The post Disorder appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Having written then lyrics, I got the guys who made SAUSAGE’s soundtrack to create the music and sound design, with cool vocals from Chiara Hunter.

The post H is for Healthy (Sesame Street) appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Many may find the result surprising, given that the aesthetic of the winner is decidedly un-Hollywood. Gloriously free from gloss, hand drawn and – dare I say it – lo-fi.

The series is a six-part documentary charting the big ideas of human evolution, presented by and based on the work of Steven Johnson, was a joint venture by US and UK public broadcasters, BBC and PBS. The scale of such a co-production allowed producers Nutopia to approach the commissioning of the motion design with an ambition not normally found in factual series.

The result is as stunning as it is epic. An endless flow of hand drawn illustration and animation that weaves effortlessly through the footage, be it ancient film archive or freshly shot HD. The commentary is reflected in idiosyncratic doodles that appear around the host’s head and are perfectly complimented by collaged photos and hand written text. On their own, these are often used and unsurprising techniques, but the uncompromising way in which they have been treated lifts this series to new heights, with a cohesion that would suggest one single talented illustrator was at the helm.

…And that would be because that’s exactly what happened. The motion design across the entire series comes from the very unique hand of renowned illustrator Luke Best, whose bold aesthetic, complimented by sensitive animation by a small team of animators, is the secret to the show’s success.

To understand how Luke came to be the sole illustrator on such a major project, I asked Peter Mellor, the driving force of animation at Peepshow since the very beginning.

As a collective, Peepshow has a impressive range of illustrators, many of whom often collaborate to produce the artwork on such big projects. How did it end up that Luke’s work took centre stage?

Pete: From the start, Nutopia were looking for one illustrator with a unique strong voice to bring a clear vision to the whole series. Almost as an extension of the presenter. At Peepshow, we’re used to illustrators leading the design, but across the industry it’s quite common for Post-houses to affect a style they’ve seen else where, which of course has less heart. At the time of pitching, Luke’s work just seemed to suite the content so perfectly, and Nutopia were very excited about his involvement.

The credit for of how well Luke’s work came to life across the series falls at the feet of Pete Mellor, who was Animation Director (meaning he gets his own Emmy!!!). Pete’s a very tallented director and a highly skilled animator, but it’s his familiarity of working with Lukes illustration that was so crucial, the result of 10 years working together. As well as animating a large portion of the series himself, Pete also lead a small team of animators who worked on this epic production, guiding all their approaches to reflect Luke’s illustration with one clear voice.

Pete: I enjoyed watching animators with a the smoother motion graphics approach deal with Luke’s lo-fi illustrations. They’d get some artwork where a person’s arms or legs are just missing, and have to accept that’s how Luke wanted it to look. It would make anyone approach the animation differently.

How would you describe the production line?

Pete: This was no different to what we’re used to at Peepshow… Luke would pass us his artwork from Photoshop, which we’d then prepare as we’d need (some of Lukes files needing more TLC than others!). Then the animation was created mainly in After Effects, with moments of Cinema 4D. The key to animating Luke’s work is in discussion to enable us to be clear on the storytelling, so it was crucial that we were all in the same studio with constant interaction.

What do you think you brought to this broadcast project as an Illustrator?

Luke: I’m used to problem solving, it’s what I do in my illustration all the time, so for me that was how I’d approach a huge scene of animation. For the production team at Nutopia, this was something they really valued, that we could get stuck in and suggest the right visual content from an early script stage.

 

Knowing that you have a history of animating yourself, I wondered how it felt to watch your work brought to life on such a huge scale. And of course, wether you now have any desire to delve back into After Effects or any another animation approach?

Luke: To be honest, over the 9 month project I had too much drawing and thinking to do to take it all in. Now I watch and the animation and of course it’s epic to behold, but as cliched as it sounds, the process of making it is just a blur. But after a little time off, I was really hungering for some animation again, in a way I’ve not had for many years. I do love getting stuck in with animation myself but now I’m keen to expand my animation skills and understanding so I can become a better director. So yeah, more animation is most definitely on the cards…

The fact this series has won the Emmy is exciting for Peepshow, and reflects well on London too, but there’s a broader reason why this international acknowledgement is important. This project is not only an example of why to select a great illustrator to lead the creative process, but it’s also a great lesson in matching the illustration with the right animation approach. Seems obvious right, to reflect the attitude of the artwork in the way its brought to life. Too often though this is handled badly, with an ace animator applying their very slick style to images that just don’t match. As a lecturer, I’ve tried to teach this ideal to illustration and animation students, and with this high profile Emmy win, I have an exciting example to point them to. It’s a project I’m sure we all can take a lesson from.

The post Peepshow Collective Scoop First Ever ‘Motion Design’ Emmy Award – Interview appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

This year, Pat was nominated for his work on Daredevil and Halt and Catch Fire, both of which feature phenomenal animation and design with uncommon levels of screen wizardry. There are some great articles out there covering the technical aspects of both titles such as artofthetitle.com, but in the wake of the Emmys, I’m keen to ask one of the Award’s most recent big hitters something we can all dream of finding out… how this kind of continued success can affect one’s creative options.

So Pat, what strikes me about this year’s nominations, but with Daredevil in particular, is how bold and minimal both visions are. Especially as your career was built on an approach that can be identified by mind boggling detail and layered symbolism. Plus it’s not always easy to get clients to sign up to such clean aesthetics for a title, as they’re often drawn towards loading the screen with visual messages that set-up their show.

This has lead me to wonder about how 2014’s well deserved Emmy win has effected your creative process from two directions… Has winning the Emmy changed the kind of ideas you’ve been generating, and has it changed the way clients respond to the ideas you present?

Patrick Clair’s reply…

Obviously, we were so proud of winning the Emmy… and I think the thing that makes it most special is the Emmy is voted by a jury of our peers in motion design, so it’s really amazing getting that kind of recognition from other artists in our field.

In terms of clients, the Emmy definitely opens doors…along with the reputation of shows like True Detective and networks like AMC and HBO, having a track record of working with people at that level definitely attracts new clients, and makes showrunners comfortable about getting in a room with us and talking ideas.

Refreshingly, it doesn’t feel like the Emmy, or any other award, has much effect after that. Once you’re in the pitching process – often competing with 4 or 5 different studios, it really is just the ideas that matter. The showrunners, and the execs, just really care about the story they are telling – and who can partner with them to tell that story in the right way. Every idea really lives and dies on the creative, and showrunners won’t hesitate to commission a newcomer if they feel that team really “gets” the story and the show and the world.

So, while the Emmy has been a wonderful boost, we still win and lose plenty of pitches, and we still know that every potential job that comes through the door will demand hard work and good ideas to ever become a commissioned gig.

Generally, I will say that I find it exhilarating that showrunner’s from so many of our clients are willing to back unusual creative and bold ideas. It’s easy for us as a studio to walk into the room and throw a crazy idea out there, but the real guts is in backing that with the financing and giving us the support to make it a reality. Looking at the 3 jobs that have taken us to the Emmys, there’s definitely a few things in common that set us up for success from the client side. Firstly, the showrunners took the time early on to brief us (and other teams) on the real DNA of the show… so we could get a proper deep understanding of the story. Second, they backed us right through the production process… making genuine contributions that made our ideas stronger, sleeker and better… and also listening to us when passionately advocated for particular creative executions. These were all examples of genuine collaborative relationships, and that lead to executions that I’m deeply proud of – hopefully the audience enjoys them too.

The post How Does Winning Awards Affect Creative Options? appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Chris is the author of Film Festival Secrets, an essential guide to the circuit, and runs the accompanying site filmfestivalsecrets.com which holds tonnes of info including podcasts, blog and the first two chapters of his book. Fittingly, he is also Operations and Marketing Director of Atlanta Film Festival, one of the most innovative and inclusive events on the circuit. With these roles as a base, Chris works tirelessly to make the world of festivals accessible and relevant, always reaching out to newcomers with help and guidance.

As other contributors this week have highlighted, and Chris will explain in greater detail, building an online profile is about including everyone. It’s about using the wonderfully democratic benefits of the internet to connect with people, who will hopefully then connect with you, and then your work.

An example of going that extra distance online can be found in how I first met Chris. I made a short film, and like many directors new to the festival scene, I felt lost and quite alone. After the initial festival rejections, which can be devastating, I reached out to anyone who could get me on the right track. Of all the emails I sent out, the one who responded with the reassurance I needed was Chris. He watched and assessed my film, and offered praise combined with constructive suggestions on how to proceed. He wasn’t looking to be paid for this advice and, heck, I’d already bought his book, he just saw someone who needed the answers that he could give. His generosity with time and clarity of advice meant I immediately signed up for every list and feed on his site, and so he gained a genuinely loyal follower.

I know having followers is the language of cults, but as a creative online, that’s what you want. People who are engaged in what you do, and who are waiting for the next installment. You want to build an audience who feel connected and will share what you do, much as I’m doing here with Chris. Online, nearly everyone is projecting a persona. Chris is, I am, everyone on this site is. It’s not wrong or ingenuous, and it’s mostly done in the best of spirits. As you’ve read this article, what you need is take note of what you see online, different peoples approaches, and find what works best for you…

Chris’s thoughts on promoting yourself online…

My thoughts on finding and building an audience have been much the same for the last two decades of working in the film and technology industries, but the specifics seem to change monthly if not weekly! After years of plugging away at my blog and inconsistently tweeting into the ether, I have come to recognize my two stodgiest assets — my book and my email list — as two of the most effective and reliable marketing tools I possess.

In no particular order, here are some thoughts/tips that I hope will be useful:

• If you’re not trying to grow your personal email list of fans/friends/followers, you’re doing it wrong. Social media followers are fine but there will always be the possibility that the social media site itself will decide what those followers should and shouldn’t see. Email is as “close to the metal” as your message can get, so don’t let anyone else come between you and the people who are interested in your work. (Just don’t engage in spammy behavior.)
• Adopt the “drug dealer” mentality  – to excess. If you’re a content creator, you have to give content away over and over and over until you build a fan following rabid enough to pay for content just because they want to support you. You can also offer something that realistically can’t be offered for free (like a printed book or a gold-plated statue of your main character), but first people have to want to buy them. That only comes from giving away enough content that your fans fall in love with you and that thing you do.
• Be consistent about where and when you release new content. (This is one I really struggle with. I’ve had a podcast for 5+ years and I’ve only released 20 episodes.) People really respond to the idea that they’ll find something from you every week in their inbox — if you publish at random times in a number of different media, it’s harder for your would-be-fans to add you into their habitual behaviors. Automate where you can, and bank content (or republish old content) for those slow weeks.
• Set aside time to just be helpful. I regularly go onto Twitter and answer filmmaker questions about festivals, or to offer words of encouragement to people who are submitting their work for the first time. I don’t try to drive traffic back to my site or ask them to follow me, though some of them do anyway. Sometimes I even answer emails from filmmakers… at length.

You can view the other “How To Boost Your Online Presence” articles here:

• #1 Animation Company, Blue Zoo – BAFTA winning creators of TV series and commercials
• #2 Animation Director, Patrick Clair – Emmy winner for True Detective Titles Sequence
• #3 Illustrator, Andrew Rae – Founding member of Peepshow Collective and creator of Moon Head
• #4 Digital Journalist, Rob Munday – Film reviewer and curator at Short Of The Week
• #5 Film Festival Consultant, Christopher Holland – Writer of ‘Film Festival Secrets’ & curator at Atlanta Film Festival

The post How To Boost Your Online Presence #5: Film Festival Expert, Christopher Holland appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Let’s start with his most impressive contribution… As Head of Programming at Short Of The Week, Rob has helped the site to forge a huge online following, standing tall as one of the key influencers in the short film world. For film makers, a selection by SOTW is a laurel to be very proud of. In this role Rob is clearly key to selecting films and animation, but each week he also writes a couple of the site’s well considered reviews.

If his name is familiar, there’s a good chance you encountered Rob Munday as I first did – while trawling Vimeo. Robs nonstop passion for films is a vital part of his online personality, and Vimeo lays bare this characteristic like no other platform. Every time I’m enjoying a new video, Rob’s already been there, commented on that before anyone else. He epitomises the Vimeo spirit, not only leaving a trail of positivity in his wake, but thoughtfully connecting with every film he comments on. He has liked almost 4,500 videos on the site, a number my own 180 pales in comparison to.

This may seem like no big deal, but this dual role of curator and punter is why Rob, and others like him, are so vital to the creative community. He doesn’t just cherry pick the film festival darlings, or promote his mate’s latest creation, he genuinely engages with all and judges on merit.

Rob also keeps himself busy as writer, editor and curator on the great site Directors Notes. Not forgetting his activity on Twitter of course, a logical extension for his role as online champion of short films. But don’t worry, he does get away from the computer in the day, albeit teaching Online Journalism at Bournemouth University (the same Uni that produced Blue Zoo, our first contributors in this series).

As you’ll find out below, Rob’s a man who preaches what he practices. By rolling his sleeves up, by fully engaging with the content and supporting others, he has created a valuable position for himself in the world of filmmaking. Most of all – he clearly loves doing so!

What are the best ways you’ve found to boost your online profile?

This is actually something I’ve given quite a lot of consideration – in my day job I teach Online Journalism at Bournemouth University and one of the most vital things I hope my students take away from my lessons is the importance of building a portfolio and maintaining a network of contacts online.

I think for many this question is seen as a bit of an enigma, but in all honesty, I think it comes down to quite a simple approach. For me it’s not really about boosting your online profile, but embedding yourself into an online community. If you take the somewhat blinkered approach of just looking to boost your own credibility online, I don’t think this is going to yield the best results. As corny as it sounds, like with most things in life, it isn’t just about what you can take out, but what you can put back in. For me what has worked best, is taking an open, friendly and hopefully engaging approach to my online activity. If I just focused on self-promotion all the time, I’m not sure people would be that interested. The internet provides us with a fantastic portal to open discussions and meet fellow-minded people, so I think we should all use it this way – although I am open to being sent the odd funny cat video as well!

Focusing on filmmakers specifically, I think what works best is actually devoting the necessary time to being part of the online video community. If you think you can just slap your work on Vimeo/YouTube and expect people to find it, you’re going to be disappointed. As an online curator/journalist, one of my main concerns with filmmakers is that they don’t seem to give their online release the same consideration as they do with festival distribution and I don’t really understand why this is still the case. I understand that the main focus of every filmmaker who uploads their work online will revolve around getting the most views for their films as possible, but I’ve found the people who understand online distribution best are the people who devote that essential time to being part of this community. Watch other people’s film’s, give them feedback, share work you love, reach out to the filmmakers, follow them on Twitter – people are going to find you much more interesting online if it isn’t always “me, me, me”.

If I could give filmmakers one piece of advice when it comes to creating an online portfolio/profile it would be to think long and hard about why you are making films – whether your long-term aim is getting full-time employment or just finding an audience for your work, the internet is going to be an essential tool in reaching this goal, so treat your online activity with the importance it deserves.

You can view the other “How To Boost Your Online Presence” articles here:

• #1 Animation Company, Blue Zoo – BAFTA winning creators of TV series and commercials
• #2 Animation Director, Patrick Clair – Emmy winner for True Detective Titles Sequence
• #3 Illustrator, Andrew Rae – Founding member of Peepshow Collective and creator of Moon Head
• #4 Digital Journalist, Rob Munday – Film reviewer and curator at Short Of The Week
• #5 Film Festival Consultant, Christopher Holland – Writer of ‘Film Festival Secrets’ & curator at Atlanta Film Festival

The post How To Boost Your Online Presence #4: Film Reviewer, Rob Munday appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Andrew’s illustration portfolio covers all bases, including graphic novels, editorials, magazine and book jackets, and posters of every size. Skwigly readers will also be pleased to know he shares a passion for animation, a passion that dates a decade back to his days as art director on BBC3’s Monkey Dust. He went onto direct, write and illustrate a short film, ‘The Stunt‘, for Channel 4, and recently art directed a section of the feature film ‘A Liar’s Autobiography‘.

To compliment his international persona, Andrew is very much part of the London Illustration scene. Not just attending the usual book signings and fairs, but also performing with his band, Owen And The Eyeballs, at such key industry events as ‘Pick Me Up’. Not forgetting his live drawing at ‘Heavy Pencil‘, a night of illustration and music he helped to run.

As well as these very personally driven pursuits, Andrew is also a founding member of Peepshow, London’s influential illustration collective. The team of eight illustrators and one animator have been a leading creative force in London for 15 years. Like Andrew, many members posses s an individual instinct for self promotion, but when they work collectively the energy they generate makes them irresistible to the creative press. Through exhibitions, talks, events, self published books and their ram-packed newsletters, the collective have built and maintained a phenomenal reputation in the UK’s creative industry.

Going into Andrews archives, he clearly understood the benefits of sharing and promotion before the internet commonly offered those functions. Starting in1998, Andrew created a series of weird and wonderful fliers for ‘Perverted Science’, a night at the 333 club in Shoreditch. They soon became collectors ‘ items, spreading Rae’s unique vision around the most creative corner of London.

Flash forward to 2014, when Andrew challenged himself to write and illustrate his first graphic novel, ‘Moonhead and The Music Machine‘, published by Nobrow. Andrew took considerable time away from his comfortable Illustration career to complete this elaborate epic, a brave move in itself. Not to mention, of course, the book signings, interviews, social media, music video and even album (written by Rae) to accompany the book!

It’s clear to see, Andrew’s no slacker. But then maybe he doesn’t view it all as work, with much of what can be classed as promotion naturally flowing into his daily life. An undeniable strength across his career is his willingness to try so many platforms, so let’s hear how this transfers to the world of building an online presence…

Andrew’s advice & tips for online success…

“I use Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and a Cargo Website, not to mention the Peepshow Collective site and blog. I also have an agent, B&A, who also has a site and blogs. They charge me an annual fee to promote my work online and through print. I’ve just started using Behance as well and I’ve started getting a response from it, but so far only in the free work for exposure category – “no thanks”.

At the moment I try to put up an image a day on Instagram which helps boost the number of people that see them. But I’m a bit wary of click-baiting and getting obsessed with the number of followers and likes. It would be possible to get thousands of followers by putting up cute pictures of kittens, but still not get any work if none of them are art directors or art buyers. What I’ve found really interesting using Instagram and twitter to get some feedback as to which images people respond to. But again, I don’t want to end up drawing cute kittens just because Instagram likes them.

I’ve found the best way to increase my profile is by making good self initiated work. For instance, I had a rush of work last year. This was after I spent about a year working on my book ‘Moonhead and the Music Machine’, published by Nobrow. At the same time I illustrated two art history books ‘This is Dali’ and ‘This is Warhol‘ , for Laurence King. They all came out within a month leading to lot’s of write-up’s on blogs, which in turn lead to a rush of work. So ironically, it seems the best profile builder for me online has been the traditional route of making books.

One of those jobs that came in was for Stoli Vodka with The Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia. I know that some of the ideas they’ve sold to the client have been directly inspired by personal work of mine that they saw on my website. The result has been a really good job as we have such a similar sense of humour.

You can view the other “How To Boost Your Online Presence” articles here:

• #1 Animation Company, Blue Zoo – BAFTA winning creators of TV series and commercials
• #2 Animation Director, Patrick Clair – Emmy winner for True Detective Titles Sequence
• #3 Illustrator, Andrew Rae – Founding member of Peepshow Collective and creator of Moon Head
• #4 Digital Journalist, Rob Munday – Film reviewer and curator at Short Of The Week
• #5 Film Festival Consultant, Christopher Holland – Writer of ‘Film Festival Secrets’ & curator at Atlanta Film Festival

The post How To Boost Your Online Presence #3: Illustrator, Andrew Rae appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

‘Stuxnet, Anatomy of a Computer Virus’, an animated infographic, exploded online in 2011 (view at the end of the article), and set a new cinematic standard in the genre. The piece soon became a huge influencer in the design world, but Patrick initially used momentum from other online communities to propel ‘Stuxnet‘ on its course. After the piece aired on The ABC, Australia’s public broadcaster, Patrick dedicated days to sending the clip to all the usual design blogs, but crucially also to niche geek and techy sites. It was their interest that helped it reach a few hundred thousand views in a few days, eventually building to a whopping 1.6million Vimeo views. Clair was immediately inundated with offers of work, including a that hallowed call from Hollywood.

Courted by LA, Patrick signed up to one if its leading agencies, and has now relocating there with his family. Since Stuxnet, Patrick has built an impressive and varied body of work for high profile clients, including Adidas’s post World Cup celebration and Ubisoft’s high concept viral for Tom Clancy. With such success plus an Emmy on the shelf, using the web to build his profile seems less important these days. But does he think the hard graft and shrewd approach to online promotion is the key to a young directors success?

Advice & tips for online success

“Ultimately, I think a lot of online success comes down to luck. I mean, there’s whole industries devoted to building brands and views – but really the web is a wild and unpredictable place.

Certainly, though, getting views helps to spread content and build your career as a filmmaker. Not only that, it’s just satisfying to know that the work you’ve made is reaching people – that’s why we make it right? So that it can been seen and tell people stories.

The main thing to keep in mind is that people watch things they want to watch. What I mean is… people won’t neccessarily watch something cause it’s pretty, or cause it’s polished and high quality. The content that spreads most is content that is interesting. One thing to take from that is that you should identify the audiences that will respond well to your content. ‘Stuxnet’, my story about a computer virus, gained a lot of momentum by views from computer security blogs. Those viewers aren’t directly related to my work as a design director, but the views they added helped to give my video the momentum it needed to reach more people in the design community. Those viewers that have ultimately become clients or collaborators in the creative industries.

One thing worth noting – the web is run by algorithms, and those algorithms want to figure out what’s interesting right now. That means, more hits in a shorter time span is the most powerful way to snowball views. 100K thousand views over a week won’t get you very far, but a 100K views in a day will rocket you along – and that might increase your final audience by a magnification of 10 or 100. On the web, popularity works exponentially.

So, for me, the best plan when releasing content is… identify niche audiences that want to watch your stuff. When you launch… chase them, shamelessly but politely. Invest the effort to email everyone at once, and let them know the content is there and ready for them. Don’t pester people, but do contact bloggers and editors and let them know you’ve made something cool you’d like them to watch. After that, it’s all up to the crowd.

Elastic, my representatives, are my favorite people – they care for me, they protect me, they find cool projects for me. They are my partners in all my work, and I rely on them hugely. That said, you’re the best person to get your own work going – and the best way to get good representation is to spend time building your own career. If you invest the time yourself early on, chances are that you’ll land with a quality agent in the long run.”

You can view more of Patrick’s work at the following sites:

• Patrick ’s own site Antibody:: http://www.antibody.tv/projects.html
• Patrick’s agency Elastic: http://www.elastic.tv
• Titles for True Detective, & an interview with Patrick: http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/true-detective/
• Stuxnet on Vimeo:

You can view the other “How To Boost Your Online Presence” articles here:

• #1 Animation Company, Blue Zoo – BAFTA winning creators of TV series and commercials
• #2 Animation Director, Patrick Clair – Emmy winner for True Detective Titles Sequence
• #3 Illustrator, Andrew Rae – Founding member of Peepshow Collective and creator of Moon Head
• #4 Digital Journalist, Rob Munday – Film reviewer and curator at Short Of The Week
• #5 Film Festival Consultant, Christopher Holland – Writer of ‘Film Festival Secrets’ & curator at Atlanta Film Festival

The post How To Boost Your Online Presence #2: Director, Patrick Clair appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Anyone creating work in 2015 needs to use the web to promote it. Fact. You may not choose to show every stage, hiding the development in a place no one will ever see. But at some point a version should be unveiled, and the web needs to be central to that.

The internet being the wonderfully rich and exciting place it is means that it’s not enough to simply upload your work. Who’s gonna find it amongst the infinite distractions? You need to direct eyes to your content, and that generally means building an online presence.

So if, like me, you have work you want to share, and a bunch of old methods that just don’t cut it, then you need to get some advice from the experts. So, on behalf of Skwigly, and for the benefit of creatives everywhere, I asked 5 industry pioneers to offer just the advice we need… “What are the best ways you’ve found to boost your online presence?“

The five experts offering advice are:

• Animation Company, Blue Zoo – BAFTA winning creators of TV series and commercials.
• Animation Director, Patrick Clair – Emmy winner for True Detective Titles Sequence.
• Illustrator, Andrew Rae – Founding member of Peepshow Collective and creator of Moon Head.
• Digital Journalist, Rob Munday – Film reviewer and curator at Short Of The Week.
• Film Festival Consultant, Christopher Holland – Writer of ‘Film Festival Secrets’ and curator at Atlanta FF.

Each day this week Skwigly will bring you words of wisdom from these fine folk on how they’ve used the internet to build their online profile, and ultimately drew the worlds attention to their work.

Our first insight, comes from BAFTA-winning indie outfit, Blue Zoo; one of the UK’s most successful animation production companies.

Started fourteen years ago, by three friends from Bournemouth Uni, the company is still headed up by its original founders and they recently cemented their position in the business world by reaching The Sunday Times “Ones To Watch” list of rising companies.

On top of all this, Blue Zoo somehow find the time to improve the landscape for the wider UK animation industry. In 2014 they were instrumental in making the British market more appealing to investors through their campaign to implement tax breaks for local animation companies.

The team regularly appear at animation conferences around the world, giving talks on financing animation and championing the UK industry, and in 2014, founding member Oli Hyatt was awarded an MBE for services to the British Animation Industry.

In short, Blue Zoo are a case study of what can be built through creativity, passion and hard graft.

But, as we’ll learn from this week’s instalment, a key factor to building a profile is getting active and sharing it. With this much activity, Blue Zoo have plenty to share. Let’s hear from founding member Tom Box about how they go about that…

Tom Box, Blue Zoo:

The internet is incredibly noisy, and to get noticed you need to stand out and give people a good reason to follow you, so here are some of my tips for companies:

Don’t under post

To build a good online following you need to make sure you are outputting a steady stream of content, so people have a reason to follow you, if you only post one thing a month then you will struggle.

Don’t over post

One way to stand out is to be very noisy yourself – but this can backfire easily. It takes a lot of time to filter the good stuff or risk over-posting to the point of clogging up people’s feeds with rubbish. At least find unique stuff and don’t post yesterdays news; the internet moves fast and if you post a trailer or short that went viral last week you’ll look a bit slow and behind the times, which won’t reflect well. I find a maximum of 2 posts a day on each channel is a good balance.

Keep it new & engaging

As an animation studio, the best thing we’ve found to do is create original content, both our own and collaborating with others, while posting behind-the-scenes/making-of blogs alongside it. This has the benefit of pushing our work into new areas, not just keep making the same looking work clients request. This means your company feed isn’t just a sleep inducing churn of corporate press releases! But this does require investment & time but the benefits are huge. For example we collaborated with DBLG to animate 3D printed animation “Bears on Stairs” which clocked up half a million views in a few days. So keep playing creatively & share it!

Keep it relevant & in the right place

Make sure you chose the right place to post your work, you want to make sure your work has the best chance of getting discovered & shared by peers. So picking Behance over WordPress for visual blog posts, or Vimeo over Youtube for videos can greatly help your exposure due to the way the websites help curate and share good work. Also don’t automate too much –  for example using Instagram to post to Twitter usually ends up with a description being cut short, which looks lazy. So it’s best to customise each post to each channel/platform, it only takes a few minutes and looks a lot more professional!

Get organised

I find the best way of ensuring all of the above happens is to create a colour coded Social Media Calendar spreadsheet. You can then share this with colleagues, so when anyone has a new project, event or work-in-progress they want to talk about online, anyone can drop it in the spreadsheet and get an instant glimpse of how much and what kind of content the company is sharing. Here’s an image of our social media calendar from December to get an idea of what ours looks like:

You can view the other “How To Boost Your Online Presence” articles here:

• #1 Animation Company, Blue Zoo – BAFTA winning creators of TV series and commercials
• #2 Animation Director, Patrick Clair – Emmy winner for True Detective Titles Sequence
• #3 Illustrator, Andrew Rae – Founding member of Peepshow Collective and creator of Moon Head
• #4 Digital Journalist, Rob Munday – Film reviewer and curator at Short Of The Week
• #5 Film Festival Consultant, Christopher Holland – Writer of ‘Film Festival Secrets’ & curator at Atlanta Film Festival

The post How To Boost Your Online Presence #1: Blue Zoo Studio appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Firstly, that must have been a thrilling first week of The Missing Scarf online. Now that the dust has settled, are you satisfied with how it all went?

Yeah, it was a crazy couple of weeks and I’m delighted with the results. I guess I didn’t know what to expect but with 1/4 million views in the first two weeks I’m pretty happy.

For me, part of researching the release of my film is watching how others are presenting theirs. Clearly The Missing Scarf has been one of my case studies (sorry for the stalking!). In preparation for your film’s release, where did you go for information and inspiration?

This article – “How We Launched Our Film Online: The Thomas Beale Cipher” – and a PDF book called “You’ve Got It Made – Short Film Distribution Guide” by Nigel R Smith. Two good reads.

I’ve heard of the importance of gathering the best marketing team possible for the days around your films release, pulling in crew, family and friends. What support did you have over that crucial period, and what time did you personally invest in this release?

I didn’t enlist a team but on launch day a lot of family and friends naturally chimed in with tweets and posts. I did hover collect the contact details of blogs that showcased my work in the past, people I’ve worked with, festivals I screened at, news sources that mentioned me before, and any other connection I could think of. On the day of release I let them all know.

Can you explain the involvement of the influential website Short of the Week?

They featured my work before so they were happy to take on TMS. It was also a more credible source to reference than “keep an eye on Vimeo next week”.

The brilliant vocal performance of George Takei forms a huge part of the films impact, but it also played a major role in the marketing. What were the benefits in having an American icon attached to your film?

The majority of interest has been from the animation/design community. So no major or noticeable impact from George’s following. But certainly having his name attached to the project raised the profile of the film in ways we can’t measure.

One of the other huge guns in your marketing arsenal was being shortlisted for the Oscar. How has that impacted on the film’s profile and aided the online release?

The news generated the foundation of a fan-base which steadily grew until the film’s online release. Also, a few news sites that covered the shortlisting went on to feature the film’s online release.

On the day of the premiere, the online influencers tweeted and posted exactly as you must have hoped. Was this good preparation on your part, or did you also have to coordinate the social media response on the day?

I shared the release with all my contacts the night before and then crossed my fingers on the day of release. So I had little impact on the final Social Media response but I was delighted to see it naturally spread.

You conducted a very effective premiere count-down with regular ‘coming soon’ posts and a special ‘coming soon’ animation. Were you able to monitor the effectiveness of this in the build up?

Like everything else its hard to monitor these things. With only a few hundred views I guess each “countdown” post didn’t receive that much attention but I’m sure it helped in some way.

The film received the all important ‘Vimeo Staff Pick’. Was this a surprise or were you able to get their attention before Monday’s release?

I was in the lucky position that Vimeo had been following the project for months and were eager to see it online. Its always a surprise to get a Vimeo staff pick, and equally humbling to be under their radar the past few months.

The Missing Scarf screened at around 100 film festivals, many of which tweeted to watch it online. It’s an interesting paradox as festivals are focused on enticing viewers to real world screenings, not to Vimeo. How did you find the willingness of festivals to get in involved?

Film festivals regularly tweet/post about past film’s online release so it made sense to reach out to them. The majority didn’t respond but I was grateful for the few that did.

You’ve found great success across English speaking territories, but countries like Brazil and South Korea also have a huge interest in online animation… Do you plan to market to other regions and if so, how do you plan to tackle any language barriers?

Simply put – no. Logically I should look into further publicity in other regions but I’m very eager to leave the project where it landed and move onto the next thing.

The obvious question, but what have you learned from the process of releasing the film online, and what would you do differently?

With the release of ‘The Missing Scarf’ I feel there was a lot more I could have done to push it to the masses. But I also feel it got the audience it deserved – not crazy huge, not tiny. So with no desire to be a marketer, this works for me. I’ll continue to make projects that I’m personally happy with. I’ll release it to my contacts, and if it spreads beyond them, excellent!

I’m guessing the motivation for promoting your film is to raise your profile, thus getting a flood of exciting offers. So tell us Eoin, any such offers as yet?

I’m happy to say that a number of industry heads came my way. I’m still deciding what direction I want to take but I hope to announce it soon. I’ll be sure to let Twitter know

Thank you Eoin. As expected, an invaluable array of tips for any filmmaker sending their film into the abyss of online animation.

What strikes me is that although we animators get a hard time for our ‘lack of social skills’, we’ve actually become very sophisticated PR people. Eoin’s performed an inspiring feat of not only creating a stunning film, but then single handedly building a huge online following. I’m not sure he sees it that way, but for a man with “no desire to be a marketer”, his marketing skills are pretty damn sharp. And as he’s already proven and will go on proving, from each project you build both notoriety and, essentially, contacts.

No film maker should feel they have to become a marketing or PR guru, and many animators would prefer to drive a blunt pencil into their eye ball. But for many of us who have laboured over our cherished projects, getting them seen by a wide audience means flirting like mad with the internet. So with that I’m preparing to treat Facebook to my best chat up lines, buy Twitter some drinks, and grind Vimeo into the dance floor.

The post How To Market Your Short Film Online: The Missing Scarf appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.