During PP, I had applied for a lot of different storyboard artists roles, hoping that something would come of it and I would potentially gain feedback on my work. This was slightly upheld by the phone call I received from Square One Resources, who were aware that I was a student, however wanted to have a talk with me about my plans for after University,
We had a brief talk about my areas of interests and where I would like to end up, and said that obviously he could not offer me any sort of positions right now, but potentially after University, provided I would be willing to move down to London.
Sunday, 31 March 2019
Wednesday, 27 March 2019
A Talk with David Bunting
Today we had a storyboard pro workshop with David Bunting.
http://www.buntinganimation.com/
As he is a storyboard artist by trade for children's TV, I thought it would be a great opportunity to get some feedback on my work face to face, and not over email or LinkedIn as I have done with my other connections.
Here were my main takeaways from our conversation:
http://www.buntinganimation.com/
As he is a storyboard artist by trade for children's TV, I thought it would be a great opportunity to get some feedback on my work face to face, and not over email or LinkedIn as I have done with my other connections.
Here were my main takeaways from our conversation:
- Most recent work is good, at a very similar level to Bianca Ansems and Catherine Salkeld when they were in my position.
- My website is a bit too clumsy, a bit too open, it would work to be a bit more condensed.
- It would serve me well to attend life drawing sessions "for a storyboard artist it should be like going to the gym" is something which he said to me.
The comparison to 2 of my storyboarding heroes was something I will takeaway with me as it is a real confidence booster in my own abilities. He gave me a lot of constructive criticism, which I will take with me also, as it is very important to my development as an artist, also as a board artist, I will need to be able to take director feedback and respond in turn, as storyboarding is such a necessary part of the animation pipeline.
He also recommended to me that I look into Lupus and Aardman, as both companies have been known to take on interns and he also learned storyboard pro through his work at Aardman, so I will contact both companies to see what opportunities they could hold.
Tuesday, 26 March 2019
CV Building Redone
After much review, and after my big rebrand, I decided I needed to amend my CV ever so slightly to better reflect my new brand, and also to include some of my previous work experience, which I had left out of the last one due to not thinking it relevant. I have also added a reference as my tutor as I think it might be a bit better to list a referee on my actual CV so that they can be aware that I have people who can vouch for my work.
Again I have made sure that the links go to where they need to, I have also still kept the same colours so that it is more in line with my business cards, and the rest of my portfolio.
Friday, 22 March 2019
A Big Rebrand - AlexTStoryboards
After much reflection, and talking to Jez Hall, as well as my peers, I have decided that I needed to rebrand myself with my own name, as opposed to more of a company name. This will make me come across as more approachable, as I am just a person, as opposed to a persona. There has also been an issue where people have assumed my political stance due to my online name being "TheBritsonian". This is something I have been considering for a while, however talking to professionals has convinced me that I need to update this online presence a lot.
This is my usual logo, which I have been using for about a year now, under the tag "TheBritsonian" I like the logo, however it is not very me.
This is my new logo, text included. It is a mixture of the A and T initials in my name, still using the same colours, as I have taken quite a liking to that red which I have been using. I feel as though it is a better representation of me as a person, and immediately tells the viewer who I am and what I do as a professional. The red is now the front section of the logo as it puts more emphasis on the T, and yet is still readable as an A. When the colours are swapped it gives more of an emphasis on the A and the T gets a bit lost in the colour, so this was a more readable option.
Obviously this has led me to change all of my social media's, including my website, so I used a website to check if my new username "alextstoryboards" was taken, which luckily it was not. So I changed everything.
As is shown here, I have also changed my twitter so that the colour matches all of my other branding, using what I now call "The Britsonian Red" which I have used for everything else. It is a pretty significant change in my branding, but it gives me a lot more freedom to explore what I want to show on my social media pages.
This is the code for my Britsonian Red which I have started using on everything, it maintains brand consistency and works well with the white and black, it is not too dark, but also not a pastel colour as I feel pastel doesn't really represent me as a person, so it is a nice medium.
This is my new logo, text included. It is a mixture of the A and T initials in my name, still using the same colours, as I have taken quite a liking to that red which I have been using. I feel as though it is a better representation of me as a person, and immediately tells the viewer who I am and what I do as a professional. The red is now the front section of the logo as it puts more emphasis on the T, and yet is still readable as an A. When the colours are swapped it gives more of an emphasis on the A and the T gets a bit lost in the colour, so this was a more readable option.
Obviously this has led me to change all of my social media's, including my website, so I used a website to check if my new username "alextstoryboards" was taken, which luckily it was not. So I changed everything.
As is shown here, I have also changed my twitter so that the colour matches all of my other branding, using what I now call "The Britsonian Red" which I have used for everything else. It is a pretty significant change in my branding, but it gives me a lot more freedom to explore what I want to show on my social media pages.
This is the code for my Britsonian Red which I have started using on everything, it maintains brand consistency and works well with the white and black, it is not too dark, but also not a pastel colour as I feel pastel doesn't really represent me as a person, so it is a nice medium.
Wednesday, 20 March 2019
Pricing as a Freelancer
Today I attended a costing and pricing workshop at Uni, where it was explained the process of working out minimum spend and wage to charge as a freelancer in industry. I have realised that realistically that most jobs for a storyboard artist are short term contracts, so becoming a freelancer is probably the most viable option for me.
This is my notes from the workshop, at the bottom there is a calculator, which shows how to work out the minimum I can charge someone to earn what I need to earn per hour and per day, based on hours worked per year. This chart is quite unrealistic as a freelancer will most likely be working to the degree of 34 weeks a year, as opposed to 46, but it was a basic tester as opposed to a definitive cost list. This is also the absolute minimum, as a professional I should be charging much more per day than this.
Based on the BECTU salary guide, this is way less than I need to be charging to make a living rate in London.
The £513 is the day rate for a freelance storyboard artist based in London based on the British Film Designer's guild's rate card for 2017. This means I would be charging way less than the national average, however I am just beginning so I feel like this is somewhat a fair price.
Based on the BECTU salary guide, this is way less than I need to be charging to make a living rate in London.
The £513 is the day rate for a freelance storyboard artist based in London based on the British Film Designer's guild's rate card for 2017. This means I would be charging way less than the national average, however I am just beginning so I feel like this is somewhat a fair price.
Monday, 18 March 2019
Considering an MA?
Recently, I have been considering potentially taking on post graduate study after graduation, just as an extra push, to make me more hireable for an industry job, as I believe I still have a long way to go in my learning.
This is a new storyboarding masters course which I discovered through Tom Box on LinkedIn, it sounds like a great opportunity with a lot of chance for industry feedback. Here is a list of my pros and cons for post graduate storyboarding
Pros:
Cons:
Pros:
- Industry feedback
- London based living
- Chance of an £8000 scholarship
- Masters level degree
- Cost association that would come from London living
- Little opportunity for part - time work as it would be a full time course
- Skills to start with are skills I already have, so it would be a lot of repetition
Ultimately I don't think I need a masters degree, not at this stage in my career. I personally feel as though the cons outweigh the pros in this situation. Industry feedback is something I can get through my own networking opportunities anyway, so I feel as though this would just be me trying to stay in the education safety net, as opposed to getting a job. Also, I do want to be down in London, but without the prospect of a job this would probably not be very realistic. Therefore I will focus more on gaining industry experience, and trying to do a level 7 apprenticeship down the line at a studio if they will let me, I was told by Kate Lander at my Brown Bag work experience that it was possible to do at Brown Bag if you are employed there.
Monday, 11 March 2019
Contacting Professionals - Part 2
Through my work experience at Brown Bag Films, it was suggest to me that I contact Jez Hall, a story artist and Director in the animation industry. Currently he is a series Director on 101 Dalmatian Street for passion pictures.
http://www.jezhall.com/
I have now had a continuous contact with Jez Hall, giving me answers to all of my questions, as well as giving me a more personal insight into the industry as a whole. I feel like I I have gained a lot of knowledge into my practice because of this, as I have been told what kind of things I need to do to improve and build my portfolio, these are such things as looking at staging/editing, and working from scripts of my own in order for people to gain an insight into what I am interested in.
After looking at my website, he devised that I needed to do more complete boards, to show continuity, and perspective of the scene, showing the audience who's eyes we are looking through in each particular scene. Also the progression of shots will show off how I cut a scene together, and the acting in a scene. He also told me to keep my name front and centre, and suggested that I change my website name from "TheBritsonian" to myself. This way everyone can tell what I have done, and they know who I am from the off.
This was a useful contact to make, and I hope to continue this professional relationship on.
http://www.jezhall.com/
I have now had a continuous contact with Jez Hall, giving me answers to all of my questions, as well as giving me a more personal insight into the industry as a whole. I feel like I I have gained a lot of knowledge into my practice because of this, as I have been told what kind of things I need to do to improve and build my portfolio, these are such things as looking at staging/editing, and working from scripts of my own in order for people to gain an insight into what I am interested in.
After looking at my website, he devised that I needed to do more complete boards, to show continuity, and perspective of the scene, showing the audience who's eyes we are looking through in each particular scene. Also the progression of shots will show off how I cut a scene together, and the acting in a scene. He also told me to keep my name front and centre, and suggested that I change my website name from "TheBritsonian" to myself. This way everyone can tell what I have done, and they know who I am from the off.
This was a useful contact to make, and I hope to continue this professional relationship on.
Website Building
As I have been contacting more and more people for this module, I have discovered that it is absolutely imperative in this line of work (storyboarding) to have a professional website, and therefore I have decided to create a website using Wix.com. I needed to go with the pro version (the paid version) so I could connect the domain name I bought last year so that my professional accounts are all linked up. Link to my website : https://www.thebritsonian.com/
I sub-divided my website into 4 sections which I believed to be incredibly necessary towards people seeing me as a professional. On top of this I used my regular colour palette, which is used in my logo, and on my showreel, to better conform all of my media accounts into a cohesive entity. I wanted my website to be simple in design, and easy to navigate. I have heard from industry professionals that you will not even be considered for a job role if you do not have a website based portfolio, therefore I made this. I think it reads well, and I have gained some feedback from industry professionals as to what they think and it has all been positive so far, so I will continue to develop this as I try to give myself more of a professional presence.
I sub-divided my website into 4 sections which I believed to be incredibly necessary towards people seeing me as a professional. On top of this I used my regular colour palette, which is used in my logo, and on my showreel, to better conform all of my media accounts into a cohesive entity. I wanted my website to be simple in design, and easy to navigate. I have heard from industry professionals that you will not even be considered for a job role if you do not have a website based portfolio, therefore I made this. I think it reads well, and I have gained some feedback from industry professionals as to what they think and it has all been positive so far, so I will continue to develop this as I try to give myself more of a professional presence.
Point of Contact - Contacting Professionals
Throughout third year, I have made an attempt to contact professionals who specialise in my area of interest, which would be storyboards. I specifically looked around for storyboard artists who have worked on films which I believe work really well, and I have seen some of the storyboards for. I did not make any sort of list for who I was going to be contacting, I purely contacted people who I believed to be good examples of storyboard artists.
My first step was looking into storyboards which I enjoy from live action films, but also storyboard artists who specialise in animation, and have examples of storyboards online. The following is who I found and contacted:
Douglas Ingram: Link to Work : DouglasIngram.com
Douglas Ingram is a London based storyboard artist having worked on blockbuster films such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Batman Begins" and "Fast and Furious 6" Myself and Mr Ingram did at first exchange in an email conversation, however most of our correspondence was over the phone which I obviously cannot evidence. Mr Ingram was so inviting as a person to talk to, and was able to offer a lot of advice on approach. Although he was so helpful with storyboard questions, we also were able to have what I felt was a very genuine conversation about our approach, and what we like to use in terms of pencils and equipment. This was an inspiring conversation to have and really gave me and insight into the live action storyboard industry. From this I have made a long term connection whom I have contacted a few different times on a more friendly basis since our initial contact which has been very useful.
Andrew Wildman: Andrew Wildman Work
My initial contact with Mr Wildman was at Thought Bubble Leeds 2018 where he had a table selling prints and his new book which was the complete storyboards on an episode on "Doctor Who". I purchased this book which he kindly signed as well as a print of his from his days working on "Transformers" comics. After this he gave me his email, and we had a brief talk about storyboarding and it's connection to comic books of which he was incredibly helpful. After this I was able to contact and connect with Mr Wildman on LinkedIn, where we had back and forth correspondence and he was able to give me some very good advice on the industry and his approach to storyboarding. I found that this differed to Mr Ingram's, however it often does from artist to artist so this wasn't a surprise. From this we have had some contact here and there about some more general topics - movies and such, and he is a very helpful and useful contact to have.
Frasier Maclean : Link to Mr Maclean's Book
My very first contact with Mr Maclean, was 2 years ago during a talk he gave on the animation industry at Uni, and he is a very informed individual throughout the animation industry, having worked in the layout department on Disney's "Tarzan" and written the book "Setting the Scene: The Art and Development of Animation Layout". Although Mr Maclean is not specific to storyboarding, I felt it necessary to gain insight from industry professionals on there career as there could be insight on how to carry myself and how to approach the animation industry. However to my satisfaction, it turned out that Mr Maclean did in-fact have an extensive knowledge on storyboarding, and was able to suggest a lot of very useful books (which I have picked up since) as well as being able to answer all the questions I had about storyboarding for myself. We have been in contact since a fair amount, as he is kind enough to talk through updates about what I am doing and how my experiences have been since our initial talk.
Steven Evangelatos : Steven's Work
I was actually lucky enough to stumble across Mr Evangelatos' work on a whim whilst looking for Marvel/Comic related works in storyboarding. I came across this board from "Marvel's Avengers Assemble" the animated show. From this I contacted Mr Evangelatos on LinkedIn, and he greeted me very nicely, and so I asked him the questions I wanted to know the answer to, which he graciously answered within the same day. This was a different experience as Mr Evangelatos is an American storyboard artist, and therefore I was able to gain some insight on how an animated production in the USA develops it's storyboards. As a key difference to the storyboards I have contacted prior, Mr Evangelatos spends a long time working out character arcs before starting the board process. This was a very key difference and definitely puts a lot more emphasis on the storytelling (which the other artists do also) within a series.
Bianca Ansems : Bianca Ansems Work
Bianca Ansems is a storyboard artist/ animator who has worked on projects for Cartoon Network such as "The Amazing World of Gumball". My initial contact with Ms Ansems on twitter, where she very nicely said that I could contact her in a couple of weeks as she was on holiday. After a couple of weeks had passed I contacted again, this time on email, and asked if I could ask some questions, to which she nicely agreed to answer when she had the time. I asked my questions and I received some very in depth responses to my questions. This gave me a very good insight into storyboarding for the TV animation industry, from a well established professional. Ms Ansems was professional and incredibly helpful all the way along. I was able to get a very good sense of her process and also her responses were very direct and to the point.
My first step was looking into storyboards which I enjoy from live action films, but also storyboard artists who specialise in animation, and have examples of storyboards online. The following is who I found and contacted:
Douglas Ingram: Link to Work : DouglasIngram.com
Douglas Ingram is a London based storyboard artist having worked on blockbuster films such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Batman Begins" and "Fast and Furious 6" Myself and Mr Ingram did at first exchange in an email conversation, however most of our correspondence was over the phone which I obviously cannot evidence. Mr Ingram was so inviting as a person to talk to, and was able to offer a lot of advice on approach. Although he was so helpful with storyboard questions, we also were able to have what I felt was a very genuine conversation about our approach, and what we like to use in terms of pencils and equipment. This was an inspiring conversation to have and really gave me and insight into the live action storyboard industry. From this I have made a long term connection whom I have contacted a few different times on a more friendly basis since our initial contact which has been very useful.
Andrew Wildman: Andrew Wildman Work
My initial contact with Mr Wildman was at Thought Bubble Leeds 2018 where he had a table selling prints and his new book which was the complete storyboards on an episode on "Doctor Who". I purchased this book which he kindly signed as well as a print of his from his days working on "Transformers" comics. After this he gave me his email, and we had a brief talk about storyboarding and it's connection to comic books of which he was incredibly helpful. After this I was able to contact and connect with Mr Wildman on LinkedIn, where we had back and forth correspondence and he was able to give me some very good advice on the industry and his approach to storyboarding. I found that this differed to Mr Ingram's, however it often does from artist to artist so this wasn't a surprise. From this we have had some contact here and there about some more general topics - movies and such, and he is a very helpful and useful contact to have.
Frasier Maclean : Link to Mr Maclean's Book
My very first contact with Mr Maclean, was 2 years ago during a talk he gave on the animation industry at Uni, and he is a very informed individual throughout the animation industry, having worked in the layout department on Disney's "Tarzan" and written the book "Setting the Scene: The Art and Development of Animation Layout". Although Mr Maclean is not specific to storyboarding, I felt it necessary to gain insight from industry professionals on there career as there could be insight on how to carry myself and how to approach the animation industry. However to my satisfaction, it turned out that Mr Maclean did in-fact have an extensive knowledge on storyboarding, and was able to suggest a lot of very useful books (which I have picked up since) as well as being able to answer all the questions I had about storyboarding for myself. We have been in contact since a fair amount, as he is kind enough to talk through updates about what I am doing and how my experiences have been since our initial talk.
Steven Evangelatos : Steven's Work
I was actually lucky enough to stumble across Mr Evangelatos' work on a whim whilst looking for Marvel/Comic related works in storyboarding. I came across this board from "Marvel's Avengers Assemble" the animated show. From this I contacted Mr Evangelatos on LinkedIn, and he greeted me very nicely, and so I asked him the questions I wanted to know the answer to, which he graciously answered within the same day. This was a different experience as Mr Evangelatos is an American storyboard artist, and therefore I was able to gain some insight on how an animated production in the USA develops it's storyboards. As a key difference to the storyboards I have contacted prior, Mr Evangelatos spends a long time working out character arcs before starting the board process. This was a very key difference and definitely puts a lot more emphasis on the storytelling (which the other artists do also) within a series.
Bianca Ansems : Bianca Ansems Work
Bianca Ansems is a storyboard artist/ animator who has worked on projects for Cartoon Network such as "The Amazing World of Gumball". My initial contact with Ms Ansems on twitter, where she very nicely said that I could contact her in a couple of weeks as she was on holiday. After a couple of weeks had passed I contacted again, this time on email, and asked if I could ask some questions, to which she nicely agreed to answer when she had the time. I asked my questions and I received some very in depth responses to my questions. This gave me a very good insight into storyboarding for the TV animation industry, from a well established professional. Ms Ansems was professional and incredibly helpful all the way along. I was able to get a very good sense of her process and also her responses were very direct and to the point.
Friday, 1 March 2019
Work Experience - Brown Bag Films 25th - 27th February
After contacting Brown Bag Films in November, and completing my application form, I was able to go along to Brown Bag on the 25th of February to complete my production pipeline work experience.
Day 1
- On day 1 I was introduced to the other 2 people there completing the same experience I was, both at different levels to myself, with one being a graduate, and another being college level. I had a long talk with Kate Lander this day about what I wanted to gain from my work experience and what type of things I could ask the professionals I was about to meet. There was a lot of admin stuff on this day ie safety, NDA's and what not. However during this I was able to meet some of the professionals undertaking work experience whilst also being employed, essentially the same program but over 10 weeks as opposed to 3 days. We ended the day in Post Production, looking at how the edit suite takes storyboards from the artists and times them out into an animatic to show the client which is timed up to the audio tracks with placeholder music over the top. I found this stage very interesting as it related directly to my own practice.
Day 2
- Day 2 was a lot more full on, as we started with Clodagh, in production, talking about the planning of productions and how meticulously everything has to be set in stone before the production starts. This was interesting as it is a stage that requires a lot of work, but not in a creative sense, which I don't really do that often. We then moved on to talk to Cliodhna, one of the directors at Brown Bag, who had a background in storyboards, and this was the part I found most interesting about the experience as a whole, as it was all about my practice, it gave me a lot of answers to questions I had, as well as a brutally honest insight into being a storyboard artist in the animation industry. What followed was a day in the design department, from character, to layout, to backgrounds and finishing off the day in scene set-up, and entry level job which involves placing the characters into a scene ready for the animators to use.
Day 3
- We saw a lot more of the animation side of things on this day, spending time with a lead animator, and getting to know his role was a great insight, as he actually had less shots to complete than everyone else, due to him having to take shots and give feedback on a lot of different people's work. From here we went to tradigital VFX, looking at hand drawn animated effects which are used on the show. We then went into post production to see how the episode gets put together then handed on to the client.
Summary
- Overall this was an amazing experience, and I took a lot from it. I feel as though I have gotten a much better understanding of the industry as a whole. I will now take a lot more consideration into the other stages in production when I am storyboarding on any project, and it will definitely inform my practice as a whole. As well as this it will give me a great thing to put on my CV, which couldn't hurt my chances of getting a job after uni.
Day 1
- On day 1 I was introduced to the other 2 people there completing the same experience I was, both at different levels to myself, with one being a graduate, and another being college level. I had a long talk with Kate Lander this day about what I wanted to gain from my work experience and what type of things I could ask the professionals I was about to meet. There was a lot of admin stuff on this day ie safety, NDA's and what not. However during this I was able to meet some of the professionals undertaking work experience whilst also being employed, essentially the same program but over 10 weeks as opposed to 3 days. We ended the day in Post Production, looking at how the edit suite takes storyboards from the artists and times them out into an animatic to show the client which is timed up to the audio tracks with placeholder music over the top. I found this stage very interesting as it related directly to my own practice.
Day 2
- Day 2 was a lot more full on, as we started with Clodagh, in production, talking about the planning of productions and how meticulously everything has to be set in stone before the production starts. This was interesting as it is a stage that requires a lot of work, but not in a creative sense, which I don't really do that often. We then moved on to talk to Cliodhna, one of the directors at Brown Bag, who had a background in storyboards, and this was the part I found most interesting about the experience as a whole, as it was all about my practice, it gave me a lot of answers to questions I had, as well as a brutally honest insight into being a storyboard artist in the animation industry. What followed was a day in the design department, from character, to layout, to backgrounds and finishing off the day in scene set-up, and entry level job which involves placing the characters into a scene ready for the animators to use.
Day 3
- We saw a lot more of the animation side of things on this day, spending time with a lead animator, and getting to know his role was a great insight, as he actually had less shots to complete than everyone else, due to him having to take shots and give feedback on a lot of different people's work. From here we went to tradigital VFX, looking at hand drawn animated effects which are used on the show. We then went into post production to see how the episode gets put together then handed on to the client.
Summary
- Overall this was an amazing experience, and I took a lot from it. I feel as though I have gotten a much better understanding of the industry as a whole. I will now take a lot more consideration into the other stages in production when I am storyboarding on any project, and it will definitely inform my practice as a whole. As well as this it will give me a great thing to put on my CV, which couldn't hurt my chances of getting a job after uni.
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