Jess Murray with

Jess Murray: Filmmaker, animator, illustrator and founder of the upcoming film series –'Moments of Clarity'

Where do we even start with Jess Murray! The last time we caught up with Jess was at an incredible art exhibition at the Youth ARC gallery in mid-2019. Back then, Jess was already making waves with a unique and original animation and digital illustration style that we absolutely LOVED! Since then, Jess featured in PLATFORM Magazine issue 11 with an amazing comic series featuring words from Tim Logan, called ‘Moments of Clarity’. Now, they’ve taken the comic series to the next level with its first ever debut on IGTV in June 2020, so be sure to check that out too! The entire series is just beautiful, addressing the existentialist woes of the human conundrum poetically, with a gentle humour that oozes awareness and empathy. Mel and Joel caught up with Jess to see what film school in Sydney is like, what their COVID world has been like and to find out more about the amazing new series!

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m currently in my third year studying film at AFTRS, The Australian Film Television and Radio School in Sydney, and I’m due to finish at the end of this year.

Can you tell us a bit about your creative journey? How did you get into film?

I watched the movie Edward Scissor Hands when I was 12 years old, and I was like ‘Ooh that was next level! (haha)’. Then I got really into movies and watched A LOT of movies! I guess from there I started saying that I wanted to be a ‘movie-maker’ whenever someone asked me, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ I didn’t think it was really going to happen! Then later in high school, I hadn’t really thought of doing anything else, so I thought I might as well give it a shot! So here I am, about to graduate from film school.

Where did your comic projects start?

Well it has been a wild ride! I went to an event that was being put on by Screen Tasmania and AFTRS when I was in grade 11 or 12, which was like a talent camp. That’s where I met some of the good friends I have now and through that I also met Tim Logan. I had a post callout for commissions at the time, which Tim responded to on Facebook saying, ‘Hey I don’t have a commission but I do have this project idea and I’ve always wanted to make comics but I can’t draw’, and I said ‘I can draw! (haha)’, so that’s where it all started. He writes them and I draw. We made a whole lot of comics over that following year and now it’s a brand new animated series called ‘Moments of Clarity’, debuting on IGTV. The series has about 30 episodes and they were all made via Blue Rocket Animations, who are based in Hobart. You can find the series on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube too.

How long does it take to create an animated episode?

Well the still images can take about three or four hours alone, so making an animated series takes a lot longer, but we had a whole team! The team includes an animation director, animators and a producer. We ended up working on it for about 3 months. I was in the studio doing production design

and then the animators continued on animating after I left for another few weeks.

How did you disconnect yourself from what obviously requires a lot of screen time over those three months of intense creativity? Were you able to step out or take a break easily during that period?

Oh yeah, it was great working at Blue Rocket! We had ‘donut Fridays’ (haha), because it was right next to a donut shop and everyone was just so lovely. We’d go out and have lunch together and enjoy little chats. Then after work I’d enjoy all the beautiful nature walks in Tasmania, because I didn’t have that in Sydney.

pandemic and lockdown restrictions?

Nature for sure! I’m really lucky to be here in Tasmania and, where I am on a farm, there’s just nature everywhere and I’m so lucky to have that.

Is there anything you’d say you’re not good at?

Oh, so many things (haha)! The first thing that springs to mind is that I play a lot of musical instruments like the guitar, or different novelty instruments like the slide whistle and the jaw harp. I’d say I’m not very good at music, but I do enjoy playing music. I don’t really publish it, but its still fun!

Can you tell us about the technology you first used to create work compared to the technology you use now?

When I first started with digital illustration after pen and paper, or pencil and paper, I started off drawing on the track pad on my mum’s really old laptop using Microsoft Paint (haha). After that my dad worked at a school library where they had the book club catalogues and they had a drawing tablet in the catalogue for which my dad got a discount. So we got a $100 Wacom Bamboo, which had no screen or anything but I used that for years. It was great! Then when I was about 15 years old I got a Cintiq, which is basically the same but with a screen and it’s what all the professionals use, and I was like, ‘Wow this is so fancy (haha)!’ I’ve been using that ever since.

Where do you see yourself heading?

Well, I’m finishing my last year at film school this year. It’s definitely the most nervous I’ve ever been, not to mention the pandemic going on!