Study Task 3 - Networking

My LinkedIn account link

I made attempts to connect with:

Tecarat (Stop motion animation studio) - part of CoP LaAUAN601 research, Tecarat was very friendly and responsive and provided me with useful materials informing my practice
Joseph Wallace (Stop motion animator) - another person I have contacted regarding sustainable set design for my CoP Lauan601, Joseph was very helpful and approachable in sharing his expertise.
Gadzooks - I met Gadzooks at MAF 2019 at their talk, I was impressed by their puppets for Mad Dogs 2018
Michael Tharme - I have had a long discussion with Mike at MAF Market 2019 regarding armatures and parts choice for my Final Film. Mike was very approachable and I will definitely be in touch when/if I make a project with ball-joined armatures (useful for my Sign Language Animation future adventures).
Dr Birgitta Hosea - whom I have met before in 2018 but only spoke with her in February on her visit to Leeds Animation Workshop.
Linda McCarthy (www.tinyelephants.co.uk) - I met Linda at MAFterparty at MAF 2019, she has a very unique stop-motion style.
Jo Chalkley (Factory) - I have spoken to Jo after her talk at MAF 2019 and I was invited to contact her regarding a visit to the studio, but I felt as that I should figure out where my feet stand within the art of animation to be able to make the most of such visit so it is pending

For the same reason I still need to get back to Ben Kruner (MA Animation student) with whom I had a long talk regarding all things animated, including Sign Language Animation and who linked me with Melvyn Ternan who did a talk about British Sign Language and Animation at the Academic Conference before MAF 2019 started.

Visiting professionals:
Kerry Dyer - helpful information on puppet-making portfolio.
Barry Purves - lecture about the importance of the use of artifice in animation. 
Terry Wragg - valuable information on sourcing funding.

Sundeep Thor - I met Sundeep through the Quickdraw challenge and I contacted about her experience with professional showreel.

Jennifer Kidd - we connected on LinkedIn, Jennifer has expansive knowledge in puppet fabrication showcased on her website. I am also attending one of her advance stop-motion puppet fabrication workshops as soon as the box of materials reaches me.

Claire Welling from West Yorkshire Community Accounting Service - I attended one of the workshops at the Stringer House, very useful contact for anything to do with Freelancing and Small Business.

Further contacts:

Peter Kottman - maintaining contact with Peter who did my showreel music.
Tom Kavanagh  -  Tom did the music and sfx for my Quickdraw Challenge animation and will be doing my Final Film SFX
Matteo Falco - music composer for my Final Film
Ben Gardener, Li Marrable - future collaborations in concept art and character design

Networking opportunities:

• Manchester Animation Festival (went)
• Northwestivus, MAFter party, MAFter dark and MAF closing ceremony ( same as last year, I chose to not go with the University for MAF 2019 to be able to attend MAFterparty (extra night at the other Hatters hostel) and the ceremony - both very much valuable events, it meant that I had a flexibility of going where I wanted (it felt a little bit lonely last year, but this year I was more confident  and a busy bee meeting new people) and by doing so I saved almost enough money to cover my new creature ball-joint armature which I could not resist at the animation-toolkit stall. )
• Scalarama (went, met organisers of some of the screenings)
• Visiting Professionals at LAU (went)
• LIFF (did not manage to go)
• LYFF (Covid-19 interference)
• Animation Socials at LAU (went)
• Philip Taylor Cinema LAW event (went) 
• Speculative Lunch - UoL and LAW event (couldn't attend)
• Animarkt - planning to go in the future
• Annecy - planning to go in the future
• Cardiff Animation Festival (following online screenings and events - thanks to Covid-19, some festivals I would not be able to attend financially are made affordable from home)