I am planning on creating a short animated film as a final outcome for my Practice modules and am keen to investigate how other practitioners from visual communication backgrounds present their work. The most common platforms for contemporary practitioners are online channels such as Vimeo and Youtube, which are free to use and offer almost unlimited possibilities to expose the work to an international audience.

As the theme of my film has a focus on national folklore I am interested in exploring ways of presenting it to a local audience. In an effort to explore the different options available to me I went along to a screening of Stefan Sagmeister’s ‘The Happy Film’, which was shown on the 12th of April 2017 in the Sugar Club on Leeson Street in Dublin City Centre. The event was organised by a new creative networking group called ‘Socialise’, was sponsored by Hennessy.

I first heard about the film back in 2012 when I seen Sagmeister speak at the Offset creative conference in Dublin. It centres around his personal quest to strategise for happiness. At that time he was a couple of years into filming and spoke a little about how he was finding the process. So when I heard about the screening I was intrigued not only to see how the film turned out but mostly to see how it would be presented.

The event was sold out and when I arrived at the venue I found it brimming with enthusiasm. I recognised people from different Dublin based design and illustration studios and there also seemed to be a large cohort of students present.

It was reassuring to see how strong an appetite there is in Dublin for film screenings relevant to the design industry. Obviously Sagmeister is a major character in the design world and his name has a large pull factor. Never the less I am confident that an event like this one could be scaled down and still run successfully.

There are also film festival screenings to consider. Film festivals offer the security of a wider audience, lessening the probability of an empty film screening. They generally conduct their own promotional marketing, generating additional exposure and interest around the film. They also offer a fantastic networking opportunity for someone like myself who is transitioning into that area of the industry. Finally the potential to win an award and have my work recognised by my peers would be an significant step in establishing my reputation as a relevant contemporary practitioner. (Hooper, 2013)

At the moment I know of the Animation Dingle and Dublin Animation Film Festival which both have categories specifically for student films. I will spend some time researching the application processes for these festivals and also try and find others that might be relevant, both in Ireland and abroad.

Reference list:

Socialise (2017) Socialise @gosocialise Facebook. 20th March 2017. [Photograph] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/events/338395203224584/ [Accessed: 12th April 2017]

Happy Film. [2016] The Happy Film (Festival Trailer) [Online Video] 22nd March 2016. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akn0wnQ6rxE [Accessed on – 12th April 2017]

Hooper, R. (2013) Film Festival Basics: Five Reasons to Submit [Online] 18th January 2013. Available at – https://vimeo.com/blog/post/film-festival-basics-five-reasons-to-submit [Accessed: April 13th 2017]