30/11/09

It’s not all bad luck for UWN animation graduate Andrew Grindle!

Standing out from the crowd is a motto that’s paid dividends for BA Animation graduate, Andrew Grindle.  The UWN graduate created the humorous and attention-grabbing final film, Sh*t Happens in 2008 and hasn’t looked back since.

We disturbed Andrew during a busy day at the studio to tell us how he got his big break in the animation industry…

Tell us about your final film project?

My film ‘Sh*t Happens’ is about a man named Ralph who wakes up one morning thinking it will be the best day of his life when actually it turns out to be the complete opposite.  We see him struggle to come to terms with his world falling apart but when he can’t take anymore, he has a break down and decides to wreak havoc on the people who wronged him - and innocent slugs that happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

How would you define your style and where did you take inspiration from?

The style of my film is a combination of a lot of influences;  John Kricfalusi’s ‘Ren and Stimpy’ has definitely influenced me in both character design and character personalities, but I also concentrated on emulating the UPA animations of the ‘50s with their simple, yet stylised designs and animation style. I’m a big fan of 2D animation; when you watch a 2D cartoon you know deep-down that someone has brought something to life by drawing frame after frame by hand and, in turn, has contributed a part of themselves to that creation. Therefore my backgrounds were hand painted in the style of early Pink Panther cartoons by Alec Leith, a friend of mine who’s an illustrator, and I hand drew every frame of my film, scanning them and colouring them in on Photoshop.  It was a laborious process but I wouldn’t have done it any other way, and I’m thrilled of the success it has received in film festivals.

Which festivals have you entered so far?

To my surprise and delight, my film has gone on to enjoy many awards in the last year. The first success I got was at the Newport University Finest Films Ceremony in Cardiff where I won both Best Student Animation and Best Overall Film out of my year. That was a huge shock for me but it proved that all my hard work had paid off, but I think the greatest reward was to see people watching my film and laughing... especially at bits that I didn’t plan on being funny!  Then I went on to win the Royal Television Society Award for Best Student Animation as part of the Ffresh Film Festival in Aberystwyth and was nominated for Best Student Animation at the Best of the West Awards in Exeter on the same day, and then I travelled to Caernarfon to receive the Celtic Media Festival Award for Best Student Animation. |

More recently, my film was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Bristol Encounters Film Festival and I won Best Animation at the Fresh Film Awards at the South Bank in London in November. I have sent my film to The Future Film Festival which, again, is being held at the South Bank at London early next year. This will be my last awards/screening with this film if it gets nominated, but it’s had a good run and I’ve experienced a lot from participating in these events.

How did you get your break at King Rollo Films?

When my course at university was finished and I was wondering what to do next, I was approached by my lecturer who told me that a company in Devon called King Rollo Films Ltd. had been in touch with them and were looking for 2D animators to join their team to work on a new television series.  I sent them my CV and a copy of my showreel and not long after was asked to come down for an interview. I think the interview lasted for a month in total and I learned a lot during that time, and I was relieved when they told me that they would like me on their team.  I worked on the children’s’ cartoon ‘Humf’ which is being screened on ‘Nick Toons’, and I knew the first time I saw it that I wouldn’t get tired of seeing my name on the credits of children’s cartoons on TV.

Has the animation industry lived up to expectations?

In all honesty, from what I’ve experienced, the animation industry has been hit-and-miss compared to what I was expecting it to be like in a studio. I was expecting more lightboxes, paper and pencils to be used, but it seems that no one wants to draw anymore, preferring the easy option of animating on computer. It was a shock as well to find the stories that I was animating being written by someone who wasn’t a cartoonist, let alone an animator. If an animator wrote the stories, they would take into account the character’s ability to defy physics and bend/stretch this way and that, providing a lot of creativity and humour to the scenario instead of animating to stories that could easily be acted out by actors.

On the plus side the working environment is the best I’ve experienced. Everyone you work with is doing animation because they enjoy it or at least have an interest in it, and it’s a fun atmosphere. And when you see your name on the credits you know that loads of people, very likely internationally will have seen something that you worked on and brought to life.

What’s on the cards for you career-wise?

I’m working for a company called EducationCity.com at the moment that specialises in educational online games and activities for schools. It’s a good company to work for, and I’m learning a lot from professional animators/artists. I think the plan after this will be to get more of my own projects going; short films, children’s books, maybe pitch a few ideas for TV, but that’s years away yet - until then I’ve started work on a new short film on the side which I hope to eventually send to film festivals internationally.

Do you have any advice for 3rd year Animation students?

The only advice I can think of for animation students is to put everything you can into your final film. Think of it as not just your final year project, but as the film that could kick-start your career. Make it as eye-catching and as unique as you can get it, and make it stand out as much as possible from all the other university films you see (the amount of over-photoshopped, Cal Arts style animations you see in festivals is so overwhelming, you can’t tell one from the other!) There’s so much competition to get an animation job in the industry and there are a lot of good films being entered in film festivals, it really needs to smack of something special to get noticed.