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As an independent filmmaker, I cannot remember the last time I felt found. I finished making my first animated short last year and have been promoting it and working on my next animation project, ever since. I am undecided though as to whether I am trying to be ‘found’ or just surviving being lost.

My animated film‘The Windmill Boy’ is a slightly odd stop-motion tale about a boy who is kept prisoner in a windmill. The crew spent months building every little prop seen in the film as well as animating every little plasticine frown. Since the film was finished I have been screening, projecting, talking about, and quite often acting out my film to audiences in my local area as well as at national and international festivals.

 

 
 

 

Explaining how I feel about my work and what I have achieved is a very hard thing to do. I am very happy and proud of the journey I have taken to get here but am I where I want to be? Finding a direction and figuring out which path to take can create a very lost feeling.

When you are lost meeting other ‘losties’ is a great way to learn, share and work together to find new directions. In my case I met and am working with Steve Allen a model maker who worked at Jim Henson’s creature workshop. His experience and talent has been a great inspiration to me and he has become a key person on my journey. Steve and I could not have produced the film on our own and this is where other ‘losties’ helped.

 
 

 

Not many stop-motion animation films get made each year so we were fortunate to have had such a response from volunteer artists who saw it as a good project to gain experience. There is a two part documentary which shows the making of the film and the journey it took to get the project off the ground (making of film links, below).

Today’s animated shorts and live action short films in general seem to be lost from society’s television and cinema. However, on the horizon, a rescue boat seems to be approaching in the shape of new screening platforms such as the internet, video iPod, PSP and mobile video technology. With a new generation of viewer who wants to watch clips and movies when it suits them and not when TV listings dictate presents Indie animators with new avenues for expose and perhaps even profit. All of these new options open short films up to great new opportunities but are they any closer to being ‘found’ by mainstream audiences and traditional viewers?

The last shot of the animation finishes with ‘Windmill Boy’ sailing into the sunset in his converted flying windmill to find his freedom. One day I will get my own sunset moment at the end of my journey, which for me would be to make a feature film version of ‘Windmill Boy. Even then I don’t think I will feel ‘found’, just lost in a whole new world, but that’s fine as I am starting to adjust to being a ‘lostie’.

Dan Richards

www.windmillboy.co.uk

Making of Film Part One:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8Iwe9SScFE

Making of Film Part Two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVqtVlxKLPA