Encounters Film Festival

Over the summer holidays, we (Cameron, Damo and I) submitted our animated documentary, AfterLives, to festivals around the world. We got screened at a few places, Encounters being one of them! We were also invited to go watch our film being screened at Bristol too in September! (We only got two free passes so we split the third, this made me realise most teams are represented by a director-producer combo). 

That's us!

What I learnt:

• I quickly learnt how differently films are judged and presented compared to animation since animation has a whole different set of limitations. However, I did notice what all of them had in common was a captivating narrative, regardless of medium and pace (eg. stories in VRChat, black and white films and isometric CGI), 
• Also tried the "if you're nervous about networking, arrive early" method, managed to network with a few film students,
• The Opening Shot is very important - sets the tone and pace of the film and introduces characters, 
• Went to all the Q&A sessions for the animated films to learn about the process and obstacles behind the making of short films
• Crowdfunding, how it works, where to draw the line, don't promise the audience things you can't deliver,
• Also promoted AfterLives to a film student who was curious about our lanyards (with my rusty social skills).

What could be improved:

• Up on the big screen, I noticed the subtitles I made were massive, I could've submitted a different version so the subtitles would match the screen size.

1 - Presence 👏 Review 👏

I am a generalist animator and illustrator, though my focus is more towards animation. I am drawn to animation because it is both a technical and visual discipline, and this balance pushes me to learn new skills. I also find it fun to do, and want to make a career out it.

My interests are character and vfx animation and I mostly animate in 2D. I have some experience with other mediums, like 3D CGI and 2D puppets. A lot of my skills are quite technical - I have a strong understanding of different software, and when I don't, I'm quick to learn using online resources. My academic side is not as strong as I’d like, but I have been reading relevant books and articles.

At the end of the course, I plan to form a small studio with my friends, called Schwa. This will need a lot of research and development, and will also have a fair share of networking, but we have already begun to take steps towards this. We plan to take on advertising and other gigs, and then expand to bigger projects.

My online presence is fairly frequent on Instagram and Twitter. My LinkedIn, however, will need some attention - it needs to be updated. Schwa too, has an Instagram account, but we will have to expand Schwa's online presence with its own website and other social media accounts. I plan to have a website for my own brand too to act as a central hub.