Montreal Sauce Interview.

Tonight 9:00 pm EDT I will be chatting it up LIVE with Paul DeLeeuw and Christopher Sikkenga.

I don't know what to expect but one thing for sure, I will not hold back so join in please

Easter eggs in Dirty Laundry Day.

Some awesome studios out there use Easter eggs to "tease us" and leave us pounding our heads for months on end wondering about what they might be cooking for us next. 

Well, since I'm not cooking anything I thought I'd make my Easter eggs more meaningful and contributing to the story line. So let's start:

1- JFKs' assassination date.

It is first shown on the title card. JFK and Ken "my story's protagonist" were killed on the same day, the 22nd.

The date is referred to again in the year section on the assassins' cars' license plate. I guess being a Bill Hicks fan justifies my fascination with JFK.

And the name on the state where the story takes place is Eutopia, a bit of irony I guess.

2- Che Guevara.

This one might rub some the wrong way, I know, so I won't get into it in details, I used it for its symbolism.

3- This is WFN. (World Fucked up News)

Not much of an Easter egg, more of a detail.

And last but not least, the guitar chord progression at the end of the film is from Sam Cooke's great song "Change is gonna come".

   

So there you have it. Thanks for reading.

And last but not least

Now this is a great place to finish our festival circuit, Spain. The folks at I FILMMAKER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ran a tight ship, timely communications, great venues ,and some of the finest compliments I've ever received, which makes me sad I couldn't attend this year (damn you money!!) Hopefully next year Marbella.

The Rubber Onion Animation Interview

I meat Stephen and Rob in an ASIFA East event. Back then they got to watch a WIP of 
Dirty Laundry Day. Now that it's all done they invited me for a little chat on their podcast 

"The Rubber Onion Animation Podcast".

I thought I did horribly but thanks to Stephen's superior editing skills I don't sound that bad. 
I hope you enjoy it.

That I learned 5

Don't ever get out of the storyboard/animatic phase until you resolve %90 of your film. Cameras, Compositions, Cuts, Transitions, and Actions should be clearly defined in your animatic, and ANYTHING after that "the remaining %10" is merely plussing up and tying up what you've done in pre-production. 
After 5 iterations here's my final animatic side by side with the final outcome. Thank you.

Dirty Laundry Day is Public.

After almost a year of spinning around festivals and public screenings, Dirty Laundry Day and all animatics and prep-production material is open to the public, so please have a watch, share it if you can, comment if you care, and thanks for following and supporting.

Dirty Laundry Day. from Jamil Lahham on Vimeo.

KLIK! Amsterdam.

KLIK! Amsterdam is one of the most renowned animation  in Europe as well as around the world, and just last week I heard back from their judging panel; and the verdict is this:

Boards.

Now that the festival circuit is nearing its end I see no harm in sharing this snap shot of the storyboards out of TVPaint.

From Portland to Poland

It is so gratifying to wake up to two acceptance emails from two awesome independent film festivals, ARS Independent Festival, and Portland Film Festival, so if you're in either town make a point of checking them out, I know I am.

Greenwich Film Festival

Just wrapped up at the Greenwich Film Festival, and it was an absolute blast. The Narrative Shorts block was amazing, and Ausol rightfully won the category. Another good film I'm glad I got to watch during the festival was Victoria. I highly recommend both films.

Here are some photos from the event courtesy of Getty Images.