Working to the powerful lament Letters to the Children of Gaza by American journalist Chris Hedges, CD Ben McFarlane and the animation team at Sunny Vfx in Dubai assemble a passionate, painterly, and ultimately haunting short film.

Ben McFarlane: “When Devin Peters (MD of OFM Pictures) called me after hearing the recording of Chris Hedges’ piece, he was visibly emotional and had a burning desire to turn it into something to help spread the message. What and how to do that was the next question.

“With this being a fundraising project we faced obvious budget issues. I looked to Palestine art and resistance materials to be inspired towards a stylistic approach and noticed a bold black and white thick stroke approach recurring in many pieces and different artist’s styles. So we developed that into a look that could be generated and used across different shots without becoming too resource intensive.

“Along with the creative challenges there was the political challenge. This is a situation that everyone has an opinion on and we wanted to tread carefully and not cause upset whilst also sending out a strong message. We wanted to remain diplomatic, neutral and subjective. We focused on a small girl as a lead character and the emotional resonance with her would be the film’s underlying power and message.
 

“Along with the creative challenges there was the political challenge. This is a situation that everyone has an opinion on and we wanted to tread carefully and not cause upset whilst also sending out a strong message.”

 
“We kept the majority of the film in a reportage style, suited to the voice of Chris. To add a cinematic edge, we developed the counter reality through which the girl is seen throughout. This created a contrasting and abstract element to juxtapose with the black-and-white style and an alternate narrative. We wanted the film to be hard-hitting and get the message across but also leave with a touch of hope. The potential for a better future.

“On the technical side, the 3D characters were given basic skins and rigs with Daz3D software with basic animation created with MotionBuilder before the keyframe animation began. All backgrounds were created from sourced imagery for realism and 3D modeling was done later so that camera moves could add depth.

“Other 3D assets were either sourced and reskinned or modeled from scratch in 3ds Max and effects were either simulated in 3D or in some instances real footage sourced and integrated in composite. Each scene was built and composited in After Effects with camera moves applied accordingly. For the final finish, a black and White color and paint effect was applied over the scenes individually and rendered before exporting to DaVinci for the online edit and final grade.”

 
 

 
Client: OFM Pictures
MD: Devin Peters

Production: Sunny Vfx
CD: Ben McFarlane
Director: Devin Peters
Producer: Christian John Dyson
Writer: Chris Hedges
Lead Animator: Jesus Barrios
Animators: Dylan Day, Luke Jowett, Andy Galloway, Texas Loveday, Rheanne Lewis, Ellie Kidger
Online Editor: Rahul Thandassary
Post Production Coordinator: Lacheln Reyes

Support Studio: Magic Pie

Music: Jo Dudderidge, Harry Faustin
Sound Design & Mix: SoundsGood Audio
Narrator: Eunice Wong