Elephant (2024)
Director & Animation Director: Mia Innocenti
Producer: Tenzin Kelly-Hall
Art Director: Phoebe Blanchard
Assistant Animation Director: Lily Morris
Synopsis: Again and again I’ll take care of you… even if I’m not remembered – the relationship between a daughter and her elderly mother with dementia.
Format: 2D Animated Short Film
Genre: Slice of life, drama, bittersweet
Audience Rating: PG
Duration: 04 minutes 41 seconds
Poster by Keina Dixon
Producer Statement:
Like the director Mia Innocenti, my grandmother has been affected by dementia. I was deeply moved by the story when I was shown the first draft animatic for Elephant, surprising Mia when I embarrassingly started to tear up in a classroom full of people. Dementia often feels like its own elephant in the room, such a delicate and sensitive topic that affects so many people, and yet is rarely talked about.
Elephant is a purposeful short film that resonates with a wide range of people within the common, yet rarely talked about, experience of loving someone with dementia - created by people who deeply care about and have firsthand experience with this topic. The passion and talent of the crew was truly incredible to witness firsthand, and I am honoured to have supported this film as their producer and help bring this deeply collaborative project to fruition.
Elephant was nominated at the GFS final year film awards for 'Best Film Production', 'Best in show', and won 'Best Film Direction'.
Poster by Keina Dixon
Brief Production Reflection:
My role as producer broadly constisted of:​
- Management of lead, sound, and overall team, creation and management of full team excel sheets and management of google drive, maintenance of schedule and chasing up work, lead full team meetings with director Mia Innocenti, discord server management (announcements, channels, atmosphere), sourced new team members.
- Maintenance of a positive and productive working environment, leading to a GFS nomination for 'Best Film Production'.
- EPK, marketing, website building, advertising.
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For the mass majority of our team, and the other projects in our year, this production was our first experience within making a short film in a collaborative setting. When I first joined I wanted to create a project with open communication, a supportive and friendly working environment, and a high level of organisation through deadlines and constant check ins. With how ambitious a film this was in terms of visual style, aesthetics and compositing, I knew this would be very important in creating a final film we could all be proud of.
Happily, the other team leads fully agreed with creating such an environment and were very supportive in this, helping us to create an environment where all four of us could lean on each other for help and support with running the project.
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Examples of Trackers Made/Used
