JINGHAN ZHANG with
animated short FILM
DIRECT TECHNIQUE SCULPTURAL RELIEF ON MULTI-PLANE
12:47 min | 2048 x 1080 | sound: dolby 5.1 | 2024
A young soul ventures into a world of shadows reflecting a weakened state of humanity. There she struggles to find grounding in memories of a familiar universe governed by kindness. Despair is crushing. The escape is behind the mirror.
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Jinghan Zhang
Creative Director / Producer
Masha Vasilkovsky
Director / Animation Artist / Writer
Ruah Edelstein
Director / Animation Artist / Writer
Production notes.
It took 3,5 years to make this film. We wrote the script in Summer 2021 completing the production in 2024. As our world moved from one crisis to the next during this period, we perceived new dimensions in the flow of the film looking at it through the prism of each hurricane unfolding during its production. Where is that cure from despair that would cause the world to discover balance? Each one of the people on the street could be that cure, including you and I.
ANIMATION TECHNIQUE.
The 3D world illusion of the film is achieved with sculptural relief animated on a 3-layer glass multi-plane. To achieve desired plasticity we created a recipe to prepare our own oil-based clay in the studio. For some scenes we combined clay animation with sand, including one scene where only fluorescent sand under a black light was used. Most action moves through space, with multiple characters in the frame, were animated directly under the camera. The eyes of the main character look alive due to LED lights shining from behind them. Character acting was of primary importance to us.
Still frames
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Still frames
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Still frames
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CREATIVE DIRECTOR / PRODUCER Jinghan Zhang
DIRECTOR / ANIMATION ARTIST / WRITER Masha Vasilkovsky
DIRECTOR / ANIMATION ARTIST / WRITER Ruah Edelstein
COMPOSER Bernardo Feldman
SOUND ENGINEER / MIX Jon Amador
VOICE Kendahl Damashek
Dashiell Schumacher
PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Darius Orlovas
SET SUPERVISOR Yasmina Svetlitsa
RIG CONSTRUCTION Eugene Svetlitsa
PRODUCTION CONSULTANT Sherri Kauk
SCRIPT CONSULTANT Ronald Fel Jones
TECHNICAL SUPPORT Wade Ivy
STUDIO TECHNICIAN 1 Janusz Kocol
STUDIO TECHNICIAN 2 Bryan Strauss (ז״ל)
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Maksim Meleshkin
SET SUPPORT Deane Hettler
STUDIO ELECTRICIAN Bob Hettler
PRODUCTION ACCOUNTANT Irena Kocol
ADDITIONAL MUSIC:
Carlos Carty, Steven Allen, JBlanks, Orchestralis,
FlossieWood, PetrenjMusic,
AliveTunes, Crypt-of-Insomnia
SPECIAL THANKS:
Brad Lichtenstein, Jeff Fitzimons, Chris Renteria,
Arsenii Savushkin, Liping Wang, Yongshan Zhang,
Nana Tchitchoua, Sonia Lee,
Museum of Jurassic Technology, Culver City, CA
© Production of Lumen Animae Studios and Jinghan Zhang
© Music Bernardo Feldman (ASCAP)
All Rights Worldwide Reserved