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Est. Reading Time: 7 Minutes

MARK (M) Tell us a little about yourself - when did you become interested in film and filmmaking?

HANNA (H) I always thought I would end up going into a career in STEM. It seemed like the natural thing to do when you get good grades in Maths, but it was never something I was excited about. I noticed that I spent most of my free time either watching films or video essays about my favourite films and the filmmaking process. In a way, I was hoping I could become a filmmaker vicariously through strangers online. I used to be extremely intimidated by cameras and the thought of making films as it seemed like an unattainable dream.

I took a Media class in Year 10 but was too paralyzed by fear of making something bad that I didn’t make anything at all. In Year 11, my school teachers couldn’t fit Economics in my schedule so I got put in Media by default. Every day since, I’ve been thanking the timetable gods as that class really built my self-esteem. Now that I’ve admitted to myself that film is something I genuinely want to pursue, it’s become a process I find more joy in and all I want to do is just create!

M Why are you interested in making films?

H The films I watched growing up seemed to have such a huge impact on who I am today so it’s fascinating to witness how much power these stories can impact our identity, not only as individuals but within our culture. I love stories in any form and film just happens to be the one that coincides better with how I perceive the world. Being dyslexic, I’ve always sucked at reading and writing and I love the fact that film is a visual and auditory medium. But ultimately, I just find it such an enjoyable and satisfying process to come up with an idea and see it come to life on screen.

On Anton Chekhov

M Please tell us a little about the film’s inspiration - when did you come across Anton Chekhov and his story The Death of a Government Clerk (1883)? And why did you use this particular story as inspiration for your script and film?  

H I was pitching a couple of story ideas to my sister who happens to be a bit of a literature nerd, so she thought my ideas were similar to Anton Chekhov’s stories. When I would experience writer’s block, I would go back to his stories to get inspiration. I came across The Death of a Government Clerk and the themes really resonated with me. The anxiety of the main character and his need to explain a simple mistake is something that I often experience, especially when it comes to the relationship with authority and in my case, teachers. Before moving to Australia, I went to a strict middle school in France where misspelling teachers names were a huge sign of disrespect. I just find that so ridiculous considering it’s such a simple human mistake.

I love that the catalyst in The Death of a Government Clerk is Tchervyakov sneezing as it’s something so small that everyone does yet feels really guilt feels because of our culture around authority. I also just love stories that exaggerate or closely dissect a common relatable thing as a way of making fun or pointing out how strange human behaviour is, so I really admire that in Chekhov’s work.

On Visual Style & Techniques

M I really like the fact that you’re open to using and experimenting with lots of tools and techniques to bring your ideas and vision to life on screen i.e. animation, aspect ratios, dissolves and even jump cuts.

Why did you incorporate and use animation as one of the key storytelling elements within the film? How do you think it facilitates the mood and tone of your film?  

H I love mixed media so if a hybridized form happens to suit my story and themes that I’m trying to explore, then why not? I wanted to make a clear distinction between my characters’ reality and her thoughts, and animation just seemed like the obvious solution. I thought about different ways to shoot it in live-action to reduce the workload, but I just got too attached to all the creative freedom that came with animations. I also just love animation and will look for any excuse to use it. 

The small devil character was something I decided early as a way of showing her inner conflict with anxiety. I wanted to make him seem cute and harmless so he seemed more trustworthy, as that is how anxiety is often perceived. 2D animation worked well as it didn’t make the character look too uncanny or creepy. 

The animation parts with the teacher and principal are some of my favourite scenes within the film. I think the animation allowed me to include lots of fun visual gags and made it easier to exaggerate the mise-en-scene. I loved how animation allowed me to have a bold colour palette and create a stereotypical character design for the old grumpy teacher. Overall, it just really helped to show how wacky the main character’s thoughts are.

‘I love stories that exaggerate or closely dissect a common relatable thing as a way of making fun or pointing out how strange human behaviour is’

— Hanna Jadwiga Layclark

On Inspiration

M What are some of the films and who are some of the filmmakers that inspire you, and why?

H Victoria Vincent or Vewn as she is known online is an animator on YouTube who makes lots of weird surreal shorts. I was heavily inspired by her work for the animated parts of my film as I thought her use of distorted perspectives and highly saturated colours would work well in communicating themes of anxiety. I also just love her animation style and the nihilistic dark comedic stories she writes.

I’m also a huge fan of Satoshi Kan’s films, especially the ones that take me two viewings to properly understand, Perfect Blue (1997) is one of my all-time favourite films. I also love a good dark comedy like Parasite (2019) or Sorry to Bother You (2018). Any film that criticizes capitalism while simultaneously making me laugh is a win for me.

On The Future

M What are you planning to make next?

H At the moment I’m just trying to get through Year 12 exams. Once that’s done, I’ll be spending all summer making anything and everything that I can think of. Quantity over quality at this point, just so I can improve my technical skills and broaden my style. After that, I’ll be going to either VCA, Swinburne or RMIT to study Film and TV, whichever one will take me.

Mark’s Final Thoughts

• I think Hanna displays many strong instincts in making simple and clever choices that are consistent with the main character and world of her film. It’s not mentioned in our interview but her choice to dress the main character in school uniform is another example of a fairly simple but relevant and smart choice.

• Hanna makes an insightful statement about intentionally portraying the mini-devil character as cute and harmless because in her words, ‘that is how anxiety is often perceived’. This tells me that she has a keen awareness of the way intricate conditions and issues might be misconstrued and therefore misrepresented on screen. I like how she uses this perception (or rather misperception) to create an interesting juxtaposition through pairing ‘cute and harmless’ personality traits with a traditionally menacing and powerful figure.

• Very happy to see Perfect Blue mentioned - amazing film that’s incredibly timely in today’s digital world. And it has a very short running time (80 mins) so no excuse not to watch it if you haven’t already.

  Tags Animation Bourgeon Death Live-action Mental Health

Want to Learn More? Click here for Hanna’s insights into designing the film’s animation style as well as overcoming the challenge of directing and acting in her first short film.

The founder of Hommage, Mark Shaba published this interview on 05.11.2021. Mark is a filmmaker from Victoria, Australia. He respectfully acknowledges the past and present traditional owners of the land on which he creates, promotes and screens art, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation who are the custodians.

Death of a Clark is the second film added to our new collection ‘Bourgeon’, which is aimed at promoting and showcasing talented first and second-time filmmakers. Our goal is to encourage filmmakers who display ambitious, promising and unique qualities while learning their craft. Being one of their first interactions with an online platform, we hope to set a nice example and standard of personalized film discussion and promotion.