Northampton woman stars in national cinema campaign with Vue, Odeon and Cineworld to recruit people into the film industry

A Northampton woman is helping to showcase opportunities in the film industry in a national campaign that is being shown in cinemas across the UK.

The ‘Find Your Future’ campaign, by ScreenSkills, targets those with existing skills who could transfer to the film and television sector and focuses on roles that have proven challenging to recruit.

Stop motion animator and director Daniella Orsini, from Northampton, is one of seven people to star in this high-profile cinema campaign.

Daniella said: “Animators aren't known for being the most extroverted and attention-loving people. I'm used to spending long days in a studio on my own, with no natural light and definitely never being in front of the camera. I'm shy, get embarrassed easily and go red in a heartbeat.

“But being part of the campaign was a surprisingly lovely experience. Everyone made me feel super comfortable and made something that I thought would be nerve-wracking into a really fun day.

“Watching the finished film made me feel really proud of all the things I've done and achieved.”

Daniella graduated from the University of Liverpool with a BA in Multimedia Arts and secured her first paid job creating animations for a musical theatre production in Norway.

She then had a brief stint working as a hairdresser during the 2008 recession and stop-motion animation was not in very high demand.

On one particularly stressful day in 2010, Daniella put together a showreel, created felt badges and made copies of her CV before trekking around London to hand them out to stop-motion companies she loved.

She received a call the very next day from Loose Moose, who asked her to animate a 12-minute short film.

She moved from London to Manchester the following month to animate paper cut-out puppies in the cellar of a hairdressers in Soho for a year. The resulting animation went on to win multiple awards and was showcased at numerous film festivals.

Daniella set up her own animation company in 2012 called Catfish Collective and she went on to animate campaigns for Flora, Cheerios, LEGO, Toblerone and Cadbury’s.

Talking about how ScreenSkills has helped her, Daniella said: “It gave me the help and support to create a budget and schedule for my kids TV Series idea, and I was partnered with the most wonderful mentor who still helps me out now when I send him sporadic emails out of the blue.”

With help from the ScreenSkills mentorship programme, Daniella was able to put together a completed budget and schedule and apply for the NFI Young Audiences Content Fund.

Daniella continued: “ I was awarded the development funding, which meant I was able to collaborate with illustrators, songwriters and musicians, and I now have a developed kids TV Series, beautiful characters and a couple of songs that I can't get out of my head.”

A short film of the Northampton animation director’s journey to a flourishing career in the film industry can now be seen by millions of cinema goers across the country.

The Find Your Future campaign commenced on Friday, September 23 and will run for three weeks in all DCM cinemas across the UK including Odeon, Vue and Cineworld.