The film tells the story about how young Mr Stone meets the engineer Mr Latham and together they come up with a marvellous plan to bring water to everyones home in the Itchen valley which still exists to this day. Using drawn and cut out animation techniques it is a beautiful little film which we hope the younger audience will enjoy!
To wet your appetite we have made a little trailer
We had a fantastic time Recording for the film with the talented Sound Designer David Pringle, and actors Paul Mundell and Ellie Mitra
The composer Alex Harwood will be writing our music for Twyford Waterworks.
Alex Harwood graduated with an MA in composition for film from the National Film and Television School (2013), and an Mmus at The Juilliard School in New York (1991), graduated in Composition from the Royal College of Music (1988).
www.alexharwood.com
Alex was composer in residence for the Juilliard Drama Division, during which time wrote for theatre productions in New York and England. Amongst numerous commissions that have been performed world wide are The Happy Prince (cantata for soloists, chorus and orchestra) libretto by Ronald Harwood, St John’s Smith’s Square, London; Untitled (voice and percussion) for Audra MacDonald, Avery Fisher Hall, NY; and Sonatina (alto flute and pianoThe National Flute Convention, chosen repetoire, 2009,USA ; Theme and Variations- written for Sir Ronald Harwood’s 70th Birthday, performed in the presence of HRH The Prince of Wales.
Film scores include Ideal Wife (dir. Philip Saville), Z1 (dir. Gabriel Gauchet), Girlfriend in a Coma (dir. Annalisa Piras), Musical Star! (dir. Louis Paxton), Foggiest Ideal (dir. Kim Noce and Shaun Clark. MewLab Productions), Kiss (dir. Cathy Brady), No Man’s Land and An Anxious Mind (dir. Michael Graverson), Loose Ends,(dir. Kim Strobl), Homey (dir. Ben Garfield), Drying for Freedom (dir.Steven Lake), End of An Era (dir.Yousif Al-Khalifa), Four and Flat Frog for Italian animation studio Inkymind, Chessmates and The Bird (dir. Mikel Gurrea) and several scores for SweetDoh! Productions.
Prizes, Awards and Fellowships include:
Beaconsfield Film Society Scholar
Joined prize winner for Best Composer, UnderWire Film Festival 2011
The Cobbett and Hurlstone Prize for Composition
The United Music Publishers Ltd. Prize for an outstanding composition Student
Fellowship in Composition at Tanglewood Music Festival
Foundation for the Arts Award, NY
Boulez Fellow
Henry Mancini Prize for Composition
Freya Hotson joined as as a 2D Animator to create two playful shots in the animation. Freya has a wonderful talent in capturing characters and movement!
Here below her rough line tests previews for the two shots she has been animating.
A Scot, Freya graduated with a BA in Animation in 2011 from Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee. Since graduating she worked as an Animation Department Assistant on ‘The Snowman and the Snowdog’ and is currently working as a freelance animator in London.
You can view her work at:
Vimeo https://vimeo.com/user2647473
Blog www.running-down-hill.blogspot.co.uk
Here few work in progress still showing some of the shots for the animation. The artwork for the piece for t it is almost complete. (Click on the thumbnail pictures for a larger view)
Sending off frames and Material back and forth to the animators
With the visuals approved and the characters chosen, we can get started on the storyboard. This is our favourite time as all the creative juices get squeezed together to create a compelling narrative without worrying ( yet ) about the perfectionism.
Here below the first pages. the full storyboard comprises of 12 pages and around 336 sketches
On Our team we have Clare Aburn as Assistant Animator creating some of the loops for the animation.
Clare is an animator and illustrator, who in 2012 graduated from an MA in animation from the UCA in Farnham. Over the past year Clare has worked on several short films, and plans to continue to develop her skills within the animation industry.
You can view her work on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/user10615485
Here the full animatic for the animation
request password to view
The screenwriter Jonathan Carr will be writing our script for Twyford Waterworks.
He recently graduated from the NFTS and he was the co-writer of ‘The End of an Era’ an animation that won the BBC/Open University climate change competition
After many sketches and scratches on the head we came out with two Designs for Mr Latham and Mr Stone: which one do you prefer?
We had a hard time to choose between the splendid Designs created by the students of Twyford St Mary CE School.
But we had to choose… here below the winners!
Special Mention : JOE
Third Place : BRONTE
Second Place: KATY
FIRST PLACE: DAPHNE
CONGRATULATIONS!!
The toad will be included in the film and animated by a professional animator… here below the final design and a test for the animation
All the designs were truly amazing, so imaginative and full of details, but we had to select only one winner. To choose the winner we had to take in consideration “character”, “style” and “economy of shapes” for the animation, Daphne’s design needed simplifying to be animated in an economical way. We lost the dots and the hat but we kept the shape, the huge eyes and the warming contagious smile.
We run a small competition at St Mary to draw a mascot for Twyford Waterworks Trust. The winning design will appear in the animation
Here below the wonderful shortlisted Design; and in two weeks we will announce the winner.
We have created a little compilation of the work done at St Mary CE School in Twyford, and here is the delightful result.
The animation will then be included on the final animated film
And sadly this was our last day at Twyford St Mary’s CE School. In the morning Year 4/5 completed their animation and in the afternoon we worked with Key Stage 1 and Reception to bring to life the charming drawings create yesterday You can see the fabulous result below.
We have animated an edwardian car, a barn owl, a robin, a centipede, a butterfly and a wiggly worm. We have also taken a time-lapse of the full day of work and compressed it in a swirling fast “behind the scene” showing the animation process.
Later on, these animated loops will be integrated in the final animation.
We would like to take the chance to thanks all the students of St Mary for their enthusiasm and hard work, they have been wonderful! And all the staff, we have received a warm welcome and an incomparable enthusiasm towards the project!
Another delightful day running the second session at St Mary’s CE School.
Today Reception and Key Stage 1 sketched animals, insects and plants living within Twyford wildlife. They drew using charcoal pencils and the results are stunning! You can view a collage of the pictures – click for a larger view.
In the meantime Year 4/5 started to work on their animation where we explored the transportation during the time of the construction of Twyford Waterworks (circa 1900). So far we animated a Packard thirty runabout car and a Penny Farthing. Below you can view the animation and the making of.
To create a short animated loop we need around 10 to 20 similar drawing with small variation. In the case of the Penny Farthing we rotated the wheels and we changed the position of the leg. In car we rotated the wheels. The names flickering at the bottom will give you an idea of this collective effort to create just a fragment of a second of animation
Ps.Students asked for some animation softwares or apps, so i have compiled a small list for you below here. Some are free, some not, some are for beginners and other a little more complex
FrameByFrame (mac only – free)
Monkey Jam (win only -free)
Pivot (free – not sure if it works on mac)
Pencil (mac- win free )
I can animate (win -mac -apps ££)
I stop motion (Mac – app ££)
What a wonderful day!
This morning we started the first session of a three days workshop at St Mary’s CE School. Students are participating in the production of the animation.
Today year 5 & 6 went up to the Waterworks to explore the site on a Nature Walk, and to sketch elements from the Steam Engine Room. Then from the sketches we created short moving animated loops.
Here below you can view the animated loops, all the students drawings and details of the site we found fascinating.
(Click on the picture for a larger view)
Here an example of the style for the animation. We tried two versions: one with warm colours and the other with cold colours.
All the first sketches for Mr Latham and Mr Stone
We are working on few preliminary sketches to to create the character design for Mr Stone and Mr Baldwin Latham, the two main protagonist of our story.
(Click the picture to view full size)
The Water Bearer 
