Base14

I believe it’s time to introduce you to my studio. It’s a cozy space with one big desk, plenty of Base14 movie posters and just enough white space to keep me at ease. Last fall I relocated to Bloomington, Indiana where I am working on an MFA in Textiles. Since then I have been producing a vast array of work and trying to find my orientation within the world of contemporary art.

My work from the last six months has continued with themes from my senior collection such as topography and mapping, and has introduced investigations into memory, personal relationships and how I spend my time.

If you are in the Indiana area, you can view my new work starting on the 15th at the MFA Exhibition in the Grunwald Gallery of Art.

If you can’t make it out to the UCLA campus this Saturday evening for The 39th Annual Annie Awards, I have good news for you. Several sites will be streaming a live feed of the show, showing all the presenters, winners and acceptance speeches. You can watch it on any of these sites:

• The Official Annie Awards Website [http://annieawards.org/watch-it-live/]
• Cartoon Brew [http://www.cartoonbrew.com]
• The Animation Guild [http://animationguild.org/2012-annie-awards/]
• UStream [http://www.ustream.tv/annieawards]

The show begins at 7pm PST, and if you’re a Base14 fan be sure to be prompt. I suspect the award for Best Short Subject will be one of the first presented. Excitement!!!

It’s been a long while since our last update because the company has spent the last two months relocating to Los Angeles! Not surprisingly, this is far from a simple process. But this means a lot of great things for the studio, including:

• We are now much closer to many screenings and award shows that will be featuring “The Girl and the Fox.”
• Tyler and Nate are reunited in the same city, expediting the process of completing our next film “Rain Dance.”
• The Annie Awards are this weekend and we’ll have several crew members attending.
• Most importantly we are now in the heart of the animation industry, where we can network, recruit and work with best best and brightest in this amazing art form!

It’s the biggest step for Base14 yet, and I couldn’t be happier. We all knew we’d get here eventually; honestly I’m a bit surprised it took this long. But now we’re settled in and here to stay. Hello, L.A.!

Yesterday, the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood announced the nominees for the 39th Annual Annie Awards, the highest honor in the animation industry. Included on that list? “The Girl and the Fox.” Right beside all the best studios like Pixar, Walt Disney Animation, Warner Bros. and the National Film Board, Base14 stood proudly as a candidate for Best Short Subject. As a growing animation studio, this is undoubtedly the greatest honor we have ever received.

The nomination alone is a stunning testament to our entire crew of talented artists, animators, musicians, sound engineers and producers. As director, I want to thank each and every one of them for making this vision a reality. I’ll be in LA for the Award Ceremony on Feb. 4th, and hopefully we can get a few of our other key crew members to attend as well.

Finally, as a necessity to the film gaining a new place in the spotlight, I’ve launched the official website for “The Girl and the Fox”. For now it features a modest view of the tour schedule and trailer, but will grow as time goes on. We still have about a year’s worth of festivals on our tour schedule.

Here’s to many more exciting days ahead of “The Girl and the Fox”!

Last night marked the beginning of the Savannah Film Festival, easily the best single week you can spend in the city of Savannah! As noted earlier, “The Girl and the Fox” is among one of the featured films, as a part of the Student Competition “B” programming block, and I’m all kinds of excited! This is my fourth year at the festival, and second as a featured director. “Duck Heart Teslacoil” was featured in 2009. Last year I was a blogger for “Voices of the Fest”.

I’ve got three major appearances during the week, so for those of you that are Savannah locals, be sure to come say hello:

“The Girl and the Fox” Screening No. 1
Monday, October 31st @ 11:30am
Lucas Theater

Coffee Talk – Short Films and the Festival Circuit. What Works?
Thursday, November 3rd @ 8:15am
Marshall House Hotel Lobby

“The Girl and the Fox” Screening No. 2
Friday, November 4th @ 9:30am
Trustees Theater

Also, I’m providing a fun and detailed account of my own festival experiences on my personal Twitter account, so do follow up, if you please!

So due to working full time nowadays on top of “The Girl and the Fox” and “Rain Dance,” I have fallen way behind on my posts! So just to summarize, here’s ALL the Film Festivals we’ve been accepted to lately. Sorry that about half of them have already come and gone:

South Dakota Film Festival
9/16/11 @ 1:30pm – Aberdeen, SD

Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival
9/17/11 @ 12:00pm – Seattle, WA

Cincinnati Film Festival
10/2/11 @ 5:15pm – Cincinnati, OH
Awarded: Best Animation

Angelus Student Film Festival
10/8/11 @ 2:30pm – Hollywood, CA
Awarded: Honorable Mention

Louisville’s International Festival of Film
10/8/11 – Louisville, KY

Heartland Film Festival
10/18/11  @ 2:45pm – Indianapolis, IN
10/20/11  @ 8:15pm – Indianapolis, IN
10/21/11  @ 5:15pm – Indianapolis, IN
10/22/11  @ 10:30am – Indianapolis, IN

Ojai Film Festival
10/22/11 @ 8:00pm – Ojai, CA
10/23/11 @ 8:00pm – Ojai, CA

Utopia Film Festival
10/28/11 @ 8:00pm – Greenbelt, MD

Savannah Film Festival
10/31/11 @ 11:30am – Savannah, GA
11/4/11 @ 9:30am – Savannah, GA

Miami Short Film Festival
November 14-20 – Miami Beach, FL

Columbus International Film + Video Festival
11/19/11 @ 10:00am – Columbus, OH
Awarded: Student Chris Plaque

Anchorage International Film Festival
TBA

The most important one at this point is the Savannah Film Festival! I will be there for the entire week of festivities, so watch for more to come about the SFF very soon!!!

So usually when posts here on Base14 start to run a bit dry it’s because we’ve got some huge film project going on that’s been sapping all our time. And the past two months have been no exception. On top of continued festival runs for “The Girl and the Fox”, Base14 has been completing production on our fifth animated short film, titled “Rain Dance.”

“Rain Dance” is the first film where we’ve been able to overlap production schedules. The film has been in development since Fall of last year, when “The Girl and the Fox” was still in corrections and post-production. We were able to do this by bringing on a second director, the very talented and honorable Nate Swinehart. “Rain Dance” was Nate’s original concept, and Tyler came on as Producer, agreeing to house the film under the umbrella of the Base14 Studio. Much of the elite squad on “Rain Dance” are veterans of the “Girl and the Fox” crew, including Nate, so this was a natural progression. Base14 will assist with production, promotion and distribution. So it’s all win-win.

The best part of this announcement is you barely have to wait to see this fine creation! “Rain Dance” will be shown in its first public screening this Saturday, at the ever-popular SCAD animation showcase SCADanimate!  This is set to be a test screening, where the producers will be analyzing audience response and making recommendations for further post-production work based on reactions.

From here, “Rain Dance” still has a ways to go in production. We want to add a whole pass of tones and shadows to the film, as well as finish up sound design and music composition. In the end, it’s going to be a grand product. It should be completely finished and hitting the festival circuit some time next year, hot on the heels of “The Girl and the Fox.” But if you don’t want to wait that long, don’t forget to come on out this Saturday:

“Rain Dance” Sneak Peek
As part of the SCADanimate Animation Showcase
Saturday, September 24 – 7:30 pm – Lucas Theatre
Savannah, GA

We’ll see you there.