SOMETHING ABOUT COLLABORATION.

Andy Martin works by himself and produces short films and animations as well as illustrations. His early illustrations were for magazines such as Moneywise USA Insurance and Mens Health Magazine etc.

In his presentation, he was teeling us about the in's and out's of collaborating with other people and how certain things he had done made things easier for different projects.
One of his pieces of advice, was to keep a massive archive file full of re-usable images/footage that you can keep dipping into with each project you come across. I really like this idea because you could come up with an incredible idea for producing an image or filming technique etc - but because this idea doesn't really fit in with the type of project you're doing at the moment you kind of dismiss it and put it to the back of your mind which you then forget about! But I do think it is a really good idea to note ideas down as and when you think of them so that you can come back to them for future project potentials!
He also experiments with moving image and filmmaking - His first experimental films screened in early onedotzero festivals.
One of Andy Martin's pieces of film works which i was really drawn to was 'End Of The Street' which was based around Ian McMillan's 'I Like The Noise' poem. It is a film by Andy Martin, but was written and narrated by Ian McMillan. Andy confessed that this was one of the only films he had to storyboard - with his earlier abstract films, he just created the visuals as he went along, which i can relate to as i do the same, i feel it works better for me. But with this particular project Andy had to produce a storyboard and admitted to us that it had really helped him in the end as he had to create visuals based around narration and he felt that the storyboards helped him to understand where he was up to and not get lost.
He showed us an example of some of those particular storyboards, they were so rough and messy, i was quite pleased when i saw them because as an illustrator i was expecting really neat drawings etc - but because of the pressure he was under with this project the storyboards he began producing became more frantic - but the point is that he understood what each board meant, the message he was trying to put across, he understood it all which is all that matters, as they were personal boards and not ones he was trying to get a job for.





Here is the link for the 'End Of The Street' video on his website page: http://www.andy-martin.com/film/video

www.containerplus.co.uk
Luise Vormitta (left) from Container Plus came into Stockport college and spoke about the company she has set up along with Nicola Carter (right). They had met whilst studying together at Camberwell University and decided to set up a company when they had graduated.
ContainerPLUS is a multidisciplinary art and design collective specialising in creating fantasy worlds across a range of 2D and 3D platforms.
The designs are mainly illustration based.And I think the majority of their work is absolutely beautiful - It is very pleasing to the eye. The design below has been entered into a T-Shirt design competition being held by Wagamama - A Japanese style restaurant. Their noodles design I think flows nicely. It is this style of work Luise was showing us in her presentation along with installations, photography and set designs etc.

Luise strongly put the point across that her company collaborates a lot of the time with other designers specialising in a variety of subjects - such as animation for example. She also admitted to us all during the presentation that working with other people is not really her style, but she realised somewhere down the line that it was necessary if she wished her company to succeed.
One piece of work that Luise showed us in the presentation that I was really interested in was an 'Art Car' Installation where they were invited to decorate a car and the two boards surrounding it - I cannot for the life of me remember who the client for this project was! If anyone can remember please let me know! Their work consisted of projecting an image of a womans body onto the car and space surrounding the car and used this projection to act as a guide for them to illustrate over the projection. What I also liked about about this work was the fact that because the womans knees were projected off the rectangular board they decided to add the knees to the board using extra material - which made it different from the other 'Art Car' works.

Container Plus also made a website (in collaboration) for a boutique advertising agency called 'The Assembly'. They made everything by hand - out of cardboard! The scene is beautiful and is done in a really nice style. They collaborated with other people to help animate the homepage and make it quirky! The only downside Id like to mention about the design of the website is that once you click on an area such as 'about us' or 'contact us' it has no way of getting back to the homepage ... there is a blue arrow pointing at the title 'The Assembly' which i took to click if i wanted to go back to the homepage. But it didn't do anything. I found it a little confusing and i started to get annoyed with the layout of the site!
http://www.theassemblyagency.com/


Luise also explained to us that she had tried expanding her company by inviting 3 more people to join them - a photographer, and two young set designers. Patricia Niven who is the photographer, had the same level of commitment as Nicola and Luise, but the two young girls who were the set designers didn't really have the same level of commitment as the others and after a year of joining the company everybody decided that things had gotten too complicated regarding decision making etc and so the two set designers decided to leave and set up their own company.
Currently the Container Plus consists of the two illustrators and a photographer and collaborate with other people along the way as they need them - this is working very well for them and the company is a success because of their radical changes.

Luise also mentioned that the business is a success because she doesn't let her personal feelings get in the way of her professional work. An assistant sometimes joins them on certain projects as an extra pair of hands. This girl personally annoys Luise, but she knows that for the good of the company she needs to have a professional working attitude towards this girl. Personal feelings should not get in the way of good work.

To end the presentation, Luise focused on advice on how to deal with collaborating with other people. Make sure everybody gets to have a say about their own ideas and a say on other peoples ideas - conversation is the best way. Learn to listen and make sure people listen to you too. This was the advice she ended with and I found it admirable the way she presented her work and gave advice to us all throughout the whole presentation.