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scheme | how animate! works

animate! is an annual commissioning scheme, with a UK-wide call for entries.

Our definition of animation is broad and inclusive. We are interested in anything risk-taking, other than direct live-action.

Celluloid, tape and digital technologies are all acceptable, in pure or hybrid form.

Your idea is likely to require frame-by-frame techniques or a re-presentation process such as, for example, image or timeline manipulation. Remember that innovation can apply to narrative as well as technique.

Send us a plan to scratch the world with unexpected tools... or a proposition that will surprise and stretch an audience... We are looking, above all, for proposals fired by an irresistibly original idea – an idea that is beyond live-action film.

Applications must be postmarked no later than Thursday 28 February 2002.

You can find out more about the animate! scheme at one of the Question & Answer sessions we are arranging around the country at the end of January. You can also browse the animate! film archive for stills and synopses of all works made to date.

Eligibility

Applications are welcome from artists with experience of film, video or digital media, animators already established in the industry and emergent talent.

Collaborations with other artists, photographers, illustrators, writers, composers and sound designers are encouraged.

Application is open to artists and animators resident in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Full-time students or those intending to be during the life of the production are not eligible. animate! welcomes proposals from all sections of the community.

animate! does not fund development, co-production with other broadcasters, completion, or distribution, and does not commission work made specifically for children, cartoon-character based stories, series, pilots, educational films, community art projects, multiscreen or gallery work.

Your proposal

Your main opportunity to explain the work you want to make is in a formal treatment. It is a creative exercise in itself. Aim to crystallise your main idea, and then describe and evoke the work in a way which will engage, interest and inform the selection panel. The following list may help as an indication of what you should cover:

• the idea – what it is and what it is about
• structure/form – the sequence of events, the shape, rhythm, pace, feel
• visuals – look, style, treatments
• sound – music, dialogue, voice-over, effects, atmosphere
• technique(s) – how the work will be realised and the processes involved
• audience – how the work will relate to and communicate with its audience

Selection criteria

Your application will be judged on:

• the creativity and originality of the proposal
• the artistic and technical quality of the examples of previous work submitted
• the likelihood that the proposal can be realised within the outlined budget and schedule
• suitability for a television audience

Selection process

We will acknowledge your application in writing. Shortlisting will be by Finetake and the Arts Council of England.

Shortlisted proposals will be considered by an independent selection panel comprising:

• Gary Thomas, Visual Arts Officer, Artists’ Film & Video, Arts Council
• Ruth Fielding, Assistant Editor, Arts and Animation, Channel 4
• Dick Arnall, Scheme Producer, Finetake
• four independent panel members from backgrounds in and around film, with a strong understanding of experimental practice.

Final shortlisted applicants may – but not necessarily – be asked to attend an interview on Tuesday 2 April 2002. The panel will select between 4 and 6 proposals to become animate! 2002’s slate of funded projects.

The slate will be announced by 5 April 2002.

The deal

The maximum production schedule for projects is 15 months overall. Films must have a running time of 3-6 minutes, be made in the UK, and be suitable for a television audience. Screen aspect ratio must be 16:9 widescreen.

Budgets will be subject to revision before an offer of production funding. Funding will be payable in instalments and subject to approval of work-in-progress. There will be informal editorial meetings with the Arts Council and Channel 4 during production.

Each selected animate!-maker will be responsible for the direction and production of their personal project. The scheme will provide advice on production needs, rights clearances and broadcast technicalities.

Ownership, UK broadcast, distribution and internet

animate!-makers retain copyright and ownership of their films.

Channel 4 will have the exclusive rights to three free UK transmissions of each work within five years from the date of delivery. Finetake will have the non-exclusive rights to include the works on an animate! information and resource website.

The films will carry a short animate! ident at the front and include an acknowledgement of the Arts Council, Channel 4 and the animate! scheme in their end credits.

The works will be promoted and internationally distributed by a dedicated specialist agency.

Applications must be postmarked no later than Thursday 28 February 2002

apply now! »
2002 schedule »
Question & Answer sessions »

Documents

• 2002: Guidelines and application form (PDF, 85,928 bytes)
• 2002: Guidelines and application form (RTF, 30,462 bytes)