Cardboard box inspiration
Kelley O'Sullivan, Lisselton (centre), being presented with the Student Digital Storytelling Award by Dessie Farrell of the Gaelic Players Association and Mar Healy of UNICEF Ireland at the Satellite Broadband Ireland Digital Media Awards.
Wednesday March 10 2010
IN a week when Irish animators enjoyed the glamour of the Oscars, a young North Kerry animator was awarded a prestigious accolade for a short film about a boy and a cardboard box.
Kelley O'Sullivan, from Ballyloughran, Lisselton, was this week chosen as the best in her field — Student Digital Storytelling — in the Satellite Broadband Ireland Digital Media Awards for her short film Cardboard Boy. The award also coincided with her 20th birthday.
It took Kelley two months to create the three-minute film for a college project. It tells the story of a boy whose cardboard box is transformed by his imagination into a series of fantastical shapes. A third-year student of animation at the National Film School in Dun Laoghaire, Kelley was astounded to be announced as the winner of her category at a gala ceremony in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dublin.
"I couldn't get over it when my name was called out, it was simply fantastic and great to be recognised in this way," Kelley told The Kerryman.
"The film is made in stop motion where I built the character by hand and my mother made his clothes as I cannot knit or sew! All the animation is done by hand with no aid from computer effects, except for the end still where I used a street scene photograph and imposed the character onto it. It was a long couple of days animating but really enjoyable," she said.
