Khumba: From the Karoo to New York

For the first time in its 30 years running, an animated script has been accepted into the Independent Film Week. Khumba is one of three South African projects that will participate in the No Borders International Co-Production Market in New York from 14th to 19th September. The event offers opportunities to pitch to sales agents, financiers and distributors in a series of one-on-one meetings.
No Borders is the only international co-production market in the US, connecting US and international narrative projects at the script stage with financiers and buyers. Khumba, a Triggerfish production, tells the story of a half-striped zebra who leaves his herd on a daring quest when he is blamed for the drought affecting the Great Karoo. The concept which won the “25 words or less competition” in the Zero to Hero category in 2006 has been developed into a screenplay over the last 2 years by Anthony Silverston and Raffaella Delle Donne in close association with the NFVF and the UK Council. International script editor Camilla Bubna-Kastelitz has provided invaluable feedback and advice along the way. Among the other projects at the market are Howl executive produced by Gus van Sant and The Nightingale directed by Mark Bamford of Cape of Good Hope fame. The other South African projects are Lara Foot Newton’s And there in the Dust and Helena Spring’s Karoo Boy.
Formerly known as the IFP Market, Independent Film Week™ is qualitatively and quantitatively the best and biggest venue for financiers, sales agents, and distributors to discover new works-in-progress from experienced, producers and directors, as well as new voices on the independent film scene. The six-day event consists of: the Independent Filmmaker Conference; free public screenings of films by IFP alumni and emerging short filmmakers; and the Project Forum, a pitch meeting showcase for over 150 works-in-progress. It is presented by IFP, America’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers. Pin It

CMG seals three-picture deals with Poland, Turkey

Edward Noeltner's Cinema Management Group has closed sales on its key Toronto sales titles Zambezia, Killer Bean Forever and The People Speak.

Poland's Vison Film and Turkey's Film Pop acquired rights to the trio. The animated feature Killer Bean Forever is based on Jeff Lew's short Killer Bean 2: The Party, which became a cult hit when it launched on iFilm in 2000 and drew more than 1.8m unique hits. The children's story centres on a hitman who tracks down a gangster in a crime ridden fantasy world inhabited by coffee beans.

Zambezia is 3D CGI family title from South African-based animation house Triggerfish Animation set in the Zambezi River Valley where the eponymous bird comes under attack from violent forces.

Civil rights feature The People Speak, which plays in the Mavericks Conversations programme in Toronto as a work-in-progress, features Viggo Mortensen, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Danny Glover.

8 September, 2008 | By Jeremy Kay

taken from: http://www.screendaily.com Pin It

CMG takes on 3D CGI animated feature Zambezia

Cinema Management Group (CMG) president Edward Noeltner has picked up international rights ahead of Toronto to the 3D CGI animated feature Zambezia.

South African-based animation house Triggerfish Animation's family tale takes place on the edge of a spectacular waterfall in the Zambezi River Valley where the eponymous bird comes under attack from vicious forces.

'This an exciting and visually exhilarating story with wonderful moral values which, much like Disney's Lion King, will appeal to audiences of all ages in every corner of the globe,' Noeltner said.

'We are very excited to be offering Zambezia for the very first time in Toronto where we have footage from the film to screen along with a full plate of new projects to offer.'

CMG will present in Toronto's Mavericks Conversations programme a work-in-progress screening and panel discussion of the civil rights feature The People Speak featuring Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Howard Zinn and producer Chris Moore along with TIFF's head documentaries programmer Thom Powers.

Noeltner's slate includes the National Geographic Entertainment presentation of Chris Davies' prison tale The Choir, which CMG signed up this summer, as well as the upcoming historical drama Heaven And Earth starring Natascha McElhone and James Purefoy that Marleen Gorris is set to begin shooting in January 2009. Noeltner pre-sold Swiss rights to Rialto Films this summer following discussions in Cannes.

CMG will also be talking up Holy Mountain, the fifth instalment to its Mysterious China documentary series, as well as six new cult titles from its 56-title Legend Films Collection with newly restored and colorised features starring Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price and Roger Corman's classic Creature From The Haunted Sea, among others.

1 September, 2008 | By Jeremy Kay

taken from http://www.screendaily.com

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IFP No Borders selects 37 projects for co-production market

A highlight of New York's Independent Film Week, the IFP has announced 37 projects for the 14th No Borders International Co-Production Market, one of three sections of the org's Project Forum held Sept 14-19.

No Borders' alumni include Courtney Hunt's Sundance-winning "Frozen River," Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden's "Half Nelson,' Joshua Marston's "Maria Full of Grace," and Miranda July's "Me and You and Everyone We Know." 
 
Notables this year are:

HOWL – A biopic of revolutionary beat poet Allen Ginsberg starring James Franco, Mary-Louise Parker, and David Duchovny; written and directed by Academy Award winners Epstein and Friedman; executive produced by Gus Van Sant. 

KHUMBA – No Borders' first fully animated project, KHUMBA, is set in South Africa and tells the story of a half-striped zebra who is first ousted and then saves his herd.

CRAWLING AT NIGHT - A grief-stricken Japanese ice-carver mourning the death of his only child makes an unexpected connection with a struggling cabaret singer played by Maria Bello. 

MEN – Alan Cumming and Lukas Haas star in a contemporary American adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's classic La Ronde directed by Broadway helmer Chris Ashley (XANADU) 

LOU – John Hurt stars as a man with Alzheimer's disease who builds an unexpected relationship with his granddaughter. 

THE NIGHTINGALE - A highly-charged contemporary political thriller set in present day Iran directed by Mark Bamford (CAPE OF GOOD HOPE).

http://www.variety.com/blog/1390000339/post/490031649.html

IFP has unveiled the 37 projects selected for the No Borders International Co-Production Market that will take place during the 30th Annual Independent Film Week, set to run in New York from September 14-19.

Now in its 14th year, No Borders is designed to connect US and international narrative projects at script stage with financiers and buyers.

Projects for the upcoming session include Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein's Allen Ginsberg biopic Howl starring James Franco, Mary-Louise Parker and David Duchovny; No Border's first fully animated project Khumba; Alan Cumming and Lukas Haas in Men, an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde; and the Alzheimer's drama Lou starring John Hurt.

'No Borders has become one of the great success stories of IFP's first 30 years,' IFP executive director Michelle Byrd said. 'Since 2004, when the programme became restricted to narrative projects, we've had 151 projects take part in a record-setting 1,688 financing meetings. The efficiency and impact of the programme has grown dramatically since inception.'

Projects that have benefited from No Borders include the upcoming Weinstein/Miramax release of Stephen Frears' Cheri, Courtney Hunt's current hot ticket Frozen River, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden's Half Nelson, Joshua Marston's Maria Full Of Grace and Miranda July's Me And You And Everyone We Know.

13 August, 2008 | By Jeremy Kay

taken from: http://www.screendaily.com
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Breaking into the African animation market

The use of animation in advertising is still rare in many African countries outside of South Africa. Two major African brands recently turned to Cape Town-based animation studio, Triggerfish, to produce their animated commercials.

Cape Town animation studios, Triggerfish, have just completed two spots for Tura, a major soap brand in Nigeria. Tura is the market leader in skin and hair care products throughout Africa. For the launch of their new brand of soap, a brave decision was made to create an MTV-style music video featuring a family of dancing soaps. One of the major challenges facing the Triggerfish animation team was to recreate the signature Yahoozee dance movements that Nigerian audiences would recognise and with which they would identify.

The first spot introduces the four distinct characters of the Tura Supremes as the soap family is known. Using their long-lasting freshness, they overcome other soap brands (portrayed here as deadly zombies). The second spot which will released in February, presents the Tura Supremes as the kings of their convenience store riding around in their bling-covered car, bopping their heads to the funky Nigerian beat.

Besides the animation challenges of bringing a family of dancing soaps to life (remaining true to the Nigerian Yahoozee style) there were a number of technical challenges too. These included the time consuming render of complex scenes featuring the 4 characters dancing on a reflective stage covered in bubbles, surrounded by exploding fireworks, cheering fans and a number of other elements.

This work for Nigeria comes after Triggerfish produced four spots for Safaricom, Kenya's leading cellular network last year. Safaricom is the fastest growing branch of the Vodaphone group and the initial commercials were so well received that Triggerfish was approached again - this time for a print campaign where a SMS envelope character had to be designed in various 3D poses.

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Triggerfish is hiring

Triggerfish is looking for 3 junior to mid-level animators for a 6-week contract starting end of July. The applicant should have experience in character animation – preferably in Messiah, although free cross-training from other animation packages will be provided from mid-June. Triggerfish is based in Bergvliet, Cape Town.

Please send CV and links to online showreels to animate@triggerfish.co.za. Pin It

US Studio chooses CT for Animated TV series

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We've just finished production on a 14-minute show for the US.

More to follow...

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US studio chooses Cape Town for animated TV series

Triggerfish Animation has completed a 14-minute episode of an exciting new children's series entitled Me and Jessie D for Studio 125, a production company based in Alabama.The episode, entitled Fish Fry, is the second in the series which follows the antics of a group of animal friends living in the swamps of the deep South. Although the show is rich in idiosyncratic Southern culture, the US producers were delighted with the South African team's interpretation of the expressions and body language of the eleven different characters.

The decision to produce in South Africa is part of a growing trend as international producers recognise the coming-of-age of the fledgling SA animation industry. With the sliding Rand and high production values for low cost, South African animation companies are quickly becoming more attractive to overseas producers.

In 2007 Triggerfish produced 30-minutes of animation for the direct-to-DVD film The Rise and Fall of Tony the Frog, an episode in a successful children's animation franchise, Life at the Pond. The DVD has been widely seen in the US and has set a benchmark standard for South African low cost animation, which directly led to the commissioning of Me and Jessie D.

“Because we are the new kids on the block, we have a brand new way of managing our production pipeline which is unencumbered by traditional top-heavy production techniques,” says Stuart Forrest, producer at Triggerfish. “We’ve been able to concentrate most of the funding on the actual animation, and have stripped away layers of management and committee decision-making. We’ve also developed our own in-house management software which is specifically tailored to our workflow - so approvals, revisions and renders are smoothly handled with maximum efficiency.”

Triggerfish currently has a feature film in script development, and one set to go into production later this year. “Our long term strategy is to create our own content and export South African animated features to the world,” says Forrest. “We want to show the world a different side to South Africa filmmaking – one that is specifically child friendly and therefore has universal appeal.”

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Life at the Pond - The Rise and Fall of Tony the Frog

Triggerfish has just finished production on the longest internationally commissioned CG animation made in South Africa. The producers expect the 30-minute direct-to-DVD video will make the international community start taking notice of South Africa as a viable destination for low-cost animation with high production value and a reliable delivery ethic.

The global animation industry is worth US$60 billion a year*, and it is growing steadily as demand for family entertainment increases. "The US client has been extremely happy with the final product," says Triggerfish producer Stuart Forrest. "We're expecting this to open a lot of doors for South Africa to service other foreign programming."

Ambient Animation, the South African producers of the DVD, outbid US and New Zealand companies who had produced previous episodes of the series, Life at the Pond. Triggerfish Animation was then hired as a service provider to create the full episode. Triggerfish has a long history in servicing US animation, having produced animation for nearly a decade for preschool education giant, Sesame Street.

With large commissions like these, there is an increasing demand for experienced animators. With the support of the Cape Film Commission, who see animation as a key area of focus, Triggerfish put together a training program alongside the project to maximize the value of the film for the company and the local industry.

www.lifeatthepond.com

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Clay Characters are re-invented

After eight years of providing traditional clay animation for the global preschool programme, the Cape Town-based studio - Triggerfish Animation - have finally succumbed to the advances of computer technology. Their contract for this year's Sesame Street animation was generated entirely by computer, and the popular boy and dog duo were reborn as pixels representing their former plasticine selves. 

Red and Zed in the garden from Triggerfish Animation on Vimeo.

The decision to change from the beloved medium of clay animation was made reluctantly, but with good creative reasoning. Triggerfish Director Anthony Silverston says, "We love clay animation and the very specific look it has, but this year's scripts called for so many different elements that we decided to recreate the plasticine universe in computer."

Elements like Red riding a bicycle, a bubble bath fiasco, a family of ducks on pogo sticks, and a clip that takes place completely underwater were key in influencing the decision, which was embraced by New York-based Sesame Workshop, the worldwide headquarters of the Sesame franchise.

"We wanted to keep that rough look that plasticine has, so we modeled and textured the environment to look like plasticine," says Silverston. "This technique was used very successfully in Aardman's feature film Flushed Away, where even the fingerprints of the artist were generated by computer and included in the surface of the characters.
Recreating the plasticine world had its challenges. Head modeler Sam King adds, "We had to generate random bump maps that would try to mimic the properties of clay, which changes subtly with each frame. We also had to mimic the way that clay squashes when the characters blink or bend their joints." The result is a pleasingly tactile finish that maintains the charm of the handmade original.

Another key factor influencing the decision was the studio's vastly grown CG department. Earlier this year Triggerfish were commissioned to produce 30-minutes of animation for a children's DVD for Ambient Animation Studios on behalf of a client based in the United States. This is the longest internationally commissioned animation ever done in South Africa, and the company tripled in size during its execution. Recognizing the potential for the success of this project as a catalyst to grow the rest of the local animation industry, the Cape Film Commission generously donated computer resources to the project to ensure training could continue to happen throughout the production. The project entitled "The Pond: The rise and fall of Tony the Frog", has been very favourably received by the US producer, and is due for release in late August 2007.

This is a significant milestone in the history of South African animation. With this USA client, they have proved that South African companies can service international clients with world class long-form animation that is economically very competitive. Triggerfish has always been on the forefront of developing the local animation industry and it is projects like these that will help build the industry into a world player. In 2003 Triggerfish co-founded the national animation organisation and also started the first animationXchange - the first national forum which encourages and supports animation enthusiasts.

The South African animation industry is growing rapidly and there are a number of animated feature films in various stages of production in South Africa. Triggerfish's own feature film, Zambezia, is going into pre-production towards the end of the year - a massive R40 million project which will take nearly 2 years to complete. The huge demand for skilled technicians has led to an unprecedented boom amongst modelers, animators and visual effects artists - with animation studios often recruiting directly from the animation colleges.

"Computer generated animation has never been easier," says Triggerfish producer Stuart Forrest, "But animators need to constantly return to their traditional acting and cinematography skills to tell compelling and engaging stories. Whether the characters are made with clay or simulated to look like clay, it is still the up to the animator to bring them to life. And that is the magic of animation"

Learning to listen from Triggerfish Animation on Vimeo.

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Triggerfish Flies to Zambezia

Friday, April 13, 2007
By: Ryan Ball

Triggerfish Animation in Cape Town, South Africa is venturing into feature film production with Zambezia, a CG movie set in the Victoria Falls area of the Zambezi river. The family film revolves around the unique flora and fauna found in the lush river valley and promises plenty of high-speed chases and an exciting climactic aerial battle.

Zambezia centers on an independent young falcon named Aero, who leaves home to join the most famous aerobatics team in Africa. Having entered the prestigious Spring Race, he finds himself in the middle of a plot hatched by egg-eating giant monitor lizards that threatens the entire island sanctuary and the future of bird life in the entire valley. In his heroic quest to defeat his formidable foes, Aero eventually comes to realize that the most important journey of life is finding the way home.

Trigerfish has a history in stop-motion animation and recently branched out into 2D and CG production when the company was commissioned to handle all animation for Takalani Sesame, the South African version of Sesame Street. The company plans to have Zambezia ready for release in April of 2009. The pilot animation can be viewed at www.zambeziamovie.com.

taken from : http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/6719

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