An animated hot potato and the gossip behind Farm Panic’s breakup: Laugh out loud with India Hogan

It’s Nice That: What first attracted you to animation?

India Hogan: When I started watching more traditional-style animation I was drawn to the idea that movement and marks did not have to be perfect and fluid to get a concept across. Sometimes this could even benefit the characterisation in a scene. Because it’s continuous, I feel like animation is a medium that helps fill in gaps and you have way more control over the tone of the story when sound is included too. I also like the surprise element of how a movement turns out in animation. When you put all the frames together, you never really know what it will look like. Sometimes it’s really not what you expected (in a good way!) or it just looks ridiculous.

INT: We love the personality and sense of humour that comes through your work! There is so much character, from your choice of music to the voiceover commentary and the charming naivety of your hand drawn frames. How did you come to develop this style?

IH: If I’m making a film without any dialogue I usually have a playlist that I make whilst animating, with very obvious song titles or themes that match the narrative (Ring of Fire was the closest song I could get to match the Hot Potato animation.) I think my upbeat song choices come from trying to replicate scenes in films where something very dramatic happens and upbeat music is used for comedic effect. Similarly, I like to take elements from existing formats, such as a documentary or a reality TV program as a basis for a script or an idea.

The Farm Panic interview was the first time I’d used a voiceover for an animation. The style and pace of the script was informed by the structure of interviews and documentaries I watched for research. I’m still definitely experimenting in terms of visual style, but I do like to consistently use awkward-looking facial expressions because I feel like they can add to the humour of a situation. Because animation is such a long process, I usually opt for doing a simpler line drawing but I hope to develop my drawings further and explore different mediums in later projects.

INT: Can you tell us how Farm Panic interview came about? Talk us through the idea behind the short and how you visualised it?

IH: The interview was a continuation of a project from my third year of uni about a fictional improvisational rock band called Farm Panic (formed in 1989). Its members Dave and Cheryl were married until the band split, ending both their relationship and musical collaboration.

As their self-appointed band manager I made a retrospective, called Farm Panic: The Rise and Fall, so I could document the “memorabilia” I made: band posters, album covers, newspaper articlesetc. But I was still really enjoying the research in that field and my persona as band manager! I knew I wanted my next project to be in a documentary style, especially as a lot of my research for the first part of the project involved watching interviews with bands and music-related mockumentaries, so I wanted to explore the celebrity side of the narrative following their breakup.

INT: You have a real natural knack for storytelling in your animations. How do you go about translating a story or conversation into moving image?

IH: Thank you! Once I have a script or storyline I go through each section and storyboard the first images that come to mind along with visual references from my research and make a few drafts of these. Then I put together a few final key points from the storyboard onto a timeline, leaving out big chunks for the transitions that tie each scene together. I usually decide on this whilst animating. Making the transitions is my favourite part of the process because you can be so imaginative on how to get from one point to the next and surprise the viewer with how one scene morphs into another. I find that the unplanned parts are definitely the most visually exciting to animate as they are not expected as part of the original storyline.

INT: Humour can be tricky to get across in illustration let alone animation! I chuckled a fair few times watching Hot Potato, and there isn’t even any dialogue in that short! The pacing and sense of movement is great. Do you have any tips for anyone hoping to make comical work but hasn’t quite got there yet?

IH: I always find it useful to look at other people’s films I’ve really enjoyed and try to pinpoint why I liked them so much. A lot of the animations I admire include dark humour, very awkward looking characters and unexpected transitions, so I try to think about this when writing my own film ideas. I feel like if you enjoy the process of making the animation and the topic you've chosen, it usually translates well to the viewer.