We never established firm roles for the film, with the exception of Becky as director. Everyone just pitched in, and in the end even directing wasn’t firmly established as just Becky’s responsibility. It was a nice group to be a part of and there was plenty of room for creativity.
We were all very passionate about the idea, and knew exactly the sort of style we wanted. We all really like the visual style of Wes Anderson and we also all really like the animation style of Jan Švankmajer. Our original plan was to conduct an interview with Jana and intercut sections of this with short stop motion animations illustrating what she is talking about. Becky’s original plan was to use various objects and packaging to provoke reactions from Jana, however I convinced Becky to ask her more general questions about growing up under Russian occupation instead.
This interview went ahead on the 10th February. We had all helped prepare questions for Jana and on the day I assisted Joe with the cinematography and operated one of the two cameras. Joe operated the other camera. His job was to get a simple single of Jana. My job was to get various shots throughout the interview, so I was on my feet all day and by the end my back was so sore from holding a camera steady all day!
In the end, the interview went really well. Jana told us so many interesting stories and told us things about her childhood that even Becky had never heard before.
Jana at the Interview
Comments