This year CineVegas will play not one but two Kid Can Drive films–The Adventures of Ledo and Ix and our newest film, The Ghost and Us. THIS FESTIVAL IS IN LAS VEGAS!!!! I know what people say about that city, but I for one am a huge Las Vegas fan. I have some cousins out there and we have actually had reunions at shrimp buffets.
Ledo and Ix will be making an appearance at PAX East, the giant gaming convention hosted by Penny Arcade!
Ledo and Ix Screening and Q and A
Merman Theatre
Merman Theatre
Saturday, 7:00pm – 8:00pm
Season One of Ledo and Ix will be screened in dazzling high definition (including a first look at Episodes 6 and 7), and the audience will be invited to participate in a moderated discussion with series creator Emily Carmichael. Much like an electron’s, the flitting movements of Carmichael’s thought process are outside our or any human’s power to predict, but those familiar with her in private life know she enjoys discussing the relative merits of Final Fantasy games (including those she has not played all the way through), as well as the Big Issues of Gender, Genre Tropes and Storytelling.
From left: James Carmichael, Emily Carmichael and Josh Hetzler
From left: James Carmichael, Michael Wiener, Cory McAbee, Emily Carmichael and Josh Hetzler
he parses the loopholes of consciousness, the automation of society, fear of the unknown, and the habits we cling to that give us meaning.
Thanks to my very good friend Landon Zakheim – who curated the second annual “Razorblades in Your Reese’s” Halloween short film program at the Downtown Independent last Monday- I was exposed to the tender and hilarious ennui of filmmaker Emily Carmichael. I am very happy this has happened. Her short The Hunter and the Swan Discuss Their Meeting was an outcast among the more shocking and musically epic shorts in the program (The Legend of Beaver Dam is one of the greatest things ever, as well), but its sensibility was dry and sweet, like some Yellow Tail at a dinner party with friends you don’t quite you know yet. Her contemporary take on this classic myth is fresh and she uses her symbols well.
But it’s her ongoing animated series The Adventures of Ledo and Ix that has me jazzed up. In this currently 8-part work, Carmichael uses the pixelated melodrama of the adventure RPG to cast absurd exigence on the hero/sidekick-vs-indifferent-cosmos experience. In four minute bursts, and with only 256 colors (which close-up, still manage to evoke real pathos), she parses the loopholes of consciousness, the automation of society, fear of the unknown, and the habits we cling to that give us meaning.
Posted on November 4, 2011 by D. Jette
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New York! Come check out this charming screening/cheap drinks opportunity at Wicked Willy’s on Bleecker Street this Sunday! I will be there, EXHAUSTED BUT PRESENT.
Facebook Event Page
Think(it) Film Assembly
Tickets are on sale for our first screening series:
Date: Sunday, May 13th
Doors: 7pm
Location:
Wicked Willy’s (Back Room)
149 Bleecker Street
(Between Thompson & Lagaurdia)
New York, NY. 10019
$4 DRAFT / WELL / WINE & FREE POPCORN!!
Films screened:
Wallet and the watch
Shaken and stirred
Ledo and Ix
Senior break
The sweet life
Lunch Date
Subway
Goldfish Love
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers & an opportunity to Network with fellow artists from 9-10pm
Animation Block Party (www.animationblock.com) is the premier animation festival of the East Coast. In this interview series, the founder of ABP, Casey Safron will be introducing Animation Magazine readers to some of the award winning animators who have screened at past ABP festivals.
Emily Carmichael’s recent live-action short, The Hunter and Swan Discuss Their Meeting, screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and ABP has been lucky enough to show some of her past animated shorts from The Adventures of Ledo and Ix series. You can check out Emily’s films athttps://kidcandrive.com/
Emily Carmichael: First off, I owe the fans of Ledo and Ix a bit of an explanation for the long hiatus the show has taken. Fans! I get your e-mails! They warm my heart. I have been hard at work on a live-action feature called Arrow. There definitely IS a second season of Ledo and Ix coming. I’m deciding where it should air, and a few other details. There will be a Kickstarter for it in the near future!
Casey Safron: So, how has your animation process changed since the first Ledo/Ix film in 2008?
The Adventures of Ledo and Ix, by Emily Carmichael.
Carmichael: You know, it actually hasn’t. I mean, except in the nerdiest of ways, like now I make everything a movie clip instead of an animated psd (Flash animators know what I’m talking about). What *has* changed how I get from Flash to Quicktime, which used to be sort of — what’s the word I’m looking for — nightmarish. When the first Ledo and Ix got into Slamdance it took me two days of trial and error just to print a tape.
Safron: The style of the Ledo and Ix films parody classic video games – have you ever considered making an actual video game starring Ledo and Ix?
Carmichael: Yes! Yes. I have talked intermittently to people about creating a game of Ledo and Ix. I think it could be really exciting!
Safron: You’re also a live-action filmmaker, do you have a preference of medium or do you decide on what technology to use based on the story you’d like to tell?
Carmichael: Well the main difference between Ledo and Ix and my live-action films is one of scale. I animate Ledo and Ix by myself, with occasional help from another, better animator (Steve Valdez) and then composers and a sound mixer join in at the end to determine the sound of the episode. (Chris Thomas, Andrea Mazzariello, Mike Gamble and Laura Sinnott have all contributed.)
It can be nice working by yourself, just having total control and never having to ask favors from anyone. (Except I guess from everyone I just mentioned, to whom I owe all my various limbs.) But when you want something from one of the ACTORS you don’t have to ask. There’s never like “oh, I know it’s getting cold but can we do one more take of you stabbing that dragon.”
Safron: Thank you, Emily — looking forward to more Ledo and Ix films in the near-ish future.
Animation Block Party Spotlight on ‘Ledo and Ix’s’ Carmichael | Animation Magazine.
Ledo & Ix is the funniest, deepest, and most mysterious series to come along in quite a while. It’s original tale of two conscious video game sprites trapped in a wholly automatic world is both endearing and thought-provoking as well as incredibly entertaining.
Emily Carmichael, the creator of Ledo & Ix, is as colorful and charming as her series. Emily set some time aside for us to talk about her series, her characters, their Kickstarter, and both the inspiration and the future of Ledo & Ix.
Ledo and Ix at Kickstarter Film Festival
The first Ledo and Ix film of the second season (watch it here!) will screen at the 3rd Annual Kickstarter Film Fest in Williamsburg on August 3rd!
I’ve said elsewhere that Ledo and Ix are the best game characters you’ve never played, and while it’s true viewing them on the small screen strips away the interactivity that propelled my early adventures on the NES and SNES, watching them interact with each other and various villagers gets to the heart of what made early RPGs so special.
We weren’t just insulting the spoony bard, we were the spoony bard.Limitation breeds creativity, and the lack of snazzy graphics and emotionally cued voice acting required us to fill in the blanks ourselves. We truly had to role-play our RPGs. We imagined the scenery represented by black screens and a pixelated sketch of a mountain range. The protagonist’s voice became our own, but so did everyone else’s. We weren’t just insulting the spoony bard, we were the spoony bard.
~ Sara Clemens
Kid Can Drive is being featured by this amazing art collective in Dublin. Check out their description and, in their words, “puke with delight.” YAY.
Blue Bottle Presents IV, if you don’t know what we do by now you clearly haven’t been paying attention. Impress your friends and colleagues by joining us at the Hendrons Collider on Thursday the 20th of February for another night of music, poetry, film, experimental performance, merriment and just a whole bunch of stuff.
We shall be entertained by:
1. Saul D. Mehigan: Guy who everyone knows and spits poetry.
2. Sean Fitzgerald: Guy who I know and you will know who plays wonderful fiddle.
3. Theatre: Leaving For Carlow: a response to Samuel Beckett (Performed by Aaron Devine, written and directed by Ailish Leavy)
4. Chris Beausang, comedian. Make ’em laugh, Chris.
5. A very special screening of the work of Kid Can Drive. Kid Can Drive are a North-American production company who make all sorts of wild Turbo Buzzes. They’ve been to SXSW, Tribeca, Sundance, and now they are here, in the same room as you. Puke with delight.
Several more acts TBC. but the ones that are already confirmed are so good that you should come anyway.