So L.A.

Woke up today in Hollywood.
Sun shining.
Swam in pool.
Now going to meet two producers of one of my all time favourite cartoons, Batman TAS.

Its a hard old life.

LA

mad old first day. Was all good met some managers and Jonathon Loughran of the Irish filmboard over here.

DGA building is amazing. So massive and imposing. Great space for the screening and afters party and a great cinema.
Checked the tape, seems grand.
the picture loses a bit on NTSC Beta but its good enough as a work in progress screening type thing.


hollywood looks like it does on telly , maybe a bit grotty around the edges thats all.

Off to meet the wee Brian McGrath and Barry OD and the Barley films crew tonight with Mike Nyugen of July Films.

Then need to sleep a lot cos tommorow its Warners , then an agent the Fox then Titmouse then fly to SF for the night.

whew.

T

jetwrecked

ahhhh airports and delays .

how i love them. soggy expensive starbucks sambos the same the world over.
bizarre how chicago could have been dublin just another airport in the rain.

declan recks from sdgi is travelling with me to l.a.
his film "eden"is coming out in america soon.

some tech problem at immigration caused declan and i to miss our connection.

so we are in st.louis hanging out to connect to l.a.

closing in on 24 hours traveling now.

smartlad barry odonoghue flew direct from dublintown.

everyone else here is riveted to an american football match.

on the way over st.louis once the clouds cleared i was looking down
trying to connect with the surrealness that that was actually america down there.

honestly its somehow mundanely familar and utterly bizarre to travel so
much so often. like passing thru vaguely different dimensions.
seems everywhere is the same with one or two subtle differences.

zzzzzzzz.

photos from the sdgi award

thanks to everyone who came along , especially little Christen the voice of Aisling!

Beta tapes

Whew , just got em.

Cant check them as I have no Beta Sp player here, lets hope it will all be alright on the night.

T

paris (france) hehe

Yeh still in PAris , had to stay a bit longer than expected.

My head is just buzzing this week .
Preparing the LA trip next week , getting all geeked up about going to Lucasfilm and Pixar.

On Monday went thru the notes on sound design with Sebestian in Piste Rouge he is doing a great job , and on Tuesday checked the HD version of the film in Spirit with PAscal Didier and Ivan , with the old crappy temp sound and the directly after went to Piste Rouge again to hear the rough mix for LA.

A lot of the final music is in there which is great.
Sounds very powerful, Kila and Bruno did a great job.
Brunos score with the choirs was recorded last week and I heard it on Tuesday night
quite late. Even if it was the third time I watched the film in one day it was very interesting a
as it added another layer again on top.

So just waiting for the beta NTSC tape now and working in the poster / Comic cover here in Les Armateurs.

With the LA trip, sound design, Song pre pro going on in KK and the comic I can hardly switch off any more. Need to slooow right down again after the final mix .
Its two weeks of madness first off to LA and then back to Paris for final mix but then its time to really focus down . Thankfully Fabian is helping a lot both with cleaning up and finalising the pages of the comic and the pre pro plans on Song.
I get to focus on the over all design stuff that way.
Getting to draw is such a luxury by now.
I was roughing out the revised prequel pages in the hotel room last night.

Nice.

SDGI

AWARDS

it was great craic on Thursday night, i hope everyone whos howed up ahd a s much fun as I did.
It was fantastic to see so many heads there, especially the people who have been following the project for so long.

I met some great people on the night too. At dinner i got to chat to Terry Loane who directed a class film I loved a couple of years ago - MickyBo and Me.
I was getting loads of advise on the whole LA trip.
sure it'll be gas. Barry and some of the lads from barley films are heading over too so thats great.



I think my favorite quote of the night was from my old animation teacher , Eddie, who is now the head of the course in Ballyfermot " sure if you kick the sh*t out of something for 10 years, somethings bound to happen!"

Paul and I had a good meeting today with Cat Little and Laura Campbel about a new tv series we are developing called Puffins rock. It was lovely to chat about a new project with such a "blue sky" attitude.

Right , gotta get some sleep now before I try to brave the way to dublin Airport tommorow.
Considering my track record with that place like. And also its teh All ireland hurling final tommorow.

Gwan the Cats!

Kila and Bruno + update

Paul and I scooted up for a day and a half to Sligo .
Kila and Bruno recorded the music in the studio of Brian from Dervish.
Its beside the Lake Isle of Inisfree. A Rainbow appeared over the lake near the end of the second day. No messing.
Anyway the lads from Kila were great and they really did some fantastic interpretations of Brunos score.
Also they made up some cool new stuff on the spot.
I arrived in late on Tuesday night after a long drive up from KK and Dee was there , playing fiddle to the Chi Rho page sequence. Magic moment.

Colm did some cool flute and Rossa and Lance added really cool percussion, even a 3000 year old bronze age instrument found its way into it. Rossa was mad on teh spoons and even played a hoover at one stage.
Lance and Dee did some Bodhran stuff and Bruno seems very happy with their work.
He brought two of his usual team with him Max and "Slim" and also Manu the music producer was there. It was very nice and VERY intense hard work for a couple of days.

Now I'm up to my eyes in sorting out the comic - apart from the prequel its mainly just reusing artwork from the film so I've got great help from Fabs and Gealle and Sven on that.
Just trying to keep up with them is the problem they are so fast at the finalising, I have keep roughing out a few pages ahead of them.
I'm also very busy mainly on Song now, working on teh trailer but sure thats a whole other blog!.

Tommorow night is the awards thingy in Dublin, then on Sunday I'm over for a short visit to Paris to Seb in Piste Rouge who sent me some really class sound design today.
Just a few bits to work on and then hopefully I'll have a rough mix with me in LA next Sunday.
Getting to meet a few heads in Pixar and Dreamworks and Disney , looking forward to that even though I'm a bit wrecked.

photos from the record session to follow as soon a s Pauly recharges his camera!

T

the real pangur ban

.
These two starlets are on the rise , Venise and Tequila.
In Piste Rouge I heard about 20 minutes of sound design on Tuesday last including the work of our feline friends pictured here.
Also on Monday I had the pleasure to hear some more of the score Bruno has been working on in his studio in Paris.

Adaptation

So, working on the adaptation of the film into graphic novel form, roughi9ng out the pages .
Actually its quite challenging, to faithfully adapt each scene to comics form would take much more than the two albums and I want to give a lot of room to the "new" stories at the start, the prequels about Brendan in the first album and Aisling in the second.
Truth be told those are the really interesting bits for me as its new artwork.
Most of the comics adaptation is mainly reused or reworked existing artwork so thats a different kind of challenge.
Mainly whats weird is how "cuts" don't work as easily. In film because we have time , when we cut from one scene to another, theres an automatic link, but in teh comic its kind of confusing, and I tend group panels more.
Also the publisher wants a very "classical" grid type layout which is not my usual style in comics so I'm trying to keep the more loose and experimental layouts for the prequels and go for the classical grid for the adaptation.
It kind of makes sense as the prequel is a different time and location from the rest and also the adaptation part uses a lot of artwork thats already in "boxes" , as in, screen shots designed for a rectangular screen!
Anyway, its a pile of work in a tight period and with the Song of the Sea schedule staying fixed I am up to my eyes.
But sure its all good.
Does'nt help that i fell off my bike the other night and nearly cut my ear off!
I'm working away with a very dramatic looking bandage all around my head.
Great for extra sympathy ;)

Fruitopia

"Frutopia"

At the View Two Gallery, Liverpool, Opening August 13th 2008 to September 14th. Fruitopia: Thirty photographs by Luli Barzman


Just yesterday I was sent this example of some beautiful art photography from wife of Kells Screenwriter Fabrice Ziolkowski, Luli Barzman.
Do go along!

Galway Film Fleadh

That was a great old weekend there in Galway, some class cartoons on show.
Congrats to the winners too!

I got some nice news too...

http://www.iftn.ie/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4281368&tpl=archnews

Moore Wins Directors Finders Series 2008

14 Jul 2008 |

The Secret of Kells

Director Tomm Moore is set to showcase his animated feature ‘The Secret of Kells’ at the Director’s Guild of America Theatre, LA on 19th September 2008 after being named winner of the Screen Director’s Guild Directors Finders Series 2008.

The award, organised by the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland (SDGI) in association with the Director’s Guild of America, sees an Irish director present their feature in front of an audience of American distributors and industry personnel with a view to securing a U.S distribution deal.

Selected by an international panel of experts, the Irish / French / Belgian co-production ‘The Secret of Kells’ tells the story of Brendan, the boy behind the famed Book of Kells. Twelve hundred years ago, the young orphan meets Brother Aidan, the keeper of an extraordinary, but unfinished book of illuminations. Aidan sets Brendan the task of completing the Book of Kells and he overcomes obstacles and faces his deepest fears to complete his duty.

The animation is produced by Cartoon Saloon, France’s Les Armateurs and Belgium’s Vivi Film with funding from the BCI, Irish Film Board, Celluloid Dreams, Canal Plus, Gebeka, FTD Video, Eurimages and RTE.

Last year’s winner of the Directors Finders Series was Tom Collin’s ‘Kings’, which went on to secure a U.S distribution deal and was Ireland’s official nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in the Academy Awards. ‘Kings’ also won five Irish Film & Television Awards at this year’s IFTAs.

The Directors Finders Series award is supported by The Irish Film Board, The DGA, The Arts Council, Culture Ireland and Screen Training Ireland.

But y'know, its gonna be a scrambel to get it all tidied up sound and music wise, but we can do it...

Hollywood.

Ho Boy.

and now the traditional dublin airport misadventure

am back in kilkenny.

all flights cancelled tonight.

some kind of radar problem.

bizarro.

traditional Dublin airport post

Going over to meet Bruno Coulais about the music...should be a nice meeting.

Also the sound designer from piste rouge ..Sebestian...

here I go...

Distribution

Just a note in response to the comments on the last post.

The only place Disney are confirmed to distribute our film is in Ireland.

In France we have the distributor from Kirikou and Les Triplettes - Gebeka. A very good distributor of independant cartoons for France. They also distributed the last two Folimage movies for example.

In Belgium we arew ith Kinepolis another very good distributor.

For the rest of the world nothing is confirmed.
We have a very good sales agent in Celluloid dreams representing us.
They produced Persepolis so thats good pedigree!.

So hopefully we will find a partner for those territories soon.

SWEET!

man, one of the best things about having Disney distributing the film here in Ireland is getting to the premieres!
Couple of weeks back we went to the Prince Caspian premiere in Dublintown and Ruth gave us a shout out in the intro speech!
Now I just got an invite to the Irish premiere of Wall.E

joy.

The Song of the Sea

Just a note to point anyone interested towards a new blog about my new project -
The Song of the Sea.

Over the next few months I will be dividing my time between developing this , working on the music and sound of Kells and of course the comic book version of Brendan.

http://theblogofthesea.blogspot.com/

last scene approved on Hobsoft

I think (touch wood) I justa pproved the last scene ever on Hobsoft.

weird.

Bruno started sending some sample tracks of music yesterday.
Its gas how long everything has taken..how spread out it all is time wise.. once animation wrapped last year Nora had time to go have a baby, wean him on to solids and now shes back helping me with music notes!

Tidying up the old room we found some newspaper cuttings from 2000 about the imminent release of the film!


...ahh sure nearly there...

flemish voices

So had a quick Skype contact with the voice director in Belgium and Vivianne the Belgian producer as they are recording the Flemish voices at the moment. Seems to be going well from the little bit I heard. I'm happy about that. It would be nice to be in Sunny Belgium instead of rainy Kilkenny but I am too busy here unfortunately to get there. Anyway I dont speak Flemish. I think its in good hands anyway!

original animation drawings

APB to anyone who worked on Brendan , I have all he folders from the scenes animated in Kilkenny and Brussels , here in the studio, with the original layout posing and clean up drawings.

I am gonna recycle the whole lot very soon as we are moving to a different space and just wanted to give anyone who wants their original drawings back the chance to let us know.
I can't afford to post them out so anyone who wants it will have to pay for whatever it costs to get them to you .
Let me know as soon as you can.
Its a pity to recycle all those drawings but sure thats life .

I already have boxes and boxes of stuff going back years and years so I really need to clear out!

Just to be clear I have nothing that was cleaned up or animated in Kecskemet ...just scenes sent back from Lightstar in Brazil after clean up and inbetween was finished..

I really think we'll go to digital 2d for the next production....;)