Animation Magazine 10 Questions

10 Questions for Locksmith Animation’s Sarah Smith & Julie Lockhart

The two CEO's got together this month with Animation Magazine for their regular and very popular 10 questions piece. Sarah and Julie discussed how they have been growing the company over the past 5 years, they talked of the toughest aspect of producing a CG-animated feature in the U.K. right now, and they touched on Locksmiths slate including their first film out of the studio, 'Ron's Gone Wrong'.  Other questions included the best tools the studio uses such as their use of VR software, like Gravity Sketch, for some of their early production design work.

Also, this month Locksmith went to Annecy Animation Festival where the team revealed a little more about 'Ron's Gone Wrong' in their Studio Focus Session. The focus was met with an overwhelming reaction in the room and at Annecy overall.
​A great month for Locksmith!

Animation Magazine: Since the studio turns five this year, can you tell us a little about the beginnings and how it all came together? 

​Sarah & Julie: The company was born out of our joint desire to start a high-end CG feature studio here in the U.K., given all the U.K. had to offer — great original IP, a world-class vfx industry, a vibrant, exciting city on the doorstep of Europe and, of course, a generous tax credit.
Sarah: I had just finished Arthur Christmas at Sony in Los Angeles, and coming back to London — a city whose film industry is globally pre-eminent, and whose creative community I love — it really struck me: Why have we never had a major dedicated CG feature animation studio here?
Julie: I had known Sarah from our days at Aardman, and she came back from Los Angeles with this crazy idea of setting up a studio. It felt like a huge step, but I always like a challenge and felt that if there was anyone that could do it here in the U.K., it would be Sarah. We set about finding partners to work with both from a funding and production perspective.
Sarah:  It was basically an impossible dream until we had the amazing good fortune to meet the visionary Liz Murdoch and Matt Holben and Alex Hope at Double Negative, that extraordinary success story of the British film Industry.

By Animation Magazine
Published on June 21, 2019

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