Encounters puts spotlight on animation training
Bristol – aka the city that holds more animation Oscars than any other in the UK – is to host a major international debate on how well British animation training is equipping graduates to compete in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.
The debate will take place on Thursday 22 November as part of the next Encounters Short Film Festival, a short hop from the HQ of Aardman Animations – the triple Academy Award-winning creators of Wallace and Gromit and other hit films and series, such as Flushed Away, Chicken Run, Creature Comforts, Angry Kid and Shaun the Sheep.
The day-long event is being produced for Encounters by Shelley Page of the mighty DreamWorks Animation studio and will address the speed with which the animation industry is changing and whether the UK’s approach to animation as an academic subject can meet the needs of the Animation, Gaming and Visual Effects industries for highly-skilled graduates with a flair for innovation.
Shelley Page says: “There’s a respected tradition in the UK that higher education is a time for discovery and growth – that it isn’t solely a preparation for getting a job. There are many disciplines where this approach works well but if students are taking courses with the goal of becoming animators in the established studios, they need to emerge with the skills and attitudes that will enable employers to compare them favourably with graduates of some of the excellent courses run outside the UK. And the fact is that the training elsewhere in Europe is often more job-focused. As a result, some of the most exciting opportunities for recent graduates are being snapped up by people who haven’t been trained in the UK.”
Paul Wells, the Professor of Animation at Loughborough University has agreed to moderate the event for which Encounters is bringing together animation commissioners and broadcasters, working and student animators, and representatives from most of the leading schools of animation in the UK and Europe.
Each of the schools will outline their ethos, curriculum strengths and the directions taken by graduates after completing their studies– with examples of outstanding work from recent graduates. In addition, representatives from leading animation, visual effects and gaming studios will present examples of exciting new work created by recently-hired graduates, and compare case studies of the different routes they have taken into different speialisms.
As an added bonus, the presentations and discussions will happen around keynote address by visual effects maestro Henry LaBounta, the Chief Creative Officer at Electronic Arts, whose long list of Hollywood film credits includes Artificial Intelligence: AI, Minority Report, Mission Impossible 2 _and a _Star Trek movie.
Passes for the Animation Industry New Talent Symposium cost £75, (£45 concessions) and include the debate, the Henry LaBounta address, lunch and access to screenings, delegate lounge, EA Games Room and networking events.
The event is one of more than 100 taking place during the 13th annual Encounters festival, which opens on Wednesday 21 November and runs until Sunday 25 November. Other attractions include a Film School, focusing this year on the role of the producer; visits from noted directors such as Frank Cottrell Boyce, Shane Meadows and Royston Tan, interviews by film critic and broadcaster Mark Kermode, have-a-go film-making and editing workshops, the presentation of £20,000+ worth of prizes and awards and the unveiling of the UK’s first short film canon.
To check out the programme or register as a delegate, see Encounters. General public bookings open on 4 October.
The Encounters Short Film Festival is organised by Encounters Festivals Ltd, with support from Bristol City Council, and South West Screen. Principal sponsors of Encounters 2007 are: Aardman Animations, Cartoon Network, EA Games and HP. Partners are: UK Film Council (via its National Lottery funding) BBC Three, BBC New Talent, and BBC Film Network.
