Pan's Labyrinth

I just came back from a screening of Pan's Labyrinth at The 16th Oslo Film Festival.
And it was good! Very good!
Guillermo del Toro's latest film is set in rural Spain after Franco's victory. A young girl named Ofelia moves to an old house and military camp with her pregnant mother to live with her new fascist stepfather. She discovers a labyrinth nearby; a portal to a fantasy world inhabited by fable creatures who seem to have plans for her.
Mixing this fantasy world with the grim reality of 1944 Spain, Pan's Labyrinth is a beautiful, but brutal fairytale for adults. Fabuolus acting, great visuals and a wonderful story makes this movie an absolute must-see.
I also recommend dropping by the movie's web site (but be careful with the trailer; it shows way too much IMO).

Watch Borat!

I guess there's no need to introduce this movie after all the fuzz in the media, all the clips on the web, the great critics - and atleast not after it just hit the top of the box office in the U, S and A.
Anyway; I saw Borat (a.k.a. Borat!: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan) last night and do believe the hype. It is one of the most hilarious movies I have seen in a very, very long time. Obvilously it's got its disturbing moments too. If you've never heard about this guy, do a search on YouTube and check out the trailers here.
Highly recommended! Chenk yeu.

Birthday 2006

So. I got a little older last Thursday.
Friday I invited a bunch of friends to one of my regular places in Oslo; Café Tekehtopa. I was delighted to notice that more than 30 great people had taken time to show up - including a majority of the best artists and animators working in Oslo.
So the evening was a great success. It was lots of fun - and lots to drink.
Here are some photos from the most sober part of the evening.
Thanks to Fred and Elysa for bringing their camera.

Concept artist Fred and world builder Chad - both happy colleagues:


Good friend and Renderman expert Hans from Storm turns his back to fabulous animator Stig from Qvisten and 3D-genius André from Toxic. Concept artist colleague Anders peeking though:


The bearded corner. It was great to meet Kjetil again. He'd just returned to Oslo after three years in Amsterdam doing concepts for a couple of Killzone games at Guerilla Games. That's him in the middle. Yet another Kjetil to the left - who's also a good SketchCrawl partner. To the right is a guy who looks like me sleeping:


Three colleages from my office. Concept artist and irishman Gavin, art director Christer and our tallest designer Øyvind:


Me chatting with animator and colleague Maria and Michael the fisherman:


Nice people:


Colleague Trygve looking good for his better half Marie:


More nice people:

Canis Canem Edit

Canis Canem Edit, or Bully if you're in the US, is Rockstar's latest game. And it is so cool that I had to write a post about it in my blog.
The GTA-games are some of my favourites and since Canis Canem Edit is using the same engine this game is very, very similar. But in Canis Canem Edit you're a kid called Jimmy, you're in school, your enemies are fellow pupils from different gangs, you roam around on bikes and skateboards and you defend yourself with weapons like slingshots and stink bombs. And as always there are tons of things to do. Both inside the school and outside in the village and its surroundings.
Having said that I'm still only 14% into the game. In other words there are still huge amounts of things to unlock and explore - including a second part of town. So I'm really looking forward to weeks of fun here.
If you own a PS2 you have to buy this. Here's the official website.

Me!

ConceptArt.org put up a self portrait thread today. So I did a quick doodle of myself just now. And here it is.