Directors’ Notes

It has been a delight to dive into the question, what is it about film festivals? Especially with a film festival that has been a formative part of both our artistic lives. In speaking to our many interviewees we were energised by the passion they all had for that time of the year when we line up in the cold and discover new ideas, new places, new cinematic forms, new connections. 

When considering the connection the festival has with the city, we were struck by the idea that the physical space that connects the cinema to the city is the queue. It’s also the place where people are often talking about films, sharing recommendations and are in the social and mental in-between space between the city and the cinema. 

We wondered: if we were making work about the queue, why not present it IN the queue as well? A large part of our practice  explores the possibilities of blending physical and screen worlds, creating immersive animation work. Augmented reality (AR) was the perfect form to bring these reflections and stories into the same space as the viewer, creating an intimate personal experience. 

Why bats? The bulk of festival goers come out at night, like our beloved bats who take to the skies over Naarm each evening, chattering above our heads while we stand in queues to see films. 

Each bat has a single voice of an interviewee but embodies several other reflections from other interviews that fed into the project, making the character not a just a singular voice but a shared impression that might encompass several experiences. 

Creating Night Creatures was a challenge for us. We rarely work with dialogue and this project is 10 minutes straight oration! We’re grateful to all our interviewees for speaking to us with such genuine passion and sharing personal stories and impressions with us. It was difficult to dwindle down each hour-long conversation into 60-90 seconds. 

We found the technical process to be quite a tricky puzzle which we couldn’t have brought to life without our astounding technical partners, Art Processes – swift and patient programming by Mitch McCaffrey, thoughtful interface design by Jonny Kirk, and considered technical production by Jamie Hauge and Sam Brown. We are thrilled that we succeeded in creating something that feels real and analogue within the digital world of AR. 

This was also due to the delicate musical moments composed by Lehmann B Smith, and the meticulous compositing by Benjamin Portas who retrieved our characters from our flawed greenscreen setup!

It was a joy to work with Philippa Campey at Film Camp again, who also produced Passenger (2019) and Clara (2004). We are incredibly lucky to have such a long working relationships both with each other and with Pip.

Finally we thank the wonderful Ling Ang for generously supporting this commissioned work and the amazing team at MIFF for making everything possible.

Isobel Knowles & Van Sowerwine, August 2022