On Friday 9th May I recieved a phone call from David Jones, the workshop technician at NWSAD. He phoned to let me know that Nick Roberson wanted me to give him a call to talk about the rumoured work experience at Mackinnon and Saunders.
Apparently it is not work experience but actual job openings and Nick had put my name forward along with 3 students from De Montfort University.
I was given the e-mail and telephone contacts for Becky Hunt at Mackinnon and Saunders and told to e-mail her with some examples of my work. If she didn't reply then I should phone her. I never did here back as it turns out that Nick had given me an incorrect e-mail address so on the 14th I phoned her, had a chat and then re-e-mailed her with the correct address.
This is what I sent:
Hi Becky, I think I can see why my original e-mail never got through. The address I was given started with "b.hunt".
So, what shall I tell you? Nick said that I should give you a brief introduction of myself and attach pictures of some of my models. That sound ok?
During my time at university I have focussed on stop-motion animation from designing and building the puppets and sets to the actual filming and editing. I'm just coming to the end of filming my final project. Stop-motion is an area that I have always been very interested in and knew that I wanted to focus on before arriving at university. I have always been a very creative and curious person since I was very young when I would spend hours building plasticine models, drawing comics and constructing Kinder Egg toys. To this day I still collect the Beano comic. I think its great.
The photos I've attached show Artemis the mime, Lula the dog and AJ the boy from my last year's animation 'Mime Time', Jack and Jill from my current animation and some miscellaneous models I have made either for fun or for gifts. Tamika was made as a commission for a friend. If you want to have a look at my last years project, which was my first 'proper' attempt at stop-motion, you can have a look at it (and other animations) on my YouTube account: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Tp_mqld0w
I look forward to hearing from you again,
Alistair Stuart
I phoned her again today because I didn't hear back. Thankfully she had recieved the e-mail and apparently liked what she saw. She told me that getting the job opening was no sure thing and with what she was saying it seemed that I was at a disadvantage with living in Derbyshire when I finish the course, although she never actually said that.
By the end of the call we had agreed that I have to contact her again by e-mail to arrange a day in June when I can travel down to visit them and show off my models.