SWIM! by Isabel Santos

New York-based animation artist Isabel Santos has created an animation short about growing up through swimming. This popular sport is also a means of socialization. Yet, in 'SWIM!', this aspect is difficult to achieve.

After winning a  Special Jury Mention for Student Film at the New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival in Japan and a Special Mention from BITBANG in Argentina (and having participated in a lot of other festivals in between), she premieres her CalArts student short online. She talks to Zippy Frames. 

ZF: Swimming is crucial to the plot, but is it also important to you? Does it touch some of your personal experiences, or was it a fine setting in which to put your story? And why did you include the exclamation mark and the capital letters in the film's title?

IS: Swimming is very important to me. The scenes of 'SWIM!' are inspired by my personal experience, so swimming is tied to my early memories. Although you’re on a team, much of your focus as a competitive swimmer is on yourself and your performance. I was in my own head for most of the day, coming to terms with myself while also having to perform well and be perceived by other young girls. You’re squished into the tightest swimsuit, you’re cold and soggy the whole day, it makes you feel very vulnerable. The setting itself is large and echoey, so there is rarely any silence, reflecting anxious self-talk bouncing around the mind like an echo chamber. The pool and locker room design is also inspired by the actual pool I practiced at growing up. As for the title, the exclamation mark and capital letters communicate urgency. It shares the sense that despite being overwhelmed, just swim! Keep moving! 

ZF: How would you describe your main character? Is a girl, like the others, more or less insecure? Friendly, determined, ready to be loved, or what?

IS: On the outside, she's quiet and reserved. On the inside, she feels everything, is constantly overwhelmed, and lets her imagination get the best of her.

ZF: Your characters' design is simple, yet you can feel the malleability of every bodily part. How did you work on character design? 

IS: Character design has always been really exciting to me! Designing for 'SWIM!' allowed me to talk about my body and perceive myself, so I drew the body as it felt to occupy it. As human beings, we are often disconnected from the fact that our bodies are soft and delicate -that creates a lot of existential tension for us. We distract ourselves from remembering how soft we are endearing. I wanted to bring this to the character design, to take a serious truth and find a cute and funny way to acknowledge it. On the other hand, aesthetically, I’m excited by the challenge of designing simple and graphic images that feel one of a kind. Ultimately, I’m redrawing every line many times over, so I’m always working towards communicating as much as possible with very little. 

ZF: Did you animate on paper, computer, or both?

IS: I animated entirely on paper with a pencil, scanned each frame into the computer, edited and added color in TV paint, and composited everything together in After Effects. 

ZF: I liked the brief excursion into color with a specific scene. Why did you include that?

IS: The scene itself was a haunting vision I had conjured in my 12-year-old brain. The anxiety I felt related to my body often felt so large and overwhelming that these mental images seemed real. It felt as if everyone knew what was going on. Menstruation felt so shameful that it was often a major burden just to hide it from others, especially as a swimmer. Even behind a bathroom stall door, it felt like everyone knew what I was dealing with in there or that I was bleeding. The color helped me visualize an anxious imagination literally bleeding into reality. 

ZF: The film's sound design looks like it will burst into something big (like a splash), but then it holds back and lets us enjoy what's happening. Did you want to use the sounds of a swimming class or something different than that as well?

IS: That tension of anticipation was really important for me when designing the sound. The film is mostly about anxiety, so I really wanted to exercise restraint and keep most of the sound very real. Often in life, things don't lead to a grand explosion; things just build on top of each other, and the challenge is to keep it together and go with the flow. Moments of release are not always expected, and release is often just as slow of a burn as building up. Reflecting on this was important. I also love pairing minimal drawings with very real sound design. There's a sense of humor there I like, but I also appreciate how sound design can give gravitas to pretty much any image. The contrast between the two is also unsettling, an important feeling I wanted to convey in the film.

ZF: Anything that troubled you in the film production? This is a student film that had to be completed in accordance with some budget or deadline restrictions.

IS: Time was absolutely the biggest hurdle. Although paper is economical, it’s a much slower process than animating into software. Being under a time constraint, I definitely sweated a lot. But sometimes, the crunch forces you to make creative decisions that are really exciting! I explored a lot of animation shortcuts here, trying to reuse frames, working with loops, and exploring timing.

ZF: Empowerment has currently (and justifiably) become a common word in our cultural vocabulary. Is your film an empowerment story?

IS: I think being honest about our experiences is empowering, so in that way, this is an empowerment story. My goal in my work, above all else, is to be honest, even if the truth is weird or uncertain. I think when we can lower our emotional walls for others, we unlock new layers of intimacy and creativity that can allow us to keep pushing art forward as a community. 

ZF: 'SWIM!' has been very successful at festivals. What's next for you?

IS: It's been really lovely sharing ‘SWIM!’ with new audiences. But I’m looking forward to sharing a new film very soon! It's about oceans and celebrating life while death looms.

Watch 'SWIM!':

'SWIM!' review (Vassilis Kroustallis):
The ugly duckling of swimming now becomes a young girl under Santos' careful and intimate observation of a young body in motion -and needing acceptance. Angst created by the imperfect design lines, a soundtrack that makes social interaction both needed and urgent, and the human desire to connect is all evident in the animation short. A first-person animation short that creates empathy and understanding.

About Isabel Santos:
Isabel Santos is an animation artist, director, and educator from Queens, New York. She is best known for her short films, which have screened at festivals worldwide. Her films focus on the perspective of an individual in relationships with others, experiencing a surreal internal life seeping into their mundane reality. Isabel holds an MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute for the Arts and a BFA in Film/Animation/Video from the Rhode Island School of Design.

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