Portfolio Visit - Manic Films London

www.manicfilms.co.uk

Arranged a portfolio visit with Grant Gilchrist the creator of Manic Films in London. Grant works as a freelance artist and has done work for clients such as Gucci and Comedy Central. His studio shared the same floor with a design company called Jelly (which i tried to get a portfolio visit with, but was not possible at the time. However, I would be very interested about visiting next year.)

The visit lasted for a good hour and was a nice quiet environment to talk in depth as I showed him through my work and learned about his life as a freelancer. Grant seemed to be very outspoken and knowledgeable about working with clients and self promotion. So was not afraid to tell me how it is, criticizing my work in a way that a client would respond to.

Firstly i got some interesting feedback on the Feelgood Frogs piece, which Grant told me that there are aspects of this that will need improvement to reach the client professionally. I need to improve the speed of the overall piece, matching the length of a typical advert. Secondly he asked me why they were licking the outside of the bottle. For this does not show much indication of the characters interacting with the product, and can be misleading.

Apart from this he liked my character design, and the visual was appealing. It is vibrant and lively in design; successfully relating to the target audience. But animation needs to be more lively and create more suspense. Something he pointed out was that if the work is commercially driven - clients like work that is full of life, strong color and shape. He told me i have touched up on some of these factors with the piece, but not yet hit all the targets.

Masterchef title sequence showed that i had experience in 3D which he said is strong to have in my portfolio, and i had achieved it to a reasonable standard. He took a screen shot of one of the 3D scenes and opened it in Photoshop, he played around with some levels to help me get a feel for how he thinks i can improve it. By doing this he explained that by using less shading and reflection, and stripping down the complex design, you can also achieve an interesting visual that appeals to the client. This got me thinking about what Man Vs Machine told me about how this needs 'stylizing.' Perhaps this idea Grant had given me is something to look into to help stylize my Masterchef design.

My strongest piece, in Grants opinion, was my Deal Me In title sequence. He liked the use of mixed media, and animation techniques. The ending scene of the sequence was impressive and original, also a strong image to leave the audience with. The outlines included in the 3D scene could be improved or perhaps erased from the scene, as he advised that it can help the composition flow more between it edit. As my shapes in other scenes do not have outline, so is will takeaway this contrast and help the scenes blend together.

He gave me some good advice into how i should put together my showreels when i graduate. He advised that i should have three show-reels all lasting approximately 2 minutes. One for Motion graphics, one for editing and one as an overall reel. These should be aimed to be fast paced to give it more appeal. He also gave me a website to look at called studentpeople.com, which will guide me and help me with my future prospects.

So overall it was a different portfolio visit from ones i have had in the past, as i learned about how a freelancer organizes themselves and works for clients. Also how to self promote and improve my work. I am happy that i got this chance to have an intimate discussion with Grant and get into how the industry works.