Director, Lead Designer, Storyboards
Listen To Me! | YEP’s & Rhondda Cynon Taff | Animated Short Film
2023
Telling someone else’s story is an important but often daunting responsibility. It’s not just a desire to do things right, but it’s finding the balance between the reality of a person’s lived experience and creating an engaging, legible narrative that everyone can enjoy. Even if how they live is very different from your subject. ‘Listen To Me’ is a film shaped by ordinary nightmares. I was initially put on the project as Art Director, but as the pre-production grew, I became responsible for the ultimate direction of the film and became heavily involved in the narrative development, working closely with the producer on all elements of production. This film was my first directing credit on a more script-driven and lengthy project.
YEPS, the Rhondda Cynon Taff Youth Services, approached Jammy Custard about working with them on a film showcasing the experiences of the young people they support. The starting point was to run a workshop with the local young people to determine the issues that were most important to them. The extremely talented writer and Creative Producer Saoirse O’Connor-Tyrell wrote a script highlighting four broad themes. Anxiety, Bullying, Gender Identity and Body Image.
We realised that a first-person perspective was crucial to helping the audience connect with the characters. They needed to understand how it felt to live in two worlds, the one we all live in and the one inside our heads, where even the normal things can feel scary and daunting. The dual monologue helped explore different, but not necessarily opposing, opinions and experiences on the same topic.
Four characters were created, each appearing in 2 segments, which not only showed a diverse range of opinions but helped flesh out each character. The characters we created weren’t based on the individuals in the workshop or even composite characters from the group as a whole. What we wanted to capture was their energy, the way they interacted with each other and the blend of different personalities. Using the lived experiences we’d learnt about at the workshop as a starting point grounded each character, and made it much easier to pair them up with their key themes and each other.
Young people were heavily involved in the production, from an initial workshop shaping their experiences into themes and initial ideas to voicing the film. From the beginning, we were very aware that the film had to feel true to the lives of young people living in RCT. The production was supported by Radio Platfform at The Pop Factory in Porth, giving the young people involved the exciting opportunity to voice their stories themselves and gain hands-on experience in bringing a project to life.
Since its release, the film was a finalist for the Welsh Government’s Youth Work Excellence Award 2023 and has been used in sixth forms and youth clubs across Rhondda Cynon Taf, where it's been well received, with many young people commenting on how they connected with the themes and characters.
