Creative Creole

I'm fortunate to have friends who do and make stuff as a matter of course. Some like me share a belief that there is intrinsic worth in the act of doing and making and that more importantly this drive can exist separately from a desire to foist one's wares onto an unsuspecting public. For some the pleasure is in creating not necessarily in promoting. Alternatively there are those friends who happen to have jobs which mean they get paid for doing and making stuff. Either way lots of people I know seem regularly to be engaged in what from the outside at least sound like interesting side projects of some description, myself included.

The thought occurred to me that it might be a nice idea to get together one afternoon and share our various wares the idea being that future collaborations may casually result or at the very least we'd inspire each other in unexpected ways over a few cold beers. I called the event Creative Creole. I liked the idea of a 'creole' because it's a distinct phenomena in its own right but it bears the characteristics of two or more composite languages. It seemed to get at the heart of how I'd envisaged the afternoon working....coincidentally it was also alliterative which made me happy!

Despite some initial skepticism the event proved a great success. On the day the line up variously included stand up comedy, live music (including saxophone and flute), singing, performance poetry, art sketches, photography, music videos, viral films, short films, animation, a documentary and a brightly coloured piñata which we soundly battered to death at the end of the night.

It was a joy to see different people's work and the impromptu freestyle musical art piece at the end was....well..it was terrible but a lot of fun nevertheless. I hope to organise another Creative Creole in a few months time.


Helen kicked things off with two new songs


Rich the unlikely rapper/poet wowed everyone with new material


Ed relaid yet another embarrassing true life story in his stand up routine


Helen prepares to face the piñata


The piñata proved more resilient than you'd expect


Power ballads at midnight it turned out were just what the audience wanted to hear


Freestyle in the early hours of Sunday morning

From my perspective sharing my freshly pressed animation with people (let alone friends) for the first time was a nerve-wracking experience. I found it strange to share something the inception and creation of which had been an entirely solus enterprise. Whilst I'm pleased with it there was really no way at all of knowing whether anybody else would enjoy it. I felt very naked as I glimpsed what creatives go through on an almost daily basis, offering up the fruits of one's mind for critical analysis. Thankfully the reaction seemed pretty positive which I guess isn't bad for a first attempt at animation. I particularly enjoyed hearing how people's interpretations of it differed...is he a goodie or a baddie? Should I sympathise with him or did he get his just desserts? etc. I'll let you form your own opinion.

So...

without further ado here is my animation based upon Aesop's fable 'The Middle-aged Man and his Mistresses'. I hope you like it, feel free to leave me a comment if you so wish.

Note that unfortunately You Tube's compression codec reduces the quality of uploaded films. Whilst I've embedded the film below I would encourage you to click through to You Tube itself where there is an option just below the number of views to 'watch in high quality'. If you click this it will launch a slightly better version of the film optimised for the standard in-page You Tube viewing size. It's not perfect but it's as good as You Tube presently allows. Thanks.