Third Year: A Collaborative Focus

In preparation for the Production Team Collaboration assignment in the third year of my studies at NUA, I wanted to discuss my initial ideas in response to this project and my intensely collaborative focus of the coming year. Given the task of working with peers on a larger animation production for the main aspect of our final year, I intend to use this as an opportunity to work together with peer Jack Titmas and develop an animated short film. With the ultimate goal to open up a small independent animation studio together, we both wanted to take this project as an opportunity to work together on a larger-scale production and test our abilities to work collaboratively, in the hopes of determining if working as a studio is a realistic and achievable goal to pursue.

From our various discussions with Norwich-based animation studios Cut the Mustard and Studio Goblin, alongside chatting to freelancers and international collectives such as Team Tumult, we have found that starting our studio concept as a creative duo is the ‘perfect number’ and feel confident in working as so. With both of us being confident in the other’s abilities to both direct, animate, and organize an animation project, we have always wanted to collaborate on a larger animated production. Jack and I have had experience working together on smaller projects in the past, and feel that our work complements each other nicely. Whilst we have made plans to pursue smaller collaborative projects over the summer, as a way to build work for the showreel and social media outlets, this upcoming project represents the most exciting and largest assignment we’ve faced yet. 

We hope to produce an industry-standard piece of 2D frame by frame animation, which we can then submit to various film festivals and career opportunities as a way to develop an interest in our studio name, and start getting clients. Of course, we both recognize that this is not a small task - and we realized early on in the discussion that to successfully do this, concept exploration and preproduction work needs to begin sooner rather than later. With this, we began outlining a rough production plan and the timeline for this project. 

To ensure that our ambitions do not hold us back from achieving our goals and producing a completed film, we will begin developing this initial concept work over the summer - pitching ideas, narratives, and images to each other before developing a core theme and film idea to explore further. We’re both eager to begin developing story ideas and visuals, taking this project as the first significant project as a studio. We hope to leave NUA with a successful graduate film that reflects our abilities as creatives and generates interest in our studio brand. After many conversations about the subject, it’s clear that we both see the Production Team Collaboration assignment as the most significant project in our time on the course, effectively representing the beginning point of our careers as animators making a start in the industry. With the ultimate goal of evaluating and determining the credibility of our ability to work collaboratively as a studio, this project will play a significant role in determining if our goal of opening up an independent animation studio is realistic and achievable. 

From this, we have already taken initiative with the assignment and have set ourselves the task of developing an idea pitch for the 15th June, in which we will pitch three unique film ideas to each other. With this, we will be creating a single document containing our brief synopsis for each pitch, a rough sketch or style frame, and visual references to explore. This will be my focus moving forward, developing this initial pitch document, and a series of film ideas to pursue further.