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Est. Reading Time: 8 Minutes

MARK (M) Tell us a little about yourself - when did you become interested in film and filmmaking? And what made you particularly interested in animation?

NETA (N) I always loved painting and drawing and was fascinated by visual storytelling like comics and animated films, mostly Disney classics. I used to watch them on repeat over and over and over. I also watched a lot of TV as a child and many of the shows were animated.

I feel like animation is the closest thing there is to music, which is the highest form of creation in my eyes. Much like music, animation is not tangible yet it exists, in its own universe with its own laws of space and time, and it has this magical ability to bypass logic and spur emotion right away. You don’t have to think about it or understand it in order to be moved by it.

Unfortunately, as I am definitely not musically talented (years of unsuccessful piano, cello and guitar lessons made this completely clear) I decided to study visual communication and start making animation instead.

M Your film portrays a world of patterns, shapes and textures which is really interesting and revealing. Please tell us about your interest in focusing on these irregular patterns and shapes - what do they mean to you in the context of the film?

N I feel like this film is much more a work of observation than imagination - it is a visualization of many sleepless nights where I used to wander the dark rooms of my house, just looking around and listening. As the eyes grow accustomed to the darkness, it feels like everything is made out of this swarming texture. This, combined with the severe tiredness and sleep deprivation I felt, created a very particular and peculiar sensation, where my surroundings - the furniture, lights, drapes and even the air itself - were moving, breathing, buzzing, growing and contracting around me.

This was pretty similar to the sensation of a psychedelic trip, where you are much more attuned to the slightest of movements and sounds and can actually see and hear the bits and pieces that make up whatever it is you are looking at or listening to.

I basically focused on those shapes and textures because that is what I saw night after night after night.

On The Ending

M I just want to touch on the ending of your film as I really love how connected and disconnected it is from the opening - I think it’s so effective in communicating the main character’s transformation so to speak. Can you tell us about how you came up with the idea for the ending sequence - were you always planning to end the film that way or did the idea come to you as you were making the film?  

N The initial screenings of Six to Six were held in a very dark, closed space at my masters program final exhibition. One of the things I strongly insisted upon was that the film screened as one contentious and seamless loop. It might sound like a basic requirement, but it took some adjustments and tweaks to get it right, mainly of the sound but also of the screening itself. The reason I was so determined about this, was that I wanted to convey the feeling of being completely trapped - like when you are having a dream within a dream and at first you don’t even realize you’re in the same place and that time in this place has no meaning. The notion that you are stuck in a never ending loop is initially implied when the shutters open and you are yet again blinded by the bright white light that shines at the beginning of the film. At first, you feel relieved, as if you have just woken up from a nightmare, but not long after the shutters are pulled back down and you are forced to reckon that you are indeed stuck in this place.

I wanted to give the audience a glimpse of freedom, a conceptual and literal breath of fresh air as the shutters pull up, and so I had to gradually intensify the sequence prior to that, until it became almost too much to handle - mainly due to its very loud sound - in order to create this ‘it’s always darkest before dawn’ sort of feeling.

Also, as I mentioned already, the film simulates an insomniac trip of some sort, and every trip has its peak. So the pace and the intensity of what’s going on rapidly grows until it peaks and then gradually slows down again.

On Interpretation

M I really love your film because it creates such a unique space for interpretation and meaning - how does it make you feel to see it relate so strongly to the lockdown and quarantine experiences that so many people have endured over the past year? Does it reveal anything more or different to you than you realised while making the film?    

N I think it’s an interesting coincidence how the release of this specific film into the festival circuit sort of synchronized with the beginning of the pandemic. Until then, it resonated mostly with parents, mothers in particular, and also with people who had trouble sleeping. When quarantines started to happen around the world I began receiving feedback from people who felt the film somehow reflects the new state they were in, where they felt imprisoned in their own homes. So the film’s impact broadened significantly, but it was due to very unfortunate circumstances. I don’t think I necessarily learnt anything new about the film itself because of this, but I was pretty amazed to see how significant the power of context is and that was an important lesson for me.

‘I feel like this film is much more a work of observation than imagination - it is a visualization of many sleepless nights where I used to wander the dark rooms of my house’

— Neta Cohen

On Process & Discovery

M In making and finishing the film, what did you discover and learn that you might adopt or further explore in future projects?

N Six to Six is my second animated short, after Tap to Retry which I made in 2012. It took me a long time to start working on another film and I began the process feeling insecure and unsure I was even able to get it done. I was very preoccupied with whether I had a distinct style or main theme to my work as I now had room for comparison. One of the most important things I realized while working on Six to Six, and will definitely implement in my future projects, is you should think (or I should say overthink) less and make more. This helped me so much in reducing my anxiety and regaining the love I had for visual storytelling. Instead of planning everything out I improvised. I ‘wasted time’ on things that definitely did not make the cut and kept testing and trying out stuff even when I didn’t know what exactly for. I consider this a technique I had to master as a creative maker, just like mastering animation or composition.

On Inspiration

M What are some of the films and who are some of the filmmakers that inspire you, and why?

N I am a huge David Lynch fan - I love his mix of ‘scary-funny-weird’ and he is one of the real masters of original scores and sound design - a true magician. His work is filled with all sorts of dreamlike imagery and strange characters, but it's that dark ‘Lynchian ambient’ that is just so powerful, unique and effective.

N I also really love Hayao Miyazaki - I started watching Studio Ghibli’s films as a child and have always been amazed and mesmerized by how unbelievably imaginative they are. They possess this deep, thick and often dark atmosphere that is very specific yet very relatable at the same time.

And like I mentioned in the beginning, I am a big Disney fan (fanatic perhaps), like most animators are.

On The Future

M What are you planning to make next?

N I gave birth to my son a few months ago, so he is definitely my main project at the moment :) Being a mother of two young children doesn’t leave much time for making animated films, but I do try to imagine my next project - what will it be and how will I make it, and I write things down on my phone when I have a chance.

I also really want to create something in print - a book or zine or comic book, but at the moment I am mostly focusing on being a mom :)

Mark’s Final Thoughts

• The level of detail in her answers shows how astute she is as an artist, she’s a deep thinker and observer which is very evident in her film.

• When you watch the ending after reading what she says about it, you can really see how purposeful and well thought-out every moment is. And I think it does go hand-in-hand with her mentioning the importance of improvising and testing - usually, you reach that level of clarity and precision after a lot of experimenting.

• And of course I smiled when Neta mentioned David Lynch - I love his films! I can’t wait to follow Neta’s journey and see whatever she makes next!

  Tags Animation  Experimental Mental Health

The founder of Hommage, Mark Shaba published this interview on 24.09.2021. Mark is a filmmaker from Victoria, Australia. He respectfully acknowledges the past and present traditional owners of the land on which he creates, promotes and screens art, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation who are the custodians.