Wonder as I Wander is an original short film project that I spearheaded and is a project my team and I are in the process of creating. Below you will find the ideation, storyboard, character designs, as well as a rough cut!!
Ideation
It was around Christmas time and I was listening to one of my favorite artists, Future of Forestry. They had a Christmas album, and I kept replaying their version of Wonder as I Wander over and over again. The music was so moving, and as I listened to it I kept thinking about how the song was screaming to be made into a short film.
As I continued to listen, I pondered what sort of short film the song would ask for. I then came to the realization that the song asks the question: "Why did Jesus come to die" but never answers it. What if a visual story took the song's message even further and answers the question? Why did Jesus come to die for people like you and like I?
Chris
Every film needs a protagonist, and as I listened to the song, I wondered what sort of person would be asking these questions. It struck me that many young people in the Church are burdened with theological questions they feel go unanswered. I knew that the person whose thoughts the song illustrated would most likely be a young intellectual.
I reached out to my friend Ariana Murphy, who expressed interest in character design, and the two of us began brainstorming who Chris was and what he could possibly look like. Since our audience would be people asking similar questions like him, we went with a more 'everyman' like character design.
Art by Ariana Murphy
As we wanted to emulate the album cover, I knew that yellow was going to be a predominant color. Over much deliberation we decided on a primary color scheme.
Art by Ariana Murphy
Now that we had Chris's character design, the story itself would have to be ironed out.
Storyboard
Edgar
As the concept for the short film continued to be ironed out, it was clear that Edgar the Raven was a pivotal character. In order to fit the color scheme of the short film itself, elements of violet were included in his design.
Art by Heather Roberson
After showing this design to my good friend Isaac McMichael, he got hard to work practicing animating birds and their flight pattern. His stuff is really cool. You should definitely check out his work!
Before going any further with the project, I wanted to ensure that we had a very strong direction and solid storytelling. After creating the storyboard I tested it out on many of my friends to gauge its emotional impact. I am happy to say that it was eliciting the reactions I was hoping for.
Background Art
As our team was a fairly small group of people, I volunteered to develop the background art for the film. As it takes place in a foggy park, I wanted to emulate this in the design. Look in the rough cut and see if you can spot some of these in it! ;)
Park Shot
Church ES
Birds View ES
Ground Shot
Perch Shot
Cloud Shot
Rough Cut
So here it is!! The rough cut! If any of you have experience with animation, you will know that not only is it a constant marathon, but you are sprinting the entire time. Progress is slow, but we are determined to create a well made product.