In these times of uncertainty and anxiety all of us move among shadows, but some are scarier than others.
All of Our Shadows is an 8-minute animated film following a day in the life of a teenage boy as he faces his fears and concerns. Can he confide in his school mates? Will they ignore him? will they mock him? will they help him?
The creation of All of Our Shadows is a culmination of a long period of workshops and focus groups in London schools, where discussions with children (aged 12-16) revealed their many anxieties about their daily lives.
The sessions highlighted the young people's general reluctance to share their worries about a host of topics ranging from body image to knife crime. We then created a storyboard depicting a day in a life of a boy who believes that he is the only one experiencing these anxieties, only to find that he is not alone. The workshops involved drama improvisation whereby the children created their own scenarios and used their own voices to convey the story. All the children's voices in the film were recorded in such sessions. The animation process was an equally evolving journey creating a mixture of designs and animation styles, like the original take of the fear-monster by Daniel Greaves, the backgrounds paintings influenced by Edward Hopper and the self-portraits drawings of the children depicted in the stop motion section.
All of our Shadows is the second of a trilogy of short animated films that revolve around young people and their concerns and anxieties in today's world. The first film entitled All of Us tackles intolerance and prejudice, All of Our Shadows deals with the isolation of young people and their difficulties with connecting to others. The third film entitled All Is Not Lost (full stop motion, currently in production) is essentially the story of how empathy and creativity overcome selfishness and aggression.
All of Our Shadows – One minute trailer
The making of the film
Since the release of All of Our Shadows it has received many industry awards and commendations. Below is just some of the accolades.
To see the full list click here.
All of Our Shadows has received many positive reviews – Please see below for a couple of reviews.
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"… a film that despite its brevity manages to achieve two objectives successfully; to be informative and highly entertaining"
-The Indie Film Critic-
"All Of Our Shadows, created by the multi award winning Animage Films, is an animated short drama with a surprising amount of depth and precision – in less than 8 minutes."
-Take Two Film Review-