Proceeds of Crime - 2016

A suspect gem from 2016! An animated insight into the vagaries of the Hutch Kinehan gangwar in Dublin. Set during our nation's glorious commemorations for the 1916 Rising. Premiered at the 2016 Galway Film Fleadh.

Thanks to Thomas and Didi for the music. Jenny Kelly Produced, thank you!

https://youtu.be/diaLqcCm50g

President Michael D. Higgins and Armenian Genocide Day

After 11 months without any 'cutbacks' uploads, I was forced to respond to President Michael D's participation in Turkey's Gallipoli commemoration ceremonies, moved by the Turkish government from the usual date of 25th of April to the 24th of April - why? Purely to clash, coincide with and eclipse the 100th remembrance of the Armenian Genocide, traditionally remembered each year on April 24th. Sure, remembering the Irish dead in Gallipoli is great, but not on this particular day, and not in Turkey on this particular day... This is what Michael D. should have said in Turkey today...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW5uTAwDpRw

Tonight, news.am points out that the Irish PM (Enda Kenny) has failed to use the word 'genocide' in expressing his condolences for the Armenians' 'terrible suffering and loss'...

http://news.am/eng/news/263880.html

The Armenians are using the forget-me-not flower as the symbol of their genocide remembrance. The remembrance campaign is titled 'remember and demand' (demand that the genocide is recognised.

https://www.armenianow.com/genocide/60808/armenia_forgetmenot_symbol_genocide_centennial

http://www.armnet.org/events?id=350

Eamonn O Neill - IADT AnimSoc

Congratulations to Emily Lynch and Ross Ryder of the IADT Animation Society for following up their success with Louise Bagnall's recent fantastic talk with a one hundred and fifty minute epic talk and presentation by Eamonn O Neill! Entitled 'things I thought and things I think...'

Key Eamonn O Neill learnings from the evening...

99.9% of engineers do NOT make guitar pedals...
Be transparent (be open and honest with people)... (this actually comes from Eimhin)
It HAS to be human!
Make rules, set boundaries and start thinking about your work... Rules shouldn't be arbitrary, they should be based on the emotional intent of your film...
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should... Be economic.
Have BALLS - be scared - safe is boring.

Personal is universal! The more personal it is, the more universal it is.

Make work and show people. (get it out there, you don't know who's watching)

from eamonnoneill.ie

You get the work that you DO!
BAD experiences are STILL experiences.
There's politics and bullshit EVERYWHERE!
The grass is not always greener.
Reach out, ask questions, be a sponge.
You make your own luck (good luck follows hard work, work hard and get lucky)...
Learn always, because skills are brillz...
GO for stuff, you have nothing to lose!
It's okay NOT to know!
Don't plateau (just keep moving forward, keep trying to progress)
Say thanks - don't be a dick to people, there's enough dickheads EVERYWHERE!

Inspirational stuff! A joy to hear!

www.eamonnoneill.ie

All Good Things!

Highly talented (but impoverished) award year Animation students from IADT are holding an off-campus exhibition/screening/event in Dublin's Lighthouse Cinema and Block T in June. The kids are funding the exhibition through cake sales and Fundit! Give generously and become part of the project!

We are all IADT students, but ALL GOOD THINGS is not an IADT event, it's completely independent and self-generated. However, hosting an exhibition and screening, printing artwork, creating a zine and serving food & refreshments doesn't come cheap, so we've set up a FUND IT campaign to help cover a portion of the costs. 

We'd appreciate any contribution you could make! In return we're offering a range of rewards, and you'd be investing in the night itself, our artwork, and our futures.

Check out our FUND IT page here: http://fundit.ie/project/all-good-things

Become part of some epic animation stories!

https://www.facebook.com/IADTAnimation14?notif_t=fbpage_fan_invite

https://twitter.com/IADTAnimation14

New Film Progresses Slowly

Have finally (after 8 months of agonising) started the construction of characters for my new film 'The King and The Princess'. Here are 4 heads started - they'll have interchangeable mouths and foreheads. The heads will be proportionally large, making the characters feel much less 'realistic' and much more like puppets. The film will use the 'cutbacks' production pipeline, but I'll endeavour to (in the words of Steve Woods) 'make it look a little bit more finished'. I'm still thinking of using Paradjanov style collage layouts... Hopefully start shooting on Paddy's weekend...

first heads for 'King and Princess' film

The film was eventually titled 'A Warning To All Kings' and premiered at the 2014 Galway Film Fleadh.

'A King falls in love with a beautiful princess and is completely destroyed in the process! Poor eejit!'

Thanks to Sophie Quin for voice. Fiona Hill Produced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts7aTXlN4Qwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts7aTXlN4Qw

'cutbacks' for IADT MA Broadcast Production

Thanks to Siobhain Kehoe for asking me to appear with some 'cutbacks' characters on her IADT MA Broadcast Production live tv show 'THE COMEDY CROWD'. Shot in the new NFS tv studio on Wednesday 4th of February. Well done presenter Tara Flynn and 'Totally Wired' musical comedy group Emmet Quinn and Lorcan Hughes, who performed their hilarious 'Organ Donor' song...

'cutbacks' characters ready to roll in new NFS building tv studio

Murakami Funeral

Yesterday afternoon, in St. Patrick's in Monkstown, we gathered to say goodbye to Jimmy T. Murakami. Some really touching words, reflecting the man's great generosity and his human impact on us all. Farewell Jimmy!

Murakami Gone!

Thanks to Barry O Donoghue for telling me about the passing of Jimmy Murakami, aged 80. Not only one of 'the founders of Irish Animation', but a truly global animation star, working for UPA, Toei and George Dunning's TVC as he criss-crossed the planet as a journeyman animator. With Fred Wolf, he setup Murakami-Wolf in 1965, the studio becoming one of the busiest commercial studios in the US. Murakami came to Ireland in 1971 and was supervising Director on 'The Snowman' in 1982. In Dublin, the Murakami-Wolf studio became synonymous with the 'Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtle' tv series.

Murakami had an unshakable belief in the importance of art in animation and in the necessity for individual animators to make strong, personal, uncompromising and challenging statements through animation. In Ireland, we have long depended on Jimmy for his advice and guidance on all matters of animation education, art and business. We shall all miss him.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/rip/when-the-wind-blows-director-jimmy-murakami-rip-96140.html

Animation At The Cutting Edge - An Alphaville Symposium UCC 150214

Thanks to all at Film Studies in UCC for organising an excellent Alphaville Symposium last Saturday afternoon. Some great presentations, especially Paul Ward's 'Animation as Atavistic Magic' and Helen Haswell from Queen's University on Hand-drawn aesthetics and Affection for the past in Pixar's Pioneering Animation'.

Thanks also to Yuanyuan Chen (UCC) for her presentation on Bu Hua's animation, and for assembling the Bu Hua screening after the presentations.

Some great potential linkages into the future. Excellent!

The Film and Screen Media Auditorium, Windle Building, UCC

Paul Ward (Arts University Bournemouth) sets up his 'Animation as Atavistic Magic' presentation

http://animationcuttingedge.wordpress.com/programme/

http://www.buhua.com

http://www.buhua.com/flash.html

'cutbacks' on breakingnews.ie!

Thanks to Clare Carroll for spotting this breakingnews.ie article about me! Headlined as 'Irish animator takes on Justin Bieber', the article swings through 'cutbacks' and even takes a look back through history as far as the Bosco days... Even Faherty is quoted...

Thanks to breakingnews,ie's Conor Hallahan. Well done!

http://www.breakingnews.ie/discover/irish-animator-takes-on-justin-bad-boy-bieber-620934.html

Cutbacks Mention on Reddit!

Thanks to Grainne Kirwan for spotting this 'cutbacks' related string on Reddit... Lots of good accurate critical analysis here...

Just discovered my old lecturer from college makes animated youtube videos in his spare time. They're actually pretty good! I think they deserve more than the handful of views they're getting.

submitted 20 hours ago by gapmunky

bolg 18 hours ago
I remember these - used to watch them quite a bit with friends in/around 2011 especially the Mick n Ming ones...then for some reason a lot of them disappeared...anyways, this will make perfect procrastination material for my exam study!

mcctaggart 18 hours ago
I've been subscribed for a while and also think he deserves more views. I like his animation style and I admire how quickly he can put together a video about any particular current event. It must take a lot of work just making the puppets let alone animating them.
But I think his satire needs to be stronger, more biting, fouler or darker or possibly surreal for people to notice. I think if he had a dedicated co-writer from the Scrap Saturday/Spitting Image mould, that would push the humour of the pieces and he would receive wide acclaim and probably a spot on tv in some capacity.

gapmunky 18 hours ago
I think he'd be better if he satired world events more like in this bieber one. He usually only does very niche stuff in irish culture and politics that not many people would get.

mcctaggart 18 hours ago
nah, there is a huge appetite for the satirization of politicians and figures in high society. Scrap Saturday used to be massive because the jokes ripped them apart.

gapmunky 18 hours ago
I've never heard of that until now! interesting.

gapmunky  20 hours ago
Sorry about linking to the middle of the video! :/

abitterthrowaway 1 point 13 hours ago
This one is excellent: http://youtu.be/Q6TY00yTFoA

karma-toes 12 hours ago
Story of the week!

brim4brim 9 hours ago
Used to listen to these all the time until I stopped going to YouTube

devilabit 13 hours ago
I think he might need to improve the tag names on the video in youtube settings. The JB name should gather more views that way.

OutRunTerminator  20 hours ago
Better than Podge and Rodge...

http://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/1w6sed/just_discovered_my_old_lecturer_from_college/

Ming posts us on Facebook!

Jazis - thanks to Ming Flanagan for the posting on Facebook! Go Ming!

https://www.facebook.com/Lukemingflanagan/posts/10201334659677096?comment_id=5512721&notif_t=comment_mention

Armenia - The Cartoon

Thanks to Ruzanna Sarukhanyan for directing me to this Youtube channel of Armenian animations! I'll trawl through them over the next few weeks, but Ruzanna was recommending the charming 'Gtnvats eraz', about a girl who enters a dream world to find the dream her grandfather has lost...

Thanks to Ruzan! Հայկական Մուլտեր

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHido3SxxrtwZ77_OJM4xtA?feature=watch

Cutbacks - Justin Bieber!

Dominic and Iggy make a 2014 start with 'Justin Bieber Bad Boy!'. The cutbacks2010 site on Youtube is at 809 subscribers and 182,376 indicated views (although it's 397,000 over the channel's lifetime. I've just started work on my next animated short - not quite a 'cutbacks' project, but using parts of the 'cutbacks' production pipeline...

Liverpool Irish Festival - IndieCork Irish Shorts Programme 2

Excellent reception for Una Feely's IndieCork Shorts Programme 2 at FACT tonight. Highlights included Mairtin de Barra's 'Atrophy' and Lorcan Finnegan's 'Foxes', as well as Oonagh Kearney's 'There's a Tin Cup Rolling'. My disgraceful 'Furniture' film went down well and Rinky's 'Salmon of Knowledge found many new friends! Great chat afterwards with Cathy Brady and some really appreciative punters. Thanks again to Una for the invite to participate and present. Thanks also to Jake from the Liverpool Irish Festival. Cathy and I head back to Ireland tomorrow, but the festival film screenings continue with three films themed around 'The Irish Revolutionary' and end with a screening (Thursday 17th in FACT) of 'Adam and Paul', after which there'll be a Q+A with Director Lenny Abrahamson! Altogether, a great trip to Liverpool! We shall be back!

Liverpool Irish Festival - DQ presents Irish Shorts Programme 2!

For my sins, IndieCork's Una Feely has given me the task of presenting tonight's Liverpool Irish Festival's Irish Shorts 2 programme at the very impressive Liverpool FACT at 18.30. Films include 'Atrophy', 'Foxes' 'Two Wheels Good', along with Rinkydink's 'Salmon of Knowledge' and my disgraceful 'Furniture - Murder and Love'. All prayers welcome!

Liverpool Irish Film Festival - Screening One

Irish Shorts Screening One at FACT in Bold Street Liverpool last night - nice crowd! 'Rubai' and Clare Brady's 'Wasted' probably the highlights of the show. 'Mister Heaney, a wee portrait' went down grand and DVD for 'leitronium' glitched, leading to a rather fractured-narrative experimental result - weird! 'Salmon of Knowledge' and 'furniture' tonight - may the DVD Gods shine upon us!

Thanks to Una Feely for the invite to participate!

IndieCork Film Festival

I'm presenting my 'satirical films' at 19.30 in Fellini's in Cork on Friday 18th of October as part of the first IndieCork Film Festival! Thanks especially to Mick Hannigan and Una Feely for the invite to present! I'll be showing the various Mister Heaney films, Rinkydink and the Salmon of Knowledge and my disgraceful 'Furniture - Murder and Love'. All welcome! We'll have a laugh!

http://indiecork.com/

Liverpool Irish Film Festival

Thanks to IndieCork's Una Feely for inviting me to show 4 films at the Liverpool Irish Film Festival... 'Mister Heaney, a wee portrait'. 'Leitronium'. 'Rinkydink and The Salmon of Knowledge'. 'Furniture - Murder and Love' in the Irish Shorts programmes on Sunday and Monday... According to the programme, I shall introduce the films....

Sunday October 13th, 6:30 pm
Monday October 14th, 6:30 pm
FACT, 88 Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4DQ

A programme of classic and contemporary short films curated by Úna Feely of IndieCork Film Festival

IndieCork’s Una Feely brings us some of the best and most interesting short films produced in Ireland this year, as well as some of the great shorts of the past. Once again the screenings will be introduced by some of Ireland’s finest young filmmakers. IndieCork is a new festival of independent cinema based in Cork, Ireland.

http://www.liverpoolirishfestival.com/events/irish-shorts/

http://www.liverpoolirishfestival.com/events/irish-shorts-2/

Skin in The Game

Donald Taylor Black's documentary 'Skin in The Game' (2012) was shown in The Pavilion, Dun Laoghaire last night (091013), to an enthusiastic audience of 120 people! Several people in IADT were surprised to see me onscreen, with my long hair... My Gawd! Only two years ago - seems like a lifetime!