Festivals I want to submit my film to...

I want to submit my final film to as many film festivals as possible so that it can gain some publicity and I can show off my hard work! I have been researching and found a list of the ones that I am going to submit, all of them with fee entry fees. Below are the main ones that I will be submitting to.

 

Business Cards

At the beginning of the year I made some business card ideas, pictured below.

However, I decided that I wanted to redesign them as I wasn't happy with the images I had used on them. So, I used my new puppets and new links that I had created and the new design is below. I want them to have a slightly more handmade feel to them so I wrote my name in my own handwriting and used a handwriting script font to match. I also used a deep red colour, which I felt looked a lot more professional than the original pinky colour, as it matched the hearts on my puppets. I wanted the cards to look professional so I edited out the background and used a variety of photoshop brushes to make my own design.

Branding

Here were my original ideas when I started thinking about a brand for myself.
I wanted it to have a hand-drawn feel to it, as stop-motion is very much handmade. So, I designed a few logos playing on the idea of a strawberry as it relates to my last name.

 

Strawberry doodles!

 

I then refined them a little more and decided that I most liked the little strawberry waving that's characterised as me.

Here are the final logo and name designs I drew up in Photoshop. I decided that I didn't want colour so that it could go on any document and blend in quite nicely.

I then used these to make my title card!

PP3: Sending Off Applications Elsewhere...

I also wanted to send off my application to a few other studios around the world, because why not!

Here are the studios I have sent off to:
Stoopid Buddy Stoodios
Bix Pix Entertainment
Laika
Screen Novelties

Lets see if any get back to me! Even if I were to get some feedback, I still feel like this would be beneficial to me for the future.

PP3: CV

PP3: Sending Off LOADS of Speculative Applications in the UK

As I didn't want to pigeon hole myself, I have decided to send off my portfolio, CV and showreel to as many studios as I can.

I found a really good resource for studios in the UK at these links:
http://www.fatcat.co.uk/showcat.php?choice=an_  (Although some are outdated links)
http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/page/animation-studios

Here is a list of the studios I have sent my CV & Showreel off to, from all over the UK:

• Aardman
• Factory Create (They've explained they have no vacancies currently)
• Brown Bag Films
• Makinnon & Saunders
• Finger Industries
• Blink Ink
• Passion Pictures
• Loose Moose
• Studio AKA
• Puppets Magic Studio
• Wonky Films
• A+C
• Carse and Waterman
• The Operators
• Second Home Studios
• Red Door Studios
• Beakus
• Kerrupt Animation
• Chocolate Films
• Sun and Moon Studios
• Wild Brain

PP3: Showreel

Animation Practice with Bernard

Bernard Tests from Stacy Straub on Vimeo.

Freelance: Working with LAU Student Union

LAU Student Union have commissioned me after I won the logo brief, to create them a poster and banner for their website and to promote the buddy scheme.


Here are the requirements I was given to follow, which were pretty simple and free.

Below is the poster. I wanted to really keep the colour scheme of the logo, which I used the colours that Leeds Arts University seem to use for their website ect. I also tried to replicate the font that the Student Union use for a lot of their posters, which the closest font I could find was Futura.

Below is the banner.

I found this task somewhat difficult as someone who doesn't have much to any experience with graphic design, however it definitely taught me a new skill and gave me a little bit of experience in a different field. I'm really happy with the way that the poster turned out and the Union are also really happy with my final design and didn't even require me to change anything! This has given me the confidence that I'm not only an animator and that I do have the skills as a creative to pick up other little briefs such as this one.

PP3: Volunteering at Leeds Young Film Festival

Volunteering at Leeds Young Film Festival was something that was a great opportunity to me as I got to help out in building a life size stop motion set. As a group we built 4 sets in the studio in the Carriageworks and worked with the animators (David Bunting & Paul Couvela) to set up the whole thing.

We had to assemble all of the walls, which were big foam walls and then wallpaper them with this Marvel wallpaper. As none of us had really hung wallpaper before this was a new skill I didn't think I would have learnt on this day! We actually did really well and it wasn't too bad of a DIY job.
 

 

 We also had to put together the bed and move all of the furniture into the studio, to make children's bedrooms and play areas. (Here you can see our amazing wallpaper skills)

Working with David we had to figure out how to use the carpet we had so that it looked good but it was a really strange shape and we couldn't cut it. We also laid out a pin board under it so that the puppets could be pinned through their feet into the carpet/board.

 

 We also set up tables and iPads with stop-motion software on them attached to arm mounts. This was so that children could come in and shoot their own mini stop-motion animations, working alongside the animators.

Volunteering at this festival was a great way to meet people that were of like-mindedness and was a great way to come out of my comfort zone as it's not normally something I would do. I would definitely do it again as it was lots of fun and I got to meet some great people too.

Below is the time lapse of us setting up the different sets!
https://www.facebook.com/leedsyoungfilm/videos/10155981780133673/

PP3: Printed Textiles Collaboration

As a side project, I had a friend who is a Printed Textiles student and she wanted some of her work animated for the purpose of going on her website and showing off her papercut work.

Katie setting up the piece before letting me loose animating it! She used a drawing for reference.

The final piece.

I found it really fun to animate someone else's work, as I've only really worked with my own papercut pieces, the paper had been mono-printed and the colour palette carefully selected by Katie. It was a really good experience working with all of the little pieces and figuring out how to make it look fun but not too distracting. This was quite a free task and I had pretty much complete freedom; apart from the animation being able to loop.

Below is the final animation I created for Katie. She only wanted the actual piece animating, however I also did a little animation of her name at the end as a bit of extra self promotion, which she loved! I've also exported the animation out into GIF form and given that to Katie so she can use that online.

Flower Power from Stacy Straub on Vimeo.

PP3: Live Brief with Leeds Arts University

As the Leeds Arts Student Union put out an brief for a logo design, I wanted to give it a go as I had never done this kind of thing before and I felt the brief simple enough for me to give it a go.

The wanted a logo design for their buddy scheme and gave the buzzwords:

• Welcoming
• Inclusivity
• Access
• Valuing diversity
• Sense of belonging
• Community
• Connections
• Support
• Friend
• Mentor
• Buddy

 
They also said:
We would very much like a ‘welcoming’ logo to brand the entire Buddy scheme that will go on online on the Union website and on Estudio, shared through emails and displayed physically on posters, flyers and the Unions Freshers advertising for 2018. 

So, I did a quick sketch in my sketchbook of two hands shaking and then drew this up in Photoshop. Below was my final design and I decided to put it as the University colours so that it would be more appropriate.

 

I also submitted some other designs as they said it would be good to see a little slogan with it.

 

 

And, would you believe I actually won this brief and they are to use my design in 2018 Freshers!

Here's the email stating they want me to also create them a poster, this was a great experience as I had no prior experience with building a logo before.