This module helped me a lot this semester. I learnt many things I wanted to learn which can help me in my future career. I mainly enjoyed doing the mock interviews and designing my website which aloud me the chance to show off my work in other ways. This course has definitely been a lot of fun to be on and would like to share my experiences with many others in my future career.
Link to my website: https://dranimations.weebly.com/
Week 11: 1/4/2019
Out of what I needed to do for this module one part I did feel behind on a bit was the business cards.
When it came to deciding what I wanted to include on my card I decided to include a logo I designed for my website on the front and some contact details on the back like most business cards have.
The logo's original design
Aside from the logo I also made a small fifth teen second ident to go along with it for a bit of fun. Link to ident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmQzI_lfuXs
The final logo design
Before making the official card, I made a prototype card in Microsoft Word. The major difference with this one is that the logo is smaller and some contact details which was not what I wanted but it was what Word could do.
The final version was made using a website called Moo.com. A website specialised in making business cards. I was recommended this site by some of the other students who had already done their cards and helped me with setting up what I needed to make the cards.
The final version
I am very happy I had finally got my business cards sorted. I also got feedback from relatives and other students who really liked the look of the cards and all said the same thing which was they were really nice and very professional.
Week 10: 25/3/2019
For this week I decided to work on my show reel. As I am aiming to making money from YouTube I included work both from the course and my personal work, although the latter was not included the first time I edited the reel but that was because I was not sure if I should include any of my personal stuff or not. But when I edited the show reel the second time I did include some personal stuff this time. While making the show reel I looked other show reels to get an idea of how they were edited and what to included.
Examples of showreels: Toby Loxton - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sOtFTsJN62Y Michael Evans - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtC0PiTBUY Andrew Stanton - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V2Ite6m1rNk Wylie Forrest - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BhnqY-uU6SM
I feel the end result of the show reel came out very well and met the required time limit of forty seconds. If there was anything I would change or could in this case, is if the run time was longer I would be able to include more work in the showreel.
Week 9: 18/3/2019
Following on from the events of the mock interviews, this week was basically getting feedback on the other essentials we needed to bring along to the interviews. Those being the cover letter and CV.
With my CV and cover letter they were all right and did have good layouts and set ups but there were still some things that needed correcting. Such pieces of feedback related to the CV were; "Include a picture of your work.", and "Have the colour scheme match the picture." As for the cover letter when I first wrote it I did not include the CEO's name and just had: 'Dear Second Home Studios' but that was because when searching for the name I could not find it anywhere. It was not until the actual mock interview when I found out the CEO's name.
I had some feedback from some of the other students prior to this week such as removing some parts from the CV while everything else was all right.
After receiving this feedback I understand what was good and not good about my CV and cover letter and will try to improve them as I go along with the rest of this semester.
Week 8: 11/3/2019
This week it was time for mock interviews to take place. The concept of the mock interview was based around a cover letter I wrote to whatever company I want to work for, which in my case was 'Second Home Studios', with Emily and Adam acting as the CEOs or interviewers.
I was a bit nervous about how the interview would go, what questions I would be asked and especially since I was the one who went first, but once it got going I was all right. The interviewers asked really good questions and I was able to answer them, although the last two questions were a bit tricky to answer and I did not see them coming but aside from that, the mock interview went very well.
In terms of what went well I feel I made good eye contact with the interviewers and gave clear and detailed answers. If there is anything I would improve on for an actual interview; it would be bringing and showing examples of my work to the interviewers. This was something that did not cross my mind during practising and now thinking about it, it would have been a good idea to show examples of my work but that is something I would definitely improve for next time .
Week 7: 4/3/2019
For today's session we learnt about interviews as we were going to be doing mock interviews the week after.
In the session we were put into groups of two, one person would be the interviewer and the other would be the interviewee. I was paired up with Alice. I acted as the interviewer. During the interview I asked Alice specific questions such as:
Why does Animation interested you?
What attracted to you the industry?
What could you bring to the industry?
I also had interviews with relatives after the lecture as extra practise before the actual interview.
I have had interviews long before coming to university even having one before starting, but the session was a really good refresh of getting back into the groove of them. I feel a bit confident about being interviewed next week, though I am curious to what questions I will be asked asides from the ones I have listed but I guess we will have to wait and see.
Week 6: 25/2/2019
I admire many people in the media industry; whether they are animators, directors or characters. There are three people that I admire the most and these people left a huge influence on me and inspired me to make my own films.
David Mitton:
David Mitton was born on 13th July 1938 and had worked as a television producer, director and model maker.
Mitton began his career working for Gerry Anderson as a special effects technician and model maker on shows such as 'Thunderbirds', 'Captain Scarlet' and 'Stingray'. He later went on to become a director for a number of adverts such as the 'Ever Ready' battery advert, but he is best notable for being the director of the children's television series, 'Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'. David also directed and wrote episodes for another children's programme that he and another colleague created called 'TUGS' which a number of the crew members of Thomas also worked on.
In 2006 Mitton along with David Lane who also worked for Anderson, produced a CGI series called 'Adventures on Orsum Island' which only lasted for nine episodes until the show was abandoned because on May 16th 2008, David Mitton had passed away from a heart attack at the age of 69.
I admire David Mitton because when I was little his work on Thomas was one of the very first I saw and I immediately became a fan. I loved his direction and idea for how the show was filmed, that being the use of 'Live Action Model Animation' which you do not see a lot of in television anymore as it is an expensive form of animation but it does give a realistic looking environment on screen.
David Mitton's work definitely inspired me to make films myself using 'Live Action Model Animation' and to tell the truth I like this form a bit more than 'Stop Motion' because it's a bit more creative and less time consuming. It is also very sad that this style of animation is getting left in the dark thanks to computer generated imaginary dominating the animation industry. Even if he has passed away I still look up David as a big influence of my work.
Articles related to David Mitton: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2085767/David-Mitton.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/arts/television/12mitton.html?_r=2&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Gerry Anderson:
Gerry Anderson was born on 14th April 1929 and television and film producer, director, writer and occasional voice artist.
When Anderson began his career he started out as trainee photographer and then worked his way up to become a director and creator of shows such as 'Thunderbirds', 'Captain Scarlet' and 'Joe 90' under the style of 'Supermarionation' which is a merge of the words 'super', 'marionette' and 'animation'. He also produced a couple of live action shows such as 'UFO' and 'Space 1999', couple of stop motion shows included 'Dick Spanner' and 'Lavender Castle' and a computer generated version of 'Captain Scarlet'.
Sadly on 26th December 2016 Gerry Anderson died from dementia aged 83, but his legacy still carries on thanks to his son Jamie who is working a number of projects his father never finished.
I first came across Gerry's work via a video containing two episodes of 'Thunderbirds'. What I liked about it were the launch sequences, music and pyrotechnics which definitely made Anderson's work enjoyable to watch. But what I admire the most about Anderson is that he was able to take puppetry to the next level and giving it 'artistic realism' because despite being recognised as someone who uses puppets Gerry had a dislike for puppets and wanted to make it more advanced.
Even with Gerry Anderson gone he still managed to leave an impact on my childhood and many others. I have never done anything to do with 'Supermarionation' myself but I still admire it for its charm and creativity.
Interviews and articles about Gerry Anderson: Mr Thunderbird - the Gerry Anderson Story: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IG2x-7-d4cs Time of your life - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YDK6tt2suqA BBC Breakfast interview - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V7jsXlvZiCg Report of death - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1P2jKU6TGnM https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/9766390/Gerry-Anderson.html
Nick Park:
Nick Park was born on 6th December 1958 and works as a stop motion animator at Aardmann Animations.
Nick began making films when he was 13 years old using his mother's camera. He later went to the National Film and Television school where he started work on the first Wallace and Gromit short 'A Grand Day Out'. Nick then joined Aardmann animations in 1985 where he worked on commercials, the music video 'Sledgehammer' and 'Creature Comforts' which earned Park's first oscar. Nick Park still works at Aardmann to this day and has produced four more Wallace and Gromit films, a couple of feature films such as 'Chicken Run' and 'Early Man' and several commercials.
Aside from the use of Stop Motion the main reason why I admire Nick Park is that his work has a certain charm to them. A good example is Wallace and Gromit, Nick keeps the same elements such as having Gromit mute and having Wallace come up with some kind of idea that goes wrong. There is also something about the humour that is very original and creative that definitely has a very British feel to it.
Interviews and articles about Nick Park: Interview with Alex Belfield - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VWQwNWlmpR8 Interview about Early Man - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_iUxKGZydE4 Article about Nick Park - https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/media/2008/jul/21/television
These three are people I admired back then and still admire today. They each have their own style and craft that audiences will recognise and remember them for and in some cases get influenced by them. I have tried to follow in the footsteps of the three individuals and develop my own style in the process and hope to continue with it in the future.
Week 5: 18/2/2019
While working on my essay I went on a search for jobs in the animation industry, mainly those connected to Stop Motion as that is the form of animation I specialize in.
What attracted me to this job was that it would allow me to expand my puppet making skills such as armature building and costume making as I had only done it once in the second year and it would be a good opportunity to take.
I got attracted to this job because it supports a wide range of filmmaking experiences for many individuals which I like as it does potentially inspire others and one of it's skills required is experience in Stop Motion Animation.
I find this job interesting because despite the possibility of having to move to New York it is open to those who are experienced with different styles of animation and is not limited to them either.
I find this job very attractive because I would like to try using 2D stop motion which in my opinion would feel reminiscent to some of the 'Small Films' shows like 'Ivor the Engine' and I would like to try and keep this style of stop motion alive.
Even though I stated in a previous post I would be going for YouTube monetization but as that is something that is completely optional to many and these jobs I have listed are pretty much a back up plan, but whatever happens I will take pride in my future career.
Week 4: 14/2/2019
As this week was career's development week I had signed up for some workshops that were mainly to do with essay writing.
I had struggle a bit with essay writing in the past and these workshops proved to be very helpful and I got some good advice too.
With the gathered advice and tips I do hope these will help me with my current essays I am writing about my chosen job role and self evaluation.
Week 3: 4/2/2019
Today we learnt about a system called 'STAR'. This was short for 'Situation', 'Task', 'Action' and 'Result'. What we had to do was apply this system to any point in our life:
Situation: After I had finished school and before I went to college I worked part time at a butcher's shop not far from where I live during the Summer to earn a bit of money.
Task: I had several roles while working there, but the roles I was assigned with the most were packing chicken pieces that would be delivered to restaurants and mincing meat as I was under aged to handle tools like knives and saws.
Action: There were certain requirements the tasks needed. The chicken packing needed to have an equal amount of pieces in their packets, (Roughly three or four pieces) so demonstrations and guidance from the staff were in order so I could understand how to do it. As for mincing, I was told the meat had to be divided into sections so it would be easier and safer for both machinery and workers as the machinery could get clogged or broken if too much meat was placed into the mincer and the workers might could suffer an injury if they were not careful.
Result: The staff were very supportive and helpful with my assigned tasks during my time at the butchers. I managed to gain both communication and management skills from my time working in a environment I do not usually find myself in which would be very helpful in my future career.
I know it's a bit of an odd choice for the 'STAR' system but as this was my very first job and it did seem fitting for the working world and this lecture definitely helped a lot with this.
Week 2: 28/1/2019
As part of the module I have to write a report about a certain part of the animation industry I want to go into. I decided to write my report about YouTube monetization.
At first it does not sound like a job as YouTube has for a long time been a platform for people to upload and entertain other individuals but with the introduction of monetization many users have used it to their advantage and made their living through YouTube and this is the road I want to go down as I have my own channel and plan to monetize it myself.
I will not however be including channels who upload clips from television shows, films and music videos as those channels are created by the owners of said subjects which you can just easily watch on television or at the cinema.
I also plan to monetise my own YouTube channel as I do enjoy making videos myself and this could also help my family too.
Week 1: 21/1/2019
When it comes to what could happen after graduating from the course there are the best and worst case scenarios of what the outcome could be:
Worst Case Scenario:
Walking out without employment. This is a scenario I am sure a lot of people can relate to. The reason why this is my worst case scenario is because the idea of just completing the degree, having no company to go to on the spot and sitting around waiting for something to come along is not the ideal thing to do and trying to find work is not an easy task. While it is true that I do have to keep on looking until a job comes up but the major problem with that is it really can annoy me. Basically its the equivalent of being stuck in between a rock and a hard place. However if there is a positive to this scenario it would allow me to tie up a few loose ends.
Best Case Scenario:
Getting my dream job and employment. I am pretty sure loads of graduates would say the same thing but the reason why this would be the best case scenario for me is because I would feel I have officially completed everything and feel I am really on the road to my career. Working for the animation company I always dreamed of working at would finally come true and I would feel very proud of myself of what I have done.