Animation student inspired to win placement

29 June 2010

Animation student Alex Betancourt wins placement

BU animation student Alex Betancourt has won a placement opportunity with one of the world's leading film visual effects houses.

Alex, 22 from Petersfield in Hampshire, beat off competition from more than 250 submissions to claim the placement from Cinesite through the company's Inspire Program launched in January.

He will join Chris Mulcaster from Portsmouth University at Cinesite during a six-week period during the summer. Both winners will have an opportunity to work on Cinesite's upcoming projects including Fox/Walden's 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' and Disney/Pixar's 'John Carter of Mars'.

Alex, who has just completed his BA (Hons) in Computer Visualisation and Animation, was selected by Cinesite because of the "confident lighting and shader writing work he conveyed throughout his showreel."

"I was very surprised to be selected for the programme," Alex enthused. "I knew just from the standard of work my coursemates we're submitting that the competition for the internship was strong; I was so sure I wouldn't get it that I had put it to the back of my mind.

"What inspires me about animation is having complete creative control," Alex continued. "I can create an animation involving any character I want, or set it in any location whether it's real or fantasy but with other mediums I would be a lot more restricted. It's a lot of hard work, but the end results are always worth it."

Antony Hunt, managing director of Cinesite, said, "We were truly overwhelmed by the number of applications we received and the standard of showreels submitted. I'd like to welcome Chris and Alex to our team and hope that they enjoy their time with us and get some great experience out of this placement. We'll be running the Inspire Program again next year and hope to continue to grow it year-on-year as it's a great way for us to find, grow and nurture new talent."

Alex Betancourt's final year work will feature at BU's 11th annual BA (Hons) in Computer Visualisation and Animation degree show in London on Friday, 16 July at the Moving Picture Company (W1F 0NL). The show, which operates on an open invitation basis, runs from 11.30am to 5.30pm and will feature a selection of work from 46 graduating students.