Vincent Gibaud discusses his Gold Screen win in the Animation category at YDA2021 for his haunting short, Two Nightmares in My Story, for Face à l’Inceste.

How did you get into directing ?

After I left French animation school, I wanted to direct another short film so I just told myself: ‘You will direct another short film’, and that’s how I got into directing.

Two Nightmares In My Story has a hand-drawn look to it. How important was it for you to use this style, and how did you achieve it?

We were working closely with Jackson Joyce, who was the art director we worked with on the film, so we wanted to stick as closely as possible to his look because he’s a painter. He was painting most of the backgrounds with paint and for the animation there was a lot of compositing so we painted a lot of image textures. It was a lot of work as we printed every background he was painting, and then we painted over that. Then we scanned the textures and then there were three frames over the background. In doing so we were able to use the backgrounds that were painted.

How long was the shoot for the short, and what was the most challenging aspect for you of the project?

I think it took us two-and-a-half months, which is long for a short, and the main difficulty was to really get that feeling that it wasn’t computer made but hand drawn. At one point we were thinking about whether we should print every frame and paint over it, but that was not an option with the budget. So, we came up with this idea of just having three frames per shot and with the compositing, which added a lot of layers to the character.

What did you learn during the making of the film?

As a director, I learnt two things. I was working closely with the agency [Publicis Conseil, Paris] and they were always pushing me to go further, especially in the visuals, and at that time I was really upset and would think, ‘No, they don’t know what they’re doing’. But, in the end, I followed their lead and it came out really well, and I realised that sometimes I should listen more to the people I am working with. Also, regarding the music, we had a lot of choices for it and I was not comfortable with the one we chose when I first heard it. Then there were a lot of really positive reactions to it when the film came out and, once again, I said to myself, ‘Maybe, from time to time, I should trust in other people and admit that I don’t know everything’.

What does it mean to you to win a YDA award?

It is very cool. When I started working on the project I was not assuming anything, I was just happy it was a subject I liked and I was working with some close friends, with a budget, and everything was nice. But I was not expecting any rewards or reviews. So, every prize I got for this was a really great surprise.

What can we expect to see from you in the future?

I just released a short film, about a month or so ago, which is in 3D and is called Imagination, which was produced by Jungler, an animation studio I worked with for Two Nightmares In My Story. It’s really different: it’s a blend of 3D animation but it’s really more of a personal project because I wrote and directed this one and did most of the pre-production. And, in terms of future projects, right now I’m writing a new short film, which should be around 15 minutes long. Also, I shall be working on more commercials but always for good, small companies, like I did with Two Nightmares. 

Interview by Joel Meadows shots