Between Strains is a ardour challenge made attainable by its 40+ feminine creatives contributing from all around the world. The story of high-school bullying advised in poetry-fueled animation struck a chord with the Motionographer viewers on its launch in January 2023.
We requested creator Sarah Beth Morgan, together with Animation Director Taylor Yontz and Producer Rebekah Hamilton, to interrupt down the challenge.
We hear about among the challenges they confronted, the concepts that didn’t make it and the processes behind the scenes, all whereas gaining an perception into what it’s like going through your childhood trauma with trustworthy conversations and the ability of creativity.
Give us a short introduction to yourselves and what led you into Movement Design.
Hello! We’re three buddies who determined to work on a brief movie collectively.
SARAH BETH MORGAN: Director on Between Strains | Cleveland, OH
I’m a contract animation director and illustrator primarily based in Cleveland, OH. Though I’m initially from the US, I grew up in Saudi Arabia, the place I used to be in a position to broaden my perspective in a brand new atmosphere (which allowed a ton of free time for making artwork). As a child, I used to be all the time particularly drawn to storytelling and drawing. After learning movement media on the Savannah Faculty of Artwork and Design, I started working within the industrial animation trade at Scholar in 2014. From there, I moved to Portland, OR, to grow to be workers at Oddfellows. Lastly, in 2018, I launched into my freelance profession and am now a director represented worldwide by Hornet.
TAYLOR YONTZ: Animation Director on Between Strains | Nashville, TN
I’m a contract animation director + animator primarily based in Nashville, TN. I noticed the movie “Discovering Nemo” once I was 13, and it made me fall in love with storytelling woven with 3D character animation. I used to be all the time drawing, writing quick tales and comics, and I began animating in highschool. I went on to review character animation on the Savannah Faculty of Artwork and Design, graduating in 2013 and leaping into the world {of professional} animation. Since faculty, I’ve been privileged to work with many studios as a freelancer and a staffer. In 2021, after working for 4 years at IV in Nashville as an animator after which Artistic Director, I made the soar to full-time freelance.
REBEKAH HAMILTON: Producer on Between Strains | Nashville, TN
I’m a senior producer primarily based in Nashville, TN. I studied audio engineering in school, however after commencement, I began educating myself methods to edit and animate. After main a crew of designers and animators within the broadcasting world, I discovered myself drawn to the manufacturing facet of our trade and jumped right into a full-time job as a producer and finally head of manufacturing at IV in Nashville. After freelancing for a short time, I’ve put down roots with the great people at Golden Wolf as a senior producer.
(Left) Rebekah Hamilton (Center) Taylor Yontz (Proper) Sarah Beth Morgan
How would you introduce your movie to somebody anticipating the primary time?
SARAH BETH:
Gosh, there are such a lot of methods I may go along with this! However let’s simply say: Between Strains is a 3-minute animated quick movie centered round an expertise I had with bullying in 2005.
Nonetheless, anybody may be bullied – no matter race, gender, ethnicity, class or worldly location. Via this movie, I need others to know they don’t seem to be alone and to see their story validated via concrete visuals. I need to pierce the viewers of this movie with deep-rooted, gut-wrenching empathy. And I need individuals who have skilled this to know they don’t seem to be alone.
Inform us concerning the crew behind your challenge.
TAYLOR:
Our crew is made up of virtually 40 extremely proficient ladies in animation, design, writing, and audio/music manufacturing. Working with such a big worldwide crew allowed us to solid a large internet by way of what everybody dropped at the desk. We had cel animators, After Results compositors, 3D look growth artists and animators, designers, a poet, a music composer, an audio engineer, and even a strings crew that recorded a customized rating for the movie. The collected expertise completely bewilders us each time we discuss it.
REBEKAH:
I nonetheless can’t imagine how stacked the Between Strains crew is. We’re so fortunate to have them on the challenge and now as associates. Taylor, Sarah, and I all reached out to our rapid networks, and people ladies reached out to different ladies of their community, creating the Avengers of girls within the industrial animation area.
Not solely are they proficient, however they’re additionally beneficiant and genuinely form individuals, so PLEASE take time to take a look at the work of every fantastic individual on the crew. Now there’s no excuse to not rent a various group of girls on any of your tasks 😉
Take a look at the crew right here.
Did any of the crew wrestle with (or relate to) the subject material? If that’s the case, how did you deal with these moments?
SARAH BETH:
I began engaged on the thought for this movie after going to remedy for my very own expertise. From time to time, I shared my bullying story with my grownup associates and was typically stunned to listen to that a lot of them had been via one thing related.
This was once I started to comprehend that bullying at school – particularly via gossip, isolation and exclusion – is extraordinarily frequent. However why doesn’t anybody discuss it? It all the time gave the impression to be buried up to now. I felt drawn to create one thing that might join our collective tales, and once I started reaching out to people within the trade for inventive help, I discovered that the script & thought actually resonated with them on account of their very own traumas.
Whereas it saddened me that many had skilled bullying, it was extraordinarily refreshing to have the ability to join on a deeper stage and start to heal previous wounds.
Why had been you interested by having so many individuals (significantly ladies) contributing to the piece?
SARAH BETH:
It’s all the time been a dream of mine to collaborate with a big group of girls; to create a secure, therapeutic house the place everybody feels open and cozy. To not point out, the movie’s subject material was an enormous contributing issue.
As a director within the industrial animation trade, I’ve discovered that I personally are inclined to fall again on the identical designers and animators for help once I’m in a pinch. A lot of these individuals are typically males (who I actually get pleasure from working with!). Nonetheless, this doesn’t grant me many alternatives to satisfy new proficient ladies and people outdoors of my bubble that I wouldn’t usually join with.
Since Between Strains is a ardour challenge and it had no explicit deadline, I used to be actually set on deliberately discovering ladies (in addition to trans/nonbinary people) to collaborate with. To offer new associates a window of alternative – and to develop our connections to different ladies within the trade.
Among the crew connecting over Zoom in 2020.
How tough was it working with so many individuals in numerous places? Are you able to give us an perception into the hurdles you confronted?
REBEKAH:
The trickier half was ensuring we honored individuals’s time. Since this was a really low-budget ardour challenge, we had been delicate about ensuring everybody felt revered and regarded within the work we had been asking them to do, understanding they’d full-time jobs and private lives to juggle. We managed that by giving people photographs and duties that actually excited them over an extended timeline. We might solely verify in with them month-to-month, so we weren’t pestering them an excessive amount of. If anybody wanted to step again, we might reassign that job to a different individual. If time and assets appeared tight, we might begin trying to broaden the crew a bit extra.
The objective was to create a low-pressure atmosphere whereas nonetheless shifting the challenge ahead, so we pulled out all of the manufacturing methods we may consider to perform that.
TAYLOR:
We stayed related by way of semi-regular digital hangouts and a crew slack channel the place we talked concerning the challenge and life basically. It was nice for camaraderie and allowed us to work throughout time zones and grow to be long-distance associates as nicely! Manufacturing occurred throughout peak Covid which, in fact, gave us an enormous hurdle.
Sarah Beth and I attempted to offer everybody suggestions inside a couple of days of artists sending updates, and Rebekah did an important job of protecting us all on monitor with free and really stretched-out deadlines.
Take us via your course of. How lengthy did it take? What strategies did you employ? What applications are you utilizing?
SARAH BETH:
Between Strains kicked off in 2019 with a small crew of 1 (guess who!) that rapidly grew into over 30. Earlier than bringing anybody on, I needed to create an inviting written & visible presentation to attach with potential crew members, so I started by making a Google Slides presentation that included the poetic script (written by Nirrimi Firebrace), a tough storyboard, and a styleframe or two. I even had the unbelievable Jennifer Pague create an preliminary musical composition primarily based on a Spotify playlist I collected to current the movie’s general temper. I may go on for days concerning the course of, however I’ll let Taylor take over from right here.
In the event you’re , try what that presentation seemed like right here.
A snippet of the unique storyboard with my notes.
TAYLOR:
As a result of this was an enormous ardour challenge for everybody, we needed to ensure that every artist started working on photographs in a method that motivated them and performed to their inventive strengths. The one actual rule for each shot was that it needed to find yourself wanting like the ultimate styleframe. This meant that we had animators working in so many softwares to finalize animations. We used After Results, Cinema 4D, Concord, TVPaint, Adobe Animate, Photoshop, and even Procreate.
No matter labored for the artists labored for us.
This collaborative, wide-net strategy allowed us to expedite each shot’s development as a result of we may stack a number of individuals on single photographs. For instance, the under was roughed by Camille Vincent, Cleaned up by Sarah Beth, with a 3D image body by Antoinie Eugene, 3D fish by Collin Leix, and a compositing carry in After Results by Antoinie Eugene, Yahira Hernandez, Rocio Cogno, and myself. Whew!
Are you able to clarify how the script took place? What was the method? Was it all the time the thought for it to be poetic?
SARAH BETH:
I had a very particular thought about what I needed primarily based alone story, however I couldn’t absolutely articulate its last poetic type. I knew from the beginning that I needed it to be a voiceover in order that viewers may join with the emotion within the narrator’s voice. So perfecting the script grew to become extraordinarily essential.
I reached out to my author good friend, Nirrimi, and we did a inventive alternate – she helped me write my script, and I helped her with some emblem/illustration work. We went backwards and forwards a couple of rounds to get the whole lot good. Then Jennifer Pague captured the emotion fantastically in her voiceover, and it was magic! All the things simply clicked.
Did you face any difficulties alongside the way in which? If that’s the case, how did you overcome them?
TAYLOR:
As soon as Sarah reached out to me to leap into the movie course of, we solely had a crew of 4 animators. This was made up of Rachel Reid, Collin Leix, Yino Haun, and myself.
It was… extremely optimistic.
The movie’s fashion itself offered an enormous inventive problem to execute the movement to the excessive bar that Sarah’s nonetheless frames deserved. Enter Covid in 2020 to shake up everybody’s private {and professional} lives.
We realized we had been going to must beef up our crew and get much more versatile in our strategy to animation as an alternative of relying closely on a tiny crew’s intensive dedication. We ended up including over 20 animators and some extra designers to make the thought of a “last movie” even a distant risk. This allowed us to have whole teams engaged on one shot collectively utilizing no matter instruments they needed to handle the carry somewhat than piecing off sections of the movie to people. Having a number of minds on the execution of a shot gave us a lot room to play and bounce concepts off one another. Increasing our crew was the most effective issues we did for the movie journey.
Did you may have another concepts you preferred that you just didn’t go along with? What had been they, and why did you flip away from them?
SARAH BETH:
I actually struggled with the design fashion at first. I needed to get it JUST proper. As soon as I had the moodboard and storyboard down, I began to mess around by simply making an Instagram-style illustration. That method if I didn’t need to use it for my movie, I may nonetheless put it someplace. I actually loved enjoying round with the shadows and texture right here.
I made a decision to discover utilizing this underwater storyboard second to seize that “sinking” and gut-punch feeling you get when somebody emotionally hurts you. That is the underwater “anxiousness world” of the movie.
And right here’s the place that second exploration netted out, utilizing the fashion of the primary. There have been quite a lot of issues I preferred about this exploration. (One among them NOT being the ridiculously creepy jellyfish that’s wrapping round our hero’s physique!)
What I did like had been the positive traces, the bubbles, and the character design. I preferred the lighting and texture, too. However her pose didn’t work for that crushing anxiousness feeling. She feels too peaceable right here like she’s floating. And for the reason that fish round her have huge, curious eyes, it feels extra cartoony. They’re detracting from the general temper of the scene, pulling the eye away from our hero.
So I saved my course of free and gave it one other go. I preferred that this felt extra surreal and epic like she was plunging into the scary depths of this darkish world. I used to be tremendous proud of it, and it felt actually completely different from the kind of work I usually do. This was the primary body I completed fully, and it continued to function a roadmap for the remainder of the movie’s fashion.
Inform us about your audio course of and the individuals concerned.
REBEKAH:
Jen Pague guidelines. She’s our unbelievable composer and sound designer. Her capacity to evoke emotion with music conjures up us, and her challenge Vita and the Woolf made followers fast followers of Sarah, Taylor, and me. So Jen coming in to be the brains and coronary heart of the music and sound design was a no brainer. Audio can are typically handled as an afterthought within the industrial animation world, however understanding the poem and music would drive a lot of the storytelling, we concerned Jen very early on within the storyboarding course of.
She got here up with demos we used within the animatic part to determine pacing and tone. Then, as soon as we had been farther together with a locked edit, we let her free on the entire rating. That’s her beautiful voice because the narrator as nicely, a girl of many abilities! So as to add the ever-important particulars, Jen did sound design on the movie and introduced in producer Sophie Coran who organized all of the string preparations and reside classes, together with Hope Brush, an audio engineer who did the ultimate combine.
What was your favourite second or most enjoyable a part of the challenge?
SARAH BETH:
Truthfully, creating this movie has been rather more about connecting with the crew and creating real, therapeutic friendships than making an “award-winning” movie. The collaborative course of and the crew itself was my absolute favourite half. I attempted to prepare group Zooms as typically as attainable, through which we simply goofed round. I significantly loved one second when Collin Leix unintentionally confirmed as much as our hangout with a cloud filter on and couldn’t determine methods to flip it off!
TAYLOR:
I keep in mind being blown away each single time we obtained updates from animators. For a number of years we had been dwelling in our personal secret nook of the animation world, constructing one thing collectively and always being impressed by everybody round us on the crew. It was extremely refreshing to really feel impressed and in awe throughout such a heavy time. After manufacturing, two of my favourite moments had been our first few screenings. I visited Sarah Beth in Portland in 2022, and we had the chance to check our movie on an enormous display screen for the primary time at a neighborhood theater. It was a fully surreal second collectively that I’ll always remember. Not lengthy after, we premiered on the Brooklyn Movie Pageant in NYC and obtained to satisfy up with a number of crew members in individual for the very first time and see our movie reside collectively.
Between Strains Crew | Brooklyn Movie Fest
REBEKAH:
I’ll gladly be a damaged report right here and say the crew! The friendships we’ve solid are priceless, and it felt so particular to have a good time our collaboration with among the crew in individual on the Brooklyn Movie Pageant and at Pictoplasma in Berlin. I’m always floored by the positivity and eagerness to attach in our trade. The bonds with these ladies transcend our jobs, and it makes me really feel so happy with what we do and who this trade attracts. I’m gushing now. I ain’t one bit sorry.
What recommendation would you give to somebody going via bullying in school?
SARAH BETH:
I’d like to have our improbable non-profit accomplice, Bloom Basis, reply this query!
“The very first thing I might say to somebody going via bullying in school is: I’m so sorry that is taking place to you. Nobody deserves to be handled badly and unfairly. However I additionally imagine you may develop from this and are available out stronger. And you may even create one thing stunning from the expertise like Sarah Beth and her crew did with Between Strains if you find yourself prepared.
I might additionally share extra about our Bloom core values: perception, perspective, objective, habits, self-worth, empathy, development to assist shift their perspective and encourage them to develop via this difficult time.”
Andi Lengthy, Bloom’s founder.
What’s subsequent for you and your crew?
As regular, we’re all striving for brand spanking new and thrilling issues. We’re protecting tabs on our associates from the Between Strains crew and staying in contact as a lot as attainable! For us three, although, we could have some “ear snacks” within the works for you..
Keep tuned!
SARAH BETH MORGAN:
Instagram: @wonderfall
Twitter: @SarahBeefMorgan
TikTok: @wonderfallll
Web site: sarahbethmorgan.com
TAYLOR YONTZ:
Instagram: @tay_blay
Twitter: @tay_blay
Web site: tayloryontz.com
Linkedin: Taylor Yontz
REBEKAH HAMILTON:
Instagram: @rebekahahamilton
Twitter: @rebekah_hami
LinkedIn: Rebekah Hamilton
