...And the Score Beasts On

Benh Zeitlin and Dan Romer's Beasts of the Southern Wild  continues to bounce around the globe and the web. If you're a Londoner, catch Benh,Dan and Wordless Music performing the score live for a screening of the film July 30th-31st at the Barbican. Details and tickets here. If you're a musician yourself, sheet music for piano can be found here.

While we're talking music, here are some creative tribute videos and reinterpretations of the score we've found across the web, including...

A couple mixed-media interpretations of the Bathtub and it's inhabitants:

"The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece...the whole universe will get busted" - Beastst of the Southern Wild #beastsofthesouthernwild#hushpuppy#heart#cavepainting#prehistoric#aurochs#nawden#illustration#drawing#moleskine#dream#sketch#createvibes#video#particlesoftheuniverse

A video posted by Lea (@lemontree15099) on Dec 6, 2013 at 10:24pm PST

We're also fond of these inventive instrumentalists:

String quartet rehearsing my arrangement of 'Once There Was A Hushpuppy'... Before I changed the cello part to be more playable. So it's rough but I'm super pumped about how it's going to sound. #weddingmusic #BeastsOfTheSouthernWild

A video posted by Sumerlin Simpson (@sumerlinsimpson) on Mar 28, 2014 at 9:37am PDT

And last but not least, some feats of impressive musical and physical gymnastics:

#oncetherewasahushpuppy #beastsofthesouthernwild Sol glad @jayman292 showed me this song! #winterguard #colorguard #wgi #spinning #letsgetdizzy

A video posted by Thomas (@bluesky94tw) on Jan 16, 2014 at 5:01pm PST

When it all goes quiet behind my eyes, I see everything that made me, flying around in invisible pieces. I see that I'm a little beast, in a big big universe. In a million years, when kids go to school, they're going to know, once there was a hushpuppy, and he lived with his daddy in the bathtub.

A video posted by Trevor (@trevor_my) on Jun 28, 2014 at 9:55pm PDT

Is there another video we should add? Let us know in the comments!

Illustrated Beasts!

Thanks to the power of the internet, we stumbled on this amazing Beasts inspired illustration by artist Cameron Lewis.  Naturally, we had to reach out to him and find out more about his work!  He had this to say:

"With this illustration, I wanted to portray how Hushpuppy and the auroch were kindred spirits. They both represent this extinct way of life that's been separate from the rest of the world for years and years. And yet they endure, from Hushpuppy and Wink battening down the hatches in the face of a monstrous storm, refusing to leave their home, to the aurochs defiantly charging through gales of wind to get where they are going. Both Hushpuppy and the aurochs are beasts who have simply persevered and survived through this life.

I worked with Beasts cinematographer Ben Richardson last year on another project he was directing at the time. Through social media, I became more and more aware of the lead up to the film's premiere and it's incredible potential. I am so, so excited for both him and the film itself as it has been so enthusiastically received by critics, festivals, and moviegoers. Beasts of the Southern Wild is an absolutely gorgeous, lovingly made, and profoundly beautiful film and I can only hope I captured a single sliver of that beauty in my image."

This pencil sketch gives us a glimpse into Cameron's process.

Closeups reveal the level of detail of his illustration.

Cameron is a storyboard artist and illustrator living in Los Angeles, CA.  You can check out more of his work at his

website

and

sketch blog

.

Thanks to Cameron and everyone else that has expressed their enthusiasm and inspiration through art!  Sharing this story and having it retold to us through the creative lens of our community is an incredible honor that we never foresaw.

We welcome everyone and anyone to submit their work to us at beasts@beastsofthesouthernwild.com.

Welcome To My Bathtub

There is a very small town in Kentucky called Allensville, a farming town, a place where friends gather.

— Stephen Capps

Despite being an imaginary place, “The Bathtub” hit home with people all over the world.  It made us realize everyone has their own special place somewhere. A place where you feel understood, a home -- a place fiercely loved and fiercely protected.

Inspired by the testimonials we heard, we asked fans to take a minute and send us a photo and share their own personal Bathtub.

Down the street from where I live in Maryland is a state park: Patapsco State Park, named for the river that runs through it. 

This bend in the river is my favorite spot. It's more of a solitary than a community attachment, I suspect. Many people march right by, on their way to the rapids a quarter mile up the trail, which the guide map tells you that you WANT to see; where there are picnic tables, then up a hill to a parking lot. 

But when I stand at this bend, I feel the power of the universe surging through me, then pulling me in all directions, kind of like Hushpuppy verbalizes in the film. In fact, when she uttered that line, my riverbend flashed through my mind...

— Cindy Rosenberg

In a hammock with my boyfriend is my bathtub.

— Ricky Emmons

My Bathtub is a blanket fort with my girlfriend.

— Dalton Day

My Bathtub is my parents' garden in the Cotswolds, south west England.

— Emily Kinder

My Bathtub's name was Engavaagen. I lived there for nine months, six years ago. A day doesn't go by without me thinking of it.

When I was nineteen my parents told me that they could either send me to a university for a year or abroad. It wasn't a difficult decision. My parents weren't very well off, but they somehow sent me to one of the richest countries in the world; Norway. My parents were of an evangelical Christian persuasion, so they sent me to a sort of religious international boarding school for young missionaries. The boarding school was just outside of a small Norwegian town above the arctic circle, a stone's throw away from the shores of a fjord. You could walk to the tip of the peninsula and look out to sea. The islands dotted the horizon and the mountains circled round you. 

Part of me thinks it is wrong to say that Engavaagen is my Bathtub. As I watched Beasts of the Southern Wild I was saddened to know that there is no place like that currently in my life, no community. Engavaagen wasn't mine, it didn't "make" me . . . not like it made the Norwegians who grew up there. But I loved it, I loved it. I walked and walked and walked around it and loved the sky and the sea and the islands and every inch of it, as though it were a person and not a place. 

I was sent to Engavaagen to grow in my faith and to get closer to God. God and I are no longer on speaking terms and I have no religion to speak of, but Engavaagen remains. After I left, it hurt to even look at a picture of it or talk about it very much. One day I'll try to go back, but plane tickets to Norway run about $2,000 these days. A vacation like that will be beyond me for at least five more years. I might not be meant to go back.

Now I live in Portland, Oregon, and I think my task is to carry and plant Bathtubs and Engavaagens wherever I happen to be. Or at least, not to pine for something far off and ignore the place in front of me. 

— Marylin H

Fiercely protecting this little corner of my universe for over 40 years! My Bathtub is my back yard in Minneapolis, MN, USA!

— Vicki MacNabb

The bathtub in my back garden, Capetown, South Africa.

— Bryan Little

Email us (beasts@beastsofthesouthernwild.com) a photo or illustration of a place that you consider YOUR Bathtub, put ‘Welcome to My Bathtub’ in the subject line, or tweet it to @thebathtubber, using #mybathtub and we’ll add it to our website.

Bathtub Artists

Above illustration by Julian Birchman. Beasts was made with the fundamental belief that a creative community of friends is the best recipe for good art. From songs to poems to paintings, we've been totally in awe of the art that people have produced in response to our film.  We're slowly building an archive of all the different Beasts-inspired art and media that we've come across online, check out a selection below!  

Mixed media by Tracy Blanchard.

Digital painting by Helena McGill.

Auroch painting by Kathryn Vita.

Instagram by Morgan Marinoff.

Digital painting by Lisa Jane Persky.

Drawing by Chris Melberger.

Painting by Heather Murray.

Auroch drawing by activateharpoon.

Drawing by Jess Chen and Sierra Ulrich

Illustration by Jorge Melgoza.

We want to see what you've made!

If Beasts inspired you to make something, we'd be honored to share in that. Email us documentation — photos, videos, writing, etc. — at beasts@beastsofthesouthernwild.com.