From Student to Professional Animation

The transition from the freedom of student animation to professional animation that earns money for its creators is a difficult one. This seminar at the Cardiff Animation Festival brought together a panel of recent graduates, employers and a Channel 4 representative. Report by David Jefferson. An enthusiastic audience of students assembled to learn more about … Read more

A Load Of Balls

Chris Shepherd is a degree student studying animation at West Surrey College of Art and Design. His 16mm film called A Load Of Balls was recently screened at the college’s London show. He explains the background to his film. The animation degree course at West Surrey College of Art and Design is primarily concerned with … Read more

A Load Of Balls – Page 2

Secondly, I used cel animation to give the audience the impression the film was to be comic in nature. In Warner Brother’s cartoons, eel painted characters such as Daffy Duck are shot, blown up and cut into pieces but never die. The audience accept this and do not question the immortality of such cartoon characters. … Read more

Alastair Taylor’s Fridge D’or

Alastair Taylor tells how he made The Fridge D’or at Bath Academy of Art. The film was a big hit at the Cambridge Animation Festival 1983. “The Fridge D’or’ was made in rather makeshift style during my final year as an illustration student at Bath Academy of Art. It is concerned with destiny, the foreknowledge … Read more

Gallery by Mark Fuller

MARK FULLER TALKS ABOUT THE ANIMATION COURSE AT LIVERPOOL POLYTECHNIC AND THE MAKING OF HIS FILM ‘GALLERY’

After three years at Liverpool Polytechnic under the guidance of Ray Fields, I feel I am only now beginning to benefit from his seemingly unique philosophy concern¬ing the development of a young film maker.

Gallery by Mark Fuller

To move away from a reliance on technical understanding and rational thought I feel is not necessarily a mistake at times, and has for many proved profitable in terms of develop¬ment of the true spirit of art and ideas, the awareness and depth of vision that can be liberated from areas below the conscious self, where true creativity originates, can take art, and animation as the new art form, away from its traditional portrayal of life, which has been my grounding up to now, towards a more internal approach hopefully with depth of meaning universally.

Gallery by Mark Fuller

There are obvious ideas of being a spectator, which I hope I have recovered from now, which is also suggested in the title, this I think came from my interest at the time in existentialist ideas found in the outsider. Apart from this as an influence it was quite a personal film, which I am aware of now finishing college, has its pitfalls, for if the work is too precious or only understood by close friends it plays a very limited role, something I would not wish, even though it is only personal experiences and immediate surroundings that can be of real value, as source for me to comment upon with feeling.