I emailed Joanna Quinn to see whether I'd be able to ask her a few questions regarding reference material and character performance, and after a few days of back and forth messaging, I was fortunate enough to meet up with her at Manchester Animation Festival. I asked her about the sorts of reference material she uses when she animates, and it was really interesting to find out that she doesn't use live-action footage when animating. However, she does use a lot of other references, and will usually collect a folder full of photographs of places, objects and people, though her go to reference is usually herself. She believes strongly in acting into a mirror to see and feel the movements that she is trying to animate, which conflicts with what Ed Hooks says in his book Acting for Animators; "you must be very careful in the use of a mirror. It teaches an actor to watch the outside rather than the inside."
She will often act out in slow motion to really focus on the rhythm of the movement, and to work out the key poses. Because of this, I wondered whether life drawing played a big role in (her) animating. Joanna said that she thought it was helpful, but not essential as she understands not everyone has the time or ability to attend life drawing sessions. Though she did say that she thought it was important to draw from life to capture the truth in your subject, but from here we should exaggerate to really bring a performance to life and give it more character. It's nice to strive for original movements, so it's also a good idea to add any extra little quirks that you may think of if you have the time. For example, as Joanna works for herself she was able to spend an extra week animating Beryl as a child, making her whinny like a horse. It didn't add anything to the story and it wasn't remotely planned – she claims she probably shouldn't have done it, otherwise she'll never get the film finished – though it did give more insight to the character, adding to the likability and believability of the character
I asked Joanna if there were any instances where she worked differently and used different reference materials, but on the whole she works in the same way each time. The only thing she pointed out to me was in her short Britannia, she did collect a few reference images of dogs for the dog character, and she did study how dogs moved in real life, but again a lot of her reference came from herself. All the facial expressions were Joanna's.
Moving away from CoP, I asked Joanna how she got started out in industry and if she had any tips. She pointed out to me that it's really down to what work I want to do, but the way she went about it was sending her graduate film out to festivals. She said that it's a good idea to reach out to animation studios and rather than asking for a summer internship, ask for a week. Not many places offer long work placements, and sometimes it's just a matter of getting known and showing people who you are. You may not end up there for good, but if you have a good personality and worked well, you're more likely to have your name passed onto other places. More often than not, studios are looking for personality and how well you work as part of a team. Because of this it is a MUST that when reaching out to studios, that you make the letters or emails personal.
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