Gkids picks up Song of the Sea

Great to see our news about our North American partners GKids picked up by Variety and Cartoon Brew and several other places online. 

I'm excited to start planning the release with Eric, Dave and team at Gkids over the coming months as we finish production.

A week of music and magic.

I Just wanted to share a few snaps and thoughts from the past weeks recording.

I think 99% of its there now with just maybe a few last things to do before the mix.

Next weekend Ill be in Sofia for the recording of the orchestra which is really exciting.

Im already dreaming about the next project - its a pity somehow that they take so long to get to this stage .

Watching and hearing the musicians playing is magical thing for me , I realise how special and collabrative the filmmaking process is.

After The Secret of Kells I toyed with the idea that Song of the Sea could be a comic that I could make either alone or with a small team. 

But the story was about music at its heart and I knew it had to be an animated film , the music is such an important part of the story , the tone and the atmosphere and much of the emotional impact is carried by the music.

The collabration between Bruno and Kila has been even more enmeshed this time around , I am excited to see it all mixed and edited with the visuals over the coming months.

Bruno listening to the song of the sea.

Jean Phillipe waiting to play his part.

Rossa plays Spud the Fairys part in the fairy fort sequence.

Rossa has an amazing collection of percussion and sound makers , even a set of ancient bones from

viking times that he plays.

We recorded in the beautiful setting of Pickering Forest where Kila have recorded most of their albums .. A really fascinating place full of history abd character.

My official portrait

Heres Brian from Kila who was once an assitant animator in Disney Paris doing a very flattering portrait of me in my new computer - next door an amazing cacophany of percussion is happening 

Screen Daily

WestEnd hears Song of the Sea

7 FEBRUARY, 2014 | BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

EXCLUSIVE: The Secret of Kells director’s sophomore animation gets sales company.

WestEnd Films has signed on to sell Tom Moore’s anticipated animation Song of the Sea, the director’s follow up to Oscar-nominated animation The Secret of Kells.

Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan, David Rawle, Lisa Hannigan, Pat Shortt and Jon Kenny are among the voice cast in the Cartoon Saloon-produced family-animation, due for release late this year.

Like Moore’s previous film, Song of the Seatakes inspiration from Irish folklore, centring on the legend of the Selkies, mythological creatures that are part seal, part human.

The storyline revolves around brother and sister Ben and Saoirse, who are forced to leave their coastal home to live with their grandmother following their mother’s mysterious disappearance.

Oscar-nominated composer Bruno Coulais again joined forces with Irish Band Kíla to create the score after their collaboration on 2009 feature Kells.

Previous deals done with producers include StudioCanal for the UK and Ireland, Haut et Court and Orange Cinéma Séries in France, O Brother Distribution in Benelux and Svensk Film for Sweden and Denmark.

Cartoon Saloon co-produced with The Big Farm from Belgium, Melusine Productions from Luxembourg, Norlum from Denmark and Superprod from France.

WestEnd will be showing footage at the EFM.

Westend films announcement from Berlin

Westend Films have announced that they will be handling the international sales on our film with a piece in screen international. They also released some still images from composited scenes so I thought I would share them here too-

Music , compositing and airports

Its been too long since my last update , things have been moving very quickly and we have been busy on several fronts.

Im just back from Digital Graphics in Belgium . Adrien and I try to visit twice a month now as we near the last stages of ink and paint and compositing . 

Its all shaping up nicely but the pressure is on due to the deadline and budget constraints. 

Heres a nice pic of a stormy sea scene Damien composited - 

"one down 100s to go "as Serge said. 

Damien and Celine are in the photo - both of whom are old friends from the Secret of Kells its great to work with them again.

In the background you can see the poster for another recent project they worked on - Ernest and Celestine , a beautiful film that just won 3 awards at the Magritte film awards cermony and is nominated for an academy award next month in LA. 

I started the week here in Celbridge in Ireland with Bruno Coulais , Lisa Hannigan and Kila who are busy working on the songs and music. 

We also had little Lucey O'Connell here too recording the singing voice of Saoirse.

Our editor Darragh Byrne took some lovely photos. 

Colm was there on Monday and the rest of Kila arrived on tuesday and began recording the traditional instruments - i left for belgium just as they were getting started so i look forward to hearing what they have come up with tommorow.

They have been joined by French cellist Jean-Philippe Audin . We just had a chat and amazingly he studied music with ( our art director ) Adrien 's mum many moons ago.

 Its a small world sometimes.

I leave you with a sketch I made of Ronan from Kila on Tuesday morning and a promise to update again very soon- theres announcments happening in Berlin this week that I'm 

excited to share so stay tuned...