By Evan Westenbrinkand Christopher Hyde

A whiteboard is not just an ordinary classroom utensil; it’s also a portal into a creative world of shapes and strange happenings. Here, “the crazy” is taken for granted in this random and unusual tale of what happens when reality becomes less real…

The Carrier is a film about an unsung hero, who bravely returns misplaced items to their owners – who’d better be grateful, or else…

Three unlikely criminals break into an art gallery to steal a priceless painting, only to find its corridors crawling with eerie security guards. Will our adorable heroes escape with the painting, or even their lives? Find out in this epic animated comedy from the creators of A Dice with Death.

Bad things happen. We all know that, but seriously, we don’t expect them to continue to happen. Unfortunately for Trevor, the hero of this film, they do. Thrown into a world where Murphy’s Law reigns supreme, can Trevor ever escape? Somewhere in the darkness, someone’s got it in for Trev…perhaps that’s what they mean by “the war on Trevor”.

A snake. A snake on a journey. But slithering is too slow. So? What does she do? She takes to the skies in this hand-drawn animation of epic proportions. Intrigue, action, adventure, comedy, horror, mystery, emotion. It has it all! Plus, lizards in nurse hats.

We all know you are what you eat. But have you ever wondered who what you eat…is? This is what food gets up to when no-one is looking…

Ever watched multi-coloured cells reproducing under a microscope? Ever imagined that set to music? No? Shame on you. These dancing worms will broaden your horizons.

This film celebrates the talent of John Hinkes – aka Max Moonlight – a man who can’t live without music. Juggling his roles as guitar teacher and busker, Max does his best to earn a living. This intimate portrait offers a glimpse of his life now, together with a sense of the past that led him to choose “Plan B”.

Hannah and her mum are locked inside the house every day when it gets dark. Hannah’s dad beats her and her mum. They cannot escape. One day Hannah finds a camcorder and begins to record evidence of their abuse.

This film tells the story of carpenter Philip Koomen and his passion for the wood with which he works. The camera tracks him as he fashions something new from material that’s so old. For Philip, it‘s all about giving new life to a tree that may have stood for hundreds of years. But there’s also a sense of wonder that something as small as an acorn can grow into an artefact as beautiful, elegant and enduringly useful as a chair.

Eighteen briefly captures a moment in the lives of six young people as they reflect on their experiences so far, and wonder how things will change in the future.

This short film looks at the build-up to a large event from unusual angles – ones not usually available to those who pass through the turnstiles.

Veteran film director Michael Grigsby has agreed to become the AFU’s Director-in-Residence and work with senior and former members of the AFU on an original film, with a view to helping those who have graduated from the AFU, or are nearing the end of their time in its ranks, to launch careers in the film industry. The new group, known as The Loose Limbed Collective, held its first meeting in London today, where Mike outlined his initial ideas for the film. It is hoped the film will be ready for screening in the Autumn of 2012. Mike himself is nearing the completion of his latest film, a feature-length documentary shot in Texas and aiming for cinema release in the new year.

Future Film Awards Ceremony in London

Congratulations to two sets of AFU filmmakers who achieved an unprecedented double at the BFI’s Future Film Festival in association with BBC Blast at the National Film Theatre in London last week, when they scooped the awards for both “Best Documentary” and “Best Animation”. In Tian Ji’s powerful 2009 documentary A Soldier, made with Matt Copson and Ben Hollins, Company Sergeant Major Nelson Macleod reflects on his career in the British Army and his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. By turns moving and thought-provoking, the film impressed all who saw it at the AFU screening in May 2009, and clearly had the same effect on the judges at the Future Film Festival. For Pierre Leveque’s 2008 claymation, Oh No My Dog!, this was a second major award. It won the National Young Filmmaker Award at the Leeds Student Film Festival last April, and this time it was hailed as the best animation in the 13-18 category. Tian, Matt and Pierre travelled to BFI Southbank last Friday to receive their awards from Radio 1’s James King and Switch’s AJ.

Tian Ji, Matthew Copson & Ben Hollins
Documentary, 7.21

This documentary examines war through the eyes of Sergeant Major Macleod, a soldier who has served in the army for 26 years. Combining unique footage from Afghanistan, Iraq and an interview filmed in an Oxfordshire garden far from the frontline, this film concentrates on a soldier’s experiences in war zones and their impact on him, as well as his feelings on returning to England.

Joe Brown and Tom Lambert
Stop-motion, 2.50

The Abingdon School catering has never been better. Or that’s what most of these lippy kitchen utensils seem to think. A witty combination of vox pop interviews and animated talking cutlery.

Henry Dunbar
Claymation, 1.22

Look for echoes of the Adam and Eve story in this delightful fantasy of a lone plastiscine man as he acquires a new friend.

James Yan & Chris Hyde
Documentary, 4.47

A family sits down to dinner on a Thursday evening. It is 7 o’clock in the kitchen of a detached house in Abingdon. Angela is preparing the meal. As the clock ticks, the food goes in the frying pan, but there is something unsettling. The front door opens and dinner is served.

Charlie Floyd
Flash, 1.16

A computer-based animation about a day in the life of an assassin. Created by drawing onto the computer and then using software to animate the drawings. This film focuses mostly on the visual elements of the story with bold-coloured backgrounds and dark, heavy foregrounds.

Matthew Choi, Simon Lam & Will Abell
Documentary, 7.27

From the dazzling glamour and bustle of Hong Kong to the tranquility of rural Oxfordshire, this documentary journeys into the mind of Jonathan, a new student at Abingdon School who arrived from Hong Kong last September. From learning styles to social lives, it explores the differences he experiences, and in particular, the sacrifices he makes when he leaves his family and friends to continue his education on the other side of the world.

Kingsley Hoskins, Olivia Powell and Marina Michelson from St Helen’s
Documentary, 5.02

A film inspired by the catching atmosphere of greyhound racing. Influenced by Mike Grigsby’s The Score, the focus is largely on the spectators, and follows their journey from tension and anticipation, through expectation, to joy and relief. The AFU’s first all-female film production.

Freddie Barber
Cut-out, 3.00

A musical mystery tour inspired in part by the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, and featuring original music by father and son.

Will McDowell & Tom Bateman
Documentary, 6.15

A film about language and its importance in life, focusing on Sonia, a Spanish student learning Arabic, the Gamios, a Peruvian family who have recently moved to England, and Pól, an Irishman struggling to keep his native language alive. It encourages an appreciation of culture and identity in relation to the words we speak.

James Boreham, Charlie Beirouti & Joe Ridley
Stop-motion, 1.02

An animation that serves as an advertisement for those travel offers we’d like to believe in such financially difficult times, but can’t.

Jack Oliver, Jack Rayner & James Paget-Brown
Documentary, 3.02

Large industrial sites always divide opinion, and Didcot Power Station, the focus of this film, is no exception. Many consider it a blot on the landscape. Others see it as south Oxfordshire’s only landmark. Either way, its sheer size and strange industrial beauty mean it will be a sad loss when it is eventually decommissioned in 2014.

Pierre Leveque
Rotoscope, 0.48

A dark and mysterious film about an innocent young girl’s deepest fears, using the rotoscope animation technique.

Matthew Copson & Evan Westenbrink; music by Joe Mason
Documentary, 3.23

Less a documentary in its conventional sense, more an experimental short film about the passion and innocence of a young boxer. Shot on 16 mm film using a 1970s Bolex camera, The Fighter combines gritty imagery with an original orchestral score.

George Rothwell, Chris Mears & Charles Day
Claymation, 3.13

Three young filmmakers sit round a table trying to think of a good idea for a film. In turn, they each present an idea, and in turn, each one is rejected. Eventually, they realise the solution is staring them in the face…

Pierre with the National Young Filmmakers Award

AFU animation member Pierre Leveque scooped the prestigious National Young Filmmakers’ Award and a first prize of £250 in the under-14 category at the Leeds Young People’s Film Festival in April. The winning film, which beat ten other finalists, was Pierre’s witty 2008 claymation, ‘Oh No My Dog’. According to its website, ‘The National Young Filmmakers’ Award (NYFA) showcases the best new filmmaking talent in the UK and presents the best short films from the movie geniuses of the future.’ Heady stuff! In the 15-19 category, Matt Copson’s splendid 2008 doc ‘Perception’ – about the experiences of blind and partially sighted students at a special school in Kent  – made it to the judges’ final screening selection, although it did not win the NYFA award this time round.

Still from The Sacrifice

The AFU’s sixth annual screening of new films is now only a few days away and final preparations are in full swing. There are 14 new films this year – 7 docs and 7 animations – offering an impressively wide range of subjects, styles and locations. You will see footage from Afghanistan and Hong Kong as well as Oxfordshire, and you will hear voices from Spain, Ireland and Peru! So come to the Amey Theatre at Abingdon School on Wednesday 13 May at 7.30pm. Tickets are free and can be obtained in advance from the Arts Centre Secretary: tel. 01235 849063, email arts.sec@abingdon.org.uk or go online at www.abingdon-booking.info

Still from James Yan's Dance With Stacey

News of more festival success for AFU films emerged this week, at both local and national levels. James Yan’s award-winning 2007 film, Dance With Stacey, has been selected for the Dance On Screen programme at the Phoenix Picturehouse in Oxford on Sunday 8 March at 4pm as part of the Dancin’ Oxford 09 Festival. James is delighted not only as the film’s director, but also as a keen and accomplished dancer who will be involved in some of the dance events at the festival. Further afield, Matt Copson and Pierre Leveque have heard that their 2008 films – Perception and Oh No My Dog! – have been accepted for the prestigious Leeds International Student Film Festival later this year. More details to follow soon.

Gravel and Stones at IMDB

In an exciting development this week, Gravel and Stones has become the first AFU film to achieve recognition on the Internet Movie Database, one of the largest collections of data about films and television programmes in the world. With an estimated 57 million users, the IMDb is certainly one of the most useful places to be for any independent film aspiring to connect with a wider audience. To view the page, use this link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt137619

Still from The Lamp

Congratulations to AFU member Will Abell, whose 2008 stop-motion animation The Lamp has been selected for the prestigious Future Film Festival at BFI Southbank in London. The film, which is about a romance between a pair of anglepoise lamps, seems perfect for the theme of this year’s festival – “The Darker Side of Love”. The Lamp will be screened at the NFT on Friday 13 February at 3pm and again on Saturday 14th Feb at 11am. Will has also been invited to attend the awards ceremony on Friday evening – we wish him luck! For further details of the screenings, and all the other workshops and events that form part of the Future Film Festival, please visit www.bfi.org.uk/futurefilm

AFU tutors Mike Grigsby and Jonas Mortensen

As 2008 draws to a close, we can reflect on another tremendously exciting year for the AFU. At its annual screening in May, the Unit presented a record number of 17 new films, bringing its tally in 5 years to 60 and marking the AFU’s 5th anniversary in style. Gravel and Stones was screened at two major UK film festivals – Raindance in October, and the London International Documentary Festival in April – and achieved a commercial dvd release in France, paired with Mike Grigsby’s 1970 documentary I Was A Soldier (http://www.dorianefilms.com/doriane_fiche.php/i_was_a_soldier.html). Four further AFU films were selected for national festivals in Leeds, Leicestershire, Lancashire and Bradford. James Yan’s Dance with Stacey, Matt Copson’s Perception and Tom Bateman’s Delicate Boys of a Secondary Age all won awards. The Unit collaborated with the Westminster branch of the United Nations Association and the BFI to pioneer the first Young Filmmakers for Development festival at the NFT in London in November, bringing together students, film professionals and representatives of NGOs to view films by young people from Colombia, USA, Israel, Palestine, Cambodia, Kurdistan and UK. All in all, it has been quite a year!

The Abingdon Film Unit (AFU) is a small organisation that enables secondary school pupils between the ages of 13 and 18 to make their own short documentary or animated films under the guidance of a team of industry professionals led by the renowned documentary maker Michael Grigsby. Read the rest of the article in Vertigo Magazine

The British Film Institute’s Head of Education, Mark Reid, issued the invitation after seeing DVDs of the AFU’s films from previous years and describing them as “stunning”. Also invited were members of our sister Film Unit at the St Marylebone CE School for Girls, a London state school with whom the AFU tutors have been working since the Autumn.

The screening began with two “works in progress” by the Marylebone girls – the first, a portrait of a well-known and much-loved delicatessen shop off the Marylebone High Street called Rothes, and the second, a delightfully surreal piece about a chair that was deliberately placed by the filmmakers in a series of public locations to test the reactions (or lack of them) from passers-by.

Mark Reid invited the students to identify a shot they liked, a transition they liked, and to come up with a “Why did you…?” question for the filmmakers after each film. This provoked lively discussions in which the students displayed a warm appreciation of each other’s work.

The following AFU films were screened: The Underground Village, Dance With Stacey, Re-generation, Clowning Around and Anti-Clockwise.

Once again, Mark Reid declared himself amazed and delighted at the achievements of all the students, and urged them to help create a hundred such Film Units in schools across the country. “If we can do that, we will create a British film revolution”, he declared.

The session closed with a screening of an interesting documentary chosen by Mark Reid called Blight, which chronicled the demolition of Victorian housing to make way for he M11 motorway extension. This was a piece that made effective use of music and sound to create a lyrical piece that revealed its subject gradually.

After the event, the Film Unit members and tutors joined for a celebratory meal before attending a further screening at the BFI Southbank. This time, the films were experimental pieces from the 1960s and 70s. By turns weird and occasionally wonderful, they brought the curtain down on a memorable year for the Film Unit. Plans for the next are already well under way!

The story of a gifted and dedicated young woman who has acquired confidence and a means of self-expression through dance.

3 min 27 sec
by James Yan (director), William McDowell (camera), Joe Ridley (sound & editing)

This film started it’s life as an ironic take on Lou Reed’s song Perfect Day, but changed along the way into something else.

4 min 1 sec (pixilation & live action animation)
by James Boreham & Charlie Beirouti

A boy longs to make live action films but is condemned to make cut-out animations until he takes advantage of a very special offer.

4 min 46 sec (cut-out & live action animation)
by Aidan Robertson & Evan Westenbrink

A portrait of the working lives of the choristers of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford.

3 min 37 sec
by Tom Bennett (director), Lynette Hussey (camera), Edmund Perou (sound)

The quest for a tastier soft drink leads to some strange, hallucinogenic experiences.

6 min 31 sec (claymation & live action)
by Pierre Leveque, Jack Rayner & Joe Brown

The machine looks entertaining and exciting at first, but conceals a deadly secret.

1 min 54 sec (pixilation & hand-drawn animation)
by Tian Ji

A spirited octogenarian from the west of Scotland remembers how a change of schools resulted in her internment as an enemy alien in Italy during the Second World War.

7 min 0 sec
by Alex Mugnaioni (director), Max Hutchinson (camera), Max Roberts (sound)

The life cycle of the world, perhaps.

1 min 7 sec (hand-drawn animation, pencil on paper)
by Freddie Barber

Three ex-coalminers recall life in the pits and the devastation to the Annesley community in the wake of the closure of the pits after the 1984 strike.

7 min 47 sec
by Matthew Copson (director), Patrick Reece (camera), Ben Hollins & Katie Prior (sound)

A cast of weird and wonderful characters haunt this state-of-the-art sports centre.

3 min 6 sec (claymation)
by Henry Dunbar & Chris Hyde

Two aspiring comedians, a newly ordained priest with special powers and an asthmatic child s birthday party. Result? Disaster.

8 min 21 sec
written & directed by Patrick Appleton & Finlay Taylor with Paddy Gervers, Alex Mugnaioni (camera), Max Hutchinson (sound)

Filmmakers’ comment:
Our motivation for this film was for FxP2 to have a pop at on-screen comedy after doing it on the stage for the past few years. Probably the biggest challenge was attempting to get away with all the special effects, but they all came out good in the end! Working with a writer behind the Vicar of Dibley was also a great experience.

A man runs out of milk and heads for the shops, but his Journey takes him further than anyone expected.

1 min 45 sec (live action & hand-drawn pencil on paper animation)
by Bill Dagul

The camera follows the journey of a letter from post box to front door.

2 min 6 sec
by William McDowell (director), James Yen (camera), Joe Ridley (sound)

What happens when the clocks go back each year? This film explores one magical possibility.

5 min 12 sec
(16mm black & white) by Ben Hollins (writer/director), Matthew Copson (camera), Forrest Radford (sound)

The Film Unit’s 4th annual screening takes place on Wednesday, May 16th at 7.30pm in the Amey Theatre and promises to be a bumper affair. There is the prospect of as many as 16 new films, covering every genre from documentary to fiction, situation comedy and animation

3 min 54 sec

A film that meditates on the impact cars can make on our lives.
Made by Edward Hafmon (director), Lewis Swain (camera), James Harrison (sound)

5 min 11 sec

Breakfast examines the different ways in which we start the day.
Made by Alex Mugnaioni (director), Tam Wakeling (camera), Sam Johnson (sound).

4 min 21 sec

A young guitarist tries to make himself heard on the streets of Oxford.
Made by Max Hutchinson (director), Paul Godsmark (camera), Daniel OíNeill (sound), Patrick Reece
(editing).

13 min 48 sec

All three members of the team that made this film suffer from
dyslexia, a condition that makes learning to read and write particularly difficult.
Made by Boyly Shelton (director), Richard Oastler (camera), Laurence Kroll (sound).

5 min 33 sec

Four Tracks explores the way music takes over the lives of rap-artists, djs and members of a band.
Made by Paul Antony & Tom Mitchell (directors, camera, sound), Alex Campbell (editing).

8 min 14 sec

A young girl walks through a beautiful forest in summer but finds something nasty at its heart.
Made by Edward Hofman (director), Andrew McGrath (camera), William Drazin (sound).

7 min 14 sec

The Oxford Esperanto Society meets to promote the cause of Dr Zamenhofís universal language.
Made by Ben Hollins (director), Matthew Copson (camera), Andrew McGrath (sound), Aidan Thorn (music).

1 min 2 sec

Late at night, a phantom graffiti artist strikes.
A claymotion ëwork in progressí by Henry Dunbar.

55 sec

A mysterious green plague spreads.
Made by Alex lngham Brooke.

24 sec

Inspired by the sensation of falling immediately before waking.
A “work in progress” by Max Roberts.

2 min 51 sec (4.5 Mb)

Freddy is incredibly hungry. There is only one problem: he has no money.
Made by Bill Dagul.

2 min 12 sec

An unhappy punk undergoes a brief transformation.
Cut-out animation by Tian Ji.

37 sec

A dance to rival David Brent’s in The Office?
Henry Dunbar presents a claymation “work in progress”.