Contact Report - Nexus E-mails

After finding out that we were to be in London for a few days going round studios, I decided to contact a few companies that were based there to try and get a visit organised for myself, after sending a few e-mails this company replied called Nexus Productions (see my earlier post on how the meeting went)

E-mail messages:

On 23 Feb 2009, at 11:16, david croucher wrote:
Hello,
I'm very interested in your company and really like some of the work you produce, especially the 'Mr Long Legs' ad, 'Dept of Transport' ad and the work from Johnny Kelly.
I am a third year multimedia design student on the BA hons degree at LJMU/Stockport College, and before this I came from a national diploma in graphic design.
I am currently working on my final major project and intend to produce a series of adverts for a leading high street bank, to restore the publics confidence using 2d animation and mixed media.
As part of my course I am taking a trip to London on 4th,5th,6th March and am required to try and get some industry feedback from my portfolio and so I was wondering if you would be interested in seeing some of my 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 Croucher
Multimedia design (BA hons)
LJMU/Stockport College

Monday, 23 February, 2009 12:37 PM:

David,

I'd be very happy to meet you and review your portfolio/show you the studio. Shall we say Thursday 5th at 12:30?
We are located in Shoreditch and the nearest tubes are Old Street or Liverpool Steet stations.
Let me know if this would suit you.

Nathalie Le Berre


On 23 Feb 2009, at 13:01, david croucher wrote:

> Hi Nathalie, wow thanks for the swift reply and offer! I think that should be fine but my tutor is taking us to Studio AKA and I'm not sure when exactly that is going to be! would it be possible for me to get back to you tommorow as then I will know for sure!
> Thank you very much again,
> David

Monday, 23 February, 2009 1:05 PM

From:

"Nathalie Le Berre"

To:

davecroucher4@yahoo.co.uk

David,

That's fine, I'd be available Wednesday or Thursday but I'm not in the office on Friday.
Thanks

Nathalie


On 24 Feb 2009, at 12:57, david croucher wrote:

> Hi Nathalie, I have confirmed with my tutors and I think Thursday 5th at 12.30 will be fine, would I need to bring a laptop or would a portable drive be ok to show my work? also do you have a number I could ring if there was any problems with the time, finding you etc
> Thanks again
> David

Tuesday, 24 February, 2009 12:59 PM

From:

"Nathalie Le Berre"

To:

davecroucher4@yahoo.co.uk

Dave,

So 12:30 and call our switchboard on 020 7749 7500 if you have any problems.
]See you on Thursday.

Nathalie

Thursday, 26 February, 2009 12:53 PM

From:

"Nathalie Le Berre"

To:

davecroucher4@yahoo.co.uk

David,

I've just realised that I've double booked myself on the 5th. I'm actually going to the NFTS short film screening all day.
Sorry about that, it had skipped my mind. Could we meet on the Wednesday 4th instead at 12 or 12:30?
Let me know if that would be convenient for you.

Nathalie

Thursday, 26 February, 2009 1:53 PM

From:

"david croucher"

To:

"Nathalie Le Berre"

Hi Nathalie,

Yea ok wednesday will be fine, I will try to get there for 12.30 then, I have a visit in the morning but if I have any problems I will ring you before hand.
Should I bring a laptop or would a portable hard drive be ok?
Look forward to meeting you,

David

Monday, 9 March, 2009 2:43 PM

From:

"david croucher"

To:

"Nathalie Le Berre"

Hi Nathalie, I'm back in Manchester now after a very successful week in London, and would just like to say thanks again for letting me visit. I also have a question that I forgot to ask when I was there, and that is; How was the Ambi Pur advert on your site made? was it done in after effects or does it have 3d elements to it? because i am thinking of using that sort of style and setting but in a hand drawn style with a fairy tale theme. Any help would be great, thanks, David

Wednesday, 11 March, 2009 11:11 AM

From:

"Nathalie Le Berre"

To:

"david croucher"

David,

It was really nice meeting you. Hope you enjoyed the rest of your visit to London, and the other animation and post houses visits.
I wasnt here when Nexus did the Ambi Pur ads but I'll find out from the director when he's back in. I'll let you know.
Hope will get to see your graduation film when finished.

Nathalie

Contact Report - Alex Bower

Following a portfolio review set up by my tutor with Alex Bower from Bright digital he asked to keep in touch and send him my finished 'Tomorrows world' ad because I had showed it to him when it was a work in progress.

Email Messages:

Tuesday, 6 January, 2009 4:12 PM

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yQTn8LFc1G8

look thru the comments for some handy stuff for particular



Good to hear from you Dave.
Happy new year to you to!

The advert looks brilliant mate.
much better with the sound effects!
Hope you get a good mark for it, you deserve one.

I am currently working on a showreel at the moment with some of our work on, i am hoping to have it up there as soon as poss.
ill let you know when it is.

Also heres a few links for the light streaks idea you had.

you may have seen these before...

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/
(look at light streaks and 3d stroke)

The light streaks uses trapcode particular in AE (good for this sort of thing)

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/downloads/trial-versions/

try it out
lemme know how you get on
good luck

alex

________________________________________
From: david croucher [davecroucher4@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: 06 January 2009 11:53
To: Alex Bower
Subject: HELLO!!!

Hi Alex, Happy new year! Don't know if you remember but I spoke to you and your colleague Rachel before christmas when you came into college and I showed you some of my work, well anyway, as promised (if not a little later than planned) here is my finished advert for my self directed project, hope you like it:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uu-n6HodXq0 (click 'watch in high quality'!!)

If you would like i can send you a disc with a better quality version on it. Also I was just wondering where i could find any of your companies work, as the only piece i have seen is the courthouse site you have done which is really nice.
Hope to hear from you soon,

Dave Croucher
Stockport College

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