Project 365 day 347: Unbound

It's several years now since J gazed intently at a Kandinsky painting in Tate Modern, saw its energy and movement, and told me how she would animate it. That was the starting point for the short film which eventually became Unbound, an abstract animation inspired by the shapes and colours of Kandinsky's paintings, cut out in her hand painted watercolour paper and used to suggest the excitement of activities involving speed and movement for someone who is a full-time wheelchair user. 

J applied to Screen South for the BBC New Creatives scheme, a commissioning opportunity for young filmmakers under thirty to be supported to make a broadcast quality film, at the start of 2020, and after working hard on an application and going through a selection process she was interviewed (using her electronic communication aid) and offered a commission early in the pandemic, just as the UK moved into the first lockdown. The plan was always to shoot the stop motion animation at home, but shielding meant that we paused visits from her care team and PAs, so I found myself providing all her day-to-day care as well as supporting her to develop the project, producing the film and moving the cut-out shapes for the stop motion animation, which she controlled from the computer using her throat switch and a scanning grid to move the mouse. (I blipped about this process here.) 

After an exacting planning and development stage, with input and advice from the executive producers on the script and storyboard, and then the usual slow stop motion shoot, we liaised remotely with the editor/digital animator and the composer, both of whom are very experienced and were extremely helpful and supportive., Finally, early this year, we worked remotely with the post-production house to complete the final polishing and add subtitles (which J, as a deaf filmmaker, always insists on) and credits. 

Since then, we have had a long wait for it to be broadcast or published online. J has been very keen to share her hard work, and was extremely excited to hear a week ago that it would be part of a broadcast programme of Animation Shorts on BBC4 last night. Although it's her third commissioned film, it's the first time her work has been shown on television, so it was very special to see it in our living room. Her film occupied less than three minutes of the one hour programme, but by the end she had a bigger smile than I remember seeing for a very long time. Today she has been busy with social media posts and basking in the warm comments from kind friends and  relations.

If you would like to watch it, Unbound can be seen here and the full animation shorts programme here.