fopspeen | about us

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Fopspeen Moving Pictures is an “eccentric animation production house…(with an)… eclectic portfolio of mostly model animation”. Bendazzi, 2016. Animation: A World History, vol 3 p 309.

Established in 2004, Fopspeen Moving Pictures has made, amongst many other things, four animated short films, which have travelled the international festival circuit extensively, winning four international prizes, a SAFTA award and nomination.

We do all kinds of traditional animation and excel at creating original content. We conceptualise, write, design, direct, animate, edit, compose music, record sound, design sound.

Fopspeen Moving Pictures is a one-stop animation workshop.

What does Fopspeen do?

Animation

We do any kind of animation for film, television programming, commercials, music videos, training videos, theatre productions and so on.

Sound & Music

We compose and record music, record sound effects, do sound design, and final mix for any kind of production.

Animation internships and lessons

On larger projects fopspeen employs interns and amateur animators as part of an ongoing effort to pass on the craft of animation.

Additionally Charles Badenhorst started 'Vuvumation' which teaches animation to school children.

• vuvumation.wordpress.com

What does 'Fopspeen' mean, and what inspired the name?

Fopspeen is an Afrikaans word for a baby’s dummy, or pacifier. A baby sucks on it to calm down, or as a substitute for the real thing. Art is a dummy or pacifier for life.

Who is Fopspeen?

Diek Grobler obtained his BA Fine Arts degree from the University of Pretoria in 1987 and his Masters Degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1996. He is currently completing a PhD in Art History at the University of South Africa on Narrative Strategies in Animated Poetry.

Grobler has exhibited professionally since 1988 and his work is included in several major public and corporate collections in South Africa.

Diek Grobler works in a variety of media and disciplines: Ceramic sculpture, oil, and gouache paintings and scraperboard drawings. He also works in time based disciplines: Performance art, computer aided 2D animation and stop-motion animation.

Charles Badenhorst is a published musician and singer (pseudonym Bittervrug), sound designer, animator and animation teacher. He has published two music CD’s and won national and international awards for his film What abou’ de lo - after the poem by Adam Small.

Charles teaches animation at various schools in Pretoria, with special attention to children with learning disabilities.

Where is Fopspeen situated?

"Casa Fopspeen", our new premises, is situated in Hertzog Street, Rietfontein, in the Moot area of Pretoria. Both living and working space, and there is lots of room for expansion (and always for improvement.)

Hopes and dreams?

We have too many projects boiling in our heads to realise, but we will try our best. Somewhere amongst all those bright ideas is a feature length animation movie, in a truly South African idiom.

And we want World Peace.

Timeline
2011 • 2010 • 2009
2008 • 2007 • 2006 • 2005 • 2004

2012 - 2018

During this period Fopspeen has been part of producing two iterations of Filmverse - a South African poetry + animation project funded by the ATKV.

2011

March Production concludes on Uit die Bloute, a KykNet channel branding exercise.

March Charles gets married.

2010

March/April Die padda wou gaan opsit met sy nooi in die vlei Music Video for Gert van Tonder and Snotkop.

March Fopspeen creates a corporate video for Grinaker LTI, the company that constructed Soccer City and the Mandela Bay Stadium, as well as animated visuals for the first live event ever to be held in Soccer City.

April Fopspeen Moves to Rietfontein, Pretoria.

June Production commences on Uit die Bloute a channel branding animated series for KykNet.

2009

January to December Justice Gang, Series 2.

February Het Vogeltjes ABC wins an award for ‘Best animated film for children at the Tehran International animation festival, Iran.

February Agenda Fopspeen receives a SAFTA award.

April Agenda wins an online short film competition in the Africala Festival, Mexico. Diek travels to Mexico as guest of the festival. The festival opens on Wednesday, and is shut down on the Thursday due to the outbreak of Swine flu. The less said about the whole trip, the better.

May/June Danie Marais Diek does animation to two poems by Danie Marais: “In Duitsland waar die wolke in gelid marsjeer”, and "Saturday night live”.

October Het Vogeltjes ABC is invited to the prestigeous KROK animation festival in the Ukraine. Diek and Charles sets of for a fab ten day trip down the Dnieper river, meet crazy Russians, drink too much Vodka and win an award for ‘Best animated film for children'.

October/November Uit die Bloute Fopspeen develops an animated series about a suburban Afrikaans family. It is pitched to Kyknet. It is posted on u-tube to rave reviews. By April 2010 we are still waiting to hear whether Kyknet wants it.

2008

January Justice Gang airs on SABC 1. Our official TV debut.

August & September Het Vogeltjes ABC Based on the children’s book of the same title, by Piet Grobler. “Vogeltjes” premieres at the Berlin Book Fair in October.

August to October "B" Diek conceptualises and animates “B”, an ‘art’ animaimation for exhibition at Fried Contemporary gallery in Pretoria.

2007

May Stop working on The Finer Things, and Silly Poems.

July Start shooting Agenda.

August Fopspeen's website launches.

September Little Bang gets nominated for a SAFTA award. The Finer Things wins BEST SHORT FORM AUDIOVISUAL ENTERTAINMENT MADE FOR MOBILE AND/OR INTERNET; FACTUAL, at Mipcom Audiovisual Content Market, Cannes, France. Start production on The Justice Gang for Handheld Films, commissioned by SABC 1.

2006

January Fopspeen relocates to its current geographical position. It is a long story… Sanna gets shelved, where she patiently bides her time…

July Shooting Little Bang in the dead of winter, at night in a garden shed. Shooting takes five weeks, not counting the week everybody was in bed with severe flu.

6 September Little Bang premieres at Platform on 18.

November Little Bang at its first International Festival, in Tirana, Albania. Start working on The Finer Things, and Silly Poems for Speedy Productions SA.

2005

April We attend our very first International Animation Festival: Anifest Trebon, Czech Republic. We are the only representatives of the African continent.

September Charles attends the KROK animation festival, Ukraine. Meets Merlin Crossingham from Aardman Animation. Gets himself invited to spend time at Aardman studios. He also meets and gets himself photographed with animation legend Juri Norstein. Diek still hates him for this.

November Completes shooting episode 6 of Sanna’s Garden.

2004

Inception of Fopspeen Moving Pictures (previously Fopspeen Live Art), doing little arty animations here and there, often for performance purposes.

Diek and Charles start working on Sanna’s Garden with a $7000 grant from the Critical Ecology Partnership Fund.

July Completes the first episode of Sanna’s Garden.

September Complete the second episode. Animation skills have improved to such an extent that we decide to RESHOOT the entire Episode One.

November Complete reshoot of Episode One.

updated 31 May 2018

www.fopspeen.co.za, editor: Diek Grobler

All material on this website is copyrighted to Fopspeen Moving Pictures and it's artists.