My animation was to be a sequence of scenes from John George Haigh’s childhood… I soon realized it would be unnecessary because the end scene represented it all- what was going on in his mind. I focused on his dreams- nightmares. He confessed he had these nightmares repeatedly to the investigators. He said he would have nightmares of trees turning into crucifixes. I was inspired by this so I created a morph of trees and crucifixes dripping with blood. I used traditional hand drawn methods and filmed them using stop motion. I looked at the stills of Billy’s dreams so I over laid my sequence over a video of my brother ‘sleeping’.

The stop motion lasted 1.32 secs song so to make it last I looped it throughout the 1.12 min animation.

I was also inspired by La jetee, so the shots of my brother and the overall aesthetic links to it.

I used mainly black and white filters to add a morbid and insidious vibe. I started the dream with just my brother and then slowly faded in the dream… as the dream intensified i brought up the contrast, added a red filter and zoomed in on him. This also links to his life overall as it intensified later on as he committed more and more crimes.

I used Russian opera music over the top which gives the animation an uncomfortable feeling, it also links to la jetee.

I like how seamlessly the animation runs and how chilling it is.

When other view my animation they are spooked by it and feel anxious. They say the animation conveys the idea of a ‘troubled childhood’ and embodies the death and destruction caused later in John’s life.