What is the film about?

Don’t Think of a Pink Elephant is a stopmotion animation about a teenage girl fighting daily against compulsive thoughts and urges. Layla is terrified by her potential to do harm, until challenged to face her darkest fears.

What influenced it?

I get a lot of inspiration from my observation of people, and am really interested in how we think and behave. I have an interest in stories, which inhabit the internal, of mental health, perception and the comedy of human behaviour and interaction.

Often my ideas come from social interactions in the mundanity of every-day life, and sometimes from my background of working in homelessness, psychology, substance use and offending. I am fascinated by the way in which we all think, and how we are really not all that different from one another.

A little background information...

I chose to make a story of a girl who experiences a form of OCD that is less known about. Intrusive thoughts, generally unspoken of, are something we all experience. I wanted to present these thoughts, often bizarre, taboo and funny, in a way that we can relate to, and to then reveal the more serious and distressing nature of the problem for Layla. I also wanted to really get across the internal thoughts, as they might be experienced, through the use of mixed techniques, contrasting physical textures and sound.

How was the film made?

The film is a stopmotion animation, whilst we used live action to create Layla’s thoughts.

Everything in the world is made from textured materials. Everything is slightly soft and rounded, but for the contrasting sharp metallic objects, the objects that set off Layla’s intrusive thoughts. Combining this with the thoughts, shown through live action, the slick movement – the cuts, the stabs, and the slices are used to create a sharp and brutal contrast. Whilst clearly defining these internal moments, the tactility throughout intends to cause the viewer to really ‘feel’.

We had a lot of fun creating the intrusive thought sequences, and it was a very experimental process.

We used two different types of fake blood, syringes, catheter bags and condoms, combined with some makeup and coffee granules. We also tried using a dummy head for when the pizza slicer slits Naz’ throat, but the head looked fake, so in the end we used my head. Luckily the pizza slicer wasn’t very sharp or my neck skin was very tough.