Thursday 9th June, 6pm

So, I randomly saw this event being advertised on Instagram – and thought, why not? I didn’t do any research beforehand as to who was presenting. In the end, I’m glad I didn’t because I was quite shocked that it was a major film producer who had worked on ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’, ‘Lion King’ and ‘Pocahontas’.

He transitioned into the animation industry from being a theatre stage manager for several years. Howard stated: ‘An animator has to understand acting.’

Max Howard: What a Producer does?

• PITCHES: Hears countless of pitches day after day.
• BUDGETING: Balancing the creative vision with resources.

‘Choose your medium.’

‘Animation crosses time.’

‘Power of Animation can be used effectively.’

‘Some of the greatest stories do come from source material.’

‘Celebrate your mistakes and failures.’

I wish I could have recorded the whole talk, because quite honestly – it was amazing, and quite fitting. I had previously done a lot of research on roles within the animation industry ‘Animation Areas and Role Exploration’ and I was really toying between being a visual development artist or a producer – and quite frankly, I’d love to be a producer. Max Howard’s CV became the goal! He had worked with Disney, Warner Bros and consulted for a lot more. Bringing organisation and managing a budget to something chaotic like animation production, brings me such joy. It sounds very strange, but I am very much content with being the ‘organiser’. I feel like my own creative juices and visual eye can really lend to the animation production. As for my own ideas, I am very content with just continually trucking along and producing animated short films as an independent animator.