Nordic Watchlist is delighted to speak to the incredibly talented Norwegian animator and director, Ida Melum. Known for her unique and expressive stop-motion style, Ida is the creative force behind the Annie and RTS award-winning short film Night of the Living Dread, and her new short, Ovary-Acting.

Nordic Watchlist: Before we jump into your short film Ovary-Acting, I would love to know a bit about you. Where did animation start for you?

Ida Melum: I grew up in Norway, and luckily, I had a mum who was so sweet and encouraged me to be creative, so I was very artsy. I got my first Lego stop-motion set when I was eight years old. It was a sort of make-your-own film with a webcam, and it had an edit suite and everything. It was so much fun. My sister wanted to go out sledging, and I was like, “What do you mean? We’re not done with this film!”

I think there was a hint then of what I was going to be doing. For a long time, I wanted to be a theatre actress, but then, when I was reaching the end of my high school diploma, I saw that industry, and I just knew I probably wouldn’t be able to handle all the rejections and the auditions – it’s quite brutal, that industry. And then I came across an animation course, but it never occurred to me that you could actually study it, or do it as a job.

The more I read about it, it sounded like an amalgamation of everything I liked doing. And it was, because it is art, it is theatre, it is film, all combined in one. So I think in a weird way, even though I wasn’t doing animation my whole life, it just somehow made sense. And so far, I haven’t grown tired of it yet, so that’s fun.

Nordic Watchlist: Now Ovary-Acting is having a lot of success with wide audiences. Have women reached out to you after they have seen the film and shared their experiences or stories with you?

Ida Melum: Very much so, and I think that’s such a treat as a filmmaker.  I genuinely care what my audience is gonna think, and I really want them to both resonate with the film but also enjoy themselves. And if they don’t like it, that’s fine; at least I hope it’s memorable, you know

I think it’s been above and beyond the response, and I think it’s so lovely. It’s almost like they can’t wait to tell me. They’ve been so open and so honest, and it’s really heartwarming that people see themselves in the film and also feel comfortable enough to share their stories with me. I just really appreciate it.

There were some who contacted me who had wanted a baby but struggled with conceiving. They felt seen by the film, because they had also been hit with all this pressure, but behind closed doors, they were really trying. I can only imagine how hard that must be. That was another aspect I was made aware of after making the film.

Some men have reached out and been like, “I don’t get this pressure, but I can see it happening to all the women in my life who are mid-30s,” and so it’s been super interesting. And I’m just grateful that people feel comfortable sharing, you know?

Nordic Watchlist: Yeah, I definitely noticed this pressure with women in my life. I’m 30, so most of my female friends are the same age. So, yeah, I definitely see the pressure, obviously not on myself, but I can see the pressure on them. 

Ida Melum: Yeah, it’s so weird, isn’t it?

Nordic Watchlist: It is, and I especially noticed one line in Ovary-Acting “She’s so fertile” That must be hard to hear if you’re having troubles.

Ida Melum: Yes, Exactly. I think it was one of my cousins around the time when I was developing the story, just had her first baby, and she said, “I just had my first baby, and the second I had it, people started asking instantly, so when is she gonna get a sibling?” That’s wild, like even when she’d just given birth to one, they were like “So when’s the next one coming?”

But yeah, it’s like you said, can you imagine getting all that pressure if it’s something you’re genuinely trying to make happen, and you’re struggling? I think that is a big thing, again, that I’ve learned after making the film that I really think is why people should just back off and let people be, you never know what’s happening behind closed doors.

Nordic Watchlist: Yeah, exactly. You never know what other people have gone through, or even miscarriage, or something.

Ida Melum: Exactly.

Nordic Watchlist: Ovary-Acting has now been in your life for…I do apologise, I think my downstairs neighbour is doing some construction, I’m not sure if you hear it, but he’s…

Ida Melum: Oh, don’t worry, my 7-month-old is crying in the background, so yeah.

Nordic Watchlist: Oh, so you are now?

Ida Melum: Yes, that’s a crazy story as well. So, after almost five years on the topic, my husband and I did find out we did want kids. However, I never anticipated that my kid and my film’s deadline would literally happen within the same two weeks, so I actually gave birth as I was animating. I was animating during the day, and then I gave birth in the evening, then four days later, I was back working. Then two weeks later, after she was born, I was in the mix and the grade, finishing the film.

April was the craziest month of my life. It was so fun telling the team, because it was such a crazy situation, right? They couldn’t believe that it was happening at the same time. People say making a film is hard enough, so I think, kudos to my team. We made a film and a baby!

Nordic Watchlist: That’s really cool! Congratulations on both!

Ida Melum: Thank you. Luckily, I have such a good support team. My husband, my family, they were all lined up ready to help out. My three producers were so cool, and so chill, so I’m very lucky.

Nordic Watchlist: I think this answers the question I had, because it’s been almost 5-7 years that Ovary-Acting has been in your life; Has it made you think differently on the subject?

Ida Melum: I don’t think it’s made me think differently. I was so happy that I took that time to figure out what I wanted, because then, when I did decide it felt so right for me. It was so thought through. I think a lot of women and society as a whole have a tendency to just assume, or at least I did.  So I’m very glad I took that time to really figure out what I wanted.

I also learned a lot whilst we developed the film. It started out with me, Michelle Brøndum, who’s our UK producer, and my editor Lesley Posso and Laura Jayne Tunbridge, the screenwriter. We had worked together on Night of the Living Dread. So it started out with us, and then our Norwegian producer, Kjersti Greger, joined as well, so we became this like, core group of women behind this film, all who related to this topic. And we all had such different backgrounds, sexualities, experiences, and we all poured so much of ourselves into the story, and I definitely learned so much from them.

Having worked on the film for many years, it allowed me to see this topic from so many different angles.

I’m very glad I have all of those insights now.  And I hope it will broaden the view of others, too. The film was relevant when we started making it, but by the time it came out, the political climate had changed a lot, so it felt very timely and needed.

Nordic Watchlist: Definitely! What’s next in the works for you? 

Ida Melum: I have another film idea. So my previous film, Night of the Living Dread, is about a woman with anxiety, and then we have Ovary-Acting, which is about a woman who’s dealing with her reproductive plans, and then my third film idea is also about a woman in crisis. So, all my stories are about women struggling.

But I think the underlying theme of my next story is… it’s portrayed as a werewolf film, but when there’s a full moon, she turns into her mom. It’s about ageing, it’s about beauty standards, so those are the underlying themes in that film, for sure. I feel like there’s so much beauty pressure on women. I remember the first time I found a grey hair

 I think ageing, and then slowly turning into your parents, as we all do, would be the main themes of the story

Nordic Watchlist: Yeah. We all do without even trying. Would that be a short?

Ida Melum: I don’t know yet.

Nordic Watchlist: It does take a lot of time and work to do an animation. Would you want to tackle a feature film?

Ida Melum: Absolutely, I would love to tackle a feature, for sure. for sure. As an animated feature takes about 5 years on average, I would definitely be very picky about the story we choose to develop.

In animation, because it’s so lengthy and time-consuming, you get so trained at being economical, and shave down time where you can, both for the audience’s sake, but also for your own sake, in terms of minimising the production.

So I think, you know, I’ve been so trained in being very efficient with the storytelling, I think a feature would be a challenge in itself, so maybe just, like, letting it breathe, being able to tackle more themes in one film, you know, all of this stuff. It’d be super exciting. I definitely think there’s room for both my previous short films to be long format, or this new idea could definitely be long format, for sure. So yeah, we’ll see.

Nordic Watchlist: Did it ever occur to you, when you were 12 years old, that you would be a BAFTA nominee?

Ida Melum: I don’t think I knew what a BAFTA was, to be completely honest. But no, it never occurred to me.

But I really love the animation industry, I think it’s just so many talented people. It’s such an amazing community to be part of. People are so talented, and they’re so artistically distinct. I’m surrounded by such incredible people, and I think I’ve been so lucky to make two films I’m really proud of, with incredibly cool, talented people.

That’s the dream, isn’t it? Just to work with your friends and your peers. Fame and awards and all that stuff, obviously, that’s not going to give you happiness. I think happiness now is just, it sounds cheesy, spending time with my family and being able to create films with my friends.

Nordic Watchlist: Yeah, the awards are kind of the side thing.

Ida Melum: Yeah, but also, I won’t be ignorant, the awards and accolades that Night of the Living Dread got definitely gave me a boost as a director, and most likely helped me to get the funding I needed for Ovary-Acting as well.

Nordic Watchlist: Amazing. In Ovary-Acting, there were 3 different animation styles – is that right?

Ida Melum: Yes, you’re right, so the main thing is stop motion, and then we do the facial features in 2D, so they are digitally hand-drawn in 2D.

I did the same on my other film, Night of the Living Dread. That’s where I discovered that style, and I really loved it, so I brought it into Ovary-Acting. But when I approached our Norwegian producer, Kjersti Greger, she came on board. Her company, Klipp & Lim, specialise in live-action puppeteering, so they’d never done a stop-motion before. So between us, Michelle, Kjersti and I, and our production designer Svein Erik Okstad, we figured that the musical number was the perfect spot for them to add live-action puppeteering, because that was their expertise, and it was already going to be so over-the-top and whimsical that I think, you know, live-action puppeteering fit perfectly for that.

We also wanted it to be inside of Eva’s head, so it needed to differentiate itself in a way. So it became this perfect mash-up, and they did such an incredible job, and it was really fun to try live-action puppeteering. I’d never done it before, but it was super fun.

Because after four and a half months of shooting stop-motion, which is quite physically exhausting, it was just me and my collaborator, Rich Farris, who animated the film. And then we scheduled the live-action part at the end, which was so nice, because you just walk on a set, and you have your puppeteers, Svein Erik and Hege Okstad, and you’re doing multiple takes, being able to show action, all this stuff – it was super creative, very fun. It was such a light way of ending a very long shooting schedule. It was definitely a treat at the end.

Nordic Watchlist: It definitely was a very beautiful combination of all three animation styles in one. It really, really worked well together.

Ida Melum: I’m glad you like it. 

Nordic Watchlist: Excited for the future?

Ida Melum: Of course! I have a couple of film ideas, one I’ve just told you about as well, so I’m going to be working on those. I think next up is just, hopefully, more exciting projects, developing some more stories and cracking on, and, you know, as we spoke about before, keep working and making stuff with my friends. That would be amazing.

Nordic Watchlist can not wait to see what Ida comes up with next and wish her the best of luck with recent award nominations with Ovary-Acting.