Creative Futures 2011

From the 7th-10th of March the  “Creative Futures” event was held at Glyndwr University.  There a was a fair amount of lessons to be learned from a range of topics from Animation to Business. I felt that this event had a greater effect than last year’s event due to it being more relevant to more people in the Art School. Sadly during this period I had very little sleep to working on two other projects, one of which is due to be finished very soon which detracted from what was a very enjoyable and rewarding experience.

Day 1 – 7th of March

The first morning of the event started up with a two-part talk with the whole art school beginning with an Opening Address followed by a Key Note by Barry Purves “Passions and a Passport”, for the most part I felt it was largely show reel of  his past and current work (sadly plagued by technical problems) however it was very interesting to learn what inspired him to become an animator, especially the puppet scene of “The Sound of Music” and the action of plays from his original inspiration to become an actor, which I feel that is a very important aspect of animation, especially when it comes human and animal animation. The animations are drawn actors on a drawn stage with you as the scriptwriter and director.

Next I attended Harriet Buckley’s seminar on the life of a professional animator. This was an extremely rewarding session as I gleaned various tips on presenting myself to studios and what studios are actually looking for such as:

• Able to work as a team
• Able to communicate in a team
• Able to compromise with the team
• And of course, since it’s animation, a time-consuming field, patience would be good too.
• Oh, and work as a team 😉

The last session was held by the same person and was equally rewarding, this time it was “Showreels, portfolio and CVs” and thus was an extension of the previous one however this covered the broader aspects of the art world such as those in the title, mostly it was stuff I already knew but she covered more aspects of the topic and I felt it was extremely helpful.

Day 2 – 8th of March

To be honest I didn’t particularly enjoy this day, I had to go into town to the opticians during the time of the session I was looking forward to, however there was some highlights during the day.

The first one I attended and the one enjoyed the most that day was “Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels” by Paul Gravett, for the most part he just showed his work (a common but somewhat interesting problem at Creative Futures) however his work showed levels of inspiration that I was inspired by. In particular his non-linear comic strip was a very interesting view on thinking outside the box.

Then I had “Working Class Hero, Middle Class W**ker” by Dave Barraclough which was primarily his life story and how he got into the business as a Graphic Designer. This session gave an in-depth insight into how the Graphics Industry works from the perspective of a single worker and was very interesting. He also taught lessons on how to apply to the industry aimed at Graphic Designers and Illustrators though some tips apply to other arts as well.

Missing the opportunity to attend Linda McCarthy’s lecture on Tiny Elephants. I next attend Glyndwr’s marketing department’s session on Social Media. I feel that I chose incorrectly at this point as I sadly learnt nothing from this session as it covered nothing that most people knew already and paled in comparison to last year’s session on the subject.

Day 3 – 9th of March

Sleep problems lead me into oversleeping the first session and the half of the next, by the time I had arrived at Glyndwr it was lunch time…I fairly annoyed at myself this as I was looking forward to “Getting into Film and TV” and “Professional Development: Diversity”. On the plus side I was able to further enjoy the next two I had lined up.

“Computer Games – Concept Art and illustration in the entertainment industry” by Lee Carter wasn’t very tuned to the field of Animation, but since I’m very interested in the games industry I attended regardless. It was very helpful on outlining the pipeline of the industry and how it has changed in respect to freelancers. Furthermore, it underlined the importance of reference, a lesson I took to heart a few years ago.

Reference makes everything easier, EVERYTHING

Finally, there was a session on motivation by Denise Chilton which I don’t really feel I learned anything I didn’t know already which was fairly disappointing but it was interested to hear a different viewpoint on the matter.

Day 4 – 10th of March

I must admit that I skipped the first session of this day due to none of them being of any interest or relevance and thus slept another hour to help improve the experience of the remaining three sessions.

I attended “Creative IP” by Nia Roberts primarily under ulterior motives, learning how to help the “PW Musical productions” group to gain a license, however it became more helpful to myself and cleared many confusions I had about British Copyright Law.

After lunch I went to “Daytime and Free -time design” by Neil Johnson, the subject being VERY RELEVANT to me and the cause of my sleep in balance and I attended the session on how to balance the two in my life. Unfortunately, it was mostly a showing of work from him but it contained handy tips via interpreting his actions and what happened to during his work.

For the last session of the event I attended the session on Post Graduate Study Options, since I’m interested in post-graduate study I felt this would help a lot and it did. My confidence in applying to Masters was boosted by this session.

Overall, I felt this event was a majour improvement over last years event and given the opportunity to attend 2012’s event I would do, looking to see if Glyndwr improve on this one.

(Which seems likely with the new Art building opening giving new options soon)