Gemma graduated from NUCA in 2000 and went onto the National Film and Television School Animation Direction course, completing her studies there in 2003 and winning two Royal Television Society Awards. After graduating Gemma worked at the production company 'Th1ng' as a freelance director for 4 years. Her commercial credits working as a Director include: McDonalds, Coke, Kellogg’s and Babyliss. Gemma started to work with a fellow graduate from 2006 onwards making animated content for theatre and live shows. The collaboration has grown and grown and they design shows together most of the time now.

Gemma is currently designing a projection for 'The Wizard of Oz' at the London Palladium and an Opera of 'Alice in Wonderland' at The Royal Opera House, both to open early this year. Other projection designs include, A Matter of Life and Death, Dirty Dancing and Brief Encounter.  Gemma and her colleague are both freelance, and consistently include allot of other freelance animators in their team for projects.

Gemma’s talk, which she gave to a packed Lecture Theatre, offered students the opportunity to hear about her career since graduating from NUCA in 2000, hints and tips for finding your first job and working as a freelancer. During the hour and a half talk Gemma showed her stunning showreel that contained a mix of commercial, corporate, personal and theatre projection design. Gemma’s work exhibits a high level of design and composition, truly taking the viewer on a visual journey into the piece; this also highlighted to the students the importance of structure and direction when developing successful work. Combined with a strong grasp of process and technical competence made for a very impressive and inspiring body of work. 

As Gemma talked through her career she offered hints, tips and advice, from each stage consisting of points she’d either learned or wished she had been aware of at the time. These were enhanced by anecdotal evidence which made the points even more relevant when put into context.

Here are the general key points Gemma noted for us:

Start Early

Start having contact with the industry when you are at college, it doesn’t matter how early you start in your degree, it will be of huge benefit to you. Start to look around at the industry, talk to people working in job roles and areas that interest you, and ask if you can visit studios. Get in early- don’t rely on this always being organised for you or leave it until you graduate, you will then be in competition with everyone else who is graduating. Establish contact and keep it up, you may meet someone who you can call on when you graduate.

Festivals

Festivals are a great place to socialise, make friends and contacts. Send your work off to festivals and if it is selected, make sure you go along. Beware most festivals cost money to enter, but many festivals will wave the fee once your film is on the festival circuit. Talk to people, get their business cards and once again keep the contact going, you never know when something might come up.

Contacts

Part of getting into the industry is sometimes luck, being in the right place at the right time, getting your work seen by someone who may need your skills at exactly that time. Make sure you get a direct email, not ‘info@...’ or direct mobile etc so you can ensure they get to see a copy of your showreel or any updates of your work go directly to the contact you have made.

When you arrange to meet someone, make sure you know what they do! What their company does, make sure you say; “I saw your film or your ad for…” read the situation and react accordingly. Sometimes making contacts can be a ‘slow-burn’ but you never know when something will come up and how that might develop.

Give 110%

Once you get into a company or you start working freelance on a job, ensure you give everything you can. Make yourself useful, have ideas, contribute to the work if you can beyond your remit. Make sure everything you do is the best it can possibly be. That doesn’t mean being first in and last out each day, but making useful contributions to the team will demonstrate your talent and you will impress.

Be nice!

Many employers will take you on because they know you are easy to work with, enthusiastic, reliable, they like you and your personality. You never know when you’ll meet people again so always be nice! Be confident about your work but not arrogant.

Always Take Work.

Even if the job you are offered isn’t quite what you wanted, you never know where it will lead. Small things can lead to bigger developments. Consider every job you are offered. The animation industry is so broad, look at all opportunities; animators can be found working in so many diverse areas.

Think Outside the Box

Many Larger agencies and companies can be very expensive, could you or a collaborative group of peers offer similar services at a cheaper rate? Individuals and collectives sometimes can create work at a cheaper cost as they have fewer overheads. There is vast demand for content in so many varied areas of the industry.

Adapted from Gemma Carrington’s talk at NUCA Friday January 14th 2011