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JERRY BECK
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AMID AMIDI
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Portishead Videos by Nick Uff
by amid
May 14, 2008 2:06 am


Nick Uff’s new videos for Portishead songs “The Rip” and “We Carry On” are two of my favorite pieces of animation so far this year. This article from the Bournemouth Echo says that the 44-year-old Uff makes his living as a gardener, which helps to explain why I’ve never heard of him or seen his beautiful hand-drawn animation before. The lo-fi look is authentic; Uff shoots all his work on 16mm. He says about his work, “I don’t storyboard my ideas, but let the films go where they take themselves. There’s all sorts of ideas in there - things that have happened, a bit of social comment - like a stream of consciousness you could say. Each frame has to be different, animated films cannot stand still. That means they can be quite difficult on the eye, especially in the style I use, it’s very busy, a bit scratchy.”

“The Rip”

“We Carry On”

05/14/08  2:41am

WHOA! I think this stuff is AWESOME. Hats off to Nick Uff!

05/14/08  6:33am

I really like the look of these, and the stream of consciousness approach. If anyone manages to find any higher quality versions, please post them. Portishead’s site seems to be messed up at the moment. No videos on their videos page.

05/14/08  7:07am

Very cool. It reminds me of Bruce Bickford.

05/14/08  7:36am

Those were amazing. I liked “The Rip” best, that one just takes you on a journey. Both were so intricate, I don’t think I’d have the patience. So beautiful!

05/14/08  11:52am
Adam says:

Beautiful! His work reminds me a lot of George Grosz in motion.

And this: “animated films cannot stand still” is true, simple wisdom.

05/14/08  11:51pm

If you follow the link in my name, you’ll arrive to an article I’ve written about Nick Uff in Spanish, citing the same local paper article, but also finding that Nick Uff’s also a musician in a band named Gangaloya. He also painted the record cover.[Sorry for my English]

05/15/08  3:50am

I’m so glad I kept going and came to this post. After looking at the Bolt dreck and reading about Fox’s latest cynical plan to suck young talent dry, I was starting to despair.

There IS still some passion and individual vision in animation. Thank you, Nick Uff.

05/15/08  6:56am

Awesome. Yea Bruce Bickford, and also Gary Panter.

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