This is a brief documentation for the process of the Reflection on Reality project.
Earlier in May this year, we got to pitch a keyword to the MA Writing students from Central Saint Martins and the word I pitched was “Divine”. The writer Xiaoyao Zhang was paired with me next and this was the script I was provided after:
The Chosen One
（Keyword: Divine）
I always know that, I’m special. You know, with this red birthmark on my face. That’s the only color in this world.
Day after day, I repeat the work I was assigned to do. Collect trash, and classify them ( All trash comes from above). But I believe, my day will come.
And finally, it is. (Picks up a note.) “The original human”. I don’t know what that means, but I keep it. After that, I get more and more pieces.
“Do you believe that witches exist?”
“A beach with no waves.”
“What’s the truth？”
The last piece says, the destined one returns to the ocean in red.
I’m the chosen one. And now I know, return to the ocean. That’s my fate.
(Far, far up high, in the upper world, everything is in color. A normal human is tearing pages out of a fairy tale book, folding them into various shapes and throwing them down. We can see the name of the book: “The Daughter of the Sea”.)
After the approval of the script, the voiceover was recorded by MA Writing student Felix Berendse:
In October, the pre-production part of the animation began. While I felt like I’d hit a few obstacles trying to interpret the script in my own way, eventually, I came to a point where I could see myself taking the concept further. At this point, my film was going to be called The Parasite. And this was the first pitch I’d put together:
The animatic came soon after and this is where I got to first put down my ideas of how I wanted the story to progress
With feedback and guidance, eventually, the film started to take shape and the title of the film had shifter from The Parasite to The Original Human. At this point we were given the opportunity to pitch an idea for a soundtrack to the student of Guildhall School of Music and Drama and this was the pitch I’d prepared hoping that someone would understand where I was going with this:
Before proceeding with the production of the film, I’d put together a little personal schedule so I could finish all the work on time:
Moving into production, the next step was the Rough Animation:
A this point I had a more solid understanding of exactly where my film was going and I’d also received a music sample by Sam Moss that I connected with almost immediately. Things were looking up. The next few weeks were spent cleaning up the film and getting through the shots one by one.
Here is a sample of a shot breakdown (of the title card)
The final film with the music was completed on Final Cut Pro. The softwares used for the animation were TVPaint, Procreate, and Procreate dreams.
These are some more stills from the final film: