Claymation and a London pie shop: highlights from Channel 4 Random Acts

Channel 4 Random Acts invites filmmakers to disrupt the schedule and bring their work to a new audience. This week saw the platform launch its new six-part TV show and each 30-minute episode collates and showcases just some of the 200 films that have been recently commissioned. As part of our partnership with the platform, It’s Nice That has created a series of films with five of the most exciting filmmakers working in the industry today. We shared the first of our films earlier this week, and you can watch Ill Studio’s creation here.

As well as our own films, we’re also celebrating some of the other commissioned shorts in the TV show to demonstrate the breadth of disciplines and diverse talent Random Acts continually nurtures. Here we spotlight Nico Livesey’s wild music video for US band Radkey’s song, Glore, and Calvin Demba’s internal monologue about the night before as he eats pie and mash.

Nicos Livesey: Glore

Blinkink director Nicos Livesey has created a psychedelic claymation world for American garage punk band Radkey’s song Glore. A track that will make you “wanna run around drinking beer and throwing up Hairbo,” according to Nicos, his visuals aim to emulate the chaos and carnage.

Using a variety of claymation techniques, the director was heavily influenced by animation pioneers Bruce Bickford and David Daniels. The two-minute film took ten weeks to create and used over 435 blocks of clay, amounting to over 217,000g of the stuff. Harking back to TV shows like Celebrity Death Match, Beavis and Butthead and Jackass, it’s a mind-bending, ever-morphing world of what Radkey love and hate.

Calvin Demba: Rudies Rue, Part 2

In this film starring, co-written and co-directed by 21-year-old Calvin Demba, we listen to the internal monologue of Callum as he sits eating pie and mash in a traditional London pie shop. He reflects on the night before which saw him drunkenly sleep with a man despite Callum himself identifying as heterosexual.

Rudies Rue is part of a sequence of six films about Callum’s journey of self-discovery, but this second part perfectly encapsulates the mixed emotions of confusion and denial the main character undergoes. Mike Skinner-like in tone, the rhythmic monologue is well-paced, simply shot and manages to deal with the issues with humour and consideration.

Channel 4 Random Acts showcases three-minute films created by established artists and up-and-coming amateurs, chosen for their bold and original expressions of creativity. The first ever TV episode of Random Acts will air Monday 9 May 2016 at 11:05pm on Channel 4. To watch weekly Random Acts selections or explore the entire archive, head to the Random Acts website.