But you can only do MOMI once and even though so far Clare Kitson, commissioning editor for Channel 4, has commissioned all the films, she's not obliged to do so. Moreover, you can't live forever on one film so where do you turn next? Kayla Parker has been an independent filmmaker on and off for ten years, having started off on an enterprise allowance scheme in 1988. It was, she says, one of "the odd good things that the Tory government bought in." Parker is one of the few filmmakers based outside London and tends to jump from commission to commission juxtaposing her commercial work with her own films. She's just completed the titles for a quirky history series from Channel 4, which she'll follow with another personal film. A film maker who lives outside of the M25, Parker is a fan of the Animate scheme which she says not only champions regional animators as well those based in London, but also manages to encourage diversity as well.

Image from a film by Hotessa Lawrence. © Hotessa Lawrence.

Animate Via Commission
The Animate scheme, a collaboration between the Arts Council's Visual Arts Department and Channel 4, offers commissions up to £25,000 for innovative animation. It's been a godsend to the independent sector and has funded 41 projects, including Sarah Cox's 3 Ways to Go, which won "Best Film Under Ten Minutes" at this year's British Animation Awards, and Feeling My Way, by Jonathan Hodgson, which won "Most Creative Use of New Technologies." Parker's own Animate film is Cage of Flame, a film produced on a shoestring budget which used pixillation and stop motion and is based upon dreams during menstruation. She has also made another film called Sunset Strip. Despite her success and somewhat fame, Parker admits that it is "economically difficult to survive," and is becoming more so because there are less initiatives to help animators and, as aforementioned, an ever-growing supply of talent. You'd think the animation boom would in itself offer some checks and balances but as Parker explains, that's not entirely the case. "It's harder to earn a living now than ten years ago, as 1988 was the end of the public access workshops. They've virtually all gone now." Parker also finds it tougher being in the regions but says there are compensations, namely "being by the sea." She'd like to see the current system diversified to give more sources of funding. For now until the millennium however, Parker doesn't have to worry about the next commission. She's taking a breather from animation for her next project which is to create a living community archive for the people of Plymouth. Funded by the Single Regeneration Budget, in partnership with South West Arts and Plymouth Council, "It's a nice project," says Parker, which will be adopted by locals in two years time.

Building Your Own Way
An independent filmmaker who now has a full-length animated feature to his name is Tony Johnson, a Cardiff based animator whose film Fallen Angels, an animated road movie, has received critical acclaim. Unlike many, Johnson has never made a film on either the Animate or the MOMI scheme but has funded himself through a variety of media jobs, including graphics and directing a number of documentaries. In making Fallen Angels Johnson showed amazing resourcefulness and tenacity. He set up his own studio and trained his own animators. He's currently working on his next film, entitled Island of the Dead which already has most of its funding in place. Hopefully this will ensure that Johnson is able to focus on making a spellbinding animated film.

Reece Millidge's Chemical Reaction. © Reece Millidge.

The MOMI scheme is for new graduates but many find applying the same year they've graduated too intense. The recent crop of RCA graduates are finding various ways to earn a crust. Hotessa Lawrence has just completed her two year post-grad in animation and is currently living at home so she "doesn't have to worry about the rent." She has also been fortunate in finding commercial work as a hand artist on live-action ads for Two Rivers, a production company, but has also "done some really horrible jobs" to make ends meet. At the moment she's one of many pitching for the title sequence of the Channel 4 show Dope Sheet but is optimistic about the future. "I've only been out of college a few months and I haven't even taken my show reel around. Although I have an agent I still need to get my reel to them." Her film, At the Drop of a Hat, got a fair bit of feedback, she says. "Hibbert Ralph got in touch - they're just waiting for work to come in that they think I'm suitable for." She isn't applying for MOMI yet though, as she thinks it is too soon.