Animation & Motion Design
Shauna Callanan
The Little Night Mare
My story is centred around the main character Mare, a nightmare demon. His latest task, to collect nightmares from a young boy named Noah raises problems when a certain someone shows up to give this demon hell.
Through my research of dream theory and analysis, specifically how our unconscious explores the notion of good and bad, I discovered that this exploration maybe integral to self-development. It suggests a comforting philosophy that as a direct result of dreaming we learn to cope better with confrontation and improve problem solving.
My puppet stop-motion animation arises from my own response to Henry Fuseli’s painting, ‘The Nightmare’. This painting captured my imagination as Fuseli intimates to the viewer through the use of various symbols that the sleeping woman in his painting is experiencing nightmares or sleep paralysis. One of those symbols being a goblin-like demon that is perched on her chest is the impetus for The Little Night Mare.