A NOTICE...

Brain Wash is working on something special.

We've tried out a few website ideas over the past few months, and are pleased to say that an awesome, brand spanking new BW site will be launching very soon. Keep your eyes open - we'll be announcing the launch on our Facebook and Twitter! In the meantime, if you have any suggestions or ideas on what you'd like to see on a Brain Wash website, we'd love to hear them in the comments section below. Thanks!

GOOD STUFF: BEEPLE

Mike Winkelmann, aka beeple, is a graphic designer from Wisconsin with work in short films, live visuals, graphic design, music, drawings and videos for the likes of Flying Lotus. 

We've heard that he's a super helpful guy, and for anyone interested in the modeling/animation/rendering package Cinema 4D, Mike has made his resource files available to download "under a sort of open source concept", which is a thoroughly nice thing. 

Find out more at his website. 

AN INTERVIEW WITH... LÉOPOLD DEWOLF

Brain Wash first heard about filmmaker Léopold Dewolf through grapevine whispers of a young animation genius, so back in February we tracked him down and screened his stop motion debut The Runaway at Brain Wash Three. Since then we’ve learnt the following about Léo: he’s enthusiastic about film, very hard working and French. We also like to believe that he is a werewolf.

One of Léo's handmade characters in The Runaway 

Hi Léo! Can you tell us a bit about The Runaway?

It's a story about a woman, a modest employee of a button factory in Lisbon, who, while watching her husband sleeping in their suburban, crappy flat one morning, simply decides to get the hell out of there. 

I was really unconscious of what I was getting myself into when I started making it. It's a stop motion film, and I began working on it in junior high school, at the age of 14. Because of the amount of models, my studies, and also simply because animation is a long process, it took me nearly four years to achieve. 

This short, like most of the others I made, talks about a theme I am really attached to; the desire to change your life. This is also one of the main themes of my favourite film, “The Beat That My Heart Skipped” by Jacques Audiard. This film had and still has the greatest influence on me.

I guess I can relate to this theme now, since I left my home in Paris to go to uni in London last October. It was quite a change, to say the least, but a really good one!

And The Runaway went on to win one of the audience prizes at its Brain Wash showcase...

I am very pleased and surprised by the enthusiasm some people showed for this short film, and especially at Brain Wash. I really found the night a fantastic way to show your work as much as to discover other people’s films.

We promise we didn't pay you to say that. One of the impressive things about The Runaway is that you did everything, from modelling to lighting and camerawork, yourself. What's next?

I am working on two new projects: one is a live action film I shot this year and I am working on the post at the moment. It’s my first film in London and in English and I am very happy with it. I look forward to finishing it! The other is just starting and is a hand drawn animation film. I have never experienced hand drawn animation before so it’s quite a challenge. See you in another four years for the screening!

So, err… do you ever go by the name The Wolfman?

Shh! Don’t reveal my secret identity! No one must know it. In the day, I am this casual film student totally above suspicion. But in the night, when the moon is full, I grab my movie camera and makes film under the frightening name of The Wolfman.

That’s more than we could ever hope for. Favourite wolf-orientated film?

An American Werewolf in London or An American Werewolf in Paris, hard to decide really. Both are pretty epic though.

Léo Dewolf in London, or Léo Dewolf in Paris?

Same dilemma! I used to be a lot into Paris but London has started converting me. I guess I am turning more and more into a Londonian...


And finally, are you a Leo?

Definitively. We are doing a very close and elitist club of Leos with Dicaprio, Leos Carax, and Leonard Cohen. It’s good fun. Sergio Leone wants to join in but we don’t accept surnames. 

"ARE WE IN THE MIDDLE OF A SHORT-FILM REVOLUTION?"

This weekend The Observer ran an article looking at short films as useful, inexpensive and innovative platforms for filmmakers and the role of the internet in opening up the medium to larger audiences. Take a look at their pick of some of the best films - and the filmmakers - that have done this successfully, including Brain Wash favourites Pixels and Pigeon Impossible.

CITY LIMITS

A look back at one of the audience favourites of 2010 that we screened at Curzon Soho in December. City Limits sees music video director Kris Moyes (who has worked with Sia, Wolfmother and Beck) turn his hand to short film in collaboration with Aussie fashion label Romance Was Born. A glittery, 80s blood fest.

STUDIO GHIBLI MAKES A GAME

Ni no Kuni ("Second Land") is a collaboration between game developer Level 5 and Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation house behind Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro and Ponyo. It's set for release on the PS3 in 2011, though not a lot has been announced outside of Japan where a version is already available on the DS.

The player takes the role of Oliver, a 13-year-old boy who, along with a male fairy named Shizuku and a magic book, travels to a parallel world in order to bring his, erm, dead mother back to life. Cue a series of magical quests and creature-filled battles that can be seen in the trailer here:

Word has it that Hayao Miyazaki isn’t a fan of gaming, but with an original story, the involvement of Ghibli artists plus regular collaborator Joe Hisaishi's dreamy score, it looks like this one stands apart from most of the market. The concept of stepping into Studio Ghibli’s dreamy worlds to meet tree spirits and throw spells at your enemies seems such a natural progression from its atmospheric films, we're amazed it isn't one of many adventure games from the company.

Given the success that Level 5’s Professor Layton series has had in the US and that Spirited Away remains Japan’s highest grossing film ever (along with its Academy Award win for Best Animated Feature in 2002), we’re hoping it won’t be long until the game hits Western shores.

The DS version also includes an actual book. Magical.