The People
Behind every film is a crew of talented people, and this one is no exception. To make this animation, we have pulled together a crack team of incredibly talented individuals from around the world:
Director Jim Batt is from Australia. and Berlin. and New York. His award-winning animations and music videos have screened worldwide, and he has enjoyed many wonderful collaborations that include Amanda Palmer, Sydney Opera House, Ben Templesmith, Kim Boekbinder, Molly Crabapple and more. Jim crowdfunded his last short film, I Have Your Heart, with a successful kickstarter.
Writer Neil Gaiman is rumoured to be from England, but seems most at home in the realms of the imagination. A bestselling author, Neil has long been one of the top writers in comics, and also writes books for readers of all ages. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers, and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama.
Artist Ellen Barkin Söderholm is from Sweden. Originally a classically trained painter, Ellen has turned her keen eye and deft hand to book illustration, comics, and drawing dinosaurs for a living.
Composer Jherek Bischoff hails from Los Angeles and is equal parts composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumental performer. Jherek has collaborated with an ever-growing list of notable creators including Neil Gaiman, Cibo Matto, Zola Jesus, Amanda Palmer, Meow Meow, Missy Higgins, and toured the world more times than he can count.
Sound Designer John Kassab is a multi-award winning sound designer, producer and law school drop out. Over the past decade he has crafted sound designs for numerous animated projects including Shaun Tan’s Oscar Winning ‘The Lost Thing’. More recently he has turned to producing, releasing the highly acclaimed feature documentary ’12 O’Clock Boys’ and co-producing Spanish Language film ‘Desecho’. The latter is currently touring festivals and has just been shortlisted for an Academy Award.
Animator Josh Mahan is a Oakland based Director, Animator and Production Designer originally from North Carolina. His work has been featured on Portlandia, CollegeHumor, the cult web-series The Adventures of Ledo and Ix and the documentary The Magic of Heineken. His work as Lead Animator on Leah Meyerhoff’s debut feature I Believe in Unicorns has been lauded by critics from Variety to the New York Times. His short films Awaken and Bolt have screened at festivals across the US, Europe and Asia including SXSW, Coachella, Waterfront FF, and SLIFF, taking home multiple Best Animation awards. His commercial clients include Nick Jr., IBM, Verizon, Cadbury and Delta.
Producer
Josie Hess is an award-winning filmmaker working across horror, comedy, documentary and porn. Josie’s work has included extensive collaborations with Permission4Pleasure producer Morgana Muses and co-directing their first feature documentary ‘Morgana’, which premiered at Melbourne International Film Festival in 2019.
The Project
The Grave Of Saint Oran is a short stopmotion animation based on the poem ‘In Relig Odhrain’ by Neil Gaiman. The characters and world will be designed by illustrator Ellen Barkin Söderholm, then these designs will be turned into paper cutout puppets and sets, ready to be hand animated frame by frame.
The poem is a strange tale, full of brooding atmosphere and metaphysical horror, and we intend to build on that mood, keeping the darkness and sense of philosophical curiosity that are at the core of the story. Everyone on the project is excited to be involved, and we’ve already started preproduction. However, animation – especially stopmotion – is time consuming and expensive. We don’t want to comprise on quality or take years to finish, so to make this short film possible we are going to be turning to kickstarter to raise the funds needed to start production.
The Poem
The poem ‘In Relig Odhrain’ was published in a recent collection of Neil Gaiman’s short stories called ‘Trigger Warning’. It tells the tale of two saints who land on the island of Iona, and attempt to build a chapel there.
But things don’t go smoothly and the ritual murder of one saint by the other begins a chain of events that brings into question everything they believe. It’s the kind of story that gets stuck in your head for days, it’s rhythm bringing back words to haunt you in the quiet hours.
“This is a true story. Well, as true as any story about a sixth-century Irish saint can be. The churchyard is there, on Iona. You can even visit it.” – Neil Gaiman, Trigger Warning