What is the film about?

A multiplane noir film about grief and the feeling of being left behind.

What influenced it?

Poverty Row noir films, Suzan Pitt, Stacey Steers, Fred Lyon, Jennifer Levonian, Yuri Norstein, George Tsongas, Brassaï, Jacques Tourneur, and Caffe Trieste/North Beach creative community.

A little background information...

This was my First Year Short in the Experimental Animation MFA program at Calarts. I wanted to go deep into exploring the possibilities of the multiplane as an experimental compositing device, while making a project that could serve as a way to process some complicated feelings about my mother’s death via suicide. I’m also quite interested in seeing examples of how North Beach and Telegraph Hill have been depicted on screen, throughout the history of cinema. So this was also my way of adding to that tradition.

How was the film made?

Some original photos, but mostly archival images of North Beach SF (the neighborhood where I grew up, and where my mom lived for 25 years) and the aftermath of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. Some props/visual elements were cut out from a do-it-yourself electronics repair encyclopedia from the 1950s. All effects achieved in-camera using a multiplane rig with replacement/cutout puppets, hand-painted cels, photocopied transparencies, and up to eight layers of scenic elements. Camera moves accomplished via motion control rig. Figuring out how the fog effect was a months-long journey of experimenting with materials, with mostly dead ends. In the end the solution I landed on felt novel and I was very excited at how effective looked, from the other side of the lens.