Emily Elizabeth Pleass

Emily Elizabeth Pleass is an animator and illustrator from the Midlands, UK.

She graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Illustration from Norwich University Arts in 2018. During her time at NUA, she co-founded a production company called The Horrors of! Picturehouse which produced and screened student films for the final degree show. Emily made two films whilst undertaking her BA; 306, made in collaboration with The National Memorial Arboretum and The Horrors of Invasion with The Imperial War Museum.

During her first year at the Royal College of Art, she investigated the concept of silence in art practice, film and society in her dissertation: "Silence Is Noise: How is meaning derived through speech, and where is meaning found in its absence?", for which she was awarded a distinction.

My animation practice is informed by a blend of history and myth with particular emphasis on horror and the uncanny. Interested in folklore, politics, gothic literature and magic realism, I enjoy creating worlds that blur the boundaries between fact and fiction.

I am heavily inspired by the figurative language of silent cinema and I use simple character design, detailed charcoal backgrounds and minimal dialogue to create a universal experience for an audience. The lack of dialogue in my films is a way for me to marry together sound and image in a way that allows the audience to immerse themselves into the world I have created and to interpret the image and figurative language in a way that is unique to the individual.

Although I am on the documentary pathway, I am less interested in presenting facts and more interested in the interpretation of what ‘truth’ is or what it could be. I enjoy extensive research for my projects in order to achieve historical accuracy and create a tangible world filled with atmosphere.

Wych - graduation film

Wych is a 2D digitally animated horror film about a woman in the woods.

The film is inspired by a true story: in April 1943, Hagley, England, four young boys were exploring the woods when they looked inside a hollowed wych elm tree and discovered a skull. At first believing it to be that of an animal, the boys removed the skull and quickly realised that it belonged to a human being. The almost complete skeleton of a young woman was removed from the tree by police.

The woman’s name and identity were never discovered and graffiti appeared around Hagley in the years that followed the discovery asking the question: “Who put Bella down the Wych Elm?”.

My film doesn’t seek to answer this question but instead uses old English folklore and fairytales as well as elements of gothic horror to explore how a woman came to be inside of a wych elm tree.

Directed and animated by Emily Pleass

Sound Design and Composing: Nyksan

Sound Mix: Joe Hirst

Additional support: Anoushka Agrawal and Natalia Bednarova

Royal College of Art, 2022

Medium:

2D digital hand drawn animation

Size:

3:42

Guinea Pigs is an experimental animated documentary about the Puerto Rican Pill Trials.

Medium:

2D digital hand drawn

Size:

2:32

Emily Elizabeth Pleass

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Royal College of Art