RCA Animation Club - Welcome Event
Thank you for all who joined us for our welcome event on Friday November 6th where we gathered and discussed some of our favourite animation and the different creative fields we are in. We had students working in film, animation and sound join us from our cohorts at the RCA talking about independent animation as well as some of great features that are being released in 2020.
We asked our new members to share some of the work that has inspired them the most, here were some of the results.
Beth (from Experimental Animation Y1) shared a beautiful experimental stop motion piece focusing on textures - You Could Sunbathe in this Storm by Alice Dunseath. You can see how this is reflected in Beth’s own practices as she works with a range of material and textures in her experimental pieces. This was definitely a stand out unexpected piece in the discussion that evening.
Another experimental piece was introduced by Lewis (a 2nd year student from animation who also focus on experimental animation - he also showed us some amazing tests he created animating on film) who shared some work from Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren with the animation Begone Dull Care a short piece created directly on film strip.
Some of the examples brought up didn’t stop at animation as we had Jiazhen introduce us to experimental moving image short by Mark Leckey - Dream English Kid that inspired her in her own moving image shorts. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be just the animation that inspires you but also use of sound as shown with Shangyun example as she shared a clip from Cartoon Network’s popular cartoon Adventure Time. (as well as introducing us to how this has affected her own sound practice working with animators).
We also had some Disney features mentioned as we discuss Treasure Planet and Lion King before we moved onto independent features with Bipasha (1st Year Narrative Animation) introducing us to Cartoon Saloon’s The Secret of Kells before discussing the Apple TV feature special with Cartoon Saloon - Wolfwalkers (2020) which at the time of this event was being released for early preview before it’s official December Apple TV launch.
It is to note there is a great interest in more 2D independent films after there being a dip in 2D features during the 2010s. Rachel (1st year Experimental Animation) introduced us to an early French animated feature from 2003 - The Triplets of Belleville.
There are so many styles presented in our welcome event and within recent animated features and cartoons. It shows how this is currently changing the way some networks are producing their animated content especially when this is viewed alongside more experimental shows like Headspace and Midnight Gospel.
It’s been great seeing some of the discussions from this intro session. We hope to have more club sessions like these -with examples of animation to watch from our members soon. For now we will be split between animation and general workshop sessions up to early 2021. More open discussion sessions to be announced.
