Fantastic Fear

I'm back in Bristol after the cast and crew screening of A Fantastic Fear of Everything in London yesterday. Great to meet some of the London crew and hang out with my Collision family - feeling slightly worse for wear today, but still pretty stoked on the high of seeing my animated hedgehog puppet creations on the big screen and watching my name roll in the credits...! Don't let the Y fronts on the poster scare you, go see it! A Fantastic Fear of Everything opens June 8th in UK cinemas.

Riot Grrrls

My first published live music review is out now on the Fear of Fiction website!
Check it out >HERE<

LET'S START A GIRL RIOT!!! x

Admiral Fallow, 'The Paper Trench'

Latest collaborative work on the music promo for Admiral Fallow's 'The Paper Trench'. I worked on the design and making of the tree costume, as worn in the video by actor Jez Hellion, also known as Hagrid's body double in Harry Potter! That's a big tree suit.

'The Paper Trench' is the new single taken from Admiral Fallow's brand new album 'Tree Bursts In Snow'.

Director: Gregory Davenport
Producer: Licia Shirin Conn
1st AC: Emilio Schlappi
2nd AC: Alistair King
Gaffer: Raz Khamehseifi
Grade: Toby Tomkins
Costume Design: Ashley Clarke
MUA: Sammm Agnew

A Fantastic Fear of Everything

Here it is folks; the trailer for A Fantastic Fear of Everything is out, featuring the animated hedgehog puppets I designed and made for the film! This is the secret film project I may have mentioned that I was working on last summer.
Release date is set for June 8th in UK cinemas, we can't wait! x

link to the IMDb page
Hollywood Reporter review ("disturbing-looking hedgehog"!)

Admiral Fallow, the making of Tree Man

Last month I was contacted by fabulous director Greg Davenport of Epoch Films, London to help him find a solution to his urban 'Tree Man' character idea for a music promo for Glaswegian band Admiral Fallow. He quickly shot over some pointers to be included in the design and I sketched out some rough visualizations for the costume...

NB - The actor donning the tree suit was eventually confirmed as Jeremy Hill, who played Hagrid's body in the Harry Potter films, not Tom as I originally drew in the designs! Either way, both actors are exceptionally tall. 

In the original design I had intended for the skin on top of the framework to be mostly made out of lightweight and organic materials like real bark and branches/twigs/etc which I knew I could fairly easily acquire around Bristol, and would also make the costume fabrication achievable within the 1 week timeframe and low budget restrains. But after the logistical decision was made for me to work as part of a team in London instead, this part of the design was difficult to implement. Fortunately, the discovery of a dead tree in Sammm's back garden the day before the costume was due to travel to Glasgow meant that parts of the costume could still be fashioned re. the original design (ie. head/shoulders/collar - the parts to be mostly seen in close-ups), with extra bark and tinted tissue paper/latex laid over to blend the other parts that had already been made. Sammm Agnew MUA is the other half of team Tree Man and my fellow collaborator on the project.

It's nice to have soft, warm friends to cuddle up to after an exhausting night tree surgeoning...

After a 9 hour road trip with the film crew up to Glasgow (kudos to our lovely driver Leandro who kept stoked on caffeine and never once tired!) and a much deserved rest, we headed out early the next morning to begin shooting. Our wonderful actor Jez is an absolute trooper and wore the costume from morning to sundown, being bundled into the back of a transit to travel from location to location - now that's dedication! He looked treemendous on film too hahaha sorry there really has been no end to the tree jokes.... Special Branch anybody?.....ahhhaa cough cough.

Sammm and I with Jez inside our tree man creation

A great big thank you to all the film crew, my fellow tree maker Sammm Agnew MUA, our amazing tree man Jeremy Hill, the band and producer/director Licia Conn/Greg Davenport at Epoch Films for a fantastical Scottish adventure.

Expect the music video for Admiral Fallow 'The Paper Trench' to come out later this month! 

Pride Bristol

From the darkened room of my studio where I am tinkering (on a current super secret film project ssh), I stepped out on my stilts into the sunshine and rainbows of the Pride Bristol festival! Great crowd, good times.

photos by www.joe-clarke.com

Blue Aeroplanes, 'Anti-Gravity'

A little preview of the shoot from earlier this year with photographer Jon Rowley and the Blue Aeroplanes in anticipation of the release of the bands new album 'Anti-Gravity'. The album is set for release on vinyl from Monday 20th June and you can get yours here.

Cabaret Abattoir

Had a great night performing and stilt walking for Cabaret Abattoir on Saturday. I made some Dogma-inspired bloody wing stumps with beautiful feathered shoulder pads for the occasion, photos are now up at www.joe-clarke.com

The Birthday of the Infanta

Last autumn I was invited by the lovely director Emily Gray of Trestle Theatre Company to their arts base in London to discuss my ideas and inspiration for a stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Birthday of the Infanta, after having spent three months earlier on in the year developing my take on the bittersweet fairy tale.
Watching the one-woman whirlwind that is actress Georgina Roberts in rehearsals, I could tell this was going to be an exciting show to witness. Georgina is a superb mistress of transformation, moving from her portrayal of each character to the next with such ease and imagination that makes her performance an absolute delight to behold.

Trestle Company's 'The Birthday of the Infanta' is now touring at various venues throughout London, Bath and others from the beginning of March right up until May. You can book tickets here

Bound

Filming the music video for US band Mindless Faith's new single 'Bound'. Underground caverns seem to be my thing right now. And Jack Daniels. Well, it was cold down there.

Photos by www.joe-clarke.com

The Fleece, Bristol launch

photos by Kaja Photography

Stilt walking for the crowd last weekend at the Fleece launch night, headlined by cult Bristol art-rockers The Blue Aeroplanes....

......aaaand (several drinks later) invited on stage for a great big encore of Breaking In My Heart, which was fabulously riotous and squishy (10 aeroplanes, 1 stage). Thanks guys!

The Goblin King's Court of Disorder

photos courtesy of Joe Clarke and Marcus T

I love traveling to ye olde London towne. Especially when I'm not the one driving. And especially when it's to perform at a rather exciting new Guerilla Zoo event in the great big caverns underneath ye olde London Bridge - The Goblin King's Court of Disorder!

In between romping around the underground like a giant pixie on my stilts, I was fortunate to make friends with some beautiful creatures.

Highlight of my evening? Having a chat backstage with the enchanted legendary artist himself, Brian Froud! An absolute gentleman, he came all the way from the south coast to give a guest appearance and delighted us all with his tales of how the Dark Crystal and Labyrinth came into being. His son Toby, of course, played the baby that David Bowie kidnaps in Labyrinth. He's a puppet maker and stilt walker too don'cha know?

There are more photos to feast your eyes upon here:
http://www.guerrillazoo.com/goblin-king-s-court-of-disorder-photo-gallery/
and here:
http://photos.marcust.com/Events/Oct-2010-Goblin-Ball-CrowdArt/15019405_LKsnXk#!i=1121749833&k=gT8SG

Watch this space for more Goblin King events in 2012.....