Elinor Geller
Student Showcase
BBC Big Screen Film Festival's Best Animation Award Winner
Spirit Child
Elinor Geller wanted magic and spirit to touch her animations – but when her work breathed life into the soul of a small child, it touched audiences in a way that is still surprising her.
The Spirit Child , Elinor's final year BA (Hons) Animation degree project, has won awards in festivals across the world, and has just been named the BBC Big Screen Film Festival's best animation.
Although the accolades are fuelling Elinor's impressive portfolio, it's the film's heartwarming humanity that's causing a real stir. Renowned BBC broadcaster and film critic Mark Kermode, who judged the BBC Big Screen Festival, is among a growing number of people moved by Elinor's poignant portrayal of childhood death.
"I've always been interested in the spiritual. When I was a child I lived in a 110-year-old house. Each member of my family could describe a ghostly sighting, I even heard singing outside my bedroom door when there was no one there," said 24-year-old Elinor.
"Just before I started my final-year animation project my sister's friend lost her six-month-old baby very suddenly. During the sadness of that event, I thought, if the parents were to imagine a really nice place for the spirit of their child to be, what would it look like? I imagined angels, fairgrounds and play, the sort of things you don't usually associate with cemeteries.
In less than a night Elinor wrote a touching poem, and months of painstaking work on the film itself began. The frames were all hand drawn before being individually scanned into a computer programme for editing.
Elinor's musician and entertainment manager brother, Avi, wrote and produced the music and hired American actor, Franklin Ojeda Smith to read Elinor's poem.
"While other students enjoyed the night life, I worked on The Spirit Child. I went for walks through the cemetery in Southampton looking for visual inspiration. I discovered its cheerfulness and peacefulness; the way life flourishes through the wild grasses and flowers. It helped me to illustrate the brightness in what is often seen as a dark subject."
Elinor's deep, personal commitment is evident in the 2D character drawings and background wash which brought her touching words alive. In scenes reminiscent of the sources of her inspiration – Tim Burton, and Dr Seuss – she presents the cemetery as: "This gloomy place is not what it seems; what may seem dead comes to life in moonbeams."
Elinor, who came out with a first class honours degree, is delighted that she studied at Southampton Solent University. "My family were very supportive and my tutors, Nick Phillips and Adam Comiskey, were fantastic. Among other projects, I'm working on a book of the film.
"It's fantastic that The Spirit Child has gone so well, but the feedback from individuals is even more encouraging. Bereaved parents have written to me to say they found the film uplifting and comforting; and my sister's friend is going to show it to her little girl when she asks about her brother. If you can touch people with your art it makes it worthwhile."
You can see The Spirit Child on Elinor's website at www.elinorgeller.com| or www.myspace.com/thespiritchild|
Article source: ISSUE 2, Southampton Solent University Magazine, pages 8-9.