A main challenge to be overcome in a collaborative project such as this, deals with the fact that production runs at different speeds for animation film makers and music composers. While for composers a few moments have to be meticulously planned and organized (rehearsals, recording and mixing), for animation film makers a long, technical and time consuming process begins, which is often a race against the final deadline. This has a number of drawbacks:

• We are limited to films of one minute. In the first year we were able to make films of 2-3 minutes as the animation film students were given additional time in the second semester to finish their project. To composers this imposes a significant boundary, restricting the possibilities for temporal development and structure.
• Animation film students cannot afford encountering any problems during the production process. In case anything goes wrong, this automatically means that the film will not be finished on time. Especially in the third year of the project (2014-2015) this caused difficulties, as none of the film students were able to finish the visuals.

A few measures were undertaken to overcome these difficulties, the most important relating to the choice for an appropriate animation style. Students are encouraged to direct their attention towards animation styles that are relatively time-efficient. While we do not impose this as mandatory, it is a very good exercise in planning and applied productivity.

We introduce the students to a number of inspiring films, showing how a cost-efficient animation style can result in noteworthy artistic accomplishments.

Inspiring animation films