Michael Please Animation and Things

Hello Tokyo

2011-12-29T04:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I arrived in Japan to begin a 2 and halfish month residency with JAPIC Japan's mega cool Image Council. I'm going to be working on pre-production of a short I had a bit of a false start with last year along side a couple of other smaller projects. Last night I filmed the view from my window and mixed it with the audio from, it would appear to be, ALL the local shops. They just can't get enough of this. I now hear this tune everywhere I go. My heart beats in time to it. So seemingly does Tokyo's...

More to come.

- The Miserable -

2011-10-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

for all you Ryan Gosling fans out there.

Inspired by a line from The Fades.

Henry heard the doorbell and looked at his watch. They had said six thirty, and she was punctual to the minute. He checked his hair one last time in the hallway mirror before answering the door. Henry’s last girlfriend had left him, three months earlier, abruptly. Lucy had also broke up with someone around the same time and this was their first official date. She was taller and older looking than he remembered her from the dinner party. But then, after all, he was drunk that night and embarrassingly recalled slurring his words and spilling gravy down his white shirt. She was a little pale for his liking and her round, thin-rimmed glasses reminded him of the Nazi general Heinrich Himmler, but the overall impression was one of composure and elegance. She was immaculately neat and he liked that. Tonight, he thought, he too would be the model of chivalry as he held her hand to help her into the black cab waiting for them at the bottom of the steps and she lifted her blue satin dress up over her shoes stepping across a puddle.

On their way to the theatre Lucy told him about the new rendering of Les Miserables that they were about to see. Apparently after a twenty five year run the theatre directors had decided the show needed modernizing, something to keep the aging classic interesting for contemporary audiences. There had been a dramatic re-write, a new cast were brought in, several B-list celebrities, and running centre stage was international flavor of the month, Ryan Gosling as the young vibrant French revolutionary Jean Valjean. No expense had been spared. Plus there were incredible stage effects, everything was real; the swords, the gunpowder and the most impressively of all- the Guillotine. This was demonstrated in the opening scene where, apparently, a full body pig, dead of course, was casually sliced in two, live on stage.

‘It’ll be quite the spectacle, that’s for sure’

Henry remarked and Lucy winked at him and Henry felt his pulse quicken and his stomach quiver. He straightened his back and looked at her from the corner of his eye giving a sideways smile. That’s right he thought, don’t give it all away.

They ate at a restaurant next to the Theatre and the conversation was polite. Feeling as though he wasn’t being interesting enough Henry changed tactics and dug deep for his best anecdotes, recalling them far to quickly then stopping suddenly, paranoid that he was talking too much. He laughed into his third glass of wine, speckling flecks of red all over his face. Lucy looked up from her steak, gave a soft smile and handed him a napkin.

They settled into their seats, third row from the front, and Henry apologised that all the boxes were booked. In truth they were just too expensive. They’re wonderful seats Lucy reassured him, and they were. Sitting close to him now he could smell her perfume, reminding him of spring and juniper berries, and he lowered his hand to touch hers but recalled it nervously, as she stared forward, waiting patiently for the show to begin.

The curtain rose and, as expected it was spectacular, Gosling strutting from stage right to stage left in a costume like a tattered regal pheasant, explosions, sword fights, rotating sets, real horses! And then of course, the Guillotine. Henry re-crossed his legs and decided it couldn’t hold any longer, he’d have to go to the bathroom, apologizing to Lucy and everyone else on the row as they stood to let him past.

‘Hurry’ Lucy whispered as he went, ‘you’re going to miss the pig’

And sure enough as he left the auditorium the butches boy wheeled on the dead beast and Gosling kicked out the backs of an aristocrats knees as the deadly blade was raised to the clicking sound of cogs. He cursed as from the end of the side corridor as Henry heard the blade drop, a gasp from the audience and then a rapturous applause. Pulling up his flies, Henry heard the clicking cogs again, the blade rising presumably this time for the aristocrat’s neck. And then there was a snap, a swoosh and a loud scream. Henry turned off the tap. The silence was broken by a frantic cry for a doctor and Henry heard commotion break out in the theatre, scrambling of chairs and people getting to their feet. He hurried back down the corridor and burst through the doors to see the Guillotine blade hanging precariously from one rope, a smear of red across one corner. Amongst a gabble of stunned cast, between two halves of a dead pig, convulsing in a heap on the floor was Ryan Gosling. And he was torn open from neck to naval. And there, hunched over him was Lucy, her left hand deep in the open wound, her blue satin dress drenched in blood.

‘We’ve got to stop the bleeding!’ she shouted to the huddle surrounding her as she put her thumb into a protruding tube of meat as it squirted blood over her thin-rimmed glasses.

‘The blades struck the vertebral column’ she said and pushed her hand deeper still into Goslings belly, something else burst and a thick spray covered the remaining blue of her dress and the exposed skin of her neck and lower face.

‘Give her some room!’ someone shouted as she plunged her second hand into the wound.

‘If I can… just…. reach… the pulmonary artery’ she said through clenched teeth as Gosling gave one last violent jerk and sagged into a still lifeless heap.

Lucy’s shoulders drooped too and she stood up, wiping her hands pointlessly on her blood soaked dress, saying simply

‘He’s gone.’

It was if the spell holding the rooms in silence was broken. There was an eruption of talk and crowds of people began to clamber on stage, cameras snapped, old ladies fainted and through the commotion Lucy quietly moved away and out a side door.

Down a corridor she found a fire exit to an alleyway and stepped out into the cool evening air, her breath becoming mist against a streetlight. Staggering behind her came Henry. He felt faint and lent against the alley wall to hold his balance. Lucy turned to look at him, her face a mask of red, only the round white circles of her glasses breaking the colour.

‘B-but Lucy…’ he stammered,

‘you’re an accountant.’

‘Yes.’ she agreed.

‘I just wanted to know what a mans guts felt like.’

She winked at him, then licked her lips.

Second Song commemorative 'block-scene' cake

2011-10-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

Proof I had fun on the Tv on the Radio video, in the form of a commemorative block scene cake made by Artist Kate Elizabeth Bently and Set designer Sean Robert Hogan. Moments after this picture was taken I lunged at them smashing the thing from their hands, and trampling it to dust. I hate that scene.

SEVEN LEGS

2011-10-19T07:16:00.000-07:00

Today I also bring you this.

CHICAGO!!!

2011-10-19T04:56:00.001-07:00

YEEEAHH! Chief programmer Penelope and I posing like pimps at the Chicago International Film festival. I hold in my nervous grasp the Golden Hugo for Best Short Film.

Mildly better quality than youtube version of Second Song

2011-09-09T03:55:00.000-07:00

TV on the Radio - Second Song from Mikey Please on Vimeo.

Making of - TV ON THE RADIO - Second Song

2011-09-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

Oh hey there...
Here is some stuff to look at, from behind the emerald curtain...

Alota the time, my favorite shots are the one's I can't use.
In this scene my hands were red for weeks.

After many hours

of threading things on wire

we realised we could have just done it on a computer.
tho, I'm glad we did it like this.

As he turned on the record player,

I slowly sliced him to pieces.

So, this set is responsible for the only time in my life where hysterical laughter has seamlessly melted into genuine crying as Sean Hogan (above looking nonchalant with a drill) and I realised that the 2000 hand cut rectangles which had to be individually wrestled into each hole to eventually fill this grid, were all one square to the left of where they should be. Watch the video again, this shot is up there for 2 seconds. Sean had to leave the room while I stood in the corner shaking like an old lady.

Ha! Just reading this back it sounds reeaaal bleak. It wasn't. I mostly had a delightful time with an amazing crew, playing with models figuring my way around problems in the most ridiculous way. Which is real fun.

There is more stuff like this but... i'm don't think I'm going to show it. Sorry.
I think it removes a bit of the magic. What do you think? discuss:

NEW TV ON THE RADIO VIDEO ONLINE!

2011-04-12T11:17:00.000-07:00

It's part of an album long film. My bit begins at 5:52. It was a bit of mental production, just a few weeks at Clapham Studios working with some mighty talented model-makers! There is more to say about this but my brain has mmmmeeelllteedd....

Paper birth

2011-03-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

I've lost my mass produced paper virginity in the form of PAPERCRA FT2 published by uber good German outfit Gestalten. it contains lots of peoples work and not actually sure 100% what's in there of my own. I'll find out when I get my copy. But it looks beautiful. Like this image from the relentlessly brilliant Johnny Kelly...

2011-03-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

I just came across the Sleepwalkers Festival site where it turns out TES won the Best Animated Short award all the way back in November along side the fine company of Ariel Kleiman and Daniel Mulloy. I had no idea! A triumph for procrastination.

WHOLPHIN award at SXSW!

2011-03-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

HOLY MACKEREL! Eagleman just picked up the Wholphin Award at SXSW!
Wholphin is the ludicrously good film distribution project established by Dave Eggers, one of the most inspiring contemporary writers about, who amongst other things (like founding McSweeneys Quaterly and co-writing the Where the Wild Things Are film) wrote an incredible book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, a book I found greatly inspiring when writing TES. This really takes the biscuit. I'm not sure who's directly responsible for this, but I'm wobbly inside.

Eagleaspen!

2011-02-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

Peter's USA tour continues..

BAFTA WIN

2011-02-14T08:35:00.001-08:00

Me (left) and my Brother Benedict (right) who composed the score and sound design for the film, at the afterparty lugging around a little chunk a metal. Oh this little thing....?

For Queen and Country

2011-02-11T16:22:00.001-08:00

As well as screening in this Future Film event, the BFI are taking on the film into the National Archive so it's safe forever and the British Council have also agreed to support the films festival run!

Eagleman lake timelapse

2011-02-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

'Mickey' mouse Please on the BBC

2011-02-11T09:53:00.000-08:00

So BBC 1 ran this nice little spot on me on the 7 o'clock news.
Although it sounds like I'm a 5 year old cartoon mouse who'd just gone to the loo on his own for the first time, mistaking the RCA for the Royal Academy and saying that i did everything all by myself (which I definitely didn't).... it went ok.

SXSW!!!

2011-02-11T09:45:00.000-08:00

Holy smokes! The Egleman Stag will be making its way to South by South West! To be in the Animated Shorts competition.

Eagleman Studio mega fun time

2011-01-25T18:26:00.000-08:00

pictures

BAFTA Nomination!

2011-01-18T00:52:00.000-08:00

What the devil. Two of my bestest friends Dave and Mattais, along with myself have been nominated for the BAFTA short animation award. We all made our films over the same few months in the same building, sort of, at the RCA. There must have been something in the water....

I forgot about Dre

2011-01-11T04:07:00.000-08:00

and this

The Innumerable benefits of Quitting

2011-01-04T17:05:00.000-08:00

So rather than just going silent for 6 months and then surfacing again with something out of the blue, I thought it'd be nice to keep some sort of record of whats happening. So here are a few initial pieces of artwork from a new short film currently in pre-production. It will be in gorious tantalising technicolour. More to follow.

SUNDANCE

2010-12-10T12:31:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty pleased to say I'll be screening The Eagleman Stag at mother heffin SUNDANCE in January . I shall also be attending with the kind support of Agile Films, The British Council and Film London. Come see the film and me fumble a Q & A after at the following times:

Final Public Screening Times

Animation Spotlight

Friday, January 21, midnight

Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City

Saturday, January 22, 11:30 a.m.

Prospector Square Theatre, Park City

Sunday, January 23, 1:30 p.m.

Broadway Centre Cinema IV, SLC

Thursday, January 27, 8:30 p.m.

Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City

Saturday, January 29, 6:00 p.m.

Screening Room, Sundance Resort

A thing

2010-12-02T17:20:00.000-08:00

Something for nothing but a thing none the less on the way to somewhere....
I liked San Fransisco.

Duck. Bear. Duckbear.

2010-11-12T15:51:00.000-08:00

I recently finished this next installment of the Animation Tag Attack project, from the brilliant and patient mind of Christen Bach. I recommend you watch the full thing and find out what its about@ www.animationtagattack.blogspot.com
I had to annoyingly delay this a fair bit because of other stuff, eventually having to complete it in some pretty weird places while hopping about the Californian coast a coupla weeks back. Try animating a lazer-eyed Duckbear in the back of a ford focus driving through the Nevada desert on the way to Vegas. Animation fear and loathing style...
Massive hat off to Joseph Tate for some truly sterling sound design. Spot the slow-motion wildebeest. yum.

Zombigotchi!

2010-11-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

so the chaps at Finkbom asked me to make a short film for their new iphone app where you get to be generally unpleasant to a little zombie fella. After the cerebral headache of Eagleman, this was a frickin delight to make. It was directed by my inner toddler. Enjoy!

2010-09-26T16:34:00.000-07:00

My Cousins littluns Louis and Orlando made this ammmaaaazzzziiinnng poster for a talk I did in Bath last month. These guys will grow up to be kings I swear it. They have already surpassed me in both skillz and coolness.

The Eagleman Stag Complete!

2010-08-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

2 years of thinking on my bike.
3 months of writing, planning, designing & storyboarding.
6 months of long weeks and longer days shooting, building, editing and polishing in post.
115 separate shot set ups
A gazillion hand sculpted blades of stupid grass
A fine bunch of buddies to help me make stuff
1 David Cann
1 Benedict Please
9 minutes of your undivided attention please.

I'll be using my otherwise useless twitter account to update where its showing next. There will be more material released about the film in due course, but for now, scrutinise the trailer and try to work out how old Peter and his son actually are....

Eagleman Instillation

2010-08-28T16:35:00.000-07:00

To accompany the debut screening of The Eagleman Stag at the Royal College of Art Summer Show, I put together this instillation of a selection of the props and puppets used in the film. I was very reluctant to do so initally and just had the beetle on its own, but i'm glad I went all out in the end. In part it served as a kind of coat of arms for Peter, a kind of montage of elements from his memory. And in part it was a big arrow towards my screen, which was just to the right.

Peter Head Sculpt

2010-08-28T16:08:00.000-07:00

An early sculpt of the man himself...

helping out on Andreya Triana's new promo

2010-08-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of working on this promo for Ninja Tunes Andreya Triana's new single 'Lost Where I belong', directed by the stupidly and annoyingly talented Moth Collective's David Prosser and Daniel Chester. To the delight of my flatmates, it was filmed in my living room. Stop making toast, we're doing a video...

Design work for The Eagleman Stag

2010-08-28T15:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a few character designs for the venerable Peter Eagleman, the central protagonist in my new fim; The Eagleman Stag

We Are As Men As We Were Once Then

2010-08-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

"There was an old lady who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do
So she sat on the floor. And pissed on the floor,
And pissed all over the ceiling"

Early lyrical gold from my 3 year old self. I started making this short film based on an old tape I found of me, my brother Benedict, cousin Peter and Dad all sitting around playing instruments and telling jokes about old ladies urinating over infants. For one reason and another I've had to shelve it for the time being. Sad as this was, it was a big stepping stone towards the aesthetic treatment for The Eagleman Stag, except... its all live action... Wha? Yes. It's true. I filmed all the components of the puppetry separately and then spent a silly amount of time gluing them together digitally. Once i finally got there it looked very nice indeed.

Scanners Video

2010-08-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

I helped my dear friend Amer Chadha Patel on this video for Scanners by doing some of the 2D scratchy animation bits. very satisfying... I am going to do more 2d stuff.

'Everybody' goes to No1 on the US chart!

2010-08-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

Ingrid Michaelson's new album Everybody, for which I've been doing all the artwork & branding and a music video and EVERYTHING for, has gone to No 1 on the itunes US album chart. Go Ingrid! Woo!

Dazed and Confused Iinterview

2010-08-28T14:20:00.000-07:00

The folk at Dazed & Confused ran this very flattering, full of lovely lies feature on me. The alternative photo to this one involved my nipples and a top hat. Not cool.

BAFTA 'One to Watch' Article

2010-08-28T13:58:00.000-07:00

BAFTA kindly interviewed myself and blood brother/collaborator Ben Gerlis about our graduation films from Wimbledon, Crone and Spectacular View, a while back. It's lovely to see his face in the same frame as mine. Ben's now working out in Montreal and you can see more of his awesome work here.

ABC Network do a mini 'making of' for the Maybe Promo

2010-08-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

This makes my toes curl. I am an animator (as opposed to a TV personality) for a good reason. Still it might be interesting to somebody..

I"VE MADE A KNEW BLOUGE

2010-08-28T12:47:00.000-07:00

ok - This is blog attempt numreo threeee! I've scrapped the other two and scooped evertyhing old onto here.Lets see how long it lasts...