We recently had three practitioners of the industry come in and host some talks regarding how they got into the industry and advice on how we might do the same.
Following a degree in Graphic Design at Leeds Metropolitan University, Susan worked as a freelance illustrator. Moving her focus towards film, she then did a Screenwriting MA at the Northern Film School.
She won the Carl Foreman Screenwriting Award, in association with BAFTA, and spent 18 months at California State University, Long Beach, writing scripts and directing her first short film.
Susan’s first novel, CRAZY HORSE was published by Route. It was a finalist in the new People’s Book Prize, 2010.
Her short stories have appeared in literary magazines including Upstart! and been published in numerous anthologies, including Tubthumping (YAC), Northern Stories (Arc), Paper Clips (Forward Press) Next Stop Hope, The Trouble With Love and Compendium (Route) and The Book of Leeds (Comma Press). In 2010 several of her new stories have been shortlisted for prestigious short story awards including the Bridport Prize and the Fish prize.
Susan’s screenwriting credits include a 2 hour TV thriller for the A Mind to Kill series. She has recently completed a screenplay adaption of Janni Visman's novel Yellow, and is currently working on a new feature script commission.
She has directed four short films, including Mother, Mine (2008) – which has screened at 80 Film Festivals and won 16 International awards.
Specialties
Susan is primarily a thriller writer, though is sometimes tempted to write comedy. As well as writing and directing, Susan also works as a freelance tutor, script editor and script consultant. If a script's sick - she's also a script doctor.
Susan's short film 'Mother, Mine' provoked a lot of thought and I thought it was a brilliant example of writing in which the point of the film is never palpable until the very end and even then it betrays everything we thought we knew or were lead to believe. Though I don't think I'll get into writing professionally I do enjoy and appreciate it and I certainly learned a few tips that I can apply to my own writing in character and environment development.
From Anthony Ward's website:
My name is Antony Ward and I am a freelance digital artist, animator and writer. I have over 18 years experience within the games development industry, working for some of the biggest companies at a senior level. During this time, I have grown as both an artist & animator as well as a manager. My senior positions within the art departments have enabled me to develop my skills in not only managing my own time and workload but also that of a team. I have proven myself adaptable, tough under pressure and a good team player. My understanding of the industry, having worked from the bottom up to leading on a big budget project, has allowed me to be confident in my own abilities. I have been able to pass on the skills I have learnt effectively through both my in-house roles and my books.
I am the author of three successful technical manuals, Game Character Development in Maya (2004), Game Character Development (2008) and 3D Modeling in Silo (2010). These have been popular and have been translated into many different languages including Chinese.
I have also written numerous tutorials for 3DArtist and 3DWorld magazine, as well as creating video tutorials for Digital Tutors.
As Featured In - Digital Tutors, 3DArtist Magazine, 3DWorld Magazine, Exotique by Ballistic, PixelArts Magazine, 3DMag Magazine.
My Specialities – High and low resolution 3D Modeling, Texturing, Rigging, Animation, MEL Scripting, Maya Tool Development, Tutorial Writing.
Anthony's experiences of the past I found amusing (though in a good way) considering how after leaving one company it would collapse, and then the company he joined after leaving would collapse as well. He now works as a freelance animator and though the freedom of not having to 9 'till 5 work must be good, it means he has to find his own work and budget until he can find more. I'm not sure that's the lifestyle for me but only time will tell. But I found his artwork to be very inspiring and he opened my eyes to several different software, as well as the potential of other software I have been looking into; namely PaintTool SAI.
No comments:
Post a Comment