This short documentary, following three strong women trying to increase the quote of female politicians in Sierra Leone, is the work of artist and filmmaker Anna Cady and includes beautiful painted animations by Em Cooper. See some stills from her work below:

Attic was responsible for the sound design and mix of this splendid piece and it was certainly a pleasure to work on. We hope it is well admired at Sundance and it helps further the cause of the exceptional women of this film.

Here’s the trailer:

AMPS is a guild of film sound professionals and its members include many of the very best Production Mixers, Sound Designers and Re-recording Mixers currently working in the UK.

AMPS defines its aim as:

To promote the science, technology and creative application of all aspects of sound and image recording, reproduction and associated processes for motion pictures, television and allied media, and to enhance the status and recognition of the contribution of those therein engaged.

AMPS is an incredible resource for both producers and sound professionals. Find out more on the AMPS website, which is going to be gloriously relaunched sometime later in 2012.

We have recently completed Christian Krohn’s The Turn, a story about a comedian in the decidedly unfunny world of stand-up comedy and comedy clubs. The lead was expertly played by Tim Bentinck (best know as the voice of BBC Radio’s David Archer) and the short allowed us some room for creative work. The club itself, with its dodgy PA and its crowd full of rowdy regulars shifting on their seats was brought to life through sound. As a side note, it also co-starred James Phelps, one of Harry Potter’s Weasley twins, now very much an up-and-coming actor. Watch a clip of ‘The Turn’ here:

We have also just finished designing and mixing Clowning Around, a wonderful short following alcoholic clown Bonzo that ends with a custard pie showdown. We created shoe squeezes to match Bonzo’s mood, recorded school children chanting in Kent, and played with trolleys in a Waitrose car park to insure the sound design packed a real punch. We hope to show you some clips soon!

In other news, we have finally completed our children’s story app of iPad, Princess Petal and the Trapdoor. It was a huge effort and learning experience but we are hugely impressed with the result and are already scheming new Princess Petal adventures. A big thanks to our illustrator Ami-Lou Sharpe, animator Stevie Green, programmer Danielle Huntrods and narrator Cerrie Burnell for helping us create a brand new story app from scratch. Personally, my favourite character is the little bee….

Clowning Around is the creation of director Damien Cullen, and as soon as we saw a rough cut we knew we wanted to be involved. It is a tragic comedy, following the lovable clown Bonzo, trying to keep a grip on his clowning career.

Bonzo is mute throughout the film, leaving plenty of room for sound design to add an extra layer of definition to his character. Also the careful balance of emotions that Damien is attempting to weave will need to be partly expressed through the sound design, without it feeling too forced.

As a sound designer it is your roll to support the film’s intent, rather than planting your own on it, so we shall be working closely with Damien to hopefully add a final audio polish to his work.

The film has been funded and marketed online, via a very successful indiegogo campaign and Damien sets an excellent benchmark for a modern way of making and marketing films. Through his website and the indiegogo campaign, Damien has documented the whole filmmaking process and has actually created a very worthwhile resource for would-be filmmakers.

Find out more about the project on the film’s website and on the film’s indiegogo page.