LoveLove Films MD and Producer Georgina Hurcombe was delighted to have been selected to take part in Animated Women UK’s acclaimed Helen North Achieve Programme. This week, she has been featured on the Animated Women UK blog, talking about her inspirational journey, being a woman in the animation industry Helen North Achieve Programme she has been taking part in this year.

The Helen North Achieve Programme is an intensive introduction to strategic career management for women in VFX and animation. Funded and supported by Creative Skillset, Disney, Turner Broadcasting, Escape Studios and The Mill, the programme addresses real challenges and barriers in order to help women in animation and VFX fulfil their potential.

The programme, which recently finished, was run by acknowledged career development experts, informed by in-depth industry research and input from renowned VFX and animation experts including Louise Hussey, Executive VFX Producer at Double Negative and Beth Parker, Senior Manager, Production (Animation) EMEA at Disney. Georgina state: ““It was great to hear insight from Beth and Louise on their own career progression and how they have navigated the animation and VFX landscape. Being able to hear insight from such high positioned women was invaluable.”

The goal of the highly interactive programme is to help participants to help themselves by developing a much greater understanding of how to manage their own careers within a supportive network of like-minded professionals. The course was lead by both Marianne o Connor and Janice Armstrong who specialise in personal impact and brand.

With 74% of females over the age of 30 working in animation and VFX in the UK feel that they have or will experience career barriers relating to their gender, which is why Animated Women offered the opportunity for 24 women (12 from the VFX sector and 12 from the animation sector) to take part in The Helen North Achieve Programme. Animated Women have taken on 8 women at an early stage in their career; 8 experienced practitioners looking to progress their careers; and 8 women who have already achieved a lot but are still seeking to reach their full potential, with a genuine interest in helping less experienced women to build fulfilling careers in their sector. The programme this year consisted of a wide variety of women from organisations such as Disney, DNeg, LoveLove Films, Nexus and Blue Zoo.

Within the blog, Georgina talks about the history of LoveLove Films and the building we call home, Cinechrome Studios. She also talks about all the exciting animated work we have produced at LoveLove Films, including last year’s graphics and titles for a variety of productions including BBC Films’ F1 Williams, Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins, ITV’s easyJet: Inside the Cockpit to name a few, as well over 50 TV campaigns, mostly animated.

Georgina also talks about our children’s TV IP Bottle Island, which we are collaborating with the United Nations on. The series is aimed at pre-school aged children and teaches them the importance of looking after the environment using a mix of 3D characters, 2D backgrounds and live action elements. For this years World Environment Day 2018, LoveLove Films teamed up with the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) to produce an animated short film using characters from Bottle Island to highlight the importance of combating plastic pollution for children, and the everyday ways in which they can stop plastic pollution around the world.

On the Helen North Achieve Programme, Georgina said: “The Animated Women UK Helen North Achieve Programme is another fantastic support network for women in the animation industry. Being able to talk to like-minded women about issues that we all face and how to overcome them has been invaluable and inspiring. It’s great to be able to speak to women from fantastic organizations such as DNeg, Disney and Blue Zoo.

The mix of career stages also provides a unique insight into what concerns other women in the industry. Personally, it’s also been really useful to hear about what these women want in their own organizations and then thinking about whether we can apply any of this at LoveLove Films. I’ve made some great new friends too!”

To find out more about the Animated Women UK Helen North Achieve Programme visit: http://www.animatedwomenuk.com/animated-women-achieve-programme/