Antagonistic Pictures

Puppet Cthulhu

“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”

A music video I made for ‘Sleeve’ from Thumpermonkey’s brilliant album ‘Sleep Furiously’, this is the Cthulhu mythos squeezed down into 5 mins and enacted with puppets. 

Here’s a little ‘making of’ video showing puppet-master Darren Carrington operating his creations while I filmed the chaos… 

Puppet Cthulhu was shot over the course of a year while I worked night-shift behind-the-scenes on a TV dating channel (experiences of which could fill several blog posts and probably get me sued, so I’ll leave that for another time). 

To keep my brain from leaking out of my ears at my day job I made another film at the same time - a no-budget action-packed horror-comedy about an invasion of killer shopping trolleys - Death Carts… 

If you like these, please take a ganders / listen to the marvellous works of my talented collaborators… 

Thumpermonkey

Dissolved

Darren Carrington

Dave Packer (aka Sheep Films)

Here’s my blog post on the making of ‘The Moment’ (two versions), starring Noel Bateman and Terry Drew as hitman and target -

50 Kisses Film

Special Thanks to talented cohorts Dave Packer, Helen Dunleavy, Ochre and Datassette, and of course my cat Chibi…

 Which version do you prefer of the two below? 

The End Of The Strange World Of Max X

In October our TV / online comedy show ‘The Strange World Of Max X’ came to an end. We managed to make 30-odd episodes over the course of a year, and most of these found an appreciative audience who enjoyed the lightly surreal wordless comedy, nifty visual effects, and cats. It was nice to work on a show that wasn’t reliant on inane catch-phrases, mash-ups, or guns. 

The films were funded by German TV channel Deutsche Welle and shown within their Euromaxx magazine show, as well as on our own Youtube channel. Dave Packer and I made on average one film every two weeks, mostly in Brighton but also in Berlin and a very picturesque Austrian ski resort (more on that in another blog post). 

A second series was considered, but both we and DW felt that it had run its course and that it was better to end while the quality level was still up. I was concerned we’d run out of ideas and go all ‘monkey tennis’. Also, as Dave was responsible for all effects work as well as being Max, he was getting a bit sick of staring at his own face all day every day. 

I kinda miss Max. He may have been a slightly pompous, short-tempered loner but he loved his cat, had an inquisitive nature and a healthy disregard for authority. 

Here’s two of the last three films, both about escape… 

The Loops film was inspired by Dave’s expertise with making funny looping gif animations, and what might happen if these loops were part of the real world. Here’s a few of my favourite Sheep Films gifs…

Weirdly, nothing calamitous happened while making any of these films. We were occasionally hassled by paranoid nutters - one man, who we nicknamed ‘Brian’ (I don’t know why, he just looked like a Brian) thought we might be burglars scoping out the houses on his street and demanded we move on. Another angry man, who took offence at me standing near his van, told me to move or he’d “smash the fucking camera” (I do look a bit shifty sometimes, I guess. Or maybe there was a body in the boot, who knows…)

While shooting the final film on Brighton beach an inebriated lady demanded her photo be taken repeatedly. She was fun. 

But it was mostly all stress-free. Though I’ve obviously jinxed myself now, the next film I make will go tits up, my camera will melt and I’ll be eaten by wasps.

The very last film was supposed to be a dramatic confrontation between Max and his bitter, twisted human alter ego and the malevolent boss of a TV studio, but alas that never happened so Dave came up with a film in which Max’s world is swallowed up by corporate branding.

It felt nicely dark and subversive, and was to end with Max escaping in a boat while the sea is also consumed by the logos. 

For some reason the head honchos didn’t feel this worked after we delivered the edit, and wanted a simpler, more abrupt and humourless ending. All of the boat material was cut, which was a shame as it looked nice and dramatic…

We suggested a compromise involving the cat and Max’s entrapment within television, which was thankfully okayed. Here’s the last ever Max film, Branding… 

Cheers to Dave for roping me in to making these, to my favourite film critic Roger Ebert for his praise, and to Pussington the cat for being a consummate professional who never threw a strop.

More non-Max films coming up…