Necessary Shadows

Micro short for London International Animation Festival 2021, heading up the Animated Documentaries category. Based on a case study of a young girl by renowned 1960s psychiatrist R. D. Laing. Laing developed the idea of the Divided Self - our outer faces and our inner shadow selves. He prefaces the notion that psychosis can be understood as a coping mechanism for early trauma. Shot as stop motion and composited in After Effects. Below are a selection of outtakes, early development style frames, and process images.