Hi I’m Lucy Gatenby, a student from Foundation Diploma Film and Animation pathway. I just finished working on my animation for my Final Major Project. My animation revolves around a middle aged man named Scott who is going through a midlife crisis as he is tired of being stuck in the same old routine. Feeling unsatisfied with life, he imagines who he aspires to be and this eventually motivates his to quit his job and live life. My work is a short film which is vastly inspired by the film ‘American Beauty’ as this midlife crisis has always entertained me and I wanted to convey the same extreme behaviour in my own short animation.
For the production process, I have used the Adobe programme After Effects. Before my foundation course, I had never used this program. After attending a tutorial on how to use it, I can see a clear improvement in my work as I easily got the hang of using it. My tutor Joseph has also been really helpful as I keep learning lots of new skills on After Effects therefore it has been a great learning curve. Before the production process of animating, we plan out what we visually want our films to look like, these are called storyboards. They involve drawing shots that consider colour, camera shots and angles of what is included in the scene.
The animator that has had a major influence to my final major project is Ben Brand, as his animation ‘Life is Beautiful’ made me realise that it is important to have a strong narrative to keep your audience hooked. Brand also manages to really connect the audience with the character’s emotion and story. It is one of my favourite animations because I was very surprised at the plot twist ending; as we learn that the character decides to ends his life, but also starts a new one in return. I discovered their work on Vimeo, this site is great as it allows me to see what’s trending and keep up to date with various film festivals.
My favourite student’s work is by Graphics Foundation student Sarah Law. She created three posters that boldly ask people to give up their seat to those who need it. I love how Sarah made these by drawing the seating pattern digitally and then blowing them up into large A1 posters. The message is quite funny, but the posters themselves can easily be mistaken for an advert from Transport For London because of how professional they look, I love it.
Work by Foundation student Sarah Law
To prepare for our foundation show we have been converting our studio into a cinema which is super exciting. It was also fun painting the walls black and setting it all up to look like a cinema where we show audience our films that we have worked months on. We also have a cute lit up cinema sign. Outside we will have detailed storyboards showing our original ideas of how we planned our films or animations, so there is loads of exciting stuff to see!
Don’t miss Lucy’s animation work at the Foundation Diploma Summer Show 2016 from 9-13 May 2016.
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