The British experimental short filmmaker, known for his early scratch frame films ‘His Comedy’ and ‘The Albatross’ as well as his single frame works like ‘Five Minute Museum,’ was killed in a motorcycle accident in Wales last Thursday.
AWN sadly announces the passing of iconic British experimental short filmmaker and educator Paul Bush, who was killed last Thursday in a motorcycle accident in Wales. The news was posted to Facebook by his son Lewis.
Bush had the uniquely charming attribute of embodying the traits of some of his most famous filmmaking methods. Like pixilation, which he used in the playfully philosophical piece Furniture Poetry (1999), Bush was insane, crazy, bewitching, magical, and had a way of making both adult and child audiences alike slip into a dreamlike state with every film he produced.
This genre-skirter is probably best known in the animation industry for his early scratch frame films like His Comedy (1994) and The Albatross (1995), as well as his single frame works like Five Minute Museum (2015).
While the creator may be gone, Bush’s creations live on as a testament to the immeasurable impact his methods had on the animation scene, and those viewers privileged enough to have viewed Bush’s self-taught filmmaking greatness first emerge.
Son of classical composer Geoffrey Bush, Paul Bush studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths College under Michael Craig-Martin. He later taught himself how to make films while a member of the London Film-Makers' Co-op. In a 2017 interview with AWN, Bush noted that his work at art school was “informed by the minimalism and conceptualism of the previous generation, my teachers.” Though the visuals of his films seemed to be anything but minimalistic, Bush believed that the latest shiny gizmos and gadgets weren’t necessary to make a great and moving film. All one needed was a good idea and an equally good sense of humor.
Both of which Bush had in bulk.
Bush pioneered the technique of scratch frame filmmaking - used in the Dante’s Divine Comedy-inspired His Comedy, The Albatross, and Secret Love (2002) - which involves scratching frame by frame directly into the surface of color filmstock over live-action footage, creating an animated sequence which resembles traditional wood engraving. This method, which had not been refined since it was first introduced in the 30s, and the creation of his first official animated film His Comedy, quickly ushered Bush into the public eye of animation where he won numerous awards, and where his films were shown in cinemas, exhibitions, and on television around the world.
In the same interview with AWN, Bush noted, “I had struggled through a very difficult time, about 14 years of experimental film-making that had never provided me with any production money let alone an income. I said to myself that this was the last film I was going to make. I was going to start work as a tennis coach. In a year, I made about a minute of film which I asked a friend to project in a cinema as I had no equipment to see it myself. It was extraordinary and I had no idea whether what I had seen was good or bad…I applied and got the commission at the first time of asking. After that, it was all pleasure as there were no expectations on me - except to make another film that no one was interested in.”
But people continued to be interested in Bush’s storytelling. In 1996 he set up his company Ancient Mariner Productions to produce his own films and, beginning in 2002, Bush increasingly focused on time-lapse portraits of people and more conventional animation including a collaboration with artist Lisa Milroy, which produced Geisha Grooming in 2003.
By 2020, Bush had created over 20 short films that challenged the boundaries that separated fiction, documentary, and animation, with his last project, Orgiastic Hyper-Plastic, an animated extravaganza of plastic collected from beaches, roadsides, attics, and junk shops.
On his website, Bush said of the still timely film, “This is an elegy to a love affair that has gone sour, a fond farewell to that most beautiful material that has enslaved our planet - plastic.”
After becoming fully integrated into the world of animation, Bush also stretched his creative legs as a teacher, occasionally shocking himself by how enthusiastically he could discuss the dialogue of talking cats.
Between 1995 and 2001 Bush taught the visual arts course at Goldsmiths and eventually started teaching at HGK Lucerne and the NFTS. Bush has lectured, run workshops, and tutored at numerous art and film courses around the world including:
- Media Academy of Cologne
- National Film Board of Canada
- The Netherlands Institute of Animation Films
- CalArts
- Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia
- St. Lukas in Brussels
- KASK in Ghent
- Anadolou University in Turkey
- Hochschule Luzern - Design & Kunst
- Royal College of Art
- Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design
- National Film and Television School (NFTS)
- CineToro Film Festival
It was an ironic turn of events for the man who once claimed that the trait he least liked about himself was “being a wise-cracking intellectual snob.” But Bush certainly found his place, right between the world of always-hungry amateurs and his fellow film geniuses. And he will be missed, with the treasures he left for other wandering, curious artists remaining ever-present and ever-willing to teach those who believe rules were made to be broken.
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
