What is the film about?

Produced as part of the 14th edition of Hothouse.

A choir of tropical frogs performs infectious pop in delightfully unsettling animation from Costa Rican-Canadian artist Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes. Riffing on karaoke companion videos and the swipe-n-scroll conventions of handheld media, she infuses candy-coloured digital animation with the spectre of ecological collapse.

What influenced it?

Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes (Photo: Fannie-Laurence Dubé-Dupuis, courtesy of NFB)

I was heavily influenced by my upbringing in Costa Rica, which has about 149 known frog species, so naturally, most of my childhood memories include frogs in one way or another. This led to my childhood—and now adult—fascination with frogs; my most cherished stuffed animal growing up was a green-eyed tree frog named Jose, for example. Because of this, I’ve always wanted to make a film about them! In making the film itself, I was inspired by cheeky music-video montages from the 1980s, where each scene features either the singer in a new costume change or a new person altogether who aids in singing the next verse of the song. Sometimes the poses in those music videos can be both really dynamic and utterly static, almost in a Simon and Garfunkel album cover kind of way. I wanted to capture the ridiculous feeling of that while also imagining the world to be a sort of united alliance of frogs who decided to make a music video about the loss of their habitats. It was meant to be both tragic and funny, essentially using humour to address the uncomfortable ecological situation we’re currently in.

A little background information...

In responding to the theme of Hothouse’s 14th edition, ‘Small Things Considered,’ my mind automatically went to how the smallest things can create the largest impacts in our world. In contemplating this, I thought of the important role of amphibians in ecosystems, particularly because scientists consider them to be an indicator species, which is a species that can give us clues about the health of the greater ecosystem. Because amphibians breathe not only through their lungs but through their skin as well, it makes them extra susceptible to pollutants found within their habitats. Observing the health of one species (such as frogs) helps biologists determine the greater health of their surrounding environment and how it will impact much larger species later on. So it was easy for me to see how such small creatures are able to make such a significant difference. I also wanted to make a film focusing on the disappearance of frogs worldwide.

How was the film made?

Image: NFB

In making my film, I was heavily inspired by the fantastic shapes and colours of frogs, as I kept a digital database of different species. On the technical side, all of the film was rendered and animated in Blender with Octane Render engine, and I used Zbrush and Substance Painter to create the frogs themselves.