Students bring Jubilee Pool Memories to Life

Jubilee Pool Stories is a research project to capture memories of the Jubilee Pool in Penzance since it opened in 1935, providing a historical resource for the local community. It is the UK's largest surviving open air, tidal swimming pool and it stirs vivid memories for a wide cross-section of people. In a continuation of our involvement with the project and Arwen Productions (last year students created some short films) this year, our second year Animation & Visual Effects students were asked to bring some of the fond memories to life.

Student Catalina Neagu is the producer of an animation that depicts the synchronised swimmers who performed at the 75 year anniversary celebrations of the Jubilee Pool.

She shares what it was like for her and the team to work on a client brief for the first time: "Trying to create our best work and present it outside our safe space gave a new perspective on how we should behave and work with others in a more professional environment. The process of organizing and producing a full animation was thrilling and challenging, learning to be flexible and understand and listen to each other.

"Having an enthusiastic team and support from lecturers and freelancers, motivated everybody to perform amazingly, making it possible to create a wonderful animated short film!"

Senior Lecturer, Kathy Nicholls, gives her view on why live client briefs are so important: "This is doing it for real; working with external clients who have set the briefs and defined the deliverables. Of course the students will be marked on their work and it will influence their results, but overall it's the clients they have to please!"

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BA(Hons) Animation & Visual Effects

Kathy works with the students to help them interpret the brief from the clients she has established relationships with, she added: "It's important for us to build relationships with potential clients so we have a solid foundation for our students to work from. Collaboration is key to everything we do, from forming effective teams to creating ideas and delivering great results that meet the client brief – we all work together."

Watch the Synchronised Swimmer animation and the King Neptune stop-motion produced by students for the Jubilee Pool project.