The stage is set to a perfectly still living room: a bookshelf lines the back wall, a television encased in the shelf flashes static, and a cozy couch sits facing the television.
Soon after, the silhouette of a young woman walks in and takes a seat on the couch as the screen turns to images from the woman’s life with each flicker of static: falling in love, marriage, pregnancy, an alcoholic partner, domestic abuse and finally, a miscarriage.
This two-minute short film, winner of the best drama award at the 2013 Campus MovieFest, features an unconventional cast: one made entirely of paper.
Using the technique of stop-motion animation, “Retrospect” explores the topic of failed relationships and abuse through the window of a woman looking retrospectively at her life flashing on the television screen.
The short, which also won the best editing award at the Campus MovieFest ceremony on Nov. 7, will join its fellow finalists at the national circuit of the competition as the only animation film among the 16 UCLA finalists.
“The best story, to me, is told through animation,” said third-year film and television student Searit Huluf, the film’s director and writer. “Stop motion is a very light type of medium to tell a story, which I think helped a lot with the film as it deals with a lot of dark themes.”
Second-year fine arts student Hope Stutzman, the film’s art director, said making an animation in the week time limit also brought with it a slew of challenges.
“In animation, in order to get one second of footage, it takes about 24 shots, so it takes hours and hours to shoot 30 seconds of movement,” Stutzman said.
Each component of the set, from the silhouettes to the static on the television, was created by the art team using cardboard and paper.
The actors of this drama, the puppets of the young woman and her partner, were created part by part from construction paper, with each part sewn to the next at the joints to create fluid movement.
While the puppets were made in a day under the rush of the week’s deadline, the effort was painstaking to create the kind of detail that the group wanted, said third-year fine arts student Steven Guevara, a member of the film’s art department.
“It was very time consuming and very tedious making these little tiny things,” Guevara said. “We wanted these characters to have this organic feel to them. As you see on the screen they’re very rugged; you are able to see their faces, their wrinkles.”
The editing of the film, which also won an award, faced a different challenge. Unlike live action, stop motion has to be edited from the beginning to the end, making it a tedious process, especially without the right equipment, Huluf said.
“We had such a janky set. The camera moved a lot, so Searit had to crop (the film), had to light it, keep the colors consistent,” Stutzman said. “We didn’t have the materials to make it easy on ourselves, but Searit did an amazing job.”
Given the time constraint, resourcefulness became key to the other components of the film as well.
Most of the sounds used in the film were made by tinkering with objects in Huluf’s apartment, said third-year theater student Renee Reiff, the production’s sound editor.
Second-year music composition student Stephen Spies provided the score for the film.
“It was difficult trying to balance this being a drama, and this being a stop motion, which by virtue, has a bit of a light feel to it,” Spies said. “So I had the violins plucking the strings, playing pizzicato, to give it the feel of a stop motion, sort of an animated feel, but have a melody that conveys a subtle sadness to it, which is passed between the violin and the oboe.”
While balancing the tone of the film was difficult, the crew agreed that it provided a more palpable touch to the film.
“I think with stop motion there’s a very playful sort of way of showing something, and that’s what really uplifted the film in a way,” Guevara said. “Even though Searit had some very dark themes in the film, the ability to use this medium really brightened it up.”
Huluf said some of these darker themes touched upon in the film took root in her own experiences with relationships and marriage.
“Both of my parents, my mom and dad, dealt with some of these problems,” Huluf said. “I wish my mom was able to have a big TV screen to show her the past, and that (she’s) not right for my dad, and (I wish) the same for my dad.”
Huluf said that her parents’ arranged marriage made this realization difficult, and it took a long time for them to see they weren’t right for each other.
“I like ‘Retrospect’ because it forces (the main character) to see what was happening, and forces her to choose,” Huluf said.
This choice comes to the main character at the end of the film. As she finishes watching her life on the television, her partner walks in. She is last seen walking away from the couch, her silhouette leaving her partner behind.
“For us, she is kind of a representation of women in general, specifically abused women,” Stutzman said. “This silhouette could be anybody.”