FDMX Wired Wednesdays

What a fantastic resource this is - went along this morning to the Film Archive at the County Hall to see presentations from 3 people within the animation industry. All from different areas yet provided valuable insight into the inner workings of the industry. The first to speak was the creator of the anmated series 'Stressed Eric', Karl Gorham, very informative and useful, giving very handy tips for anyone contemplating a career wthin animation. Basically in a nutshell - it's be persisent, be patient, be original and most importantly, be yourself. Up next was Keith Tut, director from Redfox Productions who are responsible for the now global 'Pablo The Little Red Fox' animated series. Again, very handy advice concerning getting a 'bible' together covering all aspects of a particular idea, an insight into the time span from the inital idea for a project through to the completion and broadcasting (his new series 'Wolfgang' has so far been 6 years in planning..) His main piece of advice was to construct something that is timeless, that's to say in 20 years you can return to the work and not totally hate it! Also that childrens animation is far less of a financial gamble due to the fact that there will always be a rotating audience to cater for as opposed to a very discerning adult audience. He listed a selecion a funding sources too : Screen east, Channel 4, Nesta, European Media Fund, The Film Council and Pact.co.uk. Kris Martin from locally based Studio Soup was last and for me seemed I could relate to him more than the previous 2. He works in a different area altogether - Studio Soup is a sevice based company, they have very tiny deadlines that require instant results to strict briefs from clients. He showed examples for companies such as MTV and Hummer-also interesting to add that under his contract with Studio Soup he can also Freelance; I think it's such a bonus to have that added freedom within employment. Their company seems to cater for all aspects of animation for all fields and all devices; his advice being that Motion graphics is the steady form of work wheras 2d animation basically sounds like you'd be lucky to get a job in the U.K.! Interesting to note that the software mostly used by their company is Lightwave (never tried it) and After Effects (plus Photoshop). A very inspiring and informative morning, I'd highly recommend the Wired Wednesdays.