Credits

I've always enjoyed watching the credits at the end of a film or TV episode.

One of my favourite shows as a kid was Little Bear - or, as I knew it, Der kleine Bär. It's an animated series produced in Canada based on the children's book series of the same name written by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Five seasons aired between 1995 and 2001.

I especially loved the title sequence:

To me, this opening sequence exemplifies everything that is amazing about animation: the narrative weaves its way beautifully through just one minute, introducing the characters and the world, with these slightly fantastical elements, like the changing of the seasons from scene to scene or the characters flying into the sky - it works within art style, but it's super fun (or at least, it was for 5-year-old me). Also crucial to the success of this opening sequence is the theme music, which is fantastic. When I just rewatched it a minute ago, hearing the first few bars of the music immediately flooded me with nostalgia! But that's not the only reason I wanted to bring up the music.

As a kid growing up in Germany with an English name that my anglophile mother had chosen, I didn't often come across anyone that shared my name. The first time that I remember this happening was when I spotted a certain name in the Little Bear credits: the composer, Lesley Barber. I looked out for my fellow Lesley whenever I watched the show, and for the few frames that her name was on our family TV (for the credits always get played faster than anyone can read them!), I felt a sense of kinship. There was another Lesley out there, and this was special.

As a complete side note: I've just been googling Lesley Barber and it appears that she's had an incredibly successful career, creating music for many award-winning films and TV shows. Go, Lesley! My (lesbian) interest was piqued when I read that one of the films she scored is When Night Is Falling (1995), directed by Patricia Rozema - who, I read, was her partner at the time. Go, Lesley! Side note over.

As I grew up, I began to take in more information from film credits than just the names. It seemed like there was a whole mysterious world out there, a world with impenetrable job titles. Okay, I can perhaps guess what a Storyboard Supervisor does, but what about a Previz Artist? A Groom Artist? What is Real Time? What does a Production Coordinator coordinate? What do all these people do? And why are there so many of them?! The credits continued to fascinate me, especially if they were presented in a particularly entertaining way - for example, in The Incredibles (2009) or Lego Movie (2014).

When I studied Visual Communication at university, I continued to be interested in video games and animation - that's what all of my essays were about. If anyone had asked me then what I really wanted to do as a job I'd have said that I wanted to work as an artist for films or games. However, plagued with a deep sense of pragmatism, I just didn't see how that would be achievable - surely those jobs are only for people in LA. And so I carried on illustrating and making comics. I never thought that my name could be in the end credits of anything!

Cut to 2024, when I was desperate to get into some full-time employment that allowed me to do something creative. Through a traineeship, I got a job in an Animation studio. If you've followed me on here, you may have noticed that there was a pretty sharp decline in the amount of work I created from this point on. I went from working part time as an artist and part time in a retail job to working full time, plus completing training to be able to do this job which I knew nothing about. Working on this TV show pretty much took over my life! I missed having more time for my own art. Yet, I would not have changed it for anything, because the experience I've had has been priceless. And what was it all for?

When I watched an episode of the show I've been working on with my nephew, he requested we pause on the credits "so he could see Lesley". So, uh - that? I'm joking, of course, that's not the point to all this, but wow, it also felt pretty nice! Thankfully, due to modern technology, it is possible to pause the screen now (unlike when I longingly looked our for my Lesley!).

It's hard to articulate the feelings I have about finishing on this TV show. It's just a job, right? And yet, it's a pretty special job. Watching so many people give their absolute everything. The creativity and passion. The work ethic that would often have you think that someone's life was at stake rather than the texture of this tree or that flower. I've never worked somewhere where everyone was united in such a real way for a common goal. It's probably the closest I'll ever come to experiencing what it's like to play a team sport.

Anyway, here's a comic about it.

Puzzling away,

L x