Just received our Media Innovation Award trophy for Creative Craft on The Somme In Seven Poems:
“The judges thought the seamlessly choreographed multi-layered animation was complex and difficult but in this animation sequence was achieved without fault. The art direction and overall styling also brought an immersive atmosphere to the poems.”
Thanks judges!
So we went up to the London Hilton yesterday as we got the nomination for best content graphics at the National Royal Television Society awards for our work on War of Words: Soldier Poets of the Somme. We were up against Doctor Who (although why that wasn’t submitted into the effects category I needed explaining to me), and Sports Personality of the Year, the latter of which won out.
It’s a crazy process sometimes because you try not to take it too seriously, and when something that is so completely different to your work does win, that becomes easier.
We are still so very proud of the work we did, it was a once in a life time job, and a marvellous team effort from Hugh Cowling, Libby Redden, John Durrant, Tim Marriott and Steve Burrell.
I’m still working out what this site is for, and I have had it for nearly ten years now. I just want a space that is mine where I can put stuff on my own terms. Also build up a resource and life record of sorts. That’s what these really long posts are for in effect. My ability to write anything was slightly thrown by the events of the last few weeks I have to admit. But it is in times like these that the world need more art not less. So let’s keep going, and communicate and resolve.
Listening
Grimes – SCREAM ft Aristophanes
Edit: Unfortunately lost out to super slick Sports Personality of the Year. Had a splendid time, though. Met lot’s of nice people. Kept it classy. And we all got home safely, always a bonus. Thanks for all the good luck messages. x #EveryonesAWinner
Due to circumstances documented elsewhere on this website it had escaped my notice that the short film The Somme In Seven Poems had become available on Vimeo.
These animations were produced by BDH to illustrate and accompany the poetry featured in the BBC’s 90 minute documentary War of Words: Soldier Poets of the Somme, which aired last November on BBC2.
This compilation was put together as a teaser for the full length documentary and released on the iPlayer the weekend of Rememberance Day.
Making these animations was a very humbling privilege, and a hefty responsibility, and we hope they are a fitting tribute to the people who saw and experienced things thankfully most of us only have to imagine.
A great big thanks to Hugh Cowling and Libby Redden who contributed so much to the finished work.
Embedded below is a trailer for the short.
The Somme In Seven Poems can be viewed directly on Vimeo.
This week we received the official nomination certificates for the BAFTA for Digital Creativity.
This was for the War of Words VR app that was made by the team at BDH from the some of the animations we made for the War Of Words: Soldier Poets of the Somme documentary I have talked about extensively here.
As far as I know the App is still available on iTunes and the Play store.
This also reminds me that we picked up two West of England RTS awards recently (during my “blog break”). One for Best Graphics for War of Words and the other for Best Short Animation for The Somme In Seven Poems. It was quite an evening as I wasn’t really sure we’d win anything, let alone two, and beating such greats as Arthur Cox and Aardman Animations.
So I had to do two speeches, which was interesting for everyone I think. Hopefully I kept it short and mumbly, because I actually remember nothing about being on stage except a sea of expectant faces and the overwhelming urge to run.
Here’s some pictures of us collecting and yes that’s me at the mic:
Quite an evening. Felt very lucky and blessed that what we worked so hard on was recognised in such a way.
That’s the end of the trumpets.
In other news I have fired up the old Facebook page to stream sketches and the like, because, even though I am a grown up I still have a problem zapping art in front of people who have friended me there, so it’s a separate place for that. Please follow along if you like Facebook.
I’m also trying to restart the daily sketching project, now the dust has settled, but it’s less “daily” more “regular”, I’m still keeping the 365 count as I would like to have some closure on that. They go on Instagram then get sent everywhere else. So probably best not follow me in more than one place because you’ll get repeats and no-one deserves that.
Until next time.
I wanted to write some stuff about this programme sooner, but the events previously documented in this blog (which all began on the afternoon of broadcast) meant it’s taken me some time to take stock and collect all the things that happened as a result of the show going out.
As I have mentioned before, “War of Words: The Soldier Poets of the Somme” was a 90 minute BBC Arts documentary, directed by Sebastian Barfield that sought to reconnect the history and the landscape of the notorious 1916 Battle of the Somme with the extraordinary poetry and literature that it inspired. At BDH we created content graphics to help illustrate the history and also animations (which I was involved with) to accompany the poetry. We had a great team on the job, and working on it was a moving and wonderful experience.
This post is partly a scrapbook for my purposes to collect some of the information, posts and reactions that went out on social media, in a Storify style, so I might be updating it as and when I come across more of them. Also be warned, this post is mostly embeds from Twitter, so if you are reading this on anything else that the actual webpage they might format weirdly.
You can see a clip from the show via the BBC here, this part concerns the removal of lice eggs from clothing and Isaac Rosenberg’s Louse Hunting.
There was a preview screening of the programme at the Watershed on the 5th November. Afterwards Peter Barton, Jean Moorcroft Wilson, Sebastian Barfield, Jeremy Banning and Richard Van Emden discussed the programme, the poets and how they shaped the way people remember the Great War. That discussion is available to hear on Soundcloud here:(direct link).
Sebastien Barfield wrote some words on the BBC blog about the show.
This is a link to a discussion of the programme on Military History Online, quite fascinating in itself.
“The Somme In Seven Poems” was a short that BDH produced which anthologised just the poetry animations themselves. That went onto the iPlayer a week before the broadcast, and got some lovely responses from people, especially on Remembrance Day.
Here is a trailer BDH produced for the short.
Obviously in the modern age, people can watch the show at anytime once it goes on the iPlayer so these tweets are not really in chronological order. I just went through the hashtags and search options retrospectively and grabbed some of the most interesting ones.
https://twitter.com/FWWMiscellany/status/533763935141638145 https://twitter.com/ArcanePub/status/535732918468235264The whole programme has been taken down from the iPlayer now but I have heard bits are on YouTube somewhere, you’ll have to search for that yourself, if you feel so inclined.
BDH have produce a VR app that contains the animation for The Kiss one of the poems featured on the show. This works on Google Cardboard and is available on Google Play and iTunes.
You’ve got until Monday 12pm to catch “The Somme in Seven Poems” (12 mins), and 10 days from today to catch the full length documentary “War of Words: Soldier Poets of the Somme”.
I’ll write a more comprehensive post about this project and how it went down at a later date, but due to recent events this is about as much as I can manage at the moment.
Take care.
Here is a short trailer for the animations we made for the forthcoming documentary War of Words: Soldier Poets of the Somme. In remembrance of those lost.
There is a lot of us in this.
Will let you know when more is available.
Have a beautiful evening.
x
(T)
Paul Greer 