The Pearl Under Giants' Furrows

The short that I’ve created, The Pearl under Giants’ Furrows, can be set into the category of sperimental animation.

The short movie shows the story of a boy sitting in the side of a street of Venice called Zattere. This boy is leaning forward on the channel, looking at his snack floating on the water, when he’s dragged down into the lagoon by a mysterious creature. Once he reached the depth of the lagoon, he discovers that he has assumed the same appearance of the strange creature and that he can walk and breathe underwater. Gradually he becomes more confident in the underwater enviroment and he becomes curious.

After he passes a trial of courage he is welcomed into mantina’s tribe, through tribal music and dancing initiation rites, until a uproar of a big ship bursts into the scene and forces mantina’s tribe to run away.

The idea of the short is born from the curiosity to see Venice from the point of view of a fish, starting from what fish can hear underwater. I recorded the real sound of the passage of a big ship on Giudecca Channel.

Soundtrack is the most important element of the short and it’s composed by four parts: the first is characterized by the recording of Venice over the water, the second is composed by an underwater audio recording without any kind of pollution or artificial noise, the third part contains the sound of the passage of the big ship Norwegian Jade, the forth and final part is recorded again over the water and contains the noise of the passage of the big ship MSC Preziosa. It is important to notice the difference between underwater and over the water noise of big ships. While over the water the noise is very low and hard to hear, underwater it is deafening, electronic, high.

Two main techniques of animation that I have used for this short are both 3D, one phisically and the other virtually. I used stop-motion for the first and the final parts of the short, and 3D digital for the underwater scenes.

This choice is due to two reasons: firstly i wanted to try to combine together different techniques that also have much in common. I realized in stop-motion scenes of a real Venice and used digital to create scene of an imaginary underwater Venice. Secondly, I wanted to try to use this fusion of different techniques to develop a personal style of animation, applying Barnett W. Pearce's cosmopolitan communication theory to the technique of animation. This theory of communication asserts that different people can find a way to live together in peace, accepting each other. This message of union and peaceful cohexistence of opposites which i’d like to share through this style of animation addresses also to the sides of big ships’ debate. I hope that two sides Yes-big-ships and No-big-ships will combine together to find a way to protect Venice both economically and environmentally.