Snail's memoir comes to life with local talent

Snail’s memoir comes to life with local talent

November 13, 2024 BY Abby Pardew

For a year, Donna Yeatman worked building sets and animating the stop motion feature film, Memoir of a Snail. Photos: SUPPLIED

AN ARMSTRONG Creek local has spent the past 12 months travelling to Docklands to work on the set of a stop motion film.

Donna Yeatman spent her days building sets and animating Adam Elliott’s Memoir of a Snail, only the third stop motion feature film to be made in Australia.

The filmfollows the story of a lonely misfit who finds hope and inspiration after being delt a series of hardships.

Ms Yeatman said stop motion was different every time the technique was used, depending on the style of the work.

“There’s so many different ways that you can make it every single time, including on this feature film.

For a year, Donna Yeatman worked building sets and animating the stop motion feature film, Memoir of a Snail. Photos: SUPPLIED

“You have to do a lot of creative troubleshooting and figure out how you’re going to make it on the go, so that’s really fun.

“Because of the industry in Australia and this being a really small budget, it was quite a little crew and so it meant that all of us got to wear a lot of hats and do different things.”

Ms Yeatman made characters and sculpt props, and jumped between different departments throughout production.

She also loved how Victorian the film was, with a crew made up of mostly people within the state and a Victorian director.

“I love how much it celebrates Melbourne and Australia within the film, I think it’s just really lovely,” she said.

“I think people are appreciating it’s not just handmade, it’s handmade for Melbourne.”

This was the first stop motion film Ms Yeatman had been part of, doing stop motion before but in short form.

Throughout high school, she was inspired by Elliott, doing claymation for her year 12 media class before studying animation at RMIT.

“I ended up teaching myself stop motion all through uni and showing Adam my short film and he’d already made Mary and Max and he said he really wanted to get me on the next film he made.

“This was really special to be a part of and we have no idea whether there’s going to be another stop motion feature film made, so we definitely made the most of it.”

Memoir of a Snail is screening in cinemas now.