Who Are The Coalition?

Production and Creators: Knife Party, Tim Rayner Filmmakers: Adam Gault & Stefanie Augustine, Bran Dougherty-Johnson, Cassiano Prado, Mario Sader & Ralph Pinel, Clapham Road Studios, Dave Baum, Decoy, Dom Del Torto, Dylan White & Andy Hague, Echolab, Foreign Office, Andreas Gebhardt, James Wignall, Betterment Bureau (Loyalkaspar), Sehsucht - Directed by Mate Steinforth, Mighty Nice, Parasol Island, Thiago Maia, World Leaders, Yum Yum London, Cristobal Infante, Ladyverd, Arctic Stock Images, Time Based Arts Interactive: Tim Dillon, Eggplant Digital, Marotori, Richard Das, Ademar Varela / Mind Bike, Kester Hynds, Fernando Valente

Production and Creators

knifeparty

Knife Party

Director, Producer, Filmmaker

Simon Robson aka Knife Party is best known for his direction of issue film, or issue animation if you will. Too many evenings spent listening to the declarations of his pal, Barry McNamara, lead to the conception of Simon’s first short film, the multi-award winning ‘What Barry Says’. What Barry Says is a response to the US invasion of Iraq and elucidates McNamara’s outspoken views on what he calls ‘War Corporatism’. Quickly championed by the motion community and the worldwide public alike, ‘What Barry Says’ blazed a trail across the world wide web and the film festival circuit in 2004 and 2005. Simon has, as yet avoided assassination despite receiving direct threats from the marine corps.

2007, a new year a new issue film, this time in the shape of a feature documentary entitled ‘Taking Liberties’ conceived and directed by Chris Atkins. Chris invited Simon to direct animation for his film, which addresses the decline of Civil Liberties in the UK since 1997. Taking Liberties showed in theatres across the UK in the Summer of 2007 and went on to be nominated for a BAFTA in 2008.

Simon sees ‘Coalition of The Willing’ as his defining work. An urgent need to make a proactive statement about the state of the environment lead Simon to team up with the best writer and creatives around. A collaborative film in the truest sense, ‘Coalition’ has allowed Simon to create and share ideas with like-minded moving image makers, all with the shared goal of using film to sell ideas for change.

On an artistic level, Coalition also sees Simon moving into making animation primarily under camera. With the help of Clapham Rd Studios in London, he has re-imagined traditional paint on glass and multi-plane camera techniques with the aid of contemporary 2D and 3D animation software. Simon’s ‘Coalition’ work gives his animated frames a place in the real world, rendered in paint, paper, on acetate and in all manner of other materials, spread out and back-lit on glass.

Knife Party is director & producer of Coalition of the willing

http://www.knife-party.net Work in Progress
For any press/pr enquiries please email: simon@coalitionofthewilling.org.uk