Bit Films Summer 2013 Internships!

The summer 2013 intern info sheet is up -- we're getting close to finishing TUBE and have our new live-action VFX project (SEED) as well!

Bit Films Summer Internships, 2013

Apply by Friday May 17.

SEED principal photography completed

A scene from "Seed" with actors Milan Dragicevich, left, and and Bria Sutherland, right.
(photo by Dan Overton)

Our twenty-plus person crew occupied Holyoke's Wauregan Building throughout the last weekend in March and completed production on SEED.

Mike Plaisance from Masslive wrote up a great story about the project:

Holyoke's Wauregan Building site of filming of science fiction movie.

We are now moving into post-production. More to come!

CALDERA is now online!

Our most recent short CALDERA is now available online!

CALDERA on Vimeo

CALDERA premiered at SXSW in 2012, was officially selected for SIGGRAPH Asia, Seattle Int'l, Palm Springs Shorts, Stuttgart Int'l Animation, and over 40 other festivals worldwide. It was awarded the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction in Linz Austria, and garnered several other awards including Best Animated Film at Rome Independent, Award of Innovation at Seattle Int'l SIFF, and Best Short - View Social Awards.

CALDERA was helmed by Evan Viera (Director/Composer/Co-Writer) and Chris Bishop (Co-writer/Animation Supervisor) and was produced at Hampshire College over two and a half years. I co-produced and edited. CALDERA was the first film to go through our Bit Films Incubator Program, which we created after completing The Incident at Tower 37. In this program we invite orphaned independent films to be made on campus with the College's students and resources. 

You can read more about this amazing project in some of my prior posts, or at the film's main website.

Congrats to the whole team!

Casting Call for SEED

As mentioned in my previous post...

SEED is a dramatic sci-fi short set in a post-agricultural America (think Alfonso Cuarón’s CHILDREN OF MEN). The roughly 8-minute film is being shot on Easter weekend, March 30 and 31, at the amazing Wauregan Building in Holyoke.

THE ROLES:

1 Male, ages 50-65

1 Female, ages 16-25

1 Male, ages 30-40

AUDITIONS:

Saturday March 2nd from 1-5pm

Preference will be given to actors with film and/or TV experience.

To schedule an audition time please email seed@bitfilms.com with your resume and headshot. Auditions will be held on the Hampshire College campus. Details and directions will be sent via email with confirmation of your audition time.

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/527318647313214/

SEED - a new film in preproduction

I'm pleased to announce what I believe is the seventh Bit Films production: SEED is ramping up right now for shooting in late March.

Excuse me: Shooting? Yes, this one will be live action, not animated. SEED is a dramatic science fiction short based on a near-future post-agricultural world that's been haunting me for years. I've written all sorts of variants of this story but the one that felt the strongest just wasn't animated. Though it does feature some cool CG VFX.

What I know already: this will be a 2-camera shoot using DSLRs. It'll take place over a weekend at the amazing Wauregan Building in Holyoke (an old paper mill with a spacious basement that fits the tone of the SEED world perfectly). The current script runs 8 pages.

In the Hampshire County area and want to be involved? Don't hesitate to get in touch.

More to come.

Bit Films Spring 2013 internships

Now posted!

CALL FOR 2013 SPRING INTERNS

Please come join us on one of our two ongoing animation projects. See details at the link above. Deadline is this FRIDAY but the application isn't too onerous.

A tremendous Prix

Bit Films was born ten years ago this September. Born from a crazy idea that students could and should work together to make films that push the medium of computer animation into meatier and more thoughtful places than Hollywood was willing to attempt. From Displacement (2002) to Catch (2005) to The Incident at Tower 37 (2009) to Caldera (2012) to Tube (upcoming), we've kept on doing it, and today we're especially honored because the venerable Prix Ars Electronica gave one of its two Awards of Distinction to Caldera!

http://www.aec.at/prix/en/gewinner/#computer-animation

This is a terrific acknowledgement of the creative vision and leadership of Evan Viera and Chris Bishop, as well as a wonderful honor to all the crew members who worked to bring this film to life.

But it is also a celebration of the model--radical at times but perhaps not so much any more--that we've been trying to follow for almost a decade: where undergraduate liberal arts students work closely with fellow students and mentors, complementing their individualized, course-based education with hands-on, high-end, collaborative work; where an institution like Hampshire College offers its space and resources to independent artists at no cost because it recognizes the benefits for all involved of having such people around; and where ideas for animated films that certainly don't scream "cartoon!" can take root, mature, and ultimately emerge as fully-formed ideas.

It means all the more to me that Evan and Chris are alums of this program -- they both participated on Bit Films projects when they were students and continued to do so after they graduated. I was pleased to be able to invite them into the Drome when Caldera was still nascent, and now they've come full circle--from students to project supervisors--with distinction, no less!

Caldera at SXSW

Bit Films' latest short, CALDERA, had its world premiere at South by Southwest last Sunday! And it continues to screen at SXSW two more times before the festival's out.

I can only share these images and the trailer for now but there will be a host of festival appearances during the coming year that I'll be sure to post about when the time comes.

www.calderathefilm.com/

Caldera grading, Apple Color, and framerates

I'm very happy to report that we've begun color grading on the new short Caldera. It's a real treat to be finessing it at this level, as each shot is absolutely gorgeous. Let me share a still before I get to the geekier point of this post.

Now, Caldera is natively a 24fps production, however, when we dragged our Apple Prores 4444 QT clips into Color it locked the project framerate to 23.98 for no apparent reason. The number appears in what looks like an editable value box, but you just can't edit the value. Of course this throws a wrench into our pipeline, which involves grading and then reconnecting to the graded .mov files inside FCP. FCP doesn't like it (properly so) when the key properties of a .mov file (rate, duration, etc.) change after a reconnect, so it is very unhappy when I try to swap a 23.98 file for a clip it's expecting to be at 24.

What a pain. Luckily, some simple hackery seems to have fixed it. The actual Color project is itself a folder, and one of the items therein is an XML file (in our case, called "calderaGrade.pdl"). The top of the file looks something like this (note I had to paste an image because I can't figure out how to get the XML tags to pass through blogger... sorry!):

A screengrab showing the XML tags in one of Apple Color's pdl files. Note that the framerate in this image has already been changed from 23.98 to 24 fps.

As you might guess, changing the tag to 24 and restarting (AND rerendering) seems to make 24fps files just as we hoped. Phew. This narrowly averted my having to take the movies through an extra Compressor pass like I had to do on The Incident at Tower 37 (see here for some of the gory details of that conforming process).

More to come as we push the film through these last phases of production!

Bit Films Fall 2011 internships announced!

Come one, come all - we've got some great positions to fill on Bassam Kurdali's open film TUBE, and applications are due in a week! We need animators, 3D generalists, and simulation/rigging experts.

View the call for applications here

Thanks in advance for sharing this with whoever you think might be interested.

The Incident at Tower 37: online!

YouTube
Vimeo

Tower 37 is a ten-minute animated short film that was produced collaboratively at Hampshire College and has spent the past two years in film festivals worldwide.

We are releasing it online today, World Water Day, to bring even greater attention to humanity's role in creating and perpetuating this planet's critical water issues. Our film is allegorical, but the challenges we face are real.

Please enjoy, and share! Here are some links to more information and resources related to the film, its making, etc:

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM

TakePart.com has a recent interview with me and suggests ways you can take action, like donating to Water.org and giving up bottled water (especially those single-use plastic nightmares).

LEARNING ANIMATION

Tower 37 was created within the unique undergraduate animation curriculum at Hampshire, which offers a mix of individualized and collaborative instruction. You can get a taste of animation at Hampshire from a recent demo reel, reading a bit about our program, and/or by following the video journey of a final-year interdisciplinary Hampshire animation student.

Bit Films offers spring, summer, and fall internships for current students and recent grads who want to work on films like Tower 37. Watch the Bit Films website for details. You can also peek at the two amazing projects we're working on at the moment, Caldera and Tube, at their respective sites.

INDEPENDENT ANIMATION PRODUCTION

If you're interested in the ins-and-outs of producing and/or distributing a project like this, There's a long history of Tower 37-related posts on this very blog.

Tower 37 was produced using the open source web-based production management and support system called HELGA. We're looking for developers!

Bit Films Spring 2011 Internships

If you follow the Bit Films story, then you definitely know about our internship program. If not, it's a great way to participate actively on a high-end, independent animation production under the tutelage of experienced mentors and artists. We've just posted the call for applications for our Spring 2011 session:

Spring 2011 Internship details here

** One project, Caldera, is nearing completion! This is your last chance to be involved with this film!

Applications due via email on January 31st, 2011.

Bit Films Fall 2010 Internships

I'm pleased to report that internship information is now posted for the Fall 2010 session!

Fall 2010 internship details here

This is our fifth consecutive internship session, running from September 20 to December 17, 2010. Applications are due (via email) no later than Monday September 13, 2010 at 5pm (EDT). We understand that this is short lead time for those in need of making visa and travel arrangements. Because the projects are ongoing, the internship period is flexible; if in doubt, apply!

Everything you'd want to know about the two films being produced in-house (Caldera and Tube) is available via the link above. Today I want to mention the amazing work environment that surrounds the productions and is home to the work we do.

First of all, the studio is on the Hampshire College campus. During the fall, classes are in session so the place is buzzing with activity -- there are lectures, shows, presentations, screenings, sporting events, and more happening all the time and right next to the studio space. Interns have audited Hampshire courses in the past and we certainly expect this to continue.

Nearby Amherst and Northampton are politically liberal college towns with lots of food and entertainment. The PVTA bus system connects them, Hampshire, and the other four colleges in the Five College Consortium so transportation is straightforward. There is also a bike path connecting Northampton and Amherst (which summer 2010 intern Josh ran daily as an impressive commute/exercise regimen).

In addition to lots of US participants over the past four sessions, we've had interns from China, Argentina, South Africa, France, and England be a part of the program in the past. We are eager to fold different voices and histories into the studio so we do our best to support international applicants through the Visa process, finding a place to live, and getting oriented.

So check out the call for interns, look into the films, and see about joining our crew. We look forward to hearing from you.

summer in full swing

An awesome Bit Films sticker photo by Jeremy Brown, from SIGGRAPH 2009.

It's sweltering hot these days in Western Massachusetts, so thankfully the AC is functional and the Bit Films crews aren't melting. I've been doing a lot of script writing, while the Caldera and Tube crews are deep in production. Caldera recently completed its successful kickstarter.com campaign, so big thanks to all who contributed!

Really I was psyched to find Jeremy's photo and I wanted to share it.

Summer 2010 Internships

After three tremendously successful internship sessions last year, we are happily embarking on our second year of internships with the 2010 summer session, once again hosted at Hampshire College.

See here for the details. Applications are due May 3 via email.

A little info on both summer projects can be found at their respective websites:

Bassam Kurdali's film Tube (with shouts out to amazing international interns Jarred and Pablo)

Evan Viera and Chris Bishop's film Caldera (which YOU can help fund via kickstarter.com)

We're looking forward to reviewing your applications. Don't miss out!

Spring 2010 internships announced

I'm pleased to announce that the call for applications to our third internship session has been posted. This is our most ambitious spread of internships yet, ranging from two programming positions to lots of generalist and R&D spots, too. We've even got a production management role we're hoping to fill. Please read the post for more details!

I wish we could offer paid internships, but even our directors and intern supervisors are working without compensation. What we can offer instead of money, however, is an amazing set of human and technical resources. Supervisors Bassam Kurdali, Evan Viera, and Chris Bishop bring tons of talent and experience to their roles, as well as an incredible passion to produce thoughtful, independent, and gorgeous animated short films. Once again, our internships will be hosted by Hampshire College's Computer Graphics Incubator Program, which means we'll have use of Hampshire's heterogeneous compute farm and the Incubator Space (aka the Nerd-O-Drome).

Pass the word and help support independent animation!

multi-festival wrap up

The Woodstock Film Festival was outstanding. The crew and I entered the weekend fairly ignorant of the town, the festival, and the laws of the state of New York concerning the transportation of humans and alcohol in the same vehicle (no citations were issued in the end). But we left feeling very much in the know, re-inspired about independent film, and excited to return. From literally our first moments at Taco Juan's where we collided with Bill Plympton and a subset of the NYC animation crowd to our last, eating (more) amazing sandwiches at Maria's, we were surrounded by fun, creative people, lots of movies, and music. Whoa was there music, mostly in lieu of sleep.

Some of animation's finest young talent making music late night at the WFF.

I want to mention some of the amazing films from the WFF, as well as some of the filmmakers who we enjoyed hanging out with. Highlights of the animation show that I hadn't seen before included The Man in the Blue Gordini, Backwards, and The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9. It was also great to finally meet the two programmers, Bill and Signe, whose work I have admired and who have been directly responsible for sharing The Incident at Tower 37 with many new audiences recently. Like the Martha's Vineyard festival crowd. I was pleased to hear from those who attended the MVFF, namely Bill, Signe, and Backwards's Aaron and Lisa that Tower 37 was quite well-received by the audiences there. Maybe Islanders are extra-sensitive to water issues?

More shouts out to other late-night festival friends from WFF: Joey from Sundial Pictures (our adopted tour guide in Woodstock); Joy, Noel (Twins Are Weird) and James who animated the great WFF trailer; and long-time friend J. Markus from RoboFresh who we hadn't seen and jammed with in far too long. Stay in touch, everyone.

The past month also included the Moondance Film Fest, another 10th anniversary festival like the WFF. I regret that my commitment to Moondance was less than it could have been because I was too excited to spend time with my family in Boulder, but I was glad to have seen a few shows and to have spent an evening talking with Ryan and Jonah, the filmmakers behind Living Death Valley. It was an inspired programming choice by the Moondance folks, in my opinion, to couple our animated narrative fantasy with their live action non-fiction "portrait of a landscape" (my own term) given the two films' thematic connections.

Some other Moondance selections we enjoyed were the wild live-action/animation combo short called Elephants and the hilarious live-action dog film called The Littlest Greyhound. I was very happy to hear that Tower 37 was awarded the Moondance Calypso award, the description of which (from their website) is:

This award is to encourage a spirit of enterprise in saving the environment, habitats and wildlife by creative individuals from around the world. The award is presented to the person who expands knowledge of our world, seeks to improve our quality of all life on the planet, and contributes to the betterment of humankind.

You can't beat that! We were also acknowledged as one of the three Audience Favorites for Animation. Thanks to all who came, saw, and supported our film.

I will end this post about the past by looking ahead yet again. Three NYC screenings are in the works for the next few weeks. You all should go. I can't promise late-night music but I am quite sure they will each be outstanding programs.

• BeFilm's Fall New Animation Screening, 10/15
• Imagine Science Film Festival, 10/17
• HD Fest, 10/20

4 weekends of 37

Reminder: the Bit Films Fall Internship application deadline is next Monday, September 14th, at 5pm Eastern time! The application information can be found here.

Some Tower 37 screening dates at upcoming festivals have been pinned down (full schedule here):

• Martha's Vineyard TONIGHT, 9/12
  
• Springfield Illinois on Sunday 9/20
• Boulder Colorado on Saturday 9/26 *
  
• Woodstock NY on Friday 10/2 * and Saturday 10/3

(* we'll be in attendance!)

Unlike most fests, Moondance (Boulder) has our film programmed with a feature instead of with a bunch of shorts. The feature (Living Death Valley) looks like a captivating 40 minute journey through Death Valley, California which I think will make for a great pairing with our short.

Also, a lovely little review came from the folks at the Animation Show. It would be fun to be a part of their traveling program.

more fall details for Valley animators

I wanted to announce as widely as possible a number of exciting opportunities for Pioneer Valley animators and animation students this fall. There are an unusually large number of unique offerings for advanced-level students this term, a change that I'm quite pleased about.

One quick note: if you want to be kept aware of the most current animation-related information at Hampshire and beyond, please sign yourself up for the animation mailing list that I maintain (go to http://lists.hampshire.edu).

ENTRY LEVEL:
1) Computer Animation I (Hampshire CS 174), Chris Bishop. TTH 2:00-3:20pm.
2) Animation Fundamentals (UMASS ART 297Q), Patricia Galvis-Assmus. TTH 1:00-3:45pm
3) Intro Computer Animation (UMASS ART 374), Jed Mitchell. MW 10:10am-12:05pm

ENTRY or ADVANCED LEVEL:
1) Character Animation (UMASS CMPSCI 397E), Beverly Woolf. MW 7pm-8:30pm

ADVANCED LEVEL:
1) Animation Workshop (Hampshire CS 203), Chris Perry. Weds 9-11:50am.
This class is tailored to 2nd and 3rd year students with animation experience who want to produce their own short animation projects over the course of one term. Think of it as a mini Div-III/BFA experience that will help prepare you for that eventual hurdle.

2) Bit Films Internships (at Hampshire's Computer Graphics Incubator Space). Days and times TBD.
Talented students looking to work on ongoing high-end collaborative animation projects should apply. The official internship posting is up at http://www.bitfilms.com. Application deadline September 14th!

3) TA positions. Chris Bishop, teaching CS 174 at Hampshire, is seeking qualified TAs for Computer Animation I.

As you might expect, there will be competition for many of these positions. Please be sure to contact the individual instructor of a class to find out how he or she handles enrollment, etc.

Feel free to email me with questions, and thanks in advance for sharing this information with your students/friends!

fall preview

I've been deliberately silent. Think of it as an August hibernation. Eating, resting, spending time with friends and family (that's Noe working the T37 hat) before the onset of September and all that comes with it. For those in the academic life, you know what I'm talking about.

This year is a little different from the usual start-of-term, however, because Tower 37 is still very much in play on the festival circuit and that will keep things extra busy. There are already going to be a bunch of screenings of the film with many more fests still holding back on their selection lists. The calendar has the most current details, of course.

There will be a second round of Bit Films Internships, to be announced sometime in early September.

I'm teaching only half-time. My one course in the fall is called Animation Workshop, and for those at Hampshire who are curious about the class you can think of it as a Division III training camp. Or a mini Div III. Basically, I see the course as an opportunity for pre-Div III students to learn the ropes of conceiving of, proposing, pursuing, and completing a project within a finite amount of time. It meets Wednesday mornings. Anticipating a common question: yes, I would be happy for students to collaborate on a project in the course.

The Animation I class will be in the able hands of Hampshire alum, Tower 37 collaborator, and Beijing celebrity teacher Chris Bishop.

I will continue to research and develop the still-untitled feature project that I began this summer, and I'm looking forward to contributing more to Evan and Chris's ongoing short production that's been making great strides in the past few months.

Oh, and Mars isn't all that close tonight after all. So get to bed.