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.”

The third title in the ‘Penny dreadful theatre’ project ‘The Screaming Skull‘ has reached completion,within budget and on schedule and as previously announced the film will be released in two editions : a ‘Festival cut’ for the ‘Animated Exeter festival’ and general release, and a ‘Directors cut‘ which will be released later in the year. Running time will differ between the two cuts (an estimated two minutes of additional scenes and an extended opening title sequence) and as a result each version will vary slightly in tone and reading.

A key scene in the extended cut is the ‘Act III : End corridor ‘ – a sequence that showcases composer Mick Grierson’s extraordinary audio/visual textures.“I initially had my doubts that it would work as I hoped, but I knew that we really had something with this sequence when the first reviewer was so unnerved by it that she was caught watching it between her fingers!” Director Ashley Thorpe.

He commented further on Mick Grierson’s work on the score.

“This particular score was a greater challenge than ‘Scayrecrow’ I suspect, as unlike that film, this has a significant change in tone about two thirds of the way through it…We start in Hammer / Amicus territory, quintessentially English horror evoked through the requiem,but soon descend into something far more textural and challenging…One of the things that amazed me was seeing how Mick physically composes to the film as he watches it,noting every movement within frame, and as he’s doing so he’s glancing sideways at me to get a reaction…a real artist at work. I’m very pleased with the end result. The score for ‘The Screaming Skull’ is immensely powerful…it’s rich, dark and painful, but scored very compassionately.”

The next confirmed general public screenings will take place on Saturday November 29th 2008 as part of the ‘Two short nights‘ film festival to be held at the Exeter Phoenix Arts centre. Screenings begin at 7:30pm and further details and tickets can be obtained via www.twoshortnights.co.uk.

Further screenings will be held throughout February 2009 as part of ‘Animated Exeter’. Additional preview screenings, dates and venues, will be confirmed here.

A number of select private screenings will also take place on Halloween 2008 in London and the South West.

WARNING : The Directors cut, should you be lucky enough to see it, is not for the faint hearted…

Shooting concluded today on the third Penny Dreadful animation ‘The Screaming skull‘.

The filming concluded at Poltimore house, wherein additional sequences were shot for the films finale. The director, Ashley Thorpe had this to say :

“Its interesting now that primary photography is complete to see how the film has developed. Initially ‘Screaming skull’ was conceived as something relatively simple; it was ‘a guy comes home from the war sick and tired of bullshit, tries to get rid of the skull (wondering why no-one else has ever done it before) and discovers that the skull is as much a part of the house as he is’. It was a pretty straight gothic retelling of the myths, but throughout the shoot other thematic elements rose from the source material that captured my interest and have perhaps revealed why I was drawn to the tales in the first place. First and foremost the aspect of burying memory, literally in this case the skull being a symbol of guilt and suppression. This theme  is now represented in numerous visual ways; from the 1st World war trench flashbacks to the surreal images of the finale… Family  and ancestral anxieties are the other theme that leapt at me; not family as blessing, but family as burden; the investment of fears as opposed to hopes…a family curse wherein the family IS the curse. This of course is Poe territory and like the House of Usher this family tree is rooted in sour earth … “

“And the skull…symbol of our family…of our legacy. When I look at it I grow afraid. Truly afraid. But not of ghosts. I fear that the deepest parts of our hearts are inherited, and our family’s heart may be a heart of darkness.” – The Screaming skull.

With photography concluded (and animation due for completion mid September), sound mixing and score construction will commence towards the end of September with long time collaborator Mick Grierson.

Carrion film’s resident composer Mick Grierson has recently been interviewed by the BBC to discuss his software called ‘Lumisonic‘ that allows deaf children to see sound. This project is part of ongoing experiments examining real-time interactive audio-visual developments, with specific focus on cognition and perception.

To see the interview and for further information on Mick’s research, follow the links below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7558017.stm

http://doc.gold.ac.uk/~mus02mg/

Mick’s next project for Carrion film will be the soundtrack for ‘The Screaming Skull‘.