First Sam Cundall Newsletter (July 2008)

I thought I'd start this Newsletter off as a way of showing some of the work I've been fortunate to work on this year. Links to all the work are at the end of this Newsletter, enjoy!

At the end of September 2007 I went to the National Gallery, "London Animation Studio Graduate Screening" and in the foyer on the way down to the cinema I was met by Steve and Birgitta, who mentioned that Paul Stone had left the Holborn Studio and asked if I would like to be the new animator in residence for the postgraduate course. I jumped at the chance, and on January 5th I was in there with my laptop, working next to Steve and being introduced to the students. A great experience where I get a free desk at the college and in return the students get to see how I work and ask questions about the industry, I also walk around the studio now and again and help out with flash questions and look at the students work and give advice. I'll definitely be there on the next course to see the new recruits!

The first half of this year has been quite good, January 2nd started on the second QueenAgram for LondonTown.com, a pretty straight forward production working with the creative director at londontown - Steve, my friend Stepan - composer and sound designer at LT, and TBFH, character designer and illustrator, whom I've been working with since 2005 and only in March went up to see him and put a face to all the designs I've been animating. In all we've made 19 films over the last 3 years;

2005 - 6 films for the BBC - "A Fairly Reliable History of British Film", where Keith Guttenberg claims he has been in every British film made, he sits in the boudoir of Luke Lucas, both on comfy chairs and they watch projector slides and pastiche films.

2007 - 10 films for The National Centre of Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics - "CCNBC", Tom and Judy host a "fake" American News Channel, and present misleading graphs, charts and calculations, while strange things happen behind the window - This is directed at young people and encourages students to identify and record the errors made.

2007/2008 - 2 films for LondonTown.com - "QueenAGram" or "Regina Monologues", Christmas and Valentines, where Charles, Philip, the Queen and her two Corgi's sing you a song, busking. These animations were used as a device for enticing residents and visitors of London to browse the LondonTown themed Map of London and book events and hotels. Sent as an email to 40,000 people, usually only 4% of people click on the link to the map - these animations succeeded in a 40% click rate! Unheard of and fantastic for people viewing our work.

2008 - and finally and most recent 1film for Kids Direct.gov - "Tax and Government Spending" - This animation journeys through some different situations, a supermarket, an office, a school - and explains why we pay tax on things and what that money is spent on.

In December job I pitched for Honda UK (officially named "ProblemPlayground") came to me in January. Not just an animating role but more using my knowledge of flash to optimize animations down to a size acceptable for the web and structure the files so that the developers can control the animations.

After February and the Direct Kids, I was contacted by EWAV "Eye to a view Works" to teach animation as part of a voluntary scheme for 20 something’s. The course was held on two days for 8 weeks, one day film and one day animation. The aim was to introduce the students to a new medium and make a film with animation, credits or a trailer, It proved a really good confidence booster and the students were able to express some issues which affected them and produce some really good work, I hope to do this again when it starts late summer.

In April, I contacted a few studios that I've always wanted to work at and to my surprise I was contacted by Passion Pictures to work with them on small project for Genworth Financial. It was fantastic working closely with the producer and director and being in the aura of a company that I really admire. Really nice people and I seem to have made an impression as I'm now requested to work on jobs there, and have just finished a small piece for the BBC Olympics - I look forward to working with them again.

Between the two jobs at Passion, I was asked to provide some bespoke animation for Learn Direct. Three ads were due to be aired in 1 month and we needed to create the website that these ads linked to. Working with a team of designers and developers, we acquired the assets from the ads as they were finished and worked out how we could incorporate them in to the website with the content. A few late nights and weekends later we produced a "hand made" website to compliment the ads. The ball of potential was a great challenge to animate and interact with the scene.

So now here in July, I've been working with a new company working on a series of ads for Fortis Banking and Insurance. One of the first times I've worked on an entire project on 1's! I wonder if I'll ever go back to 2's!

What's the next step?

After working with King Rollo films, in 2003 I moved back to the Isle of Wight, there I hired a studio for £80 a month, and set up studioeleven. 1 employee, a few flash jobs and a few clients. I asked a few animators if they would like to join but the idea ran out of steam as I got more work and had less time to concentrate on the company. Now in 2008 I’ve been thinking of how I can make this company work for five years and now the pieces are falling together. Tbfh and I have been talking about making a short film together, I've been offered desk space and in talks with one of my regular clients to start my company.

Thanks for reading

*Regina Monologues "Christmas"
*Regina Monologues "Valentines"
*A Fairly Reliable History of British Film
*The National Centre of Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics "CCNBC"
*Direct Kids "Tax and Government Spending"
*Honda’s "Problem Playground"
*Learn Direct "Nothing Can Stop You"
*Fortis "life is a curve" Campaign
*Genworth Financial "think it possible"
*BBC Olympics Desktop Monkey