CHARON

When searching for work experience I also contacted David Wilson (http://www.davidwilsoncreative.com), signed to Blink. He couldn't help me at the time, but in January he contacted me asking if I wanted to run on a music video for a weekend. Of course I said yes and met him in Richmond woods at six in the morning. We were shooting a promo for Keaton Henson, a lovely acoustic artist and illustrator (http://www.keatonhenson.com/), with John Malcolm Moore (http://www.johnmalcolmmoore.com/), a recent graduate from Kingston.

The first day in the forest was freezing, and the second day in a grotty hotel room in Kensington was a bit disgusting, but it was an amazing experience. Met some great people and learnt a lot more. I took some photos:

Here is the finished video, really nice film. I got a credit too which is pretty sweet.



Keaton Henson - Charon from Keaton Henson on Vimeo.

Ode To The Greenman

This was a project inspired by the scenes and creatures of the medieval age, and in particular the ancient Pagan symbol, the Greenman. I wanted to reinvent these medieval scenes and conquer After Effects for the first time to animate it. Using old Gothic 'Books of Hours', tapestries and woodcuts as reference I created a brief story in which a boy realises he doesn't agree like the cruelty of society and discovered the world of the myth was far more appealing.

 

This is the final animation. Over one hundred layers of Photoshop edited artwork! A long process.

Ode To The Greenman from Jimmy Patrick on Vimeo.

I presented the project in an A3 hardback book, with its original artwork.

Work Experience

During November I did some fantastic work experience for two weeks with a guy called Joseph Mann (http://www.josephmann.co.uk/). Although not signed just yet, he works for Blink Ink, and this job was the second commercial he was directing for them. It was a free job for a charity called 'The International Exchange', which encourages companies and their employees to be less wasteful by getting them to do charity work abroad and come back with an improved work ethic. Blink was doing the job for free, and the budget was very low, so I was certainly not the only person not getting paid.

We were building a miniature office environment out of card and paper which would then be animated in stop-motion. I was right at home building little models, and often to my suprise I was being brought cups of coffee rather than the other way around! I made lamp-posts, cars, office chairs, mugs, doors, potted plants, chimney pots, window frames, and even a ping-pong table!

 

Unforntunately I could only come for one day of filming because I had so much of my own stuff to do, but some of the equipment and lighting was pretty amazing. Joe sent me some stills afterwards. 

I still don't know if Joe has even finished this film yet...but if he tells me I'll link it. I wrote my dissertation on this experience so I could write about it for ages. I won't, but I learnt loads!

Printed Package

To help me get work experience in the autumn term I designed and printed a package of things to send out. It had a screenprinted cd sleeve with my showreel inside, a screenprinted net and a risographed CV onto which I printed a personalised letter on the reverse.