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Students get animated over success

2:43pm Monday 26th May 2008

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A DOG singing Elvis Presley songs, one man's war against slugs in his back garden and a rather sinister rabbit.

Those were some of the bizarre entries in the Solent Animation Awards at Southampton's Harbour Lights Picture House.

Final year students at Southampton Solent University spent more than six months in dark editing rooms to create the three-minute masterpieces as part of their degree.

In what could be described as the city's answer to the Cannes Film Festival, hundreds of people turned up to watch the premiere of the films in the surroundings of Ocean Village.

As the lights dimmed and the curtains were drawn back, the audience was treated to a host of original and visually stunning pieces of work.


Click here to see the animated film


It was a labour of love with students having to write their own stories, invent characters, think up themes, develop their own music and spend countless hours meticulously polishing the final product ahead of a tight deadline set by their course leader.

Now in its fifth year, a total of 13 students entered the competition that saw four entrants walk away with trophies.

Animation course leader Adam Comiskey said: "They shed blood, sweat and tears to finish those films.

"The bar has been raised this year as we have shortened the length of the films to three minutes so they are able to focus on visuals.

"They have worked incredibly hard. For a three-minute film you are talking more than 4,500 drawings per character on screen. So potentially each three-minute film could be up to 10,000 drawings as well as the special effects.

"It's not something you can pull out of a hat at the last minute,"

he added.

Some of the films cost more than £1,500 to produce with students using part of their student loans to bankroll the projects.

But for many the investment will pay off as most are expected to get jobs as animators in video games, advertising and visual effects.

The Daily Echo will be screening a different film every day for the next two weeks on our website starting today with A Piece of the Action by Shawn Martin, which won the award for innovation.

The 23-year-old from Southampton said: "It's about a musician's struggle to find people that appreciate his music. I thought what if someone carrying a violin case was mistaken for a gangster by the mob?"

Shawn spent more than £1,500 producing the film and a week and a half perfecting a 540-degree pan shot during the film that lasted 20 seconds.


Your Say YourEcho

paul b, says...
9:35am Tue 27 May 08

Scrounging students wasting MY money as usual. Get a job, you bunch of layabouts

bubble, fair oak says...
12:45pm Tue 27 May 08

What a thoughtless,single-m
inded comment..Contrary to popular belief not all students are drunk layabouts!I am one of these film students who spent months doing nothing but working on my film and working part time aswell!...all to get a good job at the end in the industry I want to go into! A LOAN is money you have to pay back..it is not YOUR money. A GRANT is money you dont!.I have £16k debt from my LOAN which I have to pay back and havnt had a penny from YOUR POCKET!I pay tax from my job and i come from a good honest hard working family who have also have never had a penny from the state! so why dont u find out the facts before u start putting people down for their efforts to get an education and make something of their lives at their financial expense NOT YOURS!

paul b, says...
4:45pm Tue 27 May 08

bubble wrote:
What a thoughtless,single-m
inded comment..Contrary to popular belief not all students are drunk layabouts!I am one of these film students who spent months doing nothing but working on my film and working part time aswell!...all to get a good job at the end in the industry I want to go into! A LOAN is money you have to pay back..it is not YOUR money. A GRANT is money you dont!.I have £16k debt from my LOAN which I have to pay back and havnt had a penny from YOUR POCKET!I pay tax from my job and i come from a good honest hard working family who have also have never had a penny from the state! so why dont u find out the facts before u start putting people down for their efforts to get an education and make something of their lives at their financial expense NOT YOURS!
You don't think the measly tuition fee you MAY have paid actually covers the entire cost of your course, do you? No, it's subsidised by me the tax-payer. So actually it IS my money you filthy scrounging student scumbag get a proper job, film-making - which you almost certainly will never get anywhere in anyway - isn't a real job

Adele, southampton says...
12:17am Wed 28 May 08

HAHA why dont you get a life u disgusting rude perfetic little person!measly tuition fee of £3k a year plus studio cost etc lol!without getting political u gonna go down the immigrants,tac cheat,nhs route aswell! why im reading ur comments I dont know!the day I start taking advice off someone as rude as urself is the day u actually mind ur own business..and get some manners!so why dont you just get a life!u obviously havnt got one or ur not that happy with it if u have to start critiscing other peoples! Theres nothing wrong with ambition,and following it!maybe if u had some aspiration to make something of urself u wouldnt be so god **** rude and miserable!iv got a job so why dont u get a life!

Adele, southampton says...
12:26am Wed 28 May 08

do u get off on putting people down?is ur life really that empty u have to put down people youve never met!people like u make me laugh!ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC!

Sparkz, Hampshire says...
1:55pm Wed 28 May 08

paul b wrote:
bubble wrote: What a thoughtless,single-m inded comment..Contrary to popular belief not all students are drunk layabouts!I am one of these film students who spent months doing nothing but working on my film and working part time aswell!...all to get a good job at the end in the industry I want to go into! A LOAN is money you have to pay back..it is not YOUR money. A GRANT is money you dont!.I have £16k debt from my LOAN which I have to pay back and havnt had a penny from YOUR POCKET!I pay tax from my job and i come from a good honest hard working family who have also have never had a penny from the state! so why dont u find out the facts before u start putting people down for their efforts to get an education and make something of their lives at their financial expense NOT YOURS!
You don't think the measly tuition fee you MAY have paid actually covers the entire cost of your course, do you? No, it's subsidised by me the tax-payer. So actually it IS my money you filthy scrounging student scumbag get a proper job, film-making - which you almost certainly will never get anywhere in anyway - isn't a real job
This is so funny it's pathetic. Money is nothing compared to the time and effort invested in these films and it shows. If you had any concern over how you're "hard earned" taxes were spent then I'd look to the NHS, which has had billions thrown at in with ZERO application and ZERO result. This contrasts what little money these students had to invest compared to the vast amount of time the spent creating thier films. To be honest, I don't think that matters to someone like you, your argument is weak, poorly constructed and are most likely the words of some washed up, embittered loser who never did anything meaningful with thier lives.

patrick, says...
12:18am Thu 29 May 08

Hold the phone, i thought i was throwing money at my education to then finish with a degree only to spend the rest of my life playing online bingo and watching daytime television you sir are a complete idiot lacking any true argument or indeed a valued point. Whilst i am certain you are a totally useful and interesting member of the great british public ithink it is in the citys, perhaps even the countrys intrest that you stick to what ever it is you do with your sorry unforfilled exsistance and keep your pathetic attempt at voicing an opinion to yourself.

MB, says...
12:39am Thu 29 May 08

Its sad when so many people have worked so hard for so long for it to be tainted by a sad, bitter man. Even if Students do use "your" money and do subjects such as film and media which often arent deemed as proper jobs at least these people actually believe in something and aim high. Sadest thing is the irony of the situation- critisicing students for using money, being lazy and not doing proper work when you have found the time to leave your useful comments when you could have been spending your time doing somethign worthwhile and on a website- a website that is likely built by someone who trained in media/technology... courses that would never lead to a "proper" job. Good work buddy!

bob a bob, Russia says...
9:01am Wed 4 Jun 08

wow Paul... What a guy!!! I want you to be my friend!!!

Does anybody know which universities teach proper courses? I want to become a professional Klingon translator!! I rule... Now give your taxes so i can study!

adz, uk says...
9:37am Wed 4 Jun 08

paul b wrote:
Scrounging students wasting MY money as usual. Get a job, you bunch of layabouts
hang on a moment. you posted your comment at 9.35am on a Tuesday. Either you do not have a job, do not have a serious job, or more probably you made that comment on your employers time making you the worst kind of scrounger there is.

I am Krato, says...
2:08pm Fri 6 Jun 08

paul b wrote:
bubble wrote: What a thoughtless,single-m inded comment..Contrary to popular belief not all students are drunk layabouts!I am one of these film students who spent months doing nothing but working on my film and working part time aswell!...all to get a good job at the end in the industry I want to go into! A LOAN is money you have to pay back..it is not YOUR money. A GRANT is money you dont!.I have £16k debt from my LOAN which I have to pay back and havnt had a penny from YOUR POCKET!I pay tax from my job and i come from a good honest hard working family who have also have never had a penny from the state! so why dont u find out the facts before u start putting people down for their efforts to get an education and make something of their lives at their financial expense NOT YOURS!
You don\'t think the measly tuition fee you MAY have paid actually covers the entire cost of your course, do you? No, it\'s subsidised by me the tax-payer. So actually it IS my money you filthy scrounging student scumbag get a proper job, film-making - which you almost certainly will never get anywhere in anyway - isn\'t a real job
Usually I don't really care that much if someone gives a bad comment on my film but someone who puts down even on my talented friends should get a smack in the head. Everybody I know in that course worked extremely hard in making their films. It's ok if it's a constructive crtitisisim, but all you did is cursing my hard working friends. And for your information you're entirely wrong about the concept of the course because you think this is just about filmmaking. The concept is 'Animation' which you probably haven't grasped. Animation contributes not just film making but video games, adverts, music video and other sort of medias that needs animations. In reality we gained much more than just film making, which you never realised. Unless you grasp the whole thing don't bother critisize with a weak arguement.

Rob v, Southampton says...
11:13pm Mon 9 Jun 08

paul b, i would just like to take some time to express my opinion on this subject. i am one of these so called scrounging students,(i dont Drink, I dont smoke, i expecially dont do drugs and for the past six months or so i havent been out of the house for dedicating my time to my film) i have within the past 3 weeks or so of finishing my course have found myself in a job straight away, as has my partner. i also know of a person who did the same course at bournemouth who has been offered a job at Dreamworks studios, as well as several other people from our course at solent who are now working in the industry and some more who have won awards at various festivals for there achievements such as the Royal Television society, which goes to prove that if you work hard and have ambittion you can achieve your goals... if you dont aim high or have dreams that you aspire to, you arent living your life to its highest potential. i really feel so sorry for you that you feel so strongly that your taxes were so miss spent on me. (although i did work for around 8 years full time before i applied to uni and so i'd like to think that my own taxes paid my way through the course) besides i think that there are far more rediculous things our government wastes our taxes on than trying to help people better themselves in this country. you're opinion is your own and no amount of arguing a point with you is going to change your mind. But speaking as some one who is now working in the industry that you feel is not worthy of declaring "a real job" please be aware that ther is alot of money to be made in this very "real" industry. ask "steven spielberg if he's got a real job... tarring all people with the same brush is a mistake on your behalf... there may well be slackers out there dossing about on your tax money but please don't attack these extremely talented and dedicated people who have put at least half a year of there lives into a project where they have had to do everything from scratch all by themselves, not to mention the other 2 and a half years of extreamly hard work in learning this unique skill. to attack people for ambittion and dedication to something is ludicrous and extremly spiteful. if people didnt try or have dreams where would we all be? probably be living in the cold and dark!

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