Parenthèse is an animated short using CGI, created during our studies at Supinfocom. The film deals with the subject of time passing, memories of childhood and its melancholy. It is a voyage through past and present, dream and reality.

Dawn is breaking over the huge gray city. It’s raining, and little by little everything starts buzzing, a stream of cars invades the streets, a crowd of people hurries across the pavements. Lost in the middle of this vast hurly-burly, a sad little man has stopped in front of a book-store window. “Parenthesis”. In front of his reflection, he escapes for a moment into his past. Certain places come back to him, and lead him to think of a particular day of his childhood. His old classroom, the blackboard, school papers, ink stains, become part of the film images and tint his memories with melancholy. He is waiting for somebody, he hopes… but she won’t be coming any more. Finally arrives the present moment to wake him up out of his dream. In the huge city, everything is now slower; it isn’t raining any more, it’s snowing.

We worked on this film for two years. During the first year we worked on the scenario, the storyboard and the 2D animatic (animated story-board), in addition to learning to use the software. At the beginning of the second year we worked on the CGI animatic, which is a rough of the film. That was the moment we began working on the sound design with Natacha Tertone, who composed the music. We were very touched by her musical world, which is sensitive and full of nostalgia. The animatic and the sound-design were improved during the year up until the final release, then we mixed the sound and edited the images at the Art Zoyd Studio.

In order to develop the theme of “time” we tried different approaches, focusing especially on the cycles of urban life, the links between time and observation, memories and the act of waiting. We decided to construct the rhythm of the film according to our character’s psychology in order to achieve a subjective sense of time. Some sequences are fast, others slow, even suspended, depending on what the character is feeling.

Concerning the graphic design, we drew our inspiration from childrens’ books, refined the style, the minimalist shapes and design, and added soft shading and coloring, which makes the film look more cheerful, even if the story is a little sad. We wanted the city to be cold and impersonal, so we used mostly square shapes and cold tints, as opposed to the dream sequence, where colors are warm and shapes are more rounded. In this sequence we used different types of paper for the background, as a reminder of the kinds children use at school.

Christophe Stampe (F) completed undergraduate work as a sculptor before receiving his masters in cinematography and audio-visual design at the University of Lincoln (UK). After returning to France he attended a post-graduate program at Supinfocom. Since November 2003 he has been working at BUF Compagnie on a full-length feature film.

François Blondeau (F) completed a three-year course in industrial design (product design) at the École de Design Nantes-Atlantique, before graduating in computer graphics from Supinfocom. He is currently working on his own short film projects.

Thibault Deloof (F) worked at Supinfocom for Mac Guff Ligne on a animated 3D short film (Le Régulateur) by Philippe Grammaticopoulos. He is now working at Éclair Numérique on 3D scenes for a full-length feature film.

Jérémie Droulers (F) completed a three-year course for graphic design at the École des Beaux-arts in Caen before attending a two-year course for computer animation at Supinfocom. He is currently working with Thibault Deloof at Éclair Numérique.