Pamela Masters
Paint and Trace Artist (cartoon advertising)
Pamela Masters was born in Nottingham in 1939. She attended Hornsey College, London in the 1950s and in 1957 went to work for the advertising company Pearl and Dean as paint and trace artist on cartoon films for cinema and television. She worked on a number of campaigns including Rael Brook Toplin, Phillips Communications and Ribena. In the late 1950s she joined Alan Crick Productions which made advertising and instructional cartoon films for a number of clients including the British Armed Forces. In the mid-1960s she took a break from paid employment to raise her children. Between 1972 and the late 1980s she worked for the BBC in East Anglia in a freelance capacity as a floor manager, graphics artist, designer and sound assistant. In the 1990s she worked abroad training television personnel in broadcasting techniques. Most recently she has been a volunteer curator for the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads museum.
This interview focuses on her early career at Pearl & Dean and Alan Crick. In her recording Pamela describes her enjoyment in learning anatomical drawings and theatrical set design as a college student, and her excitement at starting work in the Pearl and Dean studios in Dover Street, Mayfair (London). She describes the processes involved in paint and trace work, the organisation of space in the studios and the working culture of Pearl and Dean including its policy of including paint and trace artists at internal screenings of campaigns. She discusses the gender and class composition of the paint and trace team, and describes how commercial animation was an exciting new business in 1950s Britain.
©Melanie Bell
Page citation: Women’s Work Oral Histories/Oral Histories/Melanie Bell, Women’s Work in British Film and Television, http://bufvc.ac.uk/bectu/Oral Histories (Access date)
Interview
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Women’s Work Oral Histories/Oral Histories/Melanie Bell, Women’s Work in British Film and Television, https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/bectu/Oral Histories,Saturday 4th May 2024.
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