Candy Guard and Claire Kitson have visited us and given lectures as part of the guest lecture program, Candy Guard actually visited us quite some time ago, talking to us about her work in the past 20 years or so, including her book and her hit tv series ‘Pond Life’. She explained some of the woes and wonders of the animation industry and how she became an animator in the first place.
Claire Kitson visited us for very much the same reason, explaining how and why she began and what she had done in her career. Claire was one of the influential figures in Channel 4’s now defunct ‘4mations’. She told us of her previous work with Yuri Norschein who she described in her book: ‘Yuri Norstein and Tale of Tales: An animator’s journey’. Her most recent book is: ‘British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor’ based obviously on Channel 4’s history with animation.
Unfortunately Claire finished with a rather bleak overview of the future of animation, saying how funding is now so limited, and that computer games are far more profitable for animators than actual film making. I don’t agree with this, and besides, if everyone did computer games, there wouldn’t be any money it that either.
Unfortunately I cannot find a video extract of the old Channel 4 ‘4mations’ animations that Claire was involved with, only the newer online animation ‘4mations’. I did however find this tribute page:
and this page about her book on Yuri Norstein:
Claire Kitson link (Yuri Norstein Book etc.)
Candy Guard’s ‘Pond Life’ (Extract):
JWakerley 
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