kilkenny Arts Festival

In Good Hands

ANIMATION
PROJECTION MAPPING

In 2023 Kilkenny Arts Festival asked me if I would be interested in creating the film for that years Light Up The Castle event - a free, all ages outdoor event that takes place once darkness falls. I stupidly turned it down. Then I thought about it properly, and called the festival’s brilliant Marjie and Aidan back immediately and begged them to ignore my previous answer.

Then I had the BEST time making a fun, weird film about an artist’s battle between analogue and digital ways of making stuff. See some clips below - which can never do justice to something that was made to be seen on a huge scale with lots of people - but hopefully it’ll give you a sense of it.

I couldn’t have made this film without the support of Fictions producer (and co-founder) Claire Lennon, Art Director Erin Hermosa, festival producer Marjie Kaley, festival production manager Aidan Wallce, EventCo’s Tom Rohan.

Making It

It’s worth sharing some slides from the proposal I put to Kilkenny Arts Festival, as it gives a good feel for the inspiration for the film and help make sense of the process photos down below.

Interestingly, you’ll see much more technology in these process photos than I had intended (based on the proposal) and I ended up feeding that battle into the loose visual narrative of the film itself. While I had wanted to use this project as a break from high-technology and screens etc., I ended up in a nice sort of recalibrated head-space of starting everything practically and then quickly involving or switching to digital processes as long as it felt natural and helpful.

The result is a fairly seamless dance between the hand made and the laser cut, the hand-drawn and the 3D rendered.

Collaborators

I developed the overall concept and created four out the five sections, Irish animation duo Matchbox Mountain created the third section, making a lovely visual break from my style, and further grounding the overall piece in a handmade, analogue aesthetic.