Each 90 second film will provide top tips for budding filmmakers looking at areas such as film structure, storyboarding, direction, camera techniques, editing and sound and lighting.

Stephen Spencer runs the Nice Monster studio and, although he’s moved down to London now, he roped in Louis Hudson, Ian Ravenscroft, Marc Silk, The Audio Suite and possibly others from around here.

Only the first one is up so far. To make sure you don’t miss the rest, subscribe to First Light’s YouTube channel.

The film was commissioned by THSH, with the support of the DMC McDonald Foundation, and was created by animator Chris Randall at Second Home Studios to a poem by Symphony Hall’s poet-in-residence Julie Boden.

The Mechanical Musical Marvel is currently being shown on Birmingham’s BBC Big Screen in Victoria Square, and has already been selected for the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival which runs 21 – 30 October.

Last week BBC Comedy asked me to animate to a rap by the very clever Dan Bull to commemorate John Lennon’s 70th Birthday and a blue plaque unveiling. After working out how to avoid some massive copyright litigation parties, I smashed it out in about 3 days..

It’s very good and it seems Yoko’s a fan too: