Okay, I'll start at the beginning, because I'm not sure that everyone reading this quite knows or understands what it is, exactly, that Mankin does. This award needs to be put in the proper context, so we can fully grasp how magnificent and impressive and cool and bright and just all-around totally amazing Mankin is.
Okay, here we go.
Mankin started working at TouchPress in London a couple years ago. TouchPress is one of the most creative and trend-setting App design firms on the planet. (An "app" is an "application", as in a software application. Which means: games, educational, utitlitarian, financial and on and on. Those are all apps. They work on portable phones, tablets, and desktops. Okay, that's clear.)
So, TouchPress was founded by an American and a Brit, brilliant chaps, a number of years back, and they are growing rapdily (the firm, not the owners), and their apps are leaders in their field.
The TouchPress specialty field of concentration is educational-oriented apps, as well as institutional apps (for Louis Vuitton Fund, museums all over the world, and the like). For the learning apps, the thing is, they make learning wildly creative, interactive, and one-of-a-kind. Learning was never like this before. They always take out all the stops. (Does this sound a little bit like Mankin herself? HAHAHAHAHA).
So, not long after Mankin started there, she was made Assistant Producer, which is a really big deal for someone who:
a) is under five years old. jk. But she is just really young to be given such a position, okay?,
and,
b) was there for such a short time.
Then, she was made a member of the team to develop a very tough, but prestigious, assignment in the company: the newly won Disney app. This was a huge deal not only for Mankin, but for TouchPress itself. Disney is notorious for being insanely picky on whom they work with, especially when it come to film-like interactive stuff like this. But Disney chose TouchPress. And what Disney wanted was an app that showed how animation is done. In a fun, educational and highly creative way.
The app took about 1.5 years. Disney opened up their archives to the firm, which was an amazing occurence, as Disney is usually very guarded about this. They even gave the team access to things that have never been "out in the open" before.
The team did in-depth research, brainstormed, developed the concepts, and produced the app. They became a very tight-knit group, since they didn't sleep and hardly ate for months, and worked under extremely high pressure. In the end, when it was done, they went through withdrawl, as they missed the project and working together so intensly and for so long.
So, it is this app which just won (last night) the BAFTA award (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) (the British Oscars, if you will) for :
Best Interactive Adapated.####
(There are two awards for apps -- called "interactive" (vs film, tv, etc.) One is for "Interactive" - meaning 100% new in content; and then there is "interactive adapted" - meaning an app based on the adaptation of something already in existence - like a cartoon, a book, a play).
You can find the app on iTunes, where you can buy it, of course, in about two seconds, and download it to your phone or tablet.
Just go to iTunes, log in, go to the search bar, and type in: "Disney Animated".
If you don't have an iTunes account, you can still get a taste of the app by going to a webpage about it.
Here is the link:
http:/disneyanimated.touchpress.com
Once the page opens, scroll down toward the bottom, and you can play a clip, which shows a bit of the app in "live action". It is just so neat. Play it! And this is just a drop in the ocean of the things they came up with.
We are so proud of Mankin. She's loved by everybody in the office, and she's working like crazy, but she is very happy. Loving London, loving this amazing job and responsiblity at a super duper cool firm.