Review: 6th BFI Future Film Festival
Last weekend saw the 6th BFI Future Film Festival take place at London’s Southbank. Sandwiched in between a Fiction day (Saturday 16th) and a Documentary day (Monday 18th), the Sunday was reserved for all things animation.
As already covered in our preview of the event, the only downside of this jam-packed day is that you have to choose 3 events to attend, despite there being 20 events on offer. The variety of talks and workshops available should make this event a must for animators, especially those under 25 (there is a lot of emphasis on careers and breaking into the industry).
Here is a look at some of the events we managed to attend:
Made by MOMOCO
It was great to see a talk dedicated to the art of title sequences and the process involved. Nic Benns, who is the design director and co-founder of MOMOCO, gave an incredibly insightful presentation on the work they do, how they achieve their results and how they pitch their ideas. We won’t go into detail here, as we will be featuring an interview with MOMOCO in the next month.
For film-makers hoping to go into title sequence production, some of the best moments were learning how low budget titles can look amazing despite being created with such homemade methods as bed-sheet, a torch and some mushrooms! (see The Fades.)
The Q&A session at the end was very open and Nic revealed a lot about the pitching process and working with network execs. Case studies included Ripper Street, Luther, Misfits, The Fades.
Voices and Sound in Animation
Hosted by the FILMCLUB, this was a wonderful session for students and professionals alike. Using Room on the Broom as a case study, producer Daryl Shute of Magic Light Pictures explained the process of securing the IP of a book, fleshing it out to a half hour special, and the work involved in taking it from rough animatic to final version. Of course, a lot of emphasis was placed on how the voice cast were selected, and how their sound designer, Adrian Rhodes, created the various foley.
As this was an intimate group of no more than 20 people it allowed us to feel at ease, ask a load of questions and really get to know the speaker. Afterwards, Daryl was at hand to answer more questions, which a lot of the audience took him up on.
Living Your Life at 25 Frames per Second
Hosted by Underwire Festival and Animate Projects, this panel was a lively discussion on breaking into the industry from the perspective of a female animator. The panel included Ginevra Boni, Kate Jessop, and Kris Hoffman.
We say lively, as once the panel opened up to discussion from the audience, a rather lively debate sprung up on the importance of a university education, how to break into the industry and the subject of working for free. As this event was followed by a structured networking drinks reception, everyone was able to make up and/or carry on their discussion afterwards.
Overall, this is a must for anyone in the industry to attend, as there will definitely be something to choose from, while only taking one day from your busy schedule (that’s if you choose not to attend the full 3 days)!
