Through the Hawthorn

"Through the Hawthorn" was a British rotoscope animation directed by Anna Benner, Pia Borg and Gemma Burditt, the story focuses on a young schizophrenic patient named Sam who has stopped taking his medication, refusing to believe that he needs them. His mother is fraught after finding him naked in a freezing lake in the middle of the night. The doctor himself believes that Sam should try a different type of medication.

What definitely drew my attention to this piece was the animation style used for it. I feel that I have been talking about a lot of rotoscope animations recently, and I suppose it is because I found myself curious over the different ways people are able to utilise such a technique. This was a really interesting collaboration project as each director was assigned one character's perspective each for the animation, so to convey different realities from one another.

While the doctor clearly lives in a black and white world of sorts, Sam's mother is in a more murky but still stable enough sort of reality as she is clearly emotionally distressed over her son's schizophrenia. Sam's reality, as expected, seems to change constantly (Notable from not just the abstract visuals seen in his frame, but the constant change in art style). It was an overall an impressive piece of work (Though if it wasn't, it wouldn't even be in the Professional showreel now, would it?).