One of the best animated films of last decade came out of my native Australia, in the form of Adam Elliot’s oddball, bittersweet claymation Mary & Max. Young Melbourne special effects artist Isabel Peppard worked on the film as a sculptor & puppet-maker, and now brings her own strange, gothic stop motion vision to life in the form of Butterflies, a twelve-minute short about an artist (voiced by Rachel Griffiths) struggling to maintain her creative spirit in a world where inspiration is stamped out.
Even compared to such recent stop motion films like ParaNorman, Frankenweenie and the aforementioned work of Adam Elliot, Butterflies is grim, both in its aesthetic and in its ideas. The silicone models have a creepily tactile quality, while the rapidly rotting flesh of dying butterflies – a visual metaphor for the extinguishment of hope – is visceral and disturbing. Creative stagnation is a feeling that most artists can relate to, and there’s obviously at least something of an autobiographical slant to Peppard’s film. But the movie is ultimately reaffirming, demonstrating how, through embracing our creative side, we can all step out into the light.
Tom Clift: How would you describe your film in one sentence?
Isabel Peppard: Butterflies is a Faustian gothic fairy tale about an artist struggling to keep her muse alive in the face of adversity.
Tom Clift: Did you study film, and if so, where?
Isabel Peppard: I never studied film but spent years working on films as a special effects artist. During this period I also worked in a few commercial, stop-motion animation production houses which gave me an early insight into the craft. Stop-motion always appealed to me because I love creating strange new worlds from scratch. Because you are working with miniatures, budget isn’t as much as a restriction and you are only really limited by your own imagination and skill base.
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