What is the film about?

A short film based on the true story of Nigel, the lonely gannet of Mana Island who hopelessly fell in love with a concrete statue. His tragic tale of idealisation and delusion shows us a reflection of our own misconceptions in love.

What influenced it?

My main influence in terms of visuals were landscape woodprints from Edo period, mostly by Katsushika Hokusai or Hiroshige. They have this particular feeling of longing and subtle loneliness and the people portrayed in them tend to seem lost in the majestic world of nature. Another film that helped me create the feeling of the island being isolated and mysterious was Michael Dudok de Wit’s “The Red Turtle”. In terms of characters, the character of Walrus was inspired by the dual personality of No-Face character from “Spirited Away”. Or maybe rather the impression he evokes on us. We meet No-Face as this kind of adorable quiet character, that then turns out to be an aggressive agent of chaos, to then go back into the character that now we understand more and end up in a way on good terms by the end of the film.

A little background information...

I made this short film as same kind of a tribute to Nigel No Mates. A gannet that lived on Mana Island in New Zealand that fell in love with a concrete statue and rejected the company of the real birds that arrived shortly before his death in February 2018. What struck me in the story is the way people tend to find it heartbreaking as they see themselves in Nigel’s situation. Everyone at some point was in love with someone who was not reciprocating their feelings. Nigel’s story just represents his devotion and faith in true commitment against all odds. Also through the story of Walrus I tried to convey a message about how important it is for us in current world to be more tolerant towards people’s ideas about leading their lives in an unorthodox way and not to impose and force our own views and opinion upon others.

How was the film made?

The film was roughly animated in TvPaint to make sure the timing and movement is correct. Then all the frames were printed out, to then be traced and cleaned up in soft pencils and crayons on the other side. The rest of the process was scanning in everything and compositing in After Effects.