The Mysterious Traveller

As soon as the fast-ticket collecting machine at Coventry railway station declared my booking confirmation was invalid and that it was near impossible to retrieve my E-ticket before my train departed, I stood there aghast and muttered some ungodly curses (much to the disgust of some nosey old biddy who clearly drives too slowly). What a perfect way to start my pilgrimage to the animation capital of the country. I almost made the decision to drive down to Bristol and began flailing between the platform and the bus stop, looking for somebody to slap me and say, Tom, you are a sad, strange little man and you have my pity. Now just buy another ticket you fucking eejit . Luckily enough it was the plasticine man inside my head who said this. I decided to worry about the additional £50 I forked out after the Encounters Festival and concentrate on getting to the afternoon screenings. Thus began my least favourite train ride ever.  Bit of blue for the dads; my second Encounters good...

I have decided to create a two-part post, where the 'before and after' scenario will hopefully give you guys a full chronicle of this years  Bristol Encounters Festival . As you may well know, our animation was successfully submitted and now proudly sits amongst many International competitors on the programme page of the website. It all seems a little daunting because you immediately start criticising your own animation and compare it to others; I have already noted the length of our animation (being one of the shortest). And yet, I recall the 2010 festival where one film screened a run time of 13 seconds and that went down very well. We have been placed in the category named 'Tooth and Claw' with another ten films and the description for this group is as followed: An outstanding collection of films featuring mammals and strange beasts. Whether the creature is endowed with human traits or the story explores the uses of animals, one thing is for sure: there’s noth...

So July has been a month of good news and countless propositions for me. Some have been honourable with a multitude of career prospects, whilst some have a more personal touch and giving me titles such as The Godfather and 'that guy who filmed our wedding'. Either way, even without getting the job down in Kent for the Animate and Create Studios , I deem it a productive month for networking and getting that little bit closer to freelancing glory. I shall talk about the interview later, however, because I have an incredible announcement to make. I was told by The Man  not to promote this until the 23rd July, which has obviously been and gone, but I have literally just this moment uncovered the online festival programme with the line-up so I have no qualms whatsoever in confirming that The Money Tree animated film has been accepted into the Bristol Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival .  Yes, the final major project I was involved in (alongside three of my esteemed a...