Slurpy Studios, 2nd September 2014

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Our special guest at London Animation Club on Tuesday 2nd September, was Aaron Wood, MD and Producer of the London-based animation studio Slurpy, the company he founded with Creative Director Katie Steed. Aaron has been coming to London Animation Club as long as I can remember. Slurpy specialises in explainers, corporates and online promos, which might suggest the evening might be a somewhat staid affair – but the absolute opposite was true. This was one of the most fun events we have ever had. For a start, there was an audience of 45+ people and team Slurpy had brought along lots of young fans and many new people were in attendance.

Our very happy audience.

Our very happy audience.

A particularly nice surprise for me was that Indian animator Pooja Pottenkulam (http://poojapottenkulam.com/), an old RCA friend whom I hadn’t seen in at least two years, came along without telling me. I didn’t know she was even in the country!

The talk soon developed into a conversation around the room, with lots of people chipping in and Aaron turned out to be a very charming and witty speaker.

Aaron Wood (centre)

The event gave insights into how to found a production company, how to acquire clients and how to establish a house style. Coming so soon after our Joy Batchelor event in May, it was interesting to be able to compare the commercial and corporate work of a contemporary studio with that of an director-animator-designer working in the 1940s to 1970s and find they have a lot in common.

He screened about twenty minutes of material:

1. Slurpy Studios showreel

2. Best Day We Ever Had – music video

3. The Hangova – online promo

4. Hire The Barman – explainer video

5. insurance4carhire – TV commercial

6. Speak Yoruba – app promo

7. Remember It’s Waterproof – campaign films

8. BBC WW1 Uncut films x 4 animated sequences

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Aaron concluded with a clip of a work in progress, a short film based upon the children’s book The Fearsome Beastie and narrated by Brian Blessed.

Many thanks to Aaron and Team Slurpy for such an interesting event. Thank you also to Ben Fox for operating the video camera and to Darshan Raja Rayan for operating the lights. The video of the evening will be available on YouTube sometime soon.

Aaron is also one of the team behind Skwigly (http://www.skwigly.co.uk/) and we hope to have them as guests sometime soon. You can find out more about Slurpy here: http://www.slurpystudios.com/ and another outfit Aaron is involved with here: http://www.animation-festivals.com/