Photo: Mia Buckton
Oliver Harrison is a London based filmmaker, animator and artist. An early exponent of kinetic typography, his work has been shown around the world in festivals and galleries including: Cannes Film Festival, The New York Film Festival, Tate Modern London and the BFI Southbank.
Harrison recently completed the title sequence for The Zolle Suite, an animated opera commissined by the LA Opera, written by Du Yun and featuring the work of three animators. Harrison adopted a low-tech solution for the titles, filming himself writing in chalk on a blackboard.
Before the outbreak of Covid, Oliver completed a series of animated films for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. The pieces were screened live with a number of performances of Dream of the Song by the composer and conductor Sir George Benjamin, featuring the celebrated countertenor Bejun Mehta.
Harrison's featurette, The Fallen Word, premiered at the BFI in May 2013, coinciding with a DVD release of his work called The Fallen Word and Collected Films. The Fallen Word - a dark, sinister fairy tale - stars: Julian Bleach, Dominic Cazenove, Jim Conway, Sarah Desmond, Emma Hill, Gavin Molloy, Steve Smith and Will Strange. The DVD was produced by Animate Projects and funded by Arts Council England. Oliver Harrison has made six films: Amore Baciami (1988), Time (1990 ), Spirit of Place (1992 ), Love is All (2000), Apocalypse Rhyme (2013) and The Fallen Word (2013).
Apocalypse Rhyme won the Best Motion Graphics award at the 2014 British Animation Awards and subsequently became a Vimeo 'Staff Pick'. Love is All - a three minute epic - has been shown in over seventy festivals around the world, including the celebrated Cannes Director’s Fortnight. The film has picked up seven awards including the Jury Prize at Oberhausen and a Jury Prize at The New York Film Festival. The making of the film was featured at the Barbican exhibition: Passionate Obsessions and at the Tate Modern exhibition: Thresholds of the Frame.
Oliver Harrison studied at St.Martins School of Art, his graduation film Amore Baciami - a film made up entirely of typography - received much acclaim and was later bought by DMB&B and made into a commercial for the Royal Mail. This commercial subsequently won a string of awards including a Gold Lion at Cannes Advertising Awards, a Gold Arrow at the British Advertising Awards, The Epica d’Or and a D&AD Silver Pencil. Harrison has made commercials for:- Nike, Marie Claire, P&O Ferries, The Independent newspaper, Molson Beer, Toyota, IBD and MTV. Harrison also designed the titles for the Oscar winning Howards End. Much of Oliver's work features music written by himself, sometimes in conjunction with other composers.
Oliver Harrison’s work has been featured in: Varoom! (2014), Cat On The Wall (2014), Creative Review (2014), Savage (2014), Artribune (2014), Random Acts - Channel 4 (2012), AP Engine (2009), Design Week (2009), Time Out 1000 films (2006), Time Out (2002), Yleisradio Oy (Finland, Oct 2001), TCM (Dec 2001), Campaign Screen (Feb 2000), Rapture TV (21st Aug 2000), Network of the World (2000) Baseline magazine(1990), The Late Show (BBC2, 1990), Secret Passions (Channel 4,1992), Dope Sheet (Channel 4, 1999).