Ben Oakley (projected completion date: 2024) 

Thesis working title: 'Workarounds' in the production of contemporary television animation series in the United Kingdom and Ireland: an examination of creative approaches to overcoming production barriers.  

Director of Studies: Professor Paul Ward

Second Supervisors: Dr Paul Taberham, Dr Tom Walsh 

Ben Oakley studied animation and live-action film production at City Lit in London and then completed an MA in Animation at Arts University Bournemouth. He is currently completing a PhD at Arts University Bournemouth. Ben has produced a number of animated short films which have been exhibited at the Cinema Museum and the City Lit Gallery in London.

Website Links:

Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-vincent-oakley

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/benvincentoakley

Abstract [working/provisional]:  

Research into workarounds (changes to established processes to overcome the impact of transient obstacles, mishaps, and anomalies) can be found in multiple areas, such as healthcare, and aeronautics. However, the examination of workarounds in media production and animation scholarship is under-researched. The emergent nature of research into animation production processes contributes to a gap in knowledge in both workarounds research and animation scholarship. This research is directed at this specific gap in current knowledge - namely that no research has investigated the conditions, impacts, and consequences of workarounds in the production of contemporary animated series in the United Kingdom. The study identifies how changes to the established processes of making animated series function in the relationship between the storyboard and layout stages of animation production. There is a specific focus on investigating how workarounds function in re-use systems, how assets and sequences can be changed during the layout process, as well as how changes to established processes are viewed in contemporary production. The research examines how such changes to established methods of making animated series can then be integrated into future animation production processes.

The research takes the overarching conceptual frame of Production Studies - a paradigm that is focused on how practitioners make media and culture while navigating the complexities of working on commercial creative projects, such as cartoon series. I then apply Alter's (2014) Theory of Workarounds in the examination of the conditions, activities, and impacts of planned and unplanned changes to established ways of making animated series in the United Kingdom. The Theory of Workarounds provides a theoretical framework for examining and categorising these planned and emergent changes to established processes, as well as identifying the local and broader consequences of temporary fixes to accepted ways of working. This approach was adopted because the Theory of Workarounds provides a framework for understanding the motivations, conditions, and consequences of planned and unplanned changes to established methods and processes in business organisations. This study builds upon the Theory of Workarounds by extending the analysis of changes to established methods and applying it in the analysis of the activity in creative organisations - namely contemporary series production in the United Kingdom. The research strategy addresses how changes to recognised methods of making animated cartoons can be integrated into future accepted ways of working. This was accomplished using primary interview data from animation industry professionals.

The research has established that methods of making animation have evolved through a process whereby changes to the production pipeline have been introduced, learned from in the application, formally improved, and finally transformed into subsequent systemised methods of making animation. The changes that have been successfully integrated into the new recognised processes of animation production are those that facilitate the use of the principles of standardisation, interchangeability, and assembly, to enable the production of content for a regular release schedule with controlled production costs. The study has found that practitioners who work at all levels of the animation studio have the ability to implement changes to accepted methods of making animation, however, the scope, type, and impact of changes are dependent on the position of the person making the changes in the hierarchy of the organisation.

The research discovered that changes to established ways of making series can happen at any point in the animation production process, however, these changes can both be met with resistance and integrated into series production on a systematic and regular basis.