UCLA ENTERTAINMENT STUDIO
Project by: Neha Oswal | Aishwarya Rajasekar | Akshada Muley
Instructors: Natasha Sandmeier and Nathan Su
FOREVER, offers a counter-narrative to the anthropocentric way we often describe the city. It acknowledges that our cities, and indeed our world is shared with many other non-human entities, each with their own tendencies and dispositions. However, these natural environments are not the only things we share our world with, there are synthetic planetary organisms too - such as the entire plastic industry.
This film sees this as an opportunity to re-frame our relationship with plastic; one that is currently driven by guilt and vilification, into one of empathy and responsible cohabitation. It attempts to shift our attitude towards plastic, a material made invisible through its banality. Instead, our story makes plastic viscerally and emotionally present in the city. Here plastic is no longer the much-maligned victim, the neglected creature made to serve us, and discarded when no longer needed. Plastic here flocks together to challenge our world, on its way to building one of its own.
The project revolves around an overarching meta-narrative based in the fabric of the city. The story looks at addressing the affluenza of the cities of today, but through an anthropomorphic perspective. Man’s own creation, plastic waste, is deemed to have an agency. In such a strange realm, this plastic waste starts to make a move to emigrate the city. It exhibits perplexing characteristics as it tries to make a move to exit the city. Our world building process pans through three scales, the supermarket, the street and the city. These environments, even though familiar to us, transport us into a strange realm when situated in the plot. As we move along the story-line, we encounter several emotions evoked through such an entity having agency, trying to exit out of the city, to set it free. These situations throw light on the thing-ness of an inanimate body across various scenarios. The narrative unfolds unseen realities, and strange realms which makes us ponder about the current state of our own creation. The very own forever is soon going to be over. The following video is a pre-visualization of the main movie.
So, here is a journey, where plastic is on a mission.
Freeway on the outskirts of the city | Scene by Akshada Muley
City view | Scene by Akshada Muley
Bags trying to escape from the Fence | Elements,Texturing and Lighting - Akshada Muley, Animation - Neha Oswal
United Feat of Bags | Elements,Texturing and Lighting - Akshada Muley, Animation - Aishwarya Rajasekar
Exterior view of the building - City Scene | Scene by Akshada Muley
Interior Dark room - Filled with things | Scene by Akshada Muley
Scene By Akshada Muley & Aishwarya Rajasekar
Scene by Aishwarya Rajasekar
Elements,Texturing and Lighting - Akshada Muley, Animation - Aishwarya Rajasekar
Scene by Akshada Muley
Scene by Akshada Muley
Scene by Aishwarya Rajasekar
Scene by Aishwarya Rajasekar
Elements,Texturing and Lighting - Akshada Muley, Animation - Neha Oswal
Elements,Texturing and Lighting -Aishwarya Rajasekar, Animation - Neha Oswal
Scene by Akshada Muley
Scene by Akshada Muley
Scene by Akshada Muley
Elements,Texturing and Lighting - Akshada Muley, Animation - Neha Oswal
Elements,Texturing and Lighting - Akshada Muley, Animation - Neha Oswal,Akshada Muley
Some stills from the movie
Plastic bag swooshing past - United in feat | Elements,Texturing and Lighting - Akshada Muley, Animation - Aishwarya Rajasekar
Story Board - Preliminary draft of movies in form of sketches
Emotion and anthropomorphic representation during the course of the film.
As we move along the story-line, we encounter a number of emotions evoked through such an entity having agency, trying to exit out of the city, to set it free. We go on a journey that evokes multiple emotions along the way. These situations throw light on the thing-ness of an inanimate body across various scenarios.
The affluenza world full of objects - indicating the exit of the plastic from the city | Scene by Akshada Muley
The very own plastic on a mission - Exit from the cities | Scene by Akshada Muley