Artist agency International Rescue gets seriously animated and adds moving image to the fold

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www.internationalrescue.com.pngAuckland-based artist agency International Rescue is now representing animators alongside their photographers and illustrators, having found a niche for clients to collaborate directly with freelance animators.

The addition of 5 animators fills a gap in the market for cost and time-effective outsourced animation that provides an alternative to a production house.

Not only can clients save costs and time by working directly withanimators, they also now have a wider range of animation styles tochoose from as any of the 17 illustrators work can be animated.

“We are different to animation companies because we are agents; weprovide a fold of animators and take our commission from them, not theclient,” says co-director Rob Finn. “With technology being soaccessible, its now possible to work directly with the animator intheir home studio for offline work, which means the client doesn’t haveto pay for the high overheads of a production company.”

Under this new process pre-production storyboarding and production canbe achieved with the animator working from their studio with updatesand approvals being finalised via email if desired. Onlinepost-production of sound and final client approvals can be outsourcedto any post- production facility according to budget. Furthermore, allproduction is overseen by experienced producer/agents similar to theservice on offer for photography and illustration jobs.

Another notable benefit is that any of their 17 illustrators work canbe animated, giving the opportunity to choose from a broad range ofvisual styles.

“The pool of talent that we have access to is tenfold to anythingcurrently on offer. Any of our illustrators work can also be animated,opening the possibilities for total creative collaboration. We are nowin a position to completely tailor according to the brief,” says Finn.

“Our illustrators often work with animation companies, collaborating onspecial briefs that require unique visual styles. Beingmulti-disciplinary, we’re not solely reliant on animators due to oursheer number of diverse illustrators, which means we have the abilityto offer more left of centre, avant-garde and incredibly varied art -as well as covering all the basics.”

International Rescue’s original fold of photographers and illustratorshas now increased to 30 artists with the addition of animators. Betweenthem they cover many facets of 2D animation catering for commercials,TV series, web and online, applications, video clips, title sequencesand films. 3D and stop frame is in the pipeline.

The animators have been pulled on board for their strong and oftendiverse commercial and personal styles and for their professionalexperience. Karl Wills has worked closely with Yukfoo with his solid,varied style and Mukpuddy are the trio of master crafters behind manyof New Zealand?s children TV series.

Kieran Rynhart animates video clips in a home-grown illustrative styleas shown in the Fly My Pretties tour animation, and Mofresh are behindthe scenes of New Zealand’s most prominent musicians having animatedvideo clips for the likes of Kora, Isaac Aesili, GND, Recloose and TheBlack Seeds.

Photorealistic animator Mardo El-Noor recently had his film ‘Rock PaperScissors’ playing as part of NZ Film Festival and is also representedfor his Parisian, Arabesque-style illustration.

” We are a multi-disciplinary agency. We aim to inspire connection andcollaboration, so having animators on board adds to that goal. Theseguys are some of the best animators in Australasia and are certainlyworld class. They’re keen and passionate to collaborate in thecommercial realm on projects that are fresh, innovative and exciting.So naturally, we’re looking forward to clients realizing their talenttoo.”

For more information or to be sent a show reel contact Rob Finn +649 360 3366, +64 21 797 021. Or email rob@internationalrescue.com or visit: www.internationalrescue.com