With all the interest in 2D animation lately I thought I’d watch some classic Disney. I have Sleeping Beauty on Blu-Ray so I threw that on. I haven’t seen this film in years and it’s only now that I realised how much I love Maleficent in it! We all love our heroes and well-doers but for me, you can’t have a good, classic Disney feature without some (to borrow a phrase from Jennifer Coolidge’s Amanda in Friends) ‘positively ghastly’ villains! (more…)
Here are some of my all time favourite animated advertisements….well, that I can remember!
…SEAMUS O’TOOLE, ONLINE EDITOR
It’s Tuesday and I’ve got a busy week ahead with online deliveries of Noddy and offlines to be sent off for the all clear. It takes me about two minutes to get into work as I live in Smithfield where the studio is based. After grabbing an apple in the shop downstairs (I don’t drink coffee like everyone else in the world at this time of the day as I’m a nerd!) I’m ready to go… (more…)
On Monday 18th it was announced that I was nominated for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the International Category. This was truly brilliant news and I feel honoured to be among such a group of great business people. While my name went forward on the ticket, the nomination is shared with co-founder Darragh O Connell. And Brown Bag would not even be considered for the nomination were it not for the superb managers and talented staff doing working here.
Denis O'Brien, Julie Sinnamon, Liam Shanahan & Enda Kelly of Ernst & Young
The awards ceremony is not until October, and there are a number of functions and events before then. This includes a one week trip to San Palo in Brazil for a “CEO Retreat” which I’m looking forward to. They say “find a job you like and you’ll never work a day in your life again” and I’m sure I will be pondering that statement from sunny Brazil!
I think this nomination is great news for the Irish animation sector, who are the largest employer in the independent Film and TV sector in Ireland, and it goes to show that if you work hard anyone can become a fifteen year overnight success. Here is a list of the other nominees. Read on for some questions and answers I had to complete for the Ernst & Young website. (more…)
The best part of working in animation is seeing kids’ reaction to the shows we create. Sometimes that’s easy to forget when we’re in the middle of production madness, so it’s nice to be reminded. Here’s a little clip of baby Olivia proving she’s not too young to rock out to Darren Hendley’s Olivia theme song on TV!
…DOMINIC LAWRENCE, SOUND ENGINEER
It’s not all about the picture you know…
9:00am (-ish): It’s either the height of nerdyness or a touch of laziness, but my computer is automated to turn on, open up my email, connect to all the necessary servers and start up ProTools on its own, so by the time I’ve turned on TV/monitors and sat down, I’m ready to go. I can’t quite quantify how much time it saves me but its bound to add up, surely…
9.05am: Checking emails – unless it’s audio related mix notes most of it gets filed away or deleted. Then, bar the odd commercials VO recording (and a lunch time blast of anything guitar-based to erase that episodic theme you’ve heard over & over & over), it’s pretty much Noddy all day. What I get up to in a day pretty much depends on what Noddy gets up to on-screen. So for a recent underwater episode, these are some of things I did:
There is a big hullabaloo about this latest feature from Disney as not only is it their first under the new creative director John Lasseter, but it’s also a return to HAND DRAWN animation!!!
…DENIS DEEGAN, OVERSEAS SUPERVISOR IN KOREA.
Woke up early today, it’s going to be busy. I have retakes to check with all dialogue fixed (hopefully), two Olivia episodes for rough and final animation checking, and one blocking pass episode, plus a few surprises.
Arrive studio at 7 AM. The streets are pretty empty at this time and it took only 20 minutes to get to the studio, there’s a few people here but they are leaving soon, they have been here all night. (more…)
I recently came across a couple of inspiring videos by Keith Loutit and BLU
‘Bathtub IV’ by Keith Loutit was created using Tilt Shift photography. . (more…)
At the end of April leading Smoke Editor/guru Jesse Morrow visited Brown Bag Films for a week of intense hands-on training. Jesse is an old friend of Gillian Higgins, our Head of TV Production, having worked together in LA on various animated TV series. For years we have heard tales of this famous magical Smoke operator who could fix any problem in post production. (more…)
