Flip Short - Animated Documentary Short Film
Produced, written and co-created by Sue Kenney. Directed, written and co-created by Bruce Pirrie.

Huntsville, ON - Every year in July, professional and amateur writers gather to compete in a three-day speed-writing event known as The Muskoka Novel Marathon.  A unique and quirky event, the MNM is designed to stimulate local creativity and raise funds for Huntsville adults with low literacy skills.  Contenders in this fierce battle of the pens endeavor to churn out a full-length book in 72 hours with minimum preparation and in full view of the public.

 

With Flip, we created a four-minute piece, featuring the eccentric modus operandi of these writers at work.  Creatively, the central concept for Flip springs from the oldest combination of books and moving images: The Flip Book.  Using thousands of still digital photographs, the Muskoka Novel Marathon was shot and collated to reproduce the effect of going through a flip book, with the sequential images animated in such a way that includes the glitches you may experience while thumbing through a flip book in real life.   Created without synchronous sound, the sound track of the piece starts with a brief explanation of the Muskoka Novel Marathon and segues into a quirky, comic montage of interview excerpts on how the writers work, basic storylines and excerpts from works in process. The sound design also incorporates Muskoka atmosphere (birds, waves, wind), pages flipping, the click and tick of a room full of typing and the occasional gong and applause that signifies the completion of 10 more pages.   The title and methodology of Flip speaks to aspects of its subject matter in a number of divergent ways.  In the marathon, as in a flip-book, the creative process can slow to a crawl, then grind to a complete frozen standstill, or whiz by in a blur of delirious typing.  Much as the pages and photographs ‘flip,’ as the three day marathon progresses the writers themselves begin to ‘flip out’ from lack of sleep and creative over-stimulation.  Finally, when the marathon is done, the writers become able to proudly ‘flip’ through the pages of their finished manuscripts. 

Flip is an engaging, unique and fun film, celebrating the creative process.

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