15th February by Tim Webb, Animate! 7 mins., 1995.

The first alarm bells have already rung. Over at Channel 4, the newly-appointed Controller of Arts and Entertainment, Stuart Cosgrove, has put the Animate! scheme (and other such schemes) on hold. It's a sensible move. In the first place, Cosgrove will need to ascertain what the new funding implications are for the Channel 4 budget. In principle, Animate! should receive more money from the Lottery than it previously received from the Arts Council, but this may not necessarily reduce Channel 4's contribution: in fact, it may increase it. Worse, it may make it unnecessary; in which case, Animate! would be cut loose from its personal connection with Clare Kitson and, already at arm's length from David Curtis, may drift away from first principles and lose sight of its standards. This gloomy scenario is further complicated by problems over at Channel 4, where Chief Executive, Michael Grade, is fighting a battle against privatization--more Tory dogma. Privatization will inevitably undermine the original 1982 remit of the Channel to provide innovative programming for minority audiences, a remit which was entirely appropriate to the funding of schemes such as Animate!

Sunset Strip by Kayla Parker, Animate! 4 minutes, 1996

Time-lapse drawings of one year's sunsets--including those obscured by clouds--are rendered directly onto 35mm film stock using a variety of materials, including nail varnish, magnolia petals, hair and net stocking. The result is a dazzling expression of the visual music revealed by 365 setting suns.

But there may be a silver lining. What the Lottery taketh it may also giveth away! Dave Curtis has informally floated an idea for an Animation Trust, the thrust of which is to establish an entity which would support the animation community in the UK. Its major functions would be to provide a research academy, comprised of information data banks, archive material and a film and publications library, and, more importantly, an ongoing production fund. Through the Trust, not only would the Animate! scheme survive (in another form perhaps), but a much wider commitment to animation in the UK would be established. It would be able to pick up the slack from a privatized Channel 4 and sustain the talent that has been nurtured by Channel 4, the Arts Council and other similarly-threatened public funding bodies over the last decade and a half. The prodigious sums of money available from the Lottery may be used to purchase buildings, for capital expenses, personnel costs and project funding--the Animation Trust might just slip through as just one of a multitude of other hare-brained schemes. But the idea had better be floated soon before the Lottery dust settles and public accountability becomes an issue. The Government may be chuckling over its reduced public spending budget as a result of the success of the Lottery, but when the public wakes up to its own spending, then it may withdraw or question its support for schemes which are relatively unaccessible to the majority of punters.

Jill McGreal owns and runs her own Londonbased animation production company, CODENAME The Animation Agency. She produces television series for children and represents many wellknown international directors for commercial work. She continues to write and teach about animation and film in general.