Huckleberry Films

"Huckleberry Films is a creative film company based in Accrington, Lancashire. Offering a range of styles and services - from documentaries and educational films, to promotional and animated films - they are commited to delivering a professional high quality service to each client. "

Some of their national and international clients include Friends of the Earth, Lancashire County Council, Mid Pennine Arts, Age Concern, St. Mary's College, and Life Association.

You don't really get much more information about the company on their website, they don't mentions who works there and only shows a few examples of there work but the reason it attracted me is it uses the hand drawn look filled with textures and patterns similar to my current project and something i am very in to! One other thing i noticed was that they like to participate in local projects and supporting their community. One of their animations that i really enjoyed is called 'Animating Accy' and its about the day in the life from a variety of people who live in Accrington using animated characters to portray them, its almost like they are having a discussion with you or an interviewer i really enjoyed it!

EEK Films

EEK is a company based in Liverpool of a team of professionals who collaborate with young people to develop their ideas into animation (straight away i loved this as it is so hard to showcase your talent to its full potential so with a group of experts think of the things you could do! ... its what i need!).

Some of the 'Main Players'

"'Eek Films’ director Tony Ealey, has an extensive list of traditional animation credits with studios including Disney’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit, BBCTV’s The Chronicles of Narnia and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He has directed many top rated series for international television.

Recent work includes animation for the cult Channel 4 TV series Modern Toss and animation for the hit Cbeebies TV series Tommy Zoom."

AND

Tony Ealey is a lecturer in animation at University Centre Blackburn College and is also involved as a Youth Mentor with Media Trust teaching screenwriting for animation at schools in the North West.

I think this is also nice to have 2 people from different backgrounds one an animator himself and the other a lecturer in animation this gives the company a variety of skills rather than that just creative.

They only have two examples of their animations on their 'video' page and they have both won awards (it didn't say what awards or when which is irritating as i want to know!) so they are clearly showcasing their proudness and succession.

Film below is one of the 'award winning pieces' on you tube it does mention that it was nominated for Activision First Light Movies Award, best film by U13's.

Mainframe

Mainframe Motion shop is a company specialising in motion graphics, animation and VFX - 'home to some of europe's top directors, producers, animators and vfx artists'

'Mainframe has offices in London and Manchester as well as being represented to direct commercials by Independent in London, Duck Studios in the US and Ablaze in Asia.'

Client list includes:

-Toyota

-Coca Cola

-Sony/Syco

-MTV

-Harrods

-Nickelodeon

-Nike

This advert and ident for Nickelodeon are what attracted me to mainframe, i have looked at mainframe briefly before in the first year but i always come back to it because their style of work is so varied and interesting which possibly suggests the use of different freelancers through out different briefs?

One thing i found out that the company are hugely excited about and proud of is the fact that their founder Adam Jenns has been asked to judge the 2011 TV and Cinema communications category for D&AD and has been a judge for multiple competitions in the past which connotes his importance to the moving image industry (He judged at the Graduate Showcase awards 2 years in a row 2009/2010).

Daylight

I came across a company called Daylight, they are an award winning, independent, creative moving image and design company based on Turner Street in the Northern Quarter Manchester. They create Tv Graphics and TV Commercials for music, fashion, education, public sector, construction and charity and their client list includes:

-Levis

-Oasis

-All Sports

-Wrangler

-Inland Revenue

-University of Bolton and Sheffield

-Cancer Research

and many, many more.

Daylight prides themselves on being a 's

mall company of experienced creatives' and they believe that 'being a small team we maximise the efficiency and communication needed for the project' so i think this implies that they always have a small team of permanent staff and maybe get freelancers involved when needed.

Whats also nice about the company is that they have little hobbies between the team like taking pictures of objects with faces and taking photos of light such as sunsets, sunrise, light between buildings ect...i think this suggests a closeness within the team, they work well together and shows a pleasant work environment.

Show reel - http://day-light.co.uk/showreel/

Dinosaur

I started to have a look at companies within the North West that i would like to work for and i have come across the company 'Dinosaur' before but i wanted to research a bit more into them as the company really appeals to me.

OK so the company is called Dinosaur and they are situated in the center of Manchester on Back Turner Street near the Northern Quarter, they offer a large range of different services Advertising, Digital, Experimental, Brand Identity and Design. They have created work for huge companies such as:

-Alton Towers

-Manchester United

-Selfridges

-Pets at Home

-Ryman

-Wagamama

-Key 103

-Urbis

-Manchester City Council

The company won 2 'chip' awards at the 'Chip Shop Awards' in 2009, one for 'Best mobile ad in which they created an Ipod app for Raid Fly Spray and a 'best ambient media' award using the soon to be completed Angel of the South as inspiration for a Baileys Horse Feed outdoor execution.

One thing that i found out about this company was that they have teamed up with WWF and for each client added to their portfolio they adopt an animal on their behalf! Another thing that was great is they are very supportive of fresh talent and give away placements to winners of the MPA roses student creativity awards.