Story story story

Just a couple days shy of exactly a year ago, I was about to board a plane to Dusseldorf, Germany, for my first-ever long-haul international flight and first European layover. After about 11 hours of compulsory airplane discomfort (and in my case a mysterious case of airport-dinner nausea), our SACI (Studio Arts College International) cohort, who had departed together from JFK in New York City, wobbled precariously together onto a teeny 2-engine plane that was bound for its final destination: Florence, Italy.

Study abroad tends to be an experience with a life-changing impact, across the board. For me, it was a funny story, and a wake-up call: see, I had spent all of middle school and high school studying and  falling in love with French, as a prospective animation student, watching French short films pouring out of Gobelins, L'École George Méliès, out of big studios like Mac Guff, and so on and so forth. So the first thing I asked Daphne, the animation department's exclusive advisor, was, when can I study abroad? I wanted to go to Paris. I'm actually very embarrassed to recall the obviousness of my nonverbal disappointment as 18-year old me furrowed her brows and dropped her shoulders upon learning that nope, to graduate on time, I had to go to Italy. Boo-hoo right?

So I took the prerequisite Italian 1 course at USC, and very quickly realized that my passion for learning French is very likely a passion for learning new languages, and engaging with new cultures. So to make a long story short, I packed my bags without looking back and (admittedly after a couple bouts of anxiety and cold feet), arrived in Florence in September of 2018 to spend 4 months studying Italian, Drawing, Painting, Animation and Italian Cinema, meeting Italians, and falling in love with just about every aspect of the experience, from the child-like wonders of constant newness, to the occasional anxiety-inducing inability to communicate. My friends and I had a ticketless close-shave escape from a train conductor in Cinque Terre, were trapped in the rain outside Pisa Centrale at 3 am, piled into a dingy boat for 9 hours on the Tyrrhenian sea while visiting the Amalfi Coast, met strangers, some of whom who became friends, and ended almost every day with a glass of wine, uno spritz, or at the very least, with each other. While these aspects of study abroad are extremely "study abroad-esque," I left Italy not merely reluctant to say goodbye to the extraordinary experience, but reluctant to part with a place that had beyond charmed me.

When I returned, and as I dove into thesis ideation, I declared an Italian minor and decided that study abroad would not be an item on the docket of my handful of vacation trips to Italy.

So what is my thesis film about?

I'm actually not quite able to say at this exact moment, besides that the theme that I am aiming to evoke is: being with other people. In Caffè, I want to capture moments of loneliness, micro-interactions, and the feeling of sharing unspoken bonds of community. The bar (Italian café) is a place that is ubiquitous throughout Italy, and where I felt most charmed by Italy. Of all the country's  natural, architectural, and artistic beauty, there is something about the cramped, energetic ambiance of the Italian coffee shop that breathes as much life into its patrons as the espresso being served.

At the end of last semester, I had produced a cast of characters, designs, and completed a first-pass on my animatic. The version of my film that I ended the year with was not totally fulfilling to me, so I continued to rewrite and revise it throughout the summer. This task was not the easiest, seeing as I immediately set off for a 3-week class in Rome, which was followed immediately by my 8-week story internship at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Both of these summer experiences did in their ways help my thesis film: in Rome, I constantly had my camera out, sat in coffee shops, drew their patrons, and recorded the ambiance with the Zoom recorder I borrowed from SCA. At Disney, I learned a lot about shot composition and storytelling in general. All in all, it was one of the most fulfilling and exciting summers I've ever had, if not leaving me just a little stressed out about the notion of getting my second pass on my thesis film out.

My revised animatic will be up soon (probably with temp audio in itself another submission, just because the entire short has changed from what it was at the end of May).

As of now, I'm just writing a preliminary entry with some background for my film, and some new art.

Alla prossima!

Original proof of concept still: Marcello at the bar.

The main character of Caffè: Giulia.