Catherine PorterInterview Transcript

Interviewer: Catherine Porter

Interviewee: Ian Hothersall Media Practitioner

Interview Setting: The interview was conducted via email due to distance between both parties.

[Start of interview]

Interviewer: How/why did you find an interest in animation?

Interviewee: Animation theoretically allows the film maker to control all aspects of the film without help. You can design and build the set, position the lights, control the performance in a way that would not be possible on a live film set. For larger scale productions this isn't really true anymore - there are as many (if not more) departments as in live film but for small independent/art productions the animator can imagine any scenario and begin realising it immediately without restrictions.

Interviewer: How do you as a media practitioner, manage a work-life medium?

Interviewee: Animators can become very obsessive - Once you are in the zone hours can fly by without you noticing. A full time animator would need be watchful against this and work regular hours but there is always the temptation to add one more frame to the sequence.

Interviewer: What's the first animated film you watched and how would you compare it to modern animation?

Interviewee: My earliest memories are of the classic 30s and 40s Hanna/Barbera and Tex Avery cartoon shorts. I think this era marked an early high point in animation that has only recently been matched by Disney and Pixar. The cost of production of hand drawn animation became too expensive for the television market in 1960s and various cost-cutting techniques were introduced such as only animating part of the frame, repeating backgrounds or animating at less than 24 frames per sec. During the 90s computer animation did away with lots of these techniques but the results still didn't have that 'living' quality of the early labour intensive hand drawn animation. The latest generation of animators seem to have finally equalled and perhaps bettered the early golden era.

Interviewer: Do you know of any challenges the media industry face today, can be relating to your specific sector.

Interviewee: For the independent film-maker there was a brief period when new digital technology brought the cost of production down to affordable levels but dvd and vhs were still thriving distribution channels. With these media in decline, independent film-makers need to find a way to profit from digital content.

Interviewer: Would you say animated films have grown in popularity and attained a larger audience over their progression in the industry?

Interviewee: Hugely - after a decline in the 70s and 80s there has been an animation renaissance - certainly stated by the advent of computer animation but its also renewed interest in traditional forms such as stop motion.

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