Don’t Be Afraid

starting.

In March 2020, the whole world stopped. We locked ourselves in our homes and tried to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.
We had many worries and difficult moments. As parents, we also experienced a new relationship with our children. We feared for their health, not knowing that they were the ones keeping us alive and safe.
Sophie Lewis wrote a wonderful poem about this feeling, and together we embarked on a long, intense writing process to turn it into a short film, making two or three full animated versions of the film before we finally found the right story.
Pierre Buttin was our first choice of illustrator to work with. He created a wonderful set of characters and monsters as well as a complete storyboard.

Role: Co-Writer, Director, Look-Dev, 3D & 2D Animator, Editor & Finishing.

crafting.

Nicola Destefanis began developing the look of the characters and the entire film. We speculated about using a Risograph look, but struggled to make sense of it. The bold lines and simple shapes seemed stronger to us.
He modeled and rigged the 3D characters and also started blocking some of the animation.

hitting a wall.

After the initial quick push, we hit a wall, when we had our first full film done, with rough animations. The film felt ambiguous and not clear in its delivery. First and foremost, the whole world was changing and as much the virus was evolving during the pandemic, the relationships between us in the same drastic ways. A surge of no vax, no mask, no lockdown movement proved to be the real enemy in what we were trying to say.
We had to rethink and be clearer in our narrative and of course in the visuals as well.

a new script.

As we had less and less time to work on this project, and fewer and fewer people involved, we often thought of abandoning it altogether. Our lives had already been overtaken by a second wave and some health problems were the cherry on top of the cake we had baked ourselves.
But with a new script and a new, probably simpler visual approach using both 3D and 2D techniques to tell this complex but important story, we felt like we were back on track. We had to “just do it.”
It took us another 9 months to get to a good stage.

delivering.

With a third revision of the script, which began at the start of the pandemic crisis, we wanted this film to be set in the moment of delivery. We wanted to talk about how it’s okay to be afraid of the uncertain times and how the ones we are supposed to be protecting are the ones keeping us moving forward, keeping us sane and strong.
For the past 9 months I have been working on the 3D alone, trying to salvage as much as I can from the beautiful animations Nicola Destefanis made in April 2020. I have learned the hard way how to work in Adobe Animate and create frame by frame hand drawn animations. These are certainly not perfect, but I liked the overall rough look of them. And how they integrated with the 3D.
A faint texture added a little something extra to it.

The music is Gaia by Marcus Grimm, courtesy by La Valigetta.

credits.

• Gasta, co-writer, direction, animatics, look-dev, 3d and 2d animations, edit, final look, teasers, posters, and audio edit
• Sophie Lewis, co-writer, script, voice over
• Pierre Buttin, illustrations
• Nicola Destefanis, 3d characters model, rig and animations
• Rebecca Smith, sound design (Platform Post)
• Marcus Grimm, music composer
• La Valigetta, music label

press.

Featured on Wired Italia.
Featured on Art Tribune.