What is the film about?

A day at the beach takes a gruesome turn when triplets Lily, Milly and Billy attempt a prank on their grumpy ol’ dad.

Released online following 50+ international festival screenings including:
BFI London Film Festival, UK // Encounters, UK // London Short Film Festival, UK // London International Animation Festival, UK // Just For Laughs, Canada // Anima Brussels, Belgium // Melbourne International Animation Festival, Australia // Sydney Film Festival, Australia // Australian International Animation Festival, Australia // Anifilm, Czech Republic

What influenced it?

Though not a patch on any of them, the film is primarily a tribute to the talented artists that helped shape contemporary children’s animation from the mid-90s to the early 00s, in terms of visual style, inventive economic approach and viciousness of humour; names at the top of the leaderboard include Bob Camp, Chris Reccardi, Lynne Naylor, Craig McCracken, Genndy Tartakovsky and Bill Wray.

A little background information...

Presented as a stumbled-upon VHS find, Sunscapades is an unashamed love letter to both my current passion for indie animated shorts and the original roots of my enthusiasm for animation – loud, obnoxious and oversaturated Saturday morning cartoons that weren’t afraid to take a turn for the macabre.

How was the film made?

Pre-production for Sunscapades began as most of my films do, with an assortment of analogue sketchbook doodles and a pencil-drawn storyboard/animatic.

When it came to the animation itself, a significant stretch of production was made possible due to a review license granted for Toon Boom Harmony 14; this work formed the basis of my 2017 product review for Skwigly. Additional scenes that required less-advanced animation were created in Toon Boom Animate.

To embellish certain design elements I enlisted the help of digital painters Hannah Stevens of Weird Eye Collective (who brought the backgrounds to life) and Carwyn David (the elaborate close-up shots); these were created in Photoshop.

Casting-wise, the adorable triplets were performed by Dr. Laura-Beth Cowley (Lily/Milly) and Fiona Viani-Pericchi (Billy), also of Weird Eye Collective.

After Effects was used for general post-production, compositing, title sequences and visual effects, with final grading and editing done in Premiere.

For the music, the film’s main themes were composed and produced using Propellerhead Reason with additional cues provided by Philip Brookes.