Stop Motion Geek

Portrait photo of Gavin Strange. Photo courtesy of Gavin Strange. “There are a million and one reasons to not do something, to not start something,” Gavin Strange—a Bristol-based, ten-year veteran at Aardman Animations, where he works as a director, most recently having directed the Christmas ad campaign Masters of Merry for London-based, luxury department store Fortnum & Mason , as well as a senior designer in the studio’s digital department, whilst also pursuing his passion projects on the side under the alias Jam Factory—tells Stop Motion Geek. “Life, work, family, health, time, space, location, mood, emotion—all of these things can throw you off your game.” “So, I think you have to do anything you can, use anything you can, to get and to stay motivated,” Strange continues. “Pick the lowest hanging fruit, set yourself a goal that’s easy, really easy. Because it’s all a step in the right direction. It can be so overwhelming when you’re trying to plot and plan whe...

Chris Randall in the Mills & Reeve Innovation 50 list. Source: https://twitter.com/SecondHomeChris/status/904681346060230656 “I came to animation mainly from a point-of-view of blind curiosity,” Chris Randall—the creative director and co-founder of Second Home Studios, a Birmingham, United Kingdom-based, award-winning animation studio—tells Stop Motion Geek. “I’d always loved the medium but never took it seriously, or saw myself with a part to play in it. It wasn’t until after Uni that I realised I basically like tinkering and trying out new things, whilst at the same time telling stories. So, animation is a perfect fit for me.” First founded in 2004, Second Home Studios has garnered multiple BAFTA and Royal Television Society awards and nominations for many of the films in their diverse repertoire of artistic and commissioned projects, encompassing all styles of animation—from stop motion to CGI to 2D—as well as puppetry and mixed-media. In their fourteen-and-counting years...

Angela Poschet. Source: http://en.animarkt.pl/masters/masterclasses/ “I have worked for many different producers and production companies based in different European countries, and I’ve had to adapt to the specific needs for each production,” Angela Poschet—a veteran in the stop motion industry, whose credits include production supervisor of Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs , head of scheduling of Tim Burton’s Oscar®-nominated film Frankenweenie , director of photography of Bob the Builder , as well as numerous others credit on feature films, television series, and commercials—tells Stop Motion Geek. “Therefore, you have to be very open and you have to approach each production individually to get it up and running for their needs and the capacity they can deal with.” Poschet began her career in the stop motion industry in 1998 as the director of photography on the preschool series Bob the Builder for BBC UK—on which she worked for three years across thirty-nine episodes. She pr...

Carlos Bleycher profile photo. Source: http://carlosbleycher.com/index.html “The most important thing for any genre are the characters,” Carlos Bleycher—veteran scriptwriter, content consultant, and story editor, with numerous credits spanning animated and children-oriented content in his native Spanish as well as English for the likes of Disney xD, Cartoon Network LA, and Discovery Kids—tells Stop Motion Geek. “That’s why it’s so important to have strong characters that feel real, and then use your premise as an ‘excuse’ to flesh out their personalities, dreams, fears, everything.” After getting his start in the industry writing for sitcoms, Bleycher—inspired by the “countless hours of watching cartoons” he consumed as a child along with a healthy dose of ambition—made a conscious shift towards writing for animated programming aimed at children—an oft-snubbed dimension of scripted programming. To Bleycher, however, respecting such an audience is his highest priority in crea...