London animator/Illustrator Anita Gill just slipped us her short film Check, a look at OCD, “Expressing feelings of anxiety, urgency and frustration through beautiful, abstract visuals and looping, chaotic sounds.”

Anita Gill: “The main challenge of this film was to create an expressive animation about a struggle that’s so internal. An important part of OCD is the loop/cycle aspect; whether that’s the looping checks in an individual moment or the experience as a whole represented through the OCD cycle (obsession, anxiety, compulsion and relief). It felt necessary to use this cycle and it really helped guide the animation in the early stages.
 

“The main challenge of this film was to create an expressive animation about a struggle that’s so internal.”

 
“Another key aspect of the film was the sound design which was considered early in the process to inform the structure and pacing of the piece. The sound becomes more erratic alongside with the visuals, heightening the sense of urgency and frustration.

“Many of the sounds in Check were recorded in my kitchen. The plan was initially to use these as placeholders before ‘proper sounds’ were created, but as I got more attached to these sounds of wooden spoons and clanging keys, they felt like they were part of the film in a way I hadn’t expected.”
 
 

 
Director/animator: Anita Gill
Sound design: Anita Gill