Corporation Pop - Contact Report

Before Christmas I started approaching a number of companies trying to get some feedback on my work, I began e-mailing a number of people trying to spark a conversation, here is one company that I spoke to called Corporation Pop in Manchester city centre:

Email Messages:

Hi David

Sorry for the late reply -

been snowed under with work and getting in those last few holiday days before Christmas,

Ill have a chat with the guys here and see if myself or somebody else can fit you in Ill try and get back to you by tuesday as Im off till then

Regards Martin

On 28 Nov 2008, at 10:46, david croucher wrote:

Hi Martin,

I know it is a bit out of the blue but, as part of my course I am required to try and get some industry feedback and so I was wondering if you, or anyone else at Copop would be interested in seeing some of my work whether it be me visiting your studio or sending you some work? It would only have to be say ten minutes or so just so I could show you a few pieces Ive done and get a few comments on what you like, dislike could improve on etc!

Thanks very much and hope to hear from you soon.
regards
David

--- On Wed, 26/11/08, Martin Wood <martin@copop.co.uk> wrote:
From: Martin Wood <martin@copop.co.uk>
Subject: Re: HI!!!!!!!
To: davecroucher4@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Wednesday, 26 November, 2008, 1:29 PM

Hi David

Its worth searching amazon for some after effects books and getting a couple - The problem with web tutorials is they become quite linear and don't allow discussion around the techniques your using - ie how to use the same technique to create a different effect or use it in a different situation. I personally have always found books a better alternative.

Also Its always good to have something to pick up when your render window says approx 60mins.

My role in the company is mainly on the multimedia end The company was mainly Design for Print and I was taken on to expand the skill base into web / multimedia and video.

So from being a motion graphics graduate - I retrained myself into web design, html and css coding, virtual world design, 3D modelling etc....

If you have a love of interactive deign its just as satisfying whatever area your working in - well thats what I find anyway.

I still get chance to work in Video - not as often as I'd like but with the spectrum of work that comes through the studio I still get to keep a hand in with the Print side as-well.

I came out of Uni eyes wide open knowing that the larger your skill set (and also your talent) the easier it would be to find work in the industry.

( I originally started on the graphic arts course and transferred after the first year to multimedia because I understood I would need a larger skill base especially with the shift in the industry to a more digital environment )

Hope this is useful.

On 25 Nov 2008, at 17:29, david croucher wrote:

Hi Martin, Thanks for the advice. I have a bit of a confession to make, I'm actually doing my degree at the Stockport college campus, LJMU run the course but ive only actually been to LJMU once at the start of the 3 years! but will be going again in June when we graduate! lol. so again, sorry to get your hopes up.
As for the animation my room is full of sheets of paper already! and been using lots of cutout 2d puppets for it aswell, so lots of arms n legs all over the place! do you know of any good tutorial sites for 3d animation within after effects? that is my next task on the piece.
If you dont mind me asking what is your main role in the company? and is it the area you intended to go into after uni?

Regards
David



--- On Tue, 25/11/08, Martin Wood <martin@copop.co.uk> wrote:
From: Martin Wood <martin@copop.co.uk>
Subject: HI!!!!!!!
To: davecroucher4@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Tuesday, 25 November, 2008, 4:56 PM

Hi David

Always Nice to hear from a fellow JMU lad - I was on the multimedia arts course and graduated back in 2006, couple of years ago now.

Hows 68Hope Street - still a shack? or has the new building gone up now?

You Still got Carole and Ian tutoring?

We work in all area's including Web Design, Animation, Video, Virtual World Design But the company's main background is in Design for Print.

Bit more detail needed if you want a few tips but if your working to a soundtrack....

always a good idea to open the waveform - If its got a heavy beat you can Beatmatch using It.

Oh and lots and lots of tracing paper for stop motion, ha ha.

____________________________________

Hello, I'm very interested in your company and really like some of the work you produce, i especially like the Arts council 05 piece with the candles, and the warehouse project video. I am a third year multimedia design student on the BA hons degree at LJMU, and before this I came from a national diploma in graphic design. I am currently working on a self directed brief that comprises of an advert for 'Tomorrows World' using hand drawn techniques, stop motion and after effects. What areas do you mainly work in as a company? do you have any advice on stop-motion or working your animation to a music track? Any reply would be much appreciated. regards David Croucher Multimedia design (BA hons) LJMU ____________________________________

Regards Martin Wood

Corporation Pop

22 Lever Street

Manchester M1 1EA

Telephone 0161 228 7772

www.copop.co.uk

The Lost Tribes Of New York City

Just watched this video on motionographer.com by Andy and Carolyn London, I think this video works really well using everyday street objects from in and around New York as the characters, it has obvious inspirations from Aardmans creature comforts series but I also think this would have been a lovely idea for the 'New way of looking' brief we did in the second year. I really like some of the random objects used and it has inspired me to keep my eyes peeled for any interesting little things that could influence me or be the starting point for a piece of work.

Its Time To Fly

Beautiful set of adverts for United Airlines directed by James Caliri and produced entirely in stop motion and cardboard puppets and the stop motion software Dragon 1.0.

You can watch the making of the video here: United

I love the concept of the child imagining where his dad has gone, dreaming that he is a knight fighting a dragon, then it has a nice little twist when his dad comes home with a toy dragon to give him. The advert has fantastic transitions throughout that really bring the advert together and must have been very hard to create using stop frame techniques.

Diesel XXX Viral Ad

Great viral advert for Diesel made by the 'Viral Factory' using old 70's pornography and rotoscoping!!! The result is not visually explicit but is still a bit controversial! it works well as a viral because Diesel is supposed to be a sexy, cutting edge fashion label and also it would probably be banned from the tv if it was aired.

Nexus Productions - Portfolio Review

On Wednesday the 4th March whilst in London I had a portfolio review with Nathalie from Nexus Productions. Nexus is a creative studio that mainly focuses on adverts and short animated films and is named by the popular creative industry blog Motionographer as being in the top 20 cream of the crop list. After having a few minor problems finding the studio I met Nathalie and began a grand tour of the whole building, of which there was 4 floors! she explained what went on in the different rooms of the building and explained that the day I had come was relatively quiet and that if I had come a week earlier the whole place would have been full. We made our way into one studio where there were two of her colleauges were working and they briefly showed me the sort of stuff they do and then asked to see some of mine.
I showed my work to them on my laptop and they seemed quite impressed, especially with my Tomorrows World piece, and asked lots of questions on how i did certain things and why I chose to do certain things. They asked what area of design I wanted to go into and, as I wasnt sure, we talked about the different areas available and how broad or narrow different jobs can be. The big question I found interesting was 'do you want to go into art directing or production?' as it is someting I hadnt really given much thought and also I just presumed that you would start off and work your way up to directors role, but I said that whatever I go into I want to be as hands on as possible.
After speaking to them Nathalie took me up to the top floor where I was briefly introduced to the directors who were all working away on different things. She introduced me to Jonny Kelly (see my earlier post about his work) as I had mentioned to her earlier on that I liked his work, and we had a quick chat about stop motion and he showed us some of the colourful paper models/puppets that he was using in an animation which were fascinating!
This ended my visit and as we walked down from the top floor I asked her advice about personal websites and she said that the simpler the better just showing a reel and other choice pieces clearly and easy to navigate, and just before I left I gave her some business cards with a link to my site and she said to keep in touch.
I think my visit was definately a success and I think I got a good insight into how a well respected company works and intend to stay in touch and send them my FMP at the end of the course.














Smith & Foulkes - Coke Advert (Grand theft auto style)
















Smith & Foulkes - Comcast

















Jonny Kelly - The Seed

Mitch Walker - Portfolio Review

My 2nd interview on the 25th Feb was with a freelance director called Mitch Walker who has been in the industry for many years and worked on lots of high profile advertising campaigns. After introducing myself again I showed him my work on the laptop in chronological order. He started with feedback on the Pole to Pole title sequence by saying that he thought after seeing the other work this was definately the weakest piece and explained that something he tells a lot of students and graduates is; when you are designing something for tv, you should carefully consider your layout and composition, because, as your sat at your computer working on it you are viewing it all the time at a matter of 15-20 inches away from the screen! whereas watching the tv sat in your living room you are usually a good few feet away from it! he said this was a key flaw on my title sequence because up close you can read the text that appears on the page but from further away you almost certainly woudnt make it out. I think this is a very valid criticism and something I didnt really think of at the time of making it. He also went on to talk about my Tomorrows world advert by saying that he thought it seemed a bit long and that this was because it is all one long shot, coming from an advertising background he said that a snappy re-edit would really improve the piece and break it up abit. Again I think this is very true as it was something I tried to overcome when making the piece (which is why I used the semi-3d sections to try and break it up abit).
We went on to talk about getting a job in the industry and how to get noticed, his opinion was (which is quite contrasting from other professionals i have spoken to) to try and give people a print version of my work or a disk with my reel on it, that could be handed to people or sent in the post to studios, which would perhaps just have some still shots of my work and a link to my website and other contact details. I think this is a good idea but was thinking more along the lines of business cards that I can hand to people with web address etc on it, because quite a few professionals say that they get sent hundreds of disks and cant be bothered playing them, because its much easier to click on a link and view your work online.
Overall I liked Mitch, he seemed to be bold enough to give an honest opinion and some decent advise rather than just saying that they look nice! I think I will take pole to pole out of my portfolio for now and in future to remember the target audience a bit more. He ended with saying overall he liked my work and thinks I could do well in the industry, and that he wanted to stay in touch.

Brenden Dawes - Portfolio Review

On 25th February I attended the D&AD portfolio surgery sessions at the Urbis gallery in Manchester. My first interview was with creative director Brenden Dawes from the Manchester based company Magneticnorth. When I went in I introduced myself and explained where i had come from and where I intend to go, which was good because I had not had any contact prior to the interview to talk to him. I began to show him my work which I had brought on a laptop and showed him my earliest piece first, my joint collaboration called 'Pole to Pole', then showed him my museum mini site, my nandos game, dave ident and finally my Tomorrows world ad. After seeing my work he gave me a bit of feedback by saying that he thought all of the pieces were nice, but as he was coming from a mainly interactive background he was most interested by my 2 flash pieces. He said that my animation (tomorrows world) was probably my strongest piece and after a bit of discussion advised that animation/moving image is probably the best avenue for me to persue as I said that I have started to really enjoy that aspect of my work. He explained that as a company they probably wouldnt be much use to me as they mainly specify in interactive/web work which I saw as a polite way of saying that he wasnt interested in giving me a job, which was fine as I wasnt expecting him to, but he said to stay in touch anyway. I think overall it went relatively well and I think that perhaps knowing that he was an interactive worker I should have focused on showing him that sort of work.