“I think cinema is all about telling stories and stories are all about imparting an emotion or an ideal to the audience. When you get right down to it that’s the goal of every piece of media, I think.”
Andrew Lehman is a traditional animator and illustrator. He grew up in West Africa and graduated from highschool in the Philippines. He attended PennWest Edinboro and graduated with a BS. in Animation. He completed two student films while in school: Fruit Punch (2018) and Bad Cop Rad Cop (2019.) Currently he works as a freelance animator and has completed several animation projects including two short films since graduating: Recuerdo (2021) and PORT (2021.) More animation for another PORT short is in the works as well.
Andrew, how challenging is it to tell a story in 1 minute 30 seconds? Is animation functional to brief storytelling?
It’s more challenging to tell a story with less time, yes. My goal with this piece was to introduce many locations and characters without resolving them to build intrigue so I didn’t have to worry about it as much. Animation forces you to cut out all the fat as well because every frame needs to be carefully planned. you have to edit before you even start animating so there’s no room for extra scenes that you aren’t sure are necessary. That being said, I do like to do shots that I just think are cool, but I’m learning to make them serve the story instead of just looking cool to me.
You really convey a gloomy and unsettling atmosphere through the aesthetics of the film encompassed with a great sound design. Did you have any particular source of inspiration to craft it?
It’s hard to nail down a specific source of inspiration but I’ve said before that I wanted the vibe of Spirited Away in Silent Hill. I think horror games in general are a big inspiration especially for sound design. particularly the audio tracks that have a serene but gloomy atmosphere to them.
Does the boy realize what is going on on the island? Has he been on this island before?
I wanted this film to be about his encounters soon after arriving on the island. I really enjoy the feeling of the ambiguous atmosphere, not knowing what is going on. So at first he doesn’t know either. I have done more and more writing as I prepare to create more of the world and craft a story through it but I want to keep up a fair amount of mystery and keep things unexplained even if I could easily explain them. I think horror can get wrapped up in explaining too much and I really don’t want to overexplain. It makes it creepier, I think to see a giant monster and not understand it. Monsters are never scarier once you understand them and I think it’s fun too to give the viewer the pieces and have them figure it out instead of coming out and telling them what they’re seeing. So if someone asks me what’s going on I don’t want to tell them even if I know exactly what’s going on.
