Being Bradford Dillman

Emma Burch and Daniella Orsini talk about their latest work...

Hi Emma, Daniella, this is fantastic, how did you get into animation?
EMMA: I’ve always been interested in art and design and enjoyed doodling and drawing from a very early age. After secondary school I went to art college. From there I studied at Westminster University (London UK) on a course called Contemporary Media Practice which covered a bit of everything , journalism, photography, film making, digital media and animation. When I graduated, I was lucky to get a Runner job at Loose Moose – purely by chance and that’s when I realised how much I wanted to work in animation. I stayed at Loose Moose and worked my way up to be one of their Producers. I was never a talented animator as it takes real skill to master weight, movement etc. but I understand it as a medium and how to use it for storytelling. That’s the part I really enjoy.

MollyandBradford03

DANIELLA: As soon as I was old enough to hold a crayon I was entering colouring competitions and drawing all over my bedroom walls, so I always knew I wanted to do something creative when I grew up. I made my first animation in 2003 on my Art Foundation Course using a Sony Mavika Floppy Disk camera, taped to pile of books. Thankfully I have progressed a bit over the years and no longer use floppy disks. From there I went on to study Multimedia Arts at John Moores University in Liverpool, this is where I discovered that I had a paper obsession and that all I wanted to do was be an animator. After finishing University I continued animating and made a short which was selected as a finalist for the BAFTA '60 seconds of Fame' Award. This made me want to keep on going and I was lucky enough to get a job in Oslo, Norway animating backgrounds for a touring musical theatre production. Working in Norway exposed me to animating using multi plane, so as soon as I got home, saw in hand, I set about making my own table. In 2009 I was awarded funding from Ideastap and I made an animation for the 'Reading Single Homeless Project' to help them to promote the wonderful work they do in supporting homeless people in Reading. After finishing this animation I decided to make the big move to London and was offered my dream job at Loose Moose animating 'Being Bradford Dillman'.

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Trailer on Vimeo

What are your recent productions, who it is aimed at, where might people see it?

EMMA: Being Bradford Dillman is my first short film. I co-wrote it with illustrator Pete Williamson and it’s based loosely on my childhood. We initially thought it would be aimed at children but because of it’s slightly dark nature and black comedy, I think it appeals to a broad age range. People can enjoy it on many different levels. We’re in the process of sending it out to as many film festivals as possible. Beyond that, we’ll make it available online or possibly on DVD.
DANIELLA:
Since animating 'Being Bradford Dillman' I've been commission for a few animation shoots both corporate and commercial. I recently used Stop Motion Pro for an animation I made for the launch of a new range of Android Smartphones, for Vodafone. I have also made animations for Microsoft, which can be viewed on YouTube. My first experience of commercial work was animating the 'E is for Eggs' section in the recent McDonalds TV advert.

Molly

What hardware do you use ?
EMMA: The film was made with a very limited budget and was shot it in the basement of a hairdresser’s in Soho, London. It was a basic setup with the characters on glass, against green screen. We used a Canon 550D, a couple of Kino Flo lights and of course Stop Motion Pro, a simple but very effective setup. We then used the same equipment to shoot the background plates which were physical model sets using dolls house furniture and fittings. The size of these posed a lot of problems for our DoP, Pete Ellmore but, he overcome them all and produced some fantastic work. They were then composited together using After Effects.
How you use SMP in the production - how does it help your workflow?
EMMA: Unfortunately, I’m no animator, as much as I’d like to be. Daniella was responsible for bringing the characters to life.
DANIELLA:
When it comes to computers, basically, I'm cursed. But amazingly I seemed to get through the stop motion process without any hiccups. The features available on Stopmotion Pro are clearly laid out and very user-friendly, which is always nice. This production was the first time I had used it and and I picked it up straight away.
We shot the characters and the backgrounds separately so having the 'chroma key' feature was great. It meant that everything could be lined up perfectly which helped no end when it came to compositing everything together in post.
The 'audio sync' feature was also brilliant during the animation process. 'Being Bradford Dillman' has a lot of dialogue so without the audio sync it would have been impossible. It's great to be able to set the audio 'in' and 'out' points so you have a lot more flexibility.
Another favourite thing is that you can view each frame full size. Which is perfect for checking the focus and spotting secret unwanted bits of blu-tac!

When you animate, how do you like to use Stop Motion Pro?
DANIELLA: Onion skinning is the greatest invention ever. I tend to keep it set to 50% so I can see the previous frame and the current live frame. I think that's the best way to get an idea of how the movement is progressing.
I also get a bit obsessed with playback, just so I can keep checking how it all looks and if it plays smoothly. When I'm doing this I find that hiding and duplicating frames can be a God-send. Sometimes you might find that the animation feels a bit too quick or slow, so you can hide/duplicate frames as you wish, test it playing through and if you don't like it just unhide them. No deleting. Perfect.
Can you tell us a little about how you make the imagery in your work? How do you make your puppets?
EMMA: When we came across Daniella’s reel, we loved the simplicity of her cut out style characters. Even though they were made up of basic flat shapes and textures, she still managed to get loads of personality out of them. We thought Daniella would be perfect to bring Pete Williamson’s designs to life but Pete’s designs proved a little tricky to build as puppets due to their thin arms and legs. Daniella had to stitch some of the limbs and joints together as the white tack would ping loose every now and then. I think the stitches really added to the hand made charm though.
DANIELLA: I'm a bit of a hoarder when it comes to scraps of paper, something with a nice pattern or an interesting shaped envelope. I use quite simple shapes in my character design so I love texture in paper to help give it more depth. If I don't have a texture I need I often scan fabric and print it out onto card. I also like working with materials, especially felt and wool. I think this must be where the sewing of the joints on the paper characters came from. I love things to look handmade, it has so much more charm and I like to look at things and know that someone has spent a lot of time and care making it.
The characters in 'Being Bradford Dillman' were illustrated by Pete Williamson. Pete's illustrations are so beautiful and very different from any characters I've worked with before. I completely fell in love with them. Even though they are made of paper, Molly and Bradford were like my best friends for the seven months of shooting! Because it's a 10 minute film we needed a lot of puppets because they can get scruffy quite quickly, so we have bags full of puppet limbs left over. I still find little paper hands and shoes in my pockets every now and again!

What is next for you and your animation?
EMMA: Well, we’ve already been accepted to two big film festivals in the UK and waiting to hear back from many other International festivals. It’s all very nerve racking but equally exciting.
I really miss working on the film, especially working with the characters so Pete and I have plans to develop a feature length script that will see Molly go on an epic adventure. I’m really excited about this but it’s enormously ambitious so we’ll just have to see how possible it will be to get made.
DANIELLA: I feel the same as Emma, I really miss working on the film, so any chance to work on something similar again would be amazing. At the moment I am working on developing a music video and then after that who knows what will happen. I just hope I can keep doing this for as long as possible.

Thanks for talking to us and sharing your experiences! - SMP Team