# animate! › Films › Camouflage by Jonathan Hodgson › all › synopses › direction & collaboration › full production credits › film stills › tools & processes › format & distribution › background material Canonical: https://animate.org.uk/films/camouflage/all Discovery terms: 2000s animation, hand-drawn animation, rotoscoping, live action and animation, digital compositing, mental health, schizophrenia, childhood memory, family, animated documentary, filmmaker, animation director The following is the archived page text; discovery terms above are separately sourced metadata. Archive status: restored in 2026; historical calls, deadlines and services are closed. --- **Camouflage** a film by Jonathan Hodgson 2001, 7 min 56 sec [Film / embedded media](https://player.vimeo.com/video/33067778) ![Camouflage, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/camouflage04.jpg) BLUEAN~1 ### animate! synopsis Voiced visions of the voices in the head as multiform memories of parental paranoia get the heightened reality they require. Case-studies committed to celluloid. Sketches of schizophrenia that draw on reality and the time in the big house, behind the trees, too far from the road. ### long synopsis **Camouflage** by Jonathan Hodgson explores the experience of the child growing up with a schizophrenic parent. Based on extensive research it compares a personal account with the experience of others, using interviews, drawings and animation, live action and digital composition. The live action, shot on 16mm, is based on the director’s own memories growing up with a schizophrenic parent. The animation is based on interviews with other people who had one or more schizophrenics in the family. The interviewees were asked to describe what they remember of their thoughts and feelings at the time and how their perception of reality may have been distorted by what was going on. ### key credits **director** Jonathan Hodgson **director of photography** Mike Beresford-Jones **live-action producer** Clare Spencer **animator** Tim Webb Siri Melchior **editor** Tania Trohoulia **producer** Jonathon Bairstow ### Jonathan Hodgson #### biography Jonathan Hodgson was born in Oxford, U.K. in 1960 and educated at Liverpool Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art. Jonathan has been a Freelance Animation Director since 1985, setting up ‘Sherbet’ with Producer Jonathan Bairstow in 1996 to produce commercials, TV graphics & short films. ### animate! films by this artist [Camouflage](https://animate.org.uk/films/camouflage/) [Feeling My Way](https://animate.org.uk/films/feelingmyway/) #### artist’s website [Hodgson Films](http://www.hodgsonfilms.com) Jonathan Hodgson’s website ### a film by Jonathan Hodgson ### direction **director** Jonathan Hodgson ### cast in picture **elder girl** Lydia Pala **younger girl** Alice Keane **younger boy** Tom Wallis **mother** Naomi Seekings **father** David Benson **male guest** Johnny Hannah **female guest** Kirsten Peebles **nurse** Clare Spencer ### live-action personnel **director of photography** Mike Beresford-Jones **gaffer** Matt Butler **live-action producer** Clare Spencer ### image personnel **animator** Tim Webb Siri Melchior **animation assistance** Shelley Revill Emily Mantell **compositor** Donovan Hide Donovan Hide **editor** Tania Trohoulia ### production personnel **technical support** Luke Carpenter **producer** Jonathon Bairstow ### support **primary funding** Arts Council of England and Channel Four © Jonathan Hodgson 2001 [![Camouflage, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/camouflage01.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/camouflage01.jpg) TITLEC~1 - *click on image for full size still* [![Camouflage, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/camouflage02.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/camouflage02.jpg) *click on image for full size still* [![Camouflage, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/camouflage03.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/camouflage03.jpg) MANAND~1 - *click on image for full size still* [![Camouflage, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/camouflage04.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/camouflage04.jpg) BLUEAN~1 - *click on image for full size still* [![Camouflage, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/camouflage05.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/camouflage05.jpg) MANATS~1 - *click on image for full size still* [![Camouflage, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/camouflage06.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/camouflage06.jpg) IMAGE1~1 - *click on image for full size still* [![Camouflage, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/camouflage07.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/camouflage07.jpg) MOTHER~2 - *click on image for full size still* ### technical #### process summary Drawings on paper were treated in different ways: some were artworked onto Chinese calligraphy paper using paint, biro, chinagraph, tippex and ink. Some were hand coloured digitally using the programme Painter. Some sequences were shot using a DV camera with insufficient light. These images were then digitized in low resolution and the filters of the line testing software CTP, normally used to clean up the image, were pushed in the opposite direction creating artifacts. The sequences were then composited and coloured in After Effects. Some sequences were animated with marker pen then scanned into the computer. Again the resolution was low and filters were pushed in the wrong direction to mess the image up. The live action ‘flashbacks’ were telecined, then digitized and then graded to give a slightly old-fashioned look. Where there is a crossover from live action to animation the live action was rotoscoped to become literally a hand drawn tracing which would be scanned and coloured using Painter and After Effects. The two versions of the same movement would be blended together to make a seamless transition also using After Effects. ### master copy format **colour or black & white** colour ### video distribution format **video format** DigiBeta **screen aspect ratio** 16:9 **video standard** PAL **sound type** stereo ### distributor LUX [info@lux.org.uk](mailto:info@lux.org.uk) +44 (0)20 7503 3980 [www.lux.org.uk](http://www.lux.org.uk/) **Camouflage** film, stills and other materials © Jonathan Hodgson 2001