Manchester Animation Festival: Masterclass with Tomm Moore

Manchester Animation Festival kicked off with what I have to believe was one of the most interesting talks that I attended  whilst there. Tomm was there to talk about his newest film Song of the Sea which is a film I have already looked into and taken an interest in. Because of this, it was really nice to learn about the ideas behind the film and to hear the director talk about the process of making the film.

Tomm spoke about his initial ideas for the film and how he had been thinking of this idea whilst he was making his first film The Secret of Kells, a film I have already seen. For Tomm, Song of the Sea is a personal film, as he has based the characters on his own family members and the story line revolves around Irish mythology. I found this particularly interesting because I personally enjoy animation that is led by narrative and it was interesting to hear how he incorporated childhood myths into his own work to create his film.

During the talk Tomm stated that he first attempted to storyboard the animation before he had written a script, however this didn't work in the end. It was really useful to hear this and it is something that I can keep in mind for future projects.

Because I am such a huge fan of Song of the Sea, I really wanted to talk to Tomm, however, he wasn't around for long. The day after the talk he happened to sit in front of me during one of the talks and I plucked up the courage to say hi to him. I didn't have the courage to say much, but I did start to follow him on Twitter and got a follow back, I will attempt to talk to him through Twitter in the hopes to start networking.

Although I didn't get the chance to talk to Tomm very much and ask him the questions I had, I did win a signed print from him on the last day of MAF.