Web Designer Magazine – Industry portfolio

18 Sept 2010

We’ve been getting Web Designer magazine for about a year now, so were absolutely delighted when they told us they were going to do an interview with us for this month’s edition.

The section is the Industry portfolio, so we were able to show off a few of the projects we’ve been working on recently as well as chatting about our studio, careers and web design ethos (don’t suck).

So here, in full, is a transcript of the article as a special treat for those of you who simply can’t wait until the squeak-splat that signals your copy of web designer coming through the door…


Katie Steed
http://www.slurpystudios.com
Creative Director
Flash, CSS, PHP, MySQL, ActionScript, Javascript, SEO, jQuery


Founded by Award-winning animators Katie Steed and Aaron Wood in 2007, Slurpy has grown to employ a team of creatively diverse artists, designers, coders, programmers and directors. It creates innovative websites that are engaging, eye-catching and enjoyable.

Animation and web design are linked by the limitless possibilities that both disciplines offer through imagination and knowledge. All of the staff at Slurpy love spending their days dreaming up and learning of new ways of delivering appealing and interactive experiences and staying on top of the never ending curve that is web design.

Katie Steed
, creative director says; “we want to make the web a more enjoyable and beautiful experience. Although we believe in the old saying ‘the first bite is with the eye; we also know that a visually pleasing website isn’t effective if it isn’t user friendly., accessible and easy to find on Google.” Slurpy produces 100% bespoke work that has increased customers, sales and revenue for their Clients. It has won several awards for its creativity, design, programming and effectiveness.

Submitting To Festivals

26 Apr 2010


In our last blog, we mentioned some of the problems that students in particular suffer when entering film festivals- namely, the lack of communication on the festival's side. As we consider ourselves as something like experts on the subject of submitting films, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to share our worldly wisdom on the very important subject of festival submisison.

Step 1: Finding out what film festivals are on.
There’s a site that I simply cannot recommend enough, called http://www.britfilms.com/festivals.It contains a very near complete list of all the festivals in the world, and they’re searchable by keyword. You can search for ‘Animation,’ and festivals that have their submission deadlines in ‘April’ to get a complete list of more festivals than you ever imagined existed. Some of them charge for submission, so watch out for that, and the information isn’t kept up to date particularly, but it’s still the best resource we’ve come across.

Cannot recommend enough that you keep a list of all the festivals you’ve submitted to, and keep a note if they tell you they’ve received your film, when you should know if you got in, and which ones you’re successful with.

Step 2: Submitting
Somewhere on the festival site (albeit sometimes hidden in a place that no normal person would ever look) there will be a ‘submissions’ link, which will take you either to an online form or to a paper download. The forms all ask for much the same information, but some ask for additional material. When we prepared copies of Death by Scrabble on DVD for festivals, we also prepared a CD with additional material. Some festivals ask for the additional stuff with the submission, some wait until they’ve decided you’ve got in, but all that does is add to your postage costs.

Our additional CD contains a synopsis, a script, a biography/ filmography and photo of the director, credits, screenings and awards and techniques summary, as well as 3 promotional images in good resolution and thumbnail resolution. Not every festival asks for all of this, but it covers everything we’ve ever been asked for, and is much easier than making specific cds for different festivals.

CHECK and double-check your dvd in as many players as you can get your greasy mitts on. A festival director friend of mine said that about 10% of the films they received didn’t play, and needless to say they did not get accepted!

Step 3: The waiting game
Once you’ve sent your film off, not much left to do but hope and pray! Some festivals you will never hear from again, some will say they’ve got your film and then leave it at that. The politer ones write to tell you if you haven’t made it, but the number of these is disappointingly few in our experience.

When you are successful, some festivals will offer you tickets plus bed and board for the duration, but at the other end of the scale, some of the smaller ones can barely afford to give you a ticket to the screening your own film is in. We recommend going to as many as possible- although watching your own film on the big screen can be painful, opportunities to mingle don’t come much better!

So that’s it. Good luck and we hope to see you at next years Annecy!

List of video sharing sites

24 Apr 2010

Viral marketing describes a promotional strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a message to other people.

This creates the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence, with people 'infecting' their friends and loved ones before they even know what they're doing.

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When we make viral marketing campaigns for our Clients, they often expect us to simply upload the video to youtube and then sit back and watch it go three times around the world before supper.

In truth of course, there's a lot of work in making a video go viral, and in promoting it online.

Here's a list of over 50 online video sharing sites that serve as a good starting point. It's not a complete list, so please let me know any others that you know of so we can keep the list up to date.

5Min
Atom Films
Blip.tv
Bofunk
Buzznet Video
Clevver
ClipShack
DailyMotion
eBaum’s World Video
esnips
Flixya
Flukiest
Flurl.com
Glumbert
Google Video
Groovid
Guba
Heavy
HelpFul Video
Imeem
Imvite
Ipernity
JumpCut
Kewego
Kyte TV
Medicine Films
Metacafe
MixerCast
MSN Video
MySpace
Nelsok
OnfuegO
PhotoBucket Video
Revver
Scilpo
Self Cast TV
Seven Load
Sharkle
Smart Video Channel
SpyMac
Stumble Upon Video
Treemo
Twango
Veoh
Viddler
Vidiac
VidiPedia
ViewDo
Vimeo
VSocial
Yahoo Video
Yikers
YouTube

Business Club

22 Apr 2010




We have recently made the decision to join a networking group called Business Club. Despite having severely disenchanted with networking following our year with the severely cult-like BNI, this is a tentative step, but one that we take with confidence following a very fun and profitable first meeting.

After all, when a networking group pays for itself for the first 2 years in the first meeting, you feel as though you might as well join!

The meetings are lively, entertaining and educational. Although the focus is very much on business and networking, this is done in a relaxed and informal way, allowing real relationships to develop that aren’t strained by constant pressure for referrals.

Best EVER Animated Music Videos

16 Apr 2010

What makes an awesome music video?

It's not the song, because we've all seen some bad songs made bearable by great videos, just as we've all seen great songs let down by a terrible video.

There have been a lot of really creative, original music videos made over the last 50 years or so, that have combined with the song to make a truly seminal, memorable experience. The music video should enhance, evolve and explain the track. They are the visual translation of the lyrics, the tone and the meaning of the song.

Animation is the perfect medium for Music Videos, because you have 3 minutes to try something totally new and innovative. Lots of new animation techniques have been pioneered in the Music Video Industry, because artists are given so much freedom to express themselves visually.

This is my list of the top 20 animated Music Videos ever. Some are old, some are new, all are awesome.


20. Jason Forrest - War Photographer


Directed by Joel Trussell
2D animation
2005




19. Keane - Bedshaped


Directed by Corin Hardy
Stop-motion animation
2004




18. Nizlopi - The JCB Song


Directed by Monkeehub
Hand drawn animation
2005




17.Weird Al Yankovich - Jurassic Park


Directed by Mark Osbourne
Claymation
1993




16. Pearl Jam - Do the Evolution


Directed by Kevin Altieri and Todd McFarlane
Handdrawn animation
1998




15. Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance



Directed by Oren Lavie
Pixelation
2009




14. Johnny Reubonic - Word of Mouth


Directed by Chris Oatley
2D animation
2006




13. Santogold, Julian Casablancas, and N.E.R.D - My Drive Thru


Directed by Psyop
Photography and CGI animation
2008




12. Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.


Directed by Passion Pictures
CGI and 2D animation
2005




11. Royksopp - Remind Me


Directed by H5
Isometric shapes 2D animation
2002




10. Oldelaf and Monsieur D - Le Cafe


Directed by Stephanie Marguerite and Emilie Tarascou
2D animation
2008




9. Team William - You Look Familiar


Directed by Michélé De Feudis and Joris Bergmans
2D animation
2009




8. Junior Senior Move your feet


Directed by Shynola
Pixel Art (using Microsoft Paint)
2002




7. Fujiya and Miyagi - Ankle injuries


Directed by Wade Shotter
Dice stop motion animation
2006




6. White Stripes - Fell in Love with a Girl


Directed by Michel Gondry
Lego
2002




5. Streetlight Manifesto - Would you be impressed?


Directed by Jurjen Bosklopper
2D animation
2007




4. Michael Jackson - Leave me Alone


Directed by Jim Blashfield
Mixed Media
1987




3. BBC Children in Need - Children in Need


Directed by Chapman Studios
Mixed
2009




2. Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer


Directed by Aardman
Stopmotion animation
1986




1. A ha - Take on me


Directed by Steve Barron
Rotoscope
1985




I hope that you enjoyed this list of the best animated music videos. If you want to see other music videos, here's Wikipedia's list of All the Music Videos ever made with Animation. It's a long list,but if you're interested, it's a great way to spend an afternoon!

And here's the shameless plug part: Check out our recent music video for Sam Roman's song 'The Best Day We Ever Had.'