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This is the CV I created for applying to runner roles in the film and TV industry. It has all the same information as my animation-specific CV, but can be used for more general roles as well.

I haven’t always remembered to keep this up to date, so there is probably people missing, but here is some more evidence that I have been growing my network!

For the Museum of Brands project, I nominated myself producer for our group because I know that I naturally fall into that role in a group project anyway. I’m glad I did this, as I think it helped speed things along.

For making the animation, I took the lead on animating the video footage from the workshop:

Whenever I have a fairly simple, straightforward shoot like this, I always think it’ll be really easy to just get in and do it without many issues, and I always turn out to be wrong. Well, for the first time ever, it actually did go smoothly.

I didn’t get the specific video footage I asked for, just the draft of the trailer, but I decided it would have to do because we didn’t have much time. I found a couple of shots I could style in the way we planned, but I had to adapt how I did it because of the angles they were sitting at. In the end, I was pretty pleased with the final result. I think using the text from some of the adverts I found makes more sense for the theme of ‘Gender in Advertising’ than just clothes alone. It was also the first time I’ve done this kind of stop motion animation with video footage, so I’m glad to have had that experience and add the technique to my own repertoire.

I was a bit stressed about this live brief at first, because I’m not used to having to make things to someone else’s specifications. The Nippets game has a very clean look, and is 2D, but once I’d come up with a concept and made an animatic, I felt a lot more confident:

For my logo, I decided to make the letters out of felt and the animated elements out of paper, and then use replacement animation. Unfortunately, the time I’d put aside for making and editing was taken over by the jobs with Picturesmith and Blink, so it all ended up being quite rushed. By the time I’d finally made everything, I only had a few hours access to the multiplane in the stop motion room to animate it. The animation itself was complicated because there were several different elements moving at once. Thankfully, I had it all planned out down to the frame, so I just had to follow the plan. It was stressful, but came out pretty close to the plan:

I was really pleased that it actually came out looking like the animatic.

The next thing was the remove the greenscreen, which I’d never done before. I did the best I could, and wasn’t perfect, but overall I’m still happy with the final result. I feel like I managed to capture the Nippets look while mixing it with my own handmade style.

When I was doing the Equifax shoot, I asked Ben who I should be talking when looking for more work in that area, and he said he had a job the next week and could ask if I could come in for a day’s work experience. However, the art director, Gordon, got back to him saying he was looking for another person and would I be able to do the whole week? So that’s how I got this job!

This one was for a title sequence for a TV show about Dungeons and Dragons called ‘Dungeon Masters’. I was on the team making paper models based on the concept art, which we photographed on Dragonframe so that the CG team could animated digitally. Ben said that sort of thing seems to be happening more and more, so I feel like it was useful to experience a different area of work for model making in animation.

At the start of the week, I felt a bit out of my depth, but got more confident as we went. I was working with all sorts of different kinds of paper, and it was actually a really good opportunity for developing skills in paper cutting. I was worried at the start that I wouldn’t be able to make really intricate work, but I surprised myself in the end when I drew and cut out this tree:

Overall, this was a positive experience. It was quite hardwork, and for me it sometimes felt quite lonely because I was mostly working alone at a table by myself.

I was invited to help with a stop motion shoot that was being made by Picturesmith, for a financial company called Equifax. Over the three days, I was helping to create the set for all the shots, and I had a really great time. In amongst the endless amount of paper and double-sided tape, foamboard and hot glue, Ben was took the time to explain everything to me. I found that, like at Clapham Road, I loved being on the set and part of the action, making things and solving problems on-the-go.

This experience has confirmed for me that I’d rather work in the art department than be an animator. I loved being part of a team and working with others. Whereas, working with Ben on the set and with the rest of the crew around doing their bit, I felt alive. The days were 9-10 hours long and I was still buzzing by the time I got home. I’ve felt for a while that I don’t think being a model maker for stop motion is for me, because I don’t think I have the patience and skill for that kind of really focused, detailed making, but making things in an environment like that seems to suit me.

• I’m glad I did it but I’m questioning if this is the path I want to take
• I still enjoy animation, but I’m thinking about things like prop making and set dressing
• Motivation was hard – I work best in a team than on a project at home by myself
• I’m proud of my final film, and it worked best to follow my instinct than make something that I thought was appropriate

I’m proud of my final film. I had originally planned out a little movement sequence, a classic slapstick comedy thing, and even did the blocking for it, but I just couldn’t find the motivation to make it. So instead, I took my Jamie the armature to the stage and just played. I had ideas in my head but I really just wanted to do some silly things and see what happened. This meant I made something that felt like me, rather than something that felt like what I thought I was meant to make to prove I’m a good animator.

I still want to get better at animation, and I’m going to try to go back to the tasks we were set while I still have access to them. I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t throw myself into this course as much as I had planned to. I think this was due to the fact that I just find it much less motivating to make things at home by myself. I think working with and being around likeminded people is what energises me.

The part I’m finding most difficult with Stop Motion 1 is actually getting on with the tasks. I think this is combination of having so much unstructured time at home, and a lack of confidence. I came into the course thinking ‘I’ve got this’, but when it comes to actually doing the tasks, it’s almost like doing well in them feels too important. There’s also a part of me that resists doing these prescribed animations. The structure of the course is that we get a video lesson for each task, and then go and do it ourselves. But when I know exactly what the end result of my animation is going to look like, or what it’s supposed to look like, it’s hard to find the motivation to do it. It’s the figuring out I enjoy in animation, and when it’s been figured out for me and I just have to copy it, it stops being interesting. And when I have all this time at home, no one standing over me to make sure I do my work, my ADHD takes over and procrastination wins.

This last week has been particularly hard, and I haven’t progressed from the Bucket Swing task yet, which was set two weeks ago. However, I still enjoy meeting with my mentor, and she’s very understanding. She pointed out that one week is not enough to master each of these tasks, and I’m allowed to pick and choose which ones I want to do.

In Week 4, the task was to do a bucket swing. After getting feedback from my mentor, Maraike, I wanted to have another go at it. When I was getting frustrated, I decided to break it down to just the basic movement of arm that’s swinging, so I did the version on the rostrum, using broken up cotton buds painted different colours to distinguish the different parts of the arm and bucket. I found this really helpful, because it made it easier to focus on the motion of each part individually. Once I was happy with that, I went back to the armature. By now, I was pretty bored of the bucket swing, so I was ignoring things like accidentally casting shadows, and I made his wrist bend behind him in a strange way.

Thing is, I find it hard to stick to what I’m “supposed” to do in animation. I like making things behave differently to how they normally do, that’s the fun of it.