Leeds Animation Workshop (25/11/2015)

Leeds Animation Workshop (LAW) is a feminist independent animation studio based in Leeds known for their post World War II short animation. One of the animators from LAW came to our college to share their stories on developing a studio which mainly produces animations that condense messages on social and political issues. Despite the feminist nature of the studio, they still portrays beauty in a stereotypical way by putting emphasis on women's sexual appeal. I think it is a good strategy to capture the public attention. Other than addressing issues faced by women, they also see international issues and racial discrimination as worthy subjects to cover in their animations. They are not just an animation studio but also a social activist group that represents the marginalised. I am really amazed by how they want to have autonomy and control over the film that they made. After all, this uniqueness is what made them different than big animation studios, and their success is a result of a collective effort to promote their animation to those who are interested with the subject of their films.

Aside from being a social activist studio, LAW highly regards the traditional medium of doing animation. Their first few animations are done on transparent plastic sheets while their recent ones are made out of paper cut-outs. The reason that they do not want to do their animation in digital medium is they still want to preserve the natural touch in making animation that cannot be felt in artificially polished CGI animation. They also argued that they do not want to change their approach because they think that human are not meant to work with technology for a prolonged time as it will ruin their physical and mental well-being. I relate to this argument as it is evidenced by the drying up of eyes as we stared on the computer screen for a long time, but I think that taking breaks periodically will solve the problem. Although not being fond of working digitally, I still think that it is the current industry standard to be an animator.