Wednesday with Goddard
'A personal quest for spiritual enlightenment leads to romance and despair.'
This 4m30s animated short film was commissioned by Channel 4's Random Acts and featured in the Late Night Work Club Vol. II. It was made in collaboration with Manshen Lo, who was in charge of the exquisitely crafted pencil drawings.
Produced at Nexus Studios in London, the film was screened at over 40 festivals around the world, and won the award for Best Animated Short at SXSW 2017.
The film follows the rhythm of a children's book, but with a dark humour twist. We travel from one space to the next, discarding existential statements on love, faith and death almost as soon as they are introduced.
Film Credits
Direction & Design
Nicolas Ménard
Pencil Drawings
Manshen Lo
Music & Sound
David Kamp
Producer
Claire Cook
Executive Producers at Nexus
Charlotte Bavasso, Chris O'Reilly
Assistant Producer
Rebecca Archer
2D Animation
Anne Lou Erambert, Claudio Salas, Sean Weston, Iris Abols, Nicolas Ménard
3D Animation
Michal Firkowski
Additional Compositing
Andy Hague
Additional Artworking
Alasdair Brotherston, Jean-Baptiste Aziere
Voice Actors
Denis Foley, Aneta Piotrowska
Produced at
Nexus Productions
Special Thanks
Greet Kallikorm, Joe Bichard
This particular sequence can be found at 3m37s. It's the only frame by frame pencil animation in the film. Our goal was to include many of those, but 21 drawings of a flower blooming took 3 weeks to make! A substantial investment for 2 seconds of footage.
Our initial instinct was to use pencil drawings to create more traditional, cinematic backgrounds. However, we ended up developing an approach closer to collage to allow the backgrounds to become characters of their own.
Awards
Best Animated Short
SXSW 2017
Grand Prix
Uppsala ISFF 2017
Grand Prix
Countryside Animafest Cyprus 2017
RNC Award
This is England 2017
Audience Award
Primanima 2017
Tough Eye Award
Turku Animated Film Festival, 2017
Public Award
Sommets du Cinéma d'Animation 2016
Special Jury Award
Sommets du Cinéma d'Animation 2016
Screenings
Official Selection
Clermont-Ferrand ISFF 2018
Official Selection
Ottawa IAF 2017
Official Selection
Aesthetica SFF 2017
Official Selection
Annecy IAFF 2017
Official Selection
Klik! Amsterdam 2017
Official Selection
Pictoplasma 2017
Official Selection
Edinburgh IFF 2017
Official Selection
Encounters 2016
