‘The Pack’ goes international

More exciting news from the festival circuit as ‘The Pack’ is accepted to festivals in Sweden and Portugal!

Sweden’s ‘Fantastic Film Festival’ runs from the 15-24th September and has selected our short to compete for the Audience Choice Award.

‘Motel X’ is Portugal’s only international horror festival and attracts some of the biggest names in horror. 'The Pack' is paired with the multi-million-dollar-grossing movie 'Cabin Fever' from this year's special guest Eli Roth, and Toothpix's Owen Tooth is there right now in Portugal taking in the red-carpet atmos as well as a marathon of the best new horror from around the globe.

Toothpix shorts picked up for international Distribution!

Both ‘The Pack’ and ‘All That Glitters’ have been picked up for distribution by Shorts International!

 

Shorts International are among the leading short film distributors in the world and have a catalogue of over 3000 short films. They have the prestigious honour of distributing the short listed Oscar short films each year, and are the only shorts distributor on iTunes besides Disney and Pixar.

Toothpix are delighted with this unexpected news and are hopeful the shorts will be picked up by international broadcasters.

Festival updates!

Off the back of the Moseley Festival, both ‘The Pack’ and ‘All That Glitters’ have been invited to ArtsFest.

ArtsFest is the UK’s biggest Arts festival and takes place in Birmingham during the 10^th and 11^th of September.

‘All That Glitters’ has also been invited to screen at the family friendly Wirksworth Festival this September. The organisers loved ‘The Pack’ but rightfully thought its themes were too adult for a family audience!

As you'll have seen plenty of pictures from 'The Pack' and 'All That Glitters' already on this site, here's something different - a photograph of Owen's wife taken on his new mobile phone. Technology is moving fast! Expect to see film projects completed on mobile handsets on this site in the near future.

Monster School's out for Summer!

Monster School has been released and is getting an amazing reception. Designed for use in mainstream schools to help combat bullying of people with learning disabilities, the film has now also been adopted for screenings in specialist schools.

Monster School is the first animation from Toothpix - hopefully the first of many!

Two Toothpix shorts selected for Moseley festival

'The Pack' and 'All That Glitters' have both been selected to screen in the Moseley Festival over July in their 'The Cut' film strand. 

All That Glitters will play four times throughout the fortnight, with The Pack playing in the final screening of the festival on July 17th.

The festival is a massive event with all sorts of events in a multitude of venues around Moseley, Birmingham and we're thrilled to be involved.

Promo for Disability Derbyshire

We're proud to be releasing this documentary about Disability Derbyshire and a wonderful group of young people who have gained so much through the activities on offer.

The group preferred the idea of a script to read out rather than answering questions in an interview, and the powerful result which we worked on together is already raising awareness for the scheme and the cutting-edge ideas they employ.

New film released, help needed for festival film.

Toothpix has had confirmation that Derby Museum & Art Gallery want us to make a celebration film for their Joseph Wright festival. Starting in late July, there will a series of events to raise the profile of the painter's works in his home city of Derby. Toothpix will be there to gather the thoughts of the pubic, right through to the culmination of the festival in February 2012 when the new Wright Gallery is opened. We'll be looking for assistants, trainee journalists and young producers to help up on the way, so get in touch if you're interested!



Watch the video above to see a dance video Owen has created for Déda, filmed over several seasons at three adiZone sites around Derby. An adiZone is an Adidas-sposored outdoor gym, which we invaded with young dancers to have a great time and show off some moves. The film is premiereing at the Derby Assembly Rooms as part of the 'Be Inspiring' event on June 28th promoted by Derby City Partnership.

Recording session in London

Owen Tooth, Christian Brassington and Paul Hammond

We at Toothpix took a trip to Soho to record the voiceover for 'Monster School', our latest film for Mencap, with the voice talents of the wonderful Christian Brassington. Recording in 'Voiceover Soho', Christian took our serious lines and made them funny, and our funny lines and made them hilarious - the man is a genius.

He's featured in a wealth of British features and having met him, it's no wonder.

Friday 22nd also saw the premiere in Derby of two recent Toothpix shorts, playing to a packed cinema. 'All That Glitters' and 'The Pack' are being sent out to festivals around the world this week, so look out for screening updates.

The next month looks set to be a busy one for us, animating the film for Mencap as well as working with Quad and three local libraries to create a series of documentaries.

School for Monsters Mencap animation gets underway

We've started work animating a cartoon for Mencap aimed at combating bullying in mainstream schools.

The characters have been designed by the awesome Cherie Zamazing and the motion tests look great.

Next week we'll be recording the voices in Soho with a brilliant actor (we're keeping that secret for now, but as a clue, he was in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Burke and Hare).

This will be the first Toothpix animation, but it's so much fun, we're sure it won't be the last.

We've also had a brilliant letter through from a client we made a film for in February:

"We all had a really positive experience filming the DVD. I found it to be a really positive experience and a transparent process. Thanks for making everything run so smoothly!

My previous experiences of filming had always been fraught and quite off putting. Thanks for changing my experience for the better!"

Short films in QUAD brochure

Two Toothpix shorts are set to premiere on April 22nd, 5pm at QUAD in Derby.

You can download the full brochure here - booking seats in advance is recommended.

It promises to be a great night, with several other shorts by local film makers playing, followed by drinks in a selection of bars.

Please be aware the films do contain content which isn't suitable for children - but nothing extreme!

Mystery solved!

We received this email from Courtesy, the mother of Nancy (star of 'All That Glitters - read below for more on that):

" I saw your news article, which I can shed light on.  The thing through the post is what's apparently a Christmas card for you and your wife from Nancy, reason she didn't put her name on is because, well, you know, everyone in the world knows Nancy and I didn't change it because well, frankly I quite like how she does things and she should be herself and I knew you'd find out sooner or later, so there you are, mystery solved - she was really happy to see it on the site though, better than a fridge!"

All That Glitters receives its premiere on April 22nd at QUAD cinema in Derby from 5-6pm. If you'd like a ticket, get in touch fast as it's looking like it will be a fully booked screening!

The film is a dark fantasy playing with the Narnia theme. Playing alongside will be the Toothpix film 'Daybreak, Nightfall' which was shot on equipment loaned from the University of Derby as part of the prize Owen won with his short Labyrinth Derbicus, as well as films from three other local film directors.

The Christmas Mystery!

Over the Christmas holidays, the pictured letter arrived, the address (we assume) written by an adult - but inside the envelope was a drawing and an additional piece of paper with a few scribbles on and nothing else.

It's slightly reminiscent of Ben Wigley's PS Your Mystery Sender, a film about anonymous parcels being sent to the designer Paul Smith - only this time we think perhaps it's a mystery due to someone forgetting to add the final piece to the puzzle rather than trying to be confusing?

Are you the Toothpix mystery sender? If so, get in touch - and thanks!

Toothpix short shown in ID Fest

The award-winning short film 'Labyrinth Derbicus' has been invited to screen before Neil Marshall's excellent movie 'Dog Soldiers' as part of QUAD's ID Fest. Catch it this Saturday evening (27th November)

ID fest is a brilliantly curated series of films and events looking at English identity through cinema, what it means to be English and how it is represented in film.

Also showing at the event is 'Office Orphan', a short film by David Lilley which Owen Tooth directed photography for. The film has already been screened in eight film festivals and is well worth catching - see it at ID Fest with Great Expectations.

How to write a thesis in three months...

We at Toothpix were lucky enough to film a talk all about writing a Thesis in three months by author and expert blogger James Hayton over at the University of Nottingham.

James studied Physics at the University and came over from Barcelona to give the speech which had some golden tips for time management generally. One nugget was making sure you've got some work done before checking emails, and only checking them half an hour before lunch or the end of the day to make sure you can't procrastinate for too long.

Owen also recently had the proud moment of being his wife Emma's 'handbag' at the opening of her new exhibition of paintings at Lazarides Gallery in London, where a new Toothpix DVD was premiered alongside a sumptuous book release.

Three Wishes for Derby

A subtle documentary, giving voice to many of the hard to reach groups of Derby has just been released by Toothpix. Commissioned by Derby City Partnership, the film asks Eastern European immigrants, deaf people, homeless people, sex workers, the LGBT community, a dance group for differently able people and a village cut off by poor transport links about changes they'd like to see in the future.

Sometimes surprisingly simple and similar answers come from the groups and the film was used as part of the consultation strategy for DCP in planning the future of the city over the next fifteen years.

Marketing Derby video online now!

Toothpix accompanied Marketing Derby to central London for an Embassy event aimed at bringing new business to the city and created a short web video of the event. You can watch the film here. Toothpix are also making a film for Marketing Derby about the recent Brazil v Croatia football match held at Pride Park Stadium.

Your Chance to Shine!

Toothpix's film about the Future Jobs Fund has been released on the web after a successful DVD run and cinema screenings.

The film aims to inform 16-25 year-olds about the scheme, what opportunities are available and what it can do for them.


Your Chance To Shine from Toothpix on Vimeo.

New shoot on RED ONE camera

Last week shooting wrapped on Owen's latest short film, an abstract and beautiful teaser for a feature idea. The footage came back far better than we dared hope for after a brilliant shoot and audio work should begin in the next few weeks.

The film was shot with six actors in a warehouse in Derby with a full crew using the University of Derby's RED ONE camera (pictured) and a set of beautiful lenses once used by Stanley Kubrick.

Owen was given use of the camera as a prize for coming first place in a film competition - contestants had 24 hours to shoot and edit a three minute film. You can see the winning entry on YouTube now.

Big Screening for Aimhigher

The film 'Unified: Are You Ready?' made with a group of young dancers in conjunction with Déda and the University of Derby screened on Saturday 25th September to a packed market place on the BBC Big Screen. It was shown as part of the Festé celebrations and the dancers all received certificates and DVD copies.

Toothpix is presently mastering a DVD for Global Education Derby and creating a short digital presentation for Marketing Derby. This month we'll be shooting films for the Family Intervention Project, Speaking Up, Steps For The Future and Sarah Davenport Design.

Dance documentary to be shown during Festé

The Toothpix Aimhigher dance documentary is set to be shown on the BBC Big Screen in the centre of Derby as part of this year's Festé celebrations.

Festé is an annual festival in Derby bringing arts, music and excitement to the city centre over three days (September 24th-26th 2010) filled with amazing spectacle and breath-taking live performances, mixing the best of Derby with international artists.