South African Artists Take Animation to a New Level
Online article by Fransi Phillips, Jan 10, 2010
With animation films made from junk, artists Marinda Du Toit, Diek Grobler and Charles Badenhorst reverse the rules of consumerism.
Links for clips discussed: Little Bang and Agenda.
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 January 12, 2010
Fopspeen Moving Pictures wins a Big Brass Bell in the Ukraine
Fopspeen Moving Pictures is a small animation studio that packs a punch: Animators Diek Grobler and Charles Badenhorst just returned from the Ukraine, where their short film “Little Bird ABC” received the award for the Best Animation for Children at the prestigious KROK International Animation Festival.
little bird's abc : play clip 
Based on the ideas and illustrations from a book by renowned South African children’s book creator, Piet Grobler, the film teaches the ABC by the sounds little birds make, in a fun and playfully wicked way. “Little Birds ABC” was directed by Diek Grobler, with animation by Charles Badenhorst, Diek Grobler and Jansen Lourens. Grobler is surprised with the film’s success: “It was a film we made in a quiet time in the studio, in September 2008, between paying jobs, and we were playing around with techniques. We had to rush a bit towards the end, as Piet wanted to take it to the Berlin Book fair in October 2008. So I always thought I would get back to it and finish it off nicely. The first time I entered it into a festival, I did it as an afterthought to entering one of our other films. “Little Birds” made it into that festival (the other film didn’t), and won us our first international award: The Best Animated film for Children at the Tehran International Animation Festival.
The KROK festival in the Ukraine is regarded by independent animators as the cr_me de la cr_me on the festival circuit. Not glamorous like Annecy or Ottawa, KROK is an animator’s festival; no producers, buyers or even general public – just animators showing their current work to their peers. Legendary filmmakers like Yuri Norstein, Paul Driessen, Pritt Parn, Nick Park, Bill Plympton and such, frequent the event, which is unique in format: a riverboat sailing down the Dnieper river from Kiev to the Black Sea. More than a hundred films are screened in five competition categories, and close to another hundred in panorama screenings and retrospectives. Attendance is by invitation only and the festival enjoys a lot of media coverage in the Ukraine and Russia.
It is the second time that Fopspeen Moving Pictures attend KROK: their 2005 attendance with the stop-motion series “Sanna’s Garden” resulted in Badenhorst being invited to spend three weeks at Aardman Animation in Bristol, where he attended master classes. It is their first Brass Bell though – the festival trophy is an authentic ship’s brass bell – and a big honour for the company. “To be honoured with an award in such company, amongst such distinguished animators is very rewarding and inspiring.”
The success of “Little Bird ABC”, according to Grobler, has a lot to do with the design and the humorous approach. “Piet Grobler’s illustrations are fresh and witty, and we managed to capture that in the animation. It had an aesthetic all of its own and was quite unlike anything else at the festival. It was wonderful to hear the children giggling in the first row AND the adults chuckling at the back.”
The company hope to do more collaborations with Piet Grobler in future. ”Being brothers, we have the same offbeat sense of humour, and an appreciation for subtlety in detail. His work is wonderfully unique and fresh, and his books beg to be animated. We are the perfect company to do it.”
Piet Grobler was a finalist in the ‘Het Goue Penseel’ award for children’s book illustrations in the Netherlands, and pictures from his nominated book “De Ballade van de Dood” is currently on view in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
For more information, see fopspeen.co.za, or pietgrobler.com
SAFTA Special Mention Award
Animation in Short film for "Agenda"
SAFTA – The South African Film and Television Awards recognise achievements in the local film and television industry. The event took place Saturday 7 February 2009 at the State Theatre, Pretoria, South Africa.
It is nice to get recognition locally. Our films have traveled extensively to international film festivals, but local recognition is slow. Now the next miracle will be if some local broadcaster screens it.
This film was made mostly by three people: Diek Grobler, Charles Badenhorst and Marinda du Toit. We are a killer team.
I would also like to thank everybody who supported us in the making of the film: Chris van Niekerk for the voice work, and letting us use the Rosendal Theatre to film in. Arno Vosloo who made the lovely biscuits, cups and saucers. Sandra Lemmer for loaning us a lot of props from her shop. Mia Roets who made a lot of props. Handri Loots, Jozua Loots and Hilton Anspach for brilliantly performing the music. All the lovely people of Rosendal for their support and many cups of coffee. All our friends and families who have always supported us and believed in us. Long list for a small award, I know. For the next one it might even be longer!
Current Projects
Monthly Animation Evening at the Cube Café
Diek Grobler compiles a programme of interesting and inspiring animation which is shown and discussed every last Thursday evening of each month. Entry free, booking essential. Themes for 2009 will include:
- Yuri Norstein – Russian Master Animator
- Abstract animation – From Dada to now
- Animation and music – films on the theme of music and films in the service of music.
- Avant Garde animation: Animation as artistic expression.
- Animation for the masses: How cute can you get?
The Cube Café is an urban cafe with a twist! Beautifully creative cafe for the creative hungry individual. Event space for artists, upcoming & famous, expressing their art of choice with a warm, friendly atmosphere!! Visit their website at www.cubecafe.co.za and join us at the Cube Café, 46 Selati Str, Alphen Park, Pretoria, South Africa.
Little Bird's ABC
Fopspeen Moving Pictures is collaborating with Internationally published and awarded illustrator Piet Grobler on a “Little Bird's ABC”. Grobler created a little book titled “Het Vogeltjes ABC” for his Dutch publisher, Lemniscaat in 2005. He approached Fopspeen in 2007 with the idea of animating a few of the letters to present to his publisher, with the aim of creating a DVD to sell with the books.
Although still in production, a preliminary version of “Het Vogeltjies ABC” was shown at the Berlin Bookfair, and was received with enthusiasm by young and old.
little bird's abc : play clip
Evolution for beginners
This project was started in 2005 as a concept development for 90 second inserts developed for an environmental TV program. It never went beyond the pilot episode. Along came cell phone TV, and suddenly a 90 second gag was a good idea. We have so far produced 6 episodes of Humboldts adventures. Look out for Humboldt the compulsive evolver, coming to your cell-phone soon.
evolution for beginners : play clip
Agenda
Agenda is an everyday tale about a tea-girl: she serves tea to VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE, at a VERY IMPORTANT MEETING. But the meeting is, as such meetings usually are, very dull. The only excitement the COMMITTEE MEMBERS can hope for, is the arrival of the tea girl. The film was made by animating almost life-size sculptures by Marinda du Toit, made from recycled junk.
“Agenda” was shortlisted for ‘Best African Short Film’ at the African in Motion film festival, Edinburgh, UK. Agenda has been on the official selection of the following film festivals:
- Zlin International Film festival for Children and youth, 2008; Zlin Czech republic
- Animafest Zagreb 2008
- Durban International Film Festival; Durban, South Africa
- Out the Box festival of puppetry and visual theatre; Cape Town, South Africa
- Apolo Film Festival, Barclay-west, South Africa
- Africa in Motion Short Film Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland.
- Tehran 25th International Short Film Festival 208
- Göteborg International Film Festival, Sweden 2009
AGENDA : Play Clip
The Justice Gang TV series - January 2008, SABC 1
Fopspeen has been working on The Justice Gang, an educational series on the rights of children since September 2007. A Second series has been commissioned by the SABC in which Fopspeen’s role has been significantly extended by doubling the time dedicated to animated stories. The Justice Gang features a variety of animated sequences and graphics by Fopspeen, and every episode has a short animated case study, on a topical issue. The Justice Gang is produced by Handheld Films.
The Justice Gang : view clips
Production
Sanna’s Garden
Fopspeens favourite child, this series has been in production for three years. An educational series for children on the conservation of the succulent Karoo, Sanna was the first of our films to start traveling the festival circuit; Trebon, Krok, Zlin amongst other festivals in Europe.
sanna's garden : play clip
Sanna gets a new lease on life
Sanna’s Garden was where Fopspeen Moving Pictures started. We grew our stop motion skills there. Because of Sanna, Charles was invited to spend some time at Aardman Animation studios, in Bristol, getting some first class training from Merlin Crossingham, head animator at Aardman. It is therefore very sad that Sanna has been mothballed for the past three years, due to circumstances, as well as the fact that we could not succeed in getting funding to complete the series.
But things are looking up, and if all goes well, Sanna will be out in the world by September 2009, thanks to the enthusiastic support of Linette van der Merwe, Director of the Woordpoort Afrikaans Arts Festival, which will be presented on the Campus of the University of Pretoria in September 2009. The current completed 7 episodes of “Sanna se tuin” will be voiced in Afrikaans, with the talents of voice artists like Anna-Mart van der Merwe, and Chris van Niekerk, amongst others. “Sanna se Tuin” will be a collaboration between Fopspeen Moving Pictures and the Woordpoort Festival.
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