Music Videos, Commercials, Short Films

I work as a director on music videos and commercials and have made my own short films in University. I graduated from my degree at Kingston University with a BA in Illustration in 2004. During my degree I made a few short animated films and collaborated with friends on an animated film called ‘Lucky Cat'. My passion has always been for drawing and most of my work is made with traditional drawn animation processes with film elements and some very basic 3D elements.

My first Job after graduating was in a Post Production company in Soho , London called Framestore-CFC. Framestore-CFC is a big Visual Effects company, which works on Feature Films and Commercials employing about 500 people. Although my training is as an illustrator and my animation work is very traditional, it was great to work for a company who has worked on many amazing projects and I learned a great deal about the industry and it helped me find out what I wanted to do.

I worked as a Runner for the first four months and then a Job opened up in a department called Digital Lab, restoring film digitally. The great thing about some of the bigger animation companies (like Framestore-CFC) is that they are very good about helping their new staff progress in the company. On joining the company I had very little knowledge of any 3D programs or the programs they used and was able to learn what I needed to get a job in Digital Lab while I was there. In the 6 months or so while I was working in this department I learned a lot and worked on three film projects – ‘Sahara', ‘Fateless' and ‘The Constant Gardener'. Although it was a very different experience from working on my own short films it was a great experience and I met lots of great people.

In January 2005, I won a commission with a Record Label Called Warp, to make a music video for one of their new artists called Gravenhurst. It was part of a competition run in a magazine called Creative Review. I had 6 weeks to make the video and no budget. I stopped working at Framestore-CFC to work on this because it was a great opportunity for a great record label and I wanted to give it 100%. The video I made was for a track called ‘I turn my face to the forest floor”.

When I finished the promo I sent it to many production companies and I got some really positive feedback and that led to more work.

I think the most valuable thing I did when I finished the film was send it to many film festivals. I must have sent this film to about 30 film festivals and it has screened at about 25 festivals to date. If you get to a point where you have a film you are proud of I think it is great to get it seen by as many people as possible, because this is how you will get known and how you will get your work out there.

A few months after I finished my promo with Warp, the record label came back and commissioned a second video to coincide with the launch of Gravenhurst's new album – ‘Fires in Distant Buildings'. This time there was a small budget and I was also commissioned to make the album and single artwork as well. This was both my first paid illustration commission and my first paid animation commission. The track I had to make the video for was called ‘The Velvet Cell'. It was great fun and the record label was really happy with it when it was done.

I made the two promos for Warp by myself at home. Technology and equipment is becoming more and more affordable and I was able to make my promos on a normal home PC with some fairly cheap software. For a couple of thousand pounds I think you can have everything you need to make an animation fit for broadcast.

Since the completion of these promos I have not got representation for my animation work. This means that a company pitches with my films for music video and commercial projects and shows my work to the agencies and record labels. If I win a project they manage the budget and produce the work and I work through them.

‘A pitch' is basically where you have to convince a record label or advertising agency that they want to commission you to make the work. Many companies and individuals may be pitching for the same project as you so you have to put together something which will catch the imagination of the people who will look at it.

In the case of a record label I will usually be sent a promo copy of the track and then have to put together a written treatment for the video along with a series of stills to show how you think the work may look. The same happens with a commercial but you will probably have a script or a very rough treatment to build your treatment from. I normally only have a couple of days to do this so it is usually quite hectic. My pitch would then be submitted along with my animation reel to the record label or agency for them to look at.

I prefer working with a company as opposed to working for myself because it is a lot more sociable and there are lots of other advantages. As an individual it is very hard to know how to negotiate budgets and manage a project and this is something that a production company will know about and it is also a kind of protection because this industry is a business and sometimes contracts need to be signed etc and they know all about this.