Leeds Young Film Festival: Animation Central

This weekend I volunteered at Leeds Young Film Festival at Carriageworks Theatre. I was working in Animation Central from 9am until half 5pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and doing a screening from 5pm until half 10 on Monday. 

They gave me the option to request which workshops I would prefer to work on and then they would try and get me into those. 
I, obviously, requested the stop motion workshops and on the Friday and Saturday I was placed in the Stop Motion Animation workshop with Paul Couvela who currently works as an animator at Factory, and has previously worked at Mackinnon and Saunders and Cosgrove Hall. The workshop consisted of my assembling wire armatures from animation toolkit multiple times (as the kids kept breaking them) and then assisting the children with their animating them once Paul had shown them the basics of stop motion animation. On the second day, we were joined by some other animators who's workshop didn't start until the afternoon. Charlotte Blacker, from Goodcopbadcop productions in Wakefield, gave me a lot of helpful tips on how to get into the animation industry and how to travel with your animations which I am very interested in. Apparently if you put them into international festivals, some festivals you can then go to the screenings. You will get paid to go to the festivals if you do a masterclass or something.
She worked at Mackinnon and Saunders for a production and she suggested that I find a hobby that I can make money off of so that I can do something I love when there are no animation jobs going. Apparently all animators at most companies, especially Mackinnon and Saunders, have another business on the side, or freelancing, to keep them going between films. I had a lot of fun with this workshop and got some good tips from Paul. 

On the Sunday, I was working with the Lego Animation workshop. This workshop was a lot of fun and the kids were pretty much left to get on with their own lego animations in groups and we were around if they needed help with anything. 

I will definitely want to volunteer again next year, it was a great opportunity for networking and I had a lot of fun teaching little kids to animate.

Plan for the next year.

Get part time job in Leeds… Retail or something just to pay rent.
Work with Annabeth on her 360 degree animation test. Maybe then do a full animation?
Get in touch with Grace's friend about his stop motion paid job.

Apply for internships at Factory and Mackinnon and Saunders.

Sign up to job sites and look for entry level stop motion jobs.
Keep making puppets and Macquettes and small stop motion animations to practice and improve my showreel and portfolio.
Get better an sewing, and learn how to knit teeny clothes.

Get an internship or work experience at Factory.

Volunteer at MAF and other animation festivals.

Join the creativeskillset.org thing for trainee finders. 

Apply for a training placement at Mackinnon and Saunders.

Get training placement at Mackinnon and Saunders.

Get full time job at Mackinnon and Saunders.

Be happy forever.

Plan B… Keep working at a part time job in Leeds until Mackinnon and Saunders hire me.

Showreel

I have created a showreel that shows what I think is my best work from my three years at uni. It is mostly stop motion animation, as that is the area of animation that I want to go into, but I have included a couple of Maya animations to show that I can work 3D software as well, as these skills are still useful in the stop motion industry. 

I will keep adding to and adjusting my showreel as I create more work over my next year and throughout my career. 

I have posted my showreel to my Vimeo account, my Youtube account and shared it on my LinkedIn account.

Aardman Character Animation Internship.

https://nfts.co.uk/our-courses/certificate/character-animation

Aardman do a 3 month course in character animation at their studios in Bristol every year, aimed at recent graduates. It is a very competitive course to get on as there aren't many spaces but it is something I would look into, maybe not this year as I can't afford to move to Bristol for 3 months at the moment, and I also don't have a finished showreel that I am happy with to send in before the deadline. But I would potentially like to apply for next year as you don't have to do it straight out of uni, you just need a showreel showing your animation ability and passion for the craft.

The course does sound really interesting, the main tutor on the course is Loyd Price, who is the head of animation at Aardman and has worked on the Nightmare before Christmas, Chicken Run, Pirates, The Curse of the WereRabbit and Shaun the Sheep. There will also be a tutor who specialises in CG animation as well as additional input from other animators and directors currently working at Aardman.