CalArts Character Animation student Chia-Hsin Lee takes the road less travelled by restricting the lead character of his short film “In an Empty Wood” to the role of narrator.

Chia-Hsin Lee: “The poem itself took four months, in which I am extremely grateful for all my friends who were willing to share their deep dark secrets of jealousy with me.

“After settling down with the script, my visual development genius friend Erin McDermott helped me design the twisty trees and the creepy white atmosphere.
 

“Then came the technical aspect of how I was going to execute these designs. A lot of credit should be given to my CG teachers Dariush Derakhshani and Andrew Bac for tolerating my constant questions, SOS flags, and weekend emails.

“Towards the end of production was my favorite part of making the film: sound. I owe my life to all the people who worked on it:

“Hao Feng for being the voice of my colors; Kion Heidari for providing the ambience score and vocals behind the creepy atmosphere; Ben Scanlan for pulling out magical percussion sounds; Alberto Cruz for helping me scramble a recording room four days before the deadline; Ben Huff for mixing and making all the sound come together.”
 

School: CalArts
Director/animator: Chia-Hsin Lee
Score and vocals: Kion Heidari
Voice: Hao Feng
Audio mix: Ben Huff