It was really useful and encouraging to hear Margaux from Moth Studio talk to us and advise us about our graduation films. She encouraged us to try something we’ve been wanting to try for a while but also highlighted what studios might be looking for in our films and showreels.Â
Just like in your personal projects, when you work for a studio and fall behind on your work, it will have a domino effect. This is why it’s especially important to communicate effectively so that any issues can be mitigated.
After completing a short film for LIAF and reading Levy’s book I decided to reach out to the LIAF team to see whether I could volunteer. I couldn’t find anything on their website or Social Media, so I emailed, not sure if they even remembered me from last year.
Turns out they did! Mandy quickly set up an online meeting so we could talk about expectations and perks, and general organisation. And… They were also looking for a Social Media Assistant! Reaching out definitely paid off and I’m super excited to work with the LIAF team!
I’ll definitely post an update in late November, once I’ve attended the Festival.
Victor, Marco, Neale, Rebecca and I entered a 24 Hours Animation Contest for Students. In short, we had 24 hours to create a short animation for the “imagining the future” theme. The theme was announced at midnight, and we had until the following midnight to come up with the idea, script, storyboard, animate, and composite a short 30-second film.
We followed the theme of radiation that killed animals on earth, leaving humans to exploit cockroaches for their milk.
I had a great time organising the team and taking care of the production, as well as clean-up and colouring, and designing the milk carton. As production is definitely an avenue I’m interested in pursuing, I was glad to have a chance to be responsible for keeping track of everything.
Before the contest started, I organise a whatsapp and a discord group, including a system to figure out who was happy doing what, as I wanted us to use our strengths and learn from each other.
I also organised folders in an Online Google Drive so that we could all share the files as needed, and it doubled up as a backup. Additionally, I created a simple spreadsheet to track the progress and divide the work when needed – due to the nature of the contest, I didn’t want to spend too much of my time on this.
Different production tasks. Click to see full image
This was the first time our school entered the contest in the 20 years it’s been run. And the results announcement happened a week later, on the 21st of October… And…
Drumroll, please… We came 8th!!! Honestly, we couldn’t believe we managed to place in the top 10! It was a little disappointing, as only the top 5 get prizes (so close-) but still! The experience was absolutely wonderful and, actually, not as stressful as I imagined it to be. We all worked together really well and trusted each other to do our job. Teamwork truly makes the dream work.
Today we had a meeting with Ko about Production and tools that will help us keep on track. We’ve learnt about Gantt charts and Route Sheets, both of which I found extremely helpful. And the more complicated the animation is, the more helpful they are. As well as this, these are extremely important if other people are going to work on the animation – especially to endure clear communication or when dividing the tasks.
I have put both the Gantt Chart and the Route Sheet into the same Excel document, so that I could keep them all together and not have a lot of the tabs open.
Having started to look into internships, some of them require cover letters. I have contacted my mentor for advice, as well as done additional research. Ellie particularly recommended advice from Thinking Animation, which I found helpful. I also looked into career resources from a number of discord servers I’m a part of.
To save myself time in the future, I decided to write a draft cover letter that I could alter depending on the company and the position I was applying for. It makes future applications a lot less daunting and I’m glad I spent some time doing that.
I attended an online event with Anna Hollinrake whose work I absolutely love. I met her and came across her work during MCM last year and followed their work since. I managed to get both prints signed, too! Anna was absolutely the nicest person ever. This just proves that even just a convention might get you new clients and people excited about your work.
So, I was super excited when I found out they were doing a webinar. It focused on game illustration, but I definitely feel all of her advice could be applied to any other form or genre of art. As well as this, animation is still present in games and this might be an avenue I’ll look into.
For anyone who can’t be bothered to read the whole book (how dare!) Levy summarises the teachings at the end of it. Here’s a complete list that I’m absolutely planning on printing out and sticking on the wall, so I can always remind myself to keep growing. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s important to keep on pushing and improving.
Having read the book, although it took time as I decided to take notes for future reference, I know it was full of valuable advice.
Knowing my personality type, I would definitely prefer permanent/full-time employment over freelance gigs here and there – I feel constantly needing to find a new job would give me anxiety. I’m definitely what’s described as a ‘house-cat’.
Even if the job is creative, it is important to have a different creative outlet outside of it – this way your ego doesn’t become attached to the work, and you’re better at taking feedback as it wouldn’t be as personal.
When Palmer talked about bad leadership, I was surprised at how easily I could think of examples from my day jobs of people who were reluctant, disruptive, absent or tone-deaf and that truly affected my work. It is absolutely my goal to not become one of these people as I would hate to negatively impact my team and their work – the animation industry so heavily depends on teamwork.
Another thing I picked up on was how important it is to make connections in the industry. I will definitely be looking to join a group in London and try to attend or volunteer at London Festivals. I’m not great at cold emailing or reaching out, but this is what’s called growth, I guess.
I suppose I gotta stick my neck out to get a foot in the door.
I started reading “Your Career in Animation” by Levy to gain more insight into the animation world. I especially focused on the roles I’m personally interested in, and Levy mentioned a lot of other resources which I’m hoping to look further into.
Turns out I also heavily misunderstood what a Producer does, and I would actually be really interested in looking into it the role, as I love organisation, and charts, and trackers.
Books I would like to read next:
“Producing Animation” by Catherine Winder and Zahra Dowlatabadi (Prod.)
“Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh (prod.)
“Creating Unforgettable Characters” by Linda Seger (Anim.)
“Walt Disney Animation Studios the Archive Series: Layout & Background” (Background)
In July I attended 3 different webinars focusing on starting your own brand. 2 of those were organised by UAL, while the other one was organised by roundhouse.
A lot of advice centres around DO NOT WAIT and GET OUT THERE.
Leila talked about the importance of smaller companies – many people have dreams of working for giant companies (Disney, Pixar…) while it might be easier and even more beneficial to look at small studios.
Gavin stressed the importance of just doing the project you want to do, rather than waiting for an opportunity to come to do it.
I’m glad I took part in these webinars, as they opened my eyes to different avenues nd different approaches to personal creative work.
