Project Description

Apple of Iron was made as a final creative work in my Master of Animation program at UTS. The film was a direct response to the unfortunate view by some academics that computer-based animation was somehow less valid than handmade forms. So I took the most esoteric of handmade forms, the most boring procedural digital forms, and smashed them together. I worked with Defektro Noise Army’s Hirofumi Uchino to ensure that the meaning and message of the original sound was an important component of the visual language of the film, which also broadly discusses the various qualites of animation. The film also features a great deal of animation through editing – something I wanted to do as I took on the role of animator after an extensive career of nonlinear editing.

Completed in 2008, Apple of Iron had its interntional premiere at the Annecy International Festival of Animation in 2009, domestic premiere at MIAF 2009, and has screened at a wide range of A-list festivals and further around Europe, Australasia and South America. It has since been shown in fine art galleries and universities, and I have presented a wide range of lectures regarding the film over the last ten years. It is my first animated short visual music work, and I’m glad I made it, despite the lack of sleep that came with my agressive schedule.

I am thankful to Defektro Noise Army for their cooperation and support. I am also thankful for the constant supply of rice cakes, tinned tuna, toilet paper, and laundry powder that seemed to show up in numbers way beyond necessity for my household needs. I built a fort out of them and that was the only time I had fort time as an adult.