SLOW COOKING

The animatic is where storyboards are edited together to make a rough draft of the film, costing only pencil, paper— and patience to wait for the story to materialize. Over a period of ten years,I drew and redrew the entire movie, having friends and family help with the voices. Slowly things started to take shape…

WATCH OUT! SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Auction

“The beginning of the film was actually one of the last sequences I put together. The purpose was two fold; to set up the world (farming culture, non-talking animals in contrast to talking thoriphants) and to set up Mosley’s initial trauma that will inform the rest of the movie. The first image is of a HAND. Hands are power to manipulate the world. As the auction reaches a fevered pitch, we lose all human faces and go to a surreal place where many hands reach from outside the frame, leading Mosley away from his mother.”

Questioning Bera

“This was a fun scene and plays a bit more intense in the boards than in the final film. The transition into the sequence was important so I included it here. I was interested in shadows and silhouettes, Simon the farmer looming large, Rue cowering under his mother, the pelting rain, the shadow of the door closing on the thoriphants’ stunned expressions, whispers afterwards in the dark.” Dutch camera throughout gives the whole scene the feeling of being off balance.”

The Town of Enoch

“A fun sequence with quite a bit of comedy and a great performance by John Phillips as Bemus. Part of the fun cinematically was creating the bustling squaller of Enoch, with lots of extreme lighting and darker silhouettes wiping frame in the foreground. Hopefully the impression is that there is a lot sin happening in this dodgy little town.”