Man In A Cat's Shortlisted for Funding

All Consuming Love (Man In A Cat) has been shortlisted for Digishorts funding! Nice Stuff!

X-Factor styley, over 100 entries have been whittled down to 12. After the development process 6 of those will be commissioned. Next week we'll be starting off with a day of discussion and workshops with the other shortlisters and Kate Leys. The development process will go on through till March when we'll see... If all goes well and we get the green light, we'll be chucking up regular updates here for you to track the progression of the film.

While 'Man In A Cat has been talked about for a while, and the tester trailer alone has got over 850,000 views, it had to stand on ice for a while as our other projects and work relationships developed. But after having the storyboards on my wall for over a year it'll be great to get some outside input. I'm particularly excited to see how the original story changes. While I love the idea of a Man, Woman, Cat love triangle (not like that), there's still plenty that could be done on the script.

So let's start from the beginning shall we? Here's where the original idea taken from my sketchbook when I was 16, which was taken from Tony Lopes' Odd Streak strip.

Huh, will yer look at that. Message in a Bottle was on the same page. Page 32 was obviously drinking well that year.

The Secret Identity of Santa Claus

Unwanted husband and father, Paul Slater is a check out assistant in Tesco. But Paul leads a secret double life... He is... Santa Claus!... in the Tesco Christmas Grotto Mega Value Clearance section.

Click here to watch it in all it's full HD glory!

Like the awkward time when you watched a loved one dissapointedly unwrap your present bought on a shoestring budget, I would have liked to have offered you a slightly bigger, more raunchy present, but time's been tight lately. Where's the sherry. Sherry will dull this guilt.

Trivia: I wrote this when I was 13. Gadzooks! 10 years ago! In the '90s! Jesus. Here's the original sketch while I go and spin out in the corner.

Circa 1999

Christmas Card Animation For Go'Proces:

Danish company Go'Proces: came to me with a script for an animated Christmas card. So I made one. It's only occurred to me recently that Scandinavians have a particular sense of humour. Like the sort of joke that doesn't have a punchline... or a joke. Just a big vast dark cold landscape of subtlety. I like!

As their friend base is exclusively Danish they decided not to go for subtitles, so good luck working out what they're saying! Let me know what you think they're saying so I can laugh at/with you.

Lastly, big up to long suffering Amy Commander for doing the voice of 6 characters - possibly even a man's voice too with help from my computer.

P.S. Seems there's some audio sync problems with this uploaded version.

We Were on The Culture Show Ma!

We're all a little excited this week, because Dice Productions had a little cameo appearance on The Culture Show on BBC2 last night... even if that cameo was only about two seconds long. But hey, we were on the Culture Show (on the telly) so who cares, right?

As you can see from the pic above, Message in a Bottle was included in a little montage during Josie Long's segment on the rise and rise of online comedy, which focused squarely on Funny or Die UK and Popcorn Comedy, in which we've had a little more active role through October's Electric Cinema screening. Ian's giggling face was also spotted on the show enjoying Popcorn Comedy at the Roxy Bar and Screen in October.

Watch the video below and skip to 51 minutes in (if you haven't got an hour to spare) to see the clip in full.



If Josie is to be believed (and I think she should be), online comedy is where it's at. We totally agree that being able to produce and distribute your own content gives you so much more artistic freedom to experiment and not be so precious about ideas. Like Jon Petrie attested, you avoid the 'too many cooks' situation. As everyone knows, an overabundance of chefs does not good comedy make.

Now these creations are making their way into the clubs, bars, cinemas and underground Victorian toilets of Britain, through nights like Popcorn, there's never been a better excuse to pick up a camera or sit down at your computer and create something hilarious, challenging or downright baffling.

If we're honest, a glimpse of Ian's face (above) and Louis' hands are not the only things exciting us this week. Hopefully we can tell you more about those things some time in the near future.

To go to an upcoming Popcorn Comedy night, check out the future events section here.

Trick - Another Halloween Short

Here's a Halloween short Louis did the animation for quite a while back for Will Rot. Probably best not show your kids this one - not the last 20 seconds in any case. Make that 30 seconds, sorry eyes.

All Consuming Love (Man in a Cat) Trailer

Here's the lastest glimpse of the upcoming film, All Consuming Love (Man in a Cat). Should be a good'un when it's done.

Websites-a-go-go

Been a bit webby lately.

Firstly, following up from the Birmingham Filmmakers meet up, we took things a bit further. So now we have Film Forum West Midlands! Subcribe via emails or RSS and get any of the latest on news, opportunities, collaborations and chances to meet your fellow filmmakers.

Next, St Patrick's Festival is finally back online in the form of stpatricksbirmingham.com. We'll be looking to get a dedicated volunteer blogger for it soon, and get some much needed updates on there.

Louis also was commissioned to design sexypennys.com, which is now being built.

Beetroot Boy 2 - Louis gets dirty

Beetroot Boy 2 is written & directed by 'topher Holland, with an 'interesting' cameo by me drinking Scotch.







Apparently, the policeman next to the flipchart was in Lost & 3rd Rock From The Sun. We're talking about that sort of calibre people!

Click here to watch the film.

Louis Gets Interviewed by Channel Frederator

Here's a repost of my interview with Channel Frederator's Jeaux Janovsky

Channel Frederator Blog

Channel Frederator Rewind: Countdown Louis Hudson Interview!

December 6th, 2007

Louis Hudson’s Countdown is short and sweet. Like Sesame Street… if Hunter S. Thompson made animated spots for them.

I asked Louis to describe the thought process, etc. that went on behind the scenes of creating Countdown.

Heh, I like that comparison. I’d forgotten about those mental sesame street countdowns. I love Steadman’s and Gilliam’s interpretations of Fear and Loathing too. Terry Gilliam is actually the reason I wanted to animate.

Countdown started as a simple college exercise and the was first proper chunk of drawn animation I’d ever done. So Countdown was an ideas rush, I just mashed as many perverse little characters from my sketchbooks as I could into one big mess.

I draw everything on a homemade lightbox, hand paint the backgrounds and then colour and assemble everything digitally. I like to keep things local, I do the sound design and I sometimes get my girlfriend to do the music. I’m now working on my final year film at Edinburgh College of Art, it’s about a man who lives in a cat. Hopefully, next year I’ll be in Birmingham set up as Dice Productions and working freelance with my friends Ian Ravenscroft and Tom Reid.

Thanks,
Louis

Thank You Louis! We hope to see more from you in the near future friend!

-Jeaux Janovsky