Freelance Director and Industry Talk by Sophie Koko Gates

  • Film London do 30k grants for recent graduates
  • GLAS animation festival have a short support scheme – you can apply for a travel grant to visit the festival. British Film Council also will provide travel grants to festivals in the A category
  • Bento Box and A Studio provide grants for short tik tok length animations
  • Continue making GIFS and microfilms after the course ends to maintain a personal practice in a manageable way (if you are also working on other things)
  • Explainer videos is a good way to get work, places like Ted X, Scriberia and School of Life (alain@alaindebottom.com) do these.
  • Try and get your work featured on a website like It’s Nice That, Motionographer, BOOOOOM or Wine After Coffee
  • Sophie gave us this list of studios to try adn get in touch with: Animade, Strange Beast, Blink Ink, Passion, Moth, Studio AKA, Nexus, Jelly Studios, Buck (they have a paid internship in the UK) PSYOP Blacklist for more US companies
  • Expect these day rates: 0-1 years: £100 – £150, 1-3 years: £150 – £250. UK max £450, US max $1200
  • Be your own producer ie. create a pretend email with a different name. Makes people trust you more. Other tips for being your own producer: get familiar with ical or google calender, excel and have a Work for Hire contract (look online for one)
  • When writing pitch’s for commercial projects, look for what’s important in the brief and say it back to them, companies like reassurance. Also when creating commercial pitches, they should be full of things that aren’t yours. ‘Mood boards’ etc
  • Apparently this website is good for finding reference styles, (but I’m not actually sure what that means) https://www.are.na/
  • https://filmlondon.org.uk/flamin Good resource for funding and opportunities
  • https://www.ukscreenalliance.co.uk/