Joanna Quinn

Joanna Quinn is a British film director and animator. She was born in Birmingham and grew up in London. She studied a foundation course in Art at Goldsmiths before completing her degree in Graphic Design at Middlesex University. Whilst studying here, her skills in art and design developed into her love for animation. After graduating, she moved to Wales and started a production company with her partner, Les Mills, who is a producer and writer.

Her most notable work includes the short film Girls Night Out (1986). She also animated the Charmin commercials which aired during the late nineties and early noughties.

Two of her films have been nominated for an Oscar, which are Famous Fred (1996) and The Wife of Bath (1998)

A post shared by @joannaquinn on Aug 18, 2016 at 4:18pm PDT

Quinn uses hand-drawn animation, using the flip motion technique.

I found this video on her Instagram; she only uses three images, but the way she draws make the movement look so fluid and dramatic. I would like to use this as a guideline when doing my own character animation.

• Reflecting on her own work, she states that she likes to go back and exaggerate certain movements, making adjustments depending on the camera angle.

• On some of her animations she works as both the key framer and inbetweener. 

• She often uses a mirror to replicate her own actions when sketching. She also uses a mirror in an attempt to see her own work from a fresh perspective. 

I found it quite inspiring to see her working methods. I’d like to use some of these tips to improve my own work.

I watched her short film dreams and desires, which included the recurring character throughout her films, Beryl.

• Challenges notions of femininity

• Beryl – overweight, working-class

• Relatable to female audiences

• Comparable to modern day actresses, Amy Schumer and Mindy Kaling

• Re-creation of hand-held camera

• 'unnatractive angles' - close up; low angle

• Subverts Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze

• Beryl is an object of humour

Quinn shows that it’s okay to be “unattractive”. She’s spoken out against how some animators are afraid to exaggerate women’s expressions because they need to be pretty. Yet her way of presenting Beryl shows that women do not need to be beautiful to be worthy.

When reflecting on myself as a practitioner, I believe that it’s important to draw away from the representations that have been consistently presented by men. I think in a lot of ways these men dominated representations have conditioned my way of thinking towards women. In my practical pieces I created last year, my animation featured a male protagonist, and the only woman was his love interest, acting as a mere prop to her male counterpart. In documentary, I only interviewed male subjects, and although this kind of annoyed me at the time, in hindsight I could have made more of an effort to find a female to talk to.

So this year, I made a conscious decision to include a strong female protagonist. I thought about making my protagonist curvy since I know this is rare within animation.  I followed a tutorial I found online, but while I was drawing her, I wasn’t liking the result. In the end I ended up drawing her much thinner. I think that subconsciously I didn’t find her pretty as a larger woman. Taking Quinn’s advice, I shouldn’t worry too much about the character appearing to be pretty. I think I should challenge my own perceptions of beauty.