Celebrated animators from the UK and Ireland visit Cardiff
Skwigly
Award-winning artists, directors and animators are visiting Cardiff this month to talk about their work.
Nicolas Ménard, Louise Bagnall, Conor Finnegan and Eimhin McNamara will be screening their animated films and discussing their celebrated creative work at Chapter, Cardiff on Saturday 22nd July.
The filmmakers, who are coming to Cardiff from London, Manchester, Dublin and Kilkenny, are part of renowned international animation collective Late Night Work Club (LNWC). The collective have been making waves in the animation scene since the release of their first anthology of animated short films, Ghost Stories, in 2013. Their second anthology, Strangers, was released in 2016 to wide acclaim, with contributions such as Kirsten Lepore’s Hi Stranger becoming viral hits.
NICOLAS MÉNARD – Nicolas Ménard is a Canadian artist and animation director living and working in London. His distinctive character designs thread their way through the many short films, GIFs, prints, books and interactive art he has produced, both personal and for clients such as Google, Universal and Time Magazine. Ménard’s film Wednesday With Goddard, which recently won Best Animated Short at SXSW, is part of Strangers, the second LNWC anthology.
LOUISE BAGNALL – Louise Bagnall is an Irish animation director currently working at Cartoon Saloon, Kilkenny, where she has worked on feature films Song Of The Sea & the forthcoming The Breadwinner, and the Puffin Rock television series. Bagnall’s Loose Ends features in Ghost Stories, the first LNWC anthology. Her next film as writer-director, Late Afternoon, is due for release later this year.
CONOR FINNEGAN – Conor Finnegan is currently in development on a TV series spin-off from his multi-award-winning short, Fear of Flying. His work, for clients such as Android & Dorset Cereals, utilises various techniques including stop-frame animation, 2d/ 3d and live action. Finnegan’s dark and bloody 2D animated short Asshole can be seen in LNWC’s first anthology Ghost Stories.
EIMHIN MCNAMARA – Eimhin McNamara is an Irish animation director working using traditional techniques such as watercolour painting & paper cut-outs for short films, music videos and commercials. He also teaches stop-motion to children with Paper Panther Productions in Dublin alongside Pádraig Fagan & Carol Freeman. McNamara is one of the original founding members of LNWC.
Getting to know each other through collaborating together online, some of the collective have never met in person, and will be meeting for the first time in Cardiff. The four of them will speak about their acclaimed animation work, in a masterclass chaired by Ben Mitchell, author of Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing your Animated Films.
The event is a taster for the brand new Cardiff Animation Festival, which is set to launch in Cardiff in April 2018. Running for three days, from the 20th-22nd April, the festival will celebrate all things animated, with screenings, talks, parties, industry events, workshops and masterclasses from animation industry greats.
Cardiff Animation Festival, and this month’s Late Night Work Club event, are organised by the team at Cardiff Animation Nights, who have been running animation events in Cardiff since 2014.
Tickets to see Ménard, Bagnall, Finnegan and McNamara’s masterclass, as well as LNWC anthologies Ghost Stories and Strangers, are available from Chapter’s box office at chapter.org or on 02920 30 44 00.
For more information on the event follow Cardiff Animation Festival on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram