Base14

So remember a year ago when Base14 had a huge rally to be featured on WNET 13 in New York? We came so very close to winning the voting contest, but missed it by a millimeter. Well, justice returns, because “The Girl and the Fox” will be playing on that very station as part of the KQED Film School Shorts programming block, tonight at 10:30pm. The same showcase has actually been playing on other PBS stations across the country as well. So check your local listings and maybe it’ll be coming to a station near you too!

The day has finally arrived! We are proud to announce the world premiere of our new animated short film “Rain Dance,” July 28th at the Animation Block Party in New York. It will be part of a collection of narrative and studio shorts showing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music at 2pm that Sunday. Base14 has had films featured twice before in the Animation Block Party and we’re thrilled to be kicking off our new festival run with them. Here are the details for anyone in the greater New York City area next month:

“Rain Dance” World Premiere
Sunday, July 28th @ 2:00pm
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Purchase Tickets

Stay tuned to Base14 for announcements of future festival dates and announcements!

Time for a Base14 news roundup! We’re proud to finally announce that after two years in the film festival circuit, “The Girl and the Fox” has been picked up for television distribution in the United States! What that means is that our distributor will be able to grant television stations, video-on-demand and streaming services the right to air TGTF on their networks. There was once a time when this meant EVERYTHING to a indie film, before the Internet revolution. Today we have many ways of getting our film seen, but the recognition and support of a professional distributor is something we take with great pride. We’ll pass along airing information about the film as we come upon it in the future.

In other news, the company has been featured in two online articles recently that we wanted to highlight. Just this week, Alysha and I were featured on the Purdue Innovation and Commercialization Center website. It’s a site dedicated to Purdue University staff and alumni that have found success as entrepreneurs, inventors or artists. The profile chronicles the origins of Base14 and how Purdue fueled the success of the company for both of us, albeit in very different ways.

Secondly we wanted to highlight “The Girl and the Fox” being featured on studentanimations.com. Alongside the embedded film, it’s got a nice summary of the stats of the production. Here’s the article.

Lastly, as we celebrate the two-year anniversary of our world premiere for “The Girl and the Fox” this month, we want to mention that TGTF is still getting into festivals around the world. Just this month it screened at the Ashland Film Festival in Oregon, the Reel 2 Real Film Festival in Vancouver, and has upcoming screenings at the Phoenix Comicon Film Festival and all the way over in the Czech Republic. We’re amazed by the enduring love people have shown for the film and the continued requests for it to screen at festivals of all types.

So things have been pretty quiet this winter on the Base14 Blog, but that’s all with good reason. Those of you that follow my personal Twitter account know this already, but I was recently recruited by Walt Disney Animation Studios to work in the Layout Department on their upcoming feature film “Frozen.” After many years of working on animated shorts, the chance to work on a feature was very exciting. So I’m happy to report that I’ve settled in at the studio and am thrilled to be involved in such a rich legacy of animated filmmaking.

The best part is that Base14 isn’t going anywhere. I can still manage the company in my spare time, so we’ll continue our role as a producer of original animated content. “The Girl and the Fox” still has a handful of screenings planned for 2013, and our next short film “Rain Dance” is in the final stages of post-production. The released date had to be delayed from 2012 to 2013 because of a slowed-down production process, but rest assured the film is still on a path to completion. It can then pick up a festival run right where “The Girl and the Fox” left off, so we’re very happy to have new content to share with many of our old, familiar audiences.

I apologize for the lapse in posts, but it’s been a crazy few months transitioning to my new roles and responsibilities. Rest assured all news about Base14 films will continue to be posted right here on Base14.com! And remember you can track our blog updates on our Twitter and Facebook Pages as well. Thanks to all our fans to their continued support!

-Tyler J. Kupferer
President, Base14

It’s Fall and the Film Festival Season is back into full swing! And that means a slew of new screenings for “The Girl and the Fox.” The first in our Fall lineup will be this coming weekend, when I’ll be traveling to Wisconsin to attend the Milwaukee Film Festival and speak on behalf of the film when it screens as part of the Children’s Film Festival on Oct. 6th and 7th. Here’s a link to those screening times.

Next we’ve got a big showing at the Woodstock Film Festival in Woodstock, NY on Oct 12th and 14th, as part of the Animated Shorts block. All the animated films in this event were hand-picked by renowned independent animator Bill Plympton, so it should be a good show. We’re showing twice, on Oct. 12th and 14th. Tickets can be acquired right here.

Squeezed between the two Woodstock showings on Oct. 13th is another screening in Toronto, as part of the Planet In Focus Film Festival. Here’s a link.

Another highlight of our Fall tour is our new spot in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where we’ll be featured in the Family Films Program, which will premiere our film on Nov. 3rd.

“The Girl and the Fox” has also been selected for inclusion in the “Best of New York International Children’s Film Festival: Party Mix” touring program, which means we’ll be showing in a wide range of venues and locations. More info here.

Additionally, we’ve been getting a lot of new screenings scheduled overseas. We’ve been invited to play in Northern Ireland, Australia, Spain and Portugal. Jump on over to the official festival itinerary page for a complete list of screenings and details.

Last but not least, we’ve already lined up our first screening of 2013! As part of a Film Program for Children sponsored by The National Gallery of Art, we’ll be screening in Washington DC sometime in early February 2013. Here’s to hoping even more will be added to next year’s lineup. See you at the festivals!

Base14 was ranked 85 out of “100 Animation Sites You Need To Know” last week on the website AnimationCareerReview.com! The website, which is an online resource for aspiring artists in the animation industry, lauded our site for offering ” a unique chance to take a look at an animation studio from the inside.” Glad to know the effort is appreciated, friends.

I suppose this would be a good time to point out the obvious. Over the past three years, Base14 has coalesced into an animation-centric company. It’s far and above the best type of work we put out, and with “Rain Dance” being released in the near future, it’s likely we’ll continue to build our brand as an animation studio. What would you like to see more of on Base14.com? Behind-the-scenes artwork? More tutorials? A web series? Let us know!

Well, Wednesday was stressful. In a major push to try to overtake the leader in the REEL 13 competition on Wednesday morning (who was ahead by 250 votes), we pulled out all the stops and got the help of the SCAD Twitter account and many, many avid Base14 supporters on Facebook. While we did an amazing job of catching up to them, and finished with a whopping 751 votes by the end of the day.

Well, sad to say despite our best efforts we still came in second with only 3 votes behind. Three votes!!! Despite the bummer fact that we won’t be featured on Public Television and got no prize money, the event still brought a great deal more exposure to “The Girl and the Fox” and proved how supportive our fan base can be. Thanks to everyone that supported us, it was a fun ride and we look forward to many crazy contests to come!