Staff Pick Premiere: "O Black Hole!" written by Renee Zhan |
Have you ever wondered how a black hole is created? It's this week's Staff Pick Premiere, "O Black Hole!" by Renee Zhan, is an epically huge and mind-bending musical that embodies one of the most mysterious creatures in our world through color, clay, and song. The question of the origin of the black holealong with the end of it -- are created by Zhan in an era of astounding imagination and originality.
To preserve the beauty around her for all time, a young Eve-like character decides to eat everything she likes. In a frenzied and fast-paced way in a chaotic and fast-paced manner, the speed that she creates results in a black hole through which nothing can escape. She eats seasons, planets human beings, even the moon, in an attempt to give an endless life. After waking up inside the cavernous black hole, a protagonist called the "Singularity" is confronted by people who are in need of her help. They beg her to ascend to the top of the black hole to convince the creator of it to allow its prisoner's in the way they were meant to, or that the universe as we know it would cease to exist.
"O The Black Hole!" is a fable about not letting go of what you love too tightly. The vibrant clay illustrations and vivid painting add up to several illustrations about the importance of embracing the temporary as well as accepting the immutability of the end of your life.
There's so much to this film's craft and the story; we were able to speak to its director and animator, Renee Zhan, to break down all of the questions we had about it. Check out the following for answers:
Inspiring:
"A number of my films start with one or two strong persistent images in my head. A few years ago I was drawing this woman using the dark charcoal mark where her face should be. I spent a long time interrogating this image and trying to figure out who she was. Then, it became obvious that her head was black.
So the film became one about a woman anxious about her time that she locks all of her loved ones and everything in her own body to ensure they are secure for the rest of her life.
She sucks in the entire universe until eventually, she's just dancing in circles in her own company.
Black hole moves in counterclockwise circles because it is against Time After that, as Singularity rescues the diverse residents of the black hole, they start to spin clockwise once more as the natural cycles of the universe. They restart."
Utilizing 2D and 3D techniques:
"I've always been an avid huge fan of mixed-media films and I love using visceral texture as well as traditional media. I felt that the tale of the black hole suited these contrasting mediums of 2D and 3D.
The outer surface of the black hole where time passes normally, is rendered in 2D using pencils, charcoal, watercolors, and oil paint, because it's fleeting and ephemeral. The inside of the black hole everything that the black hole has taken in and created eternal, is 3D is solid.
When Singularity travels across the black hole, all the way to the top, those walls in the holes begin slowly turning liquid because the black hole's grasp is more loose there. I wanted all mediums to flow into each and seamlessly transition between 2D to 3D and back again.
It's very important for me to leave room to explore and experiment when creating films, and to work ways to solve problems while we make. Creating the inside of a black space was very appealing because no one has any idea what this would look like. The production designer Richard Henley and I had the freedom to be wildly imaginative. This was an opportunity to create a visually unique and interesting world. We came up with an assortment of dark twisting caves, reminiscent of liquids that solidified as the time had been frozen. ."
On her original vision in contrast to. Final cut:
"When we first started filming I didn't know what the film would look like. I'd never done any stop-motion or created something of this magnitude.
In certain ways, I was disappointed to not see it appear exactly how I imagined. My impression was that my animation wasn't quite good enough and it was rough and dirty. Strange because I love to see that kind of imperfection and roughness in stop-motion films, but on my own, I was so upset about it.
In other ways I was also awed the work we came up with. The music by Harry Brokensha and epic sound design created by Ed Rousseau were beyond what I had ever dreamed of.
Lore Lixenberg's powerful voice as the Black Hole and Emmy the Great's pure tone as Singularity contributed an immense amount of energy to the show.
Most of the time, I'm extremely proud of the work we did as a team."
The the human and mythological themes that are in her writing:
"I'm very interested in myths that tell the story of creation in the globe. They take existential human questions and seek to answer them with big and exciting tales of diving birds or eggs or nature spirits. Mythology often includes big epic tales of heroism as well as adventure and hunts. My opinion is that it's an aspect of our human desire to understand the meaning of our world.
It's possible that on a smaller level that's the goal I strive to achieve with my film. My work is always examining my own anxieties and fears, as well as obsessions. With 'O Black Hole! I imagined it as a modern day creation myth. I was really interested in making a film with some personal philosophical questions, and the fun adventure of a movie and a crazy operatic score ."
The challenges encountered during the film's creation
"This was by far the most challenging film I've ever created. A stop-motion/2D 16-minute musical that featured a person with a ridiculously long, waving hair (that would melt midway through!) filming on a very tight schedule was a difficult months. I could go on and on about the difficulties. The film was packed with a lot of information an hour-long film. It's true that I am grateful to have had the chance to create a film like this as well as to be part of such a wonderful team. I just hope that I will have more opportunities similar to this one in the near future and that I can continue making films with my buddies !"
A lesson in 'O Black Hole!':
"The final lines of the film include 'O black hole, please do not cry, we're dreams the universe has dreamt. ...' The premise of the film is the beauty of transience. The black hole woman sucks all the universe around her because she's afraid of the possibility of change. It teaches it that the process of change creates new life and significance to the present.
The film, I think, attempts to convey the idea that everything changes and end up dying and then new ones come and flourish, and that's wonderful and acceptable. That's why I really hope that's the message the audience gets. However, to be honest, I'm still trying to persuade my self !"
Her advice (or absence of it) for aspiring filmmakers:
"Maybe listen to your parents and be engineers instead. No, I'm kidding! Just kidding! I'm not sure, I'm feeling like I'm an aspiring filmmaker myself. Therefore, I can be in need of some guidance also ."
What's next?
"I'm working on a live-action/animation hybrid horror-comedy short film with BBC Films. It's about a British Chinese violinist called Fei and his world flips upside down when she meets the arrival of a talented violinist named Mei.
In addition, I'm developing an idea for a feature film animated concerning a cult of worshipping birds!"