At the beginning of her career she worked for Richard Williams Animation, producers of ROGER RABBIT, and was Special Assistant to the pioneering Disney animator, Art Babbit. As a free-lance assistant animator she worked for various studios on films, commercials and music videos. During the '80s she worked for the highly innovative studio of Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, the creators of Max Headroom. There, she was a designer and animator of TV titles and music promos.
She later set up her own studio, Eyeworks, making various commercials and music videos including an award winning one-minute spot for London's Virgin Megastore. She also made her first film, FEET OF SONG (1988), for Channel 4 TV. This was awarded the British Film Institute's award for "Best British Animated film of 1989", selected as outstanding film of the year at the London Film Festival, and in 1991 was awarded a personal prize at the Odense Film Festival. It has been shown at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Gallery, London.
In 1992 Erica set up an independent production company with her partner and producer Adam Parker-Rhodes, in her own home at Highgate in North London, under the name Gingco.
A second film for Channel 4, TRIANGLE (1994), was completed and nominated for an Oscar® in 1995. In 1996 it received the British Animation Award for Best Film under 15 minutes, and also a special award for her contributions to the Craft of Animation. In 1997 she served on the selection committee of the Seoul South Korean Animation Festival. In 1998 she was on the International Jury of the Ottawa Animation Festival as a special guest and lecturer at the Anima Mundi festival in Brazil.
Her company has produced and contributed to numerous music videos, TV title sequences and commercials, for Europe and the US including three for FCB/SF's Levi's Jeans for Women series. One of these, "Sensual," which was based on Erica's own designs and concept, won a Clio® Award.
Russells's latest film is SOMA, inspired by graffiti art and the last of a trilogy of dance films for Channel 4. She is currently working on a project to set up an animation department and production studio at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad.
Nominated for Achievement in Animated Short Films 1994: TRIANGLE - Producer
1 nomination