OSCAR winner - best short animated film at the 83rd Academy Awards

From 2002 to 2010 I worked as part of a small team on a short animated film adaptation of THE LOST THING, produced by Passion Pictures Australia with financing from both Screen Australia and Passion Pictures. The film is 15 minutes long, using CGI (computer generated imagery) with 2D handpainted elements, completed in April 2010. The Lost Thing has screened at various film festivals, with a DVD release by Madman Entertainment in late 2010, with a special edition featuring a small field guide What Miscellaneous Abnormality is That?

More about the film and adaptation process can be found at https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/past-exhibition-shaun-tans-lost-thing-book-film/. Our film is also available for download / purchase in the US via iTunes and other platforms (at a preferable quality to illegal uploads, especially for educators.)

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I was involved in this project as a director, writer, designer and artist, working with a core team of four other creators in a Melbourne-based studio (one reason for my relocation to this city in 2007). It was a long and complex project, a great opportunity to learn about the differences between book illustration and animated film. My background as a painter meant that I was more accustomed to working with still, silent pictures that allow a viewer plenty of time to contemplate individual compositions. Animation is of course a very different medium, where questions of time and pace are much more critical, not to mention layers of sound and music.

In re-creating the story from the ground up, we elaborated some aspects of the 'Lost thing universe' which could not be entirely expressed within the confines of the original 32-page book. In fact, I always saw the story in my imagination as a short film or theatrical piece, where the book presents us with a set of stills from some larger production. The key character, a faceless creature, has in inherently animated personality which a painting struggles to convey. It clearly finds its full expression in the medium of film.

Most time was invested in the careful building, texturing and lighting of digital elements to create a unique aesthetic that avoids the artificiality of CG objects as much as possible; almost every surface is essentially hand-painted using non-digital materials: acrylic paint, pencil, oils and collage.

Following the success of the film, winning muliptle awards including the Annecy Crystal and an Academy Award in 2011, a comprehensive travelling exhibition THE LOST THING: Book to Film was designed by ACMI, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. They have some great online resources describing the production process, featuring interviews and behind the scenes insights.

Key Credits: Sophie Byrne (producer)Andrew Ruhemann (co-director), Tim Minchin (voice), Michael Yezerski (composer), John Kassab (sound design), Adrian Medhurst (foley), Doron Kipen, Music & Effects (mix), Digital Pictures (post production), Steve Evans (additional lighting), Screen Australia, Passion Pictures Australia and Passion Pictures UK.

For more information and images, please visit the official Lost Thing website www.thelostthing.com, or contact Sophie Byrne: sophie@passion-pictures.com.au

Drawings of 'facial targets' for rigging a digital model of the main character 'The Boy' -