London International Animation Festival Trailer [2025]
Directed by Lizzie Watts & Elmaz Ekrem Littlewood // 01:00 // 2D/3D trailer
Music by: Harpal Mudhar & Vince Webb
Sound Design by: Harpal Mudhar
'Get Down, Get Round' Performed by: The Brass Funkeys
supported by the National Film & Television School
We shared a studio at the NFTS while making our graduation films (The Last Gammon & FRIED!) and soon realised we had a lot in common; a shared sense of humour, our own take on British stories, and a love of collage. We'd been itching to collaborate for ages and our goal was to create a trailer that blended both of our styles, as shown in this Venn diagram:
In the studio, we often found ourselves chatting about the things we would like to make and collaborate on next. When the idea for this project came up, we remembered how we were both interested in the classic animation trope of a frog choir, like the iconic Paul McCartney and We All Stand Together. We wanted to create something that captured our flavour of British storytelling and something that felt unmistakably of London. While thinking about frogs, we got onto the topic of the Barbican ponds, with their amphitheatre-like shapes, and it felt like the perfect setting for a little frog LIAF.
The main thing we wanted was to make something that felt energetic and full of opportunity; something that would leave the audience excited for the films that were about to follow. We thought about brass bands, their chaotic energy and the sense of civic pride associated with that music. We want people to feel like that about our animation community.
We were lucky enough to be able to work with musical genius, composer Harpal Mudhar. Harps plays and writes music for band The Brass Funkeys, who kindly allowed use of their song for the trailer.
The 2-and-a-half D style was new territory for both of us. We decided to use Blender so that Lizzie could create 3D layouts of our frog Barbican, while Elmaz could use the grease pencil feature for the character animation, which we’d later composite into the 3D space. For the final look, we still wanted it to feel like it had our signature collage, DIY aesthetic. We worked together to make sure the two dimensions and styles blended seamlessly, so it all felt like part of the same, but unique, world.
We loved working together and we have loads more ideas. We can’t wait to keep developing this technique and see where it takes us. Lots of love, Elmaz and Lizzie x