30/06/2009

Animator in Residence leads students on a journey of discovery

 

(Ian Gouldstone (centre) and Computer Games tutor, David Surman (third left), led animation students for a screening of their film)

Who says animation can’t be spontaneous? Not Ian W Gouldstone, for one.  The BAFTA award-winning filmmaker and designer recently joined animation students at International Film School Wales as an Animator in Residence.  With degrees from Harvard University (AB Mathematics) and the Royal College of Art (MA Animation), and an eclectic career path that has encompassed animating for Sony Playstation2 and Oxfam, Ian brought to the Residency a sense of adventure and fun that was seriously infectious. 

During a three-week project: ‘To Whom It May Concern’, he led the group of students on a journey of spontaneity and experimentation in animation.  The results have been surprising, exciting and inspirational.  We caught up with Ian to find out more…

What is the idea behind the project: ‘To Whom It May Concern’?

As the title suggests, ‘To Whom It May Concern;’ is a film about letter writing but is also an experiment for me in relaxing about the notion of audience.
The main goal of the project was to play with animation for a month and to bring as many people along with me as I could.  Normally, animators (myself included) are so obsessed with the finished product, that they forget to be spontaneous and have fun in the process.  So, with ‘To Whom It May Concern’, we chucked all those anxieties about the finished product out the window and built rules that forced us to embrace spontaneity! 

The key idea was that over the course of the residency, the students and I would ‘write’ each other short animated letters every day.  On day 1, I ‘wrote’ the first letter which the students then ‘read’ on the morning of day 2.  Working as individuals and in small groups, they then spent that whole day animating letters of their own in response.  The next morning, we screened those letters to the group, and the students all voted for the one letter they wanted to send back to me, which I had a day to respond to in turn.

You describe the project as “a fresh experiment in collaborative filmmaking that's bound to turn a lot of animation thinking on its head”. Tell us more…

Well, normally people regard animation as this hugely labour-intensive process that requires loads of time and energy.  Well, this can be true… but this project proves that it doesn’t have to be!

What do you think students have taken away with them from the project?

Making a film every other day was no small task for me or the students because we had to go through every part of the filmmaking process, brainstorming, writing, animating, editing, sound work, and critiquing for each letter we wrote.  Normally, students get to go through this process once or twice a term.  During the residency, they went through it about 10 times!

Even with this super accelerated experience, I think the best part about this film is that we all had loads of creative freedom and got to move lots of ideas out of our sketchbooks and test them on screen.   The answer to every question was always, “I don’t know either—try it out!  If it doesn’t work, no big deal!”  There were no grades to worry about or a final film to stress about.  It was all about making the most of what time and resources we had at hand.

So if you watch the film, it’s really clear how this process really encouraged all of us to play—and to enormous effect!  The ‘letters’ get much, much braver.  They use much more sophisticated symbolism, their visual styles are more thought out, the films communicate in more profound ways, AND… they get more and more fun!
Anyways, if the students got one thing out of the project, I hope that it was a sense of adventure!

And what did you take away from the project?

I came away from Newport feeling so refreshed!  I left with loads of new ideas, and the energy to explore them. Indeed, I think this project has encouraged me to explore parts of myself and my practice that I was too shy to even acknowledge beforehand.

On a professional note, I think I also came away from this residency with a prototype for an extremely potent pedagogical tool.  Indeed, I’ve already started sharing this idea with loads of animation teachers across the world, and the first responses have been very encouraging!  I’m sure this is not the last you’ll see of this process in both the teaching world and the film world!

This residency also introduced me to Welsh Cakes, which are probably the best cookie – pancake hybrids I have ever tasted!

For more information about Ian W. Gouldstone visit www.iwgouldstone.com


Feedback from students taking part in ‘To Whom It May Concern’ has included:

“The result was short in length but full of depth and concepts. I’m proud of my fellow students.”

“I didn’t realise how much could be done, both in five seconds and 24 hours.”

"I have learnt a variety of animation techniques, the importance of concept and ideas, time management and thought behind visual styles and sound.”

“A brilliant experience, very inspirational!”