BIO
London-born filmmaker, animator and installation artist Paul Vester studied at the Central School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London and worked as a designer, animator and director for several London production companies before establishing his own studio 1972. French TV commercials financed his film Sunbeam (1980). British and U.S. TV commercials financed his next film, Picnic (1987). With Abductees (1995) he was an early pioneer of the of animated documentary form. In 1997 he moved to Los Angeles. His next film, In the Woods (2008) was made with the assistance of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Vester currently lives and works in Los Angeles and teaches at CalArts. At present is working on his second Prototype For a Clock. These prototypes are looping video installations that mark time passing by counting forwards in cycles of random lengths.
FILMS
ARCHIVE
FILMOGRAPHY
2014-2016: PROTOTYPE 2, an animated installation for the GLAS Festival, Berkely.
2013: PROTOTYPE FOR A CLOCK, an animated installation for the Holland Animation Festival.
Work in progress: TWELVES, an installation; RARE ANIMALS TRIPTYCH, an installation, DOG DIARY, a short film.
2009: BOUNDARY CROSSINGS: devised and directed a two week intensive installation workshop entitled “Little Gods” at PNCA, Portland, Oregon.
2008: IN THE WOODS (7 minutes): a short film concerning American language, composed of overlapping time capsules.
Festival screenings include Telluride Film Festival, London Film Festival, Holland Animation Festival.
2008- : Chairman. American Colony Hotel, Jerusalem.
2006-2011: Co-Director, Program in Experimental Animation, CalArts.
2005- : Full time Faculty at CalArts
GOOD AND EVIL: a six and a half minute segment for the DREW CAREY GREENSCREEN SHOW produced with a crew of CalArts students.
MUSEUM FUR GESTALTUNG ZURICH showing working materials from PICNIC in “Trickraum” exhibition.
2003-2004: Guggenheim Fellow, working on experimental short film, IN THE WOODS.
2002-2004: Adjunct professor, Experimental Animation, CalArts.
2000-2002: Creative Director, Division of Commercials and Special Projects, Klasky Csupo Inc.
Visiting artist at CalArts.
Pre-production and initial production work on experimental CG short, SUSTAINING A COMPETITIVE EDGE THROUGH AESTHETICS.
ABDUCTEES included in Cartoon Noir theatrical program organized by Cinema Village in New York, and touring to major cities, now available on video and DVD (First Run Features).
1997-2001: Relocated from London to Los Angeles.
Director of Animation, Rhythm and Hues Studios Inc.
Commercials:
Gatorade
Hershey: Tastetations
Hershey: Bites
Hershey: Twizzlers
Xerox: Storybook
Geicko: Gecko
Visiting artist at CalArts.
Visiting artist at USC.
Work on animation feature film scripts: TABLOID HIGH and GIRLS COLONY.
Music video: ALL AROUND THE WORLD, for Oasis (in collaboration with artists Rob and Chris Clayton and directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris).
1996: Speedy Films, London.
ABDUCTEES screened theatrically at Film Forum, New York, through February.
ABDUCTEES acquired for TV in most territories in the world.
Winner 1st Prize, Sitges International Animation Festival, Spain; 1st Prize, Chicago Film Festival.
Other festival screenings include: Hiroshima, Annecy, Cardiff, Leipzig, Goteborg, Melbourne, Anima Mundi (Rio), Rezfest, Animac, Copenhagen, Holland, Los Angeles.
1995: Speedy Films, London.
Commercials:
Reach: Lift
Our Price: Reindeer
Kellogg's: Enter the Frog
Visiting artist at Harvard.
External Assessor, BA Animation Course, Surrey Institute of Art and Design.
ABDUCTEES (11 minutes) completed - a short film documenting hypnotically recovered memories of people abducted by space aliens, and based on their own drawings.
UK TV premiere Channel Four Television as part of a 30-minute documentary on Paul Vester, in the Fourmations: Secret Passions series.
Premiered theatrically UK at ICA cinema, London.
US premiere at Telluride Film Festival.
Winner 1st prize at London's Everyman Animation Festival.
Winner Golden Gate Award, Animation and Computer Generated Imagery, San Francisco Film Festival.
Subsequent UK tour as part of Live Wires/Raw Drawings British Film Institute theatrical touring program.
1994: Speedy Films, London.
Commercials:
Bubblicious: Tango
Kelloggs Honey Nut Loops: Bird and Bee
Reach: Wondergrip and Nightmare
VOLES, THE CASE OF THE MISSING SOCK completed - a pilot for a TV show. Commissioned by Linda Simensky for Nickelodeon.
Screened at Annecy and London Film Festival.
1993: Speedy Films, London.
Commercials:
Bubblicious: Ink Spots (Art Directors Award, New York)
Kelloggs: Honey Nut Loops: Cat and Bee
Served on selection jury for MOMI (Museum of the Moving Image) Awards, a scheme for producing independent animated films by recent
college graduates, jointly funded by the British Film Institute and Channel Four.
Served on jury for British Animation Awards.
External Assessor, BA Animation Course, Surrey Institute of Art and Design.
Served on jury for British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
Production started on ABDUCTEES for Channel Four Television
Taught animation workshop for Palestinian artists in Ramallah, in Occupied West Bank, funded by British Council.
1992: Speedy Films, London.
Commercials:
Converse: Happy Birthday Chuck
McEwans: Scandinavia
Various animation and graphic effects for Tony Kaye films including
Nike: Kick It
British Airways
Roger Waters Promo What God Wants
1991: Speedy Films, London.
Commercials:
Jell-O: Octopus
Promotion for CBS Television, CBS - Get Ready
Projects:
Live-action test footage (Hi-8) shot in New York City for animated documentary project, ABDUCTEES.
American Colony - a video diary for the BBC
Heads - Liquid Television (Screened at London Film Festival and as part of regional tour with the Arts Council funded Film and Video Umbrella, UK; and as part of Rezfest, USA.
Snake Attack – (MTV ident)
1990: Speedy Films, London.
Commercials:
Jell-O: Octopus
Promotion for CBS Television, CBS - Get Ready
Projects
Script completed for BLOTS, a project for a feature film, funded by British Screen.
American Colony - a video diary for the BBC
1989: Speedy Films, London.
Commercials:
Jell-O: Big Sister and Pudding Punks
Complan: Appearing Man
Test footage (16mm and Hi-8) shot in Jerusalem and West Bank for documentary project, AMERICAN COLONY.
Funding awarded for BLOTS, a script for a 90-minute theatrical feature, by British Screen.
PICNIC winner 1st prize, Films Under 5 minutes, LA International Animation Celebration.
Winner Golden Gate Special Jury Award, Films Under 5 minutes, San Francisco Film Festival.
Acquired by Tournee of Animation for special theatrical and video program, The British Invasion.
1988: Speedy Films, London.
Commercials:
McEwans Best Scotch: Moscow
Hershey: Song & Dance 15 seconds
Colgate: Superstar
Served on jury for Illustrator's Annual of that year.
Projects:
Development work started on BLOTS - project for a feature film.
PICNIC premiered in US at Telluride Film Festival.
Winner 1st prize, films under 5 mins, Ottawa International Animation Festival.
Other festival showings include: Berlin, Venice, Annecy, Stuttgart, Rio, Ottawa, Zagreb.
Also included in Arts Council of Great Britain Experimental Animation touring program.
1987: Speedy Films, London.
Served on jury for Design and Art Direction Awards.
PICNIC (3 minutes) completed - an experimental short based entirely on found material, collected while traveling in Argentina and the Middle East 1981.
Premiered at Bristol International Animation Festival, in a retrospective of Paul Vester's work.
Film tests (16mm and hand-held 35mm) shot for live-action and animation feature project, GHOST RIDER.
1986: Speedy Films, London.
YODELLING SONGS (9 minutes) completed - a 16mm live-action short.
1985: Speedy Films, London.
Production work on PICNIC.
Work on script for a feature, GHOST RIDER.
1984: Speedy Films, London.
Production work on PICNIC.
Music video: AFRICAN VIDEO, for Christian Gandon Productions, Paris.
Rights to deleted comic book character, Ghost Rider, acquired from Marvel Comics.
1983: Speedy Films, London.
Production work on PICNIC.
ANIJAM (contributing director) Co-operative film for International Rocketship, Vancouver (supervising director Marv Newland) - an
Exquisite Corpse piece with contributions from an international group of artists.
Festival screenings: Toronto, Portland, Telluride, Denver, Lucca, Oberhausen, Asolo, Hiroshima, Seattle, Annecy, Varna, Madrid, Stuttgart, Melbourne.
Jury Prize: Toronto International Animation Festival
1st prize: Northwest Film and Video Festival, Portland, Oregon
Best Animated Film, Asolo Film Festival, Asolo, Italy
1982: Speedy Films, London.
Production work on PICNIC.
Music video: ISRAEL, for Siouxsie and the Banshees.
1981: Speedy Films, London.
Travel in Argentina, the USA and the Middle East researching and taking photographs for experimental film project, PICNIC.
SUNBEAM on general cinema release in UK with the Oscar-winning feature film CHARIOTS OF FIRE (dir: Hugh Hudson, 20th Century Fox).
Artwork from SUNBEAM acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London for its permanent collection.
SUNBEAM also shown at Annecy and acquired for television in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the UK.
Other festival screenings included: London, Sidney, Holland, Zagreb.
Acquired by the International Tournee of Animation.
1980: Speedy Films, London.
SUNBEAM (4 minutes) completed
Winner Special Jury Prize at Ottawa International Animation Festival.
1975-1980: Production work on SUNBEAM - a short film set to a song, "What's at the Top of a Sunbeam", based on sketches, photographs and ideas formulated during a period living in Venice, California - with assistance from the Arts Council of Great Britain and Christian Gandon Productions, Paris.
Two animated alphabets completed for MR TRIMBLE.
Music recorded for PICNIC, a project for a three-minute short.
1976 - : Director, American Colony Hotel, Jerusalem.
1974-1975: Speedy Films, London.
SERIES 2 and SERIES 3 of MR TRIMBLE completed
Pre-production work for SUNBEAM.
1973: Speedy Films established, London.
TITLES and SERIES 1 of MR TRIMBLE completed - animations for children for Yorkshire Television.
1972: Taught part-time at Ravensbourne College of Art, Bromley College of Art, and Central School of Art, London.
Work with Vivian Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Doo Da Band on a script for a feature, THE PRIVATE LIFE OF FATHER CHRISTMAS.
1971: Halas and Batchelor Ltd, London.
FOOTBALL FREAKS (7 minutes) completed
Festival screenings include Annecy, Tokyo.
Golden Dragon Award, Japan (1971)
1969-1970:
Halas and Batchelor Ltd, London.
Richard Taylor Cartoons Ltd, London
Bob Godfrey Films, London
Production work on FOOTBALL FREAKS - experiments with sound and narrative fragments.
1968-69: Royal College of Art, London, School of Film and TV.
1965-1968: Central School of Art, London.
REPETITION (1 minute) completed 1968- a film based on a two-line poem by Norman Mailer.
ANIMA (1 minute) completed 1968- experiments with narrative, sound and image, based on the Jungian concepts of Anima and Animus.
Winner 1st prize 1968 National Student Film Festival, UK.
Diagram - Prototype for a Clock 2, 2016