Early Birds – Suky Best

still image from Early Birds Animation 2008 — still image from Early Birds

The film Early Birds can be seen at animateprojectsarchive.org

An interview with Suky Best on the making of early birds

Installation of Early Birds at the Natural History Museum 2013 in Extinction, not the end of the world?

A hand-drawn rotoscoped animation from wildlife footage, showing garden birds in silhouette against flat colour backgrounds that subtly change, signifying the coming of the dawn. Featuring interviews with people talking of their memories and experiences of the dawn chorus contrasted with their experience of it today. The soundtrack also features birdsong from common UK garden birds. The film is intended to make us look anew at a daily occurrence and the wild animals we encounter on a daily basis.
Technical information
Hand drawn frame by frame over existing documentary footage of garden birds. The drawings show only the birds in silhouette, all other detail is removed. Made in Photoshop and assembled in After Effects and Premiere software. The sound was made separately from live recordings, interviews and library recordings of bird song.