Award of Excellence – “Ghost Town” (USA)

Title: Ghost Town
Runtime: 3 min
Country: USA
Director: Brittany Palladino-DesLauriers
Placement: Award of Excellence
Competition: December, 2021

Synopsis: A young girl faces the end of the world on her own. Separated from her family, she is considered the last living human on Earth and is pursued by death who takes the form of an all-consuming shadow. 

FILMMAKER Q&A – Brittany Palladino-DesLauriers, Director

OR: What was the inspiration for your film?

BPD: As an artist, I wanted to portray a story of being young and lost in the world and searching for some semblance of familiarity or reconnection. This came from the feeling of a child entering the adult world without much preparation or understanding what to do, where to go, and who to be. It is a very daunting experience entering college and experiencing independence for the first time and later on entering the working world upon graduation. The world is scary and unpredictable and one may feel like a child again when entering it on your own.

OR: When did you conceive the idea for your film and how long did it take before it was realized?

BPD: At first, the idea of the characters came to mind. Originally, this was meant to be a show pitch that was fun and quirky and just a little dark animated series about the end of the world being the beginning of the life of ghosts. I then went to create a short film based in the same world I had built and needed to tell a story. This was the first time I’ve worked on a large project and on my own. I wanted the plot to have significance to me as the creator and changed the genre completely. It was my first year on my own as an art school student and I was starting to learn to be independent while, at the same time, it had felt like I’d just been dropped into an entirely complex world all on my own. I wanted to convey that feeling. This process took about half a year to get through before a script could be written and thumbnails boarded.

OR: What was the most challenging aspect of working in a short film format?

BPD: It is difficult to tell an entire story in such a short amount of time. There is a lot of information that needs to be taken in when introducing a story such as the time in history, the location, and the characters and their intents for an outcome that may change by the end of the story. Trying to include all of this information without overwhelming the audience is a difficult task and requires a lot of tailoring and cutting pieces of the story down to the most important pieces you need to tell the story properly. 

OR: What was the most challenging aspect of your production?

BPD: The most difficult part of producing this was maintaining a production schedule. I was not only the writer and director, but also the storyboard artist, rough animator, background artist, clean-up artist, in between animator, color artist, sound designer, and compositor. In order to organize all of this I worked on a production schedule to time out what work would get done on a week-to-week basis. Sometimes, that schedule would end up changing due to unanticipated events or emergencies or burnout so the schedule would need to be edited based on the work that hadn’t been done during those times. Keeping on top of it all was definitely the hardest part of this production.

OR: Do you have any advice for first-time filmmakers?

BPD: I myself am a first-time filmmaker so I understand how big and complicated it all looks as a creation process. After making one film, I definitely have a better understanding and feel for what is required to create a film. My best advice that I can give is to create a production schedule and stick to it the best you can.