Apologies for the lack of Animex posts over the past week or so but I shall pick up where I left off. Paul's talk was focussed on the evolution of animation and its potential to grow as a genre. Stating "animation is art for adults" he remarked on how the film industry is increasingly appealing to an adult orientated audience. Film's such as Up, as well appealing to children, are becoming increasingly deep in their narrative and emotional content. This is in part due to Disney's revival and recent partnership with Pixar. The retro survivalist instinct of cinema is obvious with remake of popular franchises a common occurrence. This looking back to look forward makes sense and a great deal can be learnt from reinterpreting stories however with films like Avatar, blatantly cloning classic narratives like Pocahontas (Dances with Wolves) and passing them off as original is not beneficial to the film industry. Re Inventing cinema is important and with the 3D revolution hitting mainstream cinema looks to be tackling the piracy problem well. The problem with this technology is that films can rely on this solely to attract an audience and lack any kind of substance. Tim Burton's very recent Alice in Wonderland is a nice remake but again proves that cinema is running dry on original ideas. I find this personally of great advantage to newcomers in the industry, one strong and original idea could break this mould and gain mass appeal.
Back to the Disney revival and with Princes and the Frog, Disney has reclaimed its position as a successful drawn animation studio. They have set a new agenda to back localised television studios in thier animation productions. an example of this is Tinga Tinga Tales an African made children's series. A brilliantly constructive output for Disney and demonstrates how Disney is broadening its ideas.
So here is a low-down of the Animation Industry now according to Paul Wells for the next generation of industry.
- 82% of animators are self employed freelancers, £15,000 starting wage.
- Individuals must be articulate in using their strongest skills.
- Think about the relationship between past,present and future. History/ Theory/ Practice
- Treat successful film makers as inspiration and promoters of your own aspirations. Don't just copy
- Have Fun!
I found This talk pretty inspiring and after reading Paul Wells's material over the course of my studies many of his ideas on cinema and animation came through in his talk. This was not first time i have met Paul, he lectured at my university a few years ago and i managed to pick his brain on a few things. His book "The Fundamentals of Animation" is definitely worth a read. Hope this is of some interest to you guys and there's plenty of animation orientated notes yet to be posted up.
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