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Title: The CoRaven (with apologies to Edgar Allan Poe)
Runtime: 2 min
Country: Poland
Director: Darren Mark Douglas
Placement: Award of Merit
Competition: June, 2020
Synopsis: Locked in the loneliness of self-isolation, our Poe-tagonist receives a dark visitor.
OR: What was the inspiration for your film?
DMD: The inspiration for the film came from Trev Hill – the writer of the poem, when we were all hit with covid 19 and the lock-down. Whilst everyone was feeling blue about the situation we decided to take a humorous approach and made the animation. If you can’t smile, what’s the point hey! The idea of this film was to make everyone feel better about the situation and to be more encouraged.
OR: When did you conceive the idea for your film and how long did it take before it was realized?
DMD: As soon as I heard Trev’s poem I saw the animated images. It’s that simple, and a true testament to his writing genius. It took me five eighteen hour days of learning how to animate to complete the film. And in a way, this drove me absolutely crazy!
OR: What was the most challenging aspect of working in a short film format?
DMD: This is a fantastic question. I think when working with animation you have to have an abundance of patience, the simplest gesture (for a character) can take a whole day to master. and at times i really struggled with this. In the end it turned out alright!
OR: What was the most challenging aspect of your production?
DMD: The animating.
OR: Do you have any advice for first-time filmmakers?
DMD: Believe in yourself, don’t be restricted and show the story you want to tell!