Behind Your Eyes

My senior film done at the Maryland Institute College of Art. A weightless girl tries to reach the ocean.

Screenings

Artscape, 2019
Women in Animation, MICA, 2018
Sweaty Eyeballs, 2018
Animation Block Party, 2017
ASIFA-South, RYO Select, 2017
MICA Animation Festival, 2017

Concept

The original idea for the project was to capture my first experience with depression and the suicidal thoughts that had accompanied it. I distinctly remember the weightlessness I had felt in my feet when I had contemplated following through, which led to the protagonist being a weightless girl. I had wanted to play with the physicality (or lack thereof) of the character against her environment, but as I developed the project more, the more I lost that original idea. I kept trying to capture a fleeting feeling, but became increasingly frustrated when I felt that I couldn't. It took some time to realize that it was impossible to perfectly capture a fleeting experience, so the film became more about the cyclical, push and pull nature of depression and a reminder for me to just keep trying.

Colorscript

I played with the colors and temperatures in each scene in order to figure out the mood throughout the film.

Storyboards

I went through so many iterations of the story. I was really stuck between traying to have a story or having the film be abstract. It was difficult to find a middleground.