Lock of Freedom from Leonie Connellan on Vimeo.

My sister is studying music at university in Darwin, and a few days ago she asked if I could send her some of my animations so she could work on soundtracking them for a class. So I went through my hard-drive and made a DVD for her. I’d kind of forgotten about this one, and watching it back I still quite like it. It was an exercise in rotoscoping, and was drawn from two separate video sources — one I took of myself and one where I’d grabbed segments of plants growing from nature documentaries. The music is Lock of Freedom by The Happies, which was freely available at the time and can now be purchased from CD Baby and iTunes.

TED Talks —> Do schools kill creativity, Sir Ken Robinson (2006)
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Woody Allen —> dentistry
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10 books, works of art, things of value —> what would it be?

We watched the TED video, and perhaps the discussion about ten things of value came from that. Regardless, I’ve spent the past few weeks putting together this list. Ten things that really speak to me and what I do.

1. WNYC RadioLab, Tell Me A Story

Every RadioLab podcast is amazing. This one struck a particular chord with me as it explained exactly what I wanted my work to be about at a time when I was writing a proposal and really struggling to articulate my thoughts. I cried in public at a tram stop on Swanston St.

2. zefrank

baseline

outside

stumpy

bittersweet

The Show with Zefrank. A podcast from several years ago, where Ze made a video every weekday for a year. Odd, hilarious and utterly inspiring. The clips above are a few of my favourites. I still subscribe to the feed because I just can’t let go. ‘Stumpy’ in particular brought the public waterworks.

3. Merlin Mann, Towards Patterns for Creativity

The myth:
Creativity is a gift!
From a muse!
Or, whatever!

Merlin Mann has never made me cry. Although I have internally cheered on occasion. I’ve had this particular video saved in a blog draft for about a year. Occasionally I’ve ranted and raved about the talent myth here, and I may have said angry things about people who pander to it. In reality, the things that get you places are hard work and a love for what you do. I credit this video with my current habit of getting into the studio at 8:15 every morning, whether or not I have any idea what I’m going to do when I get there. I already had a physical folder equivalent to the box idea, but since then I’ve made myself an online box too. See once upon a spacetime.

4. Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys

My first and favourite Neil Gaiman novel. I bought it for a plane trip to Darwin/Wadeye and didn’t put it down until it was done. I probably cried on the plane. When I struggle with a place to start a project, I think of the first line of this book. It begins, as most things begin, with a song. And I go from there.

5. Sigur Ros, Glósóli

The song alone gave me chills. Then I saw the video clip. And cried.

6. The Iron Giant

I saw the animated film first, then I read the original story, The Iron Man by Ted Hughes later. They are very, very different, but have the same heart. Brad Bird changed the story quite drastically for the film, and those changes suit the feature film format much more than Ted Hughes’ fantastical story would. The film guts me every time I watch it, and the book had a similar effect… when I read it sitting on a park bench on Sydney Road.

7. Woody Allen’s Manhattan

If you don’t like Manhattan we can’t be friends. Simple as that. I saw Manhattan for the first time only a few years ago. It was my first Woody Allen film and I had no preconceptions of what it would be like. I had no idea that (apart from a few stark differences in personal experience and preference) Woody Allen’s brain is (or was back then anyway) exactly the same as mine.

8. Joss Whedon

I could list Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, Dr Horrible, anything that Joss has made here. Pretty much everything is worthwhile. Especially the speech he gave at Equality Now. I don’t doubt that Joss has made me cry in public on several occasions.

9. Cages, Dave McKean

My favourite graphic novel. Currently out of print. Apparently this will be available again in August 2010. I don’t know how many times I’ve borrowed this from the Melbourne University library. Lets just leave it at “a lot”. Cages is a story about creative processes. Aesthetically, there’s a wonderful sense of movement and poise in the illustration and it hits all my favourite philosophical notes. Wept on a tram while reading the last few pages.

10. The Flaming Lips

I was going to choose an album, but really, the ultimate Flaming Lips experience is seeing them in concert. I think I’ve said this before somewhere here, but the highlight for me from the show at Festival Hall in 2009 was Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Beforehand, Wayne mentioned (paraphrasing and depending on memory here, of course) that there was a particular song that he never expected would resonate so much with people, and how joyous he felt playing it live.

I made this in 2008. And didn’t put it on the internet until today…

Related: I have started a tumblr. It’s called Once Upon A Spacetime, and it is to be the electronic box for my MFA bits and pieces.

Across the Universe — odd, very long, vaguely unenjoyable.
Adam’s Rib — delightful, funny and smart.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen — we rewatched this on Bluray, having only owned the laserdisc in times past. Hilarious, bizarre and beautiful.
The Adventures of Robin Hood — Purchased on Bluray thanks to my ongoing childhood obsession with Robin Hood. Dashing, funny, romantic. So much meat…
Away from Her — a quiet and utterly heartbreaking tale of a couple struggling with the wife’s Alzheimer’s disease.

Badlands — I was very tired when I watched this. I may have fallen asleep and choose to refrain from comment until I see it again.
Blood Simple — if only the Coen’s characters would learn to communicate with each other, things wouldn’t go so horribly wrong! But then we wouldn’t have these cool movies, I guess.
A Bug’s Life — it is, indeed, a beautiful butterfly.

Clueless — I originally saw this in the cinema. I adored it, my friends all claimed to hate it. It was the beginning of my love affair with Paul Rudd. Paul (the Pants in Motion version, not the Rudd one, obviously) had never seen it and that was just wrong, IMO.
Cool Hand Luke — embarrassingly, I was the one who had never seen this. Paul Newman being awesome and gorgeous with added religious allegory. My perfect film.
Coraline — you know what sucks about living in Australia? That sometimes you can buy a film from the USA before it arrives in the cinemas here. I loved it, and plan on watching it again soon. It was a very good year for animated films.
Cube — a small, smart existential number. The acting was a little wooden at first, but I forgave that pretty quickly.

Dan in Real Life — “This corn is like an angel.”
Dangerous Liaisons — Stephen Frears is so good that he made me like John Malkovich. He’s not good enough to make me like 80s film stock though — the print used for the DVD looked appalling.
Dark City — oft quoted as the precursor to The Matrix. Not nearly as engaging as The Matrix as I couldn’t invest in characters who were composed of constantly changing facades.
Dark Water — I was with this film right up to the end, where it where it went ridiculously off the rails. Why do mother figures always have to give up their lives for the dead children? Why can’t supernatural elements be more subtle and restrained?
Death at a Funeral — I expected better. Underwhelming.

The Fearless Freaks — I would like to give all involved in the making of this wonderful documentary a great big hug. I did touch Wayne’s foot through the bubble at the Flaming Lips concert last year. It was possibly the greatest moment of my life.
The Fearless Vampire Killers — quite silly.
The Filth and the Fury — I don’t really remember much about watching this. I think I enjoyed it.
4 months, 3 weeks & 2 days — utterly gut wrenching and unforgettable. A powerful reminder that we should never take our freedoms for granted. I teared up right now just looking at the IMDB page. Everybody should see this film.
Frantic — poor Harrison Ford had such a horrible day. Plus he had to do that scene where he ate paper, one of the few things that triggers my vomit reflex. Aside from that, the film was very enjoyable.

Gigli — I cannot believe I almost forgot to add Gigli to this list. The movie everyone loves to hate, even if they haven’t seen it. And you know what, it’s really not that bad. Sure, it’s completely implausible, and there’s that one guy that went, as Robert Downey Jr would put it, full retard, but overall it’s a well acted, interesting film. I enjoyed it.
Glue — the first film from director Alexis Dos Santos, who I will talk more about later. A little wishy-washy, but quite beautiful to look at.

Hamlet 2 — Rock me sexy Jesus! All night long!
Happy-Go-Lucky — I really thought I would hate Poppy, but I just couldn’t. Some people seem to really detest this film; I adored it.
Heathers — The first time I saw Heathers was at my ex’s house when I was 18, on his small TV, broken up by commercials with his family coming and going. Not the ideal situation, and I ended up not really getting it. This time, I loved it. It’s one of the films from that era that still really holds up today.
Hot Fuzz — it’s not as good as Shaun, in my opinion. But then, not many things are. Wonderfully witty.
The Hottest State — people tend to dismiss Ethan Hawke as a writer and director due to his career as an actor. They shouldn’t. This film, while a little long, captures the earnest nature of youth quite beautifully.

I Am a Sex Addict — thoroughly engaging and likable.
In Bruges — or, as I like to refer to it, In Effing Bruges. Fucking brilliant.
The Incredibles — an aptly named film, for sure.

Jaws — note to filmmakers: this is how it’s done.
Juno — the film that made me laugh the first time I saw it, then bawl uncontrollably for an entire weekend the second time. This was the third viewing. I coped far better, but the scene at the end between Juno and Mack in the hospital still destroys me. I simultaneously want to hug Jason Reitman and kick him in the balls.

Kids — it’s shocking and difficult and heartbreaking and every singe teenager should see it.
Kung Fu Panda — really, really fun.

Lars and the Real Girl — I want to make a joke like “show me on the doll where this film touched you”, but this film doesn’t deserve such stupid and cheap humour. A wonderful story about family, community, a troubled man and his plastic girlfriend.
The Last Starfighter — I can understand why so many little boys loved this film back in the day, but really, it’s just not very good.
Live Free or Die Hard — I didn’t hate it, but it was pretty stupid. Doesn’t remotely compare to its predecessors.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring — whereupon we fall in love with Hobbits, wizards and Viggo Mortensen.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers — Viggo Mortensen continues to be hot.

Man on Wire — this captivating documentary occupies the same space in my heart that the Flaming Lips do. Seeing it inspired me to be a better person.
The Man Who Wasn’t There — up there with my favourites from the Coen brothers. Earlier comment about communication still applies.
The Manchurian Candidate — people love this film; I don’t know why. It’s silly and utterly predictable with extraordinarily overblown two-dimensional characters.
Millions — it has the Danny Boyle stylings, but reeks a little too much of ‘made for TV’.
My Beautiful Laundrette — there’s a laundrette in Fitzroy named after this film. It makes me smile every time I see it.

Pleasantville — one of my all time favourites. I think we watched this with Paul’s mum, who I believe described it haltingly as “different” and “interesting”, in the way that only mums can.

Rachel Getting Married — a wonderful and sympathetic film about substance abuse and family relationships. Excellent performaces all round, not just from Anne Hathaway.
Raging Bull — one of my List of Shame films (ie, films that I really should have seen but haven’t). I thought it was very good, but it didn’t grab me as much as I expected it to.
Rear Window — another from the list of shame. Hitchcock really knew his shit. This was fantastic.
Rififi — quite long, but not a film that suffers for it at all. The premise of the film is a jewellery heist, and the scenes of the break-in are absolutely riveting. Plus, Rififi is just so much fun to say.
The Right Stuff — I’d never seen this. I know, I can’t believe it either. The brash, overtly American bravado of the characters frustrated me at times, but I did really enjoy it.
Robin Hood: Men in Tights — sometimes you just shouldn’t rewatch the films you loved as a child.
Role Models — a somewhat fun, lightweight film with a horribly messy storyline.

The Science of Sleep — Dear Michel Gondry, I love you. Please keep making beautiful things.
Shaolin Soccer — quite enjoyable, but not nearly as memorable or awesome as Kung Fu Hustle.
Shopgirl — back on a now defunct bulletin board, the posters would often get up in arms about films that portrayed relationships between older men (or men in power) and younger women. Usually the posters would deride these films without ever bothering to see them. Shopgirl was one of these. I now have a rule where I try really hard not to diss films without having viewed them first. And this one is lovely. Claire Danes is delightful and should really get more work.
Sita Sings the Blues — a wonderful, witty animated film that unfortunately suffers from being made almost entirely by one person.
Son of Rambow — it makes my heart happy to even think about this film.
Sullivan’s Travels — Preston Sturges. What a genius.
Sunshine — some people don’t like the ending. Those people are wrong. Also, the space suits are stunningly beautiful.
Superbad — I laughed and I laughed. And then I laughed some more.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three — what a fucking crackerjack of a film. Awesome in every singe way.
The Tenant — it was just… so… odd…
The Terminator — another one from the list of shame. Yes, you read that right, I didn’t see The Terminator until 2009 and I damn well loved it. My favourite James Cameron film by far.
The Transporter — stupid mindless beefcakey fun.
The Transporter 2 — a load of unenjoyable, unintelligible nonsense.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona — I certainly wouldn’t deny Javier Bardem some babies, if he, you know, offered. A beautiful film filled with beautiful scenery (of both the human and location varieties).

Waltz with Bashir — I was a little disappointed with this, but I feel bad for saying so… it’s a very good film, but I can’t shake the feeling that it could have been better.
Wanted — the more I see this film, the more I enjoy it. And not just because it’s centred around a magical loom. It’s clever, the acting is great and on the whole it’s ridiculously enjoyable.
Watchmen — I’m so happy I didn’t get around to seeing this at the cinema. What a crushing, horrible disappointment of a film. We borrowed the Bluray from a friend and I still feel like demanding my money back.

So that’s it. My year of cinema at home. 70 71 films (Gigli, can you believe I forgot to add Gigli to the list!!!??!) Not too shabby.

Rabbit and the Moon from Leonie Connellan on Vimeo.

I have a few pieces in the latest salon-style show at Pigment Gallery in Melbourne. The show opens tonight, but is on for just over two weeks on level 2 of the Nicholas Building, near the corner of Swanston St and Flinders Lane in the city.

The pieces I’ve entered are stills from the animation I made last year. In the catalogue, they’ll appear as The Kraken, Alice Falls and The Kraken Rises, but yesterday when signing the proofs, I changed the titles to Below the thunders of the upper deep, Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? and In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die. I’ve printed an edition of 20 12″ x 18″ photographs for each piece, available from the gallery at $100 each.

I hope you can come along and have a look at some stage during the show.

After a week of the wideangle lens and full body shots, I ran like a crazed schoolgirl back to my beloved macro for my 365 series. My eyes weren’t dealing well at the time with the heat, so I decided to make them my focus for the week.

After taking the above shot outside and without flash, I decided to see what I could do with it. The following picture was a bit of an experimental accident and is one of my favourites. It feels like my skin and eyelashes are part of a landscape.

I then started using the macro less and struggling more with my pictures. The next one is altered all to hell, and I like to picture it less as a photo of my eyes, and more as a representation of a moth.

And then another night of taking the pictures late and struggling with low light graininess as a result.

The next day, while waiting on news about a job interview I’d been for during the previous week, I got a call from RMIT saying that it would be a very, very good idea for me to put in an application for the Master of Fine Art program. As soon as possible. After three months waiting for news on my Honours application, this was very, very exciting. And terrifying, as the job interview I’d been for was for a full-time position. I received a call from one of my referees a few hours later, who said that she’d been contacted and was fairly certain I’d get the job.

The next day was my 10 year anniversary with Mr Crumpet. It was all going well until I found that the dogs had partially dug up Henry (…again…) and were fighting over who got to chew his jaw bones. Rather upsetting, to put it lightly. Still, I managed to get my shit together, take my application in and then go and see The Wrestler with the Mister. And this is how I felt when I got home.