Student wins Best Animation at London International Student Film Festival
07 May 2021
Animation and Visual Effects student Lucy Gatenby has won Best Animation at the London International Student Film Festival for her short film Case Closed.
The festival showcases some of the best student filmmaking talent in the country, with professional networking opportunities provided for winning submissions.
In Lucy’s film, a spy is forced to pursue a runaway villain in a chaotic chase when an unexpected security feature derails her mission. We caught up with Lucy to learn a little more about her submission.
What does winning this competition mean to you?
I am so grateful to receive the award because it means that all our hard work to get the film finished has paid off. Me and our team of 40 transitioned to working from home in between the production due to the pandemic and had to adjust to working online. Despite this challenge, we still met the deadlines and managed to submit the film to festivals.
This award represents our commitment and dedication to the film
Winning this award was the icing on top of the cake because it means our film got recognised and this award represents our commitment and dedication to the film. I am over the moon to have won best animation; this film has a strong place in my memory and it means so much to me that my characters are enjoyed by many others. This was also my first experience as a director, I also took on lots of other roles and was determined to get the film finished, my other roles included: art director, character designer, lead background artist, compositor and editor.
How has your course helped develop your skills as an animator?
Taking on the role as a director in my final year meant that teamwork and working with others allowed me to become more confident in my work. Working as a team and in different groups has prepared me for the industry and how communication and collaboration is key in animation. There was lots of one to one feedback when it came to making the film, which helped me perfect the story and I am very grateful for this as it really helped me improve my storytelling abilities.
Working as a team and in different groups has prepared me for the industry
Were there any other Falmouth students involved on the project? How did they contribute?
Tabby Caton-Rose was lead animator of the film and was really enthusiastic to play with the characters in a dynamic way. They really were a key asset to the team, and were always keen to help out others with how to animate the main characters and they adapted to my style and direction really well.
Aiesha Penwarden was the storyboard artist, who was responsible for framing each of the shots and doing a drawing first pass of the whole film before it gets assigned to animators. I really learnt a lot from them about all sorts of storytelling tips and tricks. They also were a huge help with me developing the story, making sure it all made sense and all the shots hooked up.
Rebecca Hardess was the producer of the film and they helped keep everyone on track and progressing towards the same deadline. They were also a great help with applying the film to various festivals which helped us win these great awards.
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