Thursday, May 2nd, 2013
Official Selection 2013 / Nominated For Best Animated Film
Aeolian: characterised by a sighing or moaning sound as if produced by the wind. This film shows the lifecycle of a creature as it explores the natural world around it. As it grows bigger, so too does its understanding of nature and life’s inevitable conclusion.
Director: Cameron Lowe, Tom Shrapnel
Producer: Cameron Lowe, Tom Shrapnel
Writer: Cameron Lowe, Tom Shrapnel
Key cast and other credits:
Cinematographer – Matt Wainwright
Director’s Statement
‘Aeolian is a follow up project to our last collaboration This Is J03 (2008). We wanted to explore further the combination of live action and animation by using simple animated characters that encounter complex emotional themes.
The story came from the initial thought of seeing a character grow from microscopic to gigantic in size in a short amount of time. We wanted the film to be a life cycle with our character absorbing the natural world around him whilst learning the harsher realities of life along the way.
Using our childhood home of East Anglia as a location the visual style was born out of our love for the films of Terrence Malick and Hayao Miyazaki. We wanted to evoke a feeling of nostalgia and growing up but with the reality of a wildlife documentary.’
Cameron Lowe
Production Notes
Aeolian is the first production by Duke & Duke – a new collaboration between Director Tom Shrapnel & Animator and Graphic Designer Cameron Lowe. After collaborating on the award winning short This Is J03 the two were keen to further explore the techniques they developed on that short. The result is Aeolian.
Aeolian took 3 years to make without any budget at all. The idea was conceived in early 2009 with the shoot taking place in East Anglia during the Summer months. The animation was then completed over the coming years at weekends and during free time.
Directors’ Bios
Cameron Lowe is an award winning freelance animator and designer with over 5 years broadcast experience creating motion graphics and content for TV and Film. Working in tandem with a wide range of talented directors and producers he has created a broad spectrum of outstanding work.
Tom is a London based film director. His short films have screened globally at film festivals including Raindance, Encounters and the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival – picking up a number of awards along the way. His work show’s a versatile mix of live action and animation with a strong visual style and engaging performances – whether actors or animated characters.
Judges’ Comments
“Just beautiful. Created a real sense of looking at the natural world in a new way. The close ups of insects reminded me of Morvern Callar. I could watch this all day.” – Sarah Godfrey
“What a beautiful creation, intriguing and sad.” – Olivia Coleman
“This is gorgeous. This strange, delightful creature making its way through a day in the world is clever and genuinely charming. The way it matures and grows on its journey to the sea is full of feeling. Not least because of the cleverness of technique in mixing animation with live-action footage. It manages to move you without you ever quite knowing why. A film that seduces you as gently as the creature (borne on the wind as in the title) makes its way through our world….” – Tim McInnerny
“Beautiful idea mixing a stop motion animated character with live action nature footage… Great soundtrack also.” – Steve Furst
Posted in: Official Selection, NFF2013, Nominated Films, 2013 Films In Detail