BBC - Drugsland Short films
Creative Director, Animator & Motion Designer
Client:
BBC / The Open University
The Challenge:
Create a narrative extension for the documentary series “Drugsland” tailored for a younger audience using a direct and authentic visual language.
Creative Solution:
I developed an art direction rooted in Glitch Art and rotoscopic animation. By integrating digital distortions directly onto the footage, I created a jarring contrast that amplified the dramatic weight of the storytelling.
Creative Direction Focus:
For the “Rehab Interview” episode, I used the audio track as the narrative foundation, reconstructing the context through linear animation to capture the raw emotion of a deeply personal journey of rebirth.
The objective of this project was not merely to illustrate a testimony, but to visually translate the psychological and physical weight of withdrawal.
I chose to adopt a minimal yet uncompromising visual language, aiming to capture the rawness of the experience and the arduous transition between darkness and light—a reflection of the rehabilitation journey.
Styleframes animati del linework
Glitch texture and typography study
Technical Insight:
Analog glitch aesthetics: I employed various glitch art techniques to convey the instability and hardships of the subject’s experience, echoing and intensifying the emotions described in the narrative.
Illustrative minimalism: Choosing to work with simple line-work and stylized silhouettes allowed me to focus the attention on the emotional depth of the story. At the same time, during the narrative’s most intense moments, I aimed to make the silhouette feel remarkably alive and expressive despite its minimalism. The end of the story culminates in the moment his mouth finally appears in a brief but radiant smile of hope.
“The short understands how to construct safety and danger with negative space and only a few colors. Mostly, it is bleak and neutral. But when it wants you to feel something, you don’t stand a chance.”
“Experimental animator Martino Prendini delivered a buzzing, erratic explosion of line-art and flashing color.”
Glitch art for one of the short films
Rotoscoping and glitch art for one of the short films