Guest Lecture by Tim Searle

Tim Searle is the Head of Animation at Beano Studios - London. He has worked on/directed animations such as the 'Title sequence to Have I Got News for You', 'Danger Mouse', 'Mr Bean the animated series' and more recently 'Dennis the Menace' and his most recent animation with puppets is the 'Title sequence to the series Man Down', just to name a few.

A key quote that Searle shared with us was by John Halas - "‘Animation is the most contemporary

form of human expression combining the elements of motion, story-telling, sound and space".

Additionally in the Spring of 1989, Searle set up his own animation business, called 'Triffic Films', a name he chose as he "wanted a name that bank managers found hard to say". I discovered this newspaper article, written when Searle had just started 'Triffic Films':

Searles top tip was to 'sharpen up storyboard skills' as it is a key skill that is always needed for any animation. He finished his talk with a quote from T.S. Eliot - "If I had longer, I'd have written a shorter letter". Searle used this quote in reference to creating an animation showreel because it has to show off  your work to potential employers. In particular it has to show your best work in the shortest time possible as employers don't have time or interest in watching long showreels.

I found this talk very useful as it gave an insight into what animation is like in industry.