What other art am I looking at while I make this film?
As far as narrative goes, I was inspired heavily by the novels of Haruki Murakami, specifically “The Wind Up Bird Chronicles”. He is the master of magical realism, and I love his novels feel as though there is fantasy and surrealism waiting just outside of everyday reality. Of course there is a big difference between a 2 minute short film and a 1000 page novel! I wanted to see if I could capture the feeling he creates in just a little snippet. I of course borrowed his use of cats as the guide between reality and the strange dark unknown fantasy realm.
I’m a huge fan of René Laloux and I always marveled at the cut out replacement animation he used in Fantastic Planet. It’s unusual to see relatively smooth, key framed, layered animation that also has the rich textures cut outs can afford. The technique I am attempting is basically cut out replacement animation but without having to actually cut a million tiny drawings by hand. I am basically animating on a green screen and letting the computer do my cutting.
Even before I had an idea for my final film, I knew I wanted to use it as a chance to think creatively about background environment and how characters are placed within it. In an effort to push myself to think of environment and character as a complete composition, I’m drawing inspiration from two of my absolute favourites. Edward Hopper and Hokusai. Both have very different ways of treating space but both are able to create drama and emotion in their environments.
