Delighted to announce that The Music of the Spheres is an official selection at @femtasiafestival in Los Angeles, a fantastic festival which showcases films directed, written, or produced by women, femme, and non-binary experimental and independent filmmakers.
These past few weeks, I’ve been working on a grant application for a new animation project: an adaptation of a very dark and gory fairytale by the Brothers Grimm entitled The Juniper Tree (1812). Features child death, cannibalism, ghost-birds and violent revenge. In short, precisely my sort of thing. The proposed film will be created using paper cuts and articulated paper puppets, all done in a backlit, silhouette style perfect for this early 19th-century dark fairytale. Below is some concept art of the paper cutouts and puppets, shot on my light box.
The red is coloured acetate (actually lighting gels for photography) and the grey is achieved by using regular white, 50 lb. sketching paper. The black silhouettes are 90 lb. black drawing paper. These images are “proof of concept”, and not necessarily final art.
I’ve surprised myself by completing my short animated film, The Music of the Spheres, ahead of schedule. At just over 7 minutes long, this is my longest and (I think) best animation to date.
Here’s the synopsis:
Three celestial beings contemplate a post-human Earth where newly hybridized lifeforms have evolved out of the debris of the Anthropocene. Combining references to the art of alchemy, Catholic liturgical art, and the iconography of the Tarot, this film blends cosmology with an urgent message of ecology.
And now, on to film festival submissions.
Two more scenes to go until my animation project is complete. Here’s a sneak peek at what I’m currently working on.
Did you know that hermit crabs are not “true crabs”, since they don’t possess a hard exoskeleton? They need to scavenge cast-off sea snail shells to protect their soft, vulnerable abdomens. Unfortunately, with people removing shells from beaches around the world for souvenirs, hermit crabs are left with little choice but to use plastic garbage as substitutions for shells.
It’s only a background for the next scene in my animation, but I’m quite happy with how this turned out. Four separate layers.
Now, I just need to animate the water and a walking lobster. So many legs. Whelp.
How’s your summer going? I’ve been rotoscoping the first two scenes of my latest animation. Due to all the folds in this costume, I typically manage only 1-2 frames per day. Fortunately, for the sake of my sanity, most of this project will not be rotoscoped. I wanted a certain look in the first three scenes, however, and for that it had to be rotoscoped.
Quick studio update. As the winter term slowly begins to wind down, I’ve stolen a few moments to work on my Music of the Spheres storyboard. Even though the board is not yet complete, I decided to try out a complex morph for an image that will appear in the film. I think I’m happy with this. Have tried adding a boil to the static moments using the turbulence effect in After Effects and I’m not entirely convinced by it. Further explorations are needed.
I recently enjoyed a trip to Chicago to take in the city (had never visited before) and the Chicago Underground Film Festival, a punk-infused festival of independent filmmaking that I highly recommend. I also highly recommend Chicago. It’s like New York’s scrappy little Midwest cousin who’s tough-as-nails but unexpectedly polite and friendly. Good food, too.
My short film Ouroboros continues its festival run November 5th, 2023 with the Edinburgh Short Film Festival. Sadly, no trip to Edinburgh planned (this time).
Ouroboros spins a loose narrative of joy, grief, death and rebirth, all told through looping images printed on physical animation devices known as phonotropes. Much like the ouroboros, a symbolic snake that devours its own tail, everything in life is a loop.
This short film captures my ongoing fascination with physical animation devices known as phonotropes — a contemporary update on the 19th-century pre-cinema device, the zoetrope — which uses a record turntable and a video camera to capture the magic of the animated loops. Created during the various pandemic lockdowns and shot entirely on my smartphone, this short film visualizes perpetual cycles of beginnings, endings, and the inevitable reset of the loop.
AWARDS:
Best North American Animation, Female Eye Film Festival 2023.(https://thehollywoodtimes.today/awards-torontos-female-eye-film-festival-2023/)
Directed & animated by Jennifer Linton
Music by Zev Farber
©2023 Papercut Pictures. All rights reserved.
OUROBOROS have been selected for the 21st Female Eye Film Festival (Female Eye Film Festival), which runs in Toronto from Wed., July 26th – Sunday, July 30th, 2023. My film will screen on Thursday, July 27th, 8.30PM (screening followed by an audience Q & A) at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, 506 Bloor Street West. Hope to see you there!
Lady Lazarus 