Studio Visit: Studio Blinkink (29/09/22)

Today on our first day back to our character animation course, we were invited to visit Studio Blinkink, a multimedia animation company based near Camden. Their work spans music videos, commercial work and TV work. It was a surprising look to the studio, to see the day-to-day operations, the environment of a building that didn’t scream “animation studio” (more like a cozy, warm green office) and more importantly, to hear from Head of Studio Orlaith Turner and Head of Production Alex Halley.

The studio itself looked very chill: kitchens, office space with graphic tablets, a surprising amount of, what looked to be like, D&AD awards scattered, a space for people to read and listen to music when they needed a break… I’ve never really imagined what a studio culture in animation looked or felt like. The closest glimpse I’ve seen were those Hayao Miyazaki documentaries where paper scattered all in view, those cramped rooms where everything felt cluttered and overwhelming. The sight I saw was anything but. Homily would be how I described it.

After a quick but insightful tour, we got to sit down and listen to Alex present the studio, how it functions and break down some of the projects they’ve made over the years. It really put into perspective how differently Blinkink functions compared to the traditional animation model. Typically, an animation studio may have animators employed that have specialised in a particular process, so the studio as a whole specialises in that process (2D, 3D or stop motion for example). This can be seen with animation studios like The Line Animation or Passion Pictures. But as Alex described, Blinkink operates on a director-led approach. They have a core group of directors who make up the studio that endeavour on their own personal projects, rather than a group of animators that specialise in particular processes. What this does is it avoids making the studio confined to one type of process, so they have a variety of work under their belt. The animators themselves are actually freelance, so when a project comes up, they employ the animators most relevant to the idea and/or process that the directors deem suitable, rather than employing staff and waiting until a project comes up that they like. They find personal-led projects naturally transition into commercial projects – after all, you want to work on something fun.

To illustrate this point, Alex broke down their BBC World Cup Tapestry work that they did in 2018. The director, Nicos Livesey, was chosen because of this tapestry style that he utilised in a personal earlier music video, and the BBC was interested in producing an animation that felt like the creation of a history. Tapestries lean into that idea, and as such, this was the approach that was deemed most suitable.

Alex noted that for the first half of production, the process was entirely 2D. The character designs, the storyboard and the animation itself were all done in 2D until the point in which everyone was happy with the movement and general design. Once everything was finalised, all 600+ frames (at 12 frames a second) were then imported into a software similar to photoshop, where it would be embroiled by an external company and photographed like a traditional frame-by-frame animation. It was a fascinating look into the project, and highlighted how a personal project transformed into a commercially viable project.

Since he blitzed through his talk quickly, Alex also broke down a project that came about due to interesting circumstances: the Dua Lipa mixtape animation. The project was created around the time of April 2020, aka the height of the COVID pandemic when everyone was suddenly stuck in their homes with too much free time. It was also impossible to film music videos because of the lockdowns, so suddenly the music video industry was stuck. So they turned to animation to realise Dua Lipa’s music. They brought on a bunch of directors who they had connections with and were free because of the pandemic: Victoria Vewn, rhymezlikedimez, actual objects and a whole host of other talent. The result is 50 minutes of diverse styles, again, a product of the freedom to choose whatever style of animation they want.

A Q&A wrapped up this meeting, and one of our tutors asked about how we doting students might get our foot in the doorway. Orla suggested to get in contact with one of them, specifically their directors, with a slightly more personalised email (complementing their work and being specific to show true engagement) and keeping it short and sweet. They have an internship email that they check monthly, but poking them once every couple of weeks might not hurt. I’ll be sure to email her tomorrow to thank her for the tour and put my showreel out there to the company in the off chance they think I’m suitable.

The visit to Blinkink was eyeopening. It gave an interesting insight into a studio culture that I’ve yet to experience, to see the kind of equipment, spaces, and production pipeline that Blinkink uses. Its also fascinating to hear about a director-led studio. I’ve noted in my blog posts that some studios delve into various different methods of production, perhaps they operate in a similar way to Blinkink. I can’t imagine I’d have a permanent position there, but it’d be great to potentially collaborate with these guys someday.