Month: June 2025

Unit 1

Festivals, submissions and exhibitions

Post author By Florence Macleod
Post date 11th June 2025
No Comments on Festivals, submissions and exhibitions

Festivals of interest for ‘A Clayful Adventure’:

London Short Film Festival (London) submission deadline: 10th of August, 2025
Stop motion Our Fest (Argentina) submission deadline: Not announced
Stop Trik (Slovenia) submission deadline: 7th of July, 2025
Annecy (France) submission deadline: Not announced
Cannes (France) submission deadline: Not announced

I will start submitting my Unit 3 film, ‘A Clayful Adventure’ to festivals after our degree show in June. I also intend to record the music with The Guildhall Session orchestra in September, which will add even more atmosphere to the piece.

Unit 2, ‘Peel Great’ festival submissions.

Fine Lines Illustration and Animation Festival

I was delighted to get my Unit 2 film, ‘Peel Great’ selected for this Festival’ in May. This is the first time one of my directed films has been screened at a festival. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to be there in person, but I received pictures and a video of the event. It was amazing to hear the audiences reaction and laughter. It makes the whole stressful process of making a film feel worth it.

I was also lucky enough to have the Unit 1 LIAF film, ‘Why Not’, selected for ‘Fine Lines Illustration and Animation Festival’. I worked as an animator, story developer, character and background designer and helped make replacement pieces.

Brighton International Animation Festival Visit

I went to the Brighton International Animation Festival on the 6th of April and saw two screenings, ‘East Asian Panorama’ and ‘Queer as F++k’.

Central Saint Martins MA Character Animation was well represented, with a lot of last year’s graduates having their films screened. This gave me some confidence to believe that I could do this too and I also spoke to a lot of the alumni at the event.

I will definitely submit both ‘A Clayful Adventure’ and ‘Peel Great’ to BIAF 2026.

London Short Film Festival Visit

Screenshots of the screenings I went to. I particularly loved ‘Come on Let’s Play’, there was so many charming stopmotion films.

At a venue for The London Short Film Festival, 2025

Exhibition Inspiration

One day I would love to be able to have an exhibition of my work, spanning across Animation, ceramics, graphic design and illustration. Getting into an exhibition is very difficult, but there is a space called ‘Free The Gallery’ in Crystal Palace that runs pop-ups and markets. I have sold my ceramics there before but I will also reach out to inquire about exhibition space. I felt so inspired after seeing ‘The World of Tim Burton’ exhibition at The Design Museum, it was like stepping into a film set.

Tim Burton’s workspace. Picture from ‘The World of Tim Burton’ Exhibition. It would be amazing to be able to make a living making things and creating characters and stories.

I also enjoyed looking at Burton’s illustrated storyboards

The puppets were beautifully crafted and held so much character expression.

Unit 1

Protected: Unit 3: The Future Part 2

Post author By Florence Macleod
Post date 11th June 2025

Unit 3

Unit 3 – The Future part 1

Post author By Florence Macleod
Post date 11th June 2025
No Comments on Unit 3 – The Future part 1

Option: Further Study

I really enjoy studying and I have been looking at possible further educational options. The two that interest me the most are Aardman Academy’s Stop Motion Professional Course, and the Directing Animation Masters at The National Film and Television School. I attended both online open days to learn more.

I love the sound of both of Aardman Academy’s in-person courses in Bristol. I think that the Stopmotion Professional one would be really beneficial for me as it is a 5 week intensive course, with a small group size. You get to work with special Aardman human puppets/armatures and replacement pieces, do a different animation task each week and get feedback along the way. They said that they also run this course for their staff members because it is so important. The course is run by Will Beecher.

The NFTS Directing Animation masters degree offers access to incredible equipment, studios and collaborators. The first year is about using play and experimentation to get ideas and explore different techniques. The second year is about development and making your final film. However, I’m not sure if another two year course is right for me.

Further study would allow me to spend more time on a specific project, hone my craft and work on time management skills. However, I would love to be able to get a job and I think it is important for me to put myself out there more and have some confidence in my abilities.

Open Day Screenshots

Option: Teaching

Teaching is another area of interest. I was a graduate teaching assistant in BA Graphic Communication Design at CSM in 2019 (after I graduated) and I have also worked with UAL insights in the past. I would be very interested in being a GTA for MA Character Animation. I could bring a lot of advice and help with technical support for stopmotion students.

I am signed up to Arts Temps, to keep up with any job opportunities.

Option: Ceramic Future

I have rejoined my pottery studio in Crystal Palace to prepare ceramic characters for the 2025 Christmas markets. This period is my busiest and most successful time to sell my work, as they make good Christmas presents or ‘Secret Santa’ gifts.

I also need to get back in touch with the UAL ‘Not just a shop’ shop. My work was excepted last year, but there was a pause as I didn’t have enough time to make the stock for the original planned release.

Examples of my Ceramics

I currently stock a selection of ceramic creatures in a shop and event space called Pexmas, in Brixton. As an artist there I also have the opportunity to run workshops which is something that I will explore after graduating. I would like to run a model making and simple stopmotion workshop, which could be achieved with low costs using simple object based animation and plasticine.