BAFTA New Talent Awards Monday, 22 March 2010
Posted by Helen in News.Tags: scottish chamber orchestra, award, BAFTA Scotland
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Friday night was the Scottish BAFTA New Talent Awards 2010. The ceremony was held in the Mitchell Theatre and had a lovely relaxed atmosphere. As nominees we felt well and truly supported by BAFTA. The picture shows the Scottish Chamber Orchestra‘s Lucy Perry, Helen Jackson of Binary Fable, and Jackie Arnott-Raymond of Front Page Design. Adam Brewster, as usual, is behind the camera.
Congratulations to May Miles Thomas, who pipped us to the Interactive award with her project The Devil’s Plantation. Thanks, May, for giving us a wee mention in your acceptance speech!
Funniest line of the evening went to Best Acting Performance winner Eric Robertson: “Finally, I’d like to thank whoever donated this suit to Oxfam”!
Making headlines Monday, 15 March 2010
Posted by The Lost Book in News.Tags: interview, award, BAFTA Scotland
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Thanks to the Edinburgh Evening News for featuring us in Friday’s paper. You can read the full piece online: “City’s online animation is up for Scots Bafta award“.
New BAFTA nomination! Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Posted by Helen in News.Tags: award, BAFTA Scotland
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The Lost Book has been nominated for a second BAFTA Scotland award. This time it’s a New Talent award, in the Interactive category. Nominations were announced last night at a do in the newly-opened (and rather swanky) Blytheswood Square Hotel in Glasgow.
One of the great pleasures of the nomination event was meeting the competition – the multi-talented May Miles Thomas of Elemental Films. May’s something of a legend – she swept the board at the BAFTA Scotland New Talent awards back in 2000 with the UK’s first digital feature film One Life Stand, which also won a Scottish Screen Outstanding Achievement Award.
May’s 2009 interactive project is The Devil’s Plantation:
The idea: to explore the Secret Geometry of Glasgow and find magic in ordinary places… Dear green place or derelict dystopia?
I’m planning to spend time this week properly exploring The Devil’s Plantation as it looks fantastic – why don’t you head over there and take a look?
Here’re some fuzzy snapshots of the evening (my mobile phone camera isn’t getting any better!). Left to right, there’s me with May, Elemental Films’ producer Owen with Lost Book sound designer Stephen, and me with Stephen.
Poetry in motion Friday, 26 February 2010
Posted by Helen in News.Tags: animation, books, video
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The Carry a Poem reading campaign has been in full flow here in Edinburgh this month. Locals have had a chance to get hold of the free book, attend numerous adventurous events, see poems and poets on stage, on plants, on landmarks and even on sports shirts.
If you’re not in Edinburgh, or have missed the excitement, there’s still time to read the Carry a Poem book online (it’ll be available until the end of February) or take part by answering the question “how do you carry yours?“. Or, for BookCrossers, there’s a Carry a Poem bookring – sign up now.
Oh, and take a look at the animated trailer that Binary Fable produced for the campaign. If you’d like to know more about how it was made, I’ve been blogging about the production process.
Viral explosion Friday, 8 January 2010
Posted by Helen in News.Tags: animation, books, video
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A sneak preview of the Carry a Poem animation has exploded onto screens in Edinburgh and online. How do you carry yours? Visit www.carryapoem.com to tell your story and join the campaign.
Carry a Poem Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Posted by Helen in News.Tags: animation, books, story
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The Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust has announced its fourth annual reading campaign, for 2010.
It’ll be partnering with the Scottish Poetry Library to challenge the people of Edinburgh to Carry a Poem during the month of February. There will be the usual free books, activities, events, and even a new animation by Binary Fable (follow its production over at the Binary Fable blog).
The Carry a Poem campaign website has just been launched and needs your stories. Do you have a poem you carry with you? What does it mean to you? How do you carry it?
You don’t have to be in Edinburgh to take part. Simply get in touch with your answer to the question “How do you carry yours?” !
Artwork by Emily Isles – www.emilyisles.com
Congratulations to Cybraphon! Monday, 9 November 2009
Posted by Helen in News.Tags: mick cooke, belle and sebastian, award, BAFTA Scotland
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We were at the BAFTA Scotland awards last night. It was a fabulously glittery evening and a great party. The bad news for us was that The Lost Book didn’t win the Interactive category – but the good news is that the award went to the lovely Cybraphon. Here we are with Cybraphon’s human representatives (who explained that Cybraphon couldn’t make it there due to a lack of casters!) and their BAFTA:
Other good news: Mick Cooke (our soundtrack competition guest judge) and Gili Dolev picked up the Animated Short award for the brilliant The Happy Duckling. Well done Mick and Gili!
And the prize draw winner is… Monday, 2 November 2009
Posted by The Lost Book in News.Tags: storyboard, scottish chamber orchestra, feedback, prize draw, survey
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Congratulations to libertine101 of Western Australia – you’re the winner of our prize draw. The signed storyboard panel and CD are winging their way to you! Many thanks to everyone who took part in our feedback survey.
libertine101 factoid: libertine101 was the person who came up with the name Invisible Inc. for our secret society of bibliophiles, voted the best suggestion back in February.
Where are you? Friday, 30 October 2009
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I just combined our webstats with a World66 visited countries map to create a map showing the locations of all the visitors to The Lost Book website. You’re in 121 different countries:
Aren’t maps fun?!
In the news Monday, 26 October 2009
Posted by Helen in News.Tags: award, BAFTA Scotland, press
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Thanks to Laura Cummings and the Evening News for a wee mention in Saturday’s paper. It’s great to have support and coverage in Edinburgh’s press. The caption says “Delighted: Helen Jackson” which captures some of the jumping-about joy I’ve been expressing!
Read the piece online: Interactive animation ‘The Lost Book’ up for Bafta.
Interactive Friday, 23 October 2009
Posted by Helen in News.Tags: award, BAFTA Scotland
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It’s been quite a week! We’re still bouncing about with excitement after the BAFTA Scotland nomination. I thought you might like to see the other nominees in the Interactive category – after all, if you like The Lost Book, you might like them.
In alphabetical order, then, first up is British Music Experience. I have to confess to knowing next to nothing about the project – according to the website it’s “Britain’s new interactive museum of popular music” at The O2, where you can “explore, play, sing and dance your way through 60 years of British music history”. Gotta be fun!
The other contender is Cybraphon, a local project. Cybraphon is essentially a cabinet that plays music (the artists, Edinburgh-based collective FOUND, describe it as “an autonomous, emotional robot band”). But, and here’s the fun bit, Cybraphon has moods which define what tunes it plays. Cybraphon’s moods are dependent on how much it’s being talked about online. If it were plugged in at the moment (which apparently it isn’t) this blog post would no doubt cheer it up!
The awards ceremony is on Sunday 8th November 2009 and we’re up against worthy opponents. Hope you enjoy exploring British Music Experience and Cybraphon – but keep your fingers crossed for us!
Nominated for a BAFTA Scotland award! Monday, 19 October 2009
Posted by Helen in News.Tags: award, BAFTA Scotland
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Great news: The Lost Book has been nominated in the Interactive category for the BAFTA Scotland Awards 2009!
This nomination is for everyone involved in The Lost Book, and that includes all of you who took part in writing the story. Here’s our entry form – we made sure you were listed in the credits:
Books and animation Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Posted by Helen in News.Tags: animation, books
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All you aficionados of both books and animation – take a look at This Is Where We Live, a short animated film celebrating Fourth Estate’s 25th anniversary.
TIWWL was produced by Asylum Films and shows a city made out of books, through which little paper people go about their business. Speaking to Imagine Magazine, animation director Jordon Wood describes the challenges of character animation:
“Each character was animated traditionally on paper which gave us the fluid movement we wanted. To get the authentic paper texture and print, each frame was then transferred by hand onto book pages. These were then cut out so they could be positioned on set.
“I then had to come up with a way of standing a single piece of flat paper on its end. Creating paper tabs for feet was the obvious choice but they couldn’t support the weight and were visible which ruined the illusion of a seamless character walking off the pages. There were often up to 40 characters in a shot; one frame could take 8 minutes to set up so we couldn’t have characters blowing over. We needed a sturdy, invisible rig and the simplest solution turned out to be the most effective. The individual character frames were rigged with a spine (paper clip) which kept the character flat; glue discoloured the paper so we used white tac instead. We moulded a tiny white tac foot at the base of the spine which supported the weight, kept the character in position and left no residue on the set when replaced with the next frame.”
If you’ve got time, watch the timelapse videos showing the animation and set-building teams at work as well as the film – it’s a fascinating process.
Production still (The Museum Quarter) from This Is Where We Live at www.25thestate.com.
Another investigation for Sean Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Posted by The Lost Book in News.Tags: actors, sean biggerstaff
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A new series of Miss Marple started on ITV last Sunday – you can catch up by watching it on ITV player (available for the next 27 days). Sean Biggerstaff (the voice of Kyle, Otto and Watson) is starring in the third episode of the series, “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans“. Don’t miss it!
View the trailer on Masterpiece Mystery, where the series aired this summer.
Image thanks to WGBH via Wizard News.
Fireworks concert Thursday, 3 September 2009
Posted by Helen in News.Tags: Music, scottish chamber orchestra, composer
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The Edinburgh International Festival ends this weekend and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra will be playing at the traditional end of festival fireworks concert.
Have you ever wondered how the fireworks are timed to match the music? Me too! But, I’ve found out this year – because one of our composers, Michael Ferguson, is working on it. During the performance he’ll be following the score and calling out cues so that the pyrotechnician can set off the fireworks at the right time.
To find out all about it, read the interview with Michael on page 7 of the concert programme.
“From Where…” review Friday, 21 August 2009
Posted by The Lost Book in News.Tags: actors
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I mentioned Fringe show From Where I Am Standing earlier in the week. If you missed the show, read Lyn Gardner’s review in The Guardian Theatre Blog – “It’s not just one of the best things I’ve seen in Edinburgh this year, but one of the best pieces I’ve seen anywhere…”
Well done Junction 25 and Jackie!
Update: next performance of From Where I Am Standing will be at the MacRobert Centre in Stirling on 12th September 2009 (£6/£4 concessions).
Officially the best Friday, 21 August 2009
Posted by Watson in News.Tags: characters, Poll, twitter
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Watson reporting.
I am, officially, your favourite member of The Lost Book team! I beat Kyle (grrrr) into second place, and my Aileen was third. (I can’t believe you lot rate Kyle above Aileen. You’ve got some explaining to do!)
I’ve added this as the last fact in my list of facts. I like to keep lists and this one records all the decisions taken by vote during our Lost Book adventure. There are 52. That’s a lot of decision-making!
I need a new list! Maybe Invisible Inc. has one I can keep?
Keep storytelling Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Posted by Helen in Microstory competition, News.Tags: writing
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Have you enjoyed contributing 100-word microstories to The Lost Book? Are you looking for another outlet for your creativity?
I met Ken MacLeod, acclaimed author and writer in residence at the Genomics Forum, last night (and embarrassed him by enthusing about how much I like his writing). That reminded me that I’ve been meaning to tell you all about his Human Genre Project and some other fiction/microfiction sites.
• The Human Genre Project is great – “a collection of new writing in very short forms — short stories, flash fictions, reflections, poems — inspired by genes and genomics.” Anyone can submit work, simply by emailing Ken MacLeod. It launched last month and there’s a good collection of interesting writing already on the site. Go and take a look!
• 100 Word Stories – weekly challenge based on a theme, where you can vote on the winner. The current topic is “Over the falls in a barrel”, with submissions due by August 21.
• 100 Words – join the community and challenge yourself to write 100 words a day for a month.
• Great Hites weekly story contest – write a short story (100-3000 words) based on a prompt (this week it’s “Pick up your local paper, choose an interesting news item. Tell us about it and then write a story based on that news item”, closing date 25 August) or vote on your favourite entry from the previous week. Lost Book writer Norvaljoe‘s work can often be found here.
• JBWB’s list of UK writing competitions.
• Surface Tension often blogs about, and links to, short writing challenges – as well as posting the author’s own microfiction and self-challenges.
Added 26 August 2009:
• Scottish Book Trust – creative writing opportunities for teens and young people.
• Frying an egg – 100 word story prompts.
• Leaf Books’ 2009 microfiction competition – max. 300 words, closing date 30 September (small entry fee).
If you’ve got any other links you’d like to tell us and everyone else about, leave us a comment.
Lost and forgotten books Monday, 17 August 2009
Posted by Helen in News.Tags: bookcrossing, books, interview
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Ginger Gorman has blogged over at the ABC Canberra site about her “Afternoons” show on 6th August, which featured Adam talking about The Lost Book.
There’s an extract from Adam’s interview plus Ginger’s summary of the other lost book stories she uncovered for the show. BookCrossers and book sharers will be particularly interested to learn about the Footpath Library and there’s a great tale from the National Library of Australia.
Thanks, Ginger, for the shout-out!
Molekilby on the fourth plinth Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Posted by Helen in News.Tags: arthur conan doyle, bookcrossing, books
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Have you been watching One & Other, Antony Gormley’s “living monument” in Trafalgar Square?
We’ve just heard that BookCrosser and Plinther Molekilby plans to tell the world about BookCrossing, The Lost Book, and the Edinburgh City of Literature when he’s on the plinth. He’s even planning to wild release a copy of The Lost World by throwing it from the plinth.
Congratulations Molekilby on getting a place! He’ll be there during week 10 – that’s the week of 7th September. We’ll remind you nearer then and give you the exact date and time.
Molekilby won’t be the first BookCrosser on the plinth – that honour went to Natalie_M who BookCrossed in the wee early hours of 21 July.
The Lost Book is an animated web series where you wrote the plot.
