NFB Hothouse 10: ‘The Roommate’ (Stephanie Braithwaite)
With a background in animation and DIY gaming, Peterborough native Stephanie Braithwaite moved to Toronto to work in animation. Having kept herself busy working as character/prop designer on independent projects such as the games Ikea Monkey and Stay Mayor for Extra Extra Games, as well as studying at Seneca College where she earned an advanced diploma and was given the opportunity to work on Chris Landreth‘s Annecy Cristal-winning NFB film Subconscious Password. Presently working as an animator and illustrator in Toronto, Stephanie recently finished her first short The Roommate, produced during the tenth edition of the National Film Board of Canada’s Hothouse apprenticeship program.
Built around the found sound of a consumer vlog, Stephanie’s contribution to Hothouse 10 is a distinctly comedic view on consumerism, hoarding and co-habitation.
I went to Seneca College because my mentor in Peterborough, Barnabas Wornoff, is a professor there. While attending Seneca I became part of the animation team for Chris Landreth’s Subconcious Password. I arrived at the Montreal NFB on the last day of Hothouse 8 which included a showing of films. Everyone was crawling out from under desks but so pumped that their films were finally done. I wanted in on the program!
My concept was a play between two characters sharing a living space. One is fed up with all the junk the other buys as fuel for content of her shopping vlog.
I had mostly done digital animation before this and I wanted a chance to use pencil and paper. It was all drawn and rolled on a light table but coloured digitally with help from the talented co-Hothousers Neal and Kathleen, and an incredible colourist at the NFB, Jin Park. It couldn’t have gotten online without the help of Frances, also a Hothouser, who aided me in scanning.
The program taught me a wonderful lesson: How to work through something even if it feels overwhelming. I’ve stopped procrastinating and I’m completing more things. It’s good to work through the feeling of “Oh, I could just do that later”, because nothing ever gets done with that attitude.
From here on I want to make another short film on my own. I want to submit it to the local festival TAAFI, a festival that has helped out by bringing in animation talent from around the world. I’m very grateful for this. I hope one year they bring in Joanna Quinn as I’m currently obsessed with her short films – her drawings are fantastic!
-Stephanie Braithwaite
Thanks to all the Hothouse 10 participants for taking the time to share their experiences with Skwigly! To find out more have a read of our recent interview with Chris Landreth, Hothouse 10’s mentoring director