The Art of The Nightmare Before Christmas : ACMI, Melbourne from July 18th 2010 [Free event]

  The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) launches a free Sunday Talks program to coincide with Tim Burton: The Exhibition, beginning with an insight into a Burton favourite, The Nightmare Before Christmas, on Sunday 18 July.

The program brings together artists and composers whose work has a particular relationship to the work of Tim Burton with commentators who will lead discussion about Burton’s work.

Recalling his time working with Tim Burton in the early nineties on hugely popular stop-motion The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), South Australian Art Director, Deane Taylor, will kick of the series with a discussion of his role in the film and the creative challenges of making such a work.

Deane, whose concept artwork for the film also appears in the exhibition, will visit Melbourne for this special one-off event to talk about the craft behind this film facilitated by Assistant Curator of Exhibitions, Kate Warren.

Deane was honoured with an Annie Award for Best Individual Achievement for Artistic Excellence in the Field of Animation for this film. Starting out in 1978 working for Hanna-Barbera, Dean’s career has spanned a variety of roles ranging from art direction through to production design and direction on animated feature films, TV series, and commercials in Australia, Asia, Europe, and the US. To name drop, Deane’s worked as an Art Director on television animations such as Ren and Stimpy, Cow and Chicken and even the Australian classic Blinky Bill, as well as working in the art department of films such as Jetsons: The Movie.

Described as “a stunningly original and visually delightful work of stop-motion animation,” The Nightmare Before Christmas, some 17 years after it premiered, remains a favourite of adults and children the world over and is revered by aspiring stop-motion animators. This hauntingly beautiful creation of Burton’s mind fermented over a ten year period before it was even created. Visitors have the opportunity to see it on the big screen as part of ACMI’s Tim Burton Film Retrospective with eight sessions programmed across July and August.

The Sunday Talks program in the following weeks features local stop-motion artist Isabelle Peppard, animators Van Sowerine and Isobel Knowles, composer Dale Cornelius, the creator and puppeteer behind the acclaimed The Grimstones, Asphyxia, as well an entertaining look into ‘gothic suburbia’ with a panel of experts chaired by Dr Saige Walton.

The Art of The Nightmare Before Christmas will be held on Sunday 18 July at 2pm in Studio 1. The Sunday Talks series will run at the same time and venue for the duration of the exhibition, which is on show until 10 October. Admission is free but tickets must be collected at the Tickets and Information Desk on the day as seats are limited.