
Watch it here
Salty the water dragon (Maggie Buckley) just wants to spend the summer skateboarding around South Bank - but when the infernal Australian heat summons Deviant the demon (Liam Burford), Salty must challenge him to a race to decide the fate of her home, lest it meets its fiery doom.
​
Hot as Hell is a 2D animated short film I directed, that was produced at Griffith Film School. I also wrote, storyboarded, designed characters, props and backgrounds, animated, did clean-up and colour, and did some compositing for the film.
The film was first conceived in my first year of uni in the South Bank parklands. I drew little demons and skateboarding lizards between classes, surrounded by Australian native plants and countless water dragons, ibis and possums. It really is a love letter to that space, Australian summers and the people you find there; tourists, sweaty brisbanites, and tired uni students.
Credits
Director / Script - Abs Hall
​
Producer - Nikita Tolentino
​
Composer - Amelia Thomas
​
Additional Music - Carmody Road (with Music by Mark North and Lyrics by Helen Stewart-Koster)
​
Main cast:
Maggie Buckley (Voice acting - Salty)
Liam Burford (Voice acting - Deviant, Rocky)
​
Storyboard artists:
Maggie Buckley
Liam Burford
Abs Hall
Courtney Miller
Ashlee Power
Concept artists:
Tim Bell
Maggie Buckley
Liam Burford
Mark Ferguson
Christopher Goebel
Abs Hall
Cameron Johnston
Kevin Lin
Courtney Miller
Ashlee Power
Rhiannon Spence
Bali Wahyudi
​
Layouts / Environment artists:
Tim Bell
Maggie Buckley
Liam Burford
Abs Hall
Cameron Johnston
Courtney Miller
Rhiannon Spence
Bali Wahyudi
Animation / Clean up / Colour:
Tim Bell
Maggie Buckley
Liam Burford
Mark Ferguson
Abs Hall
Alexandra Hudson
Cameron Johnston
Kevin Lin
Brydee Lister
Courtney Miller
Jessica Paton
Ashlee Power
Rhiannon Spence
Kaz Sugiarto
Ruben Thompson
Nikita Tolentino
Samuel Wilkinson
Editing / Effects / Compositing:
Tim Bell
Teagan Barnard
Maggie Buckley
Liam Burford
Mark Ferguson
Abs Hall
Alexandra Hudson
Cameron Johnston
Kevin Lin
Brydee Lister
Courtney Miller
Rhiannon Spence
Ruben Thompson
Nikita Tolentino
Samuel Wilkinson
Sound design:
Liam Burford
Abs Hall
Cameron Johnston
Ruben Thompson
Nikita Tolentino
