Creative Futures two: Creative Futures Week, Wednesday

Talk One: Ffresh, Berwyn Rowlands

Ffresh is a student moving image festival held in various places in Wales every year. This event was established in 2002  and was designed to showcase student films (live action and animation) from the UK and internationally to help students put themselves out into the creative industry. Berwyn told us that the creative industry is ravenous but also lazy and that the people that win awards at the festival are more likely to get work even if there are some other films that are just as good. He also said that it's surprising as to how many people that are in this industry of moving image watch little television - I can imagine they don't really have much time for it! He encouraged us that we should go to as many festivals as possible to know what other students work is like and to know where we stand. 

He announced to us that Ffresh is coming to our university next year, 13-15 February 2013! It couldn't have come at a better time for me as I'll be in my last year and will give me the opportunity to help out with the event, doing either ushering, trailers, ads, posters or design work. Not only that but if I get to do ushering I'll have access to the 'green room' where all of the speakers and VIP's will be and would be able to get up close and personal with them. 

He also encouraged us to not only get our work that we do at uni out on the web etc but to also show our personal work, this would show people in the industry just how passionate we are and would build up our portfolio. 

I would definitely like to take part with the festival, I think this would be a great experience, I may also submit my own animation. It's open to submissions approximately from mid summer to the end of summer, so when I've finished uni I could use the summer to create a film to submit. 

After this talk I feel that I definitely need to do more personal work in my own personal time, although it's easier to say than do! I'm definitely going to have to look at how I organise my time and try to shuffle things about to try and create some extra time for this. 

Talk Two: Putting a Portfolio Together, Jason Minsky

Jason Minsky studied jewellry at Glyndwr University (Was NEWI)  and then went on to Manchester to study 3D design where he designed things like furniture and sculptural pieces. After graduating he worked in a studio for a bit and then went on to do an MA in Ceramics and Glass. Advice he gave us for our portfolio was to represent our work in the way that's best for showing our designs and ideas, and to put our work in a certain order maybe so that it tells a story, this will keep whoever looks at it interested. To invest in professional and smart ways to present our work and a good way to present our work if you make films is either on a showreel or on vimeo/youtube. 

One of Jason's pieces

I didn't get a great deal out of this talk, it wasn't what it was described as either, in the description said that he would be telling us how to put our portfolio together and to give us advice, which he didn't really. All he spoke about was work he had done and ideas that he's come up with within his career. This was disappointing as I felt that it was going to be a really useful talk, especially as I'm thinking of applying for work experience etc for the summer, possibly in some animation studios. I got quite excited when he said that he had a showreel and that he would give some tips on the best ways for you to make them but he never did! 

Talk Three: Working as a Freelance Animator, Ian Whittle

After Ian Whittle graduated from doing his MA he went to the Midlands to pitch an idea to to an Animator Residency Scheme but unfortunately didn't get it! He then managed to get a job at Second Home Studios in Birmingham where he helped to make stop motion adverts and films. They make animations for companies such as CITV, BBC, Diet Coke and Pilsner. He then got a job at The Red Door Animation Studios which is where he is still working. They are a lower budget animation studios and get council funding. Ian does workshops with children ranged from 8 years old to 18. They use a range of animation techniques such as cut out, digital 2d, traditional drawn, and mixed media animation. He has created an animation called 'Away from Home' which is about children that have been taken into care. For this animation they used interviews that they had with the children and pictures that the children had drawn, which they then animated on Flash. 

Impression Pilsner Advert made completely from paper 

It was great to have Ian come a speak to us as he had lots of useful information to share and lots of brilliant visuals to show us, including quite a few animations that he had created. It was nice to see that he was using the more traditional take on animation rather than CG! I also got to learn some more about animation in advertising which was brilliant. This has definitely given me a lot of inspiration and was a great end to the day! Thank you Ian