My name is Ben Cady. I am an animator from rural Hampshire, and I specialise in hand-drawn films.
I chose the course at Newport because of the freedom that it offers it's students. We aren't pushed into teams and forced to prepare ourselves for work in a commercial studio environment. We are given the freedom to be directors. We are encouraged to make the films that we want to make, by teachers who are as enthusiastic about our work as we are. I feel that this is the main reason for the extremely creative, successful and varied work that has in the past been produced on the course.
My film was not inspired by any one thing. The story comes partly from a love of animals and country life. My family home, in which I grew up, has an old well, complete with winding spindle (used for sound in my film!). There is a small group of dwarf goats in a nearby village, which I have always loved. I feel that humans often bring unnecessary noise to the countryside, and fail to treat creatures with the respect that they deserve. Humans tend to treat animals simply as a resource, to be harvested, rather than living, thinking beings. I wanted to make a film where an animal's innocence prevails over the humanity's greed.
The film is entirely hand-drawn, pencil on paper. I wanted it to be a sensitive, organic film and I think only hand-made animation can truly achieve this. The film is made up of over 5000 drawings.
The Goat and The Well is so far scheduled to be screened at these festivals:
Bristol
- Encounters
- Flip Wolverhampton
- BAF Bradford
- Henri Langlois in Poitiers, France
I have just started a masters course at the Royal College of Art. I feel that this course is the perfect next step for me, coming from the BA at Newport. The two courses seem to offer similar creative freedoms, and both encourage students to develop their own unique style of animated storytelling.