FLIP Festival 2011 review

The FLIP international animation festival 2011 was held over the past three days and this weeks (slightly delayed) blog is dedicated to our experience at the annual event.

We attended on the two main days of the festival where our ringmaster sting was used to open the very first open shorts screening. What followed on Friday was an amazing line up of industry heroes such as Bill Plympton and Barry Purves. We attended Bill plympton's master class which was fascinating, as we got an insight into the process behind his work as well as his view on animation.



The ringmaster open the festival on Friday 28th during
the first open shorts screening


He shared his views on the animation industry still not accepting adult oriented animations, especially in the US where he believes they still see it as an art form and medium for children. An outside view that we also hope fades away so that more and more adult animations are accepted in society such as the dark humour of Bill Plympton's films.

Saturday was just as good with a talk from Aardman, (the legendary) Corgrove Hall and Brothers Mcleod premiering their latest film, Isle of Spagg. Two animations from S5S were shown during Open shorts 5; Caged and Overtime, that had a great response. A panel discussion on the state of 2D animation was also held near the end of the day with animation figures Charlie MacRae (Hanna Barbera) and Tori Davis ( Blue Sky, Walt Disney, DreamWorks ).

This was an interesting discussion which was set up to raise concerns for the growing lack of 2D animations. However, over the course of the discussion the concern was flipped with the recent trend of bringing 2D feature films in 3D, such as The Lion King. It was a great pivotal moment that proved that 2D animation is here to stay. It was also interesting to see that the majority of the open shorts were also stop motion which was great considering the recent perception that its a dieing form of animation.



Caged becomes an award winning animation at FLIP 2011


The Festival ended with the festival short winners and we are proud to announce that S5S animator, Ravi Maheru, won an award for short film, Caged, making us an award winning studio!

We enjoyed the festival and are looking forward to FLIP festival 2012.

Countdown to FLIP 2011 and BCU feature

FLIP international animation festival 2011 is taking place next week (Thursday-Saturday) and we're all excited about attending it. Not only do we have 2 short films from s5s animators in the open shorts screenings but our ringmaster sting has also been selected to be shown as part of FLIP.

We'll be attending the festival all weekend and we look forward to seeing everyone there. For more details on the festival visit:
http://www.flipfestival.co.uk/

We also hope you enjoyed reading our interview on animation forum west midlands. We're also pleased to announce that we have also been featured on the Birmingham City University website which features a never before seen image of the ringmaster both in 2D form and 3D form standing together. Check out the article on BCU here:

http://www.bcu.ac.uk/news-events/news/animators-establish-studio-straight-after-graduating

if you still haven't seen our ringmaster sting for FLIP 2011 and you're finding it hard to wait until FLIP, you can check out below:


Our entry for the Sting competition for FLIP 2011 which will be shown at FLIP next week

Animation Alliance UK and Monday Recaps

During the past week Animation Forum West Midlands wrote an article about the Animation Alliance UK; whose focus it is to restore support to independent animation professionals. They have recently sent a letter to Lord Chris Smith (Panel Chair of the independent review of Government film policy) concerning the lack of public policy, strategy and support for independent animation.

We strongly recommend supporting the AAUK by joining if you are an animation professional within the UK. To join:

If you would like to join, please visit:
http://groups.google.com/group/animationallianceuk

 or:

If you do not have/want a google account, you can request to join via email to:
animationalliance@me.com
Please state your professional role, any affiliation (eg production company, university),
plus anything else relevant/notable (eg BAFTA/BAA festival nominations/wins).

We will also hold a recap feature on our Facebook page each week where all events within the past week are available in one post( in case you missed out on the S5S news and updates). This will most likely be held on a Monday, so keep a look out for the recap posts each week on Facebook. As always, thank you for the support and if you haven't already, follow us on our social sites to keep up to date or visit us at:

http://www.sector5studios.co.uk/

Enter the Ringmaster!

As teased last week we are working on a project that we'll announce very soon as it comes closer to being completed. For this week's blog post we'll leave you with another screenshot of its development:




The Ringmaster enters the scene in this mystery project...


Among other news, we have updated our show reel to match the recent make over of our official site and our social sites. The show reel now sports a new company logo animation too which you can check out below:



Showreel from Sector5 Studios on Vimeo.

Keep an eye out for the announcement of this project as we may reveal it next week.

Graduation Ceremonies and Developments

This weeks blog update will be short and slightly late so don't blink!

S5S animators attended their graduation ceremony yesterday marking the end of a university era. The ceremony was held at the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton and overall it was a great day.

Now because this blog update is tiny, we've added a mystery development screen of a new animation we are working on. Look forward to the official reveal on this project in future blog updates. We promise, it won't be a long wait.



Work in progress render of the mystery project. Any guesses?



For those of you who will be returning to university for your new year or perhaps if you're starting this month: Good luck and enjoy it!

A new look

As you will have noticed by now, the blog has a new look. In addition to the blog, our website, twitter and YouTube profiles have undergone similar changes to match the new colour scheme.

The biggest changes have been made to our official site and is still being revamped. The layout has been altered for better navigation and the animator profiles will be improved alongside a new "about" section for S5S. We now have a contact form added to our contact page to make it easier to get in touch with us directly.

To also match the new colour scheme, the show reel will undergo a slight change too with a brand new logo animation. Amongst other developments, we are now working on several projects which we'll announce at later dates.

As we announced last week, we'll be attending the Bridgnorth Animation mini festival taking place tomorrow (Saturday 27th August) at the Majestic Cinema. Caged by S5S animator, Ravi Maheru, will be screened there too. We look forward to meeting everyone there. (More details on the festival here: http://www.bridgnorthmusicfest.com/ )

Thanks for the great support so far, if you haven't already please follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo and of course this blog to stay up to date on the S5S world! We'll be back next week with our weekly blog updates, also look out for a blog post dedicated to our impressions and experience of the Bridgnorth Animation festival.

Drawn from Life

In harmony with the official launch of Sector5 Studios, an animation related event was held in Birmingham on Wednesday. Jonathon Hodgson's 'Drawn from Life" talk (hosted by Animation Forum West Midlands) dived behind the scenes of documentary animation, "Wonderland - The Trouble With Love And Sex".

It was in-depth and a fascinating talk that presented the genre of documentary animation as a genre worth exploring further. It was also great to see Jonathon Hodgson's pervious animations and illustrations that focused on the movement rather than being an exact replication of the subject's shape.

With the talk coming to an end, the evening transformed into a networking event where we met new and familiar faces. One of the more promising networking was with Animation Forum West Midlands' - Dave Allen who suggested organising a Q&A on the AWFM website. So keep an eye out for that in the near future.

The launch of Sector5 Studios

Welcome to Sector5 Studio's official blog.

We are an up and coming animation studio that specialises in all mediums of animation, including stop motion, 2D and 3D. We are made up of four animators each with our own speciality:

 

- Matt Ayris

- Gary Jones

- Ravi Maheru

- Sandro Nicholas

 

This blog will be updated weekly with the latest S5S news! Follow us on this blog and on other social media sites:

 

Twitter

Facebook

Vimeo

 

Visit our site at: www.sector5studios.co.uk

 

Whatever your needs are, which ever style you desire...we've got it covered at Sector5 Studios

 

Blog Post by Ravi Maheru