Salford Media Festival 2013 - MediaCityUK

So yesterday I was up bright and early for an amazing day at MediaCityUK and Salford University! I was booked in for one talk in the morning and one in the afternoon, both related to animation. I was really excited for the days events and couldn't wait to get there; my 6am wake up didn't even phase me!

After a busy journey on the train and then the tram, we arrived at Media City. I have never been before and it was surreal to see all of the studios together in the square that you first get to. We had to run quick to catch the sign in because our train was delayed; we just made it and headed to the first talk.

The first talk was with Josh Weinstein; you may remember him from such TV programmes as The Simpsons and Futurama! (See what I did there? Troy Mcclure? No?). Anyway, he was a cool guy; very genuine and he just went through his whole journey to where he is today and the paths that he has taken as a writer for animation.

He comes from Washington D.C. and has always loved writing comedy, he got his big break when him and his partner wrote an episode for Marge Simpsons on The Simpsons. They get a luck chance because the writers on The Simpsons never want to write Marge because she is seen as a boring character. They made their way in to the show from their and haven't stopped since. Their first episode was part of season 4 called 'Marge gets a job'.

I made at least 4 pages of notes in this session but I won't bore you with the details of them because they are really just little things that I picked up on for my own interest. The talk was amazingly beneficial because I was able to have a clear insight in to what it takes to make an animated television series. Even though I am more interested in working in the film industry, it gave me the chance to see what animation production are like for television. I think from this it opened my mind to maybe working on television production.

From this morning session I took away a lot about never giving up on ideas; ideas are naturally made and original. If you come up with an idea and you don't really like it or people criticise it - don't just abandon it; come back to it, change it, just don't give up on it. I have a tendency to move on from one idea to the next, but in future I am going to make a note of things that I don't use and maybe improve them for later projects.

I also learned that I should write stories for myself, not an audience. When you begin to narrow down your story market without even starting it you have already narrowed your creativity by a huge amount. Josh Weinstein is a firm believer in creativity and he said that everything he makes he makes sure he likes it; no matter what anyone else thinks, if he likes it that's all that matters. This is how new and interesting things are produced when restraints on your creativity are not put in to place.

Over all this session was great for me, I always love listening to people who are actually in the industry because their knowledge is more than I could ever learn from books! It helped that Josh Weinstein was a lovely American chap!

In between the talks we had a long time to wait around, which in one aspect was annoying but we did fill the time well by having a nose around MediaCity! We walked around all the buildings and got in everywhere we could without getting shouted at (in this industry you have to be cheeky!).

MediaCity is not only an amazing place for Media but the location is beautiful and luckily the weather stayed dry so that we could walk around, go for something to eat and admire the view.

We even stumbled across the BBC breakfast studio! (This is just a set they have in the lobby, but don't tell anyone!).

In the afternoon after an enjoyable walk around (and nap; I was very tired from a busy week and the 6am start!) I went to another animation talk. This one was Weyers: Story and Vision in Animation. Justin Weyers is an Animation Producer and one of the founding members of Made Visual Studios. Again another fantastic speaker at this years Media Festival; he knew exactly what to say to instill confidence in everyone in the audience aspiring to pursue this as a career. He began with a very interesting presentation about his personal life and growing up in rural Australia! I related to a lot of what he was saying. For instance, he drew from his childhood experiences on the stage and growing up being involved in the theatre and said how that gave him a lot of confidence to be doing things like this today! I can empathise because I have been involved in dance, drama and singing since I was very young. I have built a lot of confidence from this training and it really does help me with public speaking and presentations.

He spoke of finding the joy and positive energy in everything we do; I really feel like he meant this because his happiness and energy really did fill the room. Everything we do is learning; meeting people, going places, doing things - it all contributes to who we are now and who we will be in the future. His theories were profound in that I found myself relating to everything he said and I was hooked! 

He eventually got on to the topic of 'A Liars Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman. This large scale animation project was fascinating to hear about because he got 14 animation studios together from all over the place to each create scenes for this animated film about one of the greatest comedians there was. Graham Chapman wrote the book 'A Liars Autobiography' before his death and so this was a hard process to go through because they had to use his narration from other things that he had recorded. They collected everything they possibly could of Grahams so that they could really feel what he was talking about in his book. Here is the trailer for the film.

He discussed the whole process from beginning to end of the making of the film and this was so wonderful to hear because he even spoke about the things that went wrong, and so on. I really was in the moment here because its not often you get to hear a company talk about their film making process.

Again I made a ridiculous amount of notes in this session and so won't repeat them on here; but a very funny and interested comment Weyers said just as we were finishing was:

'You know you've made it when its torrented'

This whole day was a wonderful experience, listening to industry experts was the highlight I think because it really gives you a clear sense of what happens in the world of animation. Seeing as we were in Salford University, I decided to collect some material about the courses that they do; of course the animation courses. I want to eventually do a Masters and so this might be the place for it! The people, the place and the university itself was inspirational and I can't wait to go back one day!

I would definitely go to this festival again, I just wish there were more tickets for more classes available! But as the students there get priority I might have to become one of them to get the perks of such a great week!

Having MediaCity in the north really is a boost for our economy and our creativity - I can't wait for more fun adventures like today!

Speak Soon!