Chrysalis

1. What was one of the most challenging moments you faced while making Chrysalis? Did this ‘setback’ change the direction of the final story?

Chrysalis is a story of two halves. It was originally pitched for our master's capstone project in which we had one trimester to create the film. Most of the challenges we faced came from this time constraint and a lot of creative decisions were a direct result of that. For example, the main character wearing a mask, and the second having no real mouth, was initially a design decision to cut back on facial animation. But also I think contributed a great deal to the personality of these characters, particularly as I designed them in tandem to developing the story. We also faced a lot of technical limitations - it's an animated film and we chose to render it in Unreal, which is a game engine. Realtime rendering was a huge boon for us as it massively reduced render times, but it also limited a lot of what we could do with the visual effects, so we had to be strategic and pick our battles on that front.

Post graduation, I worked on Chrysalis mostly solo to further polish the film. Now I had the luxury of time, but I also didn't have a deadline anymore. So the challenge shifted to juggling the project alongside working full time. At times it was a challenge to maintain motivation, especially as I found myself outgrowing the story in some ways. But I really wanted to honour the hard work that had gone into this film from myself and the whole team, and that was ultimately what motivated me to ensure I was putting the best version of this film out into the world.

2. What was the biggest inspiration behind your short film?

As a teen I read a lot of both science fiction and fantasy books, and I feel Chrysalis walks that line between the two genres. There are a couple of specific things that I can point to as direct inspiration for the film. One being Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. I watched it when I was very young, and it had such a huge impact on me as a child. I've always wanted to capture  that sense of scale and foreignness that those scenes in the forest gave me as a child. The Samorost games (point and click adventure games about a little guy exploring planets) were also a big inspiration for Chrysalis, especially in the music.

3. Let’s say you had to make this film all over again. Knowing what you know now, is there anything you'd do differently? And if there is nothing you'd change, what have you learnt since finishing the film that you didn't know on day one?

There's a lot of things I would do differently - mostly to do with the workflow. I learnt so much during the course of making this film, and there were creative decisions from early in production, such as the way characters were rigged, or our asset workflow within Unreal - decisions that I was stuck with, and that later made updating the animation very challenging.

On a personal level, I've learnt that I have the capacity to see things through. That even though I am constantly learning, at its core, I'm still able to tell the story that I want to tell, and that has actually connected with people.

4. At its core, can you tell us what Chrysalis is about, and what do you hope audiences will discover when they come to see the film?

As the name suggests, Chrysalis is a story about change. But more specifically its about accepting when you don't have control over your environment. I think that it is a fear that a lot of people can relate to and I hope that people can see a little bit of themselves in Eve, and that the film leaves them with a feeling of optimism for her future.