From Melbourne to Aardman: The Stop-Motion Journey of Lucy Davidson

 Lucy Davidson helping to construct the fish and chip shop set on Memoir of a Snail

Melbourne stop-motion animator, Lucy Davidson, discusses her journey from art school to a director’s placement on Adam Elliot’s award-winning feature film Memoir of a Snail. With a letter of support from Elliot himself and a grant from The Ian Potter Cultural Trust, Lucy then took up a coveted opportunity at Aardman Animations – the world’s leading animation studio responsible for Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run – where she created her own short stop-animation film, Baggage.

Starting out

Lucy graduated from RMIT’s Bachelor of Fine Arts with a sense of inertia. “The biggest feedback I got from art school was, ‘you're a bit too silly’. So, I came out and was like, ‘What do I do now?’” Ultimately, this unknowing led to a gap-year working at Florida’s Disney World. “I just wanted to muck around,” Lucy explains. 

It’s possible, she now considers, that the world of animation started seeping into her subconsciousness during her shifts at Disney World. “I'd always really enjoyed Monty Python and Terry Gilliam, so when I got home, I thought ‘maybe I'll do an animation course’. It was honestly a bit of a whim, but once I started [a Bachelor of Animation at the Victorian College of Arts (VCA)] I became obsessed. VCA was the best place to be. The people I made friends with there are still the people I collaborate with today.” 

Persistence pays off with a great opportunity

In her first year at VCA, Lucy remembers the Academy Award-winning creator of Harvie Krumpet, Adam Elliot, giving a talk about his second feature film in development, Memoir of a Snail. “That was in 2018, so it was always on my radar. Then, in 2021, I saw that he’d received production funding, so at that point I reached out to [Producer] Liz Kearney and said ‘Liz, please, please, please’. I stalked everyone who could have possibly been linked to the production.”

Eventually, Adam and Liz set up a meeting with Lucy. “I think they could see how stop-motion crazy I was, but it was almost a year later when they called and said, ‘Would you like to do an attachment?’ I said, ‘one hundred per cent, yes’.”

 Lucy Davidson during pre-production on Memoir of a Snail making the set for Luna Park

Role on set 

Joining the crew of Memoir of a Snail felt surreal, Lucy remembers. “It was so exciting not just to be on Adam's film, but to meet the entire Melbourne stop-motion community.” Starting off in the art department during pre-production was a great introduction to Adam’s methodologies. “We were still building all the props in the set, because filming hadn’t started yet. Adam would come around and have a list of his artwork and say, ‘okay, today you're making this prop.’ We’d discuss it with the art director and decide on materials. I'm a confident painter and sculptor, so I felt like I could jump straight in.” 

Lucy’s Key Talent Director Placement was meant to last six weeks, but Producer Liz Kearney and Writer/Director Adam Elliot were not prepared to let Lucy go. Instead, they offered her a role as a set dresser, which she gladly accepted. A set dresser is, as it sounds, Lucy explains. Someone who is responsible for dressing the set or scene where the action takes place. “You end up working with all departments in this role; you collaborate with the animators and pretty much get the scene ready to shoot. I ended up really loving set dressing; it's a bit of a puzzle making the set look good.” 

With Lucy’s animation skills she got the chance to jump in and animate several shots in the film as well, which felt like a major coup. 

 Lucy Davidson on the set of Memoir of a Snail

A world-class premiere

In June 2024, most of the creative team and crew behind Memoir of a Snail travelled to Annecy in France for the film’s world premiere at Annecy International Animation Film Festival. “That was our first screening, so the hype was so real. We finally got to see this thing we'd been working on for all this time, so it was very, very special.”

Memoir of a Snail took home the top prize at Annecy, the Cristal Award for Best Feature Film, giving the team even more to celebrate in the French Alps. 

“As a first feature film project to work on, I couldn't have asked for a better one.”

VCA animation graduate and Memoir of a Snail crew members Mikayla Hotton, Lucy Davidson and Nelson Dean

Aardman and the creation of Baggage

Off the back of her very successful first professional placement, Lucy applied for a place at Aardman’s coveted animation academy. With a glowing recommendation letter from Elliot, and a grant from The Ian Potter Cultural Trust, Lucy was accepted and travelled to the UK to undertake the 12-week intensive program. There she created her short film Baggage, a film about female friendship and the emotional weight true friends will help you haul through life. “Real friends will take on your baggage,” Lucy explains. “They'll hold your baggage; that’s the kind of love my story explores.” Baggage has already been selected for the London International Animation Festival and Lucy is keen to submit her work to a host of other festivals for consideration, including Annecy 2025. 

Lucy Davidson at Aardman Academy with the characters of her short film Baggage.

Inspirations and aspirations

There’s a lot on Lucy Davidson’s to-do list moving forward. As a proud born and bred Melburnian, just like Adam Elliot, Lucy wants to stay in her hometown and make great stop-motion animation projects right here in Melbourne. She would also like to work with more women in this still male-dominated genre of filmmaking. “I want to see more women directors and writers in those key creative decision roles.”

Ultimately, Lucy would like to become one of those women carving out new ground in Australia’s stop-animation community, providing opportunities for up and comers like the one she recently received on Memoir of a Snail. She’d also like to see more stop-animation productions available for kids in Australia. “That’s where it all starts. Seeing stop motion as a kid was really important to me,” Lucy emphasises.

Shows like Pingu and Postman Pat and so many others that you kind of forget were stop-motion. So, I would love to get more stop-motion into kids’ TV in Australia.” 

Memoir of a Snail hits cinema screens from 17 October.