New Release: 'The Librarian'
This post discusses the behind the scenes and construction of the short film, 'The Librarian'. So if you haven't already seen it, you can watch the short film here:
Back in 2024, I had a very simple idea... What if someone was so shy that they struggled to speak to their crush? How might they communicate?
I had the idea that perhaps they could communicate through book titles, and from that, The Librarian was born.
Since that initial idea, the film grew far beyond what I would consider “reasonable” for a micro-budget film with a crew of one. But around a year later, in August 2025, I found myself filming the brilliantly talented Izzy Sniezek and Nora Marzk in the middle of a public library.
Then came the mammoth task I had set myself: creating the animation.
This ended up taking over a year, all while balancing a full-time teaching job and several other short film projects. So, it’s been a long, long, long road for this seven-and-a-half-minute short. Hopefully, it’s been worth it!
Animation
One of the first things I realised was that the animation designs had to be decided before filming, because they were going to appear in the sketchbook that Lorna carries throughout the film.
The basic principle behind The Librarian is that Lorna (played by Sniezek) is too shy to approach the beautiful librarian (played by Marzk). Thanks to her wild imagination and her love of literature, however, she can fantasise about who the librarian might be and what their life together could look like.
Lorna carries her sketchbook everywhere, so naturally, her imagination takes place in animated, sketchbook-style settings.
And here is where I ran into my first problem...
I cannot draw!
Luckily, for most things — like the cat Virginia — I could use references. In Virginia’s case, I used a short video of my own cat, Molly. But in order to actually create the animation, I had to draw around every single frame of the video.
This timelapse shows the process I had to go through for each animation shot: deciding on the style and level of detail, and then drawing around each individual frame.
That entire process took around three hours for this single three-second shot.
Clearly, an artist or animator would be able to do this much quicker and to a much higher standard. But every film I make is a new challenge for myself, and overall, I’m really pleased with how it turned out!
Combining Live Action & Animation
The next challenge was combining the live action with animated elements, particularly when the actors would be holding an animated object.
The process here was to get the actors to use real objects while filming as a reference, and then draw around each frame of the video afterwards.
Here’s an example of Nora Marzk pretending to paint, and how I animated the paintbrush afterwards!
This particular shot was made up of several different layers:
The background, including the scenery through the window
The bird hitting the window
The window frame
The easel
The paintbrush
The typewriter
The table
Each of those layers had to be animated separately and then composited together with the live-action footage of Nora.
The combination of appearing and disappearing animated props, along with the handheld animated prop, made this the most complicated shot in the film!
Daphne the Dragon
And finally, my favourite shot — and the very first thing I completed for the film — the dragon affectionately named Daphne!
This was the longest and most complicated shot in terms of pure animation, without any live action involved. And obviously, it’s almost impossible to find useful references of dragons in real life!
So this one involved a lot more imagination, experimentation and figuring things out as I went.
Editing & Sound
The final stages of the film were editing and sound.
Because the film was made in a public space, during opening hours, it meant that equipment had to be kept to a minimum — pretty much just a camera and tripod!
This meant there was a lot of work to do in post-production to polish and fine-tune the footage, particularly some of the shots that had been filmed in low light.
After that came the sound.
Sound was another long process because, once again, it all came down to one person: Stuart Mark Brown.
Stuart created sound effects, composed some of the music, and even gave Daphne a voice. He ultimately brought the film to life and made it feel so much more professional than I ever could have managed on my own!
The End Result
Overall, The Librarian has been a very long journey.
It’s certainly not perfect, but I think it’s a sweet story, told with heart, with incredibly talented performers, and a testament to what can be achieved with a lot of time, patience and dedication.
It may also be the beginning of a new chapter in animation for Rocket Badger Productions...
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