Not Flip enough
Went to the well-attended Flip animation-fest launch last night at tic. Thought it was more like back to college than festive launch as it took place in tic’s main lecture theatre without a wine glass or crisp in sight. Just as well as a large part of the audience were animation students or recent grads, keen to learn how to get on in the business.
Key speaker was Camille Deakin from C4’s recently launched animation site 4mations. Explaining the reasoning behing the site, Camille said Youtube had grown too big to find stuff by chance – most people were directed there. There needed to be a dedicated place for people to post and discuss content. Camille also touched on the thorny subject of funding – although there’s little money around to commision new work, the opportunities are greater than ever for people to get their work out there and seen. Doesn’t have to be completed work – you can build up a following through work in progress. Local animators Brothers Macleod were singled out as good examples, with over 4000 followers on Youtube. Also Suspicious Productions who launched ‘Life According to Dinosaurs‘ on Facebook and now has its own website and spin-offs including wallpapers, badges and t-shirts. They’ll probably make more money from the merchandise than from the films. As Camille pointed out, the future market for animators is online, but nobody’s cracked it yet.
Tags: 4mations, animation, Flip, tic
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
December 21, 2008 at 11:29 am
Good to read a review of the festival, wish we’d been there.
We have a new Dinosaur clip on the 4mations site, you can watch their Christmas message here:
http://www.4mations.tv/clip.aspx?key=958B2149A0136475
Happy Christmas to you!