Kaushani Majumder

Biscoot is a 2D animated short film about a girl who is excited to go on a surrealistic journey of life.

18 year old Em goes on a journey, along with a tin of biscuits her grandmother gives her. On this journey of life, people enter and exit, and she keeps eating and sharing her grandmother’s biscuits.

Danger is incited when she comes across a tea seller on the roof of the train she is in, and she comes down to her last biscuit. She has to make a big choice: eat it and enjoy it as her grandmother had meant for her, or save it as a final link to her home.

What will she do?

Kaushani Majumder is an Indian animator and artist and previously holds a Bachelor’s in Animation from MIT Institute of Design in India.

She creates animated films and stories driven by vivid colours, everyday human life and nature. Ever since she was a little tyke, she wanted to be both an artist and a writer; hence she chose the great fun that animation is.

Through her work, Kaushani aims to use an ambiguity of gender and identity, and at the core of her practice is a deep appreciation and celebration of the mundane.

This past year at the RCA, Kaushani’s research interests have revolved around surrealism and its connection to displacement of people. This went on to culminate in her graduate film, Biscoot.

She loves working with traditional media such as watercolours and gouache, and her goal at the RCA this year has been to incorporate them more in her animated work.

Due to festival restrictions, the complete film is not available online. Please reach out for a private screener.

Still from film

Poster

Still from film

In Collaboration with:

Will Parker

Original Score

Medium:

2D Animation

Size:

3:50

Animation Test: Gouache

Animation Test: Digital on Gouache

Biscoot is inspired from my dive into surrealism during my first term at the Royal College of Art, and my own experience living away from home for many years now. I wanted the film to have a moody and dreamy tone, in lieu of the surrealist flavour.

I have been working on creating visuals alongside my story and concept. For me, it is a simultaneous process where writing and making inform each other to birth a more rounded result in the end.

Initially, I wanted to work with watercolours, but the narrative demanded a brighter colour palette than what could be achieved with watercolours. So, I chose its opaque cousin, the gouache. It was a good opportunity to develop my gouache skills, and I wanted to use analog in some way so as to underline the analog of our childhoods.

Initial Treatment Drawings

Em's Character Design

Em's Ageing Journey

Em is the protagonist of the film, and her design closely follows the design of her environment and the colour journey of the film. The narrative features Em at three ages: 18, 25 and 40, and the colours of her outfit reflect the chapter of the film she is in.