According to Tom: "Blue Zoo is no longer really a London based company, even though we have (empty) offices there. Now, just 30% of our team live in London. Over last 10 months lots of staff relocated across the UK for a better work/life balance. London has changed forever".
Many congratulations to the makers of "Quarantine Chorus", the short animated film completed earlier this year by our second-year animation students at Escape Studios, about life under the Corona Lockdown, which has won Best Animated Short at the Prix Royal Paris Film Awards.
Covid-19 has changed the jobs landscape, and not for the better; companies are shedding jobs around the globe. The good news is that animation continues to flourish; unlike live action filming, animation can be done remotely, and there is a large and growing demand for fresh animation content.
For the past eight weeks our students have been working from home, just like the animation industry has done, moving our classrooms online and working remotely. The results have been stunningly successful; our second year animators now have six films in festival competition - five more than this time last year. Of course, we don't yet know what things will look like come September, but we can count on some kind of blend of online and (hopefully) a return to classroom learning. Watch the short video above to hear from our Deputy Dean, Saint John Walker, on how we've adapted to teaching online, see some of the great work created by our undergraduate students, and find out what the future holds.
Unlike live action shoots, which have been shut down due to Covid-19, the animation industry is expanding, as programmers scramble to replace live-action content with animation.
