Shortlisted director Daisy Jacobs gives us a window on the world that brought lothario Don Justino de Neve to life

“Isn't there a film where the central character stands naked on a towering rooftop in the night and the driving rain, laughing maniacally over the strains of Wagner as he looks down on the world he has created? If not, I may be revealing something about an animator's psyche that is best kept hidden. When Virgin Media Shorts asked me, “if you could make a film with anyone, dead or alive, unknown or famous, who would it be?’ my immediate response was 'I can draw anyone I want, do you hear? ANYONE. I CAN RAISE THE DEAD. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but a picture is worth a squillion words. My pencil WINS'. But, obviously, I didn't tell them that.

It's not all pleasure. Don't think I haven't suffered for my art. “Is Don Justino de Neve autobiographical?” people ask, “Or have you always been a man hater?” As if I had TIME for interaction with real people. I made my film at a desk overlooking a pub full of washed, happy people drinking in the sunshine at 2pm. I would glare at them from the window as I grew pale and vengeful at the light box. Even my flatmates avoided me after I locked myself in the bathroom with a suction cup, a bowl of eggshells and a rotten pear, and could be heard repeatedly running and emptying the bath. “Making weevil noises” failed as an explanation.

Don Justino de Neve is my first film, made all by myself in the final term of a one year post-graduate course in Character Animation at Central Saint Martin’s. Being around other film makers in my class and spending hours drawing and joking was a lot of fun. In fact, animation is especially funny when you're not that good at it. (Classic quote overheard when animating a walking character: “How do you get the legs to work?”) Thrusting grannies, inadvertent deformity, utter incompetence and phallic everything were all in a day's work. Above all, I learned that whatever you draw, draw it carefully, or it will look like a penis.

Never underestimate how long it will take if you involve actual painting in the animation process, or how small your bedroom is, once covered in drying painted frames. Plan a free space on your bed and access to the door for sustenance and toileting. And try to number your frames or it WILL end in tears. On a serious note, creating a world from blank paper is a bit like being an architect, interior designer, stylist, storyteller, and giving birth - all at once.

So how did I feel when I heard I'd made the Virgin Media Shorts shortlist? Let me just find Wagner on my playlist and I'll tell you...

Category: 2011 shortlist

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