Interview: Hannah Darrah
Hannah Darrah is the owner and lead animator at Berlin Studios, a boutique stop-motion and digital animation studio located in the Philadelphia suburbs. Her work specializes in music videos and marketing content, with notable clients including Apple TV Plus, Polydor, Hollywood Records, Silver Gun Records, and Carpark Records. Her animations are inspired by a six year career as a professional modern dancer, as well as a love for art, nature, music, storytelling, and After Effects.
You spent 6 years dancing professionally before your work in stop motion and animation, what led you to transition between these two professions?
Growing up I had a strong passion for visual art but it was often overpowered by my training and dedication to becoming a dancer. My love and fascination with music was a bridge between these two worlds. I moved from my home state of North Carolina to New York at age 18 and I lived with musicians and was constantly seeking out music in the city. I met my partner three years into my New York adventure and they gifted me with a song that they wrote about us. I bought a block of modeling clay and I created my first stop-motion music video for that song. This led to other musician friends commissioning me for videos and for a few years in my twenties I was freelancing as a dancer while experimenting with animation on the side. In the past 4 or so years I’ve leaned more into animation. It’s been empowering to experience a creative career outside of dance and to show myself what I’m capable of. While developing my animation career, I’ve also been able to create a healthier relationship with my body and dance as an art form. I don’t think my dance career is officially over and I’m exploring ways to have both dance and animation in my life.
Do you have any particular artists or production houses that have influenced you in your work in animation?
There are a few filmmakers who have had a strong influence on my work. Maya Deren is one of them. She was a choreographer, dancer, writer and experimental filmmaker. Her films show intellect, complexity, and they experiment with time and space. I discovered her work when I was first beginning to animate. Our common interest in dance, moving image, ritual, and symbolism were strong motivators for me to use animation in my own unique way, to research and explore my fascinations.
What are your favorite types of character models to create? People, or any specific type of animal?
I really enjoy creating puppets of people and being able to design and fabricate their costumes. I have so much more to learn in regards to my sewing skills and general construction of garments. I love the challenge and I learn a lot with each miniature costume that I design and create.
I’m sure not many people are familiar with the process of stop motion, what are the key steps in your creation process?
My process usually begins with a storyboard, character designs, and set designs. I build puppets that have a metal skeleton (aka armature), layered with foam, aluminum foil, and plasticine clay. I photograph the puppets either within a set or in front of a green screen. Stop-motion involves taking a picture of an object, moving the object, taking another picture, and repeating until you capture your desired movement. When the images are played quickly side by side, the inanimate object comes to life. I film the animations using a computer program called Dragonframe and then I edit the videos in After Effects.
Do you do any personal projects, or is there perhaps a dream project you would like to take on?
I’ve had a music project with my partner, Joe Michelini, that has been in evolution for the 11 years that we’ve known each other. I had started writing songs while living in New York as a way to document some of the stories that I was witnessing and experiencing. Joe, who is a very skilled songwriter and producer, has always encouraged me to express myself through my songs. They are helping me produce and record an album titled “What’s the Difference?”. It’s a dream of mine to perform some of these songs in a live show and to incorporate dance and animation into the performance.
What have been some of your favorite or most memorable animation projects that you’ve worked on?
In 2020 I had the amazing opportunity to direct and animate a music video for a Polydor artist named Finn Askew. Marco Grey, a content commissioner from his team, discovered my work on Instagram and they gave me an unbelievable amount of creative freedom in the project. Working directly with Universal Music Group was such an amazing learning experience. The video is not available for streaming in the USA. In late 2021, another incredible experience came my way when I was commissioned by Apple TV Plus and Dickinson to create an animation as part of their “Emilys of the Internet” series on Instagram. They also gave me complete creative freedom and I had so much fun dreaming up a concept and doing research for that animation.
I'm constantly amazed at the amount of time, work and detail that goes into stop motion. What is it that you love most about this type of work, and what is perhaps your least favorite part?
Sometimes what I love most about stop-motion can be my least favorite part. I absolutely love that I have found an art form that allows me to wear many hats and incorporates a vast variety of my skills and interests. I really love making detailed work and getting totally immersed in the worlds that I create. But of course the complexity and amount of work can definitely be paralyzing at times. It’s been important for me to keep refining and improving the systems in my process so that I can maintain clarity and sanity when tackling big stop-motion projects.
Outside of work, what do you enjoy?
I love gardening, cooking, seeing shows and visiting museums in Philly and New York, learning French, hanging out with Joe and being a cat mom.
What was your highlight in creating the video for “Thank Me When I’m Done” by Alexis Rodriguez?
I really enjoyed being able to develop an animation based on the Greek god Dionysus. Alexis approached me with this idea and the request that I create a custom puppet of him as Dionysus and his dog Ghost as the horse that Dionysus is often depicted riding. I was easily inspired by these requests and my ideas for the storyboard and character design developed easily. Bringing to life a concept that Alexis cared about and connects to on a personal level made the project all the more enjoyable. I think it’s one of my favorite animations that I’ve made and I’m really proud of it.
What was the most daunting aspect of the “Thank Me When I’m Done” project?
The pillars were physically smaller than Alexis’s puppet and everything was shot using green screen and then edited together in After Effects. This was daunting but I think it worked out in the end. There’s a shot four seconds into the loop where the camera rotates from a side view to a frontal view of Alexis. The camera rotation was actually an illusion because rather than rotating the camera, I rotated the objects. I filmed the pillar rotating and then filmed Alexis rotating and then edited the Alexis footage onto each frame of the pillar footage in After Effects. It was complicated but I had been wanting to achieve a shot like that for a while and I’m happy with how it turned out.
Watch the animation for “Thank Me When I’m Done”!
Hannah Darrah’s Links: