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speaking of year-end accomplishments—something i poured a lot of work into this year but didn’t get to share much of was my work-in-progress film “Naomi’s Daughter”! here’s a sample of the animation, and some thoughts on the film in a thread, maybe!
1/ so, two summers ago now, i was interning at sony and obsessively doodling a little girl (in my head she was already “clementine”) who loved (or had a great deal of interest in) a rain boot. I wanted her and the boot to be the subjects of my next film!
2/ at first, i thought the film would be this: clementine’s right rain boot was missing, but her left boot acted as a telephone between the two! an unknown someone was delivering messages and items magically via her right boot, and clementine would do the same with the left.
3/initially, the something/someone with clementine’s missing boot was actually a creature made up of missing shoes... but then i decided that i wanted it to be a little boy instead! i drew this, but momentarily let go of the “telephone” idea. (we’ll get back to this boy soon.)
4/ at the tail end of my time at sony, i wondered if the film should be smaller, and more intimate! the idea: clementine finds a note in one of her rain boots at school, and goes on an epic hunt for the mysterious sender. this was the first time i drew clementine’s mom—naomi.
5/ BOOM! school had begun, and i went into development overdrive. i mulled on a lot of inspirations from my childhood, and came up with the setting of my film: Promise Valley, a drought-ridden, sad little town, home to Clem and an old folk tale about a little boy with rain boots.
6/ i boarded the first version of the film: Clementine was an a go-for-broke mission to stop her sickly friend Camille from moving out of Promise Valley. with a LOT of faith in things unseen, Clem was not only able to save Camille, but her town as well.
7/ (almost done, i promise! i’m just excited about film development, and i might not be able to finish this one for a while.) here’s some doodles from the Camille-centric version of the film!
8/ the final re-tooling of my film happened after some conversations with my workshop teacher; we both liked this idea with Camille, but the part of the film we liked best so far was a small moment shared between Clementine and her mom.
9/ “Naomi’s Daughter” took forever for me to find, but i’m so incredibly glad i dug for the film I WANTED. it was a ton of work. a TON of work. it still will be—a run time of 12 minutes, filled with dialogue, action i don’t know how to draw, and dear GOD—WATER to animate!
10/ IT’S ALL WORTH IT! i know that this—and not just THIS film, i mean all of this, the development, the doodles, the brow furrowing, the trash can filled with drawings i don’t need anymore—is exactly what i was born to do, and i’m gonna pursue it, always!
11/ that’s all! i hope you guys had an awesome holiday, and i hope this next year is better for all of us. i’m gonna keep goin’! love, me, n’ clementine.
