"FLEUR"

The Inspiration

Growing up, my mother had sowed a big lavender plant in our backyard. Every spring, the bush would bloom with sweet and fragrant flowers. With such beauty came graceful and dedicated protectors- bumblebees! These bees were the most gentle and docile creatures I ever had the pleasure of meeting. They allowed me to film them up close and personal with a macro lens attachment for my phone, careful as not to interrupt their important work.

To the left is a Vine I made in 2016 of my flying friends pollinating my favorite flowers.

Those warm and redolent memories inspire me to this day.

The Purpose

I was taking Experimental Animation with the lovely Lisa Barcy at DePaul University when I made "Fleur." The class was given an assignment to work with found imagery to create a 10 second collage animation. Seemed straight forward enough, until Professor Barcy added one extra step- animate particles!

Sand, rice, even hair trimmings were being used in the studio, everything except glitter. As a maximalist, I was disappointed about this rule, but it worked out in my favor because it pushed me to find another, less messy particle-dried lavender flowers!

The Shoot

This was the first test I did with my materials on the down shooter station. I liked the mechanics of the animation itself, it looked like wind was blowing through the plants, but the composition was off. Using an old map as a backdrop was proving to be unsuccessful. The road lines made it too busy and since red is complimentary to green, it took away from the purple lavender- which was the bees' co-star.

The Multiplane

I wanted to create dimension and depth, as if this story was taking place in a humongous lavender field. I used a down shooting camera station with a glass table that worked to double my planes. To the right is a video of the set-up. The blurred, out of focus background broadened my environment and gets the viewer thinking, "What's the deal with these bystander bees?"

"FLEUR" my process: from idea to execution

The Inspiration

The Sketches

The Purpose

The Shoot

The Multiplane

The Final Film