Back in the day (sometime near the beginning of 2005) I saw a flash animation called “Burnt Face Man” on popular flash portal Newgrounds.com. It made me giggle so I went and watched all the videos by the same author and thus inducted myself into the bizarre, surreal, dark, sometimes scary and frequently amusing world of ‘David Firth’. Firth is a British animator and film maker, most notable for his flash animations series “Salad Fingers” and “Burnt Face Man” and his short films about and live action music videos for “(MC) Devvo”. Firth is also a musician and produces some solo work as well as performing in some small bands local to him in Leeds.
While Firth’s Devvo films humourlessly chronicle ‘chav’ culture in the UK and his music videos often fit sublimely to the mostly dance and urban tunes he works to, his flash animations are my favourite and his most acclaimed work. His animations often feature surreal, straight or black comic moments but are nearly always based on creepy characters and scenarios taking place in darkly twisted environments. His animations have become quite popular on the net, especially on Newgrounds, and a couple of them appeared on UK television last year.
Firth posts new material on his website, http://www.fat-pie.com/, which has all of the videos he’s made to date as well as some other information about him and his projects. A word of warning, although his animations are very stylised and not at all realistic, they often feature obscene language and some graphic violence and aren’t suitable for all. And while the animation and live action videos are produced to a very high standard these productions are mostly independent and unprofessional and should be regarded as such. Also a lot of the content is surreal, dark and creepy (even scary) and though I personally find much of it hilarious and clever, others might genuinely think it’s disturbing.
Here’s a direct link to a flash animation firth produced in august last year, Health Reminder, it’s very funny and deliciously weird. I recommend people check out Fat-pie.com and some of Firth’s videos, even if you don’t find them funny or intelligent there’s some genuinely interesting stuff.