Good Things Become Great Art

It’s not every day that we get to see the film stars of the future at the humble beginnings of their careers. Every once in a while we get an opportunity to peek into a crystal ball at what and who are going to be big in the movies – but I’m not talking about your traditional headlining acts, instead I’m referring to one of the jewels in the crown of Irish Film – the animation industry.

Last night I had the pleasure of attending “All Good Things”  IADT’s  2014 Animation Graduate exhibition and Screening – and although I’m just a passerby with a lifelong fondness for “cartoons” – it was a thoroughly enjoyable showcase that proved that Irish animation is in safe hands for the future.

All Good Things – IADT Animation’s Graduate Exhibition

The Irish animation industry is presently enjoying a Golden Age, with multiple studios producing both original productions and animation work for the likes of Disney and Cartoon Network. Some of the most notable names include, Boulder Media (who have won BAFTAs for their work on The Amazing World of Gumball), Brown Bag Studios (Octonauts, Hugglewugs) , JAM media (Roy) and Cartoon Saloon who created the gorgeous Secret of Kells.

These are just a fraction of the companies the graduates will be planning their futures. As Ireland steps into a future that is uncertain, one thing is sure, its visual effects and animation is on a pathway to new growth and looking at these graduates is full of potential.

The Lighthouse Cinema was full to the brim, bursting with anticipation for a screening of short films and showcases that represented – not just one year of work but four years of preparation. With viewers from the very young to the young at heart, parents, creators, friends and mentors gathered to watch what might not be the beginning of their artistic careers but certainly a significant chapter. And what an entertaining, poignant, mind-blowing, exhilarating, imaginative, funny chapter it was. The animators displayed distinctive talents with from artistic skill and inventiveness to creativity and a command of story and timing that seasoned filmmakers I’m sure would envy.

While each of the exhibits and films were commendable in their own way, there were a number of stand outs that hovered in my mind as I made the journey home. First among these was Clare Carroll’s stop-motion comedy – ‘A Girl’s Best Friend’ which kept the audience laughing throughout its run time and managed to tell one of the most convincing stories of ‘unlikely friendship’ I’ve ever seen. The stop motion puppetry was wonderful, the lighting and individual shots were beautiful and the comedic timing was unparalleled.

Melissa Malone delighted with achingly beautiful backgrounds  in ‘Lena and Gray’ which made me want to bathe in the same rich hues her characters found themselves in.

This was contrasted by Eva Kavanagh’s ‘Useless’. It told a powerful story about decommissioned robots, that had not unflattering reminders of George Orwell throughout.

Another showcase that sizzled was Katie O’ Meara’s ‘Sunlight’,  which danced through an up-beat soundtrack and melted from shot to shot, taking the audience through a medley of  beautifully animated light effects that managed to leave us with not just the image of sunlight, but what it feels like to be dancing in it too.

There is little I can say about Anita Gaughan’s ‘Vertical Horizon’s’ other than I can’t wait for the day that it becomes a feature length film – not only was it incredible to look at, it immediately brought the entire audience on a fantastic journey through the clouds on the wings of the world’s coolest eagle. My descriptions don’t do it justice.

Dee McDonnell’s ‘Tiger & Wolf’ closed the show with a sparkling tale about how even the best of friends can have disagreements that separate them. Her characters were imbued with a personality that told a story that lived in their eyes –  and was a fitting finish to what was a screening of stories that were so entertaining and professional, they could fool the audience into thinking that these creations were easily born.

But we know better, we know the work, the blood, the sweat and the proverbial tears that went into creating each of the exhibits and films. The creativity that made these stories was born of years of hard work, education and immersive art. Writing scripts, sketching storyboards, designing characters and backgrounds – not to mention creating the animation proper.

It seems like a lot to go through for a few minutes of animation. But the graduates of IADT 2014 seem to know that it’s worth it, worth the work to dream the dream, to tell the stories and to make the delighted child who sat in front of me  laugh for the whole evening long. Afterall, they are the future stars of Animation.

The IADT Animation BA (Hons) Exhibition can be viewed in IADT Dun Laoghaire, from Friday June 6th to June 10th. You won’t be sorry you had a look.

 

 

 

Will Rainbow Rowell please be my Best Friend?

After an inexcusably long hiatus, I’ve returned to the land of blogging and books. It’s been months since my last post and I’ve read thousands of pages between now and then. As can be expected, some of those pages have been good, some have been bad and some have been life-altering.

I haven’t wanted an author to be my new best friend since I read Harry Potter and discovered JK Rowling, so the discovery of Rainbow Rowell has been something of a revelation. I discovered her last September – with the purchase of Eleanor & Park – and moved swiftly on to Fangirl and Attachments.

Eleanor & Park US cover

Eleanor & Park tells the story of two teenager’s first love- Eleanor, the new girl at school who couldn’t be more different than her peers (with her disasterous home life and unique tastes) and Park, the boy who has never been outside of the crowd – but never quite fit in either. It sounds like a conventional premise, however it’s anything but a conventional love story.

Her Story of Before: A Conversation with Susan Stairs

 

With comparisons to The Lovely Bones and a voice so affecting that it stays with you long after the page, it’s no surprise that Susan Stairs, The Story of Before is sweeping readers off their feet.

I sat down with the first time novelist to talk about fame,  fiction and the writing life.

Susan Stairs has had a busy month. Following the launch of her first novel, The Story of Before in June, Susan has been everywhere, talking about writing, tragedy and character’s motivation. When we meet, she’s just in from a BBC NI interview. For a writer who is used to solitude, to be thrust headfirst into the limelight isn’t exactly easy,“It is difficult to deal with the whole circus, interviews, and everything,” she says.

It’s a complete change of pace from the year and a half the Dublin native spent writing the actual novel.  “I started writing it during my MA. I submitted the first 15,000 words as my dissertation – so that was about five chapters”.  Susan completed her MA in creative writing in UCD in 2009 and from then worked towards finishing her book.

The Story of Before is told by eleven year old Ruth, who has just moved from the City Centre to the suburbs of Dublin with her family. Ruth’s estate in the novel is so immersive it borders on claustrophobic, which is exactly what Susan was going for, “I didn’t want to have a lot of scenes happening anywhere else”.

On New Years Eve Ruth predicts that a ‘bad thing’ will happen that year. She cannot know how this will affect her family and truly change her life forever. With comparisons to the direct and moving story of Susie Salmon in The Lovely Bones, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Susan has been plugging away in the novel game for years, rather than a relative first-timer. The story that befalls Ruth and her family was always one that she wanted to tell, “The ‘tragic event’ of the novel had been on my mind for a long time and I knew that was what I wanted to write about. It was inspired by an event that really did happen. I always knew that was going to be the reveal,” Susan says.

“I was writing pretty much full time, while I was doing it. I sometimes look back and wonder, how did I do that when I had now idea what was going to happen to it. I never had a doubt in my mind that I was going to finish it. I mean I was writing a novel and I was finishing it,” she smiles. It wasn’t speed that got Susan through the process but determination, “I consider myself quite slow at writing, some days I would have only written 300 or 400 words, but I’m thinking all the time.”

And Susan’s mind didn’t let her rest,  “I’m kind of my own worst enemy in that way – I’m terribly critical of what I’m doing. If something doesn’t sound right, even if it’s just one word I have to change it.” At the same time, when it came to editorial judgement Susan had to face ‘killing her darlings’ like every other writer too, “There were some parts that I had really laboured over and it was difficult to get rid of them but at the same time I could see why they needed to go”.

 

And even though a year and a half doesn’t seem that long  to write a novel, Susan told me,“It seemed like forever to me, there are times when I think back on the hours that I put into it.” But what came out at the end is something truly special.

It still took a while for Susan to develop the story into Ruth’s distinctive voice, “Ruth was always a character, but I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to let this girl tell the story when she was older or as a child, but when I got my first line, “The others used to say I was psychic”, I knew this was a child talking and from then on it was very natural.”

Susan still had to navigate the pitfalls of  writing as a child telling a very adult story, something that even the most experienced of writers struggle with, “When I was writing, I had to be her, I had to be an eleven year old Dublin girl in the seventies. It becomes very natural when you’re writing, your mind just switches into that mode, you become somebody else” And that brings its own restrictions too, “There were a lot of words I couldn’t use, which was restrictive because I would think ‘No, that won’t work’ – Ruth wouldn’t say that.’”

Whenever an author becomes so involved with a single character it becomes a part of their life, they eat, breathe and drink the world through their eyes, so it becomes very difficult to bring them the sort of hardship that in Ruth’s case, Susan knew was coming all along. “Absolutely, it was very difficult, to write the ‘bad thing’ I cried a lot when I was writing that part, definitely.

‘And when I decided on it, it was like watching your children do something bad – but you can’t do anything about it – and feeling responsible. So that was probably the hardest thing to do because I was so involved with these characters, I had created them and yet I was allowing this person to do this awful thing, so that was really hard.”

The care and love that Susan has put into the novel shows, Ruth is the kind of girl who lives right up your street and that makes her story feel so much more powerful for readers,  who are already clamouring for a sequel. “I’ve always said no” Susan smiles, “But sometimes I think that you could resurrect characters from it, and take them down their own paths”.

Even her second novel, which she is currently working on, gained it’s inspiration from an event in The Story of Before.“What I’m writing now, was in some was inspired by one small thing in The Story of Before, there’s a letter that David sends to Ruth that she’s convinced isn’t true. That whole scenario opened up something for me and that has inspired number two”

And if it’s received anything like The Story of Before, Susan has nothing to worry about. “All the comments I’ve been getting have been great. The one phrase that people keep saying to me is ‘I couldn’t put it down’ and I’m absolutely chuffed to have people saying that to me, telling me that they can really identify with the setting and the time period”.

Susan’s success isn’t something that she takes lightly, the whole process was a long and required her to absolutely persevere, “I got so much advice when I was doing the MA. I wouldn’t have been able to do the novel if I hadn’t done the MA. I got great advice from Eilish Ni Dhuibhne, who was my tutor.  And from the classes with James Ryan.” As she thinks about what it took to get her where she is today, Susan gives me some wise words of advice, “I always say to myself, you never see books in shops from authors who gave up, you see the books from authors who persevere.”

And Susan is a living example of that happy fact.

 

As published on writing.ie

You may have missed: Very far away from anywhere else

And now we’ve reached the end of this little series with, for me, the book that started it all. A tiny little piece that was written in a single summer by Ursula le Guin who, at the time didn’t have the following she has now. This is one of her works that should get far more recognition in my experience. Fans of John Green ought to take note- this book takes on a lot of similar themes to his (The Fault in our Stars, An Abundance of Katherines, Looking for Alaska). It breaks my heart that it’s out of print. (Don’t worry it’s still available on Amazon and the like).

Very Far Away From Anywhere Else by Ursula Le Guin

And now we’ve gotten to the last and smallest on my list. And probably, almost definitely, the most obscure. Le Guin is by no means a forgotten author, having gained international fame by writing her signature style of epic fantasy in The Wizard of Earthsea and The Left Hand of Darkness. But this tiny little book, a nobody from 1976 that no one ever paid attention to is quite simply beautiful, a love letter to those who read fantasy rather than live it. It’s an easy story, a familiar story about a boy and a girl, two outcasts who take their time to fall in love, the boy, a scientist, thinks too much, the girl, a musician, can’t plug into reality and they both struggle through each day, trying to do the ‘Gorilla Act’ as best they can. The  book is as normal as they come and there in lies its beauty, it tells a simple tale of two normally abnormal teenagers trying their hardest to fit – not with the world- with eachother. With references to the Bronte’s and MIT and Tanglewood, there is nothing typical about this little gem. It was the first book I found to coin the term and I’ve used it ever since. Its tiny, small enough to read in two hours. But they’re two hours that you won’t forget, and you won’t ever want them back.

You may have missed: Pretty Monsters

And we’re back to extraordinary books whose profile should only be increased. You’ve heard me talk about this one before. And as one of my all time favourites, Pretty Monsters has it all.

Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link

Those of you who follow me, will know that I mention Pretty Monsters about once a month, more often if I can help it. This is the book I’ve recommended to more than any other to my friends, family, and general people that I meet in the street (because it’s nice to recommend books to strangers). It’s a kaleidoscopic mess full of witches and Scrabble and second hand shops, librarians, and monsters and graveyards and girlfriends. For two weeks after I read this collection, I never wanted to write another word – because there was no point – all the best words had been put in perfect order. Some of the highlights of the collection include ‘Magic For Beginners’, ”The Faery Handbag’ and the title tale, ‘Pretty Monsters’ which won the Nebula Award for ‘Best Novella’.

Link’s distinctive style shouldn’t work. She meddles with the reader’s perception, she mixes genres, churns up the narrative structure and ends most of her stories three seconds into the third act. It leaves the reader extraordinarily unsatisfied, absolutely gasping for just a few words more. Kelly Link is dangerous, she makes you an addict and then calmly cuts off your supply. It’s genius, delicious, and cruel. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

You can find more off the wall-amzingly-bonkers examples of her work at http://www.kellylink.net

Among Others: out of this world

It’s rare that I’ve found a book that speaks so directly to me it feels like it was written just for my eyes to see.

There have been many different takes on Jo Walton’s Among Others. But the most common phrase you will hear associated with this weighty little novel, is “love letter”. Although not a love letter of the romantic variety, Among Others is a love letter to the Sci-Fi genre, to the Welsh valleys, to books about boarding school, to libraries, librarians, to 1979, and to being a 15 year old who just doesn’t fit in. And it’s beautiful.

UK Paperback copy released March 21 2013

The 2012 recipient of both the Hugo and the Nebula awards (the Oscars of SF and Fantasy novels),  Among Others is a book for all those who grew up devouring novels and stories and for those who remember what that was like, to have books be the one refuge that they can return to. It also maintains a lovely fantasy story alongside, although ironically this is the weakest link in a very strong chain that holds Among Others together.

You might have missed: I Capture the Castle

Number three in my list of books that are unforgettable but unfortunately sometimes forgotten. This one is a desert island read if there ever was one. (Side note, the main virtue of what I’m currently reading : Jo Walton’s Among Others,  is that it reminds me of this book).

A beautiful new cover was recently released by Vintage.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Now, I feel a little guilty featuring I Capture the Castle in this list, as, being a modern classic- it’s hardly forgotten. Also having received endorsement from the most successful authors of the last 20 years (Ms JK Rowling) it can’t really be called a forgotten classic either- but I still feel justified because I’ve never met anyone who’s ever read it but me. And people should read it, people should devour it. I feel confident in saying that I’ve never come across a narrator so compellingly genuine and nuanced as Cassandra Mortmain. A teenager living in a dilapidated castle with a poverty stricken father, a beautiful sister and a bohemian step mother creates a new romantic fairytale turned on its head. When you’re in Cassandra’s world- you feel like you are taking each gorgeously articulated step with her, from the very first line, “I’m writing this sitting in the kitchen sink” – it has a vibrant pulse. Although the author seems best known for her penning of 101 Dalmations this is a book that should be gifted to every person who has ever been in unrequited love. You’ll have found a friend for life.

You may have missed: Where the god of love hangs out

Here’s the second of the books that should be on your shelf, a collection about love and loss and most importantly, people. I devoured it when I first opened its pages, I hope you will too.

Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom

I had never heard of Amy Bloom when I was given this book, I merely knew I liked the title of her collection. Once I had finished I couldn’t believe I had never known her name. The beautiful collection of interconnected short stories is an incredible treatise on love, life and the real people that are involved in both. It has the benefit of being incredibly written while  maintaining a striking realism all the way through. Love is never sappy. sentimental or trite. It’s a force of nature and Bloom writes about it with full knowledge of this. Bloom writes about affairs, murder, and broken relationships as if they were as easy describe as the flowers in her front garden. It’s a sharp book, with lots of teeth and harrowing scenes of loss and pain. But what really makes Where the God of Love Hangs Out sing are the effortlessly realistic descriptions of love in all of its forms.  Bloom ties these into her narrative without even breaking a sweat. I remember desperately not wanting it to end, not because I didn’t want the stories to stop but because the writing was so heart-achingly beautiful. She takes the ‘mundane’ and elevates it to high status, something which few authors can do well. It remains one of the best gifts I’ve ever received.

You may have missed: Tuck Everlasting

We all know the bestsellers, the books that jump out brightly coloured from the book shop shelves, artfully rested so you’ll notice them the minute you walk in the door. And generally you’ll have your fair share of quality in there.  But as there are bestselling wonder books, so there are books that lounge on shelves, hidden behind unfamiliar names, many of them equally as wonderful – if not more so.

These are books that may have passed beyond your notice, come out many years ago, or were simply written by authors with unfortunate surnames that lay hidden on the bottom shelves of bookshops. The majority of it is YA but that doesn’t mean ‘grown ups’ can’t read and love them too. Over the next few weeks I’ll release my recommendations of my favourite ‘forgotten’ books.

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit