Animated Chaos

That is the question!! *sigh*

At one point in the year there was a lecture (yes there has been more than one, but I’m nattering about this one specifically so shush!) and it was mentioned about the option to “intentionally fail” the dissertation.

The idea behind this is thus:

1) You end up with a BA not a BA(hons) – this is due to the obvious decrease in marks!
2) You have half the work to submit so therefore have more time to work on the ART side – it is an ART course after all o_O
3) The lack of Hons can go either way though the impression given was that studios tend to look favourably of those who “intentionally failed” the dissertation to focus on the ART (there’s that word again!) – obviously you have to have “intentionally failed” the dissertation, not actually failed due to being hopeless – this is important!

So this leaves me with a choice. Do I do both halves, and suck at both? Do I drop the dissertation and lose the (Hons)? Does that even really matter?? Will my eventual grade for the Film really improve drastically enough to justify dropping the Dissertation?

Something tells me yes, because at the moment I’m emu-ing and not doing either, film or dissertation so..really there is only one choice. The way I look at it is, how is 10,000 words of blood sweat and many many tears going to convince a studio I’m good at ART? (again, that word!) I don’t see that it will, surely that’s what a portfolio is for.

So…in answer to the title question.

Not To Hons!

So the idea is to write 1000 words on either work-experience undertaken in an animation setting OR an aspect of the industry you are interested in. Hmm.

How do you write about where you fit in when you feel you fit nowhere? As all important writing people say, write what you know. So here goes.

Brief :

A self reflexive critical review on some aspect of the animation industry, and where you see yourself fitting in.

If I had to pick one specific area of the animation industry where I could see myself fitting I have come to realise it would be the area of Pre-Production. I have no interest in drawing a minutely different picture over and over until I am being admitted for Carpel Tunnel. Neither am I interested in clean-up or line work nor directing others in these aforementioned tasks. What does excite me however is ideas, and Pre-Production as a whole is where this all begins.

According to Skillset.org, Pre-Production is all about “fleshing [ideas]” and involves “writing the script, drawing the storyboard, designing character turnarounds, designing layouts/backgrounds and creating an animatic.” To me, this is the perfect place to be in terms of a fledgling career in animation. Not only are you situated right where all animation comes in to being but also the ability to learn from and rectify mistakes at some speed due to the turnover and constant revisiting of the various pre-production stages. My real interest and passion lies in story telling and in animation I feel this nicely leads on to both Character Design and Storyboarding.

Another aspect that draws me towards Pre-Production is the way one seems free to work in a very rough, work-in-progress style as rewrites and complete restarts appear commonplace. I enjoy to work in a fast paced way where work is down on paper quickly then edited afterwards when many ideas are literally on paper ready to be altered and moulded. Delicate or repetitive work is not something I am either passionate about nor talented at. I am now able to, after some time of metaphorically wandering about the various animation departments, pinpoint my strengths and weaknesses and feel confident in voicing the areas which I don’t feel I am capable of. Pitching of ideas seemed to be an area where I felt I actually excelled in relation to other tasks during my time in University; the ability to work with a loose plot and character basis yet still be able to sum up the entire pitch in to a one or two line synopsis and have a whole room grasp the concept as intended is challenging yet exciting.

Planning is something I consider to be a major strength of mine, though the following through I find difficult as I don’t excel in the actual production areas. Again, this seems imperative to the Pre-Production department as it is important to have a ‘skeleton’ of sorts in place as it is costly to have to completely redraw whole scenes due to tiny continuity errors for example. The planning stage is also a great place to see how an animated piece, be it a short, feature or advert etc, will work before expensive time and effort is spent on it.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!