The VFX Festival 2016 – Milk’s Clare Norman Joins The Women In Industry Panel

Blok from Third Floor.

The discussion centered around the women’s experience of the industry, how they got to the position they were in now and what the path’s were that took them there.

Jenny Richard Saunders (Women in Games) and Gina Jackson (NextGen), are both part of organisations which promote and support the progression of women in the industry. They were both advocates of the mutual benefits of mentoring initiatives to help new talent navigate the industry.

It was acknowledged that for various reasons commercially and socially, it’s important for the industry to be as equal as possible and for this reason it’s necessary to ensure animation and VFX remain accessible to the next generation.

A later session was with Tom Box, Co-Founder of Blue Zoo animation studio. Tom spoke about their practice of taking time out to do collaborative non-commercial projects such as ‘Commuter glitch’. An opportunity for the whole studio to make something together and be fully creative.

He also spoke about his 10 top tips for a thriving studio. We particularly liked point no10.

The next session was by Barry Corcuran from Rushes describing the motion graphics and digital storytelling they did for James Bond film Spectre. A labour of love lasting 13 months it was fascinating to hear about the UI breakdown and how closely they worked with Director Sam Mendes to achieve the results in the film.