Creating a CV

It's been a while since I updated my CV, and now that the end of University is quickly approaching, it's time for me to do just that.

CV First Draft and Notes (Didn't originally have the bees on it)

I was pretty much sorted with my CV the first time around, but didn't realise I could list my grad/student films as experience, so I made sure to include these in my new CV, especially as a lot of hard work went into these productions and displays further skills.

Final CV

I think I'm now ready to contact people. Just need to do a bit of research into studios in the area and I'm good to go!

Lille: Talents Connection

I'm really pleased that I had the chance to go to the Talents Connection; It's a shame that one of the studios I was scheduled to meet with didn't show, but talking with Mash&Co and Creative Conspiracy has been a pleasure!

I didn't really know what to expect for this event, so I was a bit nervous when talking with the lady from Creative Conspiracy. The chat was pleasant, but I didn't really push my own work too much as I completely blanked that it was that kind of event, so mostly talked about the work CC produced, and how I really enjoyed their 2D works, and that I was interested in producing 2D work myself. 

The meeting with Vincenzo Merenda of Mash&Co went much better. He seemed really interested in my work, and seemed impressed by the research I had done into his company. I showed a real interest in what they did and really drove forward that I'd love to make work for children, especially because I'm watching a lot of children's TV with my niece. We discussed where their studio was based (Vincenzo told me that he has people working all over, but their main building was at Plaine Images where I had been working for the Marathon de Animation workshop), and what I was looking for. I told him that I was really just hoping to gain experience, whether this be a studio visit, internship or even a job. I expressed my willingness to even travel/move and he seemed pleased by this, though stated that I wouldn't necessarily have to. We exchanged business cards and he said he would be in touch!

I even managed to bump into Vincenzo and co-founder Kat, at a Masterclass later on in the festival, and asked them both how they were finding it and if there were any events they particularly enjoyed. When leaving they said they'd be in touch, so I'm going to leave it a week or so to see if they get back to me, and if not I'll drop them an email.

I'm rather excited about this!

Lille: Talents Connection Research

I had signed up to take part in a Talents Connection whilst here at Féte d' l'anim', which I believe is going to be similar to the 'Meet the Experts' event I participated in at MAF. However, I think this event is going to be more of an opportunity for me to show of my work, and so I have come prepared with my showreel, current work-in-progress and business cards.

I've been told that I'm going to be meeting representatives from three different studios (Creative Conspiracy, Mash&Co Srls and Sans Soucis Productions), so I'm going to take this opportunity to research into what they do and what work they have produced in order for me to be prepared for the event.

I made sure to make a few notes to take with me to the event, so I could remember what work each of the companies produced, and use them as potential conversational topics. 

Creative Conspiracy

Delta Lloyd

Carrefour

Mash&Co Srls

Mash&Co Episode 1

Sans Soucis Productions

Les Sansoucis en forme

Lille: Masterclass With Guillaume Renard

Today I attended a Masterclass by Guillaume Renard (aka RUN), a graphic designer/illustrator/comic book author and director, who is well known in France for his comics, DoggyBags and Mutafukaz . For the past seven years, he has been working with Japanese company, Studio 4'c, to adapt Mutafukaz into a film. He spoke about the process and the development of the film, and it was interesting to hear about the collaboration between himself and the Japanese animators. I found it fascinating how they were able to work together despite the language barrier; especially because during the whole production Renard didn't learn a word of Japanese, despite working in a studio out in Japan. Instead they communicated through translators. If I was in that position myself I would have made more of an effort to learn the language, but his talk has really opened my eyes to the possibilities and the opportunities I could encounter leaving university. I don't particularly want to move too far away from home, but there's always the possibility of collaborating with studios outside of the UK, and Renard's film and the Marathon de Animation that I participated has confirmed this for me.
He spoke about the compromises he had to make with the movie, especially on the environment of the story. He wanted the story to be set in the US, whereas the Japanese animators he was working with couldn't understand why he didn't want to have the film set in France. In the end the film was based in Los Angeles, but he had to explain why he made that decision. Though he did say that sometimes he did prefer not to be in charge. By having people come to him with ideas he was able to have a wider range of possibilities for the film, ones that he may not have particularly thought about. This would allow for a more richer world/story, one that has the potential to reach out to more cultures. I think this was a really good point to make, and it stresses the importance of being open-minded, something that I know I am not always, myself. I believe I am getting better with this though the more I collaborate, and the Marathon de Animation has been a good example of this. Even though production didn't go the way that I expected it to, we were still able to have a good turn around for our project.

I almost found the responses to the audience's questions more fascinating than the talk itself. One audience member asked whether working with animation has effected/influenced the way he produced his comics. "Probably". He spoke how the experience had made him evolve as a practitioner, and that he has learnt to "not spread too much" and get straight to the point, and although he was speaking particularly about his comics, I definitely think this applies to animation too. We can get carried away with our own worlds and stories that we create, that we can forget about what's really important for the viewer to understand what's going on.

I found the Masterclass particularly inspiring as I was able to relate to how he felt about working on projects for so long. When asked by the audience whether he ever got bored with his work, he said that he "didn't really have a choice", and on the other hand he didn't really have room to get bored because it's his own universe that he has created, and it's everlasting and so complex. He said that we shouldn't question ourselves so much, which really spoke to me as I myself constantly question whether I am making the right decisions and overthink whether things are going to work out, and it's nice to see that other professionals have had similar doubts and have been able to overcome them. Similarly, he spoke about how he initially battled with the decision of working in Japan. He could either say no and regret it forever, or he could say yes and struggle with the differences in culture and the project as a whole.

Lille: Masterclass With Michael Dudok de Wit

Today's Masterclass with Michael Dudok de Wit was really interesting. I gained a lot of insight into how his film The Red Turtle was produced, and he stressed the importance of composition and the relationship between characters and the setting, and how changing the positioning of the characters can effect how we perceive them. For instance, in one scene he had made sure to have sleeping characters spaced a certain distance from each other. You could tell as they were relatively close that there was a connection between the three and that they were comfortable with one another, but had they had been any closer this suggests something much more intimate. Michael also spoke about how he created diagonals between characters and objects. Rather than keeping the composition straight, he mixed things up to keep things interesting, but made sure to have a repetition of "a curve" throughout the compositions and the setting. For instance, characters could walk in a curve through a field, or mountains and hills would be curved. This was an artistic choice he had made and in his opinion thought it brought a "natural understanding to the movie" and added a "soft beauty". This isn't something I've really thought about before, but maybe something  I should consider. I've found that I tend to follow 'the rules of thirds' a lot, and it may be interesting to think about how deviating from this rule could impact the way the movie or actions are perceived.

I found it interesting that Michael said he avoided using close-ups of character's faces to show emotion. He found that having a close-up of hands/actions was more beneficial to him as he felt it gave more of a sense of expression and emotion. The way an action is carried out will tell you how the character is feeling, without having to show their facial expression. This is something that I was made aware of during my research for my Dissertation, but not something I had really thought about contextually. I knew that emotion was going to effect the way that a character behaved, but hadn't really considered the inverse.