visual storytelling | 2D art & animation
2D animation | short film | narrative | true story | tragedy | alcoholism
"The next morning she went to school as usual. She did not feel grief."
This story is based on a true tragedy.
In this animated short you can experience the childhood memories of Johanna. She has agreed to share her traumatic past for this project. All shown events did happen in a similar or the same way.
Johanna was born in a small village. She lived together with her brother, her mother and her father in a narrow house. But they were not a happy family. Her father was an alcoholic with aggressive tendencies and her mother was too scared to intervene. After 7 horrific years Johanna watched her father spitting blood and dying of liver cirrhosis.
Some less important aspects of the story are changed in a metaphoric or artistic way and the girls name was changed into Johanna for anonymity.
STYLE
I've decided to keep the short film mainly in black and white, to make it feel more like a past memory and to mirror the mood. The style is inspired by the game "Limbo" because I was fascinated by its threatening atmosphere. Also the mood is very dirty and rough to support the feel of discomfort.
There are three key colors for the characters and some objects -
each set to express one elemental emotion:
BLACK - desolation & sadness
WHITE - hope & freedom
RED - danger
CHARACTER DESIGN
The characters are just one-colored silhouettes. I realized, that eyes and gestures are all you need to express emotions and in this case I didn't want anything to distract from them. Also the "shadow-being" reflects, how they try to be invisible from their father and how hollow they feel. In the beginning the children are colored black. In Johanna's imagination and in the ending scene they become white to represent the need for hope and freedom. The father ist much bigger than them to feel more threatening. He and everything that belongs to him is colored in alarming red. I've decided to tell the story without the mother, because it should be all about the threat and the victim. It wasn't neccessary to include her for this story.
BACKGROUND DESIGN
The backgrounds are also in black and white. Only things belonging to the father are colored red. I used a very rough watercolor brush and sketched the lines in a messy way. Everything should feel a bit off and displaced. The house should appear dirty and poor. Also the backgrounds look way more organic so the characters stand out more.
THE VIDEO