What is the film about?

An animated documentary exploring the normalisation of taking drugs amongst young people.

What influenced it?

Some Picasso paintings for the colour pallet.
Len Lye as his animation is fluid.
My own illustrations.

A little background information...

I naively never thought I would know anyone who takes drugs, as I grew up being told drugs were just for people who had lost their way. But when I started university in Manchester, I found myself in the minority of people I was around who was not taking anything illicit. It shocked me to see drugs being used so casually, when I always had the idea that drugs are life threatening – which they can be, but this doesn’t stop people experimenting.

After 3 years of university I grew blind to the drug use around me, I stopped worrying about my friends and strangers health and decision making, and then I realised – Is it not a little concerning that I am so surrounded by drug use that it didn’t bother me anymore. I had become normalised to my surroundings in Manchester, the socialising in clubs, out in a park, on the bus, in my house for example – and always being around drug use.

I decided to start conversations with people about their drug use, to see the attitudes and thoughts surrounding the topic. This is how EXPOSURE was born.

How was the film made?

I conducted interviews with people who volunteered to talk to me about drug use. I had 9 hours of audio after all my interviews. I cut this down to 3 minutes, 28 seconds. I created he narrative by choosing the audio clips and putting them together. Then I started drawing in a sketchbook and on Storyboarder to start creating the visuals for the film.

The end result: Hand drawn on a Wacom Tablet, onto Photoshop where it was also animated, while the music and sound as produced by Wez Allard.