Grandpa’s Tapes
Project: Narrative Short Film
Client: Self Initiated
Responsibilities: Art Direction, Illustration, Motion Design
Challenge
Grandpa’s Tapes is a film based on a series of real life recordings on food and family, which required a vibrant way to celebrate the themes of a life well lived. With culturally nuanced storytelling and human connection serving as a centerpiece of this film, it was crucial to ensure the warmth came across with each design choice.
Cultural References
Early on, I wanted to ensure authentic, accurate depictions of the subject at hand. This meant approaching with historical research, lived experiences, and photo references from both people around me and experts on Taiwanese culture.
Development Sketches
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Guà Bāo was ultimately cut in favor of stories that could flow more smoothly into one another
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Early idea on how the island food icons would pop up on screen
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A test with incorporating taiwanese tiles alongside slack season noodles as an exploration of cultural specificity
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Another take on the Gua Bao— early style tests were necessary to define the art direction of the project.
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Color thoughts for the "fire on" shot early in the film.
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An early sketch of how the tsuà bīng (shaved ice) might look. Since the stories primarily focused on the food as a means of connection, food was graphically centered on screen
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Another early idea was for taiwanese style zhòng zi to be wrapped on screen, but ultimately scrapped in favor of more resonant stories
Style Explorations
Finding and defining a style was important for the project as well— and because this was a distinctly personal story with a theme of family through food experiences, I wanted to emphasize the human touch throughout. Exploration like the one on the right was ultimately left in favor of more scalable and easily animated options, but was an important stepping stone to find ways to incorporate tactile textures.
Based on the explorations, a styleframe was made that felt appropriate for the project (above left).
Design Principles
Three key things were upheld through the making of this project to maintain consistency:
1) Use of textures from a shared texture library for a more human touch.
2) Upholding cultural specificity— making sure that real people, site specific text, and recognizable graphics were prioritized for clarity over style.
3) No faces for characters— because food is the focus of this project, extra detail on the dishes was highlighted in lieu of facial expressions.
Styleframe Illustrations
Collaboration with additional artists
I knew I wanted to bring additional collaborators who not only understood the background and can bring more life to the project— as working with others brings out ideas I could not come up with alone.
Select moments from Grandpa’s Tapes
“Everyone knows that eating is one of life’s greatest pleasures, simply eating is a blessing.”
— Dr. Mingpo Chen
Credits
Music and Sound: Ben Cherney
Addtional Animators: Kyky Yang, Claire Coleman, Minha Song