As part of the Red or Dead? event at the EIFF I went to a panel talk about Animation and Storytelling. The latter being particularily interesting as storytelling in my opinion is something that can never be talked about enough.

The panel discussion was by far not  one of those dry discussions where you can hear the clock ticking, but was very lively. Led by the producer of the wonderful animation feature ‘Max and Mary’ it involved 2 Digicult filmmakers and one of last year’s Digicult producers. Although each came from a technically different medium of animation it was interesting to hear that the approach to storytelling was generally the same.

The most significant things that I filtered out for myself was the emphasis on the dialogue between the medium or animation technique and the particular story I want to tell. Filmmaking should be a process of constantly asking yourself questions and within the process learning to put your own ego as well as your visually driven ideas aside in favor of developing a story that is true to yourself and its subject and which manages to engage your audience.