A recent graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, Daniel Stankler applies his frame by frame technique and bold animation style to explore the love/sex dichotomy in modern relationships for The School Of Life.

Daniel Stankler: “The film is about how, often, the closer we grow to someone, the less we want to sleep with them and because of this I grew very interested in the idea of domesticity/interiors versus wildness/exteriors, and this became the predominant theme in the film.

“Previously my work drew from fairytale traditions (my undergraduate degree was literature and classics), particularly retro fairytale illustration, and this definitely seeps into this film in the design of the exterior spaces.

“The domestic interiors, however, were new territory for me, and I really enjoyed exploring characters in the non-fantasy environment of a family home. I spent a great deal of time researching mid-century domestic illustration, and I think this informed the visuals I ended up creating.

“I was given complete creative control over the visuals on the sole stipulation that they comply with Youtube’s explicit content guidelines, which actually proved to be very tricky for a film all about sex!

“So I chose to use an extended metaphor of penis and vagina plants for the visuals, which I think helped create a funny, irreverent tone and worked well in the domestic setting.

“I’ve always been a fan of anything a bit strange and weird, so was keen to create memorable, cute and slightly uncanny characters, that almost seem human, but aren’t.

“They are not gendered, nor raced, which I think serves two purposes: to add to the slightly surreal, fairytale impression of the animated world of the film, and also to show that love, intimacy, closeness, and domesticity transcend sex and gender roles.”
 

 
 
Client: The School of Life
Director/animator: Daniel Stankler
Writer/narrator: Alain de Botton