{"id":37396,"date":"2019-12-06T12:59:17","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T12:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/?p=37396"},"modified":"2019-12-05T18:28:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T18:28:36","slug":"blue-zoo-katie-gascoyne-scouting-for-girls-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/blue-zoo-katie-gascoyne-scouting-for-girls-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Zoo&#8217;s Katie Gascoyne Directs Scouting For Girls Christmas Single &#8211; Interview!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every year, multi-BAFTA winning animation studio, <strong>Blue Zoo<\/strong>, holds an in-house competition to give anyone the opportunity to direct a short animated film. This year was a chance to direct the music video for the new <strong>Scouting For Girls<\/strong> Christmas single. The band chose an idea by Blue Zoo\u2019s Recruitment and Talent Coordinator, <strong>Katie Gascoyne<\/strong>. Katie\u2019s film is the first short directed by an administrative team member and the 12th film in Blue Zoo\u2019s boundary-breaking shorts programme.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Scouting For Girls - Let&#039;s Not Go Away (Official Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-zxsck_OPj0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The delightful film features a gingerbread man named Dan and his partner Mandy. As Dan faces Christmas with the in-laws this daunting prospect is noted by his beloved who goes the extra mile to make things right for the pair just in time of Christmas. This quirky, romantic film is the first release from Blue Zoos new 2D animation studio.<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-37467\" src=\"http:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/GGB_Dan_TV-1-800x450.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" \/>\n<p>Emmy-winning songwriter David Freedman worked with his son, Jackson Freedman, to write the heartwarming original song performed by enduringly popular UK band, Scouting for Girls.\u00a0 <strong>\u2018Let\u2019s Not Go Away\u2019<\/strong> released alongside their new album, \u2018The Trouble With Boys\u2019, through Sony Music.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Zoo\u2019s 2D studio opened earlier this year as part of the long-term strategy to diversify and broaden the studio\u2019s content. Currently in production is 2D half-hour buddy comedy, Pony, aimed at 8-10-year-olds. Pony is created by Ant Blades, who will also direct the series. The show currently has an order for 20 half-hour episodes from Nickelodeon.<\/p>\n<p>We caught up with director Katie Gascoyne to talk about her film.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>The shorts programme allows any Blue Zoo employee from juniors to CEO\u2019s to pitch an idea, what is your day job at Blue Zoo and what made you go for the pitch?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the Talent and Recruitment Coordinator at Blue Zoo, my area is all things recruitment, though I do have a background in animation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I went for the pitch mostly from Blue Zoo co-founder, Tom Box\u2019s, encouragement! Just after last year&#8217;s Christmas pitch Tom and I were en route to a recruitment event, and I mentioned how much I\u2019d have loved to have pitched an idea, but that it didn\u2019t make sense being in a non-artist role. Tom immediately assured me of the complete opposite and said that he wished I had pitched, as the more diversity and ideas the better. Because of that there was no question I\u2019d pitch for something this year!<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><b><i>What was the brief this year and how did the gingerbread story come into it?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So we had to pitch an animated music video idea for the new Christmas single \u2018Let\u2019s Not Go Away\u2019, by Scouting For Girls. The idea had to be a creative representation of the songs main theme: the wish to spend Christmas cosied up and watching TV, just you and your other half, without the burden of having to put up with their bizarre extended family. One of the buzzwords we were given in the original brief was \u201codd couple\u201d &#8211; and the tensions of bringing characters from two different families\/existences\/species together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-37469\" src=\"http:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/GGB_Mandy-800x450.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" \/>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The gingerbread idea made the most sense based on what I wanted the short to be: funny, romantic, Christmassy and relatable. To me a gingerbread man is a staple of Christmas time but it\u2019s not a symbol that\u2019s too overused &#8211; the character needed to represent Christmas, but I wanted to avoid an animal or something typical. Also luckily for me, a gingerbread man is already anthropomorphic so that made it very easy to relate to him on a human level! At first I\u2019d toyed with the idea of his partner being a Christmas pudding &#8211; but then what would a pudding and a biscuit have to fight about!? It had a lot more punch, and opportunity for gags, when I paired Dan with a human partner, his girlfriend Mandy. A big inspiration was Kristin Lester\u2019s short \u2018Purl\u2019, from the Pixar SparkShorts programme, as I love the fact that with enough set up, you can empathise emotionally with any kind of character &#8211; even a ball of yarn or\u2026 a gingerbread man!<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><b><i>How did you find the pitching process?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pitching process this year was very kind actually! It was a blind pitch so we had to prepare some ideas and materials to send over, which would do the talking for us, so we didn\u2019t have any additional pressure of having to talk publicly or present it in some flashy way. We were required to provide a summary of the idea, some rough early character designs, a moodboard of the art style we liked and a breakdown script of what would happen in the animation in time with the lyrics provided.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This was so that the pitch would be judged solely by the idea. In the end, other than any pressure I put on myself, the actual experience of pitching was quite simple!<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><b><i>This is the first 2D project to come out of Blue Zoo in it\u2019s 18 year history &#8211;\u00a0 no pressure there then? How did you find directing your first professional film and the first 2D film from Blue Zoo?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ha! Well there was always going to be pressure! Though I didn\u2019t think too much about this being the first 2D project in BZ\u2019s history to be honest\u2026 to me during the pitch, a 2D animation was just the best way to tell this story, and luckily we have a 2D studio now!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I absolutely loved directing this film. At every stage I was blown away by the talent of the 2D team, especially as I come from a 3D animation background, and how lovely they were to work with as a Director. I mean I knew they were talented, of course &#8211; I\u2019d recruited quite a few of them! But we had 8 weeks to deliver 3 minutes 15 seconds of animation&#8230; as a real music video&#8230; with a team of artists who are already incredibly busy on their current 2D project\u2026 and yet the level of artistry that these people came out with on such short notice just never failed to amaze me!<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-37471\" src=\"http:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2019-12-05-2-800x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"576\" \/>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To be honest, I think I never thought about the pressure of it being the first 2D short because the time limit alone was enough to worry about. But I\u2019m so proud of what we did and how it came out &#8211; it was the most rewarding creative experience I\u2019ve ever had!<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><b><i>Tell us about the team you worked with designing the characters and backgrounds, animating the characters in Harmony?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A big reason why this short looks so lovely is because of our extremely talented Creative Director for the studio, Jacques Gauthier, who was the Art Director for this project. He is a force of nature when it comes to creativity, and was my main support for the duration of the project &#8211; I don\u2019t think it would\u2019ve happened without his help!<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-37472\" src=\"http:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2019-12-05-800x391.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"391\" \/>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I really couldn\u2019t say enough about the artists that worked on this short, they were genuinely amazing &#8211; it\u2019s not an exaggeration to say I was blown away during every stage of the pipeline. At each stage they were all dealing with very tight deadlines, their normal full-time work, and some notes from me, so the quality of work that they were able to produce was just mind blowing. Design, Layout, Paint, Rigging, Animation, FX, Comp, Edit\u2026 all artists within these teams went above and beyond expectations for the time scale that they had.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Animation was a personal highlight for me though, as I\u2019m an animator at heart. Being able to work with the animators, see their process using a different software (as I\u2019m from a 3D background) was really interesting. And I learned a little bit about Toon Boom Harmony so that was fun! I\u2019d also like to emphasise how amazing our Comp &amp; FX team are. They had the tightest deadlines of anyone and faced a mountain of work in the final week, yet they made all finishing touches absolutely beautiful. Overall, I\u2019m so proud to have worked with them on this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><b><i>Blue Zoo are well known for their CG work, how are they keeping their identity within a 2D studio?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blue Zoo\u2019s identity is all about creating entertaining content in a variety of styles, experimenting with the boundaries of software, and making things that people are proud to have worked on. So\u2026 I\u2019m hoping we\u2019ve ticked the boxes with all of that with the 2D short!\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-37473\" src=\"http:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/BZ-ChristmasShort2019_harmony03-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Within the 2D studio, and on their current TV Series production, it\u2019s still the same atmosphere as BZ\u2019s 3D studio &#8211; the vibe is casual, laid back and comfortable, but the artists work hard and are extremely creative in how they apply their skill set and time, because it\u2019s a lot easier to be creative in a comfortable environment. Blue Zoo\u2019s identity as a studio has never been about a house style, as we\u2019re always experimenting with different aesthetics and software, it\u2019s more about the quality of our work. And that quality is still reflected in our 2D projects.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><b><i>Has this given you a taste to direct more animated projects?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Absolutely, I\u2019d love to direct again! It was both incredibly fun and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">super<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> difficult &#8211; which just made the pay off even better in my eyes. And getting to know more about the 2D pipeline was incredibly interesting. If another idea popped into my brain that I really believed was worth doing, I wouldn\u2019t hesitate to pitch again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><b><i>Will you be spending Christmas in a giant Gingerbread house?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course\u2026 aren\u2019t you?<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>\u2018Let\u2019s Not Go Away\u2019 is available to stream everywhere.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every year, multi-BAFTA winning animation studio, Blue Zoo, holds an in-house competition to give anyone the opportunity to direct a short animated film. This year was a chance to direct the music video for the new Scouting For Girls Christmas single. The band chose an idea by Blue Zoo\u2019s Recruitment and Talent Coordinator, Katie Gascoyne. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":37476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,755,5944],"tags":[6166,193,747],"class_list":["post-37396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-interviews","category-women-in-animation","tag-blue-zoo-shorts","tag-blue-zoo","tag-shorts-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blue Zoo&#039;s Katie Gascoyne Directs Scouting For Girls Christmas Single - Interview! 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