My Experience At Annecy 2000
My journey began at 4:40am when a taxi picked me up and took me to the coach station. I met friends of mine who are also animators and we got on a coach to London's Victoria Staion. I hadn't gone to bed the night before as I'm not very good at waking up early and didn't want to miss the coach. We arrived at 8:25am and caught a bus to Waterloo. We met up with more people who were going to the festival then we got on the EuroStar at 10:23am. Having gone through the Euro-tunnel, I arrived in Paris at 2:17pm. I had to go on the underground from a part of Paris called Nord to Gare Lyon. I had a couple of hours to wait until my next train so my friends and I wondered around Paris armed with cameras. It wasn't that easy going from place to place as I had a huge bag to carry around. After having lunch and giong up endless flights of stairs at the station, I finally got a train 5:06pm that was destined for Annecy. I arrived 3 hours later at 9:06pm and got in another taxi, this time headed for my hotel.
THE FUN BEGINS
After 14 hours of travelling and no sleep, I was feeling a little tired. Determined not to waste a second of the trip, my friends and I set off to explore Annecy to see what it had to offer. My hotel was situated about a mile and a half from the town centre. This meant a lengthy walk every time we wanted to go somewhere. We didn't mind as the location was stunning.
When we arrived in the town centre, the first thing we found was an enormous inflatable screen situated in a park by the lake. Loud music boomed from the speakers and the croud cheered as they watched a Manga style cartoon. All of a sudden the long journey seemed worth while. Set in front of a mountainous backdrop, the setting was better then any cinema I had ever visited. This screen was to be the home of some great animation over the course of the next week. Every night there was a live band playing in front of the sceen, followed by an animated movie. Some of my favorates were the classics 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' and 'Fantasia'.
This was not the only place to watch films however. Cinema screens were located in 11 places throughout the town. Each hosting a wide range of animated events.
There was a competition where students from around the world could enter their films. All of which were shown on cinema screens. Each of us were presented with a bag which was full of loads of cool stuff, including a pass which let me see as many films as I wanted for free!
There where a large number of comic book artists who were more then happy to sign thier latest work. They also personalised then by drawing whatever you wanted them to inside the front cover. I got books signed by two French artists who I have admitedly never heard of but their drawing ability was superb. For those that are interested, the comic books were 'L'horloge' by Roosevelt and 'Anita Bomba' by Eric Gratien.
I would now like to tell you about my favorate part of the entire festival which happened on Friday 9th June 2000...
TITAN A.E AND MEETING DON BLUTH
When my friends and I arrived at the cinema, there were already huge lines of people at the theatre's three entrances. We had arrived over an hour early but we were still very far back in the line. By the time the doors opened, the lines had disappeared and was replaced by a huge sea of heads all trying to push their way to the front. Luck must have been on my side because we somehow managed to get past the hundreds of people and into the theatre. When we got in, the entire room was full of excited people who were cheering and eagerly waiting for the best film of the festival. There was a small stage in front of the screen and a French man made his way up it's steps to the top. He gave a little introduction about the film then said " ladies and gentlemen, Don Bluth!" Huh? I was gobsmacked as I saw one of the worlds most influencial animators make his way onto the stage with his long time co-partner Gary Goldman. They both talked for a while and then made their way off the stage. They sat in the next row along from me. Everyone was suprised as the programme didn't mention anything about him being there. For the next hour and a half, I was treated to a visual feast of animation, combining high quality hand drawn characters along with state of the art computer generated animation.
When the film finished, it recieved a huge round of applause and my friends and I made our way out of the cinema. There where people stood in various places handing out free copies of Don Bluth's new magazine 'ToonTalk'. I went and got a copy and then noticed that a few people were also carrying huge Titan A.E posters as well. They were the same posters that had been advertising the film all week and were really cool. My friends and I walked decided thst we had to get one of those so we started to walk about. We walked through a pair of double doors only to be presented with another huge line of people. At first I thought they were just waiting for a film to start. I then looked at the front of the line only to see Don Bluth and Gary Goldman sat on a little stage. They were the ones that were handing out the posters. As I looked I could see that they were also signing them. I definately had to have one now so I joined another seemingly endless line. My waiting paid off and i was stood standing face to face with one of my favorate film makers. He and Gary Goldman signed a poster for me as well as the 'ToonTime' book I had been given. I asked if I could have a photogragh taken with them and Don said "sure, be my guest". So I got out my camera and handed it to a member of sucurity. I got up onto the platform with them and posed for the picture. I told him much I had enjoyed the film, which made him smile then I made my way off of the platform. I was also given a promotional press release of Titan A.E which was in French but looked really cool. I then said goodbye and made my way outside the line. I had quite a wait as my friends had yet to see him. When they had finished we decided to walk a mile and a half back to our hotel in order to keep our oversized posters safe. The posters turned into a problem on Saturday when it was time to leave as they wouldn't it in my bag so had to be carried seperately. Thankfully it got home in one piece and I am now going to get a frame to put it in so it can be displayed on my wall.
CONCLUSION
The holiday was easily the best that i have ever been on. It was set in a great location, there were really friendly local people, and the weather couldn't have been better. I would reccommend it to anyone but would advise they catch a plane instead of taking the route i did. I had the same 14 hour trip ahead of me when the festival finished and didn't get home until really late. I will definately be going next year and I hope to see you there as well.
WHAT ABOUT THE ANIMATION PROGRAMMES?
Ahh yes! I promised you some links to animation programmes didn't I? Well then, never being someone to go back on my word, here they are, enjoy...
Caligari (link two)
Strata 3D (link three)
Annecy 2000
Animation 2000
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