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Writer's Block - Part 1

How it all started...

Last year my sister wrote a 1000 word short story for the BBC Young Writer's competition. Meanwhile in university the current assignment was to create a short narrative film. At the time I was thinking of creating a half stop-motion animated short, and when I read my sister's story I found great potential. We then collaborated and created a script based on her original piece.

In the interview below she talks about her inspirations and how she came up with the idea:

Q1: How did you come up with the idea for Writer's Block?

A1: Coming up with Writer’s Block was a funny process really. I was trying to come up with a story for a writing contest and nothing I came up with was good enough. I said to my mom I had writer’s block and being the sarcastic lady that she is she said to me "I've never been there, what's it like?" And I thought: ‘What if the Writer’s Block was a place!’

Q2: Were there any other novels, artworks or films that inspired the story?

A2: The main inspiration I got was from the book ‘Inkheart’ by Cornelia Funke as the girl is going into the other world. And she loves writing. I was also inspired by the film adaptation of ‘Inkheart’ and also by the TV series ‘Once Upon a Time’ for the place where the girl originally ends up. I based the Barista character on Rumpelstiltskin in that there is something sinister about him.

Writer's Block

Writer's Block is a part film, part animated short:

 ‘When an aspiring young writer visits her local library in search of inspiration for the novel she is trying to write, she suddenly finds herself trapped in a world of imagination: The Writer's Block. The only question is will she be able to get back to reality or will she have to fight to gain her freedom and find inspiration?'

The basic meaning of the film is to face your challenges and learn from your experiences. It is about looking back at where you’ve come from, and having hindsight. You cannot see the wood for the trees at the time, but in the end it all makes sense and the purpose is revealed.

The second meaning is knowing when something is real or not. When in a dream, how do you know what is real and unreal? Writer's Block explores what happens when realistic elements leak into the dreamworld - this is called Magical Realism.

The film focuses on the point of view of one person: the main character ‘Kim’. In a way, it’s like a book written in the first person. You can’t observe the story from other character’s perspectives because you are travelling through the story with and at the same time as the main character.

 Testing/ Pre-production:

 I drew up the storyboards first to figure out how best to portray the dreamscape:


Once the script had been completed, I started to test ways of creating the dreamworld. My influences were Copy Shop, by Virgil Wildrich, and the music video 'Take on Me' by Aha. This led me to the Rotoscoping technique, and I began to test ways of manipulating an image.

 There were five steps to the testing process:
  • Filming – The scene was first filmed and then edited together. Without the editing it would mean that unnecessary frames would have been used and manipulated, which consequently would take up more time.
  • Framing – Every second or third frame was taken and framed separately using ‘copy and paste’ from Quick Time Player into Paint. These were then numbered accordingly.
  • Filtered – Each frame was then colour graded and altered.
  • Manipulation – The frames were printed off (two to a page) and then painted and drawn over. The characters were not drawn over, but had a thick black line drawn around them.
  • Scanning and re-animation – All of the frames were then rescanned into the computer and individually cropped. The sequence was then reanimated.
The first test was carried out to ensure that the process would work and to figure out the average frame rate (8 frames a second). Originally, the whole sequence was going to be in black and white, but after seeing the tests it was decided that the characters should be kept in colour because this would add to the theme of Magical Realism.

 Below is an example of the first test:






Please click here to watch the finished film: https://vimeo.com/124669359
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