Lupus Films' Camilla Deakin to explore book to screen trends at Children's Conference

Lupus Films joint m.d. Camilla Deakin has revealed an increased appetite for hand-drawn animations of children's books, and said that complex narratives from books are helping to boost the box-set phenomenon. 

Deakin, who produced the successful animations "The Snowman and The Snowdog" and "We’re Going on a Bear Hunt", is sharing her experiences of book to screen for The Bookseller’s Children’s Conference on 24th September.

"There have been many very successful book-to-screen adaptations over the past few years and the number is continuing to grow,” she told The Bookseller, ahead of her appearance at County Hall. "New screening platforms, different formats and the resultant ever-expanding audience make this a really exciting time to be bringing books to the screen. Complex narratives are given room to breathe as TV series which can be consumed as ‘box sets’ in the same uninterrupted way as films are and simple stories can be expanded into three-dimensional ‘story worlds’ in apps and on virtual reality platforms.  

"The influence of streaming platforms has also created a continuous appetite for new content. Books that already have a proven audience are a logical place to turn for this new content.”

She revealed that there has "a noticeable increase in interest” around "producing faithful, hand-drawn animated adaptations of much-loved children’s books".  

"Perhaps it’s nostalgia in a digital age for children’s stories that celebrate simple pleasures and adventures, particularly those focused on the natural world and the importance of friendship and community,” she said. "Hand-drawn animation is a very effective way of telling these stories as the amount of craft and the labour that goes into drawing each frame is evident and helps to maintain the book’s original charm."

She told The Bookseller: "The process of making films has, to an extent, become more efficient and streamlined which has had an impact on the ways that stories are adapted for the screen. In the world of hand-drawn animation for example 2D digital animation software such as TV Paint, which we used on our last two films, has made it much easier to maintain the expressive quality and textures of the original illustrations when working on a screen. This has not only sped up the process but also made it easier to focus on imaginative new ways of visually conveying the tone of the original book. The film we currently have in production, 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea', based on the iconic children’s book by Judith Kerr, is already proving an opportunity to try out new animation techniques to convey the energy of the original illustrations."

For more information on The Bookseller’s Children’s Conference on 24th September, or to book tickets, visit the conference website.