Lemonade3d blog

Interesting night, last night- Only after you spend a few hours with such people as I had the pleasure to last night, you can realize what body of knowledge, experience and love for animation they really have- It was a real treat to be there. The night started off back stage, where we all gathered and enjoyed an one hour discussion which later on just spilled over to the organized event- it took us good 3 hours to shut up, so the whole thing ended around 11 in the evening.

What was a sobering experience were the stories of the lack of funds in the UK, and the struggle the animation and animators have to launch their projects of the ground. The hopeful note came from Gareth Unwin who is working in Breakthrough Film which produced the Oscar winning PETER AND THE WOLF, and did an aubiusly very successful collaboration with Poland and are doing an even bigger colaboration for their new project. This set the tone of the rest of the evening, with the discussion steering to coproduction with European countries and finding the funding not just in the UK or Europe, but rather the whole world.

The sobering words came from John Bulivant painting a rather grim, but all could agree very realistic, picture of the animated series market. Saying that the reality of the situation is that it is an industry, and within an industry you have to consider the production costs and time as the MOST important aspect rather than the animation itself or the artistic value of the idea. He also had an interesting side note with the BOB THE BUILDER series being caned and forgotten for a number of years, until it got revisited and made into a worldwide hit that it is today. John also had a few pointers for animators working in the children’s animated series market, again putting the emphasis on how to be able to push your way to distributors- His own story with Captain Mack children series, was a 4 year struggle which ended in him having to drop the animated aspect of the idea and go with live action in order to realize the project.

I could go on for a few more pages, especially with what Barry was talking, and he is such a clever and fascinating animator, but I will end here with a photo from the conference

Hi to all!

As a part of the CINECITY FILM FESTIVAL, OPENBOOK invited LEMONADE3D to participate in a panel discussion where industry experts and filmmakers from the UK and abroad will discuss the challenges and benefits of animation co-production, taking a look at how British writers, producers and directors are working with international partners, the reasons why and the results of these collaborations. A selection of short animation films and clips will also be screened during the discussion.

The panel will consist of Bob Swain, Barry Purves(be shure to check out his website), john bullivant, Gareth Unwin and me (veljko popović). As you can see its quite a privilege to be among souch great names.

I landed in London Luton last night- came to Brighton late in the evening. The action started today with Barry Purves holding a 3 hour presentation of his work and shared his vision of animation.

Barry Purves: Artist in Motion

Sunday 23 November
Lighthouse 3:00PM

3.00pm DOORS OPEN
3.30pm – START of EVENT
Entry – £10/£8.50 concs
Spaces are limited, please book in advance.

Acclaimed British animation director and writer Barry Purves is widely known for his stop-motion shorts and direction of numerous commercials, title sequences and animation inserts for feature films. His films have received over 60 major international awards, as well as Oscar and BAFTA nominations. A leading authority on stop-motion, he has produced documentaries and many articles on the subject, and led workshops in major American studios such as Dreamworks, PDI, Pixar and Will Vinton Studios.

He was a delight to listen to and had a few interesting things to say. He is holding workshops in Turin, Italy and has a book out on stop motion, so check that out if you come across it. I am hoping to arrange a visit to Split UMAS academy, but that is far off at the moment..

Here is a photo of me, Laura and Sam from openbook and Barry.