My name is Tom Fisher and I am a designer and animator with a graphic design background. The work I am interested in making as a designer and animator has evolved to focus on making an impact. My latest short film “Diffrerent” explores neurodiversity’s such as dyslexia and follows the journey of an ant as a metaphor for feeling outside of a system. It was partly a reflection on my previous work, which often focuses on isolated single characters as they journey through distorted, uncontrollable worlds. This relates to my own journey throughout life and as a designer not following a fixed system and working out my place in the world. Personal narrative and real-life issues have been a huge influence on my work and have helped me to be able to relate to an audience. This outlook enhances my filmic approach. I have been influenced by films such as Alex Garland’s “Ex Machina” and Spike Jonze’s “Her”, which depict how social constructs have been placed or work in contemporary society. My dissertation is influenced by this awareness and considered an understanding of masculine desire through contemporary science fiction cinema, again reflecting upon an unbalanced constructed system. Through self-reflection and researching social constructs I believe I am better able to give something back to individuals caught in constructed systems.

I use a range of animation styles, including digital, hand drawn, pixilation, live action and stop motion. I allow the medium to born out of the film’s concept. I enjoy directing in concept-led collaborations. The idea generation, storyboarding side of a project can be more of an interest to me more than the practice itself: it’s about using film making in creative ways. This was true for my film, “Otello”, a narrative animation for The Royal Opera House promoting their upcoming opera. We looked at using exclusively white paper materials to subtly highlight the frequent whitewashing of the play, which sometimes includes a blackface. We also used dramatic lighting and shadows to play with themes which are embedded within the story of Othello itself: good and evil, and illusion and reality.

Combined with my interest in the language of film, I have a fascination with found objects and textures. The creation of narrative through everyday found objects has allowed me to reintroduce my graphic design skills into a more imaginative structure through the practice of animation. By using animation to provoke thought in a communicative and expressive way, I hope to differentiate animation from being this very technical, quite unimaginative and generic process. Furthermore, by using the form of a fictional narrative, I can speak to a larger audience and seek to challenge an audience’s expectations. It is here where I see my approach fitting in. I aim to blend my personal insight with an approach that explored the possibility of change in order can reach out to people in an interesting way.