AV: We have tried our best not to make it very obvious that we are after the public’s emotions. The story itself ended up bringing out lots of emotions: the world’s end, the poisoned atmosphere, a childhood in such an environment, the souvenir of a better world, brotherly love, hope, death, etc.The responses of the public on YouTube and Dailymotion were mainly about the future of our planet and, of course, the pollution, which is one theme between many that we wanted to talk about in the movie. We made a lot of efforts to get the right music that would go along with the mood. The sad end also holds lots of messages. With the death of Theo we wanted to show this liberation, this escape from a doomed world to a better world where kids were free to be kids, breath clean air and play together in a safe environment.

We tried to make it both sad and happy at the same time. The spectator might feel sad for the death of the little boy, but then again Theo is in a better world with his imaginary friends in his imaginary world and death is nothing but a crossing to freedom.

IA: Was you initial message about death as liberation?

AV: Part of it yes, but we were trying to have something poetic, something sad and beautiful. The main message would be that we need joyful moments in life to keep going. Happy and warm souvenirs that give meaning to life and little Theo never had these moments. He was born underground in a sealed and artificial atmosphere with no other kids to play with, with no one but his sister around and other humans that are still motivated by selling and buying. All of a sudden this tape recorder appears in his life and brings him to a time that he never knew and he is introduced to a life of laughter, fun and games. The kid liberates himself from his present world to go to a better one.

IA: Can you name some sources of inspiration?

AV: Mainly movies of course, such as the Silence of the Lambs, Silent Hill, Mad Max 2, Le dernier Combat, and The Hills have Eyes. We were also inspired by pictures, photography, drawings and some other short films.

IA: What material and software did you use?

AV: We had 5 linked PC’s and we worked on MAYA8, Photoshop CS2, Digital Fusion, After Effects 7, Premiere Pro and we also used many helpful scripts and plug-ins. For the sound, ESMA is partnered with the “Studio des Aviateurs” of Montpellier, with whom we did all the audio.

A: Which scenes would you say were the most difficult?

AV: The hardest scene was when Lana comes in the room where Theo is waiting for her. We had to go through this scene many times on the scenario level, the story-board level and the technical animation level. This scene had to tell so much about the lives of the siblings; their underground “bunker”, the closed atmosphere for a young kid and especially their state of mind. And also about their relationship, which looks more like a mother/son than sister/brother. Many viewers anyway thought that Lana was Theo’s mother.

The second hardest sequence was when Theo starts imagining the other kids in the school’s playground and wants to take off his mask. The hardest part was to place the elements in the image to have an interesting framing that is coherent.

IA: Which scenes are you particularly proud of?

AV: It is so hard to be satisfied. You always think that you can do better and that with time you could have done better! But of course we had a turnaround date and we will always have one in the future. We can’t keep ameliorating the short endlessly and we are satisfied with the first scene where Lana is rushing to get to the safe hub as her oxygen is running low. Other scenes we favor are the one when Theo is in the city and he is guided by the sounds of the tape and the scene where the paper plane hits the window pane and he sees his reflection in it and starts taking his mask off. I think because of the music in that scene and the emotions the scene provokes it is for all of us the favorite and most successful part of the short.

IA: What would you have changed in this short?

AV: I think that the weakness of this short lies in the poor quality of the animation. We did not give enough time for the animation and since these were our first tries we should have definitely dedicated more time for that, but we lost so much time in pre-production and to respect the deadline we had to stop animating and start rendering.