Eilidh Nicoll discusses the practical and creative purpose behind the stark black, white, pink and green colour scheme of her short about ageing insecurity.

The discovery of a grey hair causes a young woman to spiral in Eilidh Nicoll’s animated short Silvering. DN first caught Nicoll’s film at NFFTY last year where it left an indelible impression on us through its stark use of blacks, whites, pinks and greens in addition to its portrayal of the universal insecurity of ageing. The story takes place in the young woman’s bathroom which becomes as visually malleable as her spiralling mindset, shape-shifting and contorting in response to her anxious projections. It’s a wonderful film and DN was delighted to catch up with Nicoll as Silvering arrives online to chat over the challenge of making the film across an eight month period of isolation, the creative benefits she found in embracing the limitations put upon her, and the immediate impact music had in making the film come to life.

I read the Silvering was made as a part of your degree, is that correct? What was the genesis for it as a project?

Silvering was made in the final year of my animation degree at Edinburgh College of Art, over the course of about eight months. The concept began with my interest in materialist animation, and the intersection of the analogue and digital. I wanted to introduce a tangible quality to my otherwise quite flat drawings, and I’d recently gotten into making recycled paper, which I loved for its messiness and unpredictability. I knew I wanted to use it in animation somehow, but it wasn’t until a friend suggested it had a skin-like texture that the ball started rolling.

That, alongside the isolation and inescapable introspection of existing in 2020, became the backdrop of the film, quite literally, from which the narrative grew. It was a way to visualise the character’s experience of insecurity and discomfort in her skin. The paper is always boiling in the background, like a constant undercurrent of anxiety, which given the chance, can eclipse everything else and leave you feeling trapped.[…]

More: Silvering by Eilidh Nicoll // Animation // Directors Notes