Mini-review: Ben Mitchell’s “Independent Animation”

Ben Mitchell’s book “Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films” arrived while I was in Amsterdam. Ben is an animation journalist at Skwigly as well as an animator in his own right. His book chock full of war stories and advice from independent animators across the world – you’ll find Adam Elliot (“Harvie Krumpet”), Bill Plympton, Signe Baumane (“Rocks In My Pockets”), Nina Paley (“Sita Sings The Blues”), PES (“Fresh Guacamole”), Jonti Picking (Weebl) and many more talking about their experiences with funding, making feature films, development process, distribution and everything else. I’d highly recommend it to anyone outside of the major studio system looking for inspiration and guidance on the broader task of making animated films.