Staff Pick Premiere: "O Black Hole!" by Renee Zhan |
Ever wondered what happens when a black hole born? This week's Staff Pick Premiere, "O Black Hole!" by Renee Zhan is an enormous and a reversal of core belief that personifies one of the most mysterious entities in our world through color, clay, and song. The question of the origin of the black hole- as well as the end of it -- are thought up by Zhan in an era filled with imagination and creativity.
In an attempt to protect and keep the beauty surrounding her, a beautiful young Eve-like girl decides to devour everything she loves. In a frenzied and fast-paced way, the speed and chaos of her eating produces a rumbling black hole through which everything is a prisoner. The worm eats planets, seasons as well as humans and moons, trying to give an endless life. Upon waking within the bowels of the black hole, the protagonist named the "Singularity" encounters beings who need her help. They beg her to ascend to the top of the hole and convince the creator of it to let the prisoners live through their lives in the manner they should, or that the world will cease to exist.
"O Black Hole!" is a fable about holding onto the things you cherish overly. The vivid paintings and clay-based imagery add up to several images about embracing the fleeting as well as accepting the immutability of dying.
There's so much about this movie craft the story; we were fortunate enough to talk to the director and animator, Renee Zhan, to break down all of the questions we had about it. Read on for her answers:
On inspiration:
"A number of my films start with 1 or 2 strong persistent images in my head. In the past, I was drawing this woman using the dark charcoal mark in the area where her face was supposed to be. I spent hours exploring this image, and trying to discover what she might be. It was eventually clear that her head was black.
The film was about a woman who is concerned about the passing of time that she sucks everything and everyone she loves into her body in order to keep them secure for the rest of her life.
She sucks in the entire universe , until she's just dancing in circles in her own company.
"The black hole is dancing around in counterclockwise circles since it is against Time Then when Singularity saves the various people living in this black hole get to move clockwise as the natural cycles of the universe. They restart."
Utilizing 2D and 3D techniques:
"I've always been an avid huge fan of multi-media film and love using visceral texture and conventional mediums. I felt that the tale of the black hole really fit the contrasting mediums of 2D as well as 3D.
The outside of the black space, in which time is normal, is depicted in 2D by drawing with pencil, charcoal, watercolors, and oil paint, because it's fleeting and inexpensive. Inside the black hole all that the black hole has sucked inside herself and made everlasting, is 3D and solid.
As Singularity travels through the black hole up towards the top, the walls of the black hole begin gradually turning more liquid, because the grasp of the black hole is looser there. I really wanted all the media to be flowing into one and seamlessly transition from 2D to 3D before returning to 2D.
I find it essential that I leave space to think and experiment when creating a film, to figure the details out as we go along. Making the inside of a black space was an exciting idea because nobody has any idea what this would look like. Production designer Richard Henley and I had the freedom to be wildly creative. This was an opportunity to create a visually unique and interesting world. It was decided to be a series of dark twisted caves, reminiscent of liquids which had solidified after time was frozen ."
On her original vision against. final cut:
"When we began the film, I had no idea what the film would look like. I'd never worked on stop-motion or created something of this magnitude.
In a way, I was disappointed to not be able to make it look exactly what I had in mind. I was of the opinion that my work was not good enough, and it was too messy and rough. This is odd because I like to observe this type of imperfection and roughness in stop-motion films, but in my own I felt so annoyed over it.
In another way I was awed by what we created. The music by Harry Brokensha and epic sound design from Ed Rousseau were beyond what I ever could have imagined.
Lore Lixenberg's amazing voice as Black Hole and Emmy the Great's pure tones as Singularity added so much to the piece.
It's a fact that I'm happy with what we did in the group."
on the human and mythological themes that are in her work:
"I'm very interested in the creation myths of the universe. They ask existential questions of humans and try to answer the questions by telling big, exciting stories of diving birds, eggs or even nature spirits. Mythology often includes big epic stories of heroes and adventures and quests. I think it's all an aspect of our human desire to understand the meaning of the world around us.
On a less intimate level, this is what I try to do by making films. Through my work, I'm always examining my own anxieties, obsessions, fears. With 'O Black Hole! I thought of it as a modern-day legend of the creation. I really wanted to make an film that had some personal philosophical questions, and the playful story of a film about a quest and a crazy operatic score ."
on the challenges that were faced throughout the films creation:
"This was by far my most difficult film ever made. A stop-motion/2D 16-minute musical that featured a character sporting a bizarrely long and wavy hair (that would melt midway through!) shot on a tight deadline was a miserable months. I could go on and on about the challenges. We crammed a lot into a short film. It's true that I am grateful to have had the chance to create an amazing film and work with such a wonderful team. It is my hope that I'll have many more opportunities similar to this one in the near future and that I can continue making films with my friends !"
On the lesson of "O Black Hole!:
"The closing lines of the film include "O black hole, please don't lament, we're just dreams that the universe dreamt ...' The thesis of the film is about the beauty of change. The woman in the black hole sucks in the entire universe inside her because she's afraid of the possibility of change. The singularity shows her that change is what gives new meaning and life to our lives here.
The film, I think, is trying to say that everything changes and go through a process of dying, and that new things appear and develop, which is beautiful and acceptable. So I do hope that this is the message that the viewer gets. To be honest, I'm still trying to convince my self !"
Her suggestions (or the lack of) for aspiring filmmakers:
"Maybe listen to your parents and become engineers instead. No, I'm kidding! Just kidding! I'm not sure, it seems like I'm an aspiring filmmaker myself. So I could actually be in need of some guidance as well ."
The next step:
"I'm working on a live-action/animation hybrid horror-comedy short film with BBC Films. The story is about a Chinese-born British violinist called Fei whose world turns upside down when she meets the arrival of another talented violinist named Mei.
And I'm also developing an idea for a feature film animated concerning a cult of worshipping the birds!"