A KESTON man has been created an animated film which is wowing critics and audiences.

Peter Butler’s movie Baggage has reached the finals of the Tight Shorts Film Festival so will be shown at a Soho cinema as well as appearing at the St Albans Film Festival.

Mr Butler, 37, of Leafy Grove, Keston, spoke to News Shopper about the painstaking experience of creating the animation.

“It nearly killed me – it was around 16 hours every day for 6 months on the computer. I was hallucinating a bit by the end although luckily some friends helped with a few bits.

“You have to act it out to see how to make the body movements natural so there was lots of me jumping round with a bag.

“I also took photos of some streets to make it look more realistic. People must have wondered what was going on.”

He added: “I got the idea for the film’s story from getting on the train at East Croydon and watching someone struggling with their bag. It made me think how a bag is a bit like a child in a way.”

Mr Butler decided to create the film himself after gaining some experience in the industry beforehand.

“I decided to do it when I became redundant a few years ago. I’d picked up skills and experience from doing visual effects for films and then I did an online course, Animation Mentor, which helped me.

“I’m really excited about appearing at the St Albans festival – when I applied I didn’t think I’d hear back.

“I’m hoping to make some more films in the future with a company I set up, Lone Oak Productions, but it was a lot of hard work so I’ll be doing a mixture of things.”

For more information, visit baggagethemovie.co.uk/index.html or contact Peter@LoneOakProductions.com