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Why you should consider studying Directing Animation at the NFTS
Skwigly
The NFTS gives you the opportunity to bring your idea to life!
The deadline for applying to study Directing Animation at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) is fast approaching and we asked the course’s Senior Tutor, Robert Bradbrook, who should apply and why:
Firstly, if you apply to study Directing Animation at the NFTS, you will be in great company. Alumni include the multi Oscar-winning Nick Park, Emmy award-winning Benjamin Sanders, Annecy Festival Jury Award winner Nina Gantz and we have won Best British Animation three times in a row at the EE BAFTA Awards.
Whilst it’s true that we’re looking for great animators, it’s really important that applicants also have interesting ideas and an affinity for directing. The NFTS gives you the opportunity to bring your idea to life and to make the film that you’ve always wanted to make. Perhaps you’ve been animating for a while and want to express your ideas rather than someone else’s vision? Once on the course, we can raise your ability to tell stories with empathy and give you the chance to make those ideas a reality.
All students on the course create a high production film, which we enter into all the main festivals like Annecy and Cannes. In fact, the first year students have just come back from a visit to Annecy to get a feel for the festival and soak up the atmosphere. And one of our films, The Alan Dimension, directed and co-written by Jac Clinch, has just picked up the Junior Award for Best Graduation Film at Annecy.
Whilst we do look for strong animation skills, it’s also important to point out that we cover all forms of visual storytelling from live size pixilation and puppetry in addition to traditional stop motion and drawn animation.
We don’t want anyone to be put off by the fact that we take just eight students per year. We actually select sixteen students for a five day workshop to help us choose the final eight candidates and that workshop is a great experience in its own right as we teach all attendees how to improve their storytelling abilities. We also look at how the prospective students interact with each other and how they work as a team as this is incredibly important during the course.
Many worry about the costs of the course but this doesn’t have to be a limiting factor. Firstly, the NFTS offers more scholarships and bursaries than any other similar institution and secondly, the fees are actually great value as we put them back into the filmmaking process. The films the students leave with have extremely high production values and I would estimate that a film of this quality would cost in the region of £100k to make in a studio in the real world. If you have an idea and want to make a film, the NFTS is a great way of doing that.
We have all kinds of people on the course; some have lots of experience and some are very new to the world of animation. After graduating, our students go on to work in a wide variety of job roles including: Working at production companies like the Cartoon Network, or within the advertising world for companies like Blinkink who has just signed alumni, Nina Gantz and Simon Cartwright, directors making their own films like Oscar nominated alumna Daisy Jacobs and those like alumna, Timothy Reckart who is making his feature directing debut on Sony Pictures Animation’s CG toon, The Lamb and was recently named one of Variety‘s 10 Animators to Watch.
My final message would be that if you have considered or are considering studying Directing Animation and are in doubt, just apply as we could well be looking for someone just like you!
If you are interested in applying, you can find out all the information you need on the Directing Animation MA course page.