Pre-Production
Logline
At the dinner table, a young woman escapes into a surreal stage, where she pieces together her identity and chooses to write her own script.
Genre
Theme
Lenght
Experimental Animation
4 minutes
Identity, Family Expectations, Internalized pressure
Treatment
A bustling family dinner, laughter, chatter, clinking dishes. The protagonist sits quietly, observing. Suddenly, all eyes turn to her. Questions pile on: “What’s next? University? A career?” She doesn’t answer. Beside her plate lies a translucent script, visible only to her. To the family, it’s nothing but a napkin. To her, it’s fate written down, choices that feel predetermined.
Cut to a stage. Empty seats, a single spotlight. She stands before a bare mannequin and a cluttered worktable. A metronome-like ticking begins. She struggles to assemble an identity: sewing, attaching, piecing together mismatched limbs, clashing fabrics. The ticking grows frantic. She hesitates, collapsing before the half-formed figure.
Her eyes drift stage left. Besides the curtain: discarded mannequins, mismatched, abandoned identities. She looks back at the one she built, pauses, then embraces it. Imperfect, but hers.
Back at the dinner table. The script has become only a napkin. She picks it up, wipes her mouth, and then looks at her waiting family. Silence. She takes a breath and mouths words the audience can’t hear, her truth, finally spoken. I’m going to be an artist.
Ending line on screen: There’s no final version of me. Just the one I am now.
Moodboard
Early Character Design
Beat Boards
Concept Art
Animation Tests
Set Prototype
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Set Fabrication
Puppet Fabrication
For the puppet, I plan to have her head and hand cast in silicone. I started with sculpting the head with polymer clay and baking it to cure. Next step, I created a silicone mold of a 1:1 ratio of Platinum Silicone and waited for it to cure (approx. 4 hours).
I created an armature inside her head using foam clay and thin aluminum wire to allow for movement of her jaw, upper lip, and eyebrows. This test proved to be unsuccessful; the eyebrow wires are a bit lower than I would have liked. A second attempt proved to be a failure as well, so I abandoned the idea of the silicone on the head and switched to a clay mask face that is attached with magnets to her head. I painted the mask with oil paint to add that texture to the puppet and tie it together with the parts in the film, which will be painted. For the hair, I used yarn and attached it to the back of the skull, and created a hairline on the mask. I'm going to tie it in a bun :)
Behind The Scenes
