Career Track Tuesdays - The Art of 'Networking' notes

Speakers: Anna Frank and Rick Ferguson

Important things about networking - you must think about what you can contribute to the evening at the stage of your career.

Tell me about...
People like talking about themselves generally, using the phrase 'tell me about' helps you to focus on their conversation rather than trying to consider what you will say next and will ease you into talking with others. Networking opens the door to new relationships, make connections that build up your career and reach out beyond your sector. Networking is still about working, it still is a form of finding work.

Where can you find networking events?
- Digital Leeds events
- Cafe start up
- Junior chamber of commerce - Very corporate based
- Yorkshire Mafia - Networks that promote you locally
- Leeds college of art events
- Event Brite - Easy to find free events in the local and further areas
- Bettakultcha - talk about something you are interested in

Get a linked in profile, it is a professional identity online. With this set yourself a goal, talk to at least 5 people - build up your confidence! See if you can see the attendee list and see if you can recognise any names - research them. Prepare and plan ahead to eliminate any anxiety - this could be in the form of business cards - promoting yourself. When going to networking events ensure that you go with someone for the first few events you attend however try not to stick to them. You need to be confident and approach a single person or a group of people, be brave.

You need to keep the conversation open in both form of topic and body language. For example when taking to a person, turn slightly away from the person you are talking to and this will create an opportunity for anyone to join the discussion. 'How long have you been working there? where? and how did you apply?' You can tell what people are thinking from subtle movements that they make, looking away or hijacking the conversation. Ensure that you listen, be prepared for differing opinions.

Logical levels - a theory of how conversation is structured -

Logical Levels Diagram

1. Environment - ask them where they are, where they work etc

2. Behaviours - how they act

3. Capabilities -what are their strengths

4. Beliefs - religion, morals and values

5. Identity - who they brand themselves to be

6. Spirit - their passion towards their beliefs 

Points 1, 2 and 3 - All relate to the head - the practical side - people are afraid to move to the next step of the diagram
Points 4, 5, and 6 - All relate to the heart - passion driven - why people do what they do - will make more of a connection with these points - personal values.


Elevator Pitch - Summarise yourself within 30 seconds

Body language - Active listening

- Eye contact/firm handshake
- Don't fold your arms in front of you - shows that you are vulnerable - you close yourself off from others 

- Your stance - be open and don't slouch, think about holding food and drink - need one hand free to hand shake

- Facial expressions - always smile!
- Speed of talking - slow and clear
- Consider what you will wear

To build a good rapport - match the volume and tone of voice - subtly match that moving onto other groups. Consider exit strategies however don't leave someone on their own - ask them if there is someone else they can introduce you to. Invite someone else into the conversation. Write on their business card where you met and add any action you promised - schedule 30 mins the next day to contact them. Email them and say 'nice to meet you' Follow them on twitter - retweet info about their company. Add them to your data base on Linked In - later sales or possible work etc. Need to focus on the conversation and find out what they care about - find their values and make connections. 

Using Pinterest

Pinterest is a fantastic site to store and organise reference material, and influences that you find over the internet from known or just discovered artists. I find that I use Pinterest quite often as it is a fantastic way for me to easily and quickly, find visual influences that I have categorised into different boards. For example any reference material such as tutorials or anatomy sketches would be 'pinned' into the Reference board that I have made on my account. Not only can you store or 'pin' work that people have added to their own boards on the site but as you search the internet you can easily add more imagery through the Pinterest Button on the browser that you use, making it easier to find rather than searching through all the bookmarks you have made from different inspirations you have found.

Pinterest could be a good way to promote yourself through adding your work, which automatically adds a link to the website that you have taken it from, in this case your own website/work. For instance with the Qwertee site, where artists are able to upload their work for possible print to t-shirt, people can find these links through searching for the word Qwertee; when people who use pinterest 'pin' this to their board, their followers will see this as well.  I believe that this site would be helpful with posting your own development work or even screenshots of work that would link to your finished outcome.

Bradford Animation Festival: Michel Ocelot notes

What drew you to animation?

- Doodles and inventing plays with the siblings, liked to make stories in which he considered dialogue and did his own storyboards. He did animation when he was younger.

Across your working life, you've always been fascinated with fairytales..

- They're perfect, entertaining, they create a world in which we can escape with added morals.

Were you aware of French animation?

- The first animation that he ever saw was in Africa and he was aware of the work made by Emiele Cole.

Were you aware of Lotte Reinger?

- No my work came after but when I did realise, I naturally went to white cutouts with a low relief emboss.

Three Inventors

- I wanted to tell the world that I was there, making something that was refined, however there wasn't a happy ending. I wrote the first script and the producer said no and in his own apartment he took several months making the backgrounds and all the figures/puppets. Finally he went to the sixth producer and he said yes. Before this he was involved in a tv show about a duck. It was only 5 minutes but he was able to deliver on time as the puppets were there however he was always criticized. Film to start his career - only cut out animation and only white paper so that people would know that it was his work. It was refused by a few festivals but he won a bafta for his work. He wasn't paid, he was just happy to have the tools and made the film using cheap materials as he had no money. Had a camera from the Second World War so no view finder technology like today, no heating but he was happy.

Why that technique?

"I have no passions, just passion"
It is not a style he chose but one that he loves, doing more after the feature film hes working on at the moment. He had no job so he did a lot of workshops with children. Did animation styles that he taught them and he did use the techniques which Lotte used - with silhouettes, uses iron thread with black puppets and thread for the white ones. Uses a backdrop light as its cleaner, can't see any marks on the puppet etc.

When did you discover you could make cutouts?

From a very young age, I started with scissors.

At the time of La Reine Cruelle, he had never touched CG for the radar, he actually used a coca cola plastic bottle and painted it black and then added colour - animating it frame by frame. Used cel animation as well when people changed into another shape. Brought characters to CGI animators as he wanted it to be as simple as possible and he had the money. All the software was available due to money.

Any particular Disney films that you remember or were inspired by?

- Inspired, no. But I remember Sleeping Beauty as it touched my heart. Everything influences me, loves childrens picture books, cultures.

Kirikou - based in Africa woman gives birth to a child, at the time it was hard to find money as it was only america that could make animations so he had to get loans. Producer started worrying - was criticized all the time - started with storyboard then title then narrative - They brought another storyboard artist but he ruined it, it was too complicated - then went back to the old storyboard, had an african child so he was aware of the culture and the life. He couldn't find a distributor in Paris, and there was no advertisements or trailer just at the cinema - they were upset but they still went with word of mouth. They released 60 copies of the film and it worked, every week.

To the Kirikou film, what responses did you get?

It was released internationally but BBC told them that they couldnt show the film, even at 11pm. There was no protests about the way they were dressed. 

Success of that sort should allow you to make more films..

Yes! Bankers loved me, the right people, the right time, the right place.
Everyone believed in what they were making. He worked with singer Bjork, silhouette music video - projected film on her face used all the techniques he knew. 

James Wall: Visiting Professional notes

James Wall, Director who graduated from Leeds College of Art in 2010

The Truth About Romance

Short films - 1 film a week - 10 films a month - made a big portfolio. Had actors approach him so in 2011 he wanted to make a feature film. He wrote a draft in 2 weeks and launched a fund raiser in 2012 but had to make it into a competition. Expenses were quite high with travel costs, actors however he gained a lot of support from twitter and other social media, so with this founded confidence he launched a website posting his pre production work for the film and got emails with in the day.

Pre Production - Month before production started to get exciting, costumes were needed to ensure that they wore the same thing as scenes would be filmed at different times, and this was all new to him. To cast actors he networked over skype.

Post Production - Planned it to be a 90 minute film however he shot too much and he had to edit the video himself which took close to a year to finish the edits whereas the production of the film took only 2 weeks.

Freelance

Freelance work worked out to be paying more than normal work, freed up his time as well for the editing of the film. He promoted it through social media, its a way to interact with people, making the public build up interest in the film. He got in contact with everyone to watch it, views on youtube 844,000+, a lot of interest with in the film. His work got a four page article in Digital Magazine, and he was invited to a meeting in London with film lawyers to talk about a sequel however he is still waiting for the contracts to be finished. Hopefully Hollywood will buy the film and remake it, would make a lot of money. He was paid by youtube however he only obtained £67 for 2 months worth of viewers, not really a living. From this it generated a lot of work, and still obtaining more views on his youtube channel. He still spends a day or two promoting the film on his social media. He felt that he should have done a transcript for international viewers however it would be extremely time consuming.

An example of freelance work, 1st Wakefield theatre - Leeds is not the best place for work - you need to actively seek work, showing showreels to companies, contacting the Marketing Department as they are the people that deal with that. You need to make a good quality of work, as freelance is extremely hard to manage and sometimes hard to work, especially if you don't network/promote yourself. People will hire you to do the boring parts - effectively you are your own business. Rebranded himself and told people he was a company however he did all the work himself, ended up hiring another person but had to fire him when he had no work for a few months.

Networking

More important than being good at  the job - Social media is a MUST - dont have to go to an office to ask for a meeting, can connect with them directly. Chit chat is important it helps you to connect with them. Freelance work cannot predict what work will come your way - identify what it is you are going to do with them, to what standard - if you are not sure, it can spiral out of control.

You need to:

Operate as a business
Have Professional Accounts
Make Connections
Keep Improving
PROMOTE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!!

Leeds International Film Festival: Wings of Honneamise

Wings of Honneamise is set in a world with predated technology, with a culture that resembled a Mayan and Egyptian stylisation, in which they fought to reach the moon. Even though the technology is aged, the world strangely absorbs a futuristic setting and fantasy based; the culture was driven much like how modern day cultures absorb others. The main character Shiro strives to be a navy space pilot and eventually becomes the first man in space. This animation was only ever released on VHS and only been released again on DVD recently. The style of the cel animation worked well with the style of the lineart through the variation of line and the body proportions. The style of the animation links to the 80's/90's design much like the animated feature Akira, through the shading and colours. Considering the time and technology that the animation was created in, the animation was stunning and ran smoothly, there were no obvious jagged movements. For instance in the training scene, the movement of the characters and camera angles emphasised the quality and smoothness of the animation. 

The narrative of the animation was quite intriguing through how the culture dealt with popularity and religion however there were parts which just did not suit the characters. For example with the main character, Shiro, he acts rashly against a woman that he befriends, but in such a manner that it left me confused as to why he did this as it wasn't his personality. It felt that it was just added to create some form of action whilst the plot was going slow, just before he goes to space. I did however like the narrative that involved Shiro trying to escape an assassin sent by another country who wanted to steal the plans for the rocket that they were building, as they had progressed extremely well compared to the surrounding countries. The narrative that entailed a form of tension that was heightened as the main character acted like what I imagine any average person would do in that situation, which made it feel relatable to the audience. For example, at first he was scared and scrambled to get away, and then after swallowing back his fear, he knew he had to somehow fight back otherwise he was going to die. I felt this transition of emotion within his character worked well and added excitement to the atmosphere as he fights back to survive. 

Bradford Animation Festival: Strange Hill - behind the scenes notes

Presenter - Mark Oswin, Strange Hill scriptwriter who is currently working on Danger Mouse and Tim Jones, Puppeteer. 

Development Stages:

+ Start with one line pitches for story lines for each episode - these are not always finished
+ Writers Room - Armed with the one line pitches, build up on idea generation to make the episodes. Josh Weinstein, writer for Futurama.
+ 1 page outline - 3 acts with a solid structure and the structure needed to be organic.
+ Scene by Scene - Can't talk about gags as its hard to think of on the spot, put a place holder there.
+ 1st draft script - Act what you're going to do, writing with another person to bounce off ideas and helps with gags.
+ Redrafts
+ Polish - rewriting it line by line in america - the more writers the more gags.

3 Act structure: 

+ Act 1, Set up and inciting in a daft
+ Act 2 part 1, Playing with fire and midpoint
+ Act 2 part 2, Down Hill and lowest point
+ Act 3, Fight Back and fail, Out of the bag

Writing it!

+ Write what makes you laugh, kids like sophisticated humour such as geeky and comedy
+ Plot/comedy/character balance - every line has to work, learning to cut and make script neat
+ Big visual comedy - big set piece from films - movie references to big movies - no text based jokes as won't translate well in other countries

Puppets

Mackinnon and Saunders made the puppets for them and the creator of the show designed them. They watch the process in straight scan, the camera is recording the puppet, so the puppeteer has to act everything the wrong way round however it allows you to see what the audience would see. Body is made from wood and the fabrics are quite thin. When one of the characters Mitchell is going to talk they take off his mouth and dots are left to be able to align where the voice would go/movement. Rehearse the action and shoot carefully to storyboard - six puppeteers are normally needed to make the animation however sometimes when crowds are involved in the scene so they need a few helpers or interns, with the experienced puppeteers in the foreground. They use a mixture of CG, live action and stopmotion. "Animating something inanimate".

Writing visually how they move helps to get into character, such as creating an animatic of the show - line drawing with the voice actors, with room to add emphasis. Body language is important when there is no audio, so detail is everything. Inspiration from movies, life, anything - used films such as 'The Shining' and 'Snatchers', there was also an episode based on the horror movie 'Chuckie'. Breaking down the movement wit the sound, you're not animating the lip sync so you need to emphasise the movement to match the high pitch or low pitches of the acting.

Longevity of the characters - possibly an arc coming up, theories on why strange hill high is so strange. Character design, looking more into background characters - bringing more of these characters into the show.

I was really inspired by this talk through how I was able take a sneak peek into the process of the animation but also how they generate narrative. When trying to locate my practice, I felt that one of the processes that I wanted to take further were my skills for narrative and storyboarding, so this in depth approach to the script writing of each episode really influenced the way I know approach my storyboards. I was also honoured to be able to hold one of the puppets from the show, I didn't realise how heavy the puppet actually was, so I could imagine how difficult it must be to act with the puppet on set.

Bradford Animation Festival: Box Trolls, behind the scenes notes

Presenter Mark Shapiro on behind the scenes in Box Trolls

For the animation we animated on ones 24fps with the main software used - After Effects, Photoshop, Dragon Frame and Nuke. The studio sets were 2 acres, the same size as 2 football pitches however temperature was a huge problem with how it can bend the wood on the sets, so the temperature had to be stable to stop the sets from warping. Animators make 10% of the entire production with 400 people working on the film and four different departments worked together to make the sets. Worked alot with Mackinnon and Saunders for the armatures and with electricians on set to light up the puppets. Some of the puppets were digitally made up and added in as it saved time on the production stage, alongside with painted back drops. They wanted asymmetrical lines, the lack of straight lines would make the scenery absorb a rustic appeal.

Coraline included alot of interiors, Paranorman included more environments/outdoor whereas Box Trolls consisted of a mixture of both. Creating the backgrounds were a lot like theatre production. Coraline was printed black and white for the 3D faces and had to be hand painted. Animations 2 and half to 3 seconds a week per animators, 2 and a half years of production, mechanical animation for the music room as no lines to save time and cost. Nelson worked on production design and decided red would work well for the mischievous trio that want to destroy the box trolls, and it is also seen in Winnie's red hair that suits her personality. Winnie's hair was made with material that had wire in it so that it could be easily animated, same as the snatcher so that his hair could be animated as well.

The mecha drill was a challenge through how fire escapes the grates, and they struggled with ideas on how to create this fire effect. Conveniently the size of the grate was big enough to fit an ipad mini in which they created a fire app for the illusion of fire, with added CG graphics for when the flames escaped the bars on the post production frames. Ollie who was head of rigging, created a fantastic illusion for the water, as the studio had not animated water before it was difficult considering how they would be able to manage this, as animating the water frame by frame would be extremely time consuming. For the water he took a frosted warped shower door and used that for the basis of the water, using light underneath the pane to create the illusion of shadow and movement.  This was really interesting to hear through how they not only used rustic and tactile like techniques for their hand made stop motion but used technology and other items that you would not necessary consider using to create the illusion of the certain elements motion.

The puppet process starts with drawing and mapping the armatures for the model, ensuring that it would work in proportion of the model design. After which the armatures are made and then casts are made to make the main bulk of the model. Creating the face is much like making a swiss watch, there are so many tiny elements and details that have to be considered and for the ease of changing the faces, adding magnets to the back makes changing the expression easier on set.

I found this behind the scenes talk for the film box trolls extremely inspiring through how they used not only techniques they had refined from the past animated features they had created but also ones that they had not used before, ones in which they wanted to learn and wanted to improve from the past successes. I found how they added wire into the hair of the models inspiring as not only did it save time on animating, it made the animation feel smoother and that much more stylised compared to Paranorman and Coraline in which the hair felt too stiff as it moved. I also found it interesting through how they recycle sets and store about 80% of the sets to reuse in the next few animations.

Q&A

Do you have a plan sheet? Puppets look identical etc?
Yes plan sheet, 3D printer helps a lot - use rule of what things look like and time to ensure that everything is the same. Still adding in the human element, for instance we have a puppet hospital for when the puppets break.

Narrative? All three of the films are quite the same in quality.These narratives translate well for puppet animation - when animating in ones, it gives that quirkiness. We just signed a deal to create 3 new films with Focus. News on that will be announced later on. 

Animating in the same style?

A lot of the animators have worked together before these three films, for instance Fantastic Mr Fox. Animators do have different movements but the idea of storyboards and pre vis help to make it easier.

What was the budget for the film?

85 million dollars for the budget for Box Trolls which was in production for 2 and a half years.

How did you create the 3D prints? - Facial Expressions
We create the faces by sculpting them first in Maya, so that we already have a guide line for the expressions that would happen in the scene. All the designers have an understanding of the animation.

What materials do you use for the armatures? 

Mainly use aluminum or steel. Don't use tin as it bends and doesn't have the same stability.