BFI Screening: "The last 10 seconds felt like an eternity.."

'The Lady in White' debuts at the BFI, London's South Bank.

Today saw the University's showreel screened at the BFI as a graduate celebration, and was very well recieved by everyone there. Notably the cinema was quiet throughout the whole film which I was rather nervous for, however it is in this moment that I could see I'd had the right impact on the audience.

My narrative and themes being associated with moving on and being a confident individual were taken seriously with both the animation and voice acting which is fantastic; as some other productions were laughed at during their serious moments. The last 10 seconds felt like an eternity, it's a surreal experience being the viewer/writer/animator/representative all at once in that moment for a film. I learnt so much from just that one moment.

Audience really is key- a statement which is something every film maker would know already, but waiting in those 10 seconds of music fading and footage dissolving to black made me realised I had somewhat succeeded. I could feel that everyone was savouring the silence and respecting the mood; and then came the clapping- it was long awaited for myself, but came at the right time. Audiences can be spontanious at times, though subconciously I would have thought during the animatic "this will look good on the big screen". Sometimes it's best to step back from your work and appreciate it as a spectator than a director as yesterday certainly proved that.

Going through the mill in order to make the film; being the writer, concept artist, model maker, animator, voice director and producer- it makes everything feel incomplete until you let go of what's 'not right' and learn from those mistakes in the next project. As my debut into stop-motion software of any sort, this project has proved a success and I feel I can only excel forward from here! It has enlightened me to continue in stop-motion and shout out about the importance of animation discipline.