INTERVIEW: Bafta-winning animator Daisy Jacobs who's off to the Oscars

The 26-year-old from Gosport has already won a Bafta this week for the Best Short Animation for her film The Bigger Picture – dedicated to the memory of her gran.

Now she is packing away her paint-splattered overalls for a glamorous frock ready to join the glitterati at THE big film industry event of the year.

She leaves on Monday for a week of media interviews ahead of the awards ceremony on February 22.

Just eight minutes long, The Bigger Picture features Daisy’s life-size drawings and tells a dark, humorous tale of caring for an elderly relative.

She used a technique she learned while at the National Film and Television School (NFTS), which has won her other accolades.

Daisy, a former Bay House School student, started her career in animation while at Central Saint Martin’s University.

In fact, Daisy has won no fewer than 25 awards for this film already, including the Fremantle Media UK New Talent Award at the Women in Film and Television Awards in December.

Daisy collected her Bafta at a star-studded ceremony in London this week hosted by Stephen Fry.

She said:“To win the Bafta and now be going to America to the Oscars is definitely surreal.

"I heard that I’d been nominated for both awards at about the same time, just a couple of weeks ago, and I just feel very pleased – really delighted.

“It’s a film looking at the role of a carer. It’s based loosely on my family and the lead up to the death of my gran and the conflict within the family that we had.

"In the film two brothers struggle to care for their elderly mother; they fight but finally see the bigger picture.

“It’s also called The Bigger Picture because the animation is life-size. The technique is a hybrid of intricate wallpainting and 3D stop-motion that hasn’t been done before.

“It’s very, very large scale animation in terms of the characters’ heights. They are like a very tall elongated person, for two reasons.

"First, I really enjoy painting on that scale as it’s very physical and you feel very connected with the characters; you are not just sitting at a desk drawing but you are engaging with the characters moving their arms etc.

“Secondly, it looks different and I’m trying to make my characters real and make them look like they have come out of my emotions. Emotions are bigger and I’m showing heightened emotion through the scale of the figures.

"The figures are a mixture of 2D and 3D which comes out into the room; it’s that strange boundary between what’s real and not real.”

Daisy worked long hours for a year to make the film. She said: “It was near the extreme end but I enjoy that process – the big challenge of something.

"If something is too easy I’m not interested; I seek out things that seem impossible.”

Daisy originally studied illustration at Central St Martins, stayed on to do a post-graduate in character animation, and then did a two-year full-time MA in directing animation at the NFTS.

She made Don Justino de Neve and Tosh along the way as two 'test films to develop the new life-size technique.

She started off doing lots of hand-drawn animation, which was all small-scale, mostly pen-and-ink drawing, with a colour wash, but found she was really missing painting.

She started off doing lots of hand-drawn animation, which was all small-scale, mostly pen-and-ink drawing, with a colour wash, but found she was really missing painting.

So she found a wall in film school, painted two huge characters on it, and just started animating life-size.

“The 3D element included papier-mache arms interacting with real objects – to show that the paintings were life-size,” she said.

Daisy had a budget of £8,000 in all, and was able to keep her costs down because she could use all the excellent facilities at NFTS.

She also had a crew of fellow students – doing their own MAs in cinematography, sound, editing, etc – all bringing their skills to the film for free.

She added: “The budget bears little relation to the actual cost of making the film.

"I’ve won about 25 awards for this film, lots of trophies and the prize money has been excellent which has all gone into my film account for the next film.”

Without the facilities of the film school now, Daisy estimates the next film will cost £80,000 to make, mainly because of the large-scale techniques she uses.

Through an online Kickstarter campaign she has raised £20,000 but she says she is only a quarter of the way there.

“It’s a very expensive and time- consuming occupation. From the moment I wake up until I go to bed it is all I think about.”

As for the future, she hopes to continue making more films, developing her techniques.

The next project is already under way.

“The new film, which starts production in June, is about family dispersals – people drifting apart over time.

"It’s set in the divorce boom of the 1970s and 80s.

"I like looking at something ordinary and making it unordinary, especially something domestic.”

For more about the film check out www.thebiggerpicturefilm.com