School visits
- At March 07, 2013
- By Niel
- In Schools, Talks/Events
0
Presentation ready! Author ready!!
Last week I went back to my old school to talk to some of their Year 7 pupils about writing Sorrowline and my career in animation. I’ll admit I was pretty nervous as I pulled into the car park and went into the reception, dodging groups of lunch-time pupils looking at me suspiciously.
It’s changed a lot since I was there – all for the better – but memories of grim school days still prevail! But my fears were unfounded! The pupils were a delight, about 35 Gifted & Talented who listened intently, and asked lots of questions! I can home buzzing, feeling like a rock star!
But then I had to do it all over again today for World Book Day. This time it was a different school, and it was the entire Year 6 pupils – about 65 in all! So the butterfiles came back and I started thinking it would be a disaster! I’m relieved and happy to report that the afternoon was a barnstormer – in spite of a jokey comparison to the bald,glasses-wearing funster Harry Hill! If anything I had even MORE questions than last week, and lots of enthused faces. Given that they had to sit on the floor for two hours I was impressed with their attention and politeness. I came home bouncing like Tigger! It’s great to meet so many enthusiastic young people who just get where you’re coming from, and are really engaged in what you’re telling them.
Ice Warriors announced
- At March 02, 2013
- By Niel
- In Animation
- 0
I’m thrilled to reveal a project that has been keeping me busy for some time now: the animation studio I founded, Qurios, is animating two lost episodes of classic Doctor Who, and I’m co-producing them. Here’s the official announcement from DoctorWho.tv.
Lost episodes of Second Doctor adventure The Ice Warriors are being animated for DVD release, doctorwho.tv can exclusively announce. Animation studio Qurios have been commissioned to recreate the missing episodes two and three, which see Ice Warrior leader Varga revive, kidnap Victoria and defrost his glacier-bound army.
“We’ve been discussing the various ways Qurios could reconstruct these episodes for over three years” said Dan Hall, Managing Director of Pup Ltd Media Consultancy, producer of the DVD. “So it’s really, really satisfying to finally see them animated. Qurios have a great track record in excellent and innovative animations”.
It was recently announced that the Ice Warriors would be returning to Doctor Who for the first time since 1974, in a Mark Gatiss-penned adventure aboard a submarine. Find out more about the return of the Martian monsters at the BBC’s Doctor Who website.
When asked about using a different animation studio to previous releases, Hall replied, “Doctor Who has had many different visual styles thanks to changing directors, designers and production methods. We wanted to mirror this in our choice of animation partners”.
Qurios Entertainment’s previous work includes visual effects for sci-fi sitcom Hyperdrive, puppet comedy Mongrels and titles for Doctor Who DVD extra series Who Peter. Veteran producer of the classic Who range, Chris Chapman has overseen the animation, Niel Bushnell is the producer for Qurios and the animation director is Chris Chatterton.
So, exciting times! The DVD is due out in August, and I’ll talk more about the production over the coming months.
