Zoë Marie Brown, Animator and Filmmaker

Drought, an animated short film directed by: Zoë Marie Brown is a finalist at the 20^th MY HERO Film Festival

In this family-friendly, charming film, one raindrop embarks on a journey to save the drought on Earth. Watch the film HERE.

MY HERO interviewed Zoe, a budding cartoonist and filmmaker.

Zoe MarieZoe Marie Brown

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I am a single child and live with my dad and mom in Shreveport, Louisiana. I like to draw in the style of animated cartoons and surrealism. I also enjoy sports. I play soccer and volleyball. I run cross country. I have recently started trying girls wrestling in high school. I also do musical theater. One of my favorite shows is Wicked. My favorite show I have performed in is Spongebob. I have two cats. One is named Batman and the other is named Dobby.

Why were you drawn to making this film? Is this your first film? Is it a school project? 

I was drawn to making this film after going on a trip to Disney World with my parents last October. They scheduled a drawing session for me with Jason Zucker, a Disney animator. He reviewed my sketchbook after our drawing session. He asked me questions about one of my sketches of Dew. He thought the concept was so unique and challenged me to do more with it. When I returned home, I got to work quickly on finishing the character and creating more along with the storyline. This is my first animated film. It wasn’t a school project. I did it for our local youth film festival called ‘Film Prize Junior’. 

We see you attend Southfield School - is there a Media Arts Program at the school? Do your teachers encourage filmmaking? Or was this an independent project?

I attended Southfield School last year when I completed Drought. We don’t have a program dedicated to Media Arts. However, the teachers definitely encouraged me along the way. Our school generally submits 2-3 films to ‘Film Prize Junior’ every year in the middle school division. With mine being hand drawn animation, I was kind of on my own for the process. My parents were able to help me with a lot of late nights of trial and error, and A LOT of help from Google and YouTube. Procreate Dreams was a new program for all of us.

What in your opinion is the importance of the film, and what are its strengths?

The importance of the film for me is to show how one person or in this case one raindrop can make a huge difference and change the world. I believe the biggest strength of the film is the main character and how relatable he is to other people. 

What are the issues that are most important to you (in general), and why?

Access to art is important to me because it is a creative outlet for people all over the world. It allows people to express themselves and show their emotions. This is important to me because being able to have art has been a privilege to learn about drawings and animations which allow me to express my inner thoughts and feelings. I love art in all forms like music, dance, theater and other physical forms like paintings. Art is so powerful, and I think everyone should be able to experience it, and have the ability to create in their own way.

Zoe Marie BrownMaking 'Drought'

Could you tell us about the process of making the film. Who was on the team? Who produced the film?

I had to first create characters and the story. Some of this was done immediately on the drive home from Disney World. I worked with my mom on the script. After that, the storyboard was done with my dad. I would draw the scenes out on paper, and then transfer to my ipad. My characters and props were drawn in Procreate. From there, I would then move them to Procreate Dreams to fully animate the scenes. Everything was done in black and white. I added the color last. My parents rented a voice recording studio for me to get all of the sounds done. I had a lot of fun directing people to say their lines the way I saw it best. I then added in the sound to the animations. I lined up the mouths to match up what they were saying. This took the most amount of time. I put it all in Premiere Pro to glue it all together. My team consisted of actors, my parents for help, a few local professionals in the industry to give me advice, but mostly just me doing everything as best as I could. I would say my family produced the film.

What was it like for you to make this film? What were some of the challenges, successes, and high points?

It was a learning experience to make the film. I had to learn new programs. I had to learn how to animate. I had to learn how to direct adults and a film in general. A lot of it was a challenge of figuring out how to draw on new apps and how to use the new programs. It took me a long time to just figure out how to draw accurately on the iPad. I found success when I was able to complete a scene. But ultimately when I got to see the final film play on our TV.

Zoe Marie BrownZoe Marie

Do you have a personal hero?

A personal hero for me is my mom, Kaitlyn Brown, because of her hard work, determination and creativity. She's my hero because of how she works through anything that comes through her way. If something wrong goes on in her life, she pushes through. She is always finding ways to accomplish new things and goals. This inspires me to always be looking for something to do and strive to be the best.

What does it mean to you to have been chosen as a finalist?

I feel really grateful that my film has come a long way from me sitting at my desk to figuring out where the drawing tool was on Procreate Dreams to me seeing my film becoming a finalist in the festival. I feel really honored knowing that my film will be seen by more and more people at each festival that I am accepted in. It is nice to see your work of art blossom into something more.