Bridging the Gap

 Age 18 Meg started hearing a voice. She tried ignoring it, didn’t tell a soul, yet the voice grew. More abusive, more delusional and often completely out of her control. Eventually, her paranoia wore her down. She experienced “an explosion of mental health”, followed by years of medical intervention and institutions.

Vanessa “Vee” Sweet crafted the animation, utilizing Meg’s own hauntingly expressive illustrations to offer a snapshot of her world as she grapples with the boundaries between her internal delusions and her everyday life. Her days can be dark and intense, yet Meg’s experience of hearing a voice is far more complex than you might imagine. She now realises that through deepening her understanding of the voice, she can reconnect to the world around her and learn to live with her own version of it. This film will challenge your perspective on hearing voices, open your eyes on medicalisation, and beg the question ‘what even is reality?’

The film was collaboratively produced between Meg herself and artist, Nina Ross, blending animation with photographs and live footage. It was made during lock-down by sending camera’s into hospital where Meg could record herself, crafting intimate insight into her environment. “It’s about time I show people who can’t share my experiences what I actual have to deal with. What better way than to make this film?”

Through high-resolution scans of Meg’s work, I crafted digital puppets via Adobe Animate, as well as hand-drawn animation through the use of both Toon Boom Harmony and Procreate. Capturing the texture and tone of Meg’s work was of utmost important, thus utilizing her original drawings as often as possible helped to maintain the integrity of her work.

It was important the word did not feel too “cartoony” but also adhered to the style of the visuals, and therefore more limited animation was employed, working on 3’s and 4’s with tracebacks and boils to add freneticism.