Camren Missimer on exploring character animation in A Glimmer in the Maw

A Glimmer in the Maw is still streaming in competition at festivals worldwide, but clips from the short film can be found in Camren’s animation reel.

Last time we spoke, we were talking about your first student film, Midnight Chrysalis. It’s one of those projects I still think about. I loved the mood you created. 

Camren: It’s really cool to hear that kind of response to my work because that's not really something that I anticipated would happen. So that really means a lot.

Was A Glimmer in the Maw another solo project, or was a team involved?

Camren: It was definitely the most collaborative film that I've done. I tried to reach out to more people for help and involve a larger team, particularly for coloring the animation, because I was interested in stepping into more of a director type role. 

I still ended up doing almost all of the animation and all of the backgrounds myself because I wanted to have that control. I was just interested in doing it for myself as part of the learning process. But I did end up working with another student on the story. 

There’s definitely a visual throughline between Midnight Chrysalis and A Glimmer in the Maw. How did your time in school develop your interests as an artist?

Camren: Storytelling for me tends to work the best when I approach an emotional story, as if it's like a scared wild animal and I'm trying to not scare it away. 

So for the first film, the way I tackled that was through logistical constraints. I said, “Okay, this is the setting, because these are the types of backgrounds I know I can draw. And this is my time limit. So what's a story that can fit in that time limit?” 

My second film was actually pretty different. I wanted to try going in a completely different direction to see what I could do, and I ended up struggling a lot and not liking the process. It was set in a void space. There was no concrete location. And it was this one character. I was trying to convey the idea of drawing and getting better at drawing and enjoying the process of learning, because that was something I felt very passionate about at the time.

But telling a non-literal story about feelings is really difficult. I don't have as much experience with telling more abstract stories, and so in the end, I don't think it was able to fully convey what I wanted.

So I tried to do the same [process as Midnight Chrysalis] again for capstone: not starting out with an emotional core, but starting out with time limit and setting. And what technical challenges I want to give myself.

How was the process on A Glimmer in the Maw different from your previous films?

Camren: I wanted to try an action sequence because I had never really boarded something like that before, and to try multiple characters. I also wanted to tackle dialogue, because adding dialogue to a film creates so many other steps that get added. 

You're not just having to animate lip sync. You're having to make a voice actor casting call and review applications, and think about what type of acting and voice really fits those characters. And then scheduling the meetings to record things and finding a sound designer who knows how to record dialogue remotely, which is a whole thing.

One of my priorities for this film was turning it into an artistic learning experience. On the previous two films, I was so focused on just getting it done as a project that I ended up learning more about project management than actually improving myself as an artist. And that was reflected in the story process as well, because for Midnight Chrysalis I boarded out the whole film in like thirty minutes at a cafe at my school, and then the board did not change that much from there.

For my capstone, the Storyboard Pro version file count went up to 35. There was a lot more roughing out scenes and then reboarding them entirely, or scrapping certain moments. Or changing up the dialogue last minute. Capstone was the first time that I considered that I might actually enjoy being a storyboard artist. 

It makes sense that the revision process was longer on this one. You convey a lot in four minutes of screentime and dialogue.

Camren: One of the things that I kept grappling with with the story was at what point does Meryl, the main character, become irredeemable? How diabolical do I make this main character?

Some of the other feedback I got was on maintaining the level of intensity in the scenes. At the point when they get stuck in that little hole, they started arguing, there was a complete de-escalation of tension. They just talked to each other in that hole directly. But then it just lost all of the momentum. 

So after getting feedback that it didn't feel tense enough, or like it was a weird jump, I decided to make the cat's paw come in, and then they start arguing with each other. And I feel like that ended up being more of a natural reveal of the plot twist.

It was a lot more fun. And I can definitely say that I'm more interested in storytelling now.

You graduated in the spring. What do you hope to do next? What kind of work do you want to get into? 

Camren: I'm hoping to go more into 2D character animation. I'm currently an animator for a small indie animation project that I've been having a lot of fun with. I am also interested in storyboarding. I still don't think I have quite enough work to show yet, but it's definitely something that I would be interested in. Just drawing and conveying movement through drawings has always been the coolest thing ever to me. 

But as far as post-graduation plans and job hunting goes, I've been applying to a lot more small studios and indie studios. I think there's more 2D animation opportunities there than the larger studios, which are mostly doing 3D feature films or outsourcing. And I’m just trying to put my work out there as much as I can. I'm going to be sharing my capstone online soon. I'm trying to use it to promote my work rather than keep it locked down for film festivals. I feel like at this point, publicity is important. 

I feel like social media plays such a big role, in just having more people see your work. Film festivals have a smaller audience. It was really cool to do the film festival run for my first two films. But also I just want my work to be public, and then to continue making new stuff and sharing that as well. 

This one artist that graduated in the same year as me that I really look up to shared this really cool animation that looked really stunning. The caption was something like, “And now I begin to share animation online in the hopes of aura farming my way into a big studio.” And that's really what it feels like.

I was going to ask you about the job hunting process. What would be your field report so far?

Camren: I mean, it's definitely scary going into this industry as a new graduate. In school we would sometimes have events where alumni would come and give talks about how their careers are going, and share advice and stuff like that. And basically, all of them would just say, “Yeah, this industry is really hard right now, like, it's in a really bad spot. We're sorry.” 

All of the current students were just like, “Man. What are we supposed to do with this information?” So it’s definitely intimidating because of that. 

At the same time, I see artists that I really look up to, that do really great work. And then they do end up getting jobs. They end up working on these really cool projects. And so I feel like I just have to look up to them and go, “Well, okay, if they can do it, then I will, too. At some point.”

It's a process of continually looking on job boards and LinkedIn and stuff like that. And then looking at my portfolio, looking at artists that I look up to that have had success. And then going, “Okay, where is the gap between me and them? What do I have to do to bridge that?” So that's the mentality that I have.

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• Interested in seeing more from Camren Missimer? Check out their portfolio site and follow them on Instagram. Camren’s first two films, Midnight Chrysalis and Pencil to Paper, are available on YouTube.
• Working towards your own thesis film? Students may be eligible for up to 84% off licenses for Harmony and Storyboard Pro.