In a world of features, short films rarely get much attention. Yet the best five-minute shorts usually contain more originality and creativity than your average Hollywood blockbuster. That’s why we’re launching Short Stuff, a weekly profile on a promising short-form filmmaker and their newest piece of work. Think of it as an investment in the talent of tomorrow.
One of the best animated films of last decade came out of my native Australia, in the form of Adam Elliot’s oddball, bittersweet claymation Mary & Max. Young Melbourne special effects artist Isabel Peppard worked on the film as a sculptor & puppet-maker, and now brings her own strange, gothic stop motion vision to life in the form of Butterflies, a twelve-minute short about an artist (voiced by Rachel Griffiths) struggling to maintain her creative spirit in a world where inspiration is stamped out.
Even compared to such recent stop motion films like ParaNorman, Frankenweenie and the aforementioned work of Adam Elliot, Butterflies is grim, both in its aesthetic and in its ideas. The silicone models have a creepily tactile quality, while the rapidly rotting flesh of dying butterflies – a visual metaphor for the extinguishment of hope – is visceral and disturbing. Creative stagnation is a feeling that most artists can relate to, and there’s obviously at least something of an autobiographical slant to Peppard’s film. But the movie is ultimately reaffirming, demonstrating how, through embracing our creative side, we can all step out into the light.
Check out the film’s trailer, and my conversation with writer-director Isabel Peppard, below.
Movie Mezzanine: How would you describe your film in one sentence?
Isabel Peppard: Butterflies is a Faustian gothic fairy tale about an artist struggling to keep her muse alive in the face of adversity.
Did you study film, and if so, where?
I never studied film but spent years working on films as a special effects artist. During this period I also worked in a few commercial, stop-motion animation production houses which gave me an early insight into the craft. Stop-motion always appealed to me because I love creating strange new worlds from scratch. Because you are working with miniatures, budget isn’t as much as a restriction and you are only really limited by your own imagination and skill base.
What other films/projects have you been involved with?
I did a whole bunch of blood and gore stuff on low budget horror films from 1999-2004. In 2005 I made a short animation called Gloomy Valentine, a puppet animation about a woman who has lost her lover and is on the edge of madness. Recently I worked with Adam Elliot on his debut feature animation Mary and Max as a sculptor/painter/Puppet-maker. I have also had a longstanding working relationship with contemporary artist Patricia Piccinini. I often work in her studio as a silicone creature technician.
Where did the idea for Butterflies originate?
I’ve always been a very creatively active person, involved in all sorts of weird and wonderful projects, but there was a period in my life when I ended up entrenched in full time work without any of my own ideas on the go. As a result I went to quite a bad place and had the palpable feeling that I had lost a piece of myself. I started to feel like a ghost in my own existence, insubstantial. It wasn’t till I started to produce my own artwork again that I was able to reclaim my place in the world and my sense of self. Butterflies is pretty much a representation of my own story, expressed through visual metaphor. The beautiful thing about it is that through the actual making of this project, I was able to clamber out of the hole I had fallen into.
Were there any film or filmmakers that were of particularly strong influence on you and your film, (tonally, aesthetically, or both)?
I’m a huge fan of David Cronenberg for his striking imagery and intelligent metaphorical horror. In terms of other animators, I love the work of Robert Morgan, Jan Švankmajer and Tim Burton.
How much time have you spent with Butterflies, from conception to production to having it screened?
Probably about three years.
Was it a particular challenge securing funding for the project?
We were lucky enough to get funding through Screen Australia, which is always challenging as they only fund two or three short animations per year. We were shortlisted and then had to pitch verbally to a room full of industry executives. Even though they were all nice enough, it was a very intimidating experience. I actually made a version of one of the silicone puppets for the pitch so they could have a real idea of the aesthetic I was going for. That was a big selling point; people love to play with animation puppets!
Stop-motion films in particular seem like such massive undertakings. Could you tell us a bit about what was involved during the actual production of the film?
The production process was this insane marathon. I had the budget for a crew for about six weeks but building all the sets, props and puppets took a year! I was really lucky to have my amazing boyfriend, Beau White, around. He felt so sorry for me drowning under this mountain of work that he ended up volunteering for over a year! Between the two of us we built a majority of what you see on camera mainly from scratch. We had this huge asset list more than 10 pages long with all the tiny (and not so tiny) things that had to be made and we just went in every day and slowly chipped away at it. It felt like the work would never end, until one day it did, and then I had to start animating! I worked with two other animators during the shoot but still ended up animating about two thirds of it myself.
So how big was the crew?
In pre-production we had a handful of specialists and volunteers that were just on for a week or two. We had costumers, armature makers, sculptors and carpenters but for a bulk of the time it was just two people, me and Beau, building most of the stuff. In the shoot I had a great cinematographer who came in to do key lighting set ups but I did a most of the camera operation myself. I worked shifts with two other animators to shoot the whole film over about nine months. When it came to the post production, my producer Warwick Burton assembled a great crew of composers, sound designers, VFX people and actors to help bring our images to life.
Was that when Rachel Griffiths got involved?
When I was considering voice talent, a friend brought up her name and it hit me that she was a perfect fit for the character. I love the dark earthy tone of her voice and there’s also something about it that almost feels a little broken, which made sense in the context of the story. Warwick approached her agent with a bunch of images and the script and we were just really lucky that she engaged with the project enough to get on board.
The film is about an artist struggling to express herself in the face of obstacle and cynicism. Is this something you’ve felt as an artist? In general, what do you consider the key ideas/themes of the film?
I think it’s something that all artists feel. It’s that struggle to maintain a creative practice while dealing with life’s financial realities and being able to balance the two. Ironically, even in “creative” jobs, people can often end up in a production line situation, where they are just doing one thing over and over again.
Thematically there is definitely a Faustian overtone to the whole film. The main character sells her creative soul for money and essentially ends up visiting hell, which for her is a place where she has lost the ability to draw.
The film is also quite dark, with a pretty visceral, morbid style to it. Is this a style/tone you’re interested in as a filmmaker, or was it just a matter of it being right for this particular project?
Stylistically, my work is always very dark. To be honest, it’s just what comes naturally to me. I’ve always been obsessed with horror movies and creature features. I also love artistic portrayals of the devil, the aesthetic of hell and the beings that live there. I can’t imagine doing a project that wasn’t somehow grounded in horror.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing emerging filmmakers at the moment?
In some ways, it’s the same challenge that its always been, having the faith in your work and the motivation to keep producing. In some ways it’s easier these days as digital technology has really democratised the industry but on the other hand there is now much greater competition.
As a short filmmaker, how does the internet affect the way you market and distribute your movie?
The internet is a great marketing tool. It allows you to connect very directly with your audience. In terms of distribution, I’m not completely sure of the online possibilities as we haven’t looked into it much yet.
What other projects have you got coming up in the future? Would you like to make the transition into features at some point?
I’ve got another short animation starting to take shape. It’s a little more surreal/visceral than Butterflies with less of a conventional narrative. Quite image based. It’s a stopmotion project that I really want to have fun with because Butterflies was such a long, gruelling film to produce.
So is stop motion animation the area you want to continue to work in, or are you interested in exploring other methods of filmmaking as well?
I’ve got a live-action horror film that I’m in the early stages of developing. It’s a feminine body-horror creature feature. Once again, I was led by an idea that just kept growing, almost writing itself. It’s fairly grotesque, challenging material so it could take a while to get it made but I’ll certainly do my best to get it on screen.
Where has Butterflies been screened, and where can people see it in the next few months?
Butterflies had its world premiere at the [2012] Melbourne International Film Festival. After that we travelled to Sitges Fantastic Fest (one of the world’s biggest horror/fantasy festivals, in Spain). Since then it’s screened at Monsterfest in Melbourne and Flickerfest in Sydney. It will be screening at Santa Barbara international film festival on the 26th, 28th and 30th of January and at the Cinequest in San Jose in late Febuary/early March. From 7-10 March I will be in Tasmania attending Stranger With My Face, a festival that focuses on women in horror. I think the film will travel a lot and we are still just applying for most of the major festivals.
Is there anywhere online people can find the film, or any of your previous work?
Website: http://www.butterfliesanimation.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/butterfliesanimation
Are you a short filmmaker interested in being featured in ‘Short Stuff?’ If so, please shoot an email to tomdclift[@]gmail[.]com
