Southeast Asia's largest independent animation festival Cartoons Underground 2024 will be having a one-night only animation short film screening on 19 October 2024 at The Projector @ Cineleisure. The screening will feature a total of 14 specially selected films.
One of these films in the Singapore Student Competition segment is a stop-motion animation and mixed media feature entitled “I Think I'm Going to Die” by Ning Xuan Tan, Audrey Yong and Meghan Poh. The trio are recent graduates from Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design, and Media, and “I Think I'm Going to Die” was their final year project. The film is about a young girl who discovered that she had a mysterious condition, and in a panicked state, scurried around looking for a diagnosis.
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| From left to right: Ning Xuan Tan, Audrey Yong and Meghan Poh |
Director Ning Xuan Tan is a writer, editor and illustrator and loves telling stories that create compelling emotional connections. Her first film “Paper Offerings,” co-directed with Vanessa Ng and Winona Mazo, has been selected for a number of film festivals and was won first place at the 100-Second International Film Festival in Tehran.
The Art Director of the short film is Meghan Poh, a designer, illustrator, and animator, who enjoys experimenting in different ways of telling visual stories. Rounding up the core team is Head of fabrication, lights and rigging Audrey Yong, the stop-motion expert who also has a specialisation in 2D drawn animation and compositing.
Red Dot Diva had the pleasure of interviewing the team, and asked them about their process while creating “I Think I'm Going to Die”. They also shared with her what their aspirations are in the near future!
Red Dot Diva: Congrats for getting selected for Cartoons Underground! What made you decide on the theme of your short film?
Ning Xuan: Animation is a vehicle for spreading awareness and bringing experiences to others, so I really wanted to do a social issue which many could relate to. It was also exceedingly important to me that I was very familiar with the topic. So the theme of women’s health, followed by a bit of cyberchondria just seemed to be a good theme to talk about. I think in our world today, it’s just so easy for us to google search our illnesses. And then we’d have to try to figure out whether or not we’re actually dying, or is it just a part of being a woman.
Audrey: Animation is also the best medium for trying to visualise and communicate issues to a larger group of people who would never in their life experience the same problems. It’s very “If you know, you know” when it comes to women’s issues, so we wanted to make something that would instantly connect with other girls.
Red Dot Diva: Stop-motion animation is such a back breaking art, with so many bits and pieces involved in its process. How do you get things organised so that you can be creative and yet meet your deadlines?
Ning Xuan: We had clear roles, but we ended up being quite chaotic. What we wanted to do was to complete our film (from making a set, to animation to compositing it into a video) in sections, based on the mediums. And each person would have a job in that medium, like rigging the puppet, building the set, animating, post-production etc. So we’d set deadlines for ourselves, creating a pipeline and hoping to be done with a medium and then moving on to the next medium.
But we were slow because we had to keep experimenting and working things out. Our pipeline of work would fail because of this, and we’d jump over to help each other which slowed us down more. We’d end up juggling multiple jobs. I think there were times when I didn’t have a rest day at all for weeks because we couldn’t meet our deadlines.
Still it really helped that our film had so many things to do, I’d find myself editing, making paper flowers, colouring with crayons, felting, and then sculpting a plunger. So creatively, I was never completely burnt out since there was always something new and exciting to do. In that aspect, it meant that I was always quite productive. And once things were going, it was easier to be inspired and motivated to finish the scene. I would always feel incredibly happy after we complete a shot, because just seeing all our hard work put together, even if it’s just a few seconds, makes it all worth it.
Audrey: It’s organised chaos for a film at this scale – we always plan things to go one way but end up realising that it’s not realistic while we’re in the midst of it. Our flexibility with our planning both helped and hindered us, but I think it was the reason we got it all done in the end. The key was to make sure we were all doing something at any given point in time – if I’m still fixing Lily’s puppet for one scene, I’d ask Ning Xuan to help me get the set for the next scene ready in the meantime, while Meghan animates the shots in a different scene that doesn’t require the puppet I’m currently fixing. As long as we were optimising for simultaneous work, we were somewhat on the right track.
Red Dot Diva: It's interesting to note that the film involves different animation mediums and styles. What is it about the story that fits this choice of direction?
Ning Xuan: I wrote this story knowing that I wanted a stop motion animation film that could let me experiment as much as possible. With this in mind. I thought of creating a story of a girl that could travel through different worlds searching for a diagnosis. So this gives us an opportunity to reasonably use different mediums and styles throughout the film. Our professor, Bernhard, would also always tell us, “why use stop motion? Why not 2d or 3d animation?” He would try to get us to think about why we are using a certain medium for each part of the story. So the entire story was really carefully considered with each medium.
Meghan: The core of the story is really about transformation, Lily (the main character) is changing physically and psychologically, and the way the world sees her is changing as well... it’s fitting that the film’s art direction is all about shifting from medium to medium!
The medium changes are also done very deliberately—there’s one transition from sand to paper that blends the two materials together and even uses a special puppet only present in that transition—and this all underscores the journey that she is on. I really enjoy when films use visual techniques usually reserved for epic drama to illustrate the emotional impact of seemingly mundane experiences. Lily is facing something completely unfamiliar to her, her world is turning on its head, and animation is such an imaginative medium to pull the audience along for the ride.
Red Dot Diva: What were the best and worst parts of making this film?
Ning Xuan: I think the best part is being surprised by how good a medium looks as a final product. There were a lot of times we were just going in blind not knowing what we’re doing half the time, just trying our best. My team would always say we just have “5 bucks and a dream.” And then we’d be in complete shock when we light it all up, set up our camera and things actually look amazing.
The worst part for me was the uncertainty of the whole film. Sometimes, it just felt as if our hard work amounted to nothing. Because we were working so hard, experimenting and yet we wouldn’t have a lot shot on camera. The thing about stop motion is that more time can be spent making and preparing things, and if we don’t do this well it’s super hard for the animator to animate. So we were always slow in our cohort because we didn’t have just as much filmed and shot as they did. But I’ve come to accept that stop motion is all about problem solving disasters. And while we were slow we completed things at a good pace and even managed to finish the film early.
Meghan: The best part is that I came out the other end still loving the process of animation, thanks to a wonderful team. I don’t think most people get to see how tedious, lonely, and borderline painful animation can be—spend hours and hours in a dark little room pushing grains of sand around in very specific ways and you start to lose your mind a bit. The worst part is that I’m not sure when I will have the time and resources to make something at this scale again...
Audrey: The worst parts for me were all the unprecedented problems we encountered. There’s a lot of unknown when it comes to stop motion because it’s a lot harder to execute than any other kind of animation - our built assets need to last, our rigs need to function the way our animators need it to, etc. At some point I was literally fighting science because the type of silicone rubber I had just happened to be the kind that didn’t cure when in contact with resin. Things like these are impossible to account for without experience, so it really felt like we were wandering around a dark room with no flashlight in those moments. The best part was probably the entire process of making something in stop motion. I’m now more convinced than ever that this is something I wholeheartedly love and enjoy.
Red Dot Diva: What is your favourite stop-motion animation movie?
Ning Xuan: A classic for me would be Coraline, I watched this so many times when I was a kid I could recite the script. I just love how uncanny it looks. But currently? I have to say Pui Pui Molcar. There’s just something about both films that really shows that every scene was handmade with love.
Meghan: It was an experimental stop-motion short that made me decide to major in animation: Furniture Poetry by Paul Bush. I didn’t know that animation didn’t always have to be representational or narrative-driven.
Audrey: The one that stuck with me the most from my childhood was The Boxtrolls. But I’ve also been really loving Pokemon Concierge.
Red Dot Diva: After the premiere at Cartoons Underground, what are your key aspirations regarding the art of animation film-making?
Ning Xuan: We’ve been trying to work out something as a team again to make another stop motion film for fun. I just love stop motion so much it would be a shame if I can’t do this again, I will just be open to opportunities in the future.
Meghan: I want to make a film again, whether it’s with this team or on my own or in some other way. It’s a really rare, precious opportunity to make a movie that isn’t business and doesn’t have to bend to the world, one that I’m not sure will come by again.
Audrey: Future stop motion projects aside, I’m interested to see how far we can carry the stop motion medium with us. I feel like it's so rare to see stop motion outside of a film format. It would be really cool if we had the opportunity to work on a stop motion game or visual novel.
Red Dot Diva finds it super exciting to see how energetic and imaginative our local animation and film students can be, and you will be even more impressed by their work when you watch their short films at Cartoons Underground 2024 next weekend. Go grab those festival tickets now!
CARTOONS UNDERGROUND FILM SHOWCASE
Date: 19 October 2024 (Saturday)
Times: 7 PM
Duration: 1 hr 36 min
Venue: The Projector @ Cineleisure - https://theprojector.sg/films-and-events/cartoons-underground-2024
Admission: Standard tickets at $20 each. VIP Ticket at $40, includes exclusive Cartoons Underground 2024 Merchandise
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