The Animator

I am Ceri Watling, the other half of the team making Walter Gloom. I'm the person who takes all James' ideas, storyboards and drawings and turns them into stop-motion animation. I've just come back from London where James and I finally met up after weeks of discussing the film by email.

I'm 27 and I live in Bolton, near Manchester and I've been making stop-motion animations for just over a year. I discovered my calling in life a little late after many years of being rather lost. One day I hope to make my living producing independent animations, but for now I spend most of my time in my spare-bedroom/studio making animations just for the love of it.

My plan for this short film is to try to bring James' vision for Walter Gloom to life exactly as he has imagined, and challenge myself by making a film very different to the ones I usually make.

This blog will show our progress in making this film, and also provide a place for James and I to exchange ideas and pictures. Hope you all enjoy watching our progress!

The Director

"The Beginning"







Hello & Welcome!

My name is James Geard, I am 1 half of the team for the up and coming "Walter Gloom" Micro-short.

In this introduction I will let you know a little bit about myself, where I have come from, what my role on the film will be, and where I'd like to go in the future.

First off I'm 21 years of age;

I was born in Kent/England though left for Australia when I was just 6weeks of age. This is where I have lived the past 21 years of my life and it has been an absolute pleasure.
(I give Australia a lot of lip, mainly due to the extreme heat and bright sun on my pale skin, and frail eyeballs) But I love it there. Even if the small town community where I lived could sometimes feel a bit close minded and constrictive. Though this is just my personal view of the place. I'm sure it's quite lovely and all, I'm just a bit cynical and unfortunately haven't ever been too good at going along with something because it's what everyone else expects of you. This is very much appreciated in a smaller community.

I suppose in some ways for me it's like trying to blend Art with Commerciality.

Be yourself! Be Artistic!, but do it in a way that doesn't go outside of the lines.

I am now living in England once more, at a place called Guildford in Surry. I adore it here, it is close enough for me to get into London when I need, though far enough out that I can have my own peace and quite to think and work, it's very inspiring for me to have that.

So my roll on Walter Gloom is as the Director, Concept Artist, basically most things to do with look and feel of the movie, I also wrote the script originally 13minutes long (which I have now cut down into a 1minute piece) Which I would like to complete at a later date. I'm sure that there a few other thing's here and there that I'm doing but the ones I mentioned are the main things.

As for where Id like to go in the future, at this point in time I like to think my aspirations are quite modest. First and foremost complete Walter Gloom to the best of my ability, and find work within the film or television industry. I'm not phased where I start but in the long term at this point in time I would Love to Direct Films for a living.

So anyways thank you ever so much for dropping in.

Keep an eye out over the coming weeks and months as there shall be plenty of updates regarding the films production.

JJ.