Well, it finally came down. The set that was built over three years ago and featured in the last two movies has been swept aside for a new production. I took a few pics before removing stuff and you can see the Timms Coffee House bult by Paul Li and the Mine built by Kate Miranda. Other inconsequential bits by me. Click here to see how it looks now
At the end of the last production which you can see here the entire cast fly off in a Zeppelin. The new movie begins at dawn and the zeppelin is in the clouds over the sea. Pilot Franz then says ‘good morning everyone. Now I need some directions before I can set course for home. Where is your home”? Everyone talks at once – a jumble of place name. Pilot Franz says “quiet please, I had no idea you were from so many places. How can I take you all home. Who’s home is nearest”. It then transpires that people are not only from many places but many times – which leads to the section below featuring Tomasz Czpaitis from Lithuania.
This production will be an occasional soap, meaning that we will release episodes sporadically on a loose timescale. Below is the full version of the theme tune.
The collaborative community animations event in Saltburn last Thursday, (Animex Saltburn), was a resounding success. The matinee for schools was standing room only and the evening event presided over by the mayor of Redcar & Cleveland, Councillor Ray Goddard was close to capacity too.
Building up to the event a visiting arts group from Finland had provided workshops in Saltburn, Carling How & County Durham and then on the evening presented their own animated film. The Finnish visitors had participated in the filming of one of the Teesside films and had met many of the cast in second life but now were able to meet them in real life.
The event was web streamed and picked up by people across the UK and Europe, and you can watch all of the films presented and see images from the event at www.tvcm.co.uk/animex2011
There was a fourth visitor from Finland namely a coat who sadly did not make it home with his compatriots. You can read about the adventures of the Finnish coat by clicking here.
Author Steve Thompson, IDIIf you can’t make it to the event in Saltburn today (Thurs 3rd March) you should still me able to enjoy it online. I say “should” because this is experimental. At http://tvcm.co.uk/animex2011 there is a tweetstream with the hashtag #tvcmanim11 – a chat stream, a live stream and a “blogcast” releasing each film at the same time as the audience sees it.

Today Destinations opened specially in order that we could shoot a crown scene for the new SL movie. Sunday was chosen because of the time zones involved. This was the scene where Inspector Bell leads the children to safety in the mine in order to shelter from a Zeppelin. It was quite an International cast. The street urchins are played by role players from the UK, Canada and the USA, the miners were played by people from Finland and the rest of the cast was played by members of the Community Media Club (see previous posts). Just like the real thing being on a virtual film set also contains moments of hanging around and waiting. Peter and Joan occupied themselves by taking picture of the set (see below)
Steven Thompsonberg and his crack team of machinima artists shooting a scene from the forthcoming production “Tommy and Barry Go Back”. This is the scene where they travel back to 1941 to find Fatty Smith guarding the British nation against invasion whilst four sheets to the wind. All this effort goes to produce a simple shot of two characters looking surprised.
Production has begun again after the Christmas break on “Tommy and Barry Go Back”. We lost a lot of production days before Chistmas to weather condition and ill health so we have postponed the world premiere to March 3rd. It’s the same venue, Saltburn Community Theatre at 7.30pm. We moved our production location to Destintations in Saltburn as a more convenient location. Yesterday we got some very trick shots in the can including Zeppelin flying and Chilean rescue pod manouvering!
Next production day is Friday 21st (Destinations Again) when we hope to finish the 1945 Jetty scene. Below are some stills from scene 6.

Smith and Bluster

Tommy and Barry in 1945


Here’s a sight not seen in Skinningrove for quite some years. Inspector Charlie Bell as you’ve never seen him before. He’s one of his ancestors as he appears in the new movie “Tommy and Barry Go Back”. Eric Bloodaxe will be handing out Viking ASBO’s.


Acually this is Arthhur Vador’s ancestor Geordie Valhalla limbering up for his part in the new movie “Tommy and Barry Go Back“

On Thursday 18th November children at Whitcliffe Primary School will re-enact a famous event from their Schools history. Actually the story relates to Skinningrove school but both schools have been amalgamated and children of Skinningrove and Carlin How all attend Whitecliffe. Whitecliffe has the logbooks of both schools going back over 140 years and one entry states; “school evacuated on the occasion of a Zeppelin sighted overhead. The children will re-enact this momentous event and Inspector Charlie Bell of Cleveland Police will play the part of the calm voice of authority leading the children to shelter in the mines (this actually took place too – many Skinningrovers took shelter in the mines during both world wars. This will form the audio track of an animated film “Tommy and Barry Go Back” to be premiered at Saltburn Community Theatre, Animex Fringe on February 10th 2011.

Straad Kirk has been cast in the role of the captain of the Zeppelin that will fly over Skinningrove School re-enacting an event that took place nearly 100 years ago. Unlike the actual Zeppelin of 1915 the one Kirk will be flying has a fully stocked bar. Clearly the cast will be frequenting this craft regularly.






























