Sunday, September 14, 2008

Matthew Walker

(click on image to see film)
It was a rainy kinda day yesterday and the 'blahs' were visiting well after morning tea, so, I rang Matthew Walker and just like that they were gone.
I've written about Matthew before as he is part of the World of Arthur Cox studio. His other films 'Astronauts' (BAA winner) and 'John and Karen' have been standouts for me as well and his latest one 'Operator', which won the 2007 Depict! award. Operator was completed by Matt as an animator in residence at the University of Wales Newport. Scott MacDonald who was a bg animator for the short reports it was animated in Flash with the backgrounds done in Maya and PS.

What I like best about Matt's films is that they are centred around basic human conditions. The mundane slice of life activities (albeit everyone seems to be eating or having tea!) set against the out of ordinary events is brilliant. They are simple, funny and universal to what makes everyone tick. So watch, enjoy, drink tea, eat bickies, and chuckle the blahs away!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mark Kermode interviewed animation graduate and previous Newport School of Art, Media and Design animator in residence, Matthew Walker about his film Operator on BBC 2's Culture Show 31 July 2008.

http://mycommunity.newport.ac.uk/blogs/amd/archive/2008/07/31/64782.aspx

Scott said...

I'm Scott MacDonald, and I worked on the short.

It was great fun - Matt's humor is quietly addictive and he's an amazing animator, writer and director.

It was a lot of work, the four weeks flew by when we worked on this. I remember staying up 36 hours in the final push for deadline, with Matt staying up past 40 hours and another guy around 30. It was intense!

Glad you all like it