Brittany Bailey of Italic Pig awarded Creative Animation Funding for “Colour!”
Italic Pig is hugely proud to announce that Brittany Bailey has been successful in her bid for Creative Animation funding with Northern Ireland Screen that will allow her to direct her animated short, Colour.
Set in a monochrome world, ‘Colour’ follows the story of Coral, a brightly coloured child struggling to find common ground with her peers. When constantly confronted with standing out, what Coral wants more than anything is to just blend in with the crowd.
The Creative Animation Scheme from Northern Ireland Screen is designed to develop the talents of up-and-coming Northern Ireland creators, animators and directors through the production of animated short films. It provides them with the opportunity to develop their own ideas and directorial style with support from established animation companies.
The Creative Animation Scheme is always eagerly anticipated within Italic Pig. With a studio full of diverse and talented creatives, each year the team is encouraged to put forward their own stories to tell. This year, three members of the studio pitched concepts. The three then helped to develop all three pitches. Britt’s concept was then selected internally (again, by the three) and brought forward to completion for the call, with the team of three pulling together to clarify her vision and prepare the application.
The importance of Colour is best explained by Brittany herself:
“I'm really overjoyed that Colour has been selected, not just because it's my story but because it’s hugely encouraging that NI Screen have seen the merit of a story like this.
“When I came up with the idea for the story it was a bit of a eureka moment - I knew I wanted to tackle my own confused feelings towards my heritage as I grew up but I didn't know how to package them. Then I realised it really is as simple as colour, shape and sound and that was all I really needed to tell the narrative. I've been a 'woman of colour' all my life but it took me a while to realise that I could be a rainbow instead of a stop sign, if that makes sense; that being colourful is joyful and not just inconvenient.
“I think that there will be plenty of BAME (Black Asian Minority Ethnic) people in Northern Ireland who have at some point felt - like Coral - that they are an outlier and that they should somehow conform to those around them. This film is primarily aimed at those people and hopes to show them that their frustrations, awkwardness and discomfort are all valid but that there is a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to being different if we have the confidence and bravery to embrace it.
“It was also important to me that the world of Colour resonates with more than just the BAME community - or even just with other minorities. I think that anyone who has struggled to fit in growing up for whatever reason can probably relate to Coral. In this way, I hope that the film can make the daily life of a minority a more relatable issue to those who aren't one and help foster an understanding between its audience - which I'm sure will be varied.
“I really hope that the success of this pitch indicates the start of a more flourishing BAME creative community here in Northern Ireland too. The moral of Colour is to sing in your own voice and encourage others to do the same. I hope that by putting this film out there it will provide encouragement for other BAME and minority creatives here in NI to start singing in theirs too. As I said, colour is not just warning signs and caution tape; colour is flowers and confetti and carnival and all those cheesy things. It's beautiful and Northern Ireland deserves that beauty too and the creative industry seems a great place to start.” Brittany is already recognised within the Northern Ireland industry as a talented up-and-comer with her recent co-writing and concept art contributions toward a BBC Two-Minute Masterpiece entitled “Worlds Apart”. She is also active in the BAME community and is working to bring a chapter of BAME in Media to Northern Ireland.
The investment into Colour marks the second animation project by Italic Pig in 2020 to be supported by Northern Ireland Screen, following on from the receipt of development funding for Sam & Guzman. This signals a clear movement toward animation for a studio well known to date primarily for narrative-driven video game development.
Brittany Bailey
www.brittbailey.myportfolio.com
@britt.bailey.art
Italic Pig
www.italicpig.com
@italicpig