We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Autumn English. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Autumn below.

Autumn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on so far has to be “Perfect Casting,” my animated capstone film I made in college. The story follows a quirky, yet skilled costume designer as she struggles to collaborate with an asocial creature actor who is scarily good at playing his monster character. Through character conflict, hijinks, and a little bit of horror, I aim to tell a story about accepting the strange and spontaneous nature of the creative process.

This film is also very much about building up the courage to be true to yourself when working with a team, which is a lesson I had to learn when entering college and the animation industry. In any creative field, we’re required to put ourselves out there and act a little silly or strange just to find the inspiration we need. When animating, for example, I sometimes act out scenes in real life to get a better understanding of the way my characters move. I did a goofy, cartoonish walk in the middle of my classroom for a scene in “Perfect Casting,” and my friends still joke about it!

But when working in a new environment, it can be difficult to loosen up and reach that point of vulnerability with your peers. However, I’ve met so many wonderful and talented people who embrace individuality, collaboration, and have made me feel welcome in their space, despite my worries. Making this film allowed me to reflect on my positive experiences, as well as the importance of community, in a comedic and out-of-pocket way. It also allowed me to grow more tolerant of the horror genre! Well, almost.

I’m proud to say that “Perfect Casting” is a multi-award-winning film and has screened at numerous festivals around North America, including the Ottawa International Animation Festival’s Salon des Refusés in 2024. It recently won the award for Best Animation at The Chicago International Film Festival’s CineYouth Festival in April 2025.

Autumn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Absolutely! I’m an independent filmmaker, as well as a freelance storyboard artist and 2D animator based in the Chicagoland area. My intense, yet playful and dynamic visual style has been used to create music videos, educational content, and narrative films for several clients. I have been proud to collaborate with the likes of Easy Does It Records, Reparations Media, and more, as well as work with Bento Box Entertainment as an intern.

Growing up, my first introduction to the arts was through creative writing… at least, what I thought to be writing! As a kid, I’d write gibberish and draw doodles on sheets of printer paper, stapling them together to create “books” that I would read aloud to my family. Because of my combined love for drawing and storytelling, I began to teach myself animation when I was around fourteen.

My animations aim for a polished and slick look, utilizing compositing programs such as After Effects to bring out vivid colors and depth. But much like the books I wrote in my childhood, I find charm in scribbles and noisy textures. My style revolves around seamlessly combining the two techniques.

When I’m not working on my freelance projects, you can also find me creating bite-sized animated shorts for my YouTube and Instagram pages. I enjoy listening to music, taking walks through my neighborhood, and I recently began volunteering as a programming board member at the New Generation Filmmakers Forum, a film festival in Chicago.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

“Perfect Casting” honestly wouldn’t have existed without several major pivots in production! To start, it wasn’t even my first idea for my capstone film. Throughout high school and early college, I always thought that my capstone would be a proof-of-concept film for a story I had been developing for over eight years. But I eventually changed my idea to something that felt more relevant and personal to my college experience.

Regardless of my idea, though, I was determined to make something ambitious and well-put-together, so I began thinking of ways to maximize my production time. Could I use the summer to prepare? What if I wrote the script before the class even began? I assembled a group of friends to peer-review a script I wrote throughout the summer. Once I had written multiple drafts, I locked the script and even went as far as to create a rough radio play of the film to better understand how long it would be. By the time fall rolled around, I was already drafting rough storyboards.

But when I finally got my professor’s eyes on my prepped and ready-to-produce script, she challenged me to revise it further. My current script felt like a “scene,” or a moment in time rather than a completed narrative. She believed that I could take this concept a step further. At first, I was scared to think about how much time I would be wasting by exploring new avenues of the story. However, at the end of the day, I’m grateful that I did. With the help of my professor and classmates, I created a finalized story for “Perfect Casting” that best reflected the message I wanted to convey and the characters I had crafted.

Though I fell behind my classmates in the writing stage, I quickly got myself back on track by using winter break to animate a good chunk of scenes. Recruiting animation colorists to “paint” each frame and working with a sound team also aided in delegating the workload. It’s pretty awesome that this film about teamwork and collaboration was made even better with the help of others.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

There’s a lot of really rewarding aspects of animation and filmmaking that I appreciate! I work in this field because it genuinely brings me joy and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be, career-wise. But I will say that I find it particularly special when a small, creative exercise can snowball into something greater. That’s the beauty of creating for fun and creating for a living at the same time!

One of my other animated films, “Big Pecking Trouble,” was built out of a class assignment in which we tell a simple story that begins and ends on the same shot. I wanted to use it as an opportunity to create a full film and practice directing. So, once the class was over, I cleaned up and colored the animation, added extra scenes to round out the story, and cast a voice actor to play the main character. I also used a separate sound design class I was enrolled in to work on the audio in this animation. The film went on to screen at DePaul University’s Premiere Film Festival—a festival dedicated to showcasing and awarding student work.

That film didn’t have to be anything more than a class assignment, but it was an opportunity for me to learn more and develop skills that I then brought into the making of “Perfect Casting.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://autumnenglishart.wixsite.com/autumn-english
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fallenesque/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/autumn-english-521497213/
• Twitter: https://x.com/fallenesque
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@fallenesque
• Other: https://vimeo.com/user166771856

Image Credits

Photography by April Aquino