Abstract

Glimmer is a 3D animated graduate thesis film that is 4 minutes long. The film is a gag-based comedy that sets out to emulate the style of early Warner Brothers shorts as well as other slapstick-style comedies.

The story itself follows a bumbling treasure hunter as he explores a set of newly discovered ancient ruins in the hopes of finding untold riches. His fumbling missteps wake the inhabitant of the ruins, who turns out to be a mischievous and clever monkey. This monkey does not take kindly to the treasure hunter’s theft of his possessions and so sets about the task of removing the treasure hunter from the premises. The rest of the film showcases the monkey’s attempts at expelling the intruder with devious traps and pitfalls.

As comical as this set-up was, it was actually a chance for me to explore an inner struggle that I have dealt with for quite some time. The treasure hunter represents my tendency to get “tunnel vision,” or rather to focus completely on one element of something and lose sight of the larger picture. The monkey represents my gut reaction to noticing that I have become excessively focused on one aspect, and that reaction is to step back and see that larger picture. The drawback to this is that I tend to overcompensate, and so this comes at the cost of missing finer details. It is only when the monkey finds a middle ground between the two that he is able to successfully repel the treasure hunter.

This paper will elaborate on the process and methods I used in the production of the film. It will explore everything from the initial stages of conceptualization to the screening of the final product, including all of the problems and solutions for these problems found along the way.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Computer animation--Themes, motives; Computer animation--Techniques; Animation (Cinematography); Animated films--Themes, motives; Comedy films--Authorship

Publication Date

12-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Film and Animation (MFA)

Department, Program, or Center

School of Film and Animation (CAD)

Advisor

Atia Newman

Advisor/Committee Member

Mark Reisch

Advisor/Committee Member

Meghdad Asadi Lari

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

FILMAN-MFA

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