YouTube UK Feature
Sun, Jul 6th 2008, 12:11
Our latest animation 'Sticks' has been featured on the UK YouTube homepage (that's our 5th YouTube feature) as well as on Drawn!
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- Sticks Cast and Crew
- Imagine Magazine
- The Moon Bird wins local award
- Meet DI Plank and team
- Hawthorn
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VIEWING "sticks" POSTS
A third helping of Sticks
Fri, Jul 25th 2008, 12:41
Our third Sticks is now on YouTube. Watch and enjoy this sad tale...
The Tragedy of Raggedy Neddy the Teddy
Raggedy Neddy the Teddy was already thready when made more unsteady by an incredibly heady and leady gingerbready.
Poor raggedy Neddy the Teddy, was left with no remedy and fell into an eddy which left him deady. Oh the Tragedy!
Webby Official Honorees
Wed, Apr 22nd 2009, 09:31
Our series of three shorts called Sticks, made with coffee stirrers kindly supplied by Ripplecups, has been given an accolade by the prestigious Webby Awards. Sticks didn't make the final five nominees, but was selected as an Official Honoree to recognise its "standard of excellence". Read more about the Animation nominees at Lineboil where I occasionally blog.
In other Webby news the Tate Kids website for which we produced five short films has been nominated in the Youth category, so we could yet be part of a wider winning team! You can vote for your favourite nominee at their people's voice website.
BAFTA and RTS nominations
Wed, Oct 28th 2009, 08:38
Well hasn't it been a funny old year! It started out with a BAFTA nomination for Codswallop in the short animation section opposite Aardman and Studio AKA (who very generously asked us to work with them later in the year), then we shared in a Webby with the rest of the Tate Kids team, as well as being Webby Official Honorees our Sticks series.
Earlier this month we discovered we were shortlisted in the Midlands RTS Awards for Best Fictional with Codswallop and Best Promotional for Relationships and Sex which was co-produced with Hi8us Midlands (I don't think I've blogged about that project at all - so more on that later this week I think!)
And today we found out that we've been nominated in two categories at the Children's BAFTAs for the work we did with the Tate (once again up against Aardman and Studio AKA). Phew! You could say that we're more than just a little bit chuffed.
BBC Comedy commission Sticks
Tue, Jan 26th 2010, 13:54
So it’s a new year and a new decade. We’ve just finished our new short film The Moon Bird and here we are twiddling our thumbs with nothing to do. Er… or not.
Among the projects we have on the go is one we created from scratch ourselves. We’re producing a short series for BBC Comedy Extra called Sticks.
Sticks first came about a couple of years ago when Greg (the illustrator-animator half of The Brothers McLeod) drew some characters on the coffee stirrers our Dad supplies at Ripplecups.com.
We had the idea of trying to do some ad lib stuff using the sticks as puppets. We recorded a bunch of off-the-cuff sketches onto our naff video camera and tried to make each other laugh. A lot of it was incomprehensible, but some funny characters did emerge. Our favourites were a collection of bungling Cockney coppers and some ridiculous French private detectives.
So last year we put together a proposal for some scripted episodes, featuring the policemen, and sent them off to Martin Trickey and Simon Lupton at BBC Comedy. They were good enough to press the big red GO button and now we’re in production. We’ll be blogging about the production process so watch out for more.
There are already three existing Sticks animations that show the potential for this kind of animation. They feature a man whose house is set on fire, some ghostly cowboys and a tragic bear. You can watch them here:
Meet DI Plank and team
Thu, Mar 4th 2010, 11:30
“I remember when he was just a splinter.”
Sticks is a series of short slice-of-life detective comedies coming soon to BBC Comedy Extra.
Here's some of the characters you'll be meeting...
DETECTIVE INSPECTOR PLANK
Why can’t anyone do they’re job properly? That’s what Plank wants to know. He’s tough as teak and has a fiery temper that could start a forest fire. Plank is a classic bossy boots who is surrounded by incompetents, the clueless and the downright sneaky. Plank doesn’t trust anyone, possibly not even himself. Maybe it’s the years of fighting criminals or perhaps just in his grain, but Plank is more paranoid that a Coke addict in a hall of mirrors.
SERGEANT CONSTABLE
Always seeking the easy route out, Sergeant Constable is as cunning as he is lazy. The Sergeant is the kind of copper who can work things out astutely if he puts his mind to a case. He probably could have been Commissioner by now, but the truth is he’d rather put his feet up and tuck into a pasty.
CONSTABLE SERGEANT
Bless him, he’s as green as oak and thick as two short sticks. Constable wants to shine but somehow he always ends up as the stick in the mud.
CONSTABLE WITCH
Constable Witch isn’t a very good police officer and isn’t a very good witch either. Her police methods are rather unorthodox and often go badly wrong.
PRISONER
Always trying to escape, but somehow always ends up back in the clink.
MAVIS
The civilian desk assistant. Fancies herself as the new Agatha Christie with her stories of Miss Marble.
MONSIEUR MONSIEUR
The Zut Alors! Private Investigation agency is home to two outrageous Frenchies. Monsieur wants all the world to know he is both stylish and brave. One out of two’s not bad.
MONSIEUR DERRIERE
Derriere knows he is a genius of the investigative sciences. He has a certificate bought off the internet to prove it.
Watch out for more Sticks updates... we'll be telling you about the talented cast and crew for these eight short animations too.
Sticks Cast and Crew
Thu, Mar 11th 2010, 09:12
Our new BBC Comedy Extra series of eight short animations 'Sticks' will be on your tinternet-interweb very soon.
The series has been designed, written and directed by Yours Truly but we've had some great talents helping us to realise the finished production.
Lizz Lunney is a very talented illustrator from the Midlands (with her own great website where you can buy her comics) who has been drawing on sticks for us, and doing additional design on the project.
Tom Evans is a wunderkind with Flash animation and he's been helping us out on a number of projects including recently... The Moon Bird, CITV Minis and now Sticks.
Helen Brunsdon, darling of the animation universe, has been our excellent producer sorting us out with all manner of things.
The cast is made of some illustrious names too...
Actor Sam Troughton, about to embark on the role of Romeo at the illustrious RSC here in Stratford-upon-Avon, took some time out to get all shouty in the role of Detective Inspector Plank.
The wonderful Rachel Ferjani allowed herself to be typecast by us after playing the witch in The Moon Bird, she's returned to play Constable Witch for Sticks. She's also playing the batty old Mavis.
David Holt, voice artist extraordinaire, made us all laugh loud with his renditions of the Constable and the Prisoner.
Last but not least are Martin Trickey and Simon Lupton from BBC Comedy who pressed the big red button to make it all happen.
Hoorah for them all.
