This is the first in The Dope Sheet’s new Guest Post series, where we hear directly from the people making their mark on British Animation.

Kerry Drumm (@KezD) left a post at Aardman Animations in 2007 to conduct a PhD with the Animation Academy Research Group at Loughborough University. Kerry was also an advisor for Bradford Animation Festival, the UK’s largest animation film festival, and member of ABAC, the steering group to develop a British animation archive museum.

She has directed a number of short animation, and live-action films, including animating on the feature film Bunny and the Bull (Paul King, Mighty Boosh). Now living in Australia, Kerry is working at Rising Sun Pictures, a feature film VFX studio, who are currently working on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Green Lantern.

The opportunities that came my way were mostly through knowing someone, who knew someone, who knows someone who needs someone to do something.

It was Christmas Eve and I was stood in my parents living room dressed as a pumpkin. I’d just come home having spent an uncomfortable day working in fancy dress to find my younger sister sat in the dark watching The Nightmare Before Christmas. I found myself transfixed, unable to move, just standing there staring at the television, looking ridiculous (remember the outfit).

I never questioned that I was watching animation. I can’t even say it was because of Tim Burton that I wanted to become an animator. In-fact, I’m not actually sure I ever wanted to be an animator at all. But I’ve always wanted to be a storyteller.

I’ve always enjoyed drawing and spent years when I was younger copying the illustrations on Christmas cards and my dad’s album covers. To begin with I wanted to work as a theatre or production designer and joined both the Glenda Jackson’s Youth Theatre, and the famous Little Theatre working behind the scenes building sets and props. I still firmly believe that the visuals in film/theatre/books are just as important as the action taking place to deliver the story.

Years after my Burton experience, I found myself moving to Hampshire from overseas and being told of a ‘good art college’ in the area. I sent off for the prospectus for Surrey Institute of Art & Design (now University of the Creative Arts, Farnham) and applied to do the animation degree – because it used the wording ‘storytelling’.

It was during my degree I started working part-time for the University’s Animation Research Centre (ARC), which houses the animation archive. This is where I met Paul Wells, Vivien Halas, Bob Godfrey, Pat Raine Webb, Jayne Pilling, Clare Kitson, BBC Producers and various book editors.

My time at the ARC made me into a researcher, and had me contacting studios and animators whose films I watched as a student: Joanna Quinn (Girls Night Out, 1987), Barry Purves (Screenplay, 1992), Adam Elliot (Cousin, 1999), Peter Lord (War Stories, 1989), Philip Hunt (Ah Pook is Here, 1994) Simon Pummell (The Secret Joy of Fallen Angels, 1991), Chris Shepherd (Dad’s Dead, 2002) …the list goes on.

script, script, script and then some more script

For the most part, they would kindly respond to my questions asking them ‘how did you do this’, or ‘what inspired you to make that’. I always remembered Adam Elliot’s response when I asked him about his short films: ‘script, script, script and then some more script’. Never got a reply from Tim Burton though, fancy that.

Attending animation festivals as a student also paved the way for some exciting opportunities. Not only does it enable you to view what the rest of the world is making, you also never know who you’ll end up sitting next to. While at Norwich Animation Festival I found myself invited to a lunch were Caroline Leaf was sitting at the table. As a pesky MA student I just kept staring at her with a long list of questions formulating in my head.

Sitting next to me was Tom Woolley who had just taken the role of festival director for Bradford Animation Festival (BAF). Both of us feeling a bit awkward with the other animation stars at the table, we started talking to each other. Tom asked if I had any thoughts about events for the festival, which I had, and as a result I was asked to produce an event commemorating five years since the passing of stop-motion animation genius Paul Berry.

This gave me a real taste for producing events for festivals, and my time with BAF continued when Deb Singleton became director, and I became an advisory board member for the festival for a number of years. Even today I still find myself sat at tables at festivals just in awe of who is who. Last year at Annecy there was a spontaneous four-hour dinner with some of the greatest. It was one of the most memorable of festival moments.

Luckily for me, many of those animators that I pestered while I was a student have become my good friends, and we talk more about our families and holidays than animation – although I throw in a good animation question every so often, just to keep them on their toes. If you have the funds, do the festival circuits. You get to know producers, directors and some festivals offer the opportunity to show your work and ideas. If you have no funds ask if you can volunteer.

Getting your foot in the door, easier said than done right? Don’t be afraid to keep asking and pestering (within reason – camping outside the studio in a sleeping bag with a placard saying ‘hire me’ might be going too far – but thinking about it, why not? Shows that your keen). Marc Craste at Studio AKA supports the theory that some of it comes down to luck. On the day he walked into Studio AKA looking for work, they were in need of a storyboard artist, and he’s been there ever since.

At a lecture given by Aardman’s Peter Lord, he talked about how the success of Aardman in the early years, for the most part, came down to luck and timing. The opportunities that came my way were mostly through knowing someone, who knew someone, who knows someone who needs someone to do something.

This was certainly the case for being called in to do some of the animation on the British feature Bunny and the Bull (2009) and working for the Cartoon Museum.

So, after all that hard work I decide to move to Australia. Good plan or not, time will tell. Although with lots of exciting projects and the recent Oscar win for Shaun Tan and The Lost Thing (2010) it could be the place to be.

Before heading to Oz, I spent some time in New Zealand and caught up with an ex-Aardman colleague who was now working at Weta. A few of her friends had relocated to work at Rising Sun Pictures and she suggested I contact the studio. They were advertising for a production co-coordinator and I sent them my CV. After a couple of months of my pestering and sending my CV over and over I had a phone call on a Friday, and started the following week.

So there you go, that’s where I’m at living it up in Australia, attempting to complete a PhD, which I started four years ago at Loughborough University, supervised by Paul Wells. Having to build up a new animation family (missing the one I’ve left behind), getting to know a whole new set of faces, film studios and festivals. Really enjoying my time at Rising Sun Pictures. It’s an exciting place.

I’m learning new skills, while putting the ones I have into practice and looking forward to what the next 10 years may bring.

I never made it working for Tim Burton, but that’s OK, I think I’m happy with just remaining a fan and allowing him to remain my teller of stories. Unfortunately, I’m pretty far away from the Melbourne-based Adam Elliot, but hey, not going to let a little thing like that stop me. Right, must go and find my sleeping bag and placard, I wonder how long it would take me to drive to Melbourne…?