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Brown Bag Films at Animation Dingle 2019! #Recap





Animation Dingle Festival took place last weekend and the Brown Bag team were there en force meeting students, attending workshops, celebrating at the Irish Animation Awards and generally loving every minute!

We are still over the moon with our three wins at the Irish Animation Awards! Vampirina took home the Best Animated Preschool Series and Best Writer for an Animated Series categories, while Doc McStuffins won the fan vote in the Kid's Choice Award for Best Pre-School Animated Series!

Special mention also goes out to our 2D Designer Gavin O'Donnell who alongside Joshua Hogan received the Best Irish Animated Student Film at Animation Dingle for their short film Whack Jobs!

Our Creative Director Darragh O'Connell was part of a panel titled “Class of '94” which was a mini-reunion with former Ballyfermot College classmates Richie Baneham, Alan Shannon, Ryan McElhinney, Brian Woods and Stevie Deane with moderator Suzanne Kelly of RTE.

The panel looked back over the last 25 years and discussed their career progression sharing some of the lessons they've learned along the way. Here is a selection of some of the highlights from the speakers, from our eye on the ground, 2D Designer Lynne Guthrie:

“I got into animation because I loved comics.”

“It was a very different landscape back then.”

“It was always about storytelling.”

“You don't have to change what you do, but you need to look at art in a different way.”

“You can never sit back and rest on your past achievements. You're always pitching.”

“You have to surround yourself with brilliant people and empower them.”

“I think when you start off you have to do long hours. Be aware of putting yourself under too much pressure. Work as much as you can without making yourself feel sick.”

- Darragh O'Connell

“If you get stuck with blinkers, you close your mind off to learning beyond what it is your studying.”

“First and foremost you're a filmmaker, but even before that you're a communicator.”

“A little bit of fear is a really good thing.”

“The only thing that is constant about this industry is change.”

“The single hardest word is done. Pushing through from concept to execution.”

“I would take tenacity over talent.”

- Richie Baneham

Pixar's Bob Peterson was also a Keynote speaker and had some great advice to share with aspiring animators and artists:

“The more you do, the more you can work into your work.”

“Story is the first line of defence.”

“You try [to] put forward an experience of what it's like to watch the film.”

“Your escapism creates your future.”

“Stayed aware that my life experiences were a wealth of ideas for my work.”

“Just do it. Get started. Don't wait.”

“You have to appeal to yourself and make yourself smile, and then someone else will.”

- Bob Peterson

We were also delighted to sponsor the student Free Lunch at the Dingle Skellig Hotel! Our happy helpers bagged up the goods and dished them out to the hungry masses ;)

Once again we had a spectacular weekend!

A HUGE thanks to the team at Animation Dingle for hosting another fantastic event, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in the beautiful surroundings of Dingle and we're already daydreaming of next year!


Anahita Tabarsi

Anahita is Brown Bag Films' Marketing Director, Digital & Social and drinks more than five coffees a day...

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