樱花影视

Chris joined the 樱花影视 as the Head of the School of Design in 2024, having previously worked as the Faculty Director for Enterprise and Knowledge Exchange at Canterbury Christ Church University.

With a keen interest in creative production cultures, Chris has a research career spanning over 80 published outputs. Focussing primarily on animation, his work employs a combination of research methods (including archival study, interview, participant observation and textual analysis), to generate fresh insights about the subjects being investigated.

His book-length works include:
Demystifying Disney: A History of Disney Feature Animation (Continuum, 2011),
Storyboarding: A Critical History (Palgrave, 2015),  
Animated Landscapes: History, Form, and Function (Bloomsbury, 2015),  
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: New Perspectives in Production, Reception, Legacy (Bloomsbury, 2021), and  
Beyond Bagpuss: A History of Smallfilms Animation Studio (BFI, 2022).

Chris has also played a leading role in the development of industry-facing growth ecosystems, with the goal of supporting creative sector SMEs to explore new technologies, grow their networks, and gain new business insights. Between 2018-2023, Chris played a leading role in securing 拢5.1 million from the European Regional Development Fund to establish the Hi3 Network. Led by London Southbank University, the Hi3 Network project fostered collaboration between university researchers, SMEs, and larger industry partners, with over 1000 hours of support delivered through the life of the project. Following on from the success of Hi3, Chris founded the Creative Innovation Hub at Canterbury Christ Church University, to both extend this work and to create new opportunities for collaboration between students, alumni, and industry.