Women In Animation

“There’s always something to learn,” as my animation professor says, and tonight at WIA’s General Meeting, this short film panel enlightened us with their experiences in the industry: in pitching their short films, creating and distributing them and also what’s it like to be on the receiving end of a pitch.Hosted on the beautiful lot of DreamWorks Studio, five guests from all areas of animation came to speak: Nick Confalone from Disney TV Animation, Peter Gal from Nickelodeon Studios, Eric Homan from Frederator Studios, Rusty Mills from MyToons.com and special guest animator Bob Kurtz of short film fame. They all discussed the recent resurgence of the short film and how studios and independent artists are handling this new trend. Because collectively the panelists are involved in everything from “Micro Pilots” for TV to Theatrical Shorts to festivals featuring experimental student work and even the chaos of the internet community’s raw films, we really got to see all the whole realm of possibilities for submitting and pitching short films.

Among the precious pitching advice given was, “Know your characters, Know your material,” which all the panelists agreed was key to presenting your ideas effectively. The panelists also spent time answering the audience’s questions about short films, which promoted discussion about the panelists’ short film successes and failures. We were also treated with a few hilarious screenings of upcoming short films and even a sneak peek at a work-in-progress short film.

Bob Kurtz ended his advice with some words of encouragement, and I leave them for you as well: “There’s great stuff that you can do out there, if you don’t limit your imagination.”