As of March 4th 2009 the first three ‘Penny dreadful’ animations from Carrion film – the rarely UK seen  ‘The Vampire‘ (2004), the award nominated ‘Scayrecrow‘ (2008) &  new festival favourite ‘The Screaming skull‘ (2008) –  will be available to download for the very first time.

Each film will be available from the shop as an mp4 video; an ideal portable format and compatible for iPod, iTunes and laptop viewing. For a limited time each animation will cost only £2.99 to purchase and keep, that’s less than the cost of a screening ticket.

Director Ashley Thorpe had this to say: “I’m very excited actually, this is the first time that these films have truly been let loose and this style of commerce, the inexpensive download, is the closest thing to a modern ‘Penny dreadful’ type of distribution. The Penny dreadfuls would be bought for pennies and then handed round, increasingly dog-eared reader to reader, but the stories – the good ones at least – would spread like wildfire. Now the devoted or just plain curious can dowload and share these in much the same way. It’s fantastic and it’s just scraping the surface. We’ve got some very special things on the horizon…”

Details of ‘Scayrecrow‘ and ‘The Screaming skull‘ can be found posted throughout our archives, ‘The Vampire‘ however may be new to many. Ashley Thorpe explained:  “It was my first attempt of tackling this kind of material in this way. I was trying to find a way of combining  still images with a dynamic soundtrack, like a musical storybook. It was first and foremost going to be a comic that had an animation as an extra. It has animated elements, but it was a test really and people were very supportive…I was especially lucky – and I don’t think it hurt getting this one into festivals – that my photographer knew Derren Brown and he persuaded him to cameo as a vampire! Blink and you miss him…but he’s there.”

After the initial run of downloads further releases can be expected later in the year, including further vintage material from the vaults and subsequent ‘Penny dreadful’ releases such as ‘The Hairy hands.’

Carrion film is celebrating ‘Scayrecrow‘ being nominated for the 2009 Media Innovation Awards as part of the ‘Best independent Film / Video category.

The awards recognise the innovative use of media, music and design across the South West region. Entries were invited from companies across the whole of the South West (including collaborations with the BBC and the Open University) and Karen Stockdale of award organisers, the Plymouth media partnership, says she’s delighted at the quality and diversity of the submissions this year, “The judges really had their work cut out deciding which entries to shortlist.

The quality of entries was very high and the fact that the short-listed companies come from all over the region, from Poole to Dorset to Falmouth in Cornwall and from Bristol to Plymouth proves that the South West region is a centre of excellance for media and design.”

‘Scayrecrow‘, for the un-initiated, is a Hammer inspired animation about a ghostly Highwayman, written and directed by  Ashley Thorpe. It is set in England in 1742 – wherein the daring robberies of Joshua Rookwood are the talk of all of England. No-one it seems is safe on the Kings highways from the notorious highwayman and his fearful alter-ego ‘The Scayrecrow‘. Rookwood’s motives however are not mere brutality and greed. Every full moon, after robbing the gentry of their riches, Rookwood steals away to deliver the choicest of the booty to his love, the serving girl Eleanor Tawney. As the reward for his capture grows ever large, these moonlit rendezvous attract unwanted attention…and slowly and surely plans are drawn against them…

The animation was co-funded by the Exeter Phoenix and Devon County Council, and was made during 2008. The film features a dynamic score by composer Mick Grierson. Ashley recenly commented on the film in an interview with Lee Morgan (D & C Film):

“I’ve always been completely fascinated by highwaymen,” says Ashley, and he recalls ’70s National Trust ads for historic sites, which would have the highwayman rushing past in all his regalia. But the spectacle has largely been overlooked, Adam Ant aside. “In theory they are the closest thing to a British Western.”

As of March 4th the film will be available as a download directly from www.carrionfilms.co.uk (more to be announced shortly!)

The winners of the Media Innovation Awards will be announced at a gala award ceremony to be held at the Ashton Gate Stadium in Bristol on the 12th of March.

If you cast your mind back to the shoot of ‘The Screaming skull‘ you may recall that all of the Penraddon manor bedroom sequences were shot at the beautiful ‘Two Bridges hotel‘. Yet, as one ghostly legend was being crafted therein, a little further down a nearby Dartmoor road, a quite different supernatural visitation was believed to befall the unsuspecting traveller…’The Hairy Hands‘.

Comic asides, since the early twentieth century, drivers and cyclists have reported suffering unusual accidents whilst travelling the stretch of road (the B3212) between Postbridge and Two Bridges. In many cases, the victims reported that their vehicle had swerved violently off the side of the road, as if something had taken hold of the wheels and wrenched it out of their control.

In most instances, the victims ran into a verge and survived. Their experiences remained a local curiosity, until June 1921, when Dr. E.H. Helby, the medical officer for Dartmoor prison was actually killed when he lost control of his motorcycle and sidecar. His two daughters survived. Shortly after Dr Helby’s death, there was another incident in which a coach driver lost control, injuring several passengers who were thrown out of their seats. Then, on August 26 1921, an army Captain reported that a pair of invisible hands had taken hold of him and forced his motorcycle off the road. After such a bout of such bizarre ‘attacks’ it didn’t take long before the story was picked up by the London newspapers and the story became a nationwide sensation.

Though horror cinema has had its share of disembodied creeping hands (Amicus studios ‘Doctor Terrors house of Horrors’ and Oliver Stone’s ‘The Hand‘ starring Michael Caine are but two notables) the actual story of ‘The Hairy Hands‘, and its core myth (often linked to a mining explosion or a local murder on the particular stretch of road) has hitherto largely been ignored outside the region that spawned it….until now.

Whilst ‘Spring heel Jack‘ continues its ambitious pre-production, Ashley Thorpe will shoot ‘The Hairy Hands‘ until finance  is secured. “Don’t fret, ‘Spring heel Jack’ is absolutely in pre-production, but it’s the most ambitious one yet and it needs more time and love than the previous two to make it work and really do the script justice.”

‘The Hairy hands‘ will star Carrion film regular Ed Berry and aims, according to its director, to be “a chilling horror short that takes place entirely within a moving vehicle…”

D & C Film : The horror of Ashley Thorpe

This week D & C film is running a week long horror special ‘hosted’ by Carrion film director Ashley Thorpe. Today sees an overview on the director by Lee Morgan and then every day next week a piece will be published on the films that continue to inspire his work. Lee Morgan had this to say:

“Ashley Thorpe will take us by the hand and lead us through his top five horror films over the next five days. He will go through each movie and explain why they keep him – and us – shivering on the edge of the seat. But first, here’s the low-down on the filmmaker who puts horror into animation.

Ashley Thorpe’s horror is more scalpel than sledgehammer. His animations have a refreshingly classic feel, not least through the meticulously researched material and his unabiding love of horror in all its purest, and least pure, forms.

To make a ham-fisted attempt to continue the scalpel metaphor, his films and the surgical implement both make you think of similar wounds. Maybe it’s because you have the feeling that Jack the Ripper is hacking away in the background of the Penny Dreadfuls (or Penny Bloods) that are one of the inspirations of Ashley’s work.”

The article features snippets of interviews, stills and links to trailers. The first horror that will be discussed is Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien‘.

Link: http://www.devon-cornwall-film.co.uk/2009/02/01/the-horror-of-ashley-thorpe-the-animator-talks-to-dcfilm/

Interview with Express & Echo

On Thursday 5th February Carrion film Director Ashley Thorpe was interviewed by the Express & Echo. The full page article covered his influences, family and plans for the future.

He said: “When I was a kid growing up in Devon I was surrounded by ghost stories, local legends and folk songs about monsters, and I was lucky enough to be surrounded by people keen to tell them, especially to a wide-eyed child.

“I was fed a constant diet of vengeful ghosts, highwaymen and deals with the devil in the Dartmoor fog. I subsequently grew up feeling that everyone else knew stories such as The Screaming Skull and The Lambton Worm.

“But I soon realised that many of these stories, and the stories that the tellers had been told as children, were slipping away from us, becoming esoteric. As I travelled further afield, it became clear that many people had never heard of these tales at all.

“So with the Carrion film project I’m now aiming to take these neglected aspects of English folklore and re-invent them for the 21st century audience as digital animations.”

Ashley Thorpe’s animated short ‘The Screaming skull’ has been entered for ‘Animated Exeter’s’ ‘Screen out loud‘ awards. The competition will feature films by amateur and professional animators resident in the South West of England, with winners selected by a jury from the animation industry.

The winner will receive £500 donated by University College Falmouth, with a runner-up prize of animation software donated by Stop Motion Pro™.

This programme will also includes the winners of the 2008 Animated Exeter and Exeter Phoenix Media Bursary and the Environment Agency Climate Change film competition.

Please note: The version to be screened of ‘The Screaming skull’ is the shorter edited version.

Sponsored by: Stop Motion Pro™ and University College Falmouth

Venue: Exeter Picturehouse

Date: Sunday 15 February
Time: 4.30pm

Best of south west showcase

‘The Screaming skull’ is to also be shown as part of the ‘Best of southwest showcase’ to be held at the Exeter Picturehouse. The screening will consist of the winners and runners up from the three Animated Exeter competitions.

Venue: Exeter Picturehouse

Date: Friday 20 February
Time: 6.30pm

The winners, runners up and selected films from Animated Exeter’s three competition programmes, Best of the West, Screen Out Loud and ExAnimation, with an introduction.

On Tuesday 27th January the ‘Exeter Picturehouse‘ cinema will be presenting a special HD screening of short films previously premiered at the ‘Two Short Nights‘ festival, in antiscipation of February’s ‘Animated Exeter‘.

One of the films to be screened will be Penny Dreadful number 3 : ‘Screaming Skull‘, written and directed by Ashley Thorpe. Set after the First world war, it’s a gothic story of ancestral anxieties, hereditary madness and ghosts that won’t be put to rest. Drawing upon such influences as M.R James and the Amicus movies of the 1970’s, ‘The Screaming Skull’ is a quintessential British horror film.

Professor Susan Hayward, member of the media centre steering group and  commission board, will introduce the films, and there will be a post-screening question and answer session with the film-makers in the picturehouse bar.   Please note: Due to scenes of violence, swearing and scenes of sustained horror the screening will not be suitable for audiences under 15 years of age.

The screening commences at : 6:30pm

Admission: £4, £3.50 concessions, £3 members.

Venue : Exeter Picturehouse – 51 Bartholomew Street West,Exeter EX4 3AJ

For bookings contact: 0871 704 2057 Email: exeter@picturehouses.co.uk

‘Spring heel Jack’ has been announced as the next animated short to be produced by Carrion film. As with previous Penny Dreadfuls ‘Scayrecrow’ and ‘The Screaming Skull’ , it will be written and directed by Ashley Thorpe with Mick Grierson providing score and sound design.

Initial teaser art suggests that like the previous entries ‘Spring heel Jack’ will simultaneously faithfully adapt essential aspects of the legend whilst embracing often surprising thematic elements drawn from the period.

“The thing that got me excited about ‘SHJ’ is that the character represents for me a shadowy blend of the Jack the Ripper mythos, Mr Hyde and everything good and gothic about Batman. He’s a character that started off as a Victorian boogeyman and then ironically ended up being transformed by the Penny Dreadfuls into a embryonic superhero. It’s at once a classic piece of English gothicism and a template for pretty much every comicbook character that followed. What I’m attempting to do with this telling is to take aspects of SHJ as boogeyman and hero and present a kind of complex ‘super anti-hero’; a man at the mercies of his darker self.”

“SHJ also gives me the chance to create a set-piece on the rooftops of a city, something I’ve been looking for an excuse to do since discovering ‘The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari’ as a teenager…When I was a child I was convinced that there were these shadowy creatures that lived on the roofs of our street, and when I walked home at night these things would chase me…sprinting across the terrace roofs between the chimneys…and those images, those fears came back to me when I started researching this character…the super hero aspect will definitely be there, it will still have that pulp penny dreadful aspect but I guarantee this to be the darkest, most gothic interpretation of this legend so far…  “ Ashley Thorpe.

Spring-heeled Jack was a popular figure in the nineteenth and early twentieth century and was characterised by his ability  to evade capture by making extraordinary leaps; over walls or across open spaces. The initial attacks occurred between 1837-1838 and eyewitnesses described him as an ‘unearthly warrior’ with ‘spring shoes’ and ‘clawed gloves’. His eyes were described as ‘burning like hot coals’ and once confronted he would breathe blue flame at his victims. The attacks captured the publics imagination and as the complaints poured in to newspapers and local officials, vigilante groups were formed and police patrols set up but no-one was ever apprehended.

In fiction he remained a villain until in the 1870’s when George A Sala radically reshaped the legend making him a nobleman cheated of his inheritance, a ‘caped crusader’ using his superhuman abilities and gadgets to bring the wicked to justice.

For further information on the Spring-heeled Jack legend see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack and http://www.blackcatpress.co.uk/Spring_Heeled_Jack_Page.htm

The third animation in the Penny dreadful project ‘The Screaming skull‘ has had its UK premiere at the seventh annual ‘Two short nights‘ festival, hosted by the Exeter Phoenix arts centre.

Seven films were screened in total, each written and directed by film makers based in the south west. The films screened were : ‘Man-cub‘ by Tom Austin, ‘The Simple lies experiment‘ by David Salas, ‘The Surrogates‘ by Vicki Smith, ‘Untitled Dystopia‘ by Martin LeJeune, ‘Making the difference‘ by Andrew Oxley and the nights showcase winner the powerful ‘Distraction‘ by Toby and Lucy DeBurgh. For further details visit: www.phoenixmedia.org.uk/twoshortnights08/commissions.php

The evening was full to capacity, selling out weeks in advance and was attended by Director, Producer and writer Don Boyd. Described by Alexander Walker as a “one man film industry” Don Boyd has significantly influenced the face of British cinema since the mid-seventies. After entering the industry as a director, at the age of 26 he formed his own production company which he made a bastion for young British talent.

He has been involved, in various capacities, with such projects as ‘Scum‘ by Alan Clarke, ‘The Great Rock n Roll Swindle‘ by Julien Temple and numerous collaborations with Derek Jarman. Boyd has gone on record as  saying that he likes to see himself as ‘a director-orientated audience-conscious film-marketing editor’, and has proved himself to be unquestionably committed to indigenous British cinema.

‘The Screaming skull‘ played top of the bill, making a chilling finale to the nights screenings.

For ‘Screaming Skull’ trailer click here: screaming-skull-trailer B

Lee Morgan of Devon & Cornwall film has interviewed Ashley Thorpe, the writer / director of ‘Scayrecrow‘ and ‘The Screaming Skull‘.

The interview took place over the phone and covered such subjects as the inspiration for the projects, influences and an insight into forthcoming projects (including first mention of a proposed feature!)

To listen to the interview visit www.devon-cornwall-film.co.uk or click on http://www.newsandmediarepublic.org/images/stories/audio/two_short_nights_a_thorp.mp3

Composer Mick Grierson has also been in the news recently, contributing to the British Composers awards in association with BBC Radio 3. As part of the innovative Sonic art award, the ceremony included interactive art by himself and Eugene Perera. To listen online visit : www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fs4ry

Mick Grierson has contributed to numerous soundtracks for Carrion film including ‘Remain‘, ‘The Vampire‘, ‘Scayrecrow‘ and ‘The Screaming Skull‘ and remains an integral part of the Carrion film collective.

TUESDAY 4 NOVEMBER: SHORTS Torquay Museum

The Torbay film club have nominated ‘Scayrecrow‘ to be shown at its dedicated short film night this year. The initial press release is as follows:

“A showcase of the finest raw film-making talent in bite-sized pieces, from local and international directors. Details of the short films being screened will be available on www.torbayfilmclub.co.uk a few weeks before the screening.”