One role that interests me within the animation industry is working as an animation director for different studios or clients on a freelance basis. This is primarily how the directors on projects for studios such as Blinkink work, so being able to visit the studio in September was really useful. Visiting Blinkink for an introductory talk and tour was also very helpful in gaining some understanding of how an animation studio handles different projects in many different animation mediums. The mediums that are and have been used in Blinkink projects include mixed-media, stop-motion, puppetry, 2d digital, and 3D animation. It was also interesting to hear first-hand from Ben Lole – a producer and head of animation at Blinkink – who gave our talk, that Blinkink in particular looks for new and interesting mediums to work in that may have not been used in commercial projects before, which I found an exciting prospect. This is something that really appeals to me, and as I do more research into different animation studios and the practices of different animators, I am finding that something I value very highly is the ability and opportunity to work across different mediums.
I was curious about how Blinkink works with and hires directors and when I asked Ben he mentioned that they usually only work with directors on a freelance basis and they are hired in for specific projects. Although there are also many directors that they have long-standing relationships with, who they informally consider their ‘house team’. For this reason I think that if I were to consider what my ‘ideal role’ would be within a commercial animation studio like Blinkink, it would probably be as one of these freelance directors that may have a long-standing relationship with the studio but comes in on a project by project basis. In an ideal scenario this would allow me the freedom to work on projects that I’m passionate about and have the skillset for, whilst not being tied down to a specific studio and beholden to whatever projects that come in. That being said, working as a freelance animation director obviously comes with a lot of uncertainty and has its own challenges, such as having to be incredibly self-reliant and always needing to be looking for the next project, and having to essentially work as your own manager and PR to promote yourself and negotiate jobs, contracts and rates.
In our talks at Blinkink they mentioned that with time and money being so tight on projects, there’s really no room for mistakes or improvisation in their projects. They have to meticulously plan exactly how everything for an animation will be constructed and shot, and once shooting begins they don’t have any room to mess up a day of shooting and start again. Although I absolutely understand the need for this approach when shooting on limited time and money, I think I would find this kind of environment quite constrictive and would find it hard to feel completely creatively fulfilled working in this methodology, as it leaves very little room for creative experimentation.