December 24th, 2018 
Jackson Murphy 
After years of working on acclaimed animated movies, Dublin, Ireland’s Louise Bagnall decided to take a chance and make a short film of her own. The result? Late Afternoon, which has not only been wowing fans and juries at film festivals throughout the world, but is also one of 10 finalists on the 2019 Oscars shortlist.
Jackson Murphy: Congratulations on being on the Oscar shortlist. How does it feel?
Louise Bagnall: It’s kind of mind-blowing, to be honest. It’s certainly a long way from what you’re thinking about when you’re making a short film. So it’s fantastic.
JM: How long ago did you first think about “Late Afternoon”?
LB: It was an idea that went back quite a long time before I even started making it. I probably had the idea for it in 2012 or 2013. I let it develop quite slowly in my sketchbooks by drawing the character and thinking things out. And then I decided I would… it coalesced into more of a solid idea, and then I decided I would pitch for funding in Ireland. I asked the Cartoon Saloon if they would support my application, and I went in and pitched it to the Irish Film Board and RTE – and then we took it from there.
JM: Cartoon Saloon is getting really popular, with the animated features of “Song of the Sea” (you worked on that) and “The Breadwinner”. You were Annie nominated for your Character Design on “The Breadwinner”. It was my favorite animated movie of last year.
LB: That was a fantastic experience. It’s been brilliant to work here because I feel like every project is a different challenge. “Breadwinner” obviously brought its own set of challenges. But it was a really exciting project to be a part of… I was very honored to be able to go over to the Annies for that earlier this year.
JM: How would you say you’ve grown in your time at Cartoon Saloon: working on these movies and now your own short film?
LB: I’ve been working here for about five years now, and I think that’s helped me to… grow the confidence to be able to tell stories that are a bit more personal – and to be express myself a little bit more boldly when it comes to the projects I want to make. It’s a confidence-building thing. I’ve seen Tomm (Moore) making a film. I’ve seen Nora (Twomey) making a film. Both of them have their own points of view and their own ways of doing things. And it reminds you that everybody will have a different approach or a different story to tell, and that’s all valid. So it’s been brilliant to see that happening close up, and it definitely gave me a lot of confidence going into my project.
JM: And I can tell in watching “Late Afternoon” how personal it feels. It’s a very relatable story. It’s about an older woman looking back on her life. The ending/the twist in this short is so good. And I really want to ask you about it, but I don’t want to spoil it for all the readers. But it caught me by such surprise and made it such a heartwarming, even more emotional experience. In all the film festivals you’ve been at with this short, have people come up to you and told you personal stories that have related to what happens in “Late Afternoon”?
LB: Yeah. I suppose in a way, I was a bit surprised by it because I didn’t expect people to be so open with their personal lives to me, who’s a complete stranger. When I’ve been at festivals and screenings, almost every single time somebody will come up to me afterwards and they’ll want to tell me about their own experience dealing with relatives who have dementia – or looking after a parent. You realize it’s affected so many people’s lives, and it’s something that’s under the surface. It’s such a private thing, normally, between family members.
So that’s been kind of amazing because you realize people are really grateful to be able to have a feeling that’s expressed. The expressions in the film reflect their own experiences. That’s been really amazing. That’s like winning a prize in and of itself. I think the thing is: When I’m making it, I didn’t know where it would fall. I didn’t know if it would be acceptable to everybody. But I feel like even if you haven’t experienced this kind of thing personally, I think you kind of understand what it would be like. It’s trying to give people a little bit of insight into an emotional rollercoaster that it might bring you.
JM: The main character’s name is Emily. Was there an Emily in your life who… directly inspired your thoughts to make this?
LB: There wasn’t an Emily, but one of my grandmothers was called Elizabeth. And her… life inspired it a bit. For instance, it’s not particularly obvious, but in the film, it’s actually set in Dublin. So I have in my mind a particular setting and timeframe that’s taking a bit of inspiration from my own grandmother. Towards the end of her life, she didn’t have dementia, but she definitely had difficulties at the end – being able to connect with what was going on around her. I was too young at the time to grasp that fully – to grasp the difficulties myself. And it’s not until I’m older now, and of course now she’s gone, that I can have that conversation with her and ask her about things or ask her what’s going on with her in her mind or what can she remember about growing up. I kind of lost an opportunity there, so it’s also trying to explore that as well.
JM: And there’s a powerful line that Emily says. She brings up time. How are you when it comes to time management?
LB: (laughs) It’s always a challenge, right?
JM: Yeah.
LB: I think I’m always a bit overambitious with what I can do in the amount of time I have. I think that’s something that a lot of people who work in animation… they have the same instinct to try to pack-in as much as they can. For me, a lot of the challenges I have with time are that I have a lot of ideas. When we were making the film, there were a lot of amazing ideas that we came up with, and you have to try to fit them all into this… I didn’t want to make the film really any longer than about 10 minutes – partly because the budget gets bigger, but also because I really wanted it to be succinct. To keep this momentum going throughout the film.
So time management definitely came into that just in terms of… having to be “Okay, that’s an amazing idea, but we’re gonna have to cut it out because it just didn’t fit in with this moment and we don’t have enough time to explore it.” So we have to be very careful with that in the film. And certainly with my own personal work, I have to be a bit strict on myself in order to get anything done.
JM: And I think you’re ambitious when it comes to the fact that you cast yourself to voice one of the younger versions of Emily. How did that come about?
LB: It was definitely not my first choice. (laughs) I wouldn’t call myself an actor. It was partly out of necessity. The character in my mind is actually from Dublin, so I wanted to have a character that has a fairly neutral Irish accent. And Fionnula Flanagan, who voices the older Emily, she’s an amazing actress, and she’s from Dublin so she was able to hit that perfectly. But after that, we didn’t have a lot of money left and options for professional actors, so we were seeing if any family members or friends wanted to try out for voices. And obviously for most people, it’s quite daunting to suddenly try to record someone’s voice. You change your voice when you realize you’re being recorded.
So after a few tries with a few different friends, I just ended-up doing the scratch audio… just so that we could keep moving on with the film, with the idea that we would re-record it when we found the right person. And then it ended-up being that we didn’t find a better version. So I recorded it with the proper audio quality later, up at the studio… so it worked out okay in the end. But I’m definitely not going to be looking for any acting jobs going forward.
JM: I think you did fine. You didn’t need anybody else for that role! It’s your short – it’s your character! I love the vision of the colors: how Emily transports back into the memories of her life. What was the thought process behind the exact colors? It’s a little bit different every time.
LB: That was a really key element of the film that we played around with a bit to try to make sure that it was right. The whole kind of meaning behind it… obviously the colors are representing memories but for me I was basically trying to visualize the abstract concepts of somebody’s inner world: her inner life. It’s quite a tricky thing to try to get on screen – and that sensation of… a memory suddenly comes into your mind and you’re swept away by it. The color at the beginning, for example, red – is a vivid red. Once that appears, it allowed for a visual narrative/thread to the memory that followed. It was a way of leading the audience into this world that she’s in and back into these memories.
So we ended-up using the colors quite specifically. Generally speaking, we were trying to associate different colors with different times in her life. The red ends-up being mostly her childhood. The purple color is her teenage years. And then there’s a few more different colors – blues and greens – that come in later. That’s more of her adult life. And it also reflects the idea that when she’s a kid, it’s bright and energetic. And then things don’t go as simple or easy… things get complicated when you grow up. We also wanted to use the biggest, brightest colors at the beginning and then it would get more complicated later on.
JM: I just love the thought process behind this. So many people think, “Oh – people make decisions so quickly about what to do, even with these animated shorts.” There’s a thought process behind every single shot.
LB: With this film, it’s a very sensitive subject, and we were trying to tell an emotional story. So we had to quite carefully craft it so that… it’s kind of like you’re hiding the seams a little bit as well… so that you feel the flow of the memory, and that you get hooked along in this experience, rather than being too jarring. There’s a couple of more jarring moments in there, but they’re kept down on purpose for effect. So it’s kind of a blend of a lot of different choices you make along the way… build up to make these things work.
JM: “Late Afternoon” has been shown at 73 festivals to date. And you won at the Tribeca Film Festival. So we’re in this awards frame of mind, but how are you going to spend the holidays? Is it going to be a bit of a break for you before the awards build-up again?
LB: Yeah. I think so. I’m going to be spending time with my family up in Dublin, and with my partner’s family. For me, the main thing is that I’m not going to fly on any planes anywhere. I’m not going to go away that far because I feel like I’ve been traveling a lot this year. It’s nice to have a break to stay with family and catch up with everybody. Pretty much try to chill out before everything kicks back in next year.
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