Intermission Expedition

Wiep Teeuwisse (Netherlands)

Wiep Teeuwisse credits a beautiful hiking trip as the inspiration for her Annecy short Intermission Expedition. “I thought it was absurd to see rocks floating on water for the first time,” she recalls. “Later, I found they floated because air bubbles in volcanic rock make the material really light. On another day I watched seafoam getting blown across a beach and disappearing into thin air. This solid, old material sharing its structure with such an ephemeral substance gave me an uneasy feeling that I wanted to explore further, which eventually resulted in the short!”

The Dutch animator developed the short over an 18 month period, while the animation, sound and post-production were done in seven very labor-intensive months. “Everything was animated on paper with pencil, which is more time consuming than digital drawing,” she says.

“But I find the process much more peaceful without a computer — and also, you don’t get lost on the internet as much. The backgrounds were done in soft pastel chalk, and the coloring was done digitally.”

Teeuwisse says it took her a very long time to find a balance between narrative and poetic storytelling. “Realizing that I did not need a main character was a big moment. Also, taking out 90 percent of what I’d intended to put in also helped a lot!”

The animator mentions that Don Hertzfeldt’s Everything Will Be OK had a huge impact on her. “It just has such a good balance between simple and complicated, funny and sad, accessible and strange. It puts you in this mood immediately, and it made me realize that great moments are much more impactful than a clever pay-off.”

She hopes audiences will also feel immersed in her new short as they watch it. “Maybe I’d love to hear one person say that they are inspired to live life with a little bit more attention and calm after seeing it!”