Bird Becomes Bird

Details: 1997, 5 mins, 35mm, Dolby A, oil on glass

Background

Not knowing who we are. Not believing in what we could do. Breaking free from control to see the wonders of ourselves.

The film is set on a frozen estuary, a mother and child are making their way across it. The mother is keen to cross as quickly as possible, the child is distracted by her observations.
The child lives in two worlds, in one she is trying to get her mothers attention and love, and not succeeding, but only managing to annoy her. The other is the world of the bird which she is watching and interpreting. The bird appears from under the snow, and not realising it can fly, tries to swim instead. Through the girls eyes, this bird is looking longingly into the water because it envies the fish, it jumps in because it wants to be a fish, and to swim with them. The exasperated mother interrupts the girl, her dream becomes shattered and she sees the bird’s emergence from the water as its sense of failure, of loss of a dream, it fails to be a fish.
When the ice stats to crack, for the child the most important thing is the bird, and her own sense of safety is intrinsically tied up with her idea that the bird needs to discover that it is actually a bird and can therefore fly. The bird must become a bird (not a fish), just as the girl must discover and become what she is, not what someone else thinks she is. The girl struggles for freedom and finally runs off in her own direction.

Awards

• Chicago Film Festival, USA, 1997 – Gold Hugo
• Poitiers, France, 1997 – Canal+ Buyers Award
• Tarusa, Moscow, Russia, 1998 – Best Art Direction
• Nominated – British Animation Awards ‘98
• Jury Recommended – Con-Can Movie Festival 2005

Reviews

• Ian Lumsden has written a lovely review on his Animation Blogspot, thank you Ian! Read it here.
• Animation World Magazine, Nov 1999, ‘Fresh from the Festivals: November 1999′s Film Reviews’ by Maureen Furniss
• Con Can Movie Festival, Jury Recommended, “What a beautiful hand-drawn movie! The sun glows so briliantly, and the icefield truly looks freezing. The bird emerging from the ice is breathtaking, as well as the movements of the undulating fish…This film has poetry like that of Nolshtein animations.” Teruyo Nogami
• Six Minute Bird, Art Film Festival, interview, 25 June 1998
• TIME OUT, British Animation Time Out Public Choice Awards, 11-18 Feb 1998, “Bird Becomes Bird, a ravishingly lyrical pastoral.”
• Bird Becomes Bird, Channel Four Television, 7^th October 1997, “Yes, I loved Bird Becomes Bird. The beginning, with all the character you get into that little bird figure, is particularly memorable.” Clare Kitson
• IMDb, the Internet Movie Database, ratings and reviews, also YouTube, ratings and reviews. Please feel free to comment or rate.

Influences

Left to right, Lucy Lee, Zoya Kireyeva, Andrey Zolotuchin in Ekaterinburg ’96. Andrey and Zoya taught me a huge amount about film making, and were a fantastic influence on the film. The film was shot in the Sverdlovsk Film Studio Animation Assocation, Ekaterinburg, Russia. They taught me about the technique, and it was a refreshingly creative place to work. The people I met there were completely committed to the creative concept of film making. Many of the directors have now moved to all corners of the world.

I first walked on a frozen estuary in ’95 in St Petersburg, I was terrified! It was the most amazing thing I’d ever done; the experience has never stopped influencing me. I kept hearing the ice cracking and breaking off the bottom of the sheet, it made great booming noises.
I had made 3 trips to Russia before going there to shoot the film in November ’96. I first went to Yekaterinburg in ’94 when it had only just become more open to visitors (it had military significance) and I saw the city change enormously over the time. My response to the “New Russians” was that Russia has to become Russia. It has to find its own unique solutions to its own unique situation. ‘The bird is a bird, not a fish.’

Credits

Composer – Sam Sutton
Musicians – Joy Smith, Sally Ward, Ester Harriott, Kirsty Stains & Ed Lithgow
Art Director – Andrey Zolotuchin
Camera – Zoya Kireyeva
Editor – Nick Fenton
Sound – Pete Goudino, Roger Walker
Mix – Stuart Hilliker
Voices – ‘Child’ Zosia McKenzie-Dowmont, ‘Mother’ Marilyn Milgrom
Actors – ‘Child’ Hanna Bains, ‘Mother’ Jane Gorden
Painters – Lucy Lee & Andrey Zolotuchin
Special Thanks To – Marjut Rimminen, Alexei Karaev, John Cary, Tony Fish, Technicolor, Digital Films, Mathew Holben, Porqupine Studios
Produced by – Myf Hopkins, UK & Valantina Chignakova, Russia
Written, Animated & Directed by – Lucy Lee
Filmed at the Sverdlovsk Film Studio Animation Assocation, Ekaterinburg, Russia
© National Film & Television School 1997

Festivals, Distribution & Sales

1997
London Film Festival – UK
British Short Film Festival – UK
KROK – Ukraine
Fantosh – Switzerland
Poitiers – France (Canal+Award)
Chicago – USA (Gold Hugo Award)
Future Art Short Animation Festival – Seoul
Leipzig – Germany
Creative film making – Tel-Aviv
Message to Man – Russia
SAFO – Ottawa Student Animation Festival
Munich International Festival of Film Schools – Germany
Welsh International Film Festival – Wales

1998
Annecy – France
Hiroshima – Japan
Okinawa – Japan
Holland Animation Festival – The Netherlands
Art Film Festival – Teplice
Feminale - Cologne
Moscow International Film Fest – Russia
Ottowa – Canada
Vital – Cardiff
Stuttgart – Germany
Tarrusa – Russia
Cinanima – Portugal
Student Video Awards – UK
British Animation Awards – UK

1999
Dessin Anime – Brussels
Anima Mundi – Rio de Janeiro & São Paulo

2005
ROSHD International Film Festival, Tehran – Iran
CON-CAN Movie Festival – Japan

2006 Vendrome Film Festival – France

2007 Kanagawa International Animation Festival – Japan

Listings

• UK Short Film Database
• British Films Catalogue
• ReelPort
• Artranjunk’s YouTube Animated Shorts Channel
• Distributed by the British Film Council

Sales & Broadcast

• Channel 4
• Canal+
• Various DVD compilations
• British Animation Awards DVD Volume 2, on sale from the British Animation Awards website.

Technique

Hand painted under a rostrum camera, using ‘straight ahead’ technique of animating. Images are made on a multiplane bed with translucent oil paints, mirrors, gells, paper, vaseloine and various others bits and pieces. I will write more about this process at a later date. The human characters were videoed and the animation was sketched onto animation cell, then used as the base image to paint from. It took 2 people about 3 months to paint.

Image Gallery

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