn't tried it, I would have always wondered if we had missed a trick, so at least now I know for certain that what we have is the strongest option.

02.01.2022 My "soul food" is making short films... but my "bread and butter" is making TV Commercials. Most TV commercials, or the companies that have them made have a slogan attached to them. We have made many, many commercials that end with a catchy phrase... in fact, I was directly responsible for one of them! We used to do the Home Hardware commercials which finished with the slogan, "Dogalogue, out now!" When we first met with the advertising agency in Melbourne, about doing the ...job, they outlined the strategy... a series of TV commercials featuring two clay animated dogs, Sandy a labrador who represented the home handyman and Rusty, a red kelpie who represented the tradies. Added to this would be a series of still photographs of the characters for inclusion in the catalogue. I then suggested that, as it was two dogs, we should call it a "dogalogue" instead of a catalogue... and the rest, as they say, is Australian animated dog history. We also made the dog treat Schmacko's commercials... and while we didn't think of it, the end of each of those commercials finished with "Dogs go wacko, dogs go wacko for Schmacko's!" So... slogans are all part and parcel of advertising... but the word "slogan" itself has an interesting history. Jump cut to the Scottish Highlands in the 1600's. You are part of a clan that is currently at war with another clan (or maybe two or three other clans, they were a warlike bunch!) The sides line up opposite each other and then start screaming and yelling, each building themselves up to a blood lust, ready to fight to the death.... The battle cry is unique to your clan and is known as a "slughorn." Over time, the term "slughorn" turned into "slogan" and that's what we have today. Interesting to think that "I'm Lovin' it..." and "Finger licking good" came from a desire to kill...... See more

01.01.2022 I was a judge at the AnimeGO! Festival this year and I have been asked to present the award for Best Anime." They are also screening my latest short film, so if you have a hankling to see it.....