Concepts, film and Crit

Shown above: The "divine" hands granting Chi-Chi her wings


Concept art more along to the idea of a storybook style. There apparently is little material or concept art readily available. This is the only work presented to me at the time of my presentation.



Crit:

-The lineart is near final, it's the black pen tool and it clearly looks more like a draft than final animation. Furthermore, the colour (flats) emphasize the 2-dimensionality look of the film. Whatever colour is dominated by all the black lines as the bg is also swamped with black lineart.

-Plot is undeveloped, it could be more and would probably succeed in showing the spiritual motivations behind the film. However, as it stands now, it looks and plays like a cliche cutesy animal flick.

-The constant pokemon-like "chee" noises could be annoying to many viewers. "Less is more."

-Religious themes are obvious and could turn off some viewers. This may or may not be a problem considering who is the intended audience. Could be fixed by implying the sleeve of the hand is not so much a robe but rather a sweater or something a general person would wear, avoiding religious icons.

-Work on a storybook style animation look. It'd help her film flesh out an original style and fit her desires beyond her film itself. There are many examples for this (TV's Caillou, etc), but one example that I can think of is the 3D and 2D style employed in the introduction to the Nintendo 64 game, "Yoshi's Story."

Epilogue

In our interview, I touched on what she wanted to do after the completion of F.L.Y.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that she has alot of ambition directly related to her film. She lit up after the question and set forth a couple of plans she immediately wants to explore with after her graduation on May 1st 2010. First on her agenda, she wants to create "an after story" to F.L.Y., something that is curious because I haven't an idea what would happen after her film's conclusion, it peaks my curiousity. However, what was especially interesting to hear is that she wants to make childrens books much like her film. This is actually something I can see her doing very well in. Judging by the nature of her film and talents its something I can imagine would fit her plots and stories best. Her film and the story within is very mainstream, tuned to a young audience that would identify with the metaphors and icons within the plot, which in itself is easily understandable and translates smoothly to the widest audience.

Perhaps with this entrepreneurial venture in mind (children's books), she'd benefit from taking Illustration courses or collaborating with an Illustrator to further learn how to communicate an idea through image. Instantly I'm reminded of many examples I could use to show her. One artist and storywriter I would highlight would be Eric Carle, better know as the creator of the very widely acclaimed and successful, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Not so much in the plot but how the book itself was designed, making it delightful and engaging to follow the plot.

Given her goals in life and career, I'm very enthusiastic for Ingrid and where she want's to take F.L.Y.

Symbology?

While the character of Chi-Chi is interesting and without much debate, the clear main character in the film. However, it's not the soul one. Also shown in her film is a butterfly and more interestingly a hand. In this specific post I'd like to focus on these other characters as they can be interpreted in a few ways, much like the protagonist (Chi-Chi) but not as fleshed out or obvious to the viewer. One can look at Chi-Chi and assume, what with the bird's tweeting being that of the filmmaker's voice work and embodiment of interests and characteristics, it can be observed that the protagonist could be an personification of Ingrid herself. But I digress, the characters of interest here really are of the other two aforementioned characters. There are two specific ways i can interpret the story via the plot, characters, and occurances within. I have found that I can look at the story in a pragmatic and a spiritual sense.

In the previous entry, I touched on a very pragmatic sense of analyzing the theme of her film. I likened the hand to the sheltered and directive life of Chi-Chi, whether it be parental figures or just the constraints of living under the care of guardians where you are free to play, so long as you are grounded and within reach. The hand interacts and plays with Chi-Chi but also protects and assists her. Then suddenly she's given wings and is distraught, angry, burdened by the weight of it (responsibility and true freedom) but learns to overcome those anxieties and mature into a actual, free flying bird who can finally fly up and flirt with the butterfly - a personification of freedom and one's dreams.

The other theme touched on, spirituality, is actually one that Ingrid intended. When asked about what her film was about in a thematic sense, she said, "Religion and personal life."
However, she wanted to make it digestable by a generally secular audience. In that effect, the hand obviously becomes a reference to the Holy Spirit or God himself, protecting and guiding Chi-Chi (Who once again could be a personification of Ingrid) along in her life, then granting her wings.

In that effect, Ingrid cited a certain inspiration to her film. The original idea is from a story of religious context. In it, the "bird is created without wings ... God put wings on the bird and flies with it."
However, the whole idea to her is nostalgically lost in time as she herself can not recall the story that inspired her. She basically took that memory of the story and infused her own element of plot and character to it that are genuinely her own - in turn not making it an adaptation but rather something entirely of her own that was inspired from an influential story.
"The whole struggle aspect" is her own addition, as she put it, fusing a pragmatic and secular element to the oft spiritual story.

In my attempts to find the story she had mentioned, I had no luck. However, an internet search revealed many mythological plots that involve birds in them. What caught my attention was the immediate line present to me:

"Rising above the earth and soaring through the skies, birds have been symbols of power and freedom throughout the ages. In many myths and legends, birds link the human world to the divine or supernatural realms that lie beyond ordinary experience."
-http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Be-Ca/Birds-in-Mythology.html

The mythological context of birds has parallels to observable traits and themes in Ingrids own film, making it very much so something inspiring in a spiritual sense.

"What inspired you?"

I arrive roughly ten minutes late and gaze into the window where I find Ingrid waiting patiently inside. It's some time past 10 am and having missed the bus earlier, I had let her know I can't make the 9:30 appointment. She replies lightheartedly, saying she hasn't even left home yet. After a few days of mishap we finally are sitting before each other at the McDonald's adjacent to the morning rush dying down on Broadway by Granville. I set aside my bag and she motions to a small bag, "this is yours".
I pardon myself, I don't think I heard right. She affirms that she has bought me breakfast in a gesture to apologize for not making it in for the interview a day earlier. She also hands me a coffee, apologizing if I don't like sugar - it's a double double. I sputter, stumbling over a thank you and modestly accept the gift, an act I feel was unnecessary but succinctly her action alone sets a good impression on the type of personality Ingrid is. She is soft, quiet, gracious, altruistic, friendly, and kind-hearted.

The type of innocence and adorableness reflected in the character "Chi-Chi" in her film. In fact, from observation, I see a lot of her being and personality channeled into her film. Not so much the character but in the gentle colour palette, general audience appeal, and plot of her film. However, observation can only go so far in understanding her film. My intentions of the meeting here at McDonalds' are to get a more in depth idea of what she's making and the basis of her short film.

The name of her film, as the title of the blog suggests, is F.L.Y. - which is an abbreviation of Find a way to Learn and use Your gift, which in effect is not actually the title or a hidden one at that, but what she assures me is more of a slogan much like how a company would use a catchphrase as a slogan to their product. The film itself is supposedly three minutes long and centres on the struggles and triumph of the protagonist of the film, Chi-Chi, a little yellow bird that a mysterious hand later grants it wings it initially struggles against but learns to control.

I asked her, "what inspired you?"

She responded that she wants "to make a film everyone kinda related to ... for to watch and make everyone laugh. That's why this film is very character based."

While there are deeper observable and discovered connotations to it that will be explored later, first and foremost Ingrid would like to see a film that everyone can enjoy without having any real critical or negative lesson presented to distract the viewer. The general theme of her film is that "when the bird receives its wings, it becomes a burden..."
As in, once given the ability to fly free away from being grounded (parental life perhaps would be one semiotic observation), it's confusing and even heavy trying to deal with all the new responsibilities and weight placed on you once you gain your freedom (or in Chi-Chi's case, her wings) but eventually you do learn to get a handle on how to control and enjoy the freedom, allowing you to mature and in essence find you have much more choices and potential for joy in life than you had available before, allowing you to fully pursue your dreams (Chi-Chi: butterflies).