I had interesting and diversified experiences in networking and festivals.

I went to one of the Facebook group Festivus gatherings in St Pancras station pub. It’s a very convenient location, as it’s just a stone’s throw of the final stop of the fast train from Bedford, where I live. Luckily students and alumni from the MA Character animation in CSM were present, so we could start chatting with each other before meeting other people. It was interesting to meet graduates and students from other Animation university courses from the UK and abroad having the same anxiety and issues about future work, and meeting people with interesting films and stories. The only problem is their gatherings are always on Thursday evenings, so it means missing a life drawing class during term time.

I’ve also been to one of the London Animation Club gatherings. It’s not as convenient in terms of location and the timing is inadequate for people that are studying or working, as they seem to meet on Mondays later in the evening than Festivus, which kind of spoils your week as they may finish really late in the very beginning of that week. It was nice meeting people and seeing the work of some stablished professionals, but it seems many of them aren’t currently working in the industry, and some seem to be struggling to get work in this area, which seems odd for people with so much experience. Maybe it’s related to personal issues, I can’t explain. But it seemed a group where you were less likely to be able to get any work opportunity by networking.

I had 2 films accepted in the Kinofilm Festival in Manchester. I went to the screenings and participated in both Q&A’s. It was a great experience, and I met nice people, especially the festival manager, director and the staff. I’m wondering if I should go to the Manchester Animation Festival in November as their manager suggested.

I also went last year to the City Lit Flicks Festival, which basically celebrates students and alumni of City Lit. It was great fun too, I met some former tutors and fellow students of different courses I did there, and it was lovely. Although in terms of networking for future opportunities I’m not sure it can help.

I wanted to go to a festival in Portugal that is showing one of my films, but as the screening is just before the submission deadline, I find it unlikely I’ll be able to go. Fortunately, they have some events in the next months in London, so I can go there instead.

It seems small festivals are easier to socialise and network, and to be screened than bigger festivals. The bigger ones seem more interested in promoting big studios’ work and obviously the vast majority of student and independent work won’t be even close to those standards. And there are festival scams in Film Freeway too, so we must be careful.

After a lot of thinking, I decided on a hierarchy of preferred career options for me:

1. Independent filmmaker
2. Stop Motion director / animator
3. Model / Prop maker
4. Storyboard artist
5. 2D animator

Clearly independent filmmaker is hard, especially to get funding for your own films, but I feel the urge to tell stories. And I don’t have a problem in doing commercial work for financial support. Last year I went to a screening of Ainslie Henderson and his partner’s last film, and in the Q&A afterwards Ainslie showed he despises doing commercial work. I would think this plays a part in him being worse off financially now than when he was a musician.

I wouldn’t mind being a stop motion director or animator, especially freelancer, as this way you can work with different styles of animation and design in different studios, or even directing films in other animation techniques. And most people that work as animators in studios like Aardman normally don’t have time and energy to animate their own films in their free time. I’m not afraid of being freelancer, because I worked before as contractor in other industries, and I enjoyed working in different places with various people. I don’t fall for illusions of stability in staff jobs anymore.

You have to focus on what you want but also keep an open mind on opportunities in related areas, not only because you can use that as a path to your main objectives, but also as your path may not be as clear as you expect (some lecturers talked about that, and also stop motion animator Tim Allen talks about his sisters’ career change experience and his own career path in the podcast I really enjoyed that can be accessed on https://meditationswith.podbean.com/e/observing-life-one-frame-at-a-time-with-stop-motion-animator-tim-allen/.

I enjoy Model and Prop making too, although I prefer large scale Prop making, especially if it involves carving and sculpting. I wouldn’t mind also doing some mould making, even though it’s not one of my preferred activities in this field.

I really enjoy storytelling, that’s why Storyboard artist is another option that would be enjoyable. I have to learn industry software for that like Storyboard Pro.

I wouldn’t mind 2D animation jobs either, but I confess for this and for storyboarding I need to improve my drawing techniques to compete with people that have more continuous experience in drawing than me. That will also help with my own storyboards and animatics.

I also want to apply to write for the Skwigly magazine as mentioned before by Laura-Beth. I enjoy writing and that certainly would help me meet interesting people and watch interesting animation films.

I recently updated my website (julianaaventurinidenyer.com), showreels and CV to apply for jobs and internships.

I started with my website. It really needed updating, there was a load of Fine Art out-of-date information. I decided to simplify and focus on animation-related jobs as they’re higher in my list of priorities (see blog post “Careers Options for the Near Future”). I concluded a structure with separate sections for stop motion, model / prop making and 2d animation works best.

On top of each animation section, you can see a link to the respective showreel. Also, information on some of the films I did in these techniques.

It’s more organised and more efficient to have separate showreels for stop motion and 2D, and you can direct the people to the work they’re interested in. I followed recommendations of lecturers and professionals of the industry to select the material for each showreel, CV and cover letters. I still must do some updates to address suggestions in Shaun’s lecture, which clarified topics not discussed by other people before. Also I have to get feedback from a visiting lecturer on my stop motion showreel.

I applied to an Assistant Animator job at Aardman, but obviously the competition is huge as sometimes they have like 600 applicants per position.

I’m also applying for internships, starting with the Arts and Grafts one. Let’s see what comes from those too. Obviously my chances in 2D animation are remote as most of the course I spent doing stop frame techniques.

I applied for a traineeship in Puppetry and Set Design too.

In the showreel event in CSM on the 13/6 I particularly want to talk to Strange Beast, as they are a producing company, and being linked to them would be handy in being a freelancer director/animator.

Also updating CV, showreel, website etc. is useful as I want to apply to the In-Studio Stop Motion course with Aardman Academy (https://academy.aardman.com/),  and they form part of the application. I went to their online open day in Zoom recently. For that I need also to make a little “pitch” with information of the film I want to do in their course. Not sure I have time for this before their deadline for this year.

They also have a Stop Motion Character Animation training course in Aardman studios to help people produce portfolios to make them visible to the global industry. The application also requires CV and showreel, although I’m not convinced doing this course would replace redoing to improve the exercises I did in their former courses.

I have business cards from specific films and more generic ones. Must keep the film specific to a minimum, as after some time their picture is old news. More generic ones are more practical as their pictures hopefully shouldn’t get dated.